24/4/2016 Second of 3 days to Southampton

Today's coordinates are  44 degrees north and 9 degrees west, just about going in to the Bay of Biscay, but not to worry the forecast is calmish, all things considered, so we shouldn't need travel sick meds or sick bags. Can feel how cool it is outside now, so we must be nearly there.

How have we amused ourselves today, apart from eating well?  Firstly we discovered that we had £48 left in our onboard spending account, and as this is non-refundable we were forced to spend it in duty free, for me a glitzy Pandora charm and for Khachik some Bombay Saphire, soon spent.

Our highlight event today was Chris Lubbe's fourth and final talk.   He began with some anecdotes about life with Nelson Mandela - like Mandela drinking the water in the finger bowl at a dinner at Buckingham Palace with the Queen. Apparently HM was most amused. Another tale was about how Chris had learned not to react to celebrity, and how he tried to play it cool when Denzel Washington came to the office, at first declining him a spontaneous audience with NM only to find that he was donating one million US dollars to Nelson Mandela's children's charity.

Then there was the visit of Princess Diana when Nelson Mandela forgot to put his shoes or belt on, and came out in his slippers, something he was forever embarrassed about but reportedly didn't phase Diana.
 He described what a rebel NM was in relation to high security.  Aparently he had been instructed not to leave his vehicle in the US because there was intelligence that armed KKK members were in the crowd. This was fine until NM spotted a baby, and ordered Chris to let him out of the car. This resulted in a cascade of expletives through the elaborate body guards'communication systems, but NM's only tongue in cheek response was "that's why I have you Chris, to take the bullet for me!"  Chris added that it was always the bodyguard who tasted the food, just in case it was poisoned.



Pretty quickly though we were brought back to serious business and reminded of the role of the British and the Dutch in the slave trade, and how those days preceded and fed apartheid.  We learned how a slave owner might like his slave and might share his own name with him and so this is why many South Africans have surnames of their original slave owners. But also there were those who were given the surname of the month they were purchased - and this explains why some South Africans might be called January etc.



The session then went on to chronicle some of the events leading up to Chris being with us today.

The story about him and his dear friend Ashley being chased by the SA police during the Apartheid era and being thrown a lifeline firstly when the police car ran out of petrol, but secondly when an Afikaans farmer took them into his home, covered their car completely with hay, and then sheltered them for 2 months, after which he gave them his own car to protect them from being arrested.  Sometime after that Ashley Kriel was murdered by the SA police. But Chris remembered those times,  and once employed as NM's bodyguard, shared the story with NM and NM tracked that hero down and invited him to the President's residence, where his car was returned by Chris  and Chris was able to thank him for saving their lives.

I am sorry I can't remember the whole story about Chris Hani, other than that he was murdered on the eve of the first democratic election in SA. So NM gave a rousing peace speech.

Chris gave us an insight too into the African concept of UBUNTU - very like Buddhist "interdependence", I am because you are and vice versa, no man is an island, sharing v. greed. Beautiful.  There's so much more but my eyes are getting so tired now I will have to finish.

In my customer feedback form to P&O I have written more about Chris than anyone or anything else on the cruise, because he is so special and because I don't think he realises just how special. When his book The Pencil Test is released in August 2016 I will be  reading it, and sharing whatever I can.

This afternoon I have painted a beach picture, while Khachik watched Leicester beat Swansea 4-1, and then gym. This evening after our final Blacktie dinner, we started to say our goodbyes to the staff who have been taking care of us. Here are our waiters from the Medina, Shakti is on the right.

                                     

Day 36, bloomin eck, that's gone so quickly.

Tomorrow there's an art exhibition and we have to pack and leave our bags outside the cabin during the afternoon so that we can be reunited with them in the terminal before we get on our coach to Manchester.
Bye for now xx