h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In three days' time my second grandchild is due. Everything seems to be going fine. It'll be a little girl. Once we've got the news we'll wait 10 or 14 days and go up to Osnabrück to visit them (mother of the mother has first dibs).

The joys of being able to take holidays any time in the year after being married to a teacher for nearly 40 years and being limited to school hols!

Whilst out shopping this morning I didn't have a list with me and had no idea what to get so my mind wandered and I picked up a few things for student sons.

1. Father-to-be in Osnabrück: Some balloons and a mini bottle of to celebrate when the baby comes. Some wholemeal pasta, some persil "sensitive" to wash baby clothes, some tea, some dextrose sweets (he has been tired lately - that won't be allowed once the baby is born) and a couple of other things. Nothing actually for the baby. Don't want to jump the gun.

2. Eco-freak in Berlin - some eco-washing agent, a toothbrush, toothpaste, the same pasta, various vitamin sweets and herbal teas. And his guilty pleasure (he shares a flat with a load of vegans) - a tin of our local liver sausage.

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So - why did I go shopping without a list? Well, my sister-in-law had given us entrance tickets for an exhibition as a Christmas present and we went along to that this morning, had lunch in Speyer and did the shopping on the way home.

The exhibition is about the Titanic - I assume it started in Belfast and is now doing the rounds in various guises.

http://www.museum.speyer.de/English/Special_exhibitions/Preview/Titanic.htm

It was most impressive, although, counting up afterwards, there weren't really that many exhibits. Apparently they have already held a Captain's Dinner in the museum. Presumably with the appropriate dress code, tableware, and menus.

Don't know how they did it (my husband guesses possibly with subsonic signals which upset your sense of balance) but the whole time you really felt you were on a ship - I'm not sure I've got my land legs back even now. In the rooms dedicated to the iceberg and the accident you could feel they had dropped the temperature and there was a block of ice which you could feel and make handprints on (the kids loved that).

What did I actually learn? Hmmm. Well, that the degradation of iron in seawater is a biological process and not necessarily chemical (although the jury is apparently still out on that one), and that a member of the Astor family and one of the Guggenheims was on the ship and, being fellas, lost their lives. Margaret Brown, a millionaire's wife, and one of the survivors, was very active in setting up foundations to support the bereaved of the crew and the women of the lower decks who arrived in New York newly widowed and with no idea where to go or what to do.

We had already seen a film (again in Speyer, at the Imax cinema) some years ago, which gave an idea of the size of the project. The exhibition covered everything from the first designs, the race for business, the incredibly opulent fitments and decor of the ship, right through to the confused newspaper reports of the accident and the Carpathia sailing into New York with the survivors.

It's no wonder this story has tickled people's imaginations and prompted fictional stories - the lists of passengers alone must evoke compassion in anyone's mind.

1912-1913 were quite exceptional years in history, and a whole microcosmos of the burgeoning 20th century was gathered together on the Titanic.

Margaret [a.k.a. Molly] Brown was a larger-than-life woman who had a musical based on her life ["The Unsinkable Molly Brown"]. Okay, so she regaled people with her story of the sinking after she got back to America, but at least she tried to help the many survivors who were worse off than she. I enjoyed Cathy Bates's portrayal of Molly in the film "Titanic." She seems to have been admired for being up front about things and comfortable being who she was.

I aim to write a satirical story about the Tincanic, a shoddy ship filled with masochists who *want* to sink but are foiled when the iceberg they hit falls apart. Things just never go the way you think they will ! No, I don't plan to ask Maury Yeston* to help me turn it into a musical .





*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanic_(musical)

What thoughtful gifts for your sons! Hope they enjoy them

Look forward to hearing news of teh granddaughter.

And if you ever come to these parts, I will take you round the fabulous Titanic Belfast building and exhibition. And for a real link to history, the Nomadic, Titanic's tender which ferried the passengers out at Cherbourg, has been restored and is situated right next door.

There was mention of the tenders - mainly how tiny they seemed in comparison to the Titanic itself.

I'll bear that in mind. I may be attending a Belfast meet yet!

I wonder how long it will take for the success of the Belfast Titanic Exhibition to balance out the crushing blow the original struck to Belfast. Probably quite a short time to balance out in monetary terms, but in the imponderables of self-esteem and foreign estimation, hard to guess.

When you say "the original" which do you mean - the ship or the exhibition centre?

My own experience has been that for many years Belfast tried to play down its association with Titanic - jokes about "she was alright when she left here!" aside.

There was much scepticism about Titanic Belfast when it was being planned and constructed. It was a very brave design!

But the facts are - Belfast is now a tourist destination. Visitor numbers to TB have exceeded expectations. We now have cruise ships docking here (and TB is rivalling Giants Causeway as the top excursion). And those visitor numbers look like continuing.

As a venue, I've been there more than once, and it hosts other side events which ensure repeat visits. The building itself is a triumph of modern architecture, IMO!

The ship.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyrADdtY100

ANY NEWS? Your 3 days are up

No news yet. Got a text from the mother-to-be yesterday, saying that she was walking a lot to try and get things moving