2024 – Queen Mary 2 Grand World– Part 2 –Cape Town to Sydney  2.3 Perth to Melbourne

We were back at sea on February 18.  Orsi and I met with the tech support for the room Cunard is providing for my HK talk.  All free, as it should be.  Listen up, Holland America.  I got an email from the General Manager of RPYC thanking us for our visit and warning us that he had just tested positive for COVID.  I notified the QM2 people by phone and the Volendam passengers by email.  I spent the rest of the day working on my HK presentation and notes, had a nice dinner and skipped the show because I had seen it. 

The next day, the 19^th, I was still working on my Hong Kong talk.  Since I have decided to book in to a Central Hotel to avoid the hassle of having to travel around, I’ll be recommending it in my talk.  I researched a bunch of hotels at varying prices.  While I was at it, I looked at Singapore, just for fun.  The Marina Bay Sands is sold out for the night we are there, and Raffles wants $1566.  The next thing I checked was where the ship would be docked and, luckily, it’s the Marina Bay Cruise Terminal, so we can stay aboard and still be fine.  I remember the days when the Wescotts would go stay in the Marina Bay for the free WiFi.  Glad those are over.

Eleven people came to my talk on Hong Kong, including my very fragile lady, who followed it like everyone else.  I think everyone enjoyed it.  They asked a bunch of pertinent questions, but they are a shore excursion taking group and not many will go off the beaten path, which they can be led down.  That’s OK.  I just wanted them to know what’s out there.

I had a drink at the Commodore Club, dinner at a big table, skipped the sand painter on the main stage and finished “Midnight’s Children” in bed. 

First thing in the morning of February 20, my caregiver passenger was at my desk to crow about her charge’s progress.  She has every reason to.  I saw it yesterday. I rejoiced with her.  Her charge is so much brighter, eating more and managing the step into the bathroom herself.  They will be getting an ADA stateroom after Sydney and I told her not to cancel it.  We sure are enjoying her victory now, though.  We worked on a car and driver for them in Adelaide and I continued my research for a good winery that had chardonnay.  It’s not the prevalent grape in this part of Australia, but it’s our patient’s favorite. 

On February 21, we docked in Adelaide, sadly without an overnight for me to enjoy the Royal South Australian Yacht Squadron’s hospitality.  So I just went in to town.  Adelaide has a nice walkable downtown, with malls built in behind the major stores.  They call the whole thing Rundle mall.  Montreal could take lessons here.  

What a great idea for Ste Catherine street.  I had a pedicure in one of the malls.   The lady in the seat beside me was interesting.  She was born and grew up in London, had lived in Hong Kong, worked as a mid-wife in Australia and was about to go to Costa Rica to teach English as a Second Language.  All I had time for after my pedi was a food court lunch.  I hoped the Dim Sum one would be good.  It wasn’t.

I got back to the ship, took a little time-out and went to sailaway on Deck 8. I had gnocchi carbonara at the Chef’s Table, which works well after a sailaway.  I met Mike and Nancy, Torontonians, and we talked a lot about Canada and Hong Kong.  It was good.  I made it to the show, too, which was a pianist with good patter, Bayne Bacon from Texas, whom I didn’t expect down under.

At 3:18 in the morning of February 22, my TV came on all by itself and I came to, with an avatar donning a life jacket on the screen.  That was a tad disconcerting but I went to the ships navigational channels, and all was normal on both of them.  No alarm was sounding, so I did the usual and went back to sleep.  One of my people stopped by the desk to tell me there’s an informal BYOB in the WC lounge starting up.  Must check it out – or not.  She had the same 3AM rude awakening that I did. The captain explained it in his noon briefing. They had a problem that caused them to re-boot the entire ship’s electrical system at 3AM and, in the process, every TV set on the ship came on, with the safety drill playing. It woke up every single passenger and crew member. The captain apologized nicely. I trust he also put some software people to work so that it doesn’t happen again.

I wrote and delivered a newsletter today because there are two couples getting off in Sydney and there should be at least a cocktail for them.  I’ll be sorry to see them go.  They came to everything.

I had a nice diner with a table of mostly Aussies and decided to take in the movie “Australia”, with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, which was playing at 9PM.  They had gone to the matinee. They warned me that the sound was ‘off’ such that the music was drowning out the words.  They had reported it, so it might have been fixed.  It had not.  I stuck it out for almost an hour before I gave up.  Maybe we are all going deaf.  The Aussies had seen it five or six times before, so it didn’t bother them as much.

On February 23, we docked in Melbourne, where I have great plans, and all of a sudden my own travel clients need me and my travel insurance company is offering last year’s prices when I renew for $25.  Then there were things to do because there are clients who are joining in Sydney.  I dealt with all of it and took the shuttle into town.  I was most impressed by the number of gyms that we passed.  It matched with my observations of the people you see on the street.  The Aussies, at least the younger ones, are very fit, indeed.  I engaged the local volunteer, where we got off, as to how to get in to central Melbourne and when the last shuttle would be tonight.  I later found out it was ten o’clock, which meant to me that I would be taking an Uber, which would have been fine, anyway.  A busybody of a passenger overheard the question and said they would be closing the dockyard at 10PM and I wouldn’t be allowed back on the ship until morning if I didn’t make it.  That was going to mess with my dinner plans, big time.  Our restaurant reservation was for 8:15. 

I filed that away and walked into town.  Melbourne is laid out even more neatly than Adelaide and they give you a map so you can really see it.  Just across the Tarra river from where we were let off is the Flinders Street Station.  Apart from being the railway line, it’s on a tram line that makes a neat rectangle around the central business district or CBD, as the locals call it.  Better yet, the tram is free and best of all 99 Spring St, where I was meeting my friends, was on that City Circle tram route. 

I didn’t take a tram right away, I just kept walking into the centre and found the Block Arcade, where I had had such a nice tea about ten years ago. 

Inside was my oasis:

I had a plate of triangle sandwiches and this:

The place is steeped in history and the menu features it.  Enlarge and read these little stories:

Since I had my gall bladder out, which was December 8, I have had to stay near a potty for an hour or so after the afternoon tea that is my breakfast.  So I asked my server where the WC was.  She gave me directions and the combination to get in.  On the way there I met Ceri and Andy, friends from the ship.  I pointed them to the Hopetoun Tea Room and went to the WC.  Then I circled the entire block, window shopping all the way, and went to the WC again.  Now I was ready to board the tram.

My plan was to go the long way around from where I was, to arrive at my destination at the appointed hour of 7pm.  So I took the Collins street tram to almost where I was going and got on the City Circle tram, going the opposite way.  That was fine until it dumped all of us at Docklands, because the City Circle was over for the day and he was heading for the barn.  So I took a second tram for two stops , and got on a third going in the direction I needed.  It turned out to be the 30a, rather than the 30 and was going to leave the circle and go north in a couple of stops.  I was being helped by some local students, who were vastly improving my opinion of the younger generation.  I got off at Flagstaff gardens to wait for my fourth tram.  Flagstaff Gardens is a very pretty park, and my number 30 arrived promptly.  Then it got tricky.  I would have to take it out of the free zone and catch my fifth tram out there where you pay and I didn’t have a ticket.  I didn’t know if the ticket obtention process would be as simple as a credit card tap or something impossible from where I was.  So, I got off at Spring Street and walked the rest of the way.  It was a nice walk, past a university and Parliament house, which looks pretty much like every one in the world these days.

I arrived and was met at the curb and escorted to the 25^th floor, where I was presented with this stunning view. 

I was particularly drawn to the middle crane’s bucket, which looks so much like a man hanging there.  There were stunning views on three sides of this apartment.  It sure is nice having friends in high places.  My hosts were Peter Hosking, Jo Mayfield’s son, and his partner Kristine Nelson, to whose brother this fabulous apartment belonged.

We got along like a house on fire, drinking sparkling shiraz, which is a thing in Melbourne, shiraz being the local grape.  I get it and I also got that it was delicious.  There was a book on the coffee table that I now have to buy:

I told them about the curfew, not sure enough of my information to want to disobey it, and they said not to worry.  The apartment has a guest room.  Of course it does.  We called the restaurant and begged them to let us in a bit early, but it didn’t help.  The main course had not come by 9:11, when Peter checked his watch.  I would have had to get up and leave that minute.  Instead, I accepted the guest room with pleasure and started to relax and enjoy my evening even more, if that was possible. 

The restaurant is called Embla, and it is brilliant, especially so for carnivores like the three of us.  Where will I ever again find a chicken skin crisp on a menu? We ordered those, the raw beef, and the vongole and pork sausage for appetizers.  Then we ordered more chicken skin crisps, with our mains.  Those were the milk roast half chicken, the spiced 9+ wagu karubi, and the heirloom tomatoes.  We had desserts, too.  We took pictures but we forgot for the appetizers and started eating the other two courses before we remembered, so there’s nothing pretty to show you.  That’s a testament to how good it all was. 

To top it all off, my new besties are Dim Sum lovers, too, and there was a good dim sum place within easy walking distance of the apartment.  Tomorrow was looking as good as today.  We finished our meal at Embla and waddled back for after dinner drinks and beddy-bye.  I slept like a log, likely because I had had more to drink than any other night in the last 4 years.  It was still moderate compared to my younger days, and I had no ill effects at all.

I did sleep in until after nine, on February 24, and got up to find Peter and Kristine in the living room with the gorgeous view still in place.  We shared a few secrets and I found out how good stem cell injections are from someone who has had more than one joint fixed.  That’s where I’ll be taking my beleaguered ankle when I can’t stand the pain any more. 

Off to dim sum.  The place is politically incorrectly called “Shark Fin Inn”.  Yes, shark fin dumplings are available but no, we did not order them.  There were plenty of other favorite items to pig out on.  You never saw such a trio for liking the same things. 

After dim sum, I had an hour to kill and the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre is right across the street from the Pan Pacific hotel, where I was meeting Linda and Bev – yes, from Montreal.  A few people had suggested BBC Earth to me, and so I went and saw:

I realized that Holland America had shown it on last year’s world cruise and Cunard had probably shown it in the Planetarium on board the Queen Mary 2, but this was better because of the vastness of the space, the creative way it was shown, and the very flexible seating. 

Then I crossed the street to the Pan Pacific to meet Linda and Bev, who are here for one of Linda’s conferences.  

I passed on my two Melbourne restaurants, as they have five days, and because I am so late getting this out, I already have their report.  Embla and Shark Fin Inn provided their two best meals in Melbourne.  Remember that.  This journal is good for something.

When I got back to the ship, I had quite a lot of work to do and another quick dinner in the little Italian restaurant that is fast becoming my go to.