Silversea Water Cooler: Welcome! Part Four

Hi all .... thanks both ..... reposted due to a posting malfunction ...... :*

 

Hi Spins, all of us being both nosey and are concerned and as you mentioned it we're all wondering what the surgery is. And equally all understand if you don't want to say so ignore if you wish and no offence will be taken whatsoever. :) In any event roll on Tuesday for you!

 

Lot's of stuff arriving for my ramen weekend. Ramen was given to the Japanese by the Chinese so it has everything going for it from my point of view. I've been watching loads of Ramen Youtube and Netflix and Amazon Prime and my biggest challenge is not to do too much and over engineer it. I have lot's of bottles and other things with strange Japanese writing on them. These are my bowls! They are huge,1.1 litres. I might even try and learn how to use chopsticks.

 

 

 

Loving those blue bowls!

Thanks all for good wishes for surgery.

Did not expect to be anticipating it but its all for the best. Not really a choice, which makes it easy. I am focusing on the day after! Meanwhile I continue the search for ancestors and thoughts of the cruise.

I am enjoying all of the posts. Safe travels to all who are far from home and happy birthdays.

YES!! Best wishes to Candy with the upcoming surgery. On safe travels, yes to that, too!. BUT, saw breaking news on a major bridge collapsing close to where Spins lives in South Florida near FIU campus. Seems major and bad.

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

Enjoyed a 14-day, Jan. 20-Feb. 3, 2014, Sydney to Auckland adventure, 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 more info and many pictures of these amazing sights in this great part of the world. Now at 198,699 views for this posting.

Greetings Coolers! Frosty morning at 20 F. Sun is shining though.

Spring....where are you?

It's like Waiting for Godot. :(

Have a great day all!

We have spring here M, although we're expecting a cold night. Talk of snow, although we're too far south ....

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J...that looks amazing! I'm going to put my culinary ignorance on display here......what is the dish? Is it the long-awaited ramen? My mouth is watering! :)

No ignorance at all M ... :)

It is a ramen but from all my readings the description describes an idea rather than a specific tradition so I simply "taste-thought " it in my head and made what I thought we would like rather than follow any recipe. As you know, I am uninhibited in the kitchen and don't really care whether it is "authentic" ,,,, as it is for our taste and no one elses! ;)

The base is a chicken stock with soy, a small amount of fish and seaweek stock, and some dashi. I added some combined red and light miso when it was off the boil to preserve the biotics. Contents was some ramen noodles, sliced chicken breast, some pork and prawn siu mai,bak choy, kale, some edamame beans, sweetcorn, and soffritto. There was bottles of chilli oil and sesame oil too add too taste. I thought I'd like some crunch for a topping so there was thinly sliced chillis and spring onion - and for the shear mischief I deep fried some kale to make "crunchy deep fried seaweed" which we didn't put on but ate seperately. The bowls arrived just in time .....

The dish was as good as any we have tasted in the places we have tried it and Wifey loved it and it was a decent first attempt. But it will be far simpler next time with just the same base broth with a little more soy, the noodles, base veg without bak choy or kale with some sliced chicken and perhaps gyozo or other dumpling. And I will of course have lot's of spring onion.

I can actually imagine the flavour from your description. Thanks for sharing that. Downside is I WANT some now. :) Pizza on the go for tonight though. I'm going to subtly suggest that Myster consider trying ramen out soon. OK, maybe not so subtly. :)

Ramen does look tasty!

Hi from Sydney. Arrived about 24h ago, and already back at the airport for our next stop...Barossa! Wine tasting, here we come! It's Saturday already here so time to have fun!

Sydney was great. We met up with dear cruise friends who we hadn't seen in over 8 years. It was like we'd just seen them last week.

We did a nice coastal walk from Bondi beach to Congee, then wandered The Rocks district for the afternoon and evening. Early dinner at The Lord Nelson, supposedly the oldest pub in Sydney. Managed to stay up until 9 PM local time!

Oh, it was about 25 degrees © and mostly sunny. Felt wonderful!

Happy weekend to all, when it comes.

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Sounds like a wonderful start JP! Thanks for the update! Enjoy Barossa!

Jeff, your ramen looks wonderful. I remember a Japanese film about a noodle shop from the mid ‘80s called Tampopo. I don’t remember the storyline but I do remember that I enjoyed it.

Sorry all for just popping back in after a long absence. Had an absolutely horrible day at work. I’ve been working 10 to 11 hour days and I honestly love what I do, but today was really disheartening. Amazing how one person can throw my entire staff off. Came home and had two glasses of wine, tilapia and a Mediterranean quinoa side dish. That and some good old fashioned laid back rock (Joe Walsh, Pink Floyd, Carlos Santana, Peter Frampton, etc.) are taking the edge off, although not my usual taste in music.

My countdown says 12 days, 10 hours, 40 minutes till our flight leaves. I’m having a hard time believing we’re actually going away. And never having been on an “ultra luxury cruise” before, it just all seems so unreal.

Enjoy the heck out of it Napria! It sounds like this is something your soul craves!

JP, glad to hear the weather is nice and warm.

I hope you get to visit Rockford Winery and taste some basket pressed Shiraz. Try their sparkling Shiraz too.

Good Morning all ..... temperatures dropping sharply here! Time for some vanilla voddy!

JP, hope you tried the fish and chips at the Nelson ..... enjoy the wine ..

Naps ... it is sad when people spoils one's day ... you are however lucky you have work you love but you continue to work far too long hours ... you need to wind that down. Thanks for you ramen comments. There's a lovely programme on Amazon Prime within the "Prime Japan" series on ramen. Exquisitly flimed. The problem is that I love the challenge of seeing whether I can produce an acceptable dish, but once I do then the chase is sort of over and I'm thinking of "what's the next thing I can't cook ...."

For those that are enjoying the cut and paste films here's another ...

http://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-news/silversea-cruise-ship-extension

JP and Chris welcome to South Australia and a big thank you for bringing the rain:D We have had an extremely dry summer so any rain at this stage is welcome - there won’t be much so I’m sure it won’t hinder you.

I do hope you have a lovely time here, it is vintage in the Barossa so there is lots going on.

Greetings Coolers!

For those interested in the Northern Lights the picture below is a composite of 11 images stitched together. (Krista Trinder). This is STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement) and the Milky Way at Childs Lake, Man.

Here is a link to the article:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/steve-northern-lights-1.4577923

From the article:

"The mysterious light in the sky had appeared so often that Canadian northern lights watchers gave it a name: Steve.

Unlike those famous pulsating ribbons of light that stretch across the sky, Steve would appear as a narrow arch of purple light, sometimes paired with green fence-like features.

Scientists were initially stumped by Steve. But now, with plenty of help from those Canadian hobbyists, they're shedding some light on Steve's origins."

Have a great day all!

Nice piccy M,

We had a solid,hour of snow,this morning and now it has stopped!

Us Brits never take things too seriously ......

My week Vladimir Putin*

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/my-week-vladimir-putin-bs8bh2jlb?shareToken=6ec492f93c1b139df7e214d9387dd54a

"Steve" is absolutely glorious! Thank you for the great pix!

Very cold here in the Hudson Valley, but a clear and beautiful day.

Guess we better enjoy it as another Nor'easter is heading our way

in the middle of the week......enough already!

I'm pretty sure that was John looking thru the blinds in Mysty's photo!

Happy St. Pat's to everyone!

Linda

TTS- if you are around and not stocious under a table somewhere, Oh Frabjous Day.

Rp

TTS- if you are around and not stocious under a table somewhere, Oh Frabjous Day.

Rp

Marvellous result. Led by an Ulsterman, too. And clinched at Twickenham. Doesn't really get any better.

Greetings Coolers! Another frosty morning here at 14 F. BRRRR.

Did you get any accumulation of snow J? Built a snowman/woman?

Linda.....Ha Ha! Your poor John could do with adding a few pounds. :)

An interesting article leading to an interesting "discussion" on Twitter. It seems people are becoming more and more discourteous.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-5494719/Should-diners-fined-dont-up.html

From the article:

"Critic Jay Rayner provokes a furious debate over people who fail to cancel restaurant reservations.

London-based chef and restaurateur Jackson Boxer of Brunswick House took to Twitter to vent his frustration after 46 confirmed guests had failed to show up for their reserved tables on Mother's Day.

This meant that out of 120 confirmed covers, more than a third failed to arrive.

Twitter followers suggested a deposit or charge for people who don't show up "

Calling to cancel a reservation seems like such a small politeness and yet obviously too much trouble for some to bother with. Not Cool!

Have a great day all!

Good Morning M,

Jay’s complaint echos another complaint doing the rounds at the moment, and is one alongside Jay’s I totally understand. It is vegans who book a table and demand a special meal be prepared and then either cancel at the last minute or don’t show up. The complaint is that the cost of preparing the meals and then dumping them is encouraging many to refuse vegan bookings.

There has been much in the press over the large day or two about the enquiries into the conduct of Cambridge Analytica and it’s dealings with Facebook but I fear that it has missed the additional much bigger issue and that is how Facebook then used it’s advertising auction algorithms that swung the advantage severely one way. It is the combined effect of those complex algorithms and the targeted efforts made possible by Cambridge Analytica that is deeply disturbing.

Yes .... snow .....

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WOW J...more snow accumulation than I imagined! It does look pretty though!

I'm wondering if it is a sense of entitlement and/or privilege that is affecting a sub-population comprised of discourteous, self-involved people. Surely these folks are bright enough to understand that their actions are causing restaurants lost revenue and additional expense as well as resulting in a missed opportunity for other potential diners to dine where the no-shows had booked and had even confirmed. Again, NOT COOL!

What an enchanting yard you have, Jeff. Pretty with all that fresh snow, but it looks like it would be lovely in the warm weather too.

It seems in general people are becoming more self-centered and thoughtless. Making reservations and failing to cancel is one of many examples of this. I find it very sad. But I still try to do my part and be respectful, as well as teaching my (now adult) children respect. What goes around comes around.

Hi friends, home from Disney......had a really good time with my friend..............it was fun:D........definitely different from a cruise though;)

Need to get some laundry done and will go out for dinner.............60 doesn't feel any different than 59 (I guess that is a good thing).

Hope all of you are doing well and thanks for the birthday wishes.:)

Greetings Coolers! Someone needs to adjust the thermostat! Spring officially starts tomorrow and it is currently 16 F here.

For Coolers who need a distraction from the shivers or just need a potential giggle, today's funny...

Best wishes for Today Spins!

Have a great day all!