Silversea Water Cooler: Welcome! Part Two

[TLCOhio]

Thanks very much Jeff...yes that's a good start. Did the gondola stuff last time and also the main sights so just want to wonder around this time. Am hoping to stay at the Cipriani for a one off experience..... Fletcher....looked at the hotel you stayed at and it looks lovely so that's a maybe...thank you.

 

Appreciate all of the super wonderful postings, tips, memories, etc., from Jeff, Fletcher, Candy, etc., on Venice. Yes, staying there and/or walking around away from the "Maddening Crowds" has great and enjoyable benefits. Being there in the evenings when the day-trippers are gone has also been great fun.

 

My first visit to Venice was in December 1970. As others have noted, being there when the peak tourism crowds are not there allows a much better chance to see and experience those actual residents doing "real life" in this amazing location with so much character and charm. One of the great things about Venice is the lack of rude sounds from cars, trucks and motor scooters.

 

Below are a few visuals from my photo files during our visits to this historic city. Keep up the great sharing on Venice.

 

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 131,261 views for this posting.

 

 

While walking around in the back streets of Venice in 1999, we found this cute shop that makes the famed masks. This wasn't a "tourist shop", but a source for the "real thing".:

 

 

 

From my first visit to Venice in December 1970, here an interesting angle for Venice and the very pavement that Marco Polo walked as he was getting ready to depart to discover China and all of the treasures of the “East”. Great location of history in Venice!.:

 

 

 

The sail-out and/or sail-in for Venice can be wonderful with its spectacular views. This was our vantage point from the top of our ship as we approached the historic center of Venice in 2011. On a beautiful day, as we enjoyed, this is so wonderful!!!:

 

[spinnaker2]

S

Try looking at da Marisa

A bit of a walk and out of the way.

We have enjoyed every meal there.

Reasonable prices and low key.

No menus

In Sunday fish only, but o what fish! So many courses...

One price.

[jollyjones]

Sorry Terry - check your Hardy and you'll find it's "Madding Crowds" - much more expressive.

[spinnaker2]

someone sent me the below.

hope it doesn't offend anyone, i found it to be quite amusing.

 

 

A MESSAGE FROM THE QUEEN

 

To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

In light of your failure in recent years to nominate competent candidates for President of the USA

and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence,

effective immediately. (You should look up 'revocation' in the Oxford English Dictionary.)

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states,

commonwealths, and territories (except North Dakota, which she does not fancy).

Your new Prime Minister, David Cameron, will appoint a Governor for America without the need

for further elections.

Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated next year to

determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with

immediate effect:

-----------------------

1. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'colour,' 'favour,' 'labour' and 'neighbour.'

Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters, and the suffix '-ize' will

be replaced by the suffix '-ise.' Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to

acceptable levels. (look up 'vocabulary').

------------------------

2. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as ''like' and 'you know' is

an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as U.S. English. We

will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into

account the reinstated letter 'u'' and the elimination of '-ize.'

-------------------

3. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.

-----------------

4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that

you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not quite ready to be independent. Guns

should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can't sort things out without suing someone or

speaking to a therapist, then you're not ready to shoot grouse.

----------------------

5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a

vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in

public.

----------------------

6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side

with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the

benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British

sense of humour.

--------------------

7. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of

roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.

-------------------

8. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those

things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in

animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.

-------------------

9. The cold, tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only

proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted

provenance will be referred to as Lager. South African beer is also acceptable, as they are pound for

pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of

the British Commonwealth - see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as Near-

Frozen Gnat's Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.

---------------------

10. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will

also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell

attempt English dialect in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one's ears

removed with a cheese grater.

---------------------

11. You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of proper football; you call it

soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some

similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or

wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).

---------------------

12. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World

Series for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is

a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let

you face the South Africans first to take the sting out of their deliveries.

--------------------

13.. You must tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us mad.

-----------------

14. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty's Government will be with you

shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).

---------------

15. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 p.m. with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with

high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.

God Save the Queen!

[jpalbny]

Cute. That's been circulating for a while; I've seen it before. Still makes me laugh every time... Especially because as I read it, I hear the words being spoken aloud with a Monty Python type British accent. Makes it even more humoUrous to me.

 

I like to rib my Canadian sister about the spelling differences too. When she uses her American phone to message me, it autocorrects all of her British spellings back to American English, which gets her quite out of sorts.

 

I think our friends across the pond will enjoy this as well. Vive les différences!

Edited January 6, 2016 by jpalbny

[spinnaker2]

Yes JP...when you mention Monty python,

My kids still do the Monty python quote of "3 farthings for a piece of..(expletive)".

 

Just hoped for a slight smile at usa politics.

 

We need some good guidance.

Not sure it's the Queen.

But I am open to suggestions.

[UKCruiseJeff]

Lamb minted Kofta bbq with onion and tomato rice, salad with lots of red onion, pittas and boxed red wine ....

 

Jeff

 

Edited January 6, 2016 by UKCruiseJeff

[jpalbny]

Jeff, yum. Sounds very Mediterranean! I cooked up a batch of split pea soup with ham in the crockpot a few days ago. Made for a tasty lunch!

[spinnaker2]

Jeff,

That looks divine and healthy!

 

In my attempt to not waste food going forward, after all am living on retirement scraps, I used the chocolate gingerbread cookies as a cookie crust, put in a Springfirm pan, and added a batter of cream cheese, sour cream, eggs, sugar, vanilla, bittersweet dark chocolate( the healthy addition) and a small amount of instant espresso to deepen the flavor.

It's in the oven now.

Fingers crossed.

 

Still gloomy and chilly here for the spirit sail away. Hope Mysty is enjoying her days aboard the world cruise.

[Mark_K]

Spinnaker2,

 

Interesting thing about there being no such thing as US English, according to linguists the place where the English spoken today most closely resembles that spoken in England in the Elizabethan era is a place on the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia.

[UKCruiseJeff]

Spinnaker2,

 

Interesting thing about there being no such thing as US English, according to linguists the place where the English spoken today most closely resembles that spoken in England in the Elizabethan era is a place on the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia.

 

"Linguists"?

 

 

As I understood it ..... an urban myth. The last paragraph if you don't feel like all of it ........

 

Revised version of an essay that originally appeared in Myths in Linguistics, ed. by Laurie Bauer and Peter Trudgill (New York: Penguin, 1998), 66-76.]

 

http://artsandsciences.sc.edu/engl/dictionary/articles/SpeakLikeShakespeare.pdf

 

 

 

Jeff

 

 

 

.

Edited January 6, 2016 by UKCruiseJeff

[UKCruiseJeff]

Thanks JP. I've also been trying pulses for the first time recently. This week I made a sort of tomato soup with smoked paprika and cayenne with some german sausage and harrisa beans.

 

Spins, thanks .... I cannot bear wastage and I hate it.

 

 

Jeff

[spinnaker2]

Jeff

I made a commitment to try and ,"use it up".

 

After the chocolate dessert, I went thru the herbs in bottom drawer of refrigerator, and used them in a goat cheese dip, with roasted almonds. I added some jalapeno peppers, minus the seeds, banana peppers and small orange peppers..

It's not completely melded flavor wise, but it is good.

I will put it on a romaine leaf instead of a cracker.

 

I am not used to cooking for two.

I need to do better.

I look to you for sage advice.

[UKCruiseJeff]

Our problem is a shrinking appetite as we get older.

 

Jeff

[jpalbny]

No problem with the appetite here...just the shrinking metabolism! That leads to the inevitable shrinking of the clothing...

[spinnaker2]

And the shrinking of the wallet.

Did you see the stock market today?

[Mark_K]

Spinnaker2,

 

Interesting thing about there being no such thing as US English, according to linguists the place where the English spoken today most closely resembles that spoken in England in the Elizabethan era is a place on the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia.

 

 

Interesting article, but how people speak In an area of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia has no more to do with how the people speak in the mountains of North Carolina than how the the people in Yorkshire speak compared to the people in Southampton.

[specialcruisegirl]

Hello All......

 

Jeff....join the club with diminishing appetite....l find it hard to handle but think it's down to sheer boredom of just having to eat....like a routine. At least you still make the effort whereas I've just given in to easy meals that l can just shove in the oven...[emoji6]

 

Regional dialects can be a minefield....having lived in Yorkshire for twenty years and now returning to Wales even more so!

 

Happy Day

 

Sophia [emoji5]

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[lincslady]

Sophia - you beat me to it. I had thoughts about both eating and sleeping; we now both cannot eat large quantities at meals, or feel the need for snacks. Obviously to do with age; we are not as physically active, and if we did eat as much as a 50 year old would be the size of houses. My philosophy, which I imagine applies to most Coolers, is to choose small helpings of delicious things. Particularly on holiday, or a cruise, when I often have two starters for dinner, if they are particularly appetising, rather than a large main course.

 

I seem to recall Jeff mentioning sleeping habits. Dare I say that when we have an AFD (alcohol free day), which occasionally happens, we do not fall asleep on the sofa, and usually sleep right through the night for about 7 hours. There does seem to be some correlation, as most days I do doze off often during an interesting programme on TV, and then wake after about 3 hours in bed, and have to read or just lie there thinking while DH snores. Very annoying.

 

Foul day here today, wet and windy, but I am about to go off to French class with chums I have not seen since before Christmas, so that will brighten me up.

 

If Mysty has time to drop in here, do hope you are already having a wonderful time, and look forward to hearing about it.

 

Lola

[spinnaker2]

Ahhhhh

The dreaded snoring issue.

I have tried everything to stop this from happening.

A wedge pillow, a sleep study, a split bed that elevates head and or feet, headphones, ear buds, etc.

No way will he ever stop.

DD once slept in bathtub in hotel so as not to hear it.

[mysty]

Greetings Coolers! We got internet access today!!!! Yesterday we were in Key West. We had not scheduled tours. We just went walk about. Really enjoyed the port. We had lunch at Garbo's Grill - agave margaritas and fish tacos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today is a sea day and our next port was supposed to be Puerto Limon, Costa Rica. However, we are now sailing to the Panama Canal. Not sure why the change. When we embarked we were asked if we had received the Yellow Fever vaccine. We had not! And a number of other WC passengers had also not been inoculated as we had been told by the line that it was not necessary. Not sure if there is a connection between the two.

 

Stay tuned.....

[UKCruiseJeff]

Great Piccies M,

 

 

Jeff

[spinnaker2]

Looks great!

Glad all seems well.

[Mr Luxury]

At last decent food and drink piccies

[jpalbny]

Welcome back mysty! Those look yummy. Now I'm hungry.