Tuesday January 17, 2023
Today we continued our crossing of the Mediterranean passing Sicily on our Port side. Weather continues to improve however we were still subject to near gale (Beaufort 6) force winds. We also met another long time acquaintance – Oliver (from Singapore) who will be on through New York and we had a nice chat.
Again today we attended the Faberge talk by Philip Birkenstein who spoke on how the eggs are made. There is strict control over how many of each egg are made from 6 to 750. Starting with a thick sheet of silver it is polished and formed into the top and bottom parts of the egg. The base is turned on an 1800’s machine of which there are only a handful in existence (Hafenapple). After polishing over and over at each stage, the design is worked into the silver. Then a small amount of the enamel crystals / fine powder is placed on the egg and depending on the color (Red at 800 degrees / Gold at 200) that little area is fired and melted. This process is repeated until the entire egg is covered, then polished with a special stone, then re-enameled for a total of 5 layers. At which point the gold ornamentation is made using the lost wax technique and bolted through the walls of the egg and finally the internal ceramic to cover these bolts is placed. The entire process of making one egg can take up to 9 months. If anything goes wrong in the process, the egg is smashed and whatever can be recycled is so done.
Jonathan Clough the Astronomer spoke on the phenomenon of the star of Bethlehem which stood over the birthplace of Jesus. He took excerpts from the Bible (Matthew) and discussed what are the possible astronomical phenomena that the “wise men” (there actually is no clear indication of the number of Magi, but taken as 3 as there were three gifts) saw in the East and when those phenomena appeared knowing that it had to have occurred during the reign of King Herod. What could these be – Comet, Supernova, Fireball, Venus, Planetary Conjunction, Variable Star, Exploding Death Star, UFO etc. He then went into which were unlikely for various reasons and finally concluding that it was likely Halley’s Comet OR a Planetary Conjunction. Indeed Halley’s Comet did appear in 12 BCE and was visible for 56 days (26 August to 20 October appearing in the “Western Quarter” (The Magi travelled from the East to consult with Herod and continue East so the celestial phenomena must have appeared for several days) on the night of September 6/7. This would be the birth date of Jesus – September 6/7 12 BCE. In the theory of Planetary Conjunction (when two or more planets revolving around our sun at different rates, appear to be aligned causing a brighter than normal light), Jupiter and Saturn were close together until the end of 7 BCE, Jupiter reached the stationary point on 11th Novemberand Saturn on the 19th November. Thus the birth of Jesus is in November of 7BCE. In a vote of the audience present, the majority voted for the second alternative.
The final lecture was Giles Ramsay talking about Shakespeare and the birth of theatre first outside in areas (like hotels equivalent) where merchants would bring their wares and overnight looking over balconies at a show done on a platform where the horses and carriages were kept, to eventually a specially built building. Shakespeare, basically an actor would write some shows so was paid as an actor then as a playwright and then he invested in productions so was able to get paid a third time and finally also invested in the construction of the theatre so was paid a forth time all for the same performances.
It was a Gala Evening with Masquerade ball but starting with the Captain’s cocktail party for the 925 guests doing the full world. The first one since COVID hit in 2019! As the captain said it has been roughly 1100 days since his last cocktail party. The Ice carving, champagne, caviar and specialty foods were all over and a very exciting time was had by all. We did chat to “Bert’s Boss” – the lady who agreed to reassign Bert Espinosa to our set of Cabins in the 2016 World Cruise as well as the head purser and head of the Mechanical department who just started on Cruise lines after her career on Oil Rigs in the North Sea.
Finally the evening’s entertainment was Sophie Tehrani, the fabulous singer from Lisbon, who sang a group of songs of different women from Adele, Tina Turner, Aretha Franklin, Olivia Newton John and Judy Garland as well as Cats, the musical. A really terrific evening all around. Before retiring for the nigh we moved our clocks one hour ahead so we are now 7 hours ahead of New York.
Roger & Anne Travels 