We Mediciers at the Cov Gar hostelry last night were hearing about 'The World".
Not the thing you promise -or have promised on your behalf- to renounce at your Baptism, along with the flesh and the devil 'and all his lies' ( - it's the half truths that are the tricky ones to spot I find - )... no: not that world - rather the boat by the same name that perpetually sails 'World without end', upon which one purchases an apartment and sojourns with princes and oligarchs, until shufflin' off the mortal plank or sellin' up. (I wonder where they bury you?)
Susan and Richard de la choer Medici, had very fortuitously been granted a 10 days on board using the apartment of one of the folk with said accommodation. Susan told me that a number of the folk on board are fairly modest (by oligarch standards) and have sold their London or similar property and bought an interest and live there year round. The travel sounds wunderbar exciting. In other ways it sounds like a sort of endless game of pilgrim ping-pong.
The company varies a great deal apparently, as a number of people come and go who are not owners and there's a bit of a change from week to week which sounds interesting. All the typical perks of cruise ship dining I suppose - and a good tailor to let your trousers out every three weeks maybe...?!
Penny Baird and I were chatting about it after the sun-kissed travellers had left and she warned me of the sting in the tail - the maintenance bill: her and John's timeshare (long since abandoned) in a converted castle somewhere a l'Europe had modest running costs at first, but these soon spiralled several fold and the Bairdian Baronetcy fizzled to a halt.
There was a part of me that was intrigued by the ship idea - good way to see the world and all that: but I wonder, I wonder, I wonder...
I wonder if they ever have the same situation, however occasionally, as Aviary's Gloucester Road living Mama: one of the great unwashed camped out on the doorstep for a week or so... guess it was pretty annoying, the shopping bags being carried inside bumping into the sleeping bag plus their shopping bag-person occupant outside. We had someone pitch camp in the St Anthony's Harpertage bin room for a couple of nights a while back which rather disturbed the mice... The World had to skip round Somalia for fear of gunmen on the trip in question.
The Gloucester Road drop in at St Paul's Onslow Square round the corner to Ma Aviary can't have been a popular idea with the locals; Ant told us there were 150 there 2 days ago. The Poles keep their booze hidden somewhere nearby, and go and lubricate the free coronation chicken course with a large vodka: the Polizei interrupted them on route to the bar this particular time and escorted several of the gentlemen of the road to the station for a night under cover.
'The poor will always be with you'
Except if you're a resident on a cruise ship...
Psalm 49 vs 16-20
'Do not be overawed when someone gets rich and lives in ever greater splendour;
when he dies he will take nothing with him, his wealth will not go down with him.
Though he pampered himself while he lived
-and people praise you for looking after yourself-
he will go to join the ranks of his ancestors, who will never again see the light.
In prosperity people lose their good sense,
they become no better than dumb animals'
(ahem!)
'Do not love the world
or what is in the world.
If anyone does love the world,
the love of the Father finds no place in him.'
1 John 2: 15
Guess they don't quote that on the ship's advertising.
Watch out for those half-truths.... there's quite a few on the prosperity gospel TV channels these days, let alone the subway walls, next to the words of the prophets!
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