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Disaster, opulence, and the merciless ocean: why the Titanic disaster continues to enthral

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kristie-patricia-flannery-1220337">Kristie Patricia Flannery</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/australian-catholic-university-747">Australian Catholic University</a></em></p> <p>The question on many minds this week is why did some of the world’s richest men risk death to venture to the bottom of the sea in a cold and cramped <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/20/us/oceangate-titanic-missing-submersible.html">“experimental” submersible</a> for a chance to glimpse the wreck of the Titanic?</p> <p>The “unsinkable” ship that sunk on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic in 1912 after colliding with an iceberg is arguably the world’s most well-known boat. The Titanic is recognisable to more of the world’s population than, say, the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria (Christopher Colombus’s fleet that launched the Spanish conquest of the Americas), or Captain Cook’s HMS Endeavour (the tall ship that set in motion the British conquest of Australia). The Endeavour’s long-forgotten wreck was found scuttled off the coast of Rhode Island <a href="https://theconversation.com/has-captain-cooks-ship-endeavour-been-found-debate-rages-but-heres-whats-usually-involved-in-identifying-a-shipwreck-176363">just last year</a>.</p> <p>The Titanic’s maiden voyage and calamitous end was one of the biggest news stories of 1912, and has continued to fascinate us ever since. The disaster inspired songs and multiple films in the twentieth century, including James Cameron’s 1997 epic romance, which long reigned as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_films#Timeline_of_highest-grossing_films">highest-grossing film of all time</a>. More recently, Titanic exhibitions that invite visitors to examine relics and <a href="https://titanicexhibition.com/nyc/#sec_instafeed">explore the ship’s recreated rooms have attracted huge crowds in New York, Seville and Hong Kong</a>.</p> <h2>Opulence and immigrants</h2> <p>There are two reasons why we are so drawn to the Titanic, and why the super-rich are apparently willing to part with their money and even risk their lives to catch a glimpse of its broken hull.</p> <p>The first is its opulence. The White Start Line that built the Titanic advertised the ship as the most luxurious ever to set sail. Wealthy passengers paid up to £870 for the privilege of occupying the Titanic’s most expensive and spacious first-class cabins. To put this 110-year-old money in perspective, when the first world war broke out in 1914, infantry soldiers in the British army were paid a basic salary of around £20 per year.</p> <p>Titanic movies and exhibitions are popular because audiences enjoy the voyeurism of gazing on the ship’s beautiful furnishings, the stunning clothes worn by its rich and beautiful passengers, and their elaborate meals in fancy restaurants. First-class passengers feasted on <a href="https://online.ucpress.edu/gastronomica/article-abstract/9/4/32/93511/The-Night-the-Good-Ship-Went-Down-Three-Fateful">multi-course dinners</a> with salmon, steak, and pâté de foie gras. Chefs in Australia and around the globe occasionally <a href="https://www.timeout.com/melbourne/things-to-do/titanic-dining-experience">recreate Titanic meals</a> for curious clients.</p> <p>Hundreds of poor immigrant passengers, represented by Jack (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) in Cameron’s movie, were also aboard the Titanic. They lived in crowded quarters and enjoyed less thrilling meals such as boiled beef and potatoes. If their ilk were the only people on board the Titanic, the ship would arguably have faded quickly from memory.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/erAQ9LkftwA?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <h2>The power of the sea</h2> <p>The fact the Titanic was touted as unsinkable also adds to its allure. The ship, whose name evoked its massive size, was engineered to cheat the ocean. When it departed England it symbolised man’s domination over nature. At the bottom of the Atlantic, it serves as a visceral reminder of the indomitable sea’s awesome power.</p> <p>The same two factors - the excess of the voyage, and its defeat by the sea – are now driving the current global interest in the Titan submersible disaster. Few world events garner so much attention, including statements from Downing Street and the White House, and live news blogs from The New York Times and the Guardian.</p> <p>The Titan, like the Titanic, commands our attention because of its obscenely rich passengers, who each reportedly paid US$250,000 (or between four and five times the average US salary) to visit the wreck of the famous ship that battled the sea and lost.</p> <p>And then there is the intriguing mystery and power of the sea. News outlets are publishing helpful graphics that try to teach our terrestrial brains to comprehend just how deep the ocean is, and how far below the sea’s surface the Titanic and possibly the Titan lie.</p> <h2>The limits of human knowledge</h2> <p>Last night I spied <a href="https://neal.fun/deep-sea/">Neal Argawal’s Deep Sea</a> website circulating on social media. The site allows viewers to scroll from the sea surface to the sea floor, diving down past images of various marine animals that inhabit different oceanic depths.</p> <p>At 114 metres is an orca, and 332m marks the the deepest depth a human has ever reached using SCUBA gear. It takes a lot of scrolling to descend to the Titanic almost 4,000m below the waves.</p> <p>Besides gross income inequality, reflecting on the Titan and the Titanic invite us to confront just how little we can “see” of the sea in this age of mass surveillance. Not even the powerful US navy, assisted by the Canadian, UK and French governments, can muster the resources and technology required to locate, let alone rescue, the missing submersible.</p> <p>As the sea seems to have swallowed yet another ship, we are reminded of limits of human knowledge and mastery over the ocean.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208200/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/kristie-patricia-flannery-1220337">Kristie Patricia Flannery</a>, Research Fellow, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/australian-catholic-university-747">Australian Catholic University</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Getty Images</em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/disaster-opulence-and-the-merciless-ocean-why-the-titanic-disaster-continues-to-enthral-208200">original article</a>.</em></p>

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Alluring, classic, glamorous: the history of the martini cocktail

<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ursula-kennedy-560331">Ursula Kennedy</a>, <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-southern-queensland-1069">University of Southern Queensland</a></em></p> <p>The martini cocktail has existed in a range of guises throughout its ice-cold, crisp life.</p> <p>Several stories exist as to its origins. The “classic” martini is made with gin and vermouth (a fortified wine infused with spices) and garnished with an olive or a twist of lemon. It is quintessentially American.</p> <h2>The contested origins of the martini</h2> <p><a href="https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/143103">Many believe</a> the martini was invented in the 1860s at the Occidental Hotel in San Francisco by bartender Jerry Thomas.</p> <p>Thomas evolved a one part sloe gin, two parts sweet vermouth, maraschino and a dash of bitters with a lemon concoction into a drink he called the Martinez, which he made for passengers departing on the ferry to the town of the same name. It was said to also be prepared for miners celebrating striking gold.</p> <p>Others believe it was invented in 1911 at the Knickerbocker Hotel in New York by bartender Martini di Taggia, served to billionaire John D. Rockerfeller with equal parts London dry gin and dry vermouth. However, recipes for the drink were published as early as 1862, in Jerry Thomas’s Bartenders’ Guide.</p> <p>Stronger versions of the martini include two parts gin, and even up to five parts gin, to one part vermouth, garnished with olive or lemon.</p> <p>A “dry” martini has little to no vermouth at all – the focus being gin. Author T.S. Eliot once said:</p> <blockquote> <p>There is nothing quite so stimulating as a strong dry martini cocktail.</p> </blockquote> <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521990/original/file-20230420-16-tnbdz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521990/original/file-20230420-16-tnbdz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521990/original/file-20230420-16-tnbdz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=380&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521990/original/file-20230420-16-tnbdz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=380&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521990/original/file-20230420-16-tnbdz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=380&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521990/original/file-20230420-16-tnbdz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=478&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521990/original/file-20230420-16-tnbdz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=478&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521990/original/file-20230420-16-tnbdz5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=478&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" alt="" /></a><figcaption><span class="caption">A classic martini with olives as the garnish.</span> <span class="attribution">Shutterstock</span></figcaption></figure> <h2>The martini’s rise, fall and rise again</h2> <p>During the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/19th-century/gilded-age">Gilded Age</a> (1880-1900), the martini rose in popularity and remained so through to the mid-20th century.</p> <p>Prohibition in America during 1920 to 1933 did little to harm the martini’s popularity, as backyard gin production was reasonably easy.</p> <p>In the 1960s the drink’s popularity started to wane due to the burgeoning quality and availability of other beverages such as wines and beers. There were also concerns about alcohol consumption and health.</p> <p>With the increasing popularity of “retro” style and culture in recent years the martini has made a comeback, with <a href="https://vinepair.com/articles/martini-hype-train/">reports of increased demand</a> for the drink among young people.</p> <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521989/original/file-20230420-22-ci80sy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521989/original/file-20230420-22-ci80sy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521989/original/file-20230420-22-ci80sy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=458&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521989/original/file-20230420-22-ci80sy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=458&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521989/original/file-20230420-22-ci80sy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=458&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521989/original/file-20230420-22-ci80sy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=576&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521989/original/file-20230420-22-ci80sy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=576&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521989/original/file-20230420-22-ci80sy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=576&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" alt="" /></a><figcaption><span class="caption">Customers at a Philadelphia bar after Prohibition’s end, Dec. 1933.</span> <span class="attribution">Shutterstock</span></figcaption></figure> <h2>Martini and its variations</h2> <p>Today, the martini (or a common variation of it) is best known for its identity in popular culture, most famously as the drink of fictional British Secret Service agent, James Bond. The famous phrase “shaken, not stirred” was first uttered on screen by actor Sean Connery playing Bond in the 1964 movie Goldfinger. Bond’s tipple of choice is prepared with vodka rather than gin.</p> <p>While most purists believe the gin martini is the classic form of the drink, there are myriad variations that use the martini name or are closely related to the original drink, such as <a href="https://www.liquor.com/recipes/gibson/">the Gibson</a>, a classic martini garnished with cocktail onions instead of olives.</p> <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521991/original/file-20230420-3001-awnpdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521991/original/file-20230420-3001-awnpdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521991/original/file-20230420-3001-awnpdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=597&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521991/original/file-20230420-3001-awnpdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=597&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521991/original/file-20230420-3001-awnpdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=597&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521991/original/file-20230420-3001-awnpdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=750&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521991/original/file-20230420-3001-awnpdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=750&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521991/original/file-20230420-3001-awnpdc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=750&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" alt="" /></a><figcaption><span class="caption">Sean Connory as James Bond, making his signature vodka martini.</span> <span class="attribution">Wikimedia</span></figcaption></figure> <p><a href="https://www.spiritshunters.com/cocktail/the-history-of-the-dirty-martini/">The “dirty” martini </a>is currently popular, which is gin soiled with a generous dash of brine from the olive jar. According to the Oxford Companion to Spirits &amp; Cocktails, the practice of adding brine to a martini has been around since at least 1901. The term “dirty martini” seemingly wasn’t coined until the 1980s, however.</p> <p>US president Franklin Delano Roosevelt may have been an early proponent of using olive brine in cocktails. Allegedly, the president “would shake up a drink at the drop of a hat … and was reported to have splashed a bite of brine in his drinks at the White House,” writes Robert Simonson in The Martini Cocktail: A Meditation on the World’s Greatest Drink, with Recipes.</p> <p><a href="https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/espresso-martini-vodka-cocktail">The story goes</a> that London bartender Dick Bradsell first made the espresso martini, a fusion of espresso, sweet coffee liqueur and vodka, in the late 1980s when supermodel Kate Moss (or sometimes Naomi Campbell) asked for a drink that would “wake me up and fuck me up”.</p> <figure class="align-center zoomable"><a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521984/original/file-20230420-2604-g4y6r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521984/original/file-20230420-2604-g4y6r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521984/original/file-20230420-2604-g4y6r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=399&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521984/original/file-20230420-2604-g4y6r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=399&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521984/original/file-20230420-2604-g4y6r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=399&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521984/original/file-20230420-2604-g4y6r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=502&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521984/original/file-20230420-2604-g4y6r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=502&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/521984/original/file-20230420-2604-g4y6r4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=502&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w" alt="" /></a><figcaption><span class="caption">The espresso martini.</span> <span class="attribution">Shutterstock</span></figcaption></figure> <p>There are many modern drinks that use the iconic martini glass to justify using martini in their name – however, they bear little resemblance to the original cocktail. An appletini is vodka blended with apple juice, apple cider or apple brandy, while the “French martini” consists of vodka, pineapple juice and raspberry liqueur. The TV show Sex and the City popularised the “flirtini”, containing vodka, champagne and pineapple juice.</p> <figure><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8STeT9WrYtU?wmode=transparent&amp;start=0" width="440" height="260" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></figure> <h2>Keeping cool</h2> <p>A martini glass – a classic conical bowl on a long straight stem – is one aspect of the drink that does not change.</p> <p>The glass was <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/homes-and-property/design-moment-martini-glass-1925-1.4094434">formally unveiled at the 1925 Paris Exhibition</a> as an alternative to the classic champagne glass.</p> <p>The long stem allows the glass to be held while the drink remains cool, not warmed by the drinker’s hands. The wide rim allows the drinker’s nose to be close to the liquid when sipping, so the aromatics can be easily appreciated.</p> <h2>Never out of style</h2> <p>While Bond embodied the glamorous side of the martini, studies of writer Ian Fleming’s famous spy indicate that Bond had a <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-names-bond-james-bond-and-im-an-alcoholic-21440">severe problem with alcohol</a> consumption. On occasion he may have had a blood alcohol concentration of .36% – almost fatal.</p> <p>The martini should be consumed with deference … and in moderation.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195913/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/ursula-kennedy-560331">Ursula Kennedy</a>, Lecturer of Wine Science, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-southern-queensland-1069">University of Southern Queensland</a></em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/alluring-classic-glamorous-the-history-of-the-martini-cocktail-195913">original article</a>.</em></p> <p><em>Images: Getty</em></p>

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A life of long weekends is alluring but not practical

<p>When Microsoft gave its 2,300 employees in Japan <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/nov/04/microsoft-japan-four-day-work-week-productivity">five Fridays off in a row</a>, it found productivity jumped 40%.</p> <p>When financial services company Perpetual Guardian in New Zealand trialled <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/feb/19/four-day-week-trial-study-finds-lower-stress-but-no-cut-in-output">eight Fridays off in a row</a>, its 240 staff reported feeling more committed, stimulated and empowered.</p> <p>Around the world there’s renewed interest in reducing the standard working week. But a question arises. Is instituting the four-day week, while retaining the eight-hour workday, the best way to reduce working hours?</p> <p>Arguably, retaining the five-day week but cutting the working day to seven or six hours is a better way to go.</p> <p><strong>Shorter days, then weeks</strong></p> <p>History highlights some of the differences between the two options.</p> <p>At the height of the Industrial Revolution, in the 1850s, a 12-hour working day and a six-day working week – 72 hours in total – was common.</p> <p>Mass campaigns, vigorously opposed by business owners, emerged to reduce the length of the working day, initially from 12 hours to ten, then to eight.</p> <p>Building workers in Victoria, Australia, were among the first in the world to secure an eight-hour day, <a href="https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/publications/research-papers/download/36-research-papers/13812-heritage-note-no-1-2017-the-origins-of-the-eight-hour-day-in-victoria">in 1856</a>. For most workers in most countries, though, it did not become standard until the first decades of the 20th century.</p> <p>The campaign for shorter working days was based largely on worker fatigue and health and safety concerns. But it was also argued that working men needed time to read and study, and would be <a href="http://ergo.slv.vic.gov.au/explore-history/fight-rights/workers-rights/origins-8-hour-day">better husbands, fathers and citizens</a>.</p> <p>Reducing the length of the working week from six days came later in the 20th century.</p> <p>First it was reduced to five-and-a-half days, then to five, resulting in the creation of “the weekend”. This occurred in most of the industrialised world from the 1940s to 1960s. In Australia the 40-hour five-day working week became the law of the land <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/70-years-ago-today-the-40hour-five-day-working-week-began-20180101-h0c3dd.html">in 1948</a>. These changes occurred despite two world wars and the Great Depression.</p> <p><strong>Stalled campaign</strong></p> <p>In the 1970s, campaigns for reduced working hours ground to a halt in most industrialised countries.</p> <p>As more women have joined the paid workforce, however, the total workload (paid and unpaid) for <a href="https://theconversation.com/grappling-with-the-time-bomb-of-australias-work-rest-and-play-5330">the average family increased</a>. This led to concerns about “time squeeze” and overwork.</p> <p>The issue has re-emerged over the past decade or so from a range of interests, including feminism and environmentalism.</p> <p><strong>Back on the agenda</strong></p> <p>A key concern is still worker fatigue, both mental and physical. This is not just from paid work but also from the growing demands of family and social life in the 21st century. It arises on a daily, weekly, annual and lifetime basis.</p> <p>We seek to recover from daily fatigue during sleep and daily leisure. Some residual fatigue nevertheless accumulates over the week, which we recover from over the weekend. Over longer periods we recover during public holidays (long weekends) and annual holidays and even, over a lifetime, during retirement.</p> <p>So would we be better off working fewer hours a day or having a longer weekend?</p> <p>Arguably it is the pressure to fit family and personal commitments into the few hours between getting home and bedtime that is the main source of today’s time-squeeze, particularly for families. This suggests the priority should be the shorter working day rather than the four-day week.</p> <p>Sociologist Cynthia Negrey is among those who suggest reducing the length of the workday, especially to mesh with children’s school days, as part of the feminist enterprise to alleviate the “sense of daily time famine” she writes about in her 2012 book, <a href="http://politybooks.com/bookdetail/?isbn=9780745654256">Work Time: Conflict, Control, and Change</a>.</p> <p><strong>Historical cautions</strong></p> <p>It’s worth bearing in mind the historical fall in the working week from 72 to 40 hours was achieved at a rate of only about 3.5 hours a decade. The biggest single step – from six to five-and-half days – was a reduction of 8% in working hours. Moving to a six-hour day or a four-day week would involve a reduction of about 20% in one step. It therefore seems practical to campaign for this in a number of stages.</p> <p>We should also treat with caution results of one-off, short-term, single-company experiments with the four-day week. These typically occur in organisations with leadership and work cultures willing and able to experiment with the concept. Employees are likely to see themselves as “special” and may be conscious of the need to make the experiment work. Painless economy-wide application cannot be taken for granted.</p> <p><em>Written by Anthony Veal. Republished with permission of <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-life-of-long-weekends-is-alluring-but-the-shorter-working-day-may-be-more-practical-127817">The Conversation.</a> </em></p>

Retirement Life

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The allure of Cape Town

<p>Sometimes it seems that Cape Town isn’t really part of Africa at all. Rather it’s a hipster chunk of Europe that somehow found itself at the bottom of Africa. The locals spend a lot more time discussing coffee and cuisine than you’d expect to find in the wild Dark Continent.<br /><br />The city is in a sublime location. When discussing the world’s most picturesque harbour cities we always find Sydney, Rio, Vancouver on the list. But for bay cities, Cape Town must reign supreme with Table Mountain looming behind it.<br /><br />Here are some of the highlights.<br /><br /><strong>Table Mountain</strong><br />For early mariners, the first sight of the flat summit of Table Mountain announced they were safely around the Cape of Good Hope and a well provisioned port lay ahead.</p> <p>Today, taking the <a href="http://www.tablemountain.net/">cable car</a> up to walk around the mountain and survey the city and bay beyond is the one essential thing to do. Walk around the corner and you can see most of the way to the Cape and over the upmarket suburb of Camps Bay and Hout Bay beyond.</p> <p>One unexpected delight of this excursion is the furry mammals you’ll find up there. They are called dassies or rock hyrax and look like marmots or large rats, depending how kindly you view them. But their closest living relative is the elephant. You’ll need a big step in imagination to see the family resemblance.<br /><br /><strong>Victoria and Alfred Waterfront</strong><br />The ongoing redevelopment of the waterfront has been a crowning glory to the city. Lots of hipster coffee shops, all the mainstream brand shops and a great African arts and crafts hall.</p> <p>I bought a painting made from used tea bags in a dedicated charity shop. Whoever in the village had the idea, it was inspired. And it is the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront – not the Victoria and Albert Waterfront because it’s named after the queen and her second son, not her long-lamented husband.<br /><br />Cruises leave from here too – a sunset cruise is a great way to see this spectacular city and the mountain from the water and if you’re lucky you may see the “tablecloth” roll in.<br /><br /><strong>Food</strong><br />Cape Town has always been a cosmopolitan city and that’s reflected in the food. Whether seeking Cape Malay or any international cuisine there will be choice – and the local meat, fish and produce are excellent.</p> <p>You’ll find game, from crocodile to kudu, on many menus, too. The best restaurant in town is The Test Kitchen that is listed as one of the world’s best. But book well in advance and even then, good luck getting a table.</p> <p><strong>Company’s Garden</strong><br />Right in the heart of the city are the Company’s Garden, created in 1650 and featuring a large statue to Cecil Rhodes.</p> <p>Whether you appreciate the legacy of Rhodes or see him as an oppressor, wandering through the gardens is a pleasant way to cool down in the city. If you want a more expansive garden, head to the Botanic Gardens in the shadow of Table Mountain.<br /><br /><strong>Winnebagos on the roof</strong><br />Before the rest of the world’s hotels thought of sticking seven Airstream mobile homes on the roof of premises, the <a href="http://granddaddy.co.za/">Grand Daddy Boutique Hotel</a> on Long St did it first – and then put a rooftop cinema in the middle. It may not be five star but it’s certainly unusual.<br /><br /><strong>Robben Island</strong><br />If you wish to visit Robben Island it’s a very good idea to book tickets in advance as they often sell out. <br /><br />Most of us know of Robben Island - the flat 2x3km island about seven km from Cape Town - as the prison that held Nelson Mandela for 18 of his 27 years as a political prisoner during South Africa’s apartheid era. The 3.5 hour tour has two distinct parts.</p> <p>The first is a general tour of the island where you learn that it also served as a leper colony and an animal quarantine staion. The circumnavigation includes a stop where penguins can be seen on the beach.</p> <p>That’s a soft introduction to a tour of the prison on which you’re shown around by a former prison inmate. I asked out guide if he found it hard to be back here and he said that it took him a couple of years to come to terms with it. Of course, you are shown Mandela’s cell and learn how hard conditions in the prison were.<br /><br /><strong>Cape of Good Hope</strong><br />If there is one essential tour out from Cape Town, it’s down to the Cape of Good Hope. This is not the southernmost point of the African continent but it is one of the world’s three Great Capes – the other two are Cape Horn and WA’s Cape Leeuwin.</p> <p>It’s a rugged place and there’s always the chance to see wildlife like antelopes, ostrich, baboons and zebra.</p> <p><strong>Penguin patrol</strong><br />There are quite a lot of penguins to be found in the waters off Cape Town. These are African penguins and they look a lot like the Magellanic penguins of South America. Both are sometimes called jackass penguins for the braying sound they make. They can be seen on a tour of Robben Island.</p> <p>Or if you wish to get close to them you can head to Boulders Beach near Simon’s Town or Stony Point near Betty’s Beach – both have boardwalks and charge an admission fee.<br /><br /><strong>Helicopter overview</strong><br />If you are in Cape Town when the weather is good, it’s worthwhile taking a helicopter flight out over the bay for a spectacular aerial view of the city. We used <a href="http://www.nachelicopterscapetown.com/">NAC Helicopters</a> and the grand panoramas made the short flight great value.</p> <p><strong>Staying</strong><br />Cape Town has a wide range of hotels. Many are at the V&amp;A Waterfront. A personal favourite is the <a href="http://www.westincapetown.com/">Westin Cape Town</a>, particularly the Executive Club with a lounge that offers unsurpassed views across the city to Table Mountain.<br /><br /><a href="http://tintswalo.com/atlantic">Tintswalo Atlantic</a> is a very alternative option. It’s a unique luxury boutique hotel on Hout Bay, located within the National Park.</p> <p>The waves lap the rocks below your balcony so you feel very much in the wild although the city and airport are only minutes away. The wild surrounds and the absolute luxury within create a</p> <p> very special experience.<br /><br /><strong>Cape Province delights</strong><br />Whether your interest is in the whales and sharks of Hermanus, the Cape flowers, the wines of Franschhoek and Stellenbosch, or setting off on the Garden Route, Cape Town is the perfect starting point. Just a few days here will convince you that Africa is a wonderland ripe for exploration.</p> <p><em>Written by David McGonigal. Republished with permission of </em><a href="https://www.wyza.com.au/articles/travel/the-allure-of-cape-town.aspx"><em>Wyza.com.au.</em></a></p>

Cruising

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