I've had a few wiggings on here and the Other Place. As for the guilty conscience syndrome, it's a hangover from my orthodox christian upbringing.

cruise ships at the breakers
 

and then there were three - carnival fantasy beached along side the monarch and the sovereign

It could be we're witnessing (in my case in old age) a major turning point in general. Sort of scary really ... I have every sympathy for those youngsters who may well have to bite the bullet on this one. And given the state of the world, and the people who are currently running it, that's going to be a f****** large calibre bullet. :confused:

The golden goose is cooked.

One can kill the goose by overworking the few or by having too many for the goosefood available. To have some plain old ducks and moorhens in proper trade as well is beneficial. A "diverse portfolio" is a universal defence. Perhaps preventing great excess of benefits but equally preventing the worst of losses (let us all hope C19 does not cause the pundits to choose another route as there doesn't seem to be one).

Supply and demand. "O" Level economics. Or as our American masters say, Economics 101.

Absolutely however I prefer the 'demand' in my portfolio to be real as in food, pharma (despite the risk), energy etc. rather than frivolous, commercial 'hospitality', yachting, gaming, gambling etc. both areas have customer demand. The former cannot experience evaporation, the latter is. A bigger benefit would be if the inessential volume of the state would evaporate too but that seems resistant to phase change. With respect to HM's local Treasury they have invented a very neat new unfunded benefit with which to burden us. Home notworking.

Jeez Shipmates, what the hell has happened our old friend GD1? She has had a new coat of paint and I can't find the gangway. Is it all for the best? I liked her when she was a steam up and downer.

I think she must have been re-engined or perhaps converted to sail? I fear that from a distance she will resemble one of those floating blocks of flats some of us dislike.

That makes three of us on the dock searching for the gangway. I believe that there is a hidden escalator somewhere though.
Sorry that I didn't recognise either of you in your flamboyant new multi coloured drip dry polyester uniforms but I see your medals are still the same, thankfully. Will your tickets still be recognised if we ever find our way aboard?
I am still the one with the shovel and no medals by the way. Bit worried about redundancy if the uppers and downers have been replaced however.

She is most definitely now showing her true port of registry, but the Ensign seems to be a bunch of bunting. The onboard currency is the Dollar.
I found the gangway, started to wander round, got lost and kept bumping into huge advertising hoardings. I think I need to dip into my foreign currency wallet in order to see what is going on.

since my posting re the 2 cruise ships at the breakers in july by end november no less than 7 cruise ships await there fate the astor and the karinka with in days of each other with the - monarch - soverign ( pulmantur ) fantasy imagination and inspiration ( carinval )having been beached in july - august - and currently 3 more waiting to reach their final destination

When I was a youngster we lived next to a smithy that hooved horses and this was in the middle of a fairly big town. And round the corner was a horse's drinking fountain, hewn out of one big piece of granite. Not many used either though. It was the rag collector and the firewood seller... and that was perhaps it. The coal, cokes and cinders man used a handcart, his depot was not far away. I would say that beats having once been on a now outdated passenger ship, or owning a few brown coins though.

Surely not unless you can exchange your memories for those brown coins. The work is a requirement. The happy memories are merely a bonus.