On Tuesday I went to two talks.The second one was by David Spiegelhalter:The Art of Uncertainty. He is a brilliant statistician who has written many books. It was entertaining, he talked for forty minutes, took questions and finished with a puzzle for the audience. (You can Google his name if you wish).
The talk was in a newly opened student centre and auditorium at Canterbury Christ Church University.
I went for another walk around some of the woodland on the farm. I could hear a pheasant but did not see him.There was a seed cleaning and sorting company processing grain either for planting or for selling to make flour rather than animal feed.There was also some huge liquid fertilizer containers that have recently been installed.
It was time to spend a day with Helen. Firstly though I spotted a cock pheasant in the garden and thanks to the lens on my IPhone 14 Pro I was able to get a fairly good photo of him.
We then went to visit Garrington - the house where my sister lived for 60 years. It is now two years since she died. Helen has done an amazing job sorting. Here is the dining room.
We picked some dahlias and visited the gravestone.
Lil (niece in-law) and I attended a talk put on by the Friends of Canterbury Cathedral. I took out life membership in the friends 16 years ago when my mother died at aged 97.
The talk by a Cathedral guide was very well researched and documented the life of Thomas Becket in 1160’s prior his murder in Canterbury Cathedral. There will be a part two of the talk in November.
The Cathedral was looking magnificent on this sunny day.
I went for a walk to-day around some of the farm buildings and to look at the Garrington house from the outside (which my sister lived in for 60 years) .
The farms are managed with huge equipment. There is a picture of a tractor and a newly acquired sprayer that can spread fertilizer and pesticides.
I had a fascinating chat over breakfast with Tom Spencer (Robert and Lil’s eldest) who after completing an MSc is now an analyst with the Agricultural and Horticulture Development Board. His specialty is analyzing the beef markets for the benefit of British farmers.
Then Helen and I went to listen Hugh Bonneville: The Magic of Stories. Who would know that one of the stars of Downton Abbey wrote children’s books? It was very entertaining.
We had lunch at a farmers market.
My nephew Philip drove me from Hampshire to Canterbury. After supper with several family members Philip, Helen, I and a couple of their cousins went to Canterbury Cathedral.
We listened to the Canterbury Choral society singing Handel’s Zadock the Priest (a coronation anthem first performed in 1727), Handel’s My Heart is Inditing, Bach’s Suite No3 in D performed by the Hanover Band (orchestra), Haydn’s Insanae et Vanae Curae and then Haydn’s Nelson Mass. The Canterbury Choral Society has been conducted by Richard Cooke for 40 years! He was a boy chorister at St Paul’s Cathedral and later sang for four years as a Choral Scholar in the choir of King’s College, Cambridge under David Willcocks.
I was met at Southampton by Nicky, my nephew’s driver.
Here is the hatch.
One has the chance to meet many interesting people on board.On this voyage there was a predominance of Brits. Here is a list of some whom I will remember but never meet again!
My bridge partner Sylvia who I think worked for NATO who now lives in Wales. She originally studied medicine at Barts but did not qualify and did nutrition.
A mechanical engineer from Yorkshire who arranged for tankers to be turned into refineries (in China).
A talkative partly deaf woman from Portsmouth whose husband had been an airline pilot but died about two years ago of Lewey Body dementia.
A Welshman from Cardiff who was a builder but also a deer stalker and a gun enthusiast. He kept 5 guns at home but he was also a gun dealer. (Amazing in Great Britain).
A retired General Practitioner from Deal (near Canterbury).
A South African born (Chinese ancestry) woman who was a chartered surveyor and was married to an Englishman and lived in Devon. He died a year ago of vascular dementia. (There seemed to be a lot of widows on board).
A retired US air traffic controller. I learned about the levels of air traffic control from ground, to approach, to high level routing.
A woman who sang in the London Philharmonic Choir.
A woman GP (originally from Germany) who lives in Bunderburg, Queensland with her partner who wanted to know about Whitstable where they had plans to meet a relative.
A director of NBC television programs.
A retired US military and foreign service person and his wife who lives in Italy but still had a house in Missouri. His hobby was target shooting and he told me he had 10-15 guns in his house.
I did a behind the scenes tour of the QMII. We were not allowed to take photographs.It included demonstrations by two young performers on how the changed costumes frequently during the many shows on board, a visit to the bridge, hearing from the human resource person, seeing the anchors from the inside, seeing the mooring lines from the inside, visiting the medical center, visiting the engine control center, showing how all the fire safety training and practice including man overboard drills were carried out and visiting the galley where all the meals are prepared.
A few interesting facts (to me)! The ship has no rudders. It has four “Pods”. Two are fixed, two rotate 360 degrees. The pods with propellers attached are so large that a mechanic can climb down inside them.
There are four stabilizers that control the roll and pitch of the ship in a gale.
There are four diesel generators and four gas turbines that generate power. There are two steam generators.
At maximum the diesels consume 3.1 tonnes/hour of heavy fuel oil. The gas turbines 6.6 tonnes/ hour of marine gas oils.
630 tonnes/day of water is produced by evaporators. Water consumption is 1,100 tonnes/day.
There is a sewage treatment system and the effluent is discharged in international waters.
The galley has 150 chefs. The Britannia restaurant produces 1200 meals at each of two sittings.
I had my photograph taken on the bridge beside the vice-captain. They wanted $55 for a copy of the photo plus a digital copy. I declined.
One of the best parts of being on the QMII was the views from the Brooklyn cruise ship terminal of Manhattan Island, the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge (that I had walked on a few days before).
