Photography: Container Ships and I

My father has always despaired over the fact that his children do not have an understanding of seasonality when it comes to foods.  Deeply embedded in his land, he is very attune to what grows when.  So when he would see us buying bananas and strawberries in the middle of winter he would lose it.  The lecture would start.  Did we know where that came from?  Did we understand the effort it took in man power  and resources to get that banana from Brazil to Graz?  The damage being done to the earth with all these boats criss-crossing the globe so that spoilt children like us could have STRAWBERRIES in winter?   And that for the rest of the winter we would limit ourselves to things that grew in Europe in winter or ELSE!  He shouted, we nodded, we ignored. Last weekend though I had the experience of visiting one if these container ships (they are called vessels apparently).  We went to the container port in Hong Kong and had a 3 hour tour of the Octavia.  My sister's new squeeze is German, and involved in shipping. My sister and I have many talents, some are yet undiscovered.  We have no talent or understanding for anything technical though.  The three hour tour speckled with lectures on ballast, engines, fuel, turbo charges etc completely passed us by.  See pictured below, my sister's eyes glazed as the BF explains something.  The engine room was so hot that I would not be able to tell you the difference between the generator and the actual engine, as I was very concerned with the sweat coming down my legs.  Nevertheless I did come out of there with a new understanding of the huge endeavour it takes for modern society to function how it does.  The logistics alone are mind-boggling and I think maybe I will be a little more circumspect when going to the supermarket from now on... Oh and I also learned that stowaways are a thing in Africa.