I received a media release this week from Carnival this week (on behalf of its eight cruise lines) proudly touting the official opening of Amber Cove, a purpose-built port at Puerto Plata, on the Northern coast of the Dominican Republic. And my immediate thought was to wonder how ‘real’ the experience would be, at a…
I gave my first ‘Contest’ speech in more than 20 years on Saturday .. I was a contestant in the Toastmasters District 69, Eastern Division, Area 27 Humorous Speech contest. Which sounds a bit more spectacular than it actually is. Essentially it means that I was one of two people representing my Toastmasters club against contestants…
There’s a new commercial featuring Jennifer Aniston where she has a ‘nightmare’ – that she is travelling on an American airline in ‘cattle class’, and doesn’t get the service that she’s used to on an Emirates aircraft. It’s an amusing ad .. but I have to say, the comments it has generated are both predictable…
I mentioned recently that I’d done a cruise on the Sun Princess as an ‘Enrichment Speaker’ – someone who delivers educational and (hopefully) entertaining lectures on a variety of subjects. I’m often asked what my lectures were on … so here’s a part of one: Cruise Ships Past, Present and Future. The idea of ships…
I could almost hear my wife shaking her head, as my mother described her reading style last weekend – Mum used to devour books in a single sitting but then go back and read them a second time, to pick up the stuff she missed the first time around. That of course is also the way…
Dolphins with droopy dorsal fins; earthquake-damage apologies; French street signs; frigid teal waters; rose gardens; mosaic galleries – we’re talking about Akaroa, on New Zealand’s South Island. The town is on the Banks Peninsula in the Canterbury region of the country, and it’s where the cruise ships come in to visit Christchurch, around 80km away. Akaroa’s…
I heard some excellent advice last night – advice that I am going to try to adopt. I was at a Toastmasters meeting when one of my fellow members talked about how we agree to try something – then talk ourselves out of it. That, I suspect, is something that we all do – but…
Normally with my Sunday features, I try to conjure up something meaningful – taking a slice-of-life and extrapolating that into something more. But this week, I’m going to keep it simple. Go to Lifou. Take a snorkel and flippers. And enjoy. It’s really that simple! I saw a discussion on Facebook this week which related…
There’s a story out of Sydney today, where a Channel Nine reporter had eggs thrown at her while she was doing a live cross in a street where terrorism raids had taken place. And there are some, especially on social media, who are arguing that as a reporter, she was ‘fair game’ – that the reptiles…
This post is a day late, because we’ve only just got back from a cruise though the South Pacific on the Sun Princess, and the internet coverage on the ship didn’t lend itself to blog posting 🙂 But as always, we had a blast. And part of the fun was the huge range of eating options.…
Cairns Communications 