Sunday, September 26, 2010

I'm not a celebrity, get me out of here ...

Well I've been speaking to a producer and his assistant in Germany for the last month, they found me on the internet from my blog about the Oceanos.  They were doing a story about the sinking for television and were going over to the UK to interview Moss and Michael, and they wanted to fly me over to London as well so I could be interviewed along with them.  However it was just impossible to try and take time off work and I also had Irene and Candice coming over that exact same week, so I decided that I wouldn't give it a miss.

Then the producer phoned me and said that if I could not get time off work then they would fly to Ireland to Dublin and interview me here, wow okay, and they would fly over on a Friday and we could do all the shooting on the Saturday which meant I did not have to take time off work.




Torsten the producer said they would be at my house at 10 on Saturday morning, well they arrived early I had just got out the shower, so panic panic - anyway I was dressed, and OMG winter had arrived suddenly so it was freezing.  They wanted to go down to the harbor and do some shooting first and then come back to the house.  So I took my car and we drove into town and down along the Liffey, we arrived at one of the passenger terminals but there were all these official looking people who gave us the hairy eyeball.

So off we went to the other side of the bridge and through the Eastlink Toll, and stumbled upon a small rowing & yacht club.  The people there were so nice to us and let us film there, it was great fun but freezing!  Luckily though the sun was shining.  After interviewing me for what seemed eternity, they interviewed Irene - 4 hours later we were still there, neither Irene or I had, had any breakfast so we were starving.

Eventually we headed back to our house after making one stop on the bridge by customs house so they could get some photos, and then home.  I headed straight for the kitchen to prepare food for the masses and then it was interviewing again, while they ate they went through all my memorabilia from the Oceanos and took photos and stuff.

They eventually finished at about quarter to five and by that time Irene and Candice had to rush off to catch their plan, but what a day .... I was exhausted last night and fell asleep just after 9.  At least this time I am getting paid for my troubles.

I forgot to add that the guys from Germany were so nice and made us feel at ease all the time, really really nice.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Titanic II

I happened to be watching the Syfy channel on Friday night when Titanic II was on, OMG what a disaster of a movie, low budget with trashy computer graphics, pathetic actors - why would anyone want to make such a bad movie after the blockbuster titanic!


The film takes place in April 2012, 100 years since the sinking of the RMS Titanic. A new luxury cruise liner, the USS Titanic II, has been christened, and is soon to embark on her maiden voyage, on the same route the Titanic took 100 years before.

During the voyage, effects of possible global warming force an island of ice in the Arctic to collapse, and creates a disastrous tsunami that sends an iceberg crashing into the Titanic II, leaving her to the same fate as her predecessor.

Utter Rubbish.

Here is a review from the internet Movie Database to show you just how bad it is www.imdb.com

Be warned that this is probably the worst movie ever made. At least it gave a good actor, Bruce Davison, employment. Nice concept, but so poorly made that you understand immediately that the makers knew zero about the 1912 Titanic and cared even less. With an obvious low budget, the movie made use of the 1930's Queen Mary permanently moored at Long Beach, CA. But, 1912 maritime design is very different from 1930s maritime design as was White Star Line, (Titanic), to Cunard Line, (Queen Mary). Shots included the sea wall enclosing the Queen Mary, rust on the railings of this "brand new Titanic II", and red funnels when the original Titanic had yellow funnels, (which they corrected within the movie and then went back to red funnels). Some scenes showed the ship with three funnels, some scenes she had four funnels. One of the best, laughable scenes was the cast running down into the "engine room" with concrete walls!!!? The Titanic II sailed with the name emblazoned on it's bow, then the name was gone, then it was back again? Where were the continuity people? Or could they not afford to employ them. The score even had slight reminisces of the movie Titanic's score in a shameful attempt to piggy-back on the success of the James Cameron movie. Gives new meaning to unoriginal and predictable. Do yourself a favor. Skip this movie. It's not even good trash.

Sunday, September 05, 2010

Other passengers on the Oceanos

Are there any readers out there that were on the Oceanos on her journey down to Cape Town, which would have left Durban harbour on the Sunday night 28th of July 1991 and arrived in Cape Town on the Wednesday, who then disembarked from the Oceanos and did not get back on, also passengers who were supposed to board in East London and decided against it, I would love to chat to you, so please email me at oceanos.survivors(at)gmail.com - indirectly you too are survivors.

More Survivors

I really must ask Ian Uys if I can publish a copy of the Passenger List as he has it in his book here, but I really think that if all of you who are reading this, have not bought the book yet, especially all those survivors - honestly it is well worth reading and in there you will find a list of all the passengers on the ship, on the fateful night of 3rd of August 1991.

I recently received this email from Kerry Kyte who was a fellow passenger, here is the email:


Kevin Crossman
Rita Crossman
Kerri Crossman
Tarryn Crossman
Lindy Trollip
Tracy Trollip
John Hickland
SAmantha Mountford
Darren Mountford
We where all aboard together

I will add these to my own list I have and once completed it, I will publish it.