The Good Old Thunder Box for Costa

A THUNDER BOX is a style of toilet that was used on old ships and before the toilet bowl became a standard fitting. It was a piece of wood or metal framework that is positioned over the side of the vessel with a hole in it, so that all may conduct their toiletry business without messing around with buckets afterwards.

The more modern version came with an awning and even some canvas sides to provide a measure of privacy whilst one conducted their business

The reason for its name is that should you time your seating wrongly a thunderous roar will occur as the sea rushes up your behind. Of course, this style of toilet went out of style at least a hundred years ago, as cabins and toilets became standard fittings internally.

I am though thinking of marketing this old style of toilet facility to Costa Cruises as a permanent feature on their vessels.

Anybody wish to invest some money in this scheme? It is a sure winner.

This is NOT Sp*m.............

Costa Allegro - Seychelles

The Costa Allegro loses power and is adrift 200 NM north of the Seychelles. If this does not convince the IMO and the national authorities that something is seriously remiss in the cruise industry, with Costa Lines and in the general seaworthiness of ships today then what will?

My Letter of Complaint to Choice Hotels

Dear Sir/Madam

I recently joined the ‘Choice Privileges’ as I travel allot in Asia and felt that your hotels were suitable for my stays.

I started off recently with the ‘Hotel Comfort’ at Centrair Airport, Japan. The stay was fine and well within my expectations except for the fact that no reward points were given for this particular stay or hotel.

I then booked into the Comfort Hotel in Dumai, Indonesia. Please let me start with this hotel by saying it was the worst hotel experience I have ever been through.

Over my twenty five years of constant travel worldwide the Comfort Hotel in Dumai put new meaning to the word ‘discomfort’. 

I will list some of the items that I found in your hotel:

1.       During the evening there were three blackouts in the room. Power was restored only after ten minutes the first time.

2.       Cockroaches were at infestation level. They were in my coffee cup, on the bed, in the shower and I even brought one home with me that had snuck into my rucksack. Cockroach excrement was everywhere and obviously did not factor into the cleaning schedule. The spare pillow which I was going to use from the closet was dotted with evidence of a serious cockroach infestation.

3.       The music started at 1700 hours. You know, that loud dead beat that gives everybody a headache? Boom, boom, boom. All night. I eventually fell asleep at 0100 hours so cannot quite inform you what time it stopped at.

4.       In the morning my bathroom was filled with ants.

5.       After cleaning the ants away I found that there was no hot water – only a cold shower to start the day.

6.       Then I found that the coffee in the packets was all glued up and like a sheet of sandpaper.

7.       After looking out of the window and seeing a big rat on the restaurant roof, I decided to skip breakfast so cannot make any comment as to the mornings fare.

8.       And of course no points were awarded for my stay.

Seriously, is this your hotel? Whilst you may tell me that this is not a Choice Hotel as guests cannot book online, obviously there is some connection as the photographs may help to show.

Thanks for taking this under your wing.

Cathay Pacific Annoys me Again

I flew with Cathay Pacific from Singapore to Centrair International Airport in Japan via Hong Kong a couple of days ago. I previously vowed to never complain about airlines again but somehow Cathay Pacific just rub me up the wrong way. They have a certain knack for doing so.

Here's the first issue: If you book an economy class superior ticket you can then choose your seat on-line without checking in. I did this and chose a window seat near the back of the aircraft (all those forward were middle seats only). Unfortunately my table broke before take-off (honest sir) and I had to be moved to an economy class seat in the forward cabin.

Now (if you are still with me), I noted during this change that the economy class seat at the back had two inches less of leg room. This makes all the difference to me.

The issue here is that I booked a 'superior' economy ticket yet I end up with a seat that has two inches less leg room. I paid 350 SGD extra for that ticket - in other words I paid 350 SGD for two inches more leg room that I nearly never got if fate had not intervened.

Then: I was asked to fill out a CP question-air - this is not an ordinary 1 page effort but eight pages of repetitive, read-the-question-carefully rubbish. Once completed the stewardess then handed me a 5 HK dollar voucher, to be used when spending over forty dollars on-board - what an insult. I don't want to spend forty dollars just to justify the receipt of the voucher. Normal people do not shop on long haul flights!

You see, despite vowing never to run word-riot on an airline again here I am and I have more: no chicken left for lunch, the magazines are sealed in plastic (environmentally disastrous apart from the fact that it costs money to do so) and their seats break apart with little effort.

Anyway, I must now go and compile that letter of complaint once again.

Take your Island paradise with you!

A Captain - as seen through a ten-year old eyes

Am Anonymous entry bu a ten-year old school kid sums up the Master!

"I want to be a Captain when I grow up because it's a funny job and easy to do. Captains don't need much school education, they just have to learn numbers so they can read instruments. I guess they should be able to read maps so they won't get lost.


Captains have to be brave so they won't get scared if it's foggy and they can't see, or if the propeller falls off they should stay calm so they will know what to do. Captains have to have eyes to see through the clouds and they can't be afraid of thunder and lightening because they are closer to them than we are.

The salary that Captains make is another thing I like. They make more money than they can spend. This is becuase most people think that captaining a ship is dangerous except Captains, becuase they know how easy it is.


There isn't much I don't like, except girls like Captains and all the girls want to marry a Captain, so they always chase them away so they won't bother them.


I hope I don't get seasick because I get carsick and if I get carsick I could not be a Captain and then I would have to go to work."

So there we go.

African Farmers Could Use Trees to Improve Crop Yeilds

In some cases the maize crop yield has doubled once trees have been planted. Wow!

This comes from a BBC headline report today. Wow!

What amazes me is that here we are churning out various chemical fertilisers when simply planting a few trees around a field would do the same trick - and we would amazingly help the environment in the process.

What is our problem? We have such a pathetic attitude to nature, our daily existence and the future and to all intents and purposes we are in purposeful, knowledgeable and willing self-destruct mode. Nuclear power stations, CO2 capture and storage systems and chemical fertiliser are only three of the thousands of mind-boggling and stupid things that humans see as the answer to the future - why, why, why?

Why build nuclear power stations and then watch what happens in Japan and before at Chernobyl? Why capture and store enormous quantities of C02 Gas underground when we should try to stop producing it in the first place? C02 under our feet is one immediate recipe for disaster. Earthquake, leak, ........ where is your house?

And now this latest. We force farmers to use fertiliser (also a common ingredient for terrorists) when a few trees dotted around a field would do the same job.

Although perhaps the trees would get in the way of the combine harvester .......... grrrrr.

Farmers should not receive subsidies for growing certain crops as predetermined by some continental bureaucrat, they should receive a subsidy or tax break based upon the number of trees they have on their land per square meter in proportion to the land turned over to crop usage. Crop fields should be rotated with grazing areas to allow the land to lie fallow at periods, crops should be pointed towards healthy food production with a lessened subsidy towards those farmers who sell to fast food joints and farmers should stop spraying our foods with chemicals. Pests, insects, my a...e! There are numerous ways to ward off pests; scarecrows work wonders with crows as I'm sure raising the leaves off the ground of strawberry plants does for slugs.

Sadly we operate to the principle of anything to reduce cost and maximise profits. Planting trees or changing the coal-fired power station to a windmill farm is not an option but purely the ramblings of a scary, self-obsessed, government-hating, hippy-minded, out-of-touch wildlife geek who has no proper grasp of reality on world affairs nor sees the bigger picture of how to feed the masses and cope with life in the 21st Century.

Nope, guess I don't really understand all that. So go ahead guys and continue to do all those weird and peculiar things that seriously look like recipes for disaster and I will now keep my little ol' trap shut.

As many people now say it is not a matter of 'if' the world will end but 'when'! Yet still we do nothing about it. Oops, there I go again!