Free wi fi is now expected as I have said before but Cunard don't seem to have understood this and still think they can charge ridiculous amounts for what is at best a somewhat dodgy connection.
So by the time we get to Perth, we will have been without a connection for nine days. It did make me realise and cogitate on just what I use the internet for.
I love researching places and people. When I read about someone I want to find out more about them so I usually look them up on the internet.
I recently mentioned the two excellent acts we saw on our first two nights. So wanted to read about them on the internet or see if they have a website. But of course I couldn't. So that will have to wait until we get home along with looking up lots of other stuff from the cruise.
Finding out sports results was equally difficult and just think of all those emails piling up.
I wanted to make an alteration to one of my websites but couldn't. So I found it all a little frustrating. It does show how much we now take technology for granted and as a given and how much we miss it when it's not there.
*. *. *
So what did I learn on the cruise yesterday.
1 That something on my finger comes from a supernova
2 That arias from La Boheme still make me cry
3 That astro physics is still completely incomprehensible.
4 That I shouldn't play table tennis when the temperature is over 30 degrees
5 That I know from which country pineapples originate
6 That Salvador Dali was a genius.
7 That wearing masks is as uncomfortable as it has always been.
So let me explain. A day at sea means for us a mix of lectures, presentations, eating and generally being very busy. No sitting around
1/ we went to a lecture by an astro physicist and astronomer. He came from Scotland which we know is in the Northern hemisphere. The lecture was on stars that can be seen in the southern hemisphere where everything is upside down and back to front. I don't pretend to understand even a small amount of what he was talking about. Why is it that academics can rarely explain things in a way that us mere mortals can understand? He said something about gold coming as a result of a supernova and as we all know a supernova is a dying star. Didn't quite follow the logic but it does mean that I'm wearing a piece of a supernova on my finger and I thought it was simply a ring.
Actually, I have two rings I wear all the time. I used to take them off at night but then I put on weight and my fingers expanded and I can no longer get them off.
The one on my left hand is a wedding ring that isn't. I had it blessed at my wedding, but it was a present from my mother for my 21st birthday. The one on my right hand has been admired by many. It's a unique silver ring made by somebody I knew back in the 1970s. She designed silver rings, each one being unique with no two being the same (which is another way of saying the same thing). A couple of years ago I bought the other three-quarters a ring made from a spoon- how romantic is that?
2/ One of the concerts we attended featured opera with a soprano accompanied by a pianist. Most of what she sang left me cold but La Boheme by Puccini has always left me a gibbering wreck. Of course I pretended I was blowing my nose
Many years ago we went to Prague with friends. Our trip included tickets to the opera La Boheme. I told my friends that I loved this work and we were all looking forward to it. We took the metro some distance. But when the overture started something was wrong.. This wasn't La Boheme although it was. I've blogged about this before. It was La Boheme but not La Boheme by Puccini. It was La Boheme by Leoncavallo who was working with Puccini on the opera. The two had a fall out and instead of one La Boheme there were two. Problem is one La Boheme has become one of the great operas of all time while the other has sunk without trace and guess which one we saw?
3/ I have covered this already
4/ Played two sets of table tennis in the heat and became a drippy mess and had to retreat to the shower
5/ The quiz question in the trivia event was where do pineapples originate from? I had a flash of inspiration and there's nothing like a flash. Brazil. Yes I wrote it down on the answersheet and then changed it to West Indies as Brazil seemed a ridiculous answer. And of course the answer was Brazil. Many years ago on another quiz we went to a daily trivia held on each day when the boat wasn't in a port. We were joined by a quiz genius and because of him kept winning. They ran out of baseball caps and key rings to give us.
6/ Of course this is entirely a matter of opinion, but I love eccentrics and there was a really good lecture on Dali. They had a couple of Dali signed etchings for sale as well for a few thousand dollars. On a previous cruise we did buy a piece by Dali reasonably cheaply but the firm went bust. Thankfully the terms were COD - cash on delivery as opposed to CND which is the campaign for nuclear disarmament. That concept went out years ago
On that ship we did win a print by an artist whose signature we have never been able to make out. Tha boat was full of American tourists. The answer to the prize question was Salvadore Dali. The first person picked gave an American artist as his answer as did the second and third. Then they came to us and we got it correct. That print is framed and in our bedroom but we still have no idea who it is by although it's definitely not Dali but it could of course conceivably be an American artist.
7/ On this cruise we have had to wear masks in all indoor situations when not eating or drinking. It's almost as if we have gone back a year and in some ways it's been rather unpleasant.
Well that's more than enough for today.