Silversea Water Cooler: Welcome! Part Four

[UKCruiseJeff]

You are so right Cams ... even our oil is succumbing to the foilage. Oilage in the Foilage ...;

 

 

 

 

 

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[jillyf]

I wouldn’t sit there for too long Jeff. You might become part of the woodland!

[jpalbny]

Lovely lazy day today. We slept late due to the late night last night. Did a little shopping and had time for a "gentle" walk. Lounged in the hot tub and had a nice lunch inspired by Jeff's summer salad. Grilled shrimp over a salad of arugula, tomato, Vidalia onion, and avocado. Served with a yogurt-based sauce/dressing - with lime juice (since we're out of lemons), a little freshly grated garlic, and some fresh herbs from the kitchen garden.

 

 

I served this with a rose as well, but mine was from the Finger Lakes region of NY. And some grilled corn on the cob.

 

 

Jeff, thanks again for the inspiration. It was a lovely meal, and the leftover yogurt dressing made a nice evening snack with some raw vegetables. Now having a glass of Alsatian Pinot Blanc before ice cream and bed. Epicurious would be proud...the rest of the weekend's work will have to get done tomorrow!

[Camillus112]

JP, corn season has not set in yet in NY...where is your import from? Lovely meal. altogether.

 

Today was ballet recital day for our youngest granddaughter (9 yrs). She did good! The oldest (13) is on crutches now and missed her recital. They both inherited my love for the art. I still do ballet steps while at the gym and laugh with my friends on how weird and funny I look. Roberto, however, does not dance at all. Anybody for ballroom?

[UKCruiseJeff]

Lovely meal JP!

 

:)

[jpalbny]

Thanks Jeff and Cam. Jeff, your photo of lunch inspired me. Cam, Chris and I took ballroom lessons for years. Love it. Miss it, now that the studio closed and those skills are atrophying. But we manage to fool most of the people, most of the time.

 

Not sure what state the corn came from. Probably Florida. At $0.20 per ear, it was even better!

 

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[Daveywavey70]

Thank you so much again Jeff for all of your excellent advice. I did respond to one post on there but I’m done with the trolls and apologists. I’m going to spend a couple of days now trying not to stress about it!

 

 

I do though, intend to see this matter through.

 

 

Anyway which Armagnac is your favourite? We have a lovely one at my hotel little known and very reasonably priced. Goes under the banner of Chateau de Tariquet. It’s a great “cooking Armagnac” for a nightcap. I Love your secret corner. I’d watch out for that ivy though, looks like it might take you prisoner at any moment!

[UKCruiseJeff]

Good Morning All, from a pleasant and sunny morning here.

 

You're most welcome Dave. The key thing now is to not take this personally. It isn't "Dave" that is being attacked it is anyone who had made a similar reasonable request and in fact they are treating everyone equally badly. This is now "simply business" and you need to decide on a "game plan" and see it through. Put it on a back burner and use your anger to get even.

 

My first holiday claim was in fact "a holiday of a lifetime" when we had had extreme personal pressures. In my case a close family member had been murdered, and there was a high-profile Old Baily court case and after that we booked an expensive rental property on the best beach in Barbados ie Paynes Bay for a four week stay with my family and my wife's parents. It was fully staffed right down to a real butler. All in fact I wanted was an acknowledgement that it hadn't gone well and an apology but they treated me badly and called me a "liar", something I have never been able to tolerate, and so I sued. It was a five day hearing and I won the largest ever award (at that time) for a holiday claim which has now become a precedent for many holiday claim aspects.

 

I had already employed investigators to size the owners and business's wealth and ensure they could pay any substantial award I won and asked and received a special order from the judge that they pay within 7 days and I had court bailiffs waiting and briefed on the 7th day. My lawyers called and asked that all directors present themselves with their cars at their registered offices including their wives cars in order to prepare for them to be seized with a large chunk of other assets unless they paid immediately by bank transfer. They paid and it paid the deposit of my current home and I named my home after the place we rented in Barbados and had the extremely lovely pleasure of sending the MD a Christmas card thanking him for the deposit for my house instead of simply saying "sorry" to us. My barrister (later to become a judge) said that I had been the best witness he had ever seen cross-examined (for two days) and that I had made mincemeat of their QC and he and my solicitor said they would really hate to upset me and make me mad!

 

Luckily these days these cases rarely get to court and are much more simpler to pursue. After that - a long time later - my wife supported me leaving The Corporation and we started a few separate businesses the core one being a CS consultancy where we pioneered and managed the customer survey and feedback processes for many corporations particularly using what was then the fairly new approach of online and emailed surveys and online customer focus groups. So every month that business received well over 100,000 surveys a small percentage being so upset that they threatened litigation and so we provided a special service to manage those highly dissatisfied customers to satisfactory and extremely fast conclusion including full delegated authority to provide whatever settlement we saw fit. A few percent each month meant we were managing a couple of thousand bits of threatened litigation so I am use to judging and deciding how complaints should be handled and their chances of "legal success" and then actually ensuring that unhappy customers are made (if possible) into happy ones. We use to advise for each case a percentage chance of success on my chosen scale of 20-80% chance ie nothing being zero or 100%. That also compelled us to become knowledgeable and expert in all the consumer laws in which countries our clients operated. Hence I have been able to offer you reasonably precise advice. I understand what it's like to start a business and the pressures that brings and unusually I have some experience of handling consumer litigation.

 

Now back to important stuff! I need to disclose that I am a peasant. So I believe people fall into two groups. They either drink cognac (those are the upper crust) and peasants like me who enjoy tasting the grape and love Armagnac. To me it seems the cheaper the Armagnac the better it is. I'm hoping that they keep their promise and have it waiting in my suite in a few days alongside the voddy and other little requests. I think Armagnac drinkers also tend t like calvados.

 

Last night I managed to fool ORF that we are in Vienna using VPN and I was able to stream the Life Ball live for the whole evening and what a wonderful event that was. It was extraordinary with Conchita with his/her beard playing Maria from The Sound Of Music. We were invited a few years ago to the one opened by Elton John and also had front row seat for the Patti La Belle concert .... something I wrote about some time ago ... a memorable experience being the only straights in a gay audience!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I do so hope you enjoy the Coooler Dave and find a place in your time to join us. It started as an antidote to the trolling often felt outside of this thread.

Edited June 3, 2018 by UKCruiseJeff

[UKCruiseJeff]

Today’s lunch is Paella...

 

 

 

 

 

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[Camillus112]

My favorite!! Looks yummy. Did you use piquillo peppers, or are those tomato chunks?

[UKCruiseJeff]

They are indeed peppers. :)

[bissel]

Dear Coolers at the Round Table,

 

Has anyone given any thought to publishing your many exchanges over the years? This place is most enjoyable to visit and I think the volumes you publish would not only be enjoyed by many people who don't participate but bring great satisfaction to this group of people who do.

The pleasure this will bring to you all will last for years. I would like to have copies myself as this site is a daily read for me!

 

Carolyn

[Lois R]

Good morning Coolers,:)

 

Carolyn, publish what exchanges? Are you referring to this thread? Personally, I wouldn't want what I say on here to be "published". I mean it is live now on the net for others read. But to publish as a book? Or was the question for each individual to publish their own replies? Just curious as to the meaning of the question.

[bissel]

Good morning Lois,

Yes, I was thinking of publishing all the Water Cooler threads as a book. Or having a couple of volumes of the most interesting exchanges.

 

I can now see all sorts of problems and issues with doing this. Perhaps not a good idea.

 

Oh well, never mind. Continue on please.

 

Carolyn

[Lois R]

Good morning Lois,

Yes, I was thinking of publishing all the Water Cooler threads as a book. Or having a couple of volumes of the most interesting exchanges.

 

I can now see all sorts of problems and issues with doing this. Perhaps not a good idea.

 

Oh well, never mind. Continue on please.

 

Carolyn

 

Carolyn, I was being sincere:)……..I mean, if others want to publish things of their own? That would up to them of course. I just think publishing this whole thread? Doesn't really seem feasible (to me anyway).

[UKCruiseJeff]

Dear Coolers at the Round Table,

 

Has anyone given any thought to publishing your many exchanges over the years? This place is most enjoyable to visit and I think the volumes you publish would not only be enjoyed by many people who don't participate but bring great satisfaction to this group of people who do.

The pleasure this will bring to you all will last for years. I would like to have copies myself as this site is a daily read for me!

 

Carolyn

 

Good Afternoon Carolyn , and what a lovely note which I think is a really kind tribute to all the people who contribute here and keep it going, and in a way the way in which they contribute is as much as how they say things as well as what they say.

 

I asked our long suffering Host Dan nearly five years ago whether he would permit me to start it as a place to engage only in off-topic exchanges as some seemed to attack anything that they didn't approve of, and over the history of the four Cooler threads there's been around 700,000 views and around 19,000 posts - I think the views only count those that are logged in when they view which is the way that other fora count them and so with unregistered lurkers we probably seem to have a fair bit of interest. I was aware that some newcomers have even said they had read back through previous threads. I should own up in case some new people feel the need to know, I use to post under UK1 and joined in around 2004 but was banned and I hope I have improved with age. :D

 

Everyone contributes here knowing it can be read by anyone and what they do with it is entirely outside their control and so I can see no reasonable objection to doing with it anything one wants. I'm really pleased the Cooler exists as many people joining it have been people who would like to participate in a friendly forum but many have found that they have been intimidated or bullied or feared they might be when posting elsewhere. I believe that it is possible to have real and viable friendships with people you do not and may never meet. It is possible to share interests and trust people based simply on what they say and how they behave over time. A friendship on this basis seems to me to be as viable - or perhaps more viable than say with someone you knew at school but haven't seen for 50 years. As children, many kids had pen-friends and I think they thought of them as "real" friends and here we have the advantage of being able to chat and reply instantly and at all times and we know who else is around and that they will be friendly.

 

I think the unwritten rules we have developed here are an interesting experiment. In a way the point of posting is almost the Cooler itself in that people here have created and preserved an unusual place where everyone feels included and no one is ever attacked personally. Their views may be questioned vigorously but not them as people. I also note that people try to acknowledge all posts so that it feels friendly and people try to make sure no one feels left out. I genuinely think all try to do this. However the other side of that is I detect people do not like individual conversations just between two people that seem to be posted just for that and exclude others, or posters who seem to take no interest in others and only themselves or seem to give an impression over time that they see others as inferior or that they are more important. I also think the way it drifts on in any and all directions is part of it's character. I also like that when people help others on the Cooler, they always receive a thanks. What I fear for the net generally is that those that know least seem to post the most prolifically and those that know most cannot be bothered to repeat things or deal with arguing with people for the sake of it, or not be thanked when they help and so the balance between helpful and unhelpful information will become more and more unbalanced with all the dangers of misinformation that comes with that changing balance and with the increasing growth of "fake" facts.

 

Anyway Carolyn, I would like you to publish a book. Perhaps a virtual book. We could have a virtual opening and prepare a virtual party. Any excuse for a knees up.

[UKCruiseJeff]

Today's Clarkson M!

 

Real diamonds are clearly designed to ruin men. Give me a Didcot knock-off any day

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/jeremy-clarkson-real-diamonds-are-clearly-designed-to-ruin-men-give-me-a-didcot-knockoff-any-day-20rntj2dq?shareToken=ca2232cdc1b2110480262b410a10fce4

[bissel]

What a great post, Jeff! So incisive and well articulated as to why these musings are so enjoyable. I've been reading for years and this morning I went back a couple of years and reread some random posts. I felt bad that these posts will be lost in the mists of time!

 

Humm...a virtual book. A virtual knees up Mother Brown.

 

Carolyn

[mysty]

Greetings Coolers!

 

Thanks for the article link J! I look forward to it every Sunday. A treat for my week! And I do think Mr. Clarkson has made a number of good points with this one!

[mysty]

Carolyn....really nice post! And having sat considering your words it seems to me like the Cooler is like a never-ending (so far) "Clarkson" column. Topics vary, opinions offered (respectfully), humour lightening what could be a dark day, irrelevancies and occasional irreverencies, wit and wisdom. Always a fun read!

[MissSophia]

Hi All......

 

Just back off the Spirit today so trying to catch up in between naps!

Overall an excellent cruise which l enjoyed but l do know that some issues still need ironing out and I’m so sorry that Dave had the bad experience ....welcome to the cooler btw!

 

As l said in the brief initial report via Jeff (thanks) l felt the ship has been beautified rather than musified and l liked her mainly because she hasn’t lost her soul.

The biggest pain is the non changing menu which really did become monotonous....the all around menu was available to choose from but was never offered so those who didn’t know were stuck.

The highlight was the pre ordered Indian Banquet that we had one night which was superb.

My suite was fully functional but a neighbour down the hall had no ceiling lights throughout the voyage.

Lots of the old crew l knew so had a warm welcome back and service was excellent.....a few newbies who really need more training but always willing to do their best.

 

The weather wasn’t at all kind to us so quite a treat to arrive into a warm and sunny London last night.

Took us quite a while to hook up to the pontoon at Greenwich but disembarkation went remarkably smooth this morning with the assistance of the Thames Clippers getting us safely back on to dry land!

Chauffeurs/Drivers were also well organised which made for a quick exit out of the capital and home!

 

Home to find my renovations completed along with a beautifully cleaned up patio filled with pots of flowering begonias.....oh...and one very excited and happy pooch!

 

S😊

[mysty]

Welcome back Miss S! So very happy to hear that you enjoyed your cruise! Nice to return to completed reno and one very happy sweet paws!

[Camillus112]

A warm welcome to Miss S.!! Glad all was fine with your cabin, and here's hoping that Dave gets a satisfactory resolution to his ordeal.

[Lois R]

Hi Sophia:D, welcome back and glad you had a good cruise:)

 

I fly out on July 7th to Venice and sail on WHISPER on July 10th...….I have been reading the postings about the Spirit and really sorry for those who had such poor experiences.:(

[jillyf]

Welcome home Sophia. So nice to have the Reno finished and pots of begonias blooming when you returned.