Friday March 10, 2023
Another day at sea on our way to Sydney. The lectures today were Dr. Robin Derricourt, the historian talking about how Sydney has changed over a relatively short period of about 150 years: from a penal colony to a thriving metropolis of 6 million people. This was followed by an interesting interview by the Entertainment Director Neil of the Australian Sports presenter and anchor / Host – Ken Sutcliffe. Again a very interesting set of stories about his background and start as an average tennis player to a superstar reporter and a lot of interesting stories about his escapades. The final lecture was the Postman storyteller – Rod Preston who amongst other things talked about where postmen (posties in Australia) would never deliver to places like the favelas in Rio de Janeiro or the Burning Man Festival in the Western desert of the USA: these locations are too dangerous. Also, about post people that would just take post to their homes and not bother to deliver or destroy before delivering so as to ease their work. The origin of the first postmistress under Cyrus the Great in Persian and the origin on the motto of the US Postal System from Herodotus (from what I remember) – Neither Rain, Nor Sleet, nor Snow will not Deter the Post from being Delivered. The exact quote can be seen about the general post office in New York.
As Sydney was the end of a segment and we had not used the Diamond status benefit of a free lunch in the Verandah restaurant we went there for a really nice lunch together with a nearly full house of other like passengers.
The evening performance was an excellent couple – James and Rebecca as Cameo Rascale – performing some amazing acrobatic, juggling, monocycle riding and comedy act.
Roger & Anne Travels 