Getting to Aurora was a bit of a trek – drive up to Caen for an overnight stay, early ferry to Southampton, check into Holiday Inn before going off to get lateral flow test, overnight stay, bit of shopping and finally drop off car and get on the ship. 48 hours just about. The timetable for the presentations was waiting in the cabin, so I didn’t need to search for the Ents Office. Anyway, a quick explore and settle down – check out the first talk due tomorrow. It’s always a slightly nervous time, wondering if anyone will turn up to psychology talks – usually the audience builds as the cruise progresses, but there are only 800 or so guests on board (about the capacity of the theatre!).
The first night was a bit rough – whoever’s next door (not Andy and his wife, the other side) decided to make a phone call at 4 a.m. that went on for an hour and a half and she was very loud. Couldn’t recognise the language. The following morning we asked the cabin steward who was next door, and he told us it was a member of the crew from the Philippines, and he’d tell her…which he obviously did as we didn’t hear from her again.
Psychology of Comedy and Laughter first – not a bad turn out, maybe 200, and Giovanni, the Ents Manager, introduced me. We were on Ventura together in March so he knows my stuff. Then the Captain announced we were going to miss the first two ports due to the bad weather, so I was asked to do two extra talks. Not a problem, I always have spares, but I did gently ask Gio’s deputy what was in it for me, thinking we might just get a new cabin. He said he’d talk to Gio. I also made the mistake of moaning that speakers weren’t provided with bottled water in the cabins. Next day I got a bottle of water.
I finished up doing nine presentations altogether, and they seemed to go down really well. Gio told me I was getting bigger audiences than some of the shows, so that was pleasing. Terrific applause after the final talk on eyewitness testimony – it’s a powerful conclusion to a talk but I’ve never had an ovation like that. Gio bought us a bottle of fizz at dinner that night, so I reckon he was happy. Job done
Never been to Stockholm, Visby, Copenhagen or Oslo before, so that was good. The port stops in Lithuania and Poland were less attractive, not least because of the weather.I started to feel a bit rough on the last evening, and it got worse on the ferry back to Caen. The drive back home – about 120k – took more than two hours as the road was closed between the A84 and Vire so we had a long detour. When I got in I did a LFT and sure enough it showed up positive immediately – I’d avoided Covid till now, but I reckon we picked it up on the sight-seeing trips in Copenhagen, probably the boat which was crammed. Gail tested positive next day. So here we are, back from the Baltic and both quite poorly with it. Hopefully it’ll go away soon, but it shows you can’t be complacent. I think quite a few guests tested positive when they got home.
So, overall? First time on Aurora, and we really liked the ship – very stable compared to others. The guests were good, laughed in the right places and many of them took the trouble to say thank you personally, which is always nice. I’d certainly do it again. Gail doesn’t come on many cruises with me, but she enjoyed this one, and especially Oslo’s Munch museum. High point – final round of applause. Low point – Covid. Spookiest point? Discovering that I went to the same school as the other speaker and our teachers overlapped. All sorts of memories triggered about Mr Mountain’s baggy Scouts shorts on Fridays. Hadn’t thought about him for 55 years. I’m sure a psychologist could explain it
thehairypsychologist 