Well I am so happy to say that the man who collapsed in the
theatre is in the medical centre, and reported to be doing ok. This was the best
news we could have received today.
We have travelled north and have now left the Great Barrier
Reef, passed the pointed most northern part of Australia and turned left. We are in the tropic of Capricorn, so it’s
still jolly hot ;)
The sea has been changing rapidly over the last 2 days from
super calm, almost glass, the kind that you can see clouds reflecting in to wavelets
during the day, to quite rough tonight because of the clashes of tides on the
east and west. The swell is not too bad so there’s no rocking and rolling.
Everything about the sea and the sky is fascinating me like never before, and
of course now that I am learning how to paint clouds I can’t keep my eyes off
them.
We have finished two lovely absorbing paintings since Thursday – yesterday a Wiltshire
country cottage with trees and village green,
and today the head of a big colourful beautiful but aggressive Australian Bird called a cassowary
.The captain’s nautical nugget today was “son of a gun”. The tale was that way back in sailor history, the crew were in charge of the guns. It was difficult to persuade the gunners on the ship to stay on for long periods, as they missed home. To help retention of the gunners, women were invited onto ships when they were in port. They had to sleep in bunks and hammocks in communal dorms. These might be wives, girlfriends or women who came on just for the sex, some of whom became pregnant but were unable to say who the baby’s father was. These babies were then referred to as “son of a gun”.
and today the head of a big colourful beautiful but aggressive Australian Bird called a cassowary
.The captain’s nautical nugget today was “son of a gun”. The tale was that way back in sailor history, the crew were in charge of the guns. It was difficult to persuade the gunners on the ship to stay on for long periods, as they missed home. To help retention of the gunners, women were invited onto ships when they were in port. They had to sleep in bunks and hammocks in communal dorms. These might be wives, girlfriends or women who came on just for the sex, some of whom became pregnant but were unable to say who the baby’s father was. These babies were then referred to as “son of a gun”.
We’ve been to the Palladium three times today.
On board we have Lord Howard (former
opposition leader during the last Labour government) who is talking, sharing
anecdotes and answering questions about his life in politics. Today his 2 p.m talk fitted beautifully with
our afternoon, and he spoke well and we both found him candid, funny and
interesting. Nothing controversial. Surprising.
At 4.30 we went to Bruce Morrison’s history of and songs
from Les Miserables. He was a wonderful all rounder raconteur with a strong,
powerful, emotional, dramatic voice (all parts). Tomorrow he is doing a matinee at 2 so we are
both going to get there early for that or it might be standing room only.
After dinner tonight we went back to the Palladium for the
third time to hear comedian Adrian Walsh again. Very very funny, a good sign
for a comedian. More tomorrow – our final
sea day before Darwin. Bye for now x
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