Wednesday, September 30, 2009

The new troop ships



I've been looking at Cruise travel brochures. I have this romantic notion that I can recreate the transatlantic journeys of the Lusitania or the Normandie without of course the sinking part. I have visions of gin and tonics below the grand mahogany staircase in oyster silk and a fox something thrown about the shoulders. Reality sets in when page 4 of the brochure refers to kids clubs and all you can eat buffets. My grand staircase resembles something you would see in the local shopping mall complete with fake palm trees and conference centre chairs. Too many Evelyn Waugh novels later I'm longing for art deco furnishings and the walnut cocktail cabinet to display its grandeur when I invite my sophisticated fellow travellers of artists and entrepreneurs to my cabin for a gin sling. Instead I'm looking at bunk beds that I thought were only available in prisons and furniture with replaceable covers that I don't dare to think about. Alas I'll move on from my voyage of style and leave it to the schoolies to enjoy the oceans in peace to party hard and puke over the balustrade.

3 comments:

  1. You, my lady, were born much, much too late.

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  2. I've always imagined going on a cruise would be like being on a floating RSL club.

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  3. ...or leave it to the marauding meatheads who made Diane Brimble's cruise such a lovely one....

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