It Was Sad When the Great Ship Went Down

As I've confessed before, I've had other loves before Australia.

One of them was the Titanic. I think it began when I was in film school. I watched the old 1953 movie, Titanic. I don't think I watched it at the film school itself. I think I just saw it during the time I was doing film school.

Anyway....

The reason I liked the movie was because it was about a cruise ship. My family had been on a few cruises, and I loved them. I loved being on the ocean. I loved looking out into the dark deep water at night. I loved how you lost touch with the world (didn't have easy to email access on ships in those days), and your biggest decisions were what to order for dinner. I loved meeting and talking to the cruise staff from all over the world.

So...I loved seeing an old movie about a cruise ship...even though that cruise ship met with disaster.

My Titanic love affair intensified with seeing the musical in NYC, and the Kate Winslet movie.

It ended when I got a Titanic computer game. I don't know what it was about that game. Was it too difficult and frustrating? Boring? I can't remember. All I know is that I lost the love. Not only did I stop caring so much about Titanic, but I lost my love of cruises. Damn that game. It must have been REALLY awful.

Okay, I can't completely blame the game for my love lost. There's also the fact that my fear of vomit and the stomach flu have intensified in the last few years. And cruise ships are kind of known for passing on viruses.

We did go on a cruise in 2007....just before our first Australia trip. I was weary of the whole thing, but ended up having fun.

Still, I don't love cruises as much as I used to.

I'd rather go to Australia.

I hope I don't ever play a really boring video game about Australia. Then this blog might be in trouble.

No, I'm joking. I've read horribly boring books involving Australia. If that didn't ruin my love, I'm probably safe.

Well, the reason I thought about Titanic in the first place is I was browsing the website of the Melbourne Museum, and they have a Titanic exhibit going on. It's one of those timed exhibit things. I find them to be a bit annoying. We did The Star Wars one when Jack was younger. It was hard because he was scared and didn't want to go in, so it looked like we'd have to just put those tickets to waste. But we couldn't just do that, because at the same time he DID want to go. He was very unsure...hesitant. Timed exhibits aren't really great for hesitant children.

But if you DON'T have a hesitant child, you're in Melbourne, and interested in that ship that sank....you might want to check out the exhibit.

Then on 16 September, there's going to be a lecture about Titanic. It actually sounds interesting to me. Reading the description of it kindled my fire a bit.

The Titanic exhibit and lecture will be long gone when we step foot in Melbourne, but we could go to the Titanic restaurant. Our Tassie/Hawaii friends told us about it.

It's a theatre restaurant type thing....like the ones where you eat with your hands and watch knights in battle. Do you guys have that in Australia?

We probably won't go to the restaurant actually...unless one of us gets into the whole Titanic story again. I'm not sure if it's kid friendly....or more specifically...Jack-friendly.