Something that's a reminder of QE2...?

[Twynkle]

Has anyone seen something that reminds you of QE2?

Today it was a brand new red and black Mini, against a clear blue sky, shining in bright sunlight....

Your turn....!

[Twynkle]

Nice thought!
http://www.bridlingtonfreepress.co.uk/news/QE2-remembered-at-hidden-gardens.5417627.jp

(and btw - doesn't anyone else get the odd reminder of QE2 - just sometimes!!)

[mrkpnh (Malcolm K)]

I wish I'd known about that in advance - it's only just up the road (OK about an hour) I'd have paid a visit 

[Heather]

Every time I drive along the near the Clyde, especially Greenock I think of the QE2.  Brings a tear to my eye that I won't see the beautiful shape of the QE2 on the Clyde again.  I think of the night that she sailed away from Greenock for the last time and I was breaking my heart!!!    My house has a few paintings of the QE2 and lots of lovely memories , so every time I look at them I get emotional!   

[highlander0108]

Every time I drive along the near the Clyde, especially Greenock I think of the QE2.  Brings a tear to my eye that I won't see the beautiful shape of the QE2 on the Clyde again.  I think of the night that she sailed away from Greenock for the last time and I was breaking my heart!!!    My house has a few paintings of the QE2 and lots of lovely memories , so every time I look at them I get emotional!  

Hi Heather.  Welcome!  You have stumbled onto a truly wonderful site of QE2 fans.  

I visited the Clyde for the first time on QE2 for her final time.  It was a beautiful day and I am still struck by the beauty of the entire area.  I have this dream on getting Nakheel to return her to Clydebank and moor her in the fitting out basin next to the Titan Crane that helped build her...probably the two last remaining icons of shipbuilding on the Clyde.  I hope that events turn this way after the ship is run successfully in Capetown as a hotel.  Take a look as some of the previous posts.  When I saw the Clyde from the crane, the first thing that popped in my mind was that they had it all wrong and that the ship belonged back home here, not in some desert with no connection to her at all.  I initially thought Southampton would be the ideal place, but the fitting out basin at Clydebank makes much more sense.  I could imagine this being quite a boon to local jobs and tourism to have her permanently berthed there as a hotel and conference center.  The site is ripe for developement too!  Scotland needs to somehow find the money to get her back home.  I can just imagine the energy that would be created with word that this is even a consideration.  Perhaps the current owner/developer can get some assistance form the govermnent to develope the site too into a museum for Clydebuilt shipping. The Capetown deal has given us some breathing room to make this happen!  Bring the Queen back home!

For me, I made the trip into NYC each time the ship was in port for her final year.  I still make a similar trip every two weeks, traveling to Long Island for laboratory we are building.  (interestingly the total cost of the project is very close to the sellingprice of QE2 to put things in perspective) EVERYTIME I see the sign for the Henry Hudson Parkway, it reminds me of the very early morning trips I made to see the ship arrive.  I also travel over the Throgs Neck Bridge into Long Island and look over to my right and see the NYC skyline and Redhook in the distance and look for a red funnel. 

[Blue Bombay]

Looking around my house filled with all those stuff i bought around the world.

And of course my wife Anja,if it wasnt for the QE2 we would have never meet.And i would have never got my 2 lovely kids.

And the amount of time i sit with them and talk about the QE2 and show them all the photos.QE2 is also part of my kids life.In each ones bedroom their is a photo on the wall from the Lady.

Louis

[pete cain]

 Hello anybody who wants to read this,have been away for awhile camping!, very nice it was too (really) but after some time you have to wash your (our smalls), & so I found myself on the Caravan Club site at Great Malvern last wewekend en-route for vanfest09,  apparently the biggest VW van festival in Europe, I'm in no position to argue , but it is pretty damm big!! but as I say one has to wash things. having carried out the necessary duties, you have to spindry said items, & so having loaded bits& bobs into the spindryer I sat down to watch it go round for 20 mins whillst mrs Pete munched choccys back at the camper.Lo & behold the spindryer was called  Speed Queen!, I sat on my own for that 20mins thinkin......................., anyway  when I left said launderette, it was really a beautifull sunset , maroon colours over Elgar country, but I just so wanted to be on my own speed queen, with that same sunset , somewhere out there ,I knew there was a speed queen link on the site  & just thought well maybe it may be a Little interesting (or not) pete cain.....

[Twynkle]

Hello, Pete
Great to see you, btw!
You forgot say whether your Camper Van
has a name that equals that of the spin-dryer - or better than....
Looking forward to your next installment.
Rgds to Mrs Pete
Rosie


PS - Would you and Mrs Pete like to come and have dinner in the Queen's Grill sometime?
Rob's there too, but usually arrives later....
(Before we fix a date, maybe I'd better check that my onboard spending allowance has arrived!!)

[pete cain]

 Just realised, ( have been working all day getting rid of silicone sealant around  my shower base)  & re-sealing it, that i've had my first bath since being on the QE2 , bit ANAL, but ......................

[mrkpnh (Malcolm K)]

I think my last bath was on the QE2! sometime around Christmas 2005 or 2006

[MiamiCunarder]

  My g/f and I were passing through the back lobby of a waterfront Savannah hotel two weekends ago to avoid an afternoon shower. As we came to the back entrance/exit to the hotel, I came to a dead stop. For a second, I was back on QE2, in thought. For some inexplicable reason, the room smelled exactly like an ocean liner...QE2... that combination of smells...diesel (during bunkering), teak, engine lubricating oil,with a faint smell of cigar (or just smoke). I looked around and couldn't explain how that combination had come to pass though I noticed big vents on the ceiling. Perhaps that was it.
Actually, I recall that most of the passenger decks carried that familiar smell. Perhaps the vents around the corridors were the source?


   Ron

[Twynkle]

This seemed to remind someone!
http://twitpic.com/m3yww

[Chris]

I was sitting in the lounge at a Sheraton hotel recently - the lights were dimmed, there was a piano playing and the sound of happy chatter... closing my eyes I momentarily was back aboard QE2 in the Chart Room... it was superb.

[highlander0108]

On the second to last night of my January 2008 crossing, I came down with the Noro virus, quite suddenly actually, and almost killed myself, tripping on the lip ofthe floor rushing to get into the bathroom in my cabin in total darkness.  Despite that, I managed to have the best time onboard.  Fast forward to work on this past Monday and I suddenly had the very same feeling.    In the car on my way home, I chuckled to myself since the last time I was this sick was on .....QE2.     Funny how I seem to be able to relate something, practically everyday, back to the ship. 

Ken

[Chris]

Like most Commonwealth countries we have buildings named after Royalty. Anyway, the other day I drove past signs for "QE2 Parking"... I 1/2 expected to see the ship and the QEII passenger terminal but alas, it was just the Hospital.

[MiamiCunarder]

 I think the various prints (one given to me as a gift during my stint at Cunard shoreside, the other purchased aboard in 2000),the books, the desktop(wallpaper) image on the laptop and the tattoo on my shoulder are pretty decent reminders.  

    I have more reminders back home in Miami which include more books, a huge original painting commissioned by an artist friend back in '98 (unfortunately, I had no clue her Kvearner racing stripes and Cunard lion would soon be removed the following year so these were incorporated in it), models and of course, certain "souvenirs" acquired off the ol' rust bucket. (<- Plz don't slaughter me, it was truly meant as a term of endearment.)  


   Ron

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

Funny how I seem to be able to relate something, practically everyday, back to the ship.  

In a hospital, long corridors with banisters, interrupted at each doctor's door before continuing again...!

 

[Blue Bombay]

 I was in Bremerhaven last week and i thought of the QE2.I was trying to imagine her there getting another facelift to cruise again for more 20 years.

Louis

[Chris]

They way it should've been!

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

A 25-hour day, such as we are having this week-end (with the changeover from summertime to wintertime in Europe) ... and such as we had during our Atlantic crossing just over a year ago... and a few other times before that on QE2.

Wish that I could be sitting in the Lido now, with Pia and a glass of wine or several, having an extra long session playing board games...  or chatting... and in any case enjoying the time spent on the ship    .

[Blue Bombay]

25 hours a day that was the could times,Isabelle. 

Louis

[Chris]

Cunard's QE2 page is a reminder of when QE2 was part of their fleet:
http://www.cunard.com/queenelizabeth2/landing.asp?Ship=QE2&main=int

The UK version has been taken down.

[Cunardqueen]

I hate to say on an open public forum, but recently l thought l  was going mad. I visited the Hotel Queen Mary in Long Beach which coincided with the dates of my last ever crossing on QE2. Having tried to visit her for the past 22 years and getting side lined into taking a QE2 voyage, this was the year l made it.
 
 Staying for two nights l took 3 friends along for the champagne brunch. From the moment l embarked on the gangway l was in cruise mode, Into the Sunday brunch and right away l was caught up in the whole atmosphere of the event, beneath my feet l could feel the vibrations of the air conditioning units and the old girl, to me came alive, or was it unlimited refills of bubbly... Anyway sitting down to the fresh crisp newly laid table and cloth napkins the sound of the singer and oh my god the songs he sang,for a moment l had to pinch myself, they were playing the songs that l used to hear on QE2 and as l cast my mind back to the previous year l was wrapped up in a special magic and as l had an emotional moment my friends realised that l wasnt as tough as they thought, which l found highly  amusing.
 
 As the afternoon continued we ended out on the open decks at 4.45 and standing by the railings l really expected to see the ropes being let go and fully expected us to set sail for some where, and when the harsh reality of it all set in and that l was going nowhere, l really found that very hard to understand and even accept it.
 For two nights l was enveloped in something so very special to me, l really had no idea what l expected to find onboard the old lady, but she took me into her care and really looked after me. (but that is another story)
 
When the final morning came and l woke up, Behold a sight l never expected to see ever again,and it was something l only ever associated with QE2 and that was under the door had been slipped  my onboard account!!, well it really did floor me for a short time, mercifully it only ran to two pages.

  Made the most of the last morning and for once l could linger over an onboard breakfast, and on the stroke of noon checked out and stepped gaily down the gangway and back into the real world. Feeling exactly the same way as l did when l stepped back on the gangway and terra firma after my first voyage on QE2 in 1986 l just know lm going back for more.
 So much so l cancelled my next Cunard cruise......



Cheers !!!

Compared to the usual MI grade, l was in for a surprise...     

[Kathy M.]

This is slightly off topic - but I love the shirt you have on the Queen Mary shots - where did you get it?!

[Cruise_Princess]

Lovely piece well written...you made it all come alive and glad you have found the 'magic' again....

[Clyde Paddler]

This is slightly off topic - but I love the shirt you have on the Queen Mary shots - where did you get it?!

Yes, Myles - where did you get that shirt?  We want one!!

[Twynkle]

Thinking of that great Queen Mary shirt - was, or could there ever be a QE2 shirt?
With the maiden voyage logo, The Clyde, Liverpool, SOTON,  New York, a few tugs with a view of QE2 (from every angle) as well as  the Forum header - on it....?
After making a fortune for the Forum,  maybe it could fund QE2's passage home!
Then we could sell it in her shop - think I might be a little ahead of things now...
Any ideas anyone?

[Twynkle]

WOW!
The QM2 Bridge webcam - with the blue Atlantic looking good
listening to waves,
seagulls
and QE2's Whistle
Has anyone else tried this?
 

[Blue Bombay]

Last night at work we had a wedding reception for 300 guests i came across a couple that made a trip on QE2 way back in 1984.Had no time to find out more stories but i have there number ill get in touch with them again for sure. 

Louis

[Cunardqueen]

Quote from: Kathy M. on October 30, 2009, 06:22:34 PM
This is slightly off topic - but I love the shirt you have on the Queen Mary shots - where did you get it?!


Yes, Myles - where did you get that shirt?  We want one!!

Had that shirt a few years now, bought it in London (camden) at a place that stoped trading, However bought a different one showing Queen Mary and a few other landmarks ie Hotel Del Coranado (which was awesome by the way) and some other California places, lm just waiting for the summer to return so l can wear it.... This was bought onboard Queen Mary. Im just not sure if its "me"

[Blue Bombay]

I was yesterday in my basement sorting some boxes and came across this

[pete cain]

I've got a pair of trainers that have traipsed miles & miles of QE2  decks & corridors, & trips ashore, but they are dangerous to wear ( & I know that the bit of plastic sole that trod those hallowed decks have worn away ) cos I've slipped & fallen my way about these last few weeks in the snow& ice, but I just cannot let them go, I've got a craghopper jacket I wore on 'that bit below the bridge' on the way into New York, in a thunderstorm at 5-00 am & it's got a collectors piece of QE2 soot on the sleeve, it isn't waterproof anymore , but I cannot let go ;because I wore it on the QE2,    to juxtapose the header to this post    is this so sad?....

[Stowaway2k]

Perfectly normal!   

I will never part with these Doc Martins, seen here taking my first steps onto the teak decks of QE2

[Cruise_Princess]

Be assured,....you are NOT alone!   

[Twynkle]

Ah...
...Whilst on the subject of shoes - these have spent hours on The Bit Beneath the Bridge and 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/watch_keeper/4274452137/in/set-72157620557118998/

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

The air conditioning in my office.

There are times when I sit back and relax for a moment, aware of the fact that it resembles the background air conditioning noise on QE2 so very much... Indeed, the air conditioning here also indulges in the odd rumble or vibration... my office is located beside the shaft where it passes from floor to floor...

It is just when it stops at 20.00 hrs sharp in the evening, that I have am reminded that, on QE2, it never did that... and I hope it is still continuing, as ever, to blow and rumble along... 

[Scott Ebersold]

When I first started working in the office building I'm in now, I was told the halls were designed to look like an ocean liner.  ... I don't know if I quite see that... but there is a lot of nice wood-work and smart doors all along a hall, so I guess so. 

But sometimes when I'm in the lobby area waiting for the elevators there is a smell that brings me right back to QE2.  I'm not sure what it is -  maybe the mix of wood, varnish, cleaning supplies and the grease from the elevator gears ... but for one second I am standing waiting for a lift near D stairwell.

[Twynkle]

London, SW6.
Along the Fulham Road, passing the Imperial Cancer Research Institute;
inside, there are Le Corbusier chairs - leather and chrome, in a waiting area.
They are reddish- brown in colour.

Wishing now that I knew whether there were Le Corbusier chairs on QE2!
Tried to find them here...Please, would anyone know?
They are bulky - maybe there weren't any!

[Chris]

The internet reminds me of QE2 daily.

Like today when I stumbled across this image:

http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs166.snc3/19335_1116021359629_1799839654_239633_1236925_n.jpg

[QE2 Canuck]

I have so many reminders of QE2 around the house, on 3 walls., the picture I love the most is over my fireplace..it is the painting by someone called Bauwens (2008)... called The Grandeur of the Queens...it was being featured in the book shop on QM2 in July 2008....it depicts the early morning arrival of the 3 Queens into New York Harbour on January 13,2008... with the beautiful QE2 in the centre, leading the way, followed by QM2 and then QV....another one I have on another wall is the painting of QE2 and QM2 in New York Harbour by James Flood (2004) called Cunard's Monarches of the Sea... and the last one, is a picture I sent for in the mail back in 1996 after sailing T A on QE2 for the first time... it is of QE2 sailing down the Hudson river in front of the World Trade Centre Twin Towers...this picture is surrounded by 3 smaller 8x10 pictures of QE2, one of her coming straight at you, one of her backend, loaded with passengers and the final one of the crew out on the bow taken in Valencia on the Mediterranean Sojourn.....so every day I see her..... and last June I decided to get myself a new Jeep... it is Cunard Red... and I call her "Lizzie"....and she has the Cunard crest on her dash.....
Chris said I was loyal and I guess I am !!
Linda

[QE2 Canuck]

OH and I forgot one... Chris and Rachelle's book, QE2 A Photographic Journey is on my coffeetable !!

Linda

[Chris]

Awhh! Thanks Linda

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

Well, for Botellitas Humar®, this whisky bottle must be a reminder of QE2 :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/46378167@N04/4362232159/

Sadly, now empty...

[Twynkle]

Driving past the Mini Factory in Cowley, Oxford today
On the side of the main high building - there's this big, big wall, painted  black.
At the top of the black bit - are the words MINI
Then underneath, there's a big square, with possibly 75+ small rectangles
each being a flag of the world.

A perfect reminder of the QE2 Crew 
who wore the flag of their country on his or her lapel
(no flags on qV crew members!)

[Cunarder Man]

My family challenging me everyday saying, 'Dad, your collection of memorabilia is taking over the house - what are you going to do with it?' I love it - it reminds me of great days aboard.

[Avariel]

My bedroom.

*avoids stones that are being thrown at her*

HAHA

MY bed is up against a corner so I have pictures & news articles of the QE2 stuck to the wall.

It's probably sad to note that I don't have any pictures of family or friends up, but instead I have pictures of ships on my walls.

[Peter Mugridge]

How feasible is it to decorate a bedroom in the same style as a QE2 cabin I wonder?  I'm sure it must have been done somewhere?  Ok, obviously the main difference would be the windows instead of portholes, but the general colour scheme should be do-able?  Basing the scheme on the larger cabins on 1 / 2 / 3 decks?

I am seriously thinking that when we get our next house ( few years away yet though! ) of doing the hallway / landing areas with the bright red relief pattern carpet and light wooden wall panelling used in a lot of the corridor areas on QE2, and dark blue carpet with dark oak woodwork and table for the dining room ( á la QE2 boardroom ).

[Rob Lightbody]

You could speak to the set designers from the Keeping Up Apperances programme - they did a REALLY good job of recreating a cabin in the studio!

[Peter Mugridge]

Might actually do that, Rob - a cousin of mine works for the BBC... I have also snagged a couple of pictures for colour reference and I'm guessing that Flagship will have the actual colour and pattern references in his files somewhere.

probably couldn't do an exact reproduction of the interior scheme; that would probably be very expensive, but it should be possible to get a reasonably close match for not much more than what decorating would cost anyway?

[Twynkle]

.... the bright red relief pattern carpet ....

Peter - This is interesting! (And a bit off topic - V sorry!)
Please can you remember where there was carpet designed and cut in relief?
Much of the carpeting seemed to be patterned, in beautiful swirly shapes / designs, borders
or self-coloured speckles!
I have taken lots of pics of it - now worried that some got left out!
The only carpet I thought I hadn't photographed is in the wheelhouse, where it's a speckledy brown, I think!
Rosie

[Peter Mugridge]

Sorry - by "relief" I meant the little repeating patterns on it.

Not sure it's getting off topic as such, since the purpose would be to make the future house a reminder of QE2, but maybe this subject could be split of into a separate thread as it looks like it could be quite a busy sub-topic in itself?  I'm sure that now I've given everyone the idea I won't be the only one aiming at ultimately doing this...?

[mickey g]

Last week I did a Red Sea cruise on board Thomson Celebration (I thought it would be a bit of a come down after QE2/QM2, not a bit of it, a great ship and crew).

Crossing the Red Sea at night on the after deck (the Lido Deck) I stood looking out over the rail on the port side with my glass of red wine remembering the pleasure I got from standing at more or less the same position on the after deck behind the wonderful Yacht Club on QE2 

A further reminder was wondering at what position we crossed the track of QE2's voyage to Dubai, which I was lucky enough to be on.....................sweet memories

[Cruise_Princess]

Whist out walking today in the April showers...the sun came thru and the fluffy clouds were in the sky,,,,only that one particular 'cloud'...somehow looked like QE2!!

Can you see it?? The funnel and the mast is very clear.....

Made me  have that special'  feeling straight away........so good to know she is still casting her magic spell all the way from Dubai!

[skilly56]

Rosie,

Attached is photo of the Wheelhouse carpet, along with OOW scratching his brain! (pretending to be working!) whilst we were approaching Messina Strait, 7/2008.

Carpet has no pattern in it - just looks like someone spilled red wine everywhere!

Cheers
Skilly

[skilly56]

Cunard must have had a special run of carpet made just for Rob! It now has a 'The QE2Story' pattern in it!

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

Morello Cherry jam. A tiny jar of it arrived, unbidden (once the waiter knew my preference!) and delicious, every morning on my breakfast table.

I have just cooked ten lbs of it... that should stretch these memories for a while!

[Twynkle]

Morello Cherry jam. A tiny jar of it arrived, unbidden and delicious, every morning on my breakfast table.

I have just cooked ten lbs of it... that should stretch these memories for a while!

Good thinking, Isabelle!


 

[QueensFan]

I thought of one today. Living in Manhattan half the year, I pass by the West Side piers at least once a week or so. And every time I go past them, whether I'm cycling down the Hudson or on my way to ship geek with a lesser vessel than QE2, I can still remember the first time.

Coming downtown from the Bronx in our old Land Rover, my parents, brother, and two cousins crammed in with me and a lot of winter gear. 21 December 2003. I look ahead out the windscreen, waiting to see it...and then...there it is...that glorious red funnel! Peeking out past the blue stacks of Norwegian Dawn, suggesting power, might, and glory tied up to New York City.

"Bribing" the security people to let us park up top. The six of us, heading down into the terminal to watch the lucky people boarding the great ship, for Christmas in the Caribbean. The great name, "QUEEN ELIZABETH 2," peeking through the window in glorious Helvetica.

We watched her off from the top deck of the pier that day, listening to that glorious whistle and returning it with the horn of the old Discovery. Yelling "Bon Voyage" and "Happy Trails" to the people lining Boat Deck as the commentary whirred on the tannoy. I had fulfilled half of a 13-year-long-life's wish: to see QE2 in the steel. The other half? To sail on her. And I had to make that day come.

And so many other memories. Seeing that terminal and that ship from across the great and mighty Hudson a few months later, the last time she called as flagship with the ship that would become my #2, Queen Mary 2. Suddenly, the huge QE2 didn't look so huge anymore...but still, oh so glorious.

The last time I thought she'd leave from Manhattan in 2006, after the Brooklyn piers were opened, I begged my dad to drive me to Weehawken to see her off. I thought I was a rare spectator to maritime history. If only I knew that two-and-a-half years later, I'd be there again for a final (?) farewell.

Then the 2008 calls. The January call, comparing the grace and beauty of QE2 to Queen Victoria (still a ship dear to me).

Then April 2008, when I finally fulfilled the other half of 2003's wish, stepping into the glorious Midships Lobby...at least I think I did, since everything between getting on the gangplank and getting to my cabin is a complete blur. And then, for the first time, her whistle blows above me on Sun Deck, and the lines are cast. We edge backwards with the help of the Moran tugs, and for the first time in 18 years, 2 months, and 15 days, I leave the confines of the United States of America in the best of style, sailing to Europe on the Greatest Ship in the World. I watched those piers recede into the distance from the ship, instead of the reverse.

Two more times. 16 September 2008, when I "broke in" to Pier 90 as QE2 sailed away from Pier 88. Yelling bon voyages again, this time to a friend on Signal Deck. Watching her receding in the distance, knowing that there would be one more time, and one more only, of this great ship in this great city.

And finally, 16 October 2008, as I rush uptown with a fellow ship geek from seeing the two ships in from the Battery, seeing the final moments of QE2's arrival in Manhattan for the last time ever. The red nightvision-friendly lights on the bridge aglow, the dawn not yet broken. Friends reuniting on the pier side, then breaking in to the top deck to see the dawn arrive with our great ship in the background.

Since I saw her off that day from the Battery, that's the last time I saw QE2 in Manhattan. Nothing else especially exciting called after that. But every time I went down the West Side, or looked across as I left the Lincoln Tunnel on the Helix in New Jersey, I could see her there once again, red funnel lit and proud, ready to cast off again.

In September 2009, I went back to see Queen Victoria at the piers, having booked the 2010 Winter Crossing on her and eager to check her out again. But it was different now. The old chain link fence was replaced by a fortresslike fence, with a beautiful wave pattern that prevented photos. There was no way I was going to get into the forecourt to photograph the ship, as I had for QE2 and so many other ships in the "old days." The security rent-a-cop told me it was a 9/11 thing. Yet I had done it every time since that horrible day.

Maybe it's for the best. I have some shots of some ships through the grating of the new fence, but I'll probably never go inside them again unless I'm a paying passenger (as I did in January). My ship geeking days on the top of Pier 90 are done.

But that makes it even more special...as every time I pass by, I can see the funnel again, feel the whistle running through my bones...and for a moment, even if she sits alone in Dubai, she's once again in New York waiting to head across the ocean.