Thursday January 12, 2023
A big storm came through just half an hour after we left Southampton. Today was marked by gale force winds (9 on Beaufort scale) 60 -70 nautical mile per hour winds across the decks, major rolling with 30 degree pitching both above the horizon as well as 30 degrees below the horizon along the bow / stern line and very few people out and about the ship. Sea sick bags were all over the entry to the lifts. Lectures and food rooms were sparsely populated and Anne, went to the 8th floor Spa with waves coming up to that floor. So a very heavy stormy day.
Despite that we enjoyed a good breakfast four lectures and a nice tea with scones and sandwiches. We did skip Lunch. The first lecture was given by Vivianne Rowan, A renown historian and Egyptologist, spoke about the 7 wonders of the Ancient and Modern wonders. Next, Fatima Bhutto, the well known Author discussed the move from the USA / Britain as being the source of world culture and TV / movies to Asia being the center of World Popular Culture. Specifically, the influence of Bollywood and it’s 1500-2000 movies a year spread around the world, the Dizi Turkish Soap Operas and the Korean – K-Pop music take the world (outside of the English speaking world) by storm. The Chinese Tik Tok is gradually becoming pervasive as the social media platform overtaking all the others. Her latest book describing this phenomena is called “The Kings of the World”.
The third lecture by Andrew Cooper is a major documentary film maker in the filed on Natural History. Interesting explanations about how photographing animals can be a very challenging experience. The fourth lecture by Lucy Russell , a Cultural Historian talked about Europa 1500 – From England and Europe to the Ottoman Empire. Specifically the history and events, power struggles that took place in the 1500’s.
Being a “formal” night we opted on skipping, getting changed and going to dinner. So after a light supper in the Cafeteria, we turned in early. By this point the for / aft ship pitching movement has been converted to a starboard / port rolling movement, so we hope we won’t be rolled out of bed!!!
Roger & Anne Travels 