February 22, 2013 Sea Day

February 22, 2013  Sea Day

The Good Morning Amsterdam guests today were two of the young ladies onboard who are photographers and take your photo at every port stop, formal night and sail away party.

We attended a lecture from a new speaker by the name of Bob Tonkinson who spoke about two tribes of Australian indigenous people. Bob is a senior Honorary Research fellow at the University of Western Australia, a Life-Fellow of the Australia Anthropological Society and the Association for Social Anthropology in Oceania. He has a Ph.D. in and has done extensive research with the Western Desert Mardu Aboriginies and the Southeast Ambrymese people in Vanuata (Melanesia) since 1966. He gave a very interesting talk on the nomadic lifestyle of the Aboriginal people and how they are often required to move due to weather conditions and food supply at any given time. They live in quite small tribes of 15 or 20 people who all have a job to do, whether it is hunting or gathering. The men generally do the hunting while the women do more of the gathering. They follow the stars to mark time and often travel to meet up with other relatives or tribes who may be having a special occasion or event.

In the afternoon we attended a lecture by Bill Crews on “Cattle Duffing and the Legend of Captain Starlight”. Captain Starlight was the basis of books and films about his life of cattle theft in Western Australia during the gold rush years. At the time there were many very large cattle ranches making it difficult for ranchers to always keep track of their cattle. Captain Starlight would steal cattle and move them sometimes hundreds of miles before selling them to unsuspecting butchers and ranchers. By the time the owners of the cattle would realize they were missing, Starlight would have taken off with the money. He was often caught and charged with stealing the cattle but most of the time there was not enough evidence to find him guilty and he would be set free and do it all over again.

We had afternoon tea in the Crow’s Nest with Alec (see 2/14) who filled us in on his drama with the ship’s security after the Aussie Boys show a few days ago. After the show he was escorted out of the theater and questioned about striking a woman in the theater. Evidently a woman had accused him of striking her across the face during the performance. He knew nothing of the incident although the accusation shook him up enough to loose a good nights sleep. He never met the woman and after questioning, security told him it must have been a case of mistaken identity and not to worry about. I can’t imagine what the woman must have said to the man to make him strike her?  We had a nice discussion with Alec about his gay life and are glad to know more about who he is.  He is traveling with Ingrid, a friend, with whom he has never had the “orientation” discussion.  Of course, Kent is making plans to resolve this situation.

Dinner in the dining room was a formal event this evening and the theme of the night was a medieval theme. The dining room was once again decorated like a castle with colorful banners and all of the wait staff was dressed like knights. Many of the guests had festive outfits to fit the theme of the night.

The entertainment was a young couple that performed a variety of musical numbers on the violin. Laszlo is from Hungary and Claudia is from Italy and they now live in Florida. They perform all over the world in concerts, for musical performances, films and on cruise ships. They are extremely talented violinists.