Silversea Water Cooler: Welcome!

[spinnaker2]

Morning from south Florida...this is my first official day of retirement. So I will catch up on all the posts...and then.....

[TLCOhio]

Terry, The newly refurbished Imperial War Museum is well worth a visit for young and old. It is situated on Lambeth Road and the nearest tube station is Lambeth North.

 

Appreciate this added suggestion for London that I had missed yesterday afternoon on this CC board. Have passed it along to my friend! Very helpful.

 

I have not been to this location, yet, but this good suggestion would be well worth considering. The Brits have had a long, long history with wars for many hundreds of years.

 

Love the London “lingo” on how you have labeled things there by the “nearest tube station”? Of course, I personally love to hear the English speak anything in their wonderful, proper style. Fun being around Brits!!

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

Back from doing a 14-day Celebrity Solstice, Jan. 20-Feb. 3, 2014, Sydney to Auckland adventure on this ship and getting a big sampling for the wonders of "down under” before and after this cruise. Go to:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1974139

for much more information and lots of wonderful pictures on these amazing sights in this great part of the world. Now at 75,594 views for this fun posting.

[UKCruiseJeff]

Morning from south Florida...this is my first official day of retirement. So I will catch up on all the posts...and then.....

 

 

An extraordinary amount of best wishes and good luck and health to you and yours on the milestone moment of cutting yourself adrift.

 

[spinnaker2]

Thanks much. I do feel slightly adrift.

So much going on in the world that gives one pause. When toiling at the office one can only focus on those issues within a short time period.

[UKCruiseJeff]

Thanks much. I do feel slightly adrift.

So much going on in the world that gives one pause. When toiling at the office one can only focus on those issues within a short time period.

 

 

I perfectly understand.

 

It has sometimes been a term of abuse from the less intelligent - particlarly on the net - to say "do you not have anything better to do" and the reality is that the sign of real good fortune in life is for many - "not having anything better to do".

 

If you are clever -which you are because you were successful in a cranial profession - then you will find it challenging to work out what you now are and what your new function is and what others should identify you as. Before you knew. You were identified with your professional personna. Now you are not. I'm perfectly at ease with that because I am both very scruffy and very uncompetitive. So if people meet me and think I am not worthy of their attention that is fine.

 

Take time to reflect. Doing unimportant things should not be confused with spending your time unimportantly.

 

Do share your transition as it progresses, as this is a lovely topic to share and mull over together particularly as you can say quite a lot with the advantage of knowing you'll not meet people.

 

:)

[lincslady]

I can understand now why I like reading your stuff, Jeff - as well as everyone else's of course. My own DH held down a pretty important job, and is now very scruffy and uncompetitive, and all who meet him for the first time are quite surprised to discover he has an interesting professional history. Much to be preferred to the overly pompous!

[specialcruisegirl]

Morning from south Florida...this is my first official day of retirement. So I will catch up on all the posts...and then.....

 

Spin,

 

May l wish you a very long and happy retirement, I'm sure you'll enjoy every moment.

 

Sophia :)

[spinnaker2]

Thanks for the good wishes!

[UKCruiseJeff]

Mark K

 

Obama is looking for you .....

 

 

Barack Obama in Stonehenge visit on return from NATO summit

 

The White House said that the presidential helicopter Marine One made an unannounced stop at Boscombe Down Airbase, Wiltshire before his motorcade drove to the ancient monument.

 

The president was then given a guided tour by curator Heather Sebire.

 

English Heritage, which manages the site, said it was "an honour" to host the president.

 

General manager of Stonehenge, Kate Davies said: "His office told us the president was very interested to see the iconic monument for himself.

 

"Every day people from all over the world make the trip to the ancient stones but this visit was a particularly special one."

 

Ms Sebire said Mr Obama "was fascinated by the story of the stones, what we know about them and the mysteries that have yet to be solved.

 

"He described the atmosphere around the stones as 'really special' and his visit to Stonehenge as 'a highlight of my tour'.

 

"It was a beautiful still evening and it was a privilege to show the US president around this unique monument which continues to inspire and intrigue people."

 

 

 

 

Edited September 5, 2014 by UKCruiseJeff

[UKCruiseJeff]

I can understand now why I like reading your stuff, Jeff - as well as everyone else's of course. My own DH held down a pretty important job, and is now very scruffy and uncompetitive, and all who meet him for the first time are quite surprised to discover he has an interesting professional history. Much to be preferred to the overly pompous!

 

thanks for a lovely comment!

 

If you are reading this now, you should be watching Paloma Faith on BBC4 doing the Proms! Wonderful. It is impossible not to smile when she performs. :)

Edited September 5, 2014 by UKCruiseJeff

[specialcruisegirl]

Morning All,

 

Dull and mist morning with a definite autumn feel.

 

Jeff, l saw Paloma, excellent, sadly l fell asleep and missed a lot...hectic day yesterday...l was bushed.

 

Happy Saturday

 

S:)

[UKCruiseJeff]

Morning All,

 

Dull and mist morning with a definite autumn feel.

 

Jeff, l saw Paloma, excellent, sadly l fell asleep and missed a lot...hectic day yesterday...l was bushed.

 

Happy Saturday

 

S:)

 

Good Morning. Overcast here ....

 

 

She was very good but I am still utterly perplexed as to why her album "Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful?" which was packed with uniqueness and originality mostly written by her - and is in my top 5 of all albums of all time - never really did as well as it should. Sadly she only featured one track from it last night. She was clearly terrified of the Royal Albert Hall.

 

Yesterdays Lamb Kofta .....

 

Edited September 6, 2014 by UKCruiseJeff

[lincslady]

Didn't see it, Jeff - just read your post this morning. Plan however to watch the review programme this evening, to see what I have been missing, if they show some of it.

 

Being an old fuddy-duddy, most of today's 'pop and rock' passes me by. I love stuff from the Beatles era, the Hollies, Beach Boys etc., and best of all the wonderful old songs of people like Cole Porter etc., with the fantastic lyrics. Also have to admit to enjoying the awful stuff like the Quo.

 

I am intrigued by your cruising 'history' - you seem to have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Silversea? Have you done any recent cruises with them or any other line? (That is if you feel like answering of course). We feel we have definitely moved on to Seabourn. I know they are part of the dreaded Carnival, but they do seem to have kept their individual character pretty well, and are not at all like Carnival or Costa, thank goodness.

[specialcruisegirl]

Yes, she looked rather overwhelmed by the RAH....but it is a spectacular place is it not.....:)

 

Kofta looks good, I'm back on the iceberg wedge today with some prawns and a jacket!

 

Having a chill weekend after the rather hectic week.....been watching some you tube footage of various stuff...started off looking at some Joan Crawford and Bette Davis interviews having just finished reading about their spats!

 

Finished off watching the last Concorde flight which was on Oct 24th 2003...such a beautiful aircraft that l had the pleasure flying on in 1995.......guess l must be in nostalgic mood today....:rolleyes:

 

S:)

[specialcruisegirl]

Didn't see it, Jeff - just read your post this morning. Plan however to watch the review programme this evening, to see what I have been missing, if they show some of it.

 

Being an old fuddy-duddy, most of today's 'pop and rock' passes me by. I love stuff from the Beatles era, the Hollies, Beach Boys etc., and best of all the wonderful old songs of people like Cole Porter etc., with the fantastic lyrics. Also have to admit to enjoying the awful stuff like the Quo.

 

I am intrigued by your cruising 'history' - you seem to have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Silversea? Have you done any recent cruises with them or any other line? (That is if you feel like answering of course). We feel we have definitely moved on to Seabourn. I know they are part of the dreaded Carnival, but they do seem to have kept their individual character pretty well, and are not at all like Carnival or Costa, thank goodness.

 

Hi LL,

 

We appear to share a similar taste in music....except Quo...who l love:cool:

 

The 60's was my era....the time when we could sing along to the lyrics!!

Sinatra and Nat were our favourite crooners....but l do still like a bit of the old rock n roll, even though the old legs can't quite manage a good jive these days...;)

 

S:)

[UKCruiseJeff]

Hi LL,

 

No secret at all. Last cruise was three years'ish ago and we were invited (freeby) onto a Seadream charter ...... hated it. Wouldn't go back even for another freeby.

 

All those previous had been SS and to be honest the last two were not wholly successful. On one we'd been VIP'ed because of the previous work relationship and some of this actually caused issues I'd prefer avoided. Also several elements of the cruise also conspired together to make me feel "sod it" and that was our last. I don't see another soon - until I think that there is actually a line that is suitable for me. We've gone through all this before so I don't want to bore but the main elements are:

 

1. Exceptional food. Doesn't have to be faux silver service just simply good unpretentious.

 

2. Smart informal for the whole cruise. If these lines are going to attract the new rich generation, these people do not wear suits to go to dinner and don't take well to being told how to dress.

 

3. Completely child-free.

 

etc.

 

Also, we have been to most of the places we have wanted to visit, so in the end the cruise and ship would be the destination - hence it would need to be better than the other choices we have and currently we don't see it is.

 

On the music front, I'm still obsessed with music and like to explore in exactly the same way I do with food. I'm lucky that I was in the music industry when I think it was at it's finest and have lot's of memories that seem so recent. I posted a link a day or so ago to "Granny takes a trip" for example and realised that even now I remember every word of it. Last nighht on the Paloma consert, there was a large wonderful 50 to 60 piece gospel choir .. I think they were session people .... and one of the ladies looked like Sunny of "Sue and Sunny" (actually the Wheatman sisters) ..... most people will remember the two sisters as the two prominent voices in Joe Cocker's "I get by with a little help from my friends". They also sung with Alex Harvey who I mentioned some time back. It reminded me of the days when we all congregated in The Giaconda in Denmark Street (Tin Pan Alley) and argued about who's turn it was to buy thenext round of frothy coffee. So much of the music to me is a mixture of the music and some of it memories.

 

I love Brazilian, Cuban, some African .... and also follow some of the current stuff and whilst I can no longer predict hits ... some of the current artistes are great.

 

 

Jeff

[UKCruiseJeff]

Good afternoon Coolies. Today's misdemeanours.

 

Double cooked chilli pork belly with shenanigans. Possibly the cheapest meal that has ever been made'ish. Except for the champagne. The meat was £2:50 and as enough for a tribe. I know that street food shouldn't have champagne but this is my version of street food as it was a day that required champagne.

 

This is how we got there.

 

 

 

 

 

[lincslady]

Sophia - you misread me - I too love Quo, just feel that everyone thinks they are a bit naff!

 

Jeff - thanks for your input on cruising. We too have been to most places, and since we now do not like long haul flights confine our cruising to the Med. and Europe; OK, we know nearly all the ports, but many still appeal, like Ajaccio, Bandol, little Greek islands etc. Since we love being at sea, the ship is really the main destination. Regarding what we require of a ship - much the same as you. Sadly, child-free only applies to a few lines we would not care for, like some of the P and O ships etc. Apart from a guarantee of child-free, Seabourn does fill our needs - funnily enough they have just relaxed the evening dress code, so it seems no jacket is required for men apart from the odd night in the main dining room. Talking of which, some men feel that a biker type leather jacket with tee shirt underneath qualifies, and we have seen them get away with it!

 

Seadream - tried it 3 times, and for various reasons mainly to do with 'atmosphere' decided it was not for us either. (And the fact that although the food at dinner was sometimes gorgeous the wines were often awful, and no choice was allowed).

 

Sorry, I have been getting away from the main point of the water cooler, which seems be to discuss anything except cruising in detail!

 

A rather grey day here, and DH is currently in discussion with our 'tree fellers' about pruning a huge silver birch in our driveway. I suppose everyone knows the tree fellers joke - an Irishman said 'we applied for a job, but they needed tree fellers and there's only two of us.' Sorry.

[UKCruiseJeff]

Sophia - you misread me - I too love Quo, just feel that everyone thinks they are a bit naff!

 

Jeff - thanks for your input on cruising. We too have been to most places, and since we now do not like long haul flights confine our cruising to the Med. and Europe; OK, we know nearly all the ports, but many still appeal, like Ajaccio, Bandol, little Greek islands etc. Since we love being at sea, the ship is really the main destination. Regarding what we require of a ship - much the same as you. Sadly, child-free only applies to a few lines we would not care for, like some of the P and O ships etc. Apart from a guarantee of child-free, Seabourn does fill our needs - funnily enough they have just relaxed the evening dress code, so it seems no jacket is required for men apart from the odd night in the main dining room. Talking of which, some men feel that a biker type leather jacket with tee shirt underneath qualifies, and we have seen them get away with it!

 

Seadream - tried it 3 times, and for various reasons mainly to do with 'atmosphere' decided it was not for us either. (And the fact that although the food at dinner was sometimes gorgeous the wines were often awful, and no choice was allowed).

 

Sorry, I have been getting away from the main point of the water cooler, which seems be to discuss anything except cruising in detail!

 

A rather grey day here, and DH is currently in discussion with our 'tree fellers' about pruning a huge silver birch in our driveway. I suppose everyone knows the tree fellers joke - an Irishman said 'we applied for a job, but they needed tree fellers and there's only two of us.' Sorry.

 

 

Quite right LL, Quo are naff .... except for you and Sophy Gal. I know about these things. I promise. :p

 

On our SD trip the food, staff and pretty much everything was awful. But to be fair, I am a grumpy git. In mitigation, a humorous well balanced, lovable intelligent grumpy git. :eek:

 

I was however on a table for one dinner with a really delightful thick sloane. She was lovely, I mean really lovely - but incredibly mind-numbingly stupid. In an entertaining way.

 

I clearly heard her order her curry. I heard the words precisely. When it arrived, she picked at it judiciously for half and hour or so as if in search of something, and became more and more vexed. Eventually, the MD came up and asked her if all was as it should be with her meal. She said "there's not much meat in this curry" ... to which the MD answered the immortal words .."There tends not to be too much meat in a curry if you order a curry called "vegetarian curry" .. .but I am sorry and I'm happy to bring you a vegetarian curry with a bit more meat in it".

 

The med is always an issue for well-travelled Europeans. Take away all the mueaums that you've already seen, then not a single destination is as good during the day as it is at night, when the ships go. And if they don't go and stay overnight when you've already stumped up the cash for the ship grub, then why pay for a cruise if you are a European? Just go and stay! :)

 

LL. please do not feel that on-topic posts are off-topic. If you do, we'll be left in a cell by ourselves and get even lonelier......:rolleyes: :D

[spinnaker2]

Hello fresco ones!

Trying to figure out what the shenanigans are in the pork belly recipe, to no avail! I am stumped, must be some sort of slang? Like naff?

Raining and thunder here. Thinking that's good for lawn as it's been beastly hot here.

Spent yesterday trying to juggle numbers and dates to figure out a cruise to Antarctica, as it's on the list of to dos.

Even looked at hurtigruten, which looks interesting and also fun to say. One has to smile when saying it, I saw their vessels in the fjords in Norway.

Tonight is a football evening, big rivalry of michigan and Norte dame. So GO BLUE!

[TLCOhio]

Even looked at hurtigruten, which looks interesting and also fun to say. One has to smile when saying it, I saw their vessels in the fjords in Norway. Tonight is a football evening, big rivalry of michigan and Norte dame. So GO BLUE!

 

Yes, it's a big day in college football for the USA. Being an Ohio State fan, I will watch that Notre Dame-Michigan game with great interest. Have been at past UM-ND battles, personally, both in South Bend and at Ann Arbor. Both great venues for the drama of college traditions. Like the wonderful histories with both excellent programs, but probably lean to supporting the Big Ten's Michigan.

 

Below is one of my pictures in Norway for a Hurtigruten ships sailing in these scenic waters.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

For details and visuals, etc., from our July 1-16, 2010, Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise experience from Copenhagen on the Silver Cloud, check out this posting. This posting is now at 156,509 views. Nice to be hitting this high of a level for viewership. Appreciate the interest and follow-up questions/comments!!

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

 

 

Here is a picture from our ferry boat as we crossed south to Runde Island and its birdrock areas. This visual shows one of the famed Hurtigruten coastal ships that go up and down these waters on a regular basis with both passengers and freight. The ship is named after the famous Trollfjord, situated between the Vesterålen and the Lofoten Islands. The Trollfjord was one of the highlights of our cruise ship voyage south. It is famous locally for "The Battle of the Trollfjord" which took place here in the winter of 1890. Their website notes that ship has a "comfortable interior, with an extensive use of Norwegian wood and stone." MS Trollfjord's maiden voyage was in 2002 and is one of the newest ships in the Hurtigruten fleet. They note it has a beautiful panorama lounge and suites. On board, it has original paintings by Lofoten artist Kaare Espolin Johnsen. These paintings were originally on board the old Hurtigruten ship MS Harald Jarl. It was built at Norway shipyard, Fosen Mekaniske Verksteder. It has a capacity of 822 passengers and can hold 45 cars. Its gross tonnage is 16,140, length of 135.75, beam of 21.5 and a speed of 15.:

 

[specialcruisegirl]

LL....I did misread!! Damn senior moments....:rolleyes: my only excuse is that I'm currently bobbing about tending to the lodger who has one eye out of action...so the concentration is all over the shop!

 

Quo are not naff....Jeff's just jealous that they pulled more birds.....he knows the band well.....:D;)

 

Spin....a friend of mine sailed on Hurtigruten a few years back and really enjoyed.

 

So Jeff....is today special for you and Mrs J with the champagne lunch....:)

 

The lovely thing about the cooler is that we can chat about anything including cruising....nothing is off topic....even Jeff liking a Brazilian...;)

 

S:)

[spinnaker2]

I don't know if Jeff was referring to waxing or was it waning?

[V8Babe]

I think Jeff and Mrs Jeff might be celebrating birthdays - remember reading it earlier and weren't you going to Vienna, Jeff? But I think I also read that you may have cancelled that??

 

Won't wish you Happy Birthday yet in case I'm wrong ;)

 

Enjoying reading the musings about retirement, some very interesting thoughts and I've passed these on to my Jeff as he's 'getting near that age'.

 

Thanks again to all my Cooler friends.

 

Karin

[UKCruiseJeff]

Good morning all ....

 

If you don't mind me saying, no one ..... I mean NO ONE ..... has expressed admiration for my pork. I am proud of that pork. Just sayin' .....:)

 

No special occaision for the champers just she needed her spirits lifting a bit .. she'd had a day or two ... and Asian food does go well with a glass of Bredon.

 

Karin, you have a great memory, our birthdays are 17th (mine) 19th (Wifey) and 16th (daughters) ..... and I am 36 hours older than wifey and I guess always will be. Yes we were going to Vienna but cancelled after our earlier visit this year ... and then I had booked to take her for lunch on the 20th in Nice for the day, but she asked me to cancel that ... so we're going down to the beach next Monday'ish for around 8 or 9 days.

 

Yes Sophy Gal, you are quite correct - they (Quo) were always trying to steal my "birds" but as is the way of these things I was always choosing girls that were totally unimpressed with the pop business and on at least one occaision had absolutly no idea who they were which had the lovely effect of both deflating them and quietening them down for 5 minutes. They just weren't my type of music.

 

When introducing them, if they had irritated me during "setting up" I'd sometimes introduce them by playing their first record "I who have nothing" when they were The Spectres a particularly naff record for which they tried to distance themselves. After the first time I did that, on subsequent days all I'd have to do was hum "I .... de de de derrr .. I who have nothing .... dad dad dad dahhhh" and they would shut up quickly.

 

Roy Lynes - their first organist spent three months trying to flog me his red Jag. I played with this for a while. He was very determined. I never told him for three months that I couldn't drive and when I finally told him he asked why I hadn't said so before and I told him I was enjoying his efforts far too much. :D I could tell you stories ......;)

 

Jeff