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Silversea Water Cooler: Welcome! Part Five


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8 hours ago, Daveywavey70 said:

Afternoon all. Hope you’ve had a good Easter. 

 

We’re currently enjoying a little heatwave in the u.k.........

8D8B9647-AE17-4E18-9CA5-A369E7EF208B.jpeg

Davey, how did you get that great picture of me?   Sorry, looks like I am showing a bit too much leg, I'll put on a skort next time.

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5 hours ago, TLCOhio said:

 

Great updating and comments.  So glad that you loved NYC.  Yes, it's an amazing city with such wonderful cultural, Broadway, etc., options to enjoy.  Will check out your Azamara posting.  Yes, some on these Cruise Critic boards get highly "defensive" in blindly attacking anyone to raise questions and/or share "reality" from sailing on THEIR favorite cruise line.  I am sure you were just being honest. 

 

Where are you planning for doing your river cruise?

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

 

SE Asia/Mekong River, Etc.!  Live/blog from early 2018, first adventure through SE Asia, stops in Hong Kong and Bangkok, before exploring all over Vietnam and Cambodia, seven days sailing on the Mekong River. Now at 46,091 views.

www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2591474

Hi Terry, not sure what I am going to do......I need to start over and look at some itineraries. Uniworld has 200.00 of my money so I need to look at them.  I know JP and Chris have sailed with them and from what I recall they really enjoyed their cruises.

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Hi JP, yes, the hotel is lovely:classic_smile:. I ended up eating at a restaurant right around the corner called Da Claudio (Italian). It was very good.

Not sure what itinerary but there is one on the PO River...…(I have fallen in love with Italy). I am going to look at that one.....

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A quiet couple of days on the Cooler. Looking forward to some quiet myself this weekend. Work was annoying last weekend, even though it wasn't very busy, so I'm definitely ready for a break.

 

Putting final touches on the Ukraine trip, coming up in just a little more than 3 weeks. As always, lots of moving parts and lots to do. I think we need more time but we will do the usual - squeeze in everything we can, and see how it goes.

 

More interesting genealogy finds on my Mother's side. Apparently her brother (my uncle) had his family tree traced by a professional just a few years ago, and didn't tell me. When I told him about my finds dating back to the 1600s in Albany, he said, "That's nothing! Look what I have!" And he proceeded to mail me a 100-page family tree going back well over a thousand years.

 

One branch of the family goes back to the Middle Ages in England, and gets into a royal dynasty, so it can theoretically be traced even further back. Now I have more things to look for when we are in Europe! Fascinating stuff even if you take it with a large grain of salt.

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Good morning, JP, sounds like this will be an interesting trip for sure!

 

This was a yukky week after returning from the trip.   I took Monday off to get some errands done and had lunch with my Broker. I am trying to figure out if I can retire next year.  I will be 62 in March and have multiple accounts with growing $$$...….I know the biggest issue is the health insurance thing.

I know I am not staying at this job till I am 65...….after 4 months of being in this new position? I am really ready to go now but that is not feasible.  So will see how things go for next year. Have to get all my ducks in a row.

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Here in Vung Tau, we had a little rain last night for the first time in about three weeks. It's been hot (35 C), humid and windy. However, 'wet' season hasn't started yet... and with climate change, who knows what will happen. 

 

I'm sort of in the middle of 'insanity week' -

Thursday was ANZAC Day (all the expat vets go 'crazy'... I'm surprised there aren't more deaths from alcohol poisoning). :classic_ohmy: Yesterday was the stag for Dutchie's (an Aussie, expat vet) wedding (the wedding's tomorrow); and today - Sat. 27th - is the start of a 5-day-long Vietnamese 'weekend' combining: Liberation Day/Reunification Day & International Labor Day. Thousands of 'Saigonistas' have descended on Vung Tau for their 'beach break' (as the do every weekend). The ATMs will be out of money by tomorrow evening... and all the banks are closed until next Thursday (May 2). :classic_rolleyes:

 

Yesterday (on my motorbike) I did some banking and got enough cash to last; and, went grocery shopping. I'm all 'stocked up'. There's no way I'm driving anywhere until next Thursday. What's normally just extremely dangerous will be almost literally suicidal as great herds of drunk Vietnamese (and foreigners) without drivers' licenses take to the roads. :classic_dry: The cops are going make a fortune!!!

Edited by Bill B
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25 minutes ago, Daveywavey70 said:

 How you getting on with line of duty?

 

Finished Season 3 (on iPlayer), and I've got torrents of Seasons 4 & 5 (up to Episode 4) downloaded... it gets better & better. :classic_biggrin:

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No news yet bill. Rumoured for spring 19 but that’s already here. It has been filmed though. We had a charity night in my hotel last year and the perky blinders were here. Had a lot of explaining to do to other guests that were overhearing the C bomb at high volume. 😀

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On ‎4‎/‎22‎/‎2019 at 6:16 PM, jpalbny said:

The Venice one! Haven't done it. Several others have and I remember good things about it. It's on our list. We briefly considered it this November but decided on a DIY of Portugal instead.

Hi JP, yes, the Venice one.:classic_biggrin:

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On 4/26/2019 at 12:16 PM, Lois R said:

Good morning, JP, sounds like this will be an interesting trip for sure!

 

This was a yukky week after returning from the trip.   I took Monday off to get some errands done and had lunch with my Broker. I am trying to figure out if I can retire next year.  I will be 62 in March and have multiple accounts with growing $$$...….I know the biggest issue is the health insurance thing.

I know I am not staying at this job till I am 65...….after 4 months of being in this new position? I am really ready to go now but that is not feasible.  So will see how things go for next year. Have to get all my ducks in a row.

I went at 59½ (still too late for me!), and I've never looked back.  If you can afford it, line up those ducks and go for it!

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3 hours ago, besberry said:

I went at 59½ (still too late for me!), and I've never looked back.  If you can afford it, line up those ducks and go for it!

 59-1/2? wow......glad you were able to do it.   I am just concerned about insurance more than anything else...…….(well, being able to live as well LOL).

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So here's a video of my recent "less than luxury" Greek mini cruise. I wasn't happy with the editing last time so I treated myself to a MacBook and this is my first attempt at editing a video with iMovie. Pretty straight forward and fairly easy to use all in all. My first time using an Osmo pocket on holiday which really was excellent. Unbelievable battery life and great quality footage despite only using it on HD when it can record 4k. 

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Great stuff, Davey! Got about 1/4 through and saved the rest for later. The video quality is pretty impressive. And your room in Athens sure had an amazing view! The cabin on the ship was a little tight...reminds me of our first cruise on the SS Norway.

 

Tonight was another edition of "see what you can make from cheap meat before it goes bad."

 

I found some pork at the store that had a sell-by date of today and was basically half-price. So I got over a pound of meat for $2. I ground it and made metaballs, flavored with garlic, scallions, ginger, and gochujang (Korean fermented chile paste). They were glazed in an apricot jam sauce which was heated up with more gochujang, then some rice vinegar and soy to cut the sweetness.

 

They went over plain rice with a little toasted sesame seed and scallion for a garnish. Lime and avocado took care of the heat. Unfortunately the bottle of rose that we were working on didn't last the whole meal so I had to make a run to the wine fridge and open another bottle. The second one was Sylvaner. It went well too.

 

i-CdG24Tk-L.jpg

 

Happy Saturday to all!

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10 hours ago, besberry said:

I went at 59½ (still too late for me!), and I've never looked back.  If you can afford it, line up those ducks and go for it!

 

I want to grow up to be like you! Though seriously, I think we could swing it by that age if we keep going according to plan. Like Lois, our biggest issue is that we'd want to travel even more than we do now, once we retire. So we'd need a decent income stream. That will take a little more work, to build on what we have now.

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Today, I'm having a traditional Vietnamese dinner:

- roast beef,

- mashed potatoes,

- gravy (made 'from scratch' with drippings and Bisto),

- fresh baby peas,

- 'kick ass' horseradish.

Yorkshire pudding is too much 'work'... and it's too hot to crank the oven up to the required temperature (I'll just have to suffer).:classic_wink: 

 

There is something to be said for 'comfort food'. :classic_biggrin:

 

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Starting to get cool here.  We are usually wearing our winter coats a few weeks before this but we’ve even had 30C last week.  Have our heater on for the first time today. 

 

I'm one of the lucky early retirees - 55, but do a bit of volunteering which helps the community. Not sure what the community would do without the "elderly" volunteers.

With people working longer,  it makes it hard for some organisations to find volunteers. 

 

Had friends for dinner last night. More comfort food here too Bill. 

Chicken Terrine, roast pork with roast vegetables and Panna Cotta with a red wine jelly and sauce. I hadn’t made a Panna Cotta for years and was relieved when they came out of the moulds. 

With so many public holidays this week ( Easter Monday and AnzacDay) the butcher had run out of loins of pork so boned and rolled a leg for us to put on the rotisserie. It was delicious and I’m sure our neighbours wished they were invited. 

The smell was mouth watering. 

A8CA2E08-779D-4AA8-B606-C658BC4BF095.jpeg

Edited by jillyf
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Good morning folks, had an issue starting yesterday with my internet going down which is connected to my land line. Yes, I do have a land line.  Anyway, I call Xfinity (cell phone still works LOL) and they gave some voice mail that there is a possibility of an outage for a week:classic_rolleyes::classic_wacko:......I finally reached a person.  They said when they don't have an exact time of when it will be fixed they have to put a 7 day span...…..I said that is ridiculous.   She had no answers for me. So I had no internet from yesterday about 4:00pm till just now.  Yes, my cell phone gets it but it is much easier to type on my laptop.

 

I just called them again this morning and spoke with a nice person who actually walked me through resetting my modem and wha la...….I have the internet again.  He said he could not tell if it was my modem or something on the outside that caused my outage.....but he did suggest I exchange my modem for a newer one. (that is a free exchange)…..the model I have now is older and a new one would be better.  But it is not an emergency and I really don't feel like going to the Xfinity store today.

 

As for retirement...…….I know I would get SS but I know you cannot live off that so that is why I need to see about all the $$ I have in my various accounts (totals)  and what I need to live on...on a daily/monthly basis.  I am lucky, I know that part. I have a couple of IRA's, 1 Annuity, and my 401 from work.  Those are $$$ I never touch.....so will see what I can do with them.

 

Anyway, I am defrosting some chicken wings, not the drumette kind......but the whole wing and will bake them later today...…...

 

Oh.....another shooting yesterday at an another synagogue...….when will it ever stop?:classic_sad:

 

 

 

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20 hours ago, Lois R said:

 59-1/2? wow......glad you were able to do it.   I am just concerned about insurance more than anything else...…….(well, being able to live as well LOL).

 

Here in the UK we still have the National Health Service, despite the Tories efforts to privatise it.  So I don't pay for health (other than dentists) even my prescriptions are free (not that I'm on any meds.....yet!).

13 hours ago, jpalbny said:

 

I want to grow up to be like you! Though seriously, I think we could swing it by that age if we keep going according to plan. Like Lois, our biggest issue is that we'd want to travel even more than we do now, once we retire. So we'd need a decent income stream. That will take a little more work, to build on what we have now.

 

I've done way more travelling since I retired.  I used to get 30+ holiday days a year, so always had at least one long haul holiday a year.  Apart from a week wayyyy back in the '70's I didn't start cruising until I went in 2011.  I have over 400 nights on a ship now.  One of my travel ambitions was to visit 100 countries.  I achieved that in February 2018 and half of those were since retirement. 

13 hours ago, Daveywavey70 said:

Lovely meal JP.

Re retirement I can't even imagine it. Im going with me boots on!

 

 

Best career move I ever made 😊

Edited by besberry
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