Wednesday March 23, 2016 – After an amazing time in Kota Kinabalu, we were glad to have a few sea days before the next port of call – Shanghai on March 26th. The usual activities filled our days – lectures, meals, gym, drinks etc. On Wednesday Graham Howell spoke about our next port after Shanghai, namely Hong Kong. Colin Williams, a new lecturer, spoke on globalization and how two things – Air transportation and Communications have made the world into an ever interdependent place with English being the predominant language. He also posited that China, not the USA is now the major power, due to the extraordinary debt in the USA. A good portion of the remainder of the day involved working with photographs, postings and General Organization and Tachy going to the Gym.
Thursday March 24, 2016 – Roger started in the gym, then there were conflicting events. Tachy, Nelson and Diana went to the Crew Vs Passenger Table Tennis Tournament, while Roger went to Roy Hunt’s lecture on ‘Old Blue Eyes / The Chairman of the Board – Frank Sinatra. An interesting synopsis of his life and times with the usual fun sing along of some of his well knows songs, ending of course with New York, New York. Next, whilst the Ping Pong continued for 2 hours, Roger went to a new speaker who has lived and studied Chinese history in Hong Kong the majority of her life and thus an expert in Sino affairs. Evelyn Evans spoke of the conflict with China and the interaction between it and Great Britain and other Imperial Powers . An interesting, but very deep and complicated talk. Domesticity ruled the afternoon with Roger and Nelson having haircuts and Roger a neck massage. In the evening we had our next Around the World cocktail party with the Captain. Each time all the people going all the way around get together for a State of the Voyage report by the Captain, the food seems to be more lavish and the decorations even more spectacular each time. Caviar, Champagne, shrimp on the barbie and delicious deserts / puddings, beautifully presented were accompanied by a string quartet and amazing ice sculptures of Koalas and Kangaroos, together with scale models of The Sydney Opera House, Tiki masks, Statue of Liberty, Christ the Redeemer of Rio and the Tower Bridge of London. Truly an outstanding event and fun to hear what the captain had to say about this last 20 days. It will be Captain Oprey’s last of the voyage cocktail parties as he will be replaced with Captain Wells in Singapore. We then went to one of the most amazing performances of the voyage thus far. Most of the performers are very good, some even better than others, but Danny Elliott is an Australian musical genius. He played the Piano, flute, clarinet, bagpipe, Irish penny whistle (two at the same time), the Pan flute, guitar and Australian holed out wooden pipe – digereedoo – as well as singing and tap dancing. I’m sure I must have forgotten some instruments, I think in all there were 15! At one point he got underneath the Piano with his right hand continuing to play the melody with the orchestra behind him. He received a well deserved standing ovation and left us all with one great big wow!!!
Friday March 25, 2016 – Good Friday – We started the day with an early Church service presided over by an Anglican vicar originally from the Sydney diocese, but now from New South Wales. He did a full service with homily etc, which was nice. Next, there was a conflict as Graham Howell was talking about Nha Trang, our first Vietnam Port of Call, at the same time as a cooking demonstration. All four of us decided on the cooking, which was the Executive Chef Mark and the pastry chef doing both a passion fruit chocolate bombe as well as making and decorating chocolate Easter eggs. Dale Templar, the producer of the BBC’s “Human Planet” was interviewed by the entertainment director – Jo Haley. Interesting to hear of her background – parents in Show Business and early life in the TV and Radio business. Tachy had a session with the fitness chap Liveu and I stayed in the cabin, having a siesta and doing computer work. we decided to skip the show as it was Philip Browne who as a bus driver got his start in The Lion King on the West End, then many other shows, as we had previously seen him on an earlier part of this voyage. So a quiet restful day before the long and exciting day in Shanghai.
Roger & Anne Travels 