Blog 756 A two-line welcome home.

Home at last!  I can look back with pleasure on an astonishing 8 weeks on board Queen Mary 2 during her second and third voyages to the Caribbean.  Disembarkation was far smoother than I thought it might be, and although we docked at Southampton around an hour and a quarter late, I was still at the town’s Central Station with over an hour before my train.  I had worked out how to manhandle the luggage, just!  My reservation was in Coach A which, to be awkward, was at the rear of a nine car train.  Those “in the know” are aware that the train reverses at Reading, Coach A becoming the front carriage. Having ascertained this around twenty minutes before the 10.16 hrs departure time, I was assisted with my luggage to the far end of Platform 1, where the train arrived on time.  While there, I was afforded just one final look at (the funnel of) QM2.  Back in 1965, roughly in the same position, I saw the funnels of what I figured were both the original Queen Elizabeth and Queen Mary.  Being a 16 year old train-spotter, I had very little interest in ocean liners at that time, which now, I feel is a pity.  The era of the original Cunard Queens ended in the very year British Rail ran its Last Steam Train.  But, like steam trains, to this day, run privately on Britain’s railways, Cunard remains in existence, mainly as a cruise ship brand, but still offering a timetabled transatlantic service between Southampton and New York, with a proper liner, built for the task. 

When I returned from a South America voyage in March 2020, we arrived amidst the first covid lock-down, plunging the entire country into a ghostly silence with town and city centres devoid of people. This year, the global crisis was/is the conflict in Eastern Europe, with the pandemic still alive and well.

That’s annoying! I have, this morning, tested positive for covid-19. There’s no point speculating how after being very careful to avoid the pandemic for almost two years, I joined the millions of others affected. However, I am reassured that I shall feel ill for only around a week. I sincerely hope so.

And on that low-key note, many thanks for reading. David 19.17 hrs, watching the News on ITV.