A Conversation Overheard

We can just make out the name 

The news in Cádiz this weekend was the arrival of Cunard's latest Queen Elizabeth. It was a sight for sore eyes to see the Red Ensign fluttering from a ship of such importance. The problem is that it looks no different from all of the other cruise liners that moor here - except perhaps that it's even uglier. This slab-sided floating prison where people pay through the nose to be relentlessly entertained has none of the romance or beautiful lines of Cunard's former queens of the sea. Some useless information: when the QE2 came to Cádiz, it had to drop anchor in the bay and its passengers were ferried ashore in lighters because of its draught. I was told this by Jesús el Cura, one of my tri-dentine wine-drinking pals.

In fact, and it hurts me to say this, the French cruise ship that was also moored there put the QE to shame. And Yes, as well as having hefty engines, it really was a sailing ship. It was truly, breathtakingly, beautiful, not like Cunard's luxury outsize shoebox. I know which I'd rather be on if I had to go on a holiday for battery hens. What is the attraction of being shuttled around from city to city on an outsized shopping mall anyway? It beats me.

L´élégance, ma p'tite choux

 Anyhow, to the conversation. In one of the local bars we overheard a crew member from the QE talking to his counterpart on Club Med's ship, La Belle Bite I think it was called. They were comparing working conditions, wages, turn around times, the obligatory - yes obligatory - tips charged to their prisoners, private health insurance &c. &c. &c. It turned out that the QE man worked less, got paid more and had more fringe beneifts. Poor Jean Louis was désolé while Bollocky Bill from the QE came out with the clincher
"Yeah, well I work for Cunard, innit?"
Jean Louis' mournful rejoinder came back
"So do I. And I work longer hours, but I don't get half of what you do!"

If you didn't get it, read it out loud and you might just enjoy it. OK, It's an old joke, but hey, it deserved an airing and the bracing air of Cádiz this morning most certainly blew away the cobwebs.

QE and Ls Belle Bite moored together and not a cannon in sight!
I couldn't get any closer as the Port is closed to the public. A couple of hours after this pic was taken, hailstones the size of peas were thundering from the skies. Nice Ford Focus in the foreground.