Day 2. No land in sight

All of Sunday was at sea, with no land at all in sight. It's amazing to look in any direction and just see the horizon.

About the only exception to that was when the captain pointed out a whale just before breakfast. We're all eating too much.

Liz and I love the kids club, and so do Harrison and Lilly most of the time.

Sam and Stephen spend most of the day exploring the ship. Steve won a gold tournament but he's not alowed to play in the "Australian Open" finals because he's not over 18. They discovered the teen club last night, so that will add more things for them to do.

I'll upload some photos of Noumea tomorrow.

Neil


Look Ma, no Land!

The view from the Front
Standing up at the pointy end of the ship, looking backwards. Gives you a nice view of some of the life boats and the huge wake trailing us.

Day 1 at sea

Here's some pictures from our first day at sea.

The bridge behind Liz is the Gateway Bridge on the way out of Brisbane.

We're all having a great time.

More pictures tomorrow.

Neil


Under the Gateway Bidge.

Harrison & Lilly on the way out of Brisbane

Having a great time at dinner


The corridors on this ship go for ages!

Sail Away!

We're going on a cruise tomorrow. Watch this space and I'll try to email some photos each day.



The cruise is on Pacific Star and visits Noumea, Lifou and Port Vila.

We're all very excited about it. I'm looking forward to being out of mobile phone range for a week.

P&O Publishes a Web Cam if each ship in their fleet. This picture is a view from the bridge of Pacific Star at the moment. If you refresh your browser every minute you'll see a fresh picture. The best times of day to view are during Australian daylight hours, i.e. GMT 2100 to about GMT 0800.

Click on the picture for a better view.

Redcliffe Sunset

I never thought you'd be able to see the sun set over the water in South-East Queensland, considering the fact that it's on the east coast of Australia.

I took this photo of the sunset from Scarborough on the northern tip of the Redcliffe Peninsula across the road from the Marina, looking north-west over Deception Bay.

It's much more picturesque when you see it with your own eyes - the Glasshouse Mountains off to the north (not visible in this photo) look spectacular.

I can't think if many other places in the area where you can see sunsets over the water like this from the mainland.

Well worth the effort!

Dragon in the Sand

We visited the "Festival of Sails" at Redcliffe on Friday and watched the launch of the annual Brisbane to Gladstone Yacht Race.

The place was packed with visitors, but one thing that really impressed us was this sand sculture of a Dragon and some Dolphins. The Dragon has some file coming out of his nostrils. It looks amazing.

Dennis Massoud, aka "Sandman", who does these sculptures is there every year, and he's available for parties and functions. He's a world champion at his craft.

Morning Walk by the North Pine River

I've been trying to get back into the habit of going for a walk in the morning before breakfast. It's hard to get out bed, but views like this one make the effort worthwhile.

I love this music

I recently bought a book of Jazz Duets by Richard Jasinski.

A lot of them are pretty simple, but I really liked this piece.

The book doesn't contain any backing track music, so I entered the chords into "Band in a Box", and created my own backing track thru my secondary Yahama MU50R synthesizer.

The solo instrument is a "Pan Picolo" (number 57) voice from my VL70M synth that I played on my beloved Wx5.

I had a lot of fun playing it, and hope you like it :)

Help the drought

Woolworths Ltd has made a significant contribution to drought relief by committing its entire profits for the day from its supermarkets to the Country Women's Association and research into sustainable famring practices.

The total amount should be $3 million.

The big day is Tuesday, January 23 2007.

So if you're planning a big grocery shop soon - why not wait till the 23rd and shop in aid of drought relief at Woolies?

Don't forget to tell your friends.

Emma and Mark

Congratulations, Emma and Mark on your wonderful wedding last Sunday.
It was an honour to be able to share in the ceremony by playing some songs
for you.
Here are recordings of some of those songs.
A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square
I Love You Just The Way You Are
Unforgettable
Until The Real Thing Comes Along Till There Was You
Petite Fleur
As Time Goes By
Georgia
Stardust
Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man
At Last
Prelude - Don't Believe
Entry - Don't Believe
When I Fall In Love
Have I Told You Lately That I Love You
What A Wonderful World
Beyond The Sea
Just The Way You Look Tonight

You must remember this...

I love the song "As time goes by" by Herman Hupfeld.

Here's my rendition of it on the Wx5.

I couple of months ago I upgraded my synthesizer to a VL-70m so I could get some more realistic voices, and this is the result.

The backing track is a lovely arrangement from Ameritz in the UK.

No pun intended, but as time goes by I find myself increasingly enjoying the slow, sensual, simple, beautiful melodies of previous eras.

They're timeless.