specialcruisegirl Posted September 8, 2014 #2526 Share Posted September 8, 2014 (edited) I think the Queen Mum's drink was gin and Dubonnet. I used to love Dubonnet, completely out of favour now, and a bit on the sweet side. I have never tried a chocolate martini, not being a big fan of chocolate, but I know it is very popular, on Seabourn. How 'chocolatey' is it - can you give me the recipe? Feel I should try it. Yes, Please may I leave the table - or please mare leave the table as we used to say it quickly - was de rigueur in my youth. Autre temps, autre moeurs. I do think it is sad that most families nowadays do not sit down together to eat. Ah...yes I think the Queens Mum tipple was the Dubonnet! How lovely to look back on all these old favourites! Remember Babycham and Cherry B? Yuk...port and lemon was a Xmas special too...:rolleyes: I had never tried a chocolate martini until l hit Vegas for my 60th and saw the bar tender mixing one...I was intrigued so asked for one and it was so delicious l got hooked! In all honesty that martini was the best as he made it with marshmallow. As l said before they do vary such a lot. On Silver Wind for example...the pool deck sample was very watery and weak...the best one being in the Panorama which was akin to the Vegas offering. I don't have a recipe despite looking on the net....having said that l just can't make a decent martini at home! They are actually not that chocolately...but very moorish! S -:) Edited September 8, 2014 by specialcruisegirl Adding Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mw8811 Posted September 8, 2014 #2527 Share Posted September 8, 2014 Jeff - not got our wine yet we have to go over to B in Law to pick it up and no danger of it hanging around too long nor having to keep until the next day in this house LOL S - actually we walked through the Dingle yesterday and it is spectacular as usual. The lime trees along the river bank are starting to turn and are looking very pretty. I can tell you one ex policeman from that era who is still around - Peter Stubbs not sure if you would know him. A lot of them settled there. Another gorgeous day again here but this evening is mighty chilly have been reduced to turning the little fan heater on to take the chill off this room. M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UKCruiseJeff Posted September 8, 2014 Author #2528 Share Posted September 8, 2014 We now have the open fire going every evening now. Lovely. Winter is my favourite season. I particularly love the snow. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UKCruiseJeff Posted September 9, 2014 Author #2529 Share Posted September 9, 2014 Good morning Coolies ........ Our next trip to lovely Singapore is creeping up .... but still too far away. 4 months away .... and whilst The Boss is looking the other way I keep adding the odd day on bit by bit so she doesn't notice. If I make it much longer it will be pointless returning as the following one is in June! To encourage anyone that wants to pop over for a free drink ... some piccies from the last trip of some supposedly serious banker friends .... and this is how they dress for the office ... something wifey really wanted that I couldn't afford ... feeding the Dragon at the IC ...... and some foody shots of satay at Satay Street and some roast meats at Tiong Bahru our favourite food court. And a bit of local "walkies". A bit of summer sun today in Hampshire. And the Scots now depend on the common sense of the Undecideds! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UKCruiseJeff Posted September 9, 2014 Author #2530 Share Posted September 9, 2014 I think the Queen Mum's drink was gin and Dubonnet. Penning her note in elegant flowing letters the Queen Mother informed her loyal steward: "I think that I will take two small bottles of Dubonnet and gin with me this morning, in case it is needed." The hand-written memo to her page William Talon is just one of several personal items belonging to the faithful retainer which have gone under the hammer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
specialcruisegirl Posted September 9, 2014 #2531 Share Posted September 9, 2014 Backstairs Billy if I'm correct! iPad been playing up today.....so annoying :( S:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UKCruiseJeff Posted September 9, 2014 Author #2532 Share Posted September 9, 2014 Backstairs Billy if I'm correct! iPad been playing up today.....so annoying :( S:) It was indeed! Todays tiffin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
specialcruisegirl Posted September 10, 2014 #2533 Share Posted September 10, 2014 A very early Good Morning! Gardener number two finishes his summer stint here this week so I have plans to pull him from the garden and into the big loft to bring all the Christmas stuff down to be sorted. I haven't really trimmed up for the last two years so it's time to see what is up there...at least it will be one job less when l eventually move! So a quick breakfast and then into my work gear .....I'll be ready for my lunchtime glass today.....;) Happy Wednesday S:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UKCruiseJeff Posted September 10, 2014 Author #2534 Share Posted September 10, 2014 A very early Good Morning! Happy Wednesday S:) A Happy Wednesday to you. In deference to our Scottish cousins ...."I love a bratty, a bonny bonny bratty ..." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
specialcruisegirl Posted September 11, 2014 #2535 Share Posted September 11, 2014 Oh by jove it's been a quiet day on the cooler! Busy day here in Yorkieland ....dress fittings and a little bit of retail therapy...also busy booking another voyage with SS for next year on the Spirit...a great deal that l just couldn't pass on...:rolleyes: S:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Tothesunset Posted September 11, 2014 #2536 Share Posted September 11, 2014 Oh by jove it's been a quiet day on the cooler! Busy day here in Yorkieland ....dress fittings and a little bit of retail therapy...also busy booking another voyage with SS for next year on the Spirit...a great deal that l just couldn't pass on...:rolleyes: S:) Do tell. Which voyage? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UKCruiseJeff Posted September 12, 2014 Author #2537 Share Posted September 12, 2014 Yes .... and very quite here as well. I'm not going into town today for any posh frock fittings so I'm stuck here drinking beer. Someone has to do it! Bredon champers was on discount at less than £19 so bough a little top-up as well as I managed to get 40 bottles of my favourite Admirals ale at 33% off. Beer first and champers second today I think. You enjoy that cruise Sofa Gal! :D;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
specialcruisegirl Posted September 12, 2014 #2538 Share Posted September 12, 2014 Well I'm just enjoying a nice glass of Pinot....lunch is on the go...only drink beer abroad for some quirky reason...:rolleyes: Yep, nice to have yet another cruise to look forward to....all l know is that it's out of FLL....friends are taking care of business ;) S:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UKCruiseJeff Posted September 12, 2014 Author #2539 Share Posted September 12, 2014 Well I'm just enjoying a nice glass of Pinot....lunch is on the go...only drink beer abroad for some quirky reason... Yep, nice to have yet another cruise to look forward to....all l know is that it's out of FLL....friends are taking care of business S We are lucky enough to have some lovely beers in blighty. We had some lovely spit roasted chicken yesterday, and before she went off for a commando raid on the shops she asked me what I was making her for lunch. "Cold chicken and chips with coleslaw and pickles" "Great". When she had returned and I'd drunk some beer this had become chicken korma and pilaf with Paulaner and trimmings. "Where's my chicken and chips?! :eek: " Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WoodenShipOnTheWater Posted September 12, 2014 #2540 Share Posted September 12, 2014 (edited) You may have seen/missed this yesterday... An obituary for Nicolas Feuillatte, eponymous founder of the Champagne house that is the biggest selling brand in France... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11088067/Nicolas-Feuillatte-obituary.html We had friends for dinner last night who coincidentally brought with a bottle Brut Grande Réserve. Very nice it was too. Salut, M. Feuillatte, in the great vineyard in the sky! PS With the focus on food and drink on this thread, perhaps it should be renamed 'The wine cooler' instead of 'water cooler'. :-) Edited September 12, 2014 by WoodenShipOnTheWater Missed the PS first time round Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
specialcruisegirl Posted September 12, 2014 #2541 Share Posted September 12, 2014 You may have seen/missed this yesterday... An obituary for Nicolas Feuillatte, eponymous founder of the Champagne house that is the biggest selling brand in France... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11088067/Nicolas-Feuillatte-obituary.html We had friends for dinner last night who coincidentally brought with a bottle Brut Grande Réserve. Very nice it was too. Salut, M. Feuillatte, in the great vineyard in the sky! PS With the focus on food and drink on this thread, perhaps it should be renamed 'The wine cooler' instead of 'water cooler'. :-) It's so lovely to know these things...thank you for sharing. Wine cooler indeed....:eek: S:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UKCruiseJeff Posted September 12, 2014 Author #2542 Share Posted September 12, 2014 Welcome WoodenShipOnTheWater to the transient water/wine cooler. :D I think you have misjudged us for people of breeding and good taste. I happen to know that Sofa Gal, will drink anything put in front of her and not even look at it. She uses drinkers braille in that she feels for the size of glass, it's temperature and throws it down her throat. When she says that she "only drinks wine" I think it more accurate to say that she "only spills wine". She had to go off for some new frocks today because of those red-wine stains. :eek: You come with a track record I admire and I am extending to you complimentary Gold Watercooler membership on the basis that you went out for a Telegraph and came back with a cruise. It wasn't that you came back with a cruise I find so impressive, it was that you could find your way back. That is impressive. Was this before or after breakfast? ;) My wife went out for some chicken and chips and came back to a korma. We are brothers in arms clearly! 5 more WC posts and you'll be a Plat! I'm sorry that Nick died. Rest in peace Nick. Sadly Paulaner's founder - some friars and in particular Saint Francis of Paola who enjoyed a decent head in an ecclesiastical sort of way, is long time passed. I've been waiting for him to post here being a saint. He nver does. I still toast him as often as I can. Welcome aboard and please post more, because we are desperately lonely. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WoodenShipOnTheWater Posted September 12, 2014 #2543 Share Posted September 12, 2014 Thanks for your witty reply. It made me laugh out loud. I wonder if that's a sign of incipient madness, as it's just me here - home alone, except for our Red Patterdale, Archie, who's been sleeping most of the day after a long walk on the seafront at 7:30am... Whenever I say 'I'm on my own today', my partner always pulls my leg and says 'you need to get out more!' In my case, it's clearly dangerous. If I can go out for just a newspaper and buy a holiday, who knows what I may come home with if I were to buy a magazine or book, or The Collected Works of Shakespeare? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UKCruiseJeff Posted September 12, 2014 Author #2544 Share Posted September 12, 2014 You're quite safe. Laughing out quietly is the danger sign and a sign of madness. Fun and joy is to be shared and being quiet about it is selfish. Unless you are on the next table to me and I'm grumpy! What seafront are you and Archie enjoying? Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WoodenShipOnTheWater Posted September 12, 2014 #2545 Share Posted September 12, 2014 (edited) In answer to your question, Jeff, we walk along the seafront in Littlehampton most days, having decamped here after 35 years in London and three in Brighton. The locals drop the 'h' and abbreviate it to LA! I call that post-modernist irony. My mother lived in LA, California that is, for 10 years and I hated it - perhaps because of my mother - but let's not go there - though I do like Santa Monica. Los Angeles might be the City of Angels, but in my view it's a city without a heart. Just endless freeways. It's a while since I visited and I'm willing to keep an open mind and learn to love it this trip, as we end up there for three days after flying back from Tahiti. I hope I haven't offended any of our kissing cousins across The Pond. It's just my view, that's all. (Btw, I love SF and San Diego). I lived in New York for 18 months (1988-1990) and I loved it. While there, it struck me that we may speak the same language, but we mean totally different things. For example, I'm still trying to work out how Americans drive on 'parkways' and park on 'driveways'. Any ideas, Jeff? Perhaps after a couple of Paulaners, the answer will become clear to you. Or perhaps I should ponder the answer to this conundrum over a glass of Guinness (not that I've ever bought Guinness) and if the solution appears while staring into the head, well that would be 'pure genius'. Wouldn't it? Mark PS I AM going mad!:) Edited September 12, 2014 by WoodenShipOnTheWater Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UKCruiseJeff Posted September 12, 2014 Author #2546 Share Posted September 12, 2014 So what made you register and not post for a couple of months? ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WoodenShipOnTheWater Posted September 12, 2014 #2547 Share Posted September 12, 2014 Wanted to see who was posting and on what subjects. Also, I have quite a bit of free time right now and it's only a week or so before we go away, so my curiosity has grown, the closer we have got to our trip. It may subside on our return. What about you, Jeff? Clearly, you're a prolific contributor at the Water/Wine Cooler? :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark_K Posted September 12, 2014 #2548 Share Posted September 12, 2014 Why the new iPhone 6 Plus is a must have for Manchester United fans ... Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Luxury Posted September 12, 2014 #2549 Share Posted September 12, 2014 Yes .... and very quite here as well. I'm not going into town today for any posh frock fittings so I'm stuck here drinking beer. Someone has to do it! Bredon champers was on discount at less than £19 so bough a little top-up as well as I managed to get 40 bottles of my favourite Admirals ale at 33% off. Beer first and champers second today I think. You enjoy that cruise Sofa Gal! :D;) JEFF the Bredon is £17.99 at Waitrose as opposed to £18.66 at Ocado Sent from my iPad using Forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
specialcruisegirl Posted September 13, 2014 #2550 Share Posted September 13, 2014 Good Morning, Very foggy morning here in Yorkieland....Ocado just dropped, casserole time as the autumn chill kicks in and also time to stock the freezers with meals for the lodger whilst l am away...so having a Delia morning..:rolleyes: Happy Weekend Sophia :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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