Thursday: Windows and Notices

Not much to report from my day other than that it continues busy, busy - I had a meeting this afternoon and when it was done, I took a short walk down the road, partly to take a picture, partly just to clear my head and get five minutes peace from everything that seems to be going on.  There were about four or five of these noticeboards in the street - all equally empty.

But actually I want to tell you about something else.  Two things I am particularly intrigued by are six degrees of separation and, separately, coincidences.  I love stories about both!

I'll give you an example - for the last few nights I have been watching Julian Fellowes' dramatisation of 'Titanic'.  I watched the last episode this evening.  Completely out of the blue, and unconnected to my TV viewing, my colleague appeared in front of my desk today and asked if we could have a brief word about, of all things, the Titanic.  

It turns out we have been approached to be involved in a Titanic memorial in a village, not far from Zagreb, where the widow of the one of the survivors lived.  And I learnt today that there were 30 Croatians on board, most of who were stokers.  Three survived and were picked up by SS Carpathia, on its journey from New York to Rijeka, Croatia (or Fiume, as it was called then).  75 of the Carpathia's crew were Croatian and one of the crew kept one of the Titanic life belts, which is now in the Rijeka museum - one of only five lifebelts that still exist.

And all that, just was I was revisiting the Titanic story - I love when things like that happen.

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