Tuesday February 07, 2023
Today we enjoyed another day at sea which was originally planned for Colombo, Sri Lanka (Ceylon). We assume that things either medically (COVID) or politically too unstable. When we spent some time there a few years ago we got to know that China is the dominant force on the island and “owns” a lot of the same, having a major military base on the south east side, reclaiming the shoreline so that the current coast will be 20 blocks from the seaside (all with Chinese workers), owns all the key teak wood etc. So we were not really all that sorry to miss out.
We greatly enjoyed the lectures which continued in the vein of spies and intelligence. This time Andrew Barber, the British Diplomat, discussed spies from USSR / Russia and what they did for the west, some being caught and immediately executed by a bullet to the head, another escaped with British help. Also he discussed Richard Ames and Robert Hansen, US spies that were caught and are serving life sentences in a super-max jail under solitary confinement. Next came the British BBC journalist, Jane Corbin talking about her Panorama pieces on the poisoning of russian spies in the west with such a toxic agent that a small spray on the front door handle of a man’s home practically killed him and his daughter after closing their front door. She also went into some detail about Putin and his now generally lack of reason although prior to his invasion of Ukraine, he made it very clear in speeches that he wanted to unite the old Soviet Union. He is evermore paranoiac and has lost virtually all advisors other than the people he worked with in the KGB in St. Petersburg / Leningrad.
We played a game of chess, had lunch and then lay down for a rest, waking up 3 hours later in time for dinner and the show. It’s a hard life!!! Tonight Samantha Jay once again amazed us as she played the base horn, clarinet, violin and piano, all with the same brilliance.
Overnight we once again moved the clocks forward 1 hour which brings us exactly 12 hours ahead of New York.
One of the various pools on the ship
Roger & Anne Travels 