Friday 27^th February 2015 – Day at Sea.

After a late breakfast we headed off to the Royal Court Theatre for “The Write Stuff” a presentation by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais – the writers of The Likely Lads, Porridge, Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads, Lovejoy, Auf Wiedersehen Pet and The Commitments to name a few! Although their IT didn’t work very well they were funny and interesting.

In the afternoon we sat in the sun/shade for a while and then went to see the film “The Judge” with Robert Duvall and Robert Downie Jr.

We discovered that Gary, Jenny and Dianne have all signed up to be part of the crossing the line ceremony on 1^st March. They will be “pollywogs” until they’ve crossed the equator on board a ship - when they join Nesta and Ian in being “shellbacks” (as, of course, we crossed the equator four times on board MV Voyager). Unfortunately this means that Nesta will not be able to kiss a fish, be covered in baked beans or pink blancmange as she was previously. Oh well – you have to make some sacrifices in life!

It was a “formal” night so we made the effort and got dressed up. We had a very nice leg of lamb for dinner and Nesta asked for (and got) some Heinz Tomato Ketchup to go with hers… Robert (our waiter) has promised he will get some and keep it in his part of the galley in case she wants some more in the future!

Incidentally – the Head Sommelier did turn up and apologised for the “Mullygrubber” running out. He promised he would “source it locally” in Brisbane and guaranteed us that it would not run out again before Southampton!!

 

Saturday 28^th February 2015 – Bitung, Sulawesi Island, Indonesia.

It’s the QM2’s maiden call to the port of Bitung and the Captain wasn’t sure until we got there whether the water was deep enough for us to dock. Fortunately it was – which meant we didn’t have to use the tenders.

We are only one degree above the equator here and – to paraphrase the Captain – it was hot hot hot at 7-30am when Nesta was up on deck having her early morning cup of tea (or smoke as it’s known).

Lewanne came ashore with us today for a stroll around the local area. It is in no way a “touristy” town and we liked it for that fact alone. The locals were out in force – they had never seen anything as big as the Queen Mary 2 or, indeed, people as tall and broad as Europeans…They kept asking passengers if they could take photos of us! They were very friendly and smiley and did seem genuinely pleased to see us.

We saw the local market selling second hand clothes (which looked like rejects from UK Charity shops) and even the new clothes and shoes in the shops were much too small for us.

Traditional food in this area includes bats, dogs and mice – so we decided not to dine ashore! - Although we did see pictures of some interesting-looking dishes in the windows of local restaurants!

Lewanne and Nesta stopped in the shade for a smoke and a man from a nearby shop immediately brought out two chairs for them to sit on (Ian had to stand!) – so there they were outside a bridal wear shop having lots more photos taken of them by locals and even by some other passengers.

We only managed to stroll about for two and a half hours before the prospect of a shower and air-conditioning back on board beckoned!

The sail away party was interesting when the heavens suddenly opened and the band had to make a run for cover after unplugging all their instruments!

The locals came out in force to wave us off – bands were playing, people waving and taking photographs. We really liked Bitung. It is unspoilt, has a friendly atmosphere and the people are welcoming. Hope it retains this in the future.

In the evening we had to collect our passports as Australian Immigration officers have got on board and will be having “one to one” chats with us tomorrow!!

We then went to the pre-dinner show which was two Broadway dancers’ tribute to tap dancing… (Nesta had decided we hadn’t seen our share of the shows on this sector!) Well – they sang and tap danced to songs from well before our time and were very “American” when they thanked us for being a “wonderful audience”… Don’t think we’ll go to their next show!

To end a busy day we decided to eat in the restaurant and ordered a Chilean unoaked Chardonnay which we had tried, and liked, before to go with our meal. Dinesh (our Sommelier from the previous sectors) turned up with the news that he had “found” three bottles of “Mullygrubber” in the Queen’s Grill (posh peoples restaurant) and he would make sure our new Sommelier had a bottle ready for us tomorrow!

It’s very strange that the Head Sommelier didn’t know about this yesterday when he assured us that the ship had run out of our preferred wine…More cynical people than us may begin to think that passengers are being manipulated into buying more expensive wines… but not us, of course!