Jeffrey Foster celebrates his birthday while onboard off Malaga, Spain on his great world cruise
Editor’s Note: Cruises that go terribly or tragically wrong are always in the news, starting with the Titanic. But what about the many, many cruises that are sheer joy? Two years ago retired French professor Jeffry Foster went on a world voyage. We are presenting his diary in several parts. Here’s Part 4:
Tuesday, February 28 Fremantle
It’s a return to Fremantle /Perth as we circle around Australia. The ship lands in Fremantle which is is maritime center of the west. It is a Victorian port that has many colonial buildings of the nineteenth century. The Round House, an octagonal building of limestone, is the oldest pubic building in Westrn Australia. Since the British sent their prisoners here, the Prison built by convict labor was a maximum seccurity prison until 1991. Perth is a short ride and most of its older buildings were destroyed to make a modern high rise city, so it lacks a certain charm. To my surprise I enjoyed the Irish comedy impressionist Paul Martell who now lives in Australia. His impersonations were excellent and his humor very entertaining.
Wednesday, February 29
Winds still continue to be strong, but are just under gale strength as of the moment. This morning I attended another lecture by Denny Whitford on the Tsunami. A tsunami can occur any time of the year and is an event that cannot be prevented. It can occur in any sea, however 80 percent happen in th Pacific Ocean. Tsunami in Japanese means harbor wave ; actually a tsunami is generally a succession of waves usually caused by some kind of underwater plate tectonic movement. The continental drift plus the seafloor spreading equal plate tectonics. There are three kinds of faults : strike-slip, normal and thrust. The latter two can cause a tsunami which is when the Richter scale indicates a number above 7.6. This afternoon is dedicated to the needlework group. I already saw the show tonight so I thught that I might go to see « The Ides of March ». The film dealing with politics of an Ohio primary was not too interesting for me, so I went back to my room to relax for the evening.
Thursday, March 1
Laundry day with some success. Would you believe that another dryer is broken so there are four washers and two dryers for three hundred rooms ! After lunch I attended the classical concert of Neil Georgeson and Tristan Horne. They played an all English program:Elgar,Vaughan Williams, Peter Maxwell Davies, Adam Carse and Squire. I so much enjoy Elgar’s music and it was almost half the program. Afterwards it was to hear Denny Whitford’s lecture on « Who owns the oceans ? » It was a talk where science and politics cross lines ; he mentioned current disputed waters. Tonight I selected to go back to my room after dinner since I already saw the show as well as the film.
Friday, March 2
The commodore announced yesterday that the winds would become gale force and that the seas would be quite rough. The wind kept whistling by the balcony all night and this morning. One could hear the waves splashing against the ship and the ship was making strange sounds. Today Commodore Christopher Rynd informed us that the ship has had to slow down its speed because of the condition of the ocean. This morning I really didn’t feel like eating my usual breakfast. I ate little, went to the Winter Garden for over an hour to do some Sudoku before going back to my room to do needlework and take my mind away from the ship rocking a bit. Don’t feel like too much lunch, but will have something. In the afternoon, I attended a lecture by Warren Fahey : »You are what you eat : the curious history of food ». His book « When Mabel Laid the Table » may have some of the tidbits of information ; some quite amusing. Let’s see what I can recall…when salt is spilt, we throw it over the left shoulder because that is where the devil is an it is to chase him;fig is thought to be one of the oldest fruits cultivated over six thousand years ago;it was also considered an aphrodisiac. Coriander is the most used herb in the world, pepper the most used spice ; second most used spice is cumin. Legend has it that mushrooms started in Ireland where St Patrick spat out bread crumbs. One should never give parsley seeds to a friend,it is said to give away misfortune. The term « upper crust » was started when King Charles II would cut off the top part of the bread and only eat that part. Cheesecake was served at the first Olympic games. In Elizabethan times, at a brothel, gentlemen kept a bowl of prunes on a table thinking it would help when they were tired. And the bakers dozen, comes from France where bread was weighed and if found short, the baker was pinned by his ears to the door, so the baker always added an additional bread. My appetite returned for dinner, but the sea has been relentless. This evening I decided not to go to the show because the film was the Mariinsky Theatre’s 3D Giselle starring Natalia Osipova and Leonid Sarafanov. This is my favorite ballet and the ballet blanc of the second act was exceptional. The best performance I ever saw was years ago at the Paris Opera with Yvette Chauviré and Nureyev. What a lovely evening.
Saturday, March 3
By the time I got ready for bed last evening, the waters became more moderate. Today will be a very quiet day for me since we are docked in Adelaide and I am remaining onboard. I’ve been here a few weeks ago and I would go into town for a stroll, if it didn’t take 45 minutes or more one way. Started a new novel by Francisco Goldman- »Say Her Name » . I learned about it when in France this past summer while reading the book review of either Le Figaro or Le Monde. It had been translated into French and highly praised. Tonight’s entertainment was Duo Des Iles(Eric-French, his wife Wendy-British) live in New Zealand. It’s a diverse variety act:comedy, magic of quick changing costumes, acrobatics and dance.’
TWENTY
Sunday, March 4
I don’t know how everyone else on board is doing with all these time zone changes, but it’s a bit tiring on the system. There are three or four different time zones around Australia and for instance there is a time change from Fremantle to Adelaide of one half hour and then from Adelaide to Melbourne another half hour. The others are an hour difference. We are now sixteen hours ahead of the time in NYC… This morning I attended another lecture by Denny Whitford on »Whales…Giants of the Sea ». He first explained the difference between fish whose tail is vertical and beats from side to side from the whale/dolphin whose tail is horizontal and beats up and down. The Blue Whale is the largest animal on the planet: 110ft long and weighs 190 tons ! The humpback whale is the fifth largest animal on the planet with huge pectoral fins. The male sings the loudest and longest of the whales, about a 1 /2 hour. The difference between a dolphin and purpose is the latter has a triangular fin while the dolphin’s is curved and it also has a beak. He also mentioned the US Navy Marine Mammal Program that uses the echolocation(sound waves) if dolphins to locate sea mines and the use of the California sea lion to mark and retrieve submerged objects. In the afternoon I attended the Adagio String Quartet recital. The program was 85 percent of what they did weeks ago, but still enjoyable. Tonight it is a show called the Leading Men, four men who performed in musical theater in Australia.
Monday, March 5 Melbourne-a date with Ben and Judy
Melbourne is the capital of the state of Victoria situated on the Yarra River. It is Australia’s second largest city and there are traditional landmarks as one walks through the city. Ben picked me up at the Beacon Cove Harbor where the QM2 docked. We then drove to a parking garage and proceeded to walk through the city for two hours. We passed the Victoria Station, St Paul’s Cathedral, Chinatown, by Greektown, the State Library of Victoria. We walked down narrow pedestrian streets past many shops. We drove by Melbourne Docklands with its many stadiums. Then we drove out to the Shrine of Remembrance and Royal Botanical Gardens. Afterwards we went to where the Moore family lives and I was so glad to see Judy. It had been almost twenty years that I had seen them. The last time was at their wedding ! Now they have two sons, Jacob, 14 away on a school trip and Nicholas, 11 whom I got to meet. We drove back to the ship along the ocean for a beautiful view.
Tuesday, March 6
This morning I attended Denny Whitford final lecture in the series on « Seafaring lore and legend ». He spoke about Robinson Crusoe, King Neptune, the Odyssey, Atlantis,, HMS Bounty, the Flying Dutchman and some maritime terms such as even keel, bootlegger, son of a gun. It was lots of fun. After lunch, it was last recital of Neil Georgeson and Tristan Horne where they played encore requested by the passengers. Tonight it was another performance of The Leading Men. It was a most enjoyable one and the Aussies called the men back for two encores.
Twenty one
Wednesday,March 7 : Sydney
What a day ! I had an appointment to see an urologist that was arranged by the ship due to some problems that was hanging over my head for several weeks. I took the taxi to where I was told to see the doctor. However the receptionist told me that it was not his day to be in that office. She informed me that my appointment was over a ½ hour away. I then took a taxi to that hospital to see the doctor. It cost me additional money which was the fault of the ship. I saw the doctor and he assured me that all was okay and not to be concerned for the remainder of the voyage. So I will see my urologist once I return in May. I wrote to him about setting up an appointment and hope to hear from him soon. So I spent from 9am to about 3:30pm on this adventure. Then I had to get ready for the evening. Dinner was at 4:30 because we had to take the bus to go to the Sydney Opera House to see Puccini’s « Turandot. » The stage is so small that the sets were ingeniously constructed. I didn’t always care for them, or the some of the stage directions, but overall, a most enjoyable evening. The costumes were interesting, anyone associated with the Princess were in white including Ping, Pang and Pong. The treatment of Turandor was fascinating. When she appears in Act II, she is high on a platform and as Calaf answers each riddle, veils are pulled off the pedestal and when he anwers the last one, she steps down, she is now a ordinary woman- quite interesting. The voices overall were okay, but I particularly enjoyed the Turandot of Anke Höppner. When we left the Opera House, it was raining heavily. We had to walk for a short distance to meet the bus which was not there waiting for us. It arrived twenty minutes late and we returned to the ship wet.
Thursday, March 8 : Sydney
The rain has not abated in the slighted. So instead of a tour, I’ll remain on board and relax. I went to see the ship’s doctor to give her a report. I had seen her for a few moments when I got on board yesterday, and she had asked me to stop by her office. When I did, she told me that she had already spoken with the Purser of Guest Services about the additional taxi charges and told me to see that individual and that all would be straighten out. I did Sudoku and needlework before dinner. There I met the five new people on the fourth leg of the world voyage. Afterwards, I wen to see the film Johnny English Reborn, a comedy spy-thriller which I found dumb.
Friday, March 9
I awoke in a great mood today. After breakfast I went to see the Purser of Guest Services who told me that she would credit my account for that additional taxi fare that was their fault. I then went to hear Glenmore Trenear-Harvey, a British intelligence analyst who has worked with MI 5 & 6. Just prior to his lecture, there was a loss of the propulsion power. Lights came back in a few minutes, but it took about twenty minutes to get all the generators working perfectly. « Russian Intelligence : A return to the Cold War ? » was his topic. He explained how the KGB was fragmented into two agencies FSB for domestic intelligence and the SBR for internation intelligence. He spoke of the assassination attempts on British soil as well as some in Russia. Most of these were familiar because of having been in the news over the last years, especially since Putin has been in charge. What I found disturbing was that the Duma in July 2006 passed the Search and Destroy Edit. It permitted the president if he found someone to be a threat, to be destroyed ! He talked about the Putin/Medvedev game plan of encouraging Russian pride. It reminded me of what Hitler did in Nazi Germany. There is now the Nashi, a youth movement to promote national pride. Needless to say, I never cared for Putin before, but now it made me more aware of what he has been attempting to do. After an early lunch, I sat out on my balcony and enjoyed reading a bit before going off to the needlework group. From there, I attended a lecure by Seth Gopin, an art historian of Rutgers University. His lecture « The Exotic East i the Western Imagination » spoke of myths China and Japan permeated in the Western world. It was a very historical approach dealing with books published about the Orient and particularly about Japan in the nineteenth century. He mentioned how « The Mikado » was a racial stereotype of Japan that influenced others. Entertainment tonight is Sharon Stanley, a vocalist with the Glenn Miller Orchestra for the past nineteen years. Unfortunately, she sang jazz numbers and that was not what the audience was expecting.
PART ONE IS HERE
PART TWO IS HERE
PART THREE IS HERE