Sunday March 19, 2023
The day at sea started with Church, done by the new Deputy Captain, who we had not met before as he just boarded, followed by lectures. However, the first was an interview of the female world champion boxer – Louisa “Lulu Bang Bang” Hawton, by the entertainment director Neil Kelly. He is very good, putting the person at ease and chatting about their lives. Certainly a fascinating woman who says she is “retired” from boxing, managing her son’s boxing development, but would love to fight one particular lady if the conditions were right.
Chris Frame, the very knowledgeable Cunard expert spoke of the life of QE II. It was interesting that all were speculating on the name before it was “christened” and the name was in a sealed envelope given to Queen Elizabeth II. The name on the paper was Queen Elizabeth, however when the Queen spoke the words, she said – “ I now pronounce that the name of this ship shall be Queen Elizabeth II”. All were taken aback that knew the name as they had never named a ship after a reigning monarch. However after some discussions with Buckingham Palace, they settled on Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) and not the roman numeral II. Initially it had no balcony rooms, but in one of the many refits, some were added. Of particular note, however was the fact that as early as the initial sea trials, there were major issues with the engines. It continued to have problems with its engines and on occasion had to be towed into port. Eventually the funnel and deck were cut out and a new engine was installed, then re-welded onto the structure. He shared many interesting stories like this, which was fun.
The third lecture by Peter Price AM MBE was on the Economics of Global Organized Cyber Crime. This is a topic that almost daily is in the news somewhere in the world, so very interesting. The evening entertainment was Scott Williams, the very amusing Australian comic who uses the “gimmick” of being a “doctor” of laughter and what constitutes the joy of laughing, while at the same time keeping the audience very amused. Overnight we set the clocks back an hour, this will continue as we will be traveling west, so each day we will gain an hour of sleep, until we get back the 15 hours we lost on our way to Australia,
Roger & Anne Travels 