Silversea Water Cooler: Welcome! Part Four

We shall have rain by teatime.

Anyone else remember Kitty from Victoria Wood as seen on TV?

We are very lucky down here as a young lady recently bought the local fishmonger after it had gone downhill for many years. She appeared on national tv a while back in a series and it showed her going to Brixham fish market early each morning to compete with all the men buyers and buy for her shop. She is feisty. I was so happy to see it that i sent her an email saying how she was about to change our lives and she was extremely sweet and said how much she appreciated that her efforts and early mornings were valued and she promised to look after wife. I wanted to ask her a question I have always wanted to ask .. and that was “are you irritated when a customer asks you what did you buy this morning!” ie todays rather than yesterdays landings. She said “Of course not!”

Her problem is that seaside towns are often deprived towns so her buying fish that might have to retail for £20 or so is a daily risk for her so her face lights up when she sees wifey and her purse. Tommorow is lemon sole.

It saddens me that so many find fish intimidating and I think largely due to TV chef programms do not understand that it is really simple and that with fresh fish less is always more.

A bottle of champagne with a couple of fresh simple fish on TheBalcony@Seaside .. followed by a grappa and an aged Rafael Gonzalez .... can life be much better?

:)

She’s sounds fantastic Jeff.

We have a fantastic fishmongers nearby in Llandudno. She does very well because of the hotels and restaurants so helps keep the price down for the public too. They have some amazing produce from North Wales including Conwy and Menai Straits mussels and Oysters and local line caught fish.

Thanks for the link DW...she's brilliant! :)

All this fish talk is making me hungry! I've also been reading about all the yummy food awaiting us in Normandy. Bad time for a pre-cruise diet...

Jeff, that looks divine. Not sure what I'll invent for tonight's dinner. It may depend on the weather, and whether or not I can grill.

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Another planned electricity outage from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.for maintenance/upgrading here in Vung Tau today.

I'll 'get out', go to the bank and do some shopping this morning (hoping not to get caught on my scooter in a torrential, thunderstorm downpour). Luckily, I got rid of the idiotic, electric, induction coil 'cooker' that came with my apartment and installed a gas range... so I can cook lunch. After lunch, I think I'll go to the pub and consume several of these -

JP, hope tonights food was good ...

Bill .. a cold beer cures everything. We had our daily Gösser today!

:)

N'T.

OMG.

Dog ate my homework.

Greetings Coolers!

Today's funny.....doesn't this always happen....

Have a great day all!

Good morning all,

‘ Hello Bear,

I’m calling to speak to you about your recent accident.”

Those Canadian bears have a sense of humour M!

Lemon sole and fries and lemon butter with boîte sauvignon on TheBalcony@Seaside

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YUM.

please post more in order to divert my attention from the Orange Emperor and his new clothes...

DW.... Did the bear pee in the pool? :)

J....That looks delicious!!!! Dripping in drool and envy here!

Spins....there are no words! :(

DW.... Did the bear pee in the pool? :)

 

J....That looks delicious!!!! Dripping in drool and envy here!

 

Spins....there are no words! :(

apostrophe is the word of the day, or perhaps its contraction or double negative. whatever, its frankly ghastly, scurrilous and sleazy.

what in the heck does he take us for? complete dummies? we all know a lie when we see it and hear it.

Thanks for the kind words about my rustic poisson. You have to work hard on ruining fresh fish so thankfully wifey enjoyed it.

Re the other gentleman. It is still difficult to make sense of him. Us Brits may sometimes seem over-egged when it comes to respecting the Queen, but I have never seen another leader walk in front of the Queen when for example inspecting troops and leave her walking behind. He would have been briefed on protocol. It looked like the Queen tried to coax him on her left hand side so he could inspect the troops, but he then ignored her and instead simply stuck his chin out and marched on in front of her regardless. He does not outrank our Queen. But even then he ignored the troops and didn’t even look at them. It was disrespectful and made an honour completely pointless and meaningless.

What on earth do we make of Helsinki. There is one thing however he has achieved. It has been said that he is divisive. Has he not managed to orchestrate and reconcile a unison of almost all sides against him except previously considered enemies,who think him great.

How long will this continue for? Is there going to be a sort of sudden emergence of several bits of historical truths come home to roost and emerge and present an irresistable change? Can any Americans give us uninformed Brits an idea of how all this will end?

That's amazing, Mysty!

Jeff, would you mind talking to me a little about Singapore?

I'll be there pre-cruise in December, will have 3 days there. I've been before and stayed in the Mandarin Oriental that time. I'd like to stay somewhere different this time and the Intercontinental sounds good. What room type would you recommend? (I would go for Club level for sure) The 'Heritage' building or the new bit?

I will eat outside of the hotel for dinner, but will be working so I expect I'll be having lunch in the hotel, what are the hotel restaurants like?

I very likely won't be up for much sightseeing, the jet lag will knock me for six as it usually does when I fly that direction!

Hi,

With respect to rooms and suites, views are polarised. The Heritage rooms and suites look over a covered mall. However the shops close and it is very quiet at night. If you are booking a club room you may be better in the tower with the views over the town. We really don’t look out of the window because we have the private garden which we really use. We book these suites because of the garden.

If however you might pay more and choose a suite then we prefer the Heritage suites because they have a small garden and part of the garden is under cover so you can sit and watch the inevitsble storm or eat there if you ask them to put a table and chairs in the garden. We always take a Heritage suite and are sometimes offered The Presidential Suite but still insist on a Heritage one which they find mystifying.

I’m away from base at the moment and on an ipad so providing links easn’t easy. If you search on my name and “Singapore” you will find several sort of daily blogs of life in Singapore during several of our stays. You’ll need to faff a bit to find them and then go back to the start. if you search through the coolers for jan/feb 2017 and jan/feb and september 2016 you will find piccies and blogs. One year recently we had 3 three week visits within a twelve month span.

I rarely eat in the hotel with Singapore outside. and there are literally hundreds of places within 100 yards and dozens in the adjoining mall.

After you’ve found the blogs and if you have questions ahappy,to help.

ps ... tonight was curry again .....

Thanks Jeff, very helpful.

I'll search and read more tomorrow. Good to know there's a wide selection of places to eat close by, I may be able to slip out for lunch in that case.

Will be back with questions at some point in the next couple of days when I've read up on your previous posts.

If you take the rear exit from the hotel into Bugis you have a Food Junction on the top floor. You are unlikely to spend more than £4 or so for lunch.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=bugis+foodjunction&prmd=minv&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwidrY3Q06ncAhVG2KQKHcGZDLgQ_AUIECgC&biw=991&bih=913

Greetings Coolers!

Today's funny......

Have a great day all!

Lovely daily funny M!

Happy Hour!

VoddyandCokewithNutsOnTheBalcony@Seaside

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Rough life! We've been enjoying a lot of G&T with the hot weather. Very refreshing! I like that Fever Tree tonic.

A few questions about our upcoming port stops... Only 7 weeks until we are in London!

I'm torn between staying in Antwerp when we dock there, or taking the train to Ghent or Bruges. The train is 1h to Ghent or 1.5h to Bruges. But of course, Bruges looks to be the most interesting. We have a full day (9A-12MN) in Antwerp so time isn't a big factor. Any thoughts from those who have been there?

Has anybody been to the Bayeux tapestry? It would be a side trip from Rouen, probably also 1.5h by train. I think we'll have enough to do in Rouen that we won't need to leave, but we do have time (arrive 7A, leave 25h later). And it seems like something we'd really like.

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Hi JP,

It’s difficult second-guessing other people’s preferences. but I would certainly prefer Bruges to Ghent. Bruges is unique and scenic with a sort of Flemish-Venetian feel to it. It is glorious at night. Ghent has a younger slightly more industrial feel to it being a University Town. In a way, a bit like a smaller Brussels. You would enjoy Ghent or Bruges but having done Brussels perhaps Bruges for you both? I say that because there is nothing like Bruges anywhere - it is unique.

There was an article about the tapestry a week ago in The Times that may capture your interest.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/oxford-professor-counts-93-penises-in-bayeux-tapestry-wfw5hkh5p

Edited: Ghent is a bit like Cologne if you have been there ....