Monday 9^th March 2015 – Day at Sea.

After the success of the Commonwealth games in Glasgow last summer it has been decided that at 10am on Commonwealth Day (9^th March, if you didn’t know) QM2 will raise the Commonwealth Flag – joining 53 countries across the world as we do so. It was quite a moving little ceremony but spoiled by the fact that the wind made the Captain difficult to hear. (Don’t think there would have been a similar problem with the old Captain!)

After this we charged off to the choir dress rehearsal performance and were surprised by how many passengers came into the Queens Room after the Captain’s navigational update – just to hear us. We got some nice feedback and seemed to have got away with it…

In the evening we watched the film “Across the Universe” written by Dick Clement and Ian Las Frenais. It is a musical using the songbook of the Beatles and the Vietnam War to form the backdrop of a romance between an American girl and a poor Liverpudlian artist. It is very much a homage to the 1960’s and especially The Beatles and is excellent. Not many people had heard of it and in the Q&A session after the film, Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais explained that the studio thought it was too long and wanted to make cuts but the director refused and after many months of wrangling, the film was released uncut but the studio refused to promote it in any way. As Dick Clement said, you don’t take on the studio as it always wins. Out of interest - whilst not agreeing to the swingeing cuts the studio wanted - they did think the film was too long and should have been “pruned”

We dined in the Britannia and had a goodbye glass or two of Veuve Clicquot with Dave and Gayle (our dining room neighbours since Southampton). They are getting off tomorrow in Brisbane and strangely we only found out tonight that Dave used to be a professional cyclist from Liverpool who actually knew Ian’s cousin Alan, who had ridden in the Milk Race (Tour of Britain), and rode for Birkenhead North End cycle club. Small world, isn’t it?

 

Tuesday 10^th March 2015 – Brisbane.

Happy birthday Jenny!

Our tour was excellent – Lewanne was on the same trip and she thought it was the best ship’s tour she has done.

We went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary first, and were in time to watch (and record) the Aussie sheep shearing before our two hour exploration of the parklands. Lewanne and Nesta had their “cuddling a koala” picture done – although Nesta said she’d rather have cuddled her koala’s handler!! We walked through the kangaroo and wallaby enclosure and watched people feeding them. There were lots of other animals there – Tasmanian Devils, Emus, Crocodiles, Platypuses (?), Dingoes, Wombats and Kookaburras to name but a few!

After we left the Sanctuary we went up to Mount Coot-Tha for a photo stop and then back to the city where we saw all the sights including The Gabba cricket ground…(enough said about cricket!)

Well, everyone made it back on board safely - except Lady D… The ship waited almost an hour for her (not convinced they would have done for us!) and she turned up in a taxi carrying all her shopping bags. Because of the delay we missed our leaving slot and had to wait until a P&O cruise ship sailed past us. We went up to the observation deck to watch it go by and who should be standing on her balcony laughing and drinking champagne but the aforementioned Lady D – obviously very contrite (not) about being late. Nesta took a picture of her for posterity and it has since got onto Facebook!

Tonight is the last night of the Coriander meal in the Kings Court Alternative Dining so we booked a table for ten (Nesta, Ian, Gary, Jenny, Diane, Lewanne, Andrew, Linda, Vanessa and Colin) for an early birthday meal for Ian. As well as being a very enjoyable meal this turned out to be a brilliant idea as over 700 Aussies got on today fora two day “booze cruise” to Sydney! There was chaos in the Kings Court and elsewhere on the ship. Don’t think the QM2 was designed for this!

Anyway, back to the meal. The waiters (nine of them) came and sang “Happy Birthday” to Ian and presented him with a cake with one candle on it – well it would probably have set the sprinklers off if they had put the full number on!

An enjoyable evening – and we can celebrate again tomorrow!!