星期一 [ 2010-1-11 9:56:06 | watches1013 ]   No ordinary drama queen Byline: Gillian Glover It is 10am and the Caribbean shimmers lazily, unbroken by even the smallest wave. Queen Mary 2 sits at anchor, aloof from the shore, separated by the string of superlatives that define her: the largest, longest, tallest, widest and most expensive passenger liner ever built. Too long, tall and wide to dock at the island of St Thomas, so the 2,600 passengers aboard are staring disconsolately at the distant stern of a smaller, older cruise liner as it juts provocatively from its easy berth. They have been staring for some time now. The QM2 tenders, due to begin their ferrying service two hours ago, are still bobbing impotently around her huge grey-skirted hull. That's two hours of becalmed credit card activity; of unbought Rolexes and unfondled cashmere, for St Thomas is the sun-slicked mother of all duty free shopping malls. A paradise of consumer excess, where serpents and apples are fashioned from 18 carat gold and hard liquor is sold in handy six-bottle packs. This Eden has a fringe of perfect white sand and crystal sea to offer a tropical restorative once the serious spending is complete, but watersports are far from the prime activity here. The minutes tick by. Regular Tannoy announcements have asked passengers to wait in the public areas. Another call has asked the Catholic priest to report to the hospital (something that might be better announced in code, surely). Now the voice of Captain Paul Wright booms above the mutinous mutterings of the captive hoard. The American coastguard is denying receipt of documentation e-mailed to them a week earlier. They will not permit any passengers to disembark. They are threatening to fine the ship for this alleged omission. Judging by the tone of Captain Wright's very English voice, he has made quite a few threats of his own. As yet to no avail. American bureaucracy has blossomed since 9/11 and no target is too large. Not even one that weighs 150,000 tons and cost 800 million. So there is no alternative but to enjoy an extended stint of sartorial subversion. ("Can you believe that T-shirt, the woman must be 80 if she's a day; How do Americans keep their trainers so dazzling white - do they only wear them once?; Is that a tattoo or Replica Cartier Watches Replica Handbags a really arty bruise?") Eventually, the coastguard relents and the daunting task of decanting hundreds upon hundreds of disgruntled guests begins. Every few moments a different accent phrases the same question - whose idea was it to come on a ship this big anyway? The few who remain on board are rewarded by serene spaciousness and the captivating delusion that these suddenly silent acres of thick carpeting (280,000 square yards of it to be precise), of teak and marble, glass and chrome, are our own. A 17-deck private play space, where every sun lounger is ours alone, every Jacuzzi burbling for our singular pleasure, every pianist playing our song. It might take a William Randolph Hearst to persuade himself that the three-storey Britannia restaurant was strictly necessary for private parties, but a drink in each of the ship's 14 bars should help stoke that essential grandiosity - as might a stroll through the Grand Lobby with its 20ft by 23ft bas relief in sheet bronze and stainless steel, by Scottish sculptor John McKenna. A work so large that McKenna had to relocate to a larger studio in Ayrshire to complete it and then send it to the ship in four separate pieces. As a latter-day Goldilocks, I found the 8,000-book library with its spectacular views over the ship's bow to be "just right", as was the velvety darkness of the world's first ocean-going Planetarium. Hublot Watch Other articles: http://www.hychina.net/Blog/View/?368 http://www.120sm.com/Blog/View/?176 浏览(367) | 回复(0) |