ONE down and eleven to go and, rather predictably, we’re Costa heavy this month. And, as Chinese New Year celebrations come to an end and we enter the Year of the Dragon, special events are on our minds.
Not only is this year an Olympics year – and therefore four years on(!) from the freight market collapse which immediately followed the Beijing Olympics – and the 60th anniversary of the coronation of the British Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, it is the hundredth anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, the 150th anniversary of the Plymouth School of Navigation (now Plymouth University) and the 40th anniversary conference of PYNDA, the Plymouth Nautical Degree Association. Those of you who remember their notorious 2001 conference ‘Shipping dot com, What’s it all about?’ will no doubt want to relive old times and warm up your shipping intellects and marinate your livers in anticipation.