Silversea Water Cooler: Welcome!

[specialcruisegirl]

Evening All,

 

Lovely to read all about the cookie making and festivities coming our way this week. I think I'm pretty well organised with the shop drops arriving on Monday and the new home all trimmed up! I hope :rolleyes:

 

It's been a busy three weeks since l moved in and it's so lovely to be back on home ground again.

 

Turkey, pork and duck are on the festive menu with my grandmas stuffing to make on Christmas Eve amongst other bits!

It appears that we are all preferring the white wines this year so l have chosen Chablis, Sancerre and an Alsace....plus the fizz of course...:D

 

Happy Weekend

 

Sophia :)

[spinnaker2]

I never saw his comb.

I was about ten years old.

And watched like a hawk.

[UKCruiseJeff]

I never saw his comb.

I was about ten years old.

And watched like a hawk.

 

You should do a very complete post of your experience of staying in one of the bungalows at the Beverley Hills Hotel. That would be really interesting ... to me at least. I've seen programmes about the hotel and will probably never stay. I saw a programme just last week, but we have you staying there ... and your impressions as a 10 year old would be fascinating. I know you are a lady of few well chosen words ... but give us a few more ... PLEASE! :)

 

JP, I have been thinking about you and Chris, and your travels ..... and about your lovely white walls. Have you thought of taking up collecting antique travel posters? Don't delude yourself they are an investment, they aren't - I'm proof. But what about you .... ever been tempted?

 

Saucy Gal, how is the esconcement procedures going? Have the Stepford Wives taken you into their web?

 

 

Jeff

[specialcruisegirl]

 

Saucy Gal, how is the esconcement procedures going? Have the Stepford Wives taken you into their web?

 

 

Jeff

 

Jeff, I'm getting there thank you.....been tough going this last few weeks and very annoying without my wifi or landline so trying to catch up with everything which at times is testing my patience!

Really appreciate you asking....

 

S:)

[mw8811]

Seasons Greetings everyone!

 

S you seem to be much better organised than me - although I guess you moved a shorter distance :rolleyes: Welcome back to this lovely part of the country - I actually lived in Chester for a year when I did my secretarial course many moons ago!

 

Our first Christmas here for over 30 years - I can't believe how commercialized it has become and the grocery stores seem to be mobbed. Popped to Sainsbury's for some milk this morning it was horrendous COME ON PEOPLE THE SHOPS ARE ONLY CLOSED FOR ONE DAY!!!!! One good thing about it is that I'm hoping when we do our weekly shop at 7am on Saturday it should be fairly quiet.

 

Also paid a visit to Majestic wine and that was completely empty not a soul to be seen although the guy did say they were run off their feet with deliveries.

 

Everyone have a lovely Christmas etc

 

Mary

[UKCruiseJeff]

[spinnaker2]

i don't recall all that much about the digs. I just didn't understand why we were not staying in the hotel proper. I know my parents went out and left us alone and I was scared but would never admit it. I also recall while we stayed, there was a huge party by the pool and the next day it was closed, because too much glassware had been thrown in it and it had to be drained and cleaned. My sister and I were upset because we could not swim, which of course, we loved to do. They had good club sandwiches...another measure my sister and I used.

 

I also remember having to dress up for meals because we were seeing people. One was Roy Huggins, we went to a studio to meet him. He was a producer, I remember my father trying to explain that to me. I also remember Mr. Huggins giving me a book with photos and names of all of the members of actors equity. It was rather large. I am sure we met other people who were movers and shakers, but I just do not remember them. My father moved in those circles.

 

As I said, I was young. Until you posted that picture of Kookie, I had forgotten all about that time in California. I also remember that he was pale and thin. I think I must have been surprised by that. He was lounging by the pool. My sister, who is younger than I, was not impressed. I am sure I had some discussion with my father about my thoughts, as I do recall another conversation likely prompted by the fact that I was somewhat star struck by Edd Byrnes before I met him, but was disappointed in what he really looked like. There were other similar conversations as I grew up. Things are sometimes not what they seem to be, nor are people.

[UKCruiseJeff]

Lovely recollections! Thanks for posting them.

 

:)

[TLCOhio]

One was Roy Huggins, we went to a studio to meet him. He was a producer, I remember my father trying to explain that to me. I also remember Mr. Huggins giving me a book with photos and names of all of the members of actors equity. It was rather large. I am sure we met other people who were movers and shakers, but I just do not remember them. My father moved in those circles. As I said, I was young. Until you posted that picture of Kookie, I had forgotten all about that time in California.

 

Super appreciate these charming Beverly Hills Hotel memories from our south Florida friend. Wonderful and very interesting!!

 

That Roy Huggins did have a unique background as a Hollywood writer and producer. This includes as writer/creator and producer of such TV series as Maverick, The Fugitive, 77 Sunset Strip, The Virginian and Rockford Files. Tell us more from your memory bank. Fun!!

 

Have a bunch of good visuals and memories to share from visiting Cuba in March 2001.

 

Getting ready now to take our two dogs to their "country camp" so we can depart for Christmas in Kansas. Mailed out last week 100 photo Christmas cards, plus finished yesterday getting up the rest of the outdoor lights.

 

This posting is now over 130,000 views!! That's a big, big number. Congrats to Jeff and the other regulars.

 

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 166,526 views. Appreciate the interest and follow-up questions/comments!!

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

[UKCruiseJeff]

Hi Terry, lovely to see you post.

 

Yes it is totally perplexing that so many would "view". It is after all the square root of nothing much, Hopefully more will join in. :)

 

i was telling wifey about Spins recollections of Beverly Hills ... and it started her musings and recollections. Not many Americans know this ... but we have our own Beverly Hills and Hollywood. It's called Pinewood and Shepperton! :D

 

For a magic few years the studios were clients of ours and we seemed to visit predominantly Shepperton around once a week or so for meetings and discussions, always just before lunch which was taken in their top restaurant and seemed to last for the rest of the day and became increibly gregarious. The number of directors, producers and "talent" that would come in and gravitate to our table over those years to be with the "studio boss". It is a genuinely bizarre and strange but magical place. The demands they placed on us were so time consuming they agreed we could invite our clients to meet us at the studios and use their maintop restaurant. They allowed us a free tab. You can imagine the business we closed in that restaurant. ;) When they first called us to go and visit and discuss how we might help I thought it was a "wind-up" and hung up, It took a couple of calls to convince me they genuinely wanted to work with us.

 

I remember one period when they were filming 101 Dalmatians and Evita at the same time, and preparing for a Bond film. I think The Madness of King George was also being made around then. All those dogs yelping and running amok and people chasing after them. Wifey loved those dogs. And at the same time Madonna had her trailer on Peter Sellers drive with two burley guards permanently at her door grimacing at people as they passed. I think we could fill a whole new cooler with some of those stories. Anyway ... nostalgia isn't what it was!

 

Jeff

[specialcruisegirl]

What lovely tales to read about...Hollywood to us Brits always seemed like another world in those days Spin....I can imagine your excitement at seeing Kookie!

When the film Pretty Woman came out my daughter wanted to go and stay at the Regent Beverly Wilshire....thankfully she got over it...:rolleyes:

 

Funny you should mention our home studios Jeffers....I've been watching some of the Carry On films this week....I once went to Boreham Wood when l was a contestant on a quiz show, the hospitality was fabulous and it's little wonder l didn't win much considering the amount of wine they plied us all with!

 

Hope you have a lovely Christmas in Kansas Terry, sounds like you've been very busy over there!

 

Mary, Ive just been concentrating on Christmas this year as the last two have been rather miserable, l still have a hoard of unpacked boxes and my cases that l sent on ahead for the cruise I didn't make are still sitting in the spare room!

It's so lovely to be back though and I'm sure normal service will resume in January...;)

 

Started prepping the Christmas table this morning, Ocado delivered on time so all is going according to plan at present.....by tomorrow evening l should be all done and ready to start in the kitchen on Christmas Eve.

 

Sophia :)

[spinnaker2]

so what are everyone's holiday traditions?

Whatever they are, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, happy Kwanzaa, and all the bets in the New Year! May we have and enjoy peace on earth.

[jpalbny]

Not much of a tradition here, though we like to put up Christmas trees. We usually have at least two. And we'll cook something nice for dinner. We usually work on Christmas so that our colleagues with kids can spend the Holiday together. But this year we decided to break with that tradition; it was getting old.

 

So we're off to Paris this Christmas Eve, arriving Christmas Day, and spending the weekend there. My sister is flying through CDG on Christmas Day as well, and has an overnight layover so we'll get to spend the evening together. I think that this could become a much better tradition. So, wondering... Where should we spend next Christmas? Wonder what it's like in Reykjavik?

 

More importantly, the days should start getting longer! Hope we start seeing that soon. For a few years, one of our winter traditions included a trip to the Southern Hemisphere for some extra daylight. But we haven't done that in a few years, and I miss that.

Edited December 22, 2014 by jpalbny

[UKCruiseJeff]

Unpopular view I suspect.

 

For the first time this year I have joined my wife in genuinely hating Christmas passionately. I feel it has become overpowering and stifling. Christmas is even less now about a festive season, it seems more about seeing people spending cash they don't really have for purposes totally unrelated to the season. We feel that it is crushing us and we are way to far into being taken for a ride. The constant TV adverts and the panic in the shops. We just want it to go away

 

As Christmas has no religious significance to us, I use to sometimes volunteer in a hospital, and as a much younger Jeff, we use to do soup runs from the East-end to Soho for homeless street people. I quite miss that. My first date with wifey she joined me on a soup run to feed people at Charring Cross station and The Embankment. I thought it would put her off! I told her i'd buy her dinner under the stars on the Embankment .... I didn't lie really did I! Some of those lovely people did whiff a bit ...... :D

 

This year no christmas tree with all the wooden stuff we bought in year after year of visiting German and Austrian Christmas markets! Oh Joy! Just wifey and me and a corn fed chicken and a normal meal. Netflix and NowTV will drown out the incessant yuletide shouting on the terrestrial channels. I know we are the only ones here, but I wish it would all go away. I wonder how many people are actually sadder at christmas than it should be?

 

As I said previously I'm hoping to start a really new tradition next year and get us to Singapore for a month or so, so we can walk in the warm during the day and sit on our favourite bench in Botanic Gardens and eat satay on christmas day.

Edited December 22, 2014 by UKCruiseJeff

[jpalbny]

Jeff, I am with you on some of this. Chris and I are just amazed at the push to spend tons of money to buy things that you don't need and/or can't afford. The endless ads are indeed tiresome. We have been chuckling at the sheer volume of desperate e-mails from every online merchant we've ever heard of, shrieking about how it's our "last chance" to buy this or that.

 

As a matter of fact we haven't given each other an actual Christmas present in years! This trip to Paris is probably the closest we've come in a long time to anything resembling a Christmas present.

 

We used to enjoy the Christmas Eve services and some of her family's Ukrainian traditions (especially the different dumplings). That was a nice tradition for the two of us - we'd spend Christmas Eve cooking the fillings, assemble them, and we'd have a nice dinner together. But no time for all that cooking this year.

 

We still enjoy putting up Christmas Trees because that adds a touch of cheer to the house, and we like the smell of pine. We have some nice LED candles that go in our windows. All of the lights help brighten these dark dreary days. I hope I don't lose the joy we get from doing that.

 

We will look around Paris for trinkets for the nieces and nephews but nothing expensive. And it won't get to them until after Christmas anyway. So we ignore the materialistic noise and find that we are able to enjoy the elements of Christmas that are still important to us.

[UKCruiseJeff]

Good Afternoon all!

 

SG, lovely to see everything progressing .... our Ocado is today at 4pm! Lemon Van willing. ;)

 

JP, you must both join us one year at Singapore for a Satay! All Coolies Welcome! You know it makes sense!

 

Today wifey has abandoned me to go to Salisbury to see Number #2 Son. Bit of a Mum's Lunch at Wagamama.

 

JP I know you understand these things so below was todays pizza. Techy stuff was 63% hydration and this was dough I put in the fridge before Seaside so it has been maturing slowly for a couple of weeks. Not necessary as you know. In spite of it taking one and a half hours for the oven to reach temp (decent enough time for half a bottle of something oaky and red) and 90 seconds for the pizza to cook it is so much pleasure to be able to produce an authentic Neapolitan in your own kitchen when it's raining outside.

 

Just a very rustic thin pizza with loads of crust. Gorgeous soft but crisp and chewy where it should be. This is the crust JP!

 

[spinnaker2]

bah humbug.

Seriously, I get the ambivalence about the holiday. I am not about the materialism that has overwhelmed the holiday.

It's about making memories, and hopefully memories that are pleasant. For me it's also about a certain feeling that goes along with all the trappings of the tree, the ornaments which have been in my family for a long time. Inevitably, the tree trimming event becomes a nostalgic thing, and a time for family to be together.

JP enjoy Paris, it's sounds like a wonderful trip.

The one and only time I spent Christmas away was a trip to Firenze. While it was spectacular to go to the Duomo on Christmas Eve with the family, my mom did not make the trip. I have regretted that I didn't try and force her to go, it was heart wrenching that she was alone on that day, which had always been a special day for her. Yes she made the decision not to go, but I could have made the same decision not to go.

[jpalbny]

Awesome crust! You better be careful not to finish the bottle before fooling around with a 900 degree oven! Half a bottle seems safe enough, though.

 

After we eat the part of the slice that has toppings, we like to dip the bare crusts in olive oil with a little Italian herb mixture. Your crust looks like it would be excellent for that.

 

I usually go about 66% hydration myself. When I used less, I found that I couldn't roll the crust out thin enough. I use 1/3 white whole wheat, 1/3 semolina flour, and 1/3 white flour. I used to use 00 Italian white flour for the white flour but that can be hard to find. All-purpose does OK. Going by weight is so much easier than by volume - 6 oz water, 9 oz flour (3 of each) - throw in some olive oil, salt, yeast. Done!

 

The only downside of the wetter crust is that it will stick to the pizza peel so you can't slide it onto the pizza stone. If you use too much flour or cornmeal to keep it from sticking, it alters the taste (and it burns on the hot stone) So after I roll out the crust, I put it on parchment paper, and put that on the hot stone. After about a minute, the bottom of the crust is dry so I slip the parchment out and finish cooking. Voila! A little nontraditional but it works.

 

Trying to get the fridge near-empty before we leave for Paris tomorrow night. Not critical this time, as we're only gone a few days. Spinnaker2, thanks and we will do our best to enjoy the City of Lights. Still long nights that far north... Sunrise 9A and Sunset 5P.

Edited December 23, 2014 by jpalbny

[UKCruiseJeff]

Spin, ... bleedin' cheek. Ba humbug I am, scrooge I ain't. No choice. Adult family and UK economy makes me "banker of choice" for a demanding family ....:p

 

Hi JP, I wish you could smell the kitchen right now .... there is something that brings the sun out on a wet day when you have a pizza smell. The other half of that bottle hasn't lasted that long .....:)

 

I'm dead set against rolling the dough because it kills the too much of the bubbles you've gained and with that mix of flour and semolina and the longer cooking time it strikes me that it might be prone to being a biscuity ie crispy and dry? I don't know if this is correct it's just me "feelin' the dough"!

 

Perhaps that's why you add oil to soften it a bit which as you know is against the Neapolitan rules and actually I think makes a less good dough. But perhaps you have to to counteract the mix and lengthy cooking time.

 

I have persevered with simple stretching by hand, none of this daft throwing idea, just gentle pulling. There's quite a lot of youtube of people doing it.

 

I have also had the problem with sticking to the peel and what happened to me with the benefit of hindsight was that if it stuck I though it had stuck so started fiddling. What I now know after perseverance is that if you do the final stretch before the peel and put the flour on the top of the stretched round base then turn it over onto the peel and then top it. It is fine. When you think all is lost and it is stuck 99% of the time it isn't. It just needs you to keep shaking it back and forth if you get my drift and just when you think all is lost and it's time for "plan b" it becomes unstuck and moves. That's my experience anyway. I have experimented with much wetter than that and it doesn't stick. If you think of it it is better wetter with extra flour on the base. It's important in my view to use a wooden peel for final assembly as it sticks less (there is a condensation issue on metal causing stickiness) and putting it into the oven and a metal peel to retrieve.

 

I have noticed your pizza is rectangular and an experiment you might consider is using a cast iron griddle ie steak griddle but use the underside ie non ridged as the stone and grill it for as long as you can, then put the pizza on and turn the grill off just as you put the pizza in. As an aside, with bread making many people struggle with creating steam, but I use a steak griddle in the base of the oven and as you can imagine with the ridges and half a mug of water you get steam and slam the door shut. It is a solution I'm proud of because I haven't yet read of anyone else who has though of it.

 

Back to pizza. The semolina underneath will add crisp but also absorb all the water. I agree that 00 flour is not too much here or there as it has nothing at all to do with the flour per se just how fine it is milled.

[UKCruiseJeff]

As no one else has so far mentioned it, may I just say a "goodbye" to Joe Cocker, who sadly died this week.

 

Personally, apart from knowing and admiring Sue and Sunny, those lovely voices behind him, I never "got him" at the time. To me he didn't seem that talented until I was put right by a well known professional singer who explained it to me.

 

I was told to listen to the silences between the vocals. Joe's talent was vocal minimalism. Sing what you need and no more. Let silence speak for itself. Where and when you needed voice, you got voice, but where it wasn't required or added, he stopped. But those choking gaps were a part of the sound. He is the only vocalist I know of that - just like pizza ( ;) ) less is genuinely much much more.

 

To truly understand - listen to Joe Cocker and " n'oubliez jamais", personally my favourite track of his. If you have soul, it will bring tears.

 

 

Sheffield's son RIP.

 

:)

Edited December 23, 2014 by UKCruiseJeff

[Tothesunset]

To truly understand - listen to Joe Cocker and " n'oubliez jamais", personally my favourite track of his. If you have soul, it will bring tears.

 

 

Cocker on the audio, Deneuve on the video. It just doesn't get better than that.

 

An extraordinary voice. One of the very few whose name will fit comfortably in a sentence with the likes of Sinatra, Holliday, te Kanawa, Springfield, Flack, Gigli.

 

The artistic worth of humanity diminished a little yesterday.

[UKCruiseJeff]

Cocker on the audio, Deneuve on the video. It just doesn't get better than that.

 

An extraordinary voice. One of the very few whose name will fit comfortably in a sentence with the likes of Sinatra, Holliday, te Kanawa, Springfield, Flack, Gigli.

 

The artistic worth of humanity diminished a little yesterday.

 

Thanks for posting! That will be two of us old softies then. :)

 

You are so right to mention Catherine Deneuve. There cannot be many (males at the very least) of any age that hasn't been startled by her. Not bad for an allegedly 71 year old. A full life with David Bailey, Roger Vadim and Marcello Mastroianni as partners and made some of the most evocative and extraordinary films of all time, as well as being really active in politics and charity.

 

I don't know why, but N'oubliez Jamais, seems such a fitting song to say goodby to Joe with.

 

"Never Forget"

 

:)

[Tothesunset]

Jeff,

 

The thing about Mlle Deneuve is that she is one of that very select group of women whose beauty is so perfect as to be unimprovable. I'm trying to create a mental shortlist of similarly blessed women but can only come up with Deneuve, Audrey Hepburn, Oona Chaplin and Nicole Kidman.

 

I'm sure our female members could come up with a similar list of men although it would hardly be accurate since they haven't met me.;)

[UKCruiseJeff]

I suspect that many women would put Clooney at near the top of the list. It is irritating how he seems to look better as he gets older. And he gets free Nespresso.

 

I use to say to wifey that Cocker was a "scruffy git" and she'd say he looked like me. Bleedin' cheek. :(

 

On the female list amongst the older ones I would have to be a young Monroe and Bergman and perhaps amongst the younger Julia Roberts, Demi Moore, Halle Berry, Sandra Bullock, Diane Keaton, Julie Christie.

 

:)

[spinnaker2]

paul Newman.

That video of joe was wonderful.

Of that era I also loved Richie havens.

Hard to believe it's 45 years ago.