The holiday has started for some . . . the beginning of another cruise for us. In addition to our normal duties on board, plus ferrying passengers ashore in the lifeboats, we were expected to help entertain the students in the afternoons, during sea days. Most afternoons were free for the students, lessons being held […]
Santiago is over 100 kms from the port of San Antonio, which is now the main cruise port for Chile. It used to be Valparaiso, but the unions became too troublesome so the Chilean government moved the main port to San Antonio, where they don’t seem to have the same labour problems. To get from […]
Just a little of the background to the ‘confrontation’, which was that Indonesia objected to the creation of Malaysia, and the inclusion of Malaya, Singapore, North Borneo, (which was a Crown colony), and Sarawak, which was known then as British Borneo, and is now known as East Malaysia. The pink bits on the map are […]
My next stop was to visit our agent in Apia, Western Samoa. Western Samoa consists of two main islands and several smaller islands. The island called Upolu is the main island where the capital Apia is located and Faleolo airport and the airline code for this airport is APW, if you plan to visit. The […]
Catherine’s Palace at Peterhof (Petergof is the Russian spelling) It was a warm day and I didn’t envy the staff in their period costumes. The picture shows the north side of the palace, or what was called the carriage courtyard. The palace originated in 1717 by command of Catherine 1 of Russia. If you like […]
There comes a time when all this gender neutral rubbish has to be laughed out of sight. We now have ‘neutral’ Mother’s Day cards, so that a very small minority are not ‘offended’. How about the rest of who might be offended? What happened to the child celebrating their own mother’s special day? In the […]
There comes a time when one considers where they came from, and the history of their own family. In doing my own family ‘tree’, I remembered stories from my childhood of one person who had been killed in the First World War. His name was on the war memorial in Hamilton Square Birkenhead, yet I […]
Cast off, the voyage has started as we make our way from the dock area to the open sea. Some just like to sit in the spa, with little interest in our sailing, but that is their choice A pleasant warm day with clear sky, but not all are interested in the passing scenery. Even […]
Santiago is over 100 kms from the port of San Antonio, which is now the main cruise port for Chile. It used to be Valparaiso, but the unions became too troublesome so the Chilean government moved the main port to San Antonio, where they don’t seem to have the same labour problems. To get from […]
We left the ship in Singapore on the 11th April – my 72nd birthday, and moved to the Concorde Hotel on Orchard Road. We’d stayed at the Concorde Hotel in Kuala Lumpur so we were aware of the standard. Having visited Singapore on and off since 1963, every new visit is a new learning curve. […]
Willis Island 450 klm (or 280 miles) east of Cairns lies Willis Island which we visited at a distance. We were not allowed ashore. The island is an Australian weather out post, which is well outside the Great Barrier Reef, and is the only permanently inhabited island in the Coral Sea Territory. It is about […]
Peterhof Grand Palace. After seeing Catherine’s Palace we had lunch and were taken to see the fountains. There are 144 fountains and they are fed from a reservoir about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles), and none of the water is pumped because it is all gravity fed. We approached the palace from the landward side rather […]
Catherine’s Palace at Peterhof (Petergof is the Russian spelling) It was a warm day and I didn’t envy the staff in their period costumes. The picture shows the north side of the palace, or what was called the carriage courtyard. The palace originated in 1717 by command of Catherine 1 of Russia. If you like […]
There were a few hectic weeks between the current manager planning his move to Sydney and me taking over his role. When I was at sea, we were taught to delegate, so I advertised for an operations manager, while I tried to understand the full aspect of managing the office and the staff. I hired […]
