Homeboys
26 July

Well, we've come home to sensationally hot weather and, of course, no air conditioning which was a true bonus of being on board ship.

It's taken a little re-settling, though I still can't quite believe that, just over a week ago, I was well out of territorial waters.

I've had a bit of time to reflect now on the whole experience and, having answered questions from friends, family, Quakers and colleagues, I keep coming back to the same themes. I liked visiting the big cities where there was art and culture for me to witness. I didn't like floating on the high seas. I'm really pleased that Ross and I have some places to go and re-visit in the next 5-10 years. I wouldn't not want to do a cruise again but I wouldn't rush to it. I didn't like the pressure to spend or the phantasy playing out of being rich and living in the last days of the Raj.

So, I'm glad to have had the experience but I wouldn't want to repeat it in that way.

I need to record that Ross and I finished off the holidays by going to the Plaza cinema to see Pirates of the Caribbean - mark 2. I loved the original. What I find very strange, however, is that I completely didn't record that fact in this Journal. In any case, the surprise delight of the first was not matched by the tedium of the second. Too self-conscious by half and scripted mostly just to set up the third film which, I gather was filmed back to back with the second.

I returned to work to be greeted (or rather not greeted) by two sick colleagues. Both Steve and Ian had disappeared at the same time with lurgy. I suspect that things had got so bad with the customers in my absence that both of them capitulated to stress induced illness as soon as they knew that I was available to take up the strain on their behalf.

Anyhow, I gave of my best and ran an assignment as best I could in the circumstances. And then, this week, I have got stuck into personal reviews and, as a consequence, two of our more intractable difficult customers have decided to leave the project. Good results all round I feel.

One of the most enjoyable aspects of the cruise was the classical music which formed a background to the information channel on the cabin television. It must have been fed by a gigantic database of classical tracks which was accessed randomly. I heard a few pieces more than once but they were always surrounded by different tracks so that there was no sense of the same tape being played ad nauseum.

I heard one particular track (obviously from a piece by Mozart) three or four times and especially liked it. Imagine my surprise when the same piece cropped up on Radio 3. Using the power of the Internet, I researched from the playlists on Radio 3's website that the piece was the last movement of Mozart's Oboe Quartet.

Come Monday then, I assisted Ross by driving him into town for a meeting and then went shopping for CDs and bought myself an excellent version by the Academy of St Martins in the Fields' Chamber Ensemble. I would rate this discovery as being on a par with listening to Brahms' Piano Trio in B at a lunchtime concert at the Philharmonic Hall back in 2001. Quite lovely. It is elegant, jaunty, wistful and bittersweet all at the same time. I shall play this a lot I am sure.

I think that the only other thing that I want to note is that I have finished off The Vesuvius Club by Mark Gatiss. I bought this on the cruise and have enjoyed it. It's very silly and not very well plotted but the joy is all in the writing which is archly camp and very grand guignol.