Roger Daltrey croons on a cruise? Also, western Australia working hard for biz

I've heard of rock and roll themed cruises, usually with slightly lesser-known bands hanging about to mix with their fans and such. But an item in USA Today Travel got my attention today by reporting that cruise ship passengers on the Queen Mary 2 noted that esteemed rocker Roger Daltrey, lead singer for The Who, took to the stage at sea recently and belted out "Pinball Wizard" and "My Generation," which, back in the day, was a challenge against the very sort of people who took cruises instead of snorting coke and jumping off stages and lighting their guitars on fire at hippie music festivals.

I don't know, but sources tell me Daltrey did a reworking of "My Generation" for the Queen Mary crowd.

"People try to put us down, just because we cruise around, Trips we take don't look bold, hope we don't die before the buffet gets cold."

Just a rumour...

WESTERN AUSTRALIA LIKE AVIS

Spotted a fairly stupid beginning to a pretty good story on Forbes.com today. The writer does a nice job talking up how Perth and other parts of Western Australia are working to get more tourism. But he starts off the piece with a rather inane comment, asking "Why don’t the majority of travellers to Australia tend to have a Western leaning?"

I got news for you, bud. IT'S A BLOOMING LONG WAY, THAT'S WHY!

Most North Americans get only two weeks of vacation a year. It's already a honkin' huge hassle to get to Sydney from, say, Toronto or New York. It's not many folks who are going to get up, have breakfast, fight the traffic to Pearson, wait in line at the airport, clear security, take a five-hour flight from the eastern seaboard to Los Angeles, wait three hours for their connection (or more), take a 14-hour flight to Sydney in economy with obnoxious, seat-slamming people in front of them and bad airline food and then land in Australia and think, "Gee, let's skip the Opera House and Manly Beach and Melbourne and the Coast Road" and take ANOTHER five-hour flight across the enormous country of Australia and check out Perth.

Don't get me wrong. I've never been to Western Australia, but it's tops on my list for my next Australian visit. I've seen the Barrier Reef and Sydney and Melbourne and the outback, not to mention ultra-fabulous Lord Howe Island WAY off the shore of eastern Australia. But I haven't seen Perth or the magnificent, long and lonely beaches of the west or the Margaret River wine region. And I'd dearly love to do that. Perhaps sneak in Adelaide and the Barossa Valley, too, or even take the train across the Nullarbor Plain.

CATHAY PACIFIC BLITZES TORONTO

Cathay Pacific is celebrating its new, daily, twice-a-day non-stop flights from Toronto to fabulous Hong Kong. From May 16 to June 12, the airline has wrapped nearly every available Union Station surface with advertising to promote awareness of the newly expanded schedule. The advertising creative is centred around the airline’s unique “People and Service” campaign, featuring real-life employees.

On  June 1^st and 2^nd the company’s visibility at Union Station will spread its wings further as commuters visiting Union Station will receive a memento from the on-site Cathay Pacific Street Team, according to a press release issued today.

It's certainly an attractive airline and the convenience of getting to Hong Kong on a non-stop is enormous...