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Ello Folks!
Thought we would get back into the habit of updating the blog.
First off a request for you to leave comments on the blog as we love the feedback and its nice to have them for everyone to read.
Right then what have we been up to since the last installment. First item to cover is our visit to the Endeavour which is moored in Darling Harbour. We had been looking forward to looking round the Endeavour from the minute we first saw it and it didn't disappoint. While boarding the ship the guy sat in the ticket booth handed us our guides and pointed out where the ships toilets were - if you read the Previous blogs you will know how much this pleased Viks. After climbing aboard Viks went on a desperate search for the said toilets while Rik took in the incredible design of the ship. After five minutes of searching Viks still hadn't found the toilets so decided to ask the guide. The guide simply turned to the front of the ship and pointed out two wooden structures with the middles cut out perched over the edge of the ship. If we hadn't been to Africa then Viks would have been quite shocked by these toilets, but decided they were better than most she had had to use! However the guide managed to make her feel queasy by pointing out the sailors version of toilet paper, a dirty piece of rope with a frayed end that was simply dragged through the water for cleansing. With Viks love and fascination for toilets satisifed we headed down below.
While approaching the ladder to go below we were warned that the ship in some parts was only about four feet in height so we should be careful not to bang our heads. Viks went first down the ladder and with the warning five seconds earler so clearly forgotten, Viks proceeded to bang her hand on the top of the opening for the ladder! The first area we looked at was the kitchen, it was really quite sophisticated with two huge cooking pots. The food was kept in big barrels with a preserative to keep it fresh. The sailors quarters were in the dining room and they hung their hammocks where they sat to eat. Once they had picked a spot they were not allowed to change. The sailors were allowed a pint of wine everyday- god can you imagine how we would be after a pint of wine at sea. Twelve marines also travelled on the ship to stop any mutany. Cook's voyage was a scientific one, so some of the ships officers were moved from their normal cabins and sent down to a small section on the same level as the crew. This was the next area to look around, this is where the ship got a whole lot smaller. We looked a right pair bent double, crawling through the ship, but at least Viks managed not to hit her head again.
We then climbed a level to where Cook and the scientists lived. Cook was six foot two and his area was marginally better at about five feet in height. Cook had surrendered his Cabin to the lead scientist and moved into a smaller one. We got a detailed account of meetings that took place in the rear cabin (Like a large meeting room/dining room) as they discussed the thousands of new plants and animal life they encountered. In the rear cabin there is also a nail that was put in when the ship was built, that was carried into space aboard the Endeavour space shuttle and its supposed to be good luck if you rub it. The guide also told us how much of a stickler Cook was for hygiene and after happily writing home declaring he hadn't lost any men to scurvy, it seems he spoke too soon and lost half the ship's compliment to Malaria!
The final part of the ship was looking at the ships navigation, by this we mean a big wheel with rope on either side to control the rudder angle through the water. All in all it was brilliant to go back in time and see what the first English people to discovered Australia lived like.
Other things that have happened are we saw Cameron Diaz in town, (she wasn't doing her shopping) she was opening Shrek the Third. Still you don't see movie stars everyday so we were happy. We went to the Imax cinema which has the biggest cinema screen in the world. We saw Deep Sea 3D Which was fantastic, like been a kid again. Tho only hitch was that the screen broke at the start of the show. Took ten minutes of listening to the Japanese tourists bicker, before the cinema people got it fixed.
We must tell you now about our fight with a DVD box, yes you read correctly a humble DVD box. We were all set to watch Rain Man on a quiet Saturday afternoon when disaster struck, we couldn't get the DVD box open, it had some sort of lock on it. We weren't sure if it was a child lock or the shop had forgotten to undo the security device after purchase. Anyway after calmly trying to pick the lock by sliding it from side to side our anger quickly began to mount. It took about twenty minutes for it to reach fever pitch at which point Rik charged from the kitchen brandishing a knife and screaming in some sort of Zulu tribe way (he must have learnt it in Africa) and hacked at the box until the disc was finally freed (totally destroying the box in the process). It was worth it though as the film was good, which is a good thing otherwise it might have pushed Rik over the edge!
The weather here is freezing now, something we are really not used to!
Got to go now as we are going shopping for a heater!
Vik and Rik
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Robert
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DVD
I would like to add that I had a similar experience with a DVD case but I didn't need a knife, just a screwdriver. the result was the same though. It's good to read these adventures. This is the sort of stuff adventure novels are written about. Looking forward to seeing you in January.