Silversea Water Cooler: Welcome! Part Five

[V8Babe]

He also enjoyed Bocelli, very much. He was definitely the best ! 

(No disrespect to you 😃)

 

Edited June 15 by V8Babe

[UKCruiseJeff]

It should never be any other way!

 

You chose wisely.

 

🙂

 

Jeff

[lincslady]

I loved The Eagles, the Beach Boys - all those good melodies and gorgeous harmonies.

But did not include them in music which moved me to tears, as did Jeff Beck and John Williams - and I also loved Laurindo Almeida's version of the Rodrigo concerto.  It does seem to be guitars beautifully  played which sets me off!

[Grand Duchess]

16 hours ago, UKCruiseJeff said:

 

Now you mention it - I see the connection!

 

Obviously being rudely nosey - so please ignore - but have you always lived in Switzerland?

 

Jeff

 

 

 

 

Actually almost all my life from the age of 3, when my mum grabbed me by the hand to cross the border to Switzerland, leaving her poor soon to be ex-husband (actor and at the time speaker of news in German television) to deal with the debts they had both amassed (she fancied herself as a businesswoman). Married soon after that a Swiss cabdriver, who unfortunately fancied himself as knowing how to break the bank in Monte Carlo... gambling addict. Yes she sure knew how to pick them🤣

I grew up in Switzerland with two younger half siblings. We moved around a lot depending on financial status, by the age of 11 I knew what "separation of property" was. Was thrown out at 17 by said stepfather (the opera house riots in Zurich may have played a part...), finished school, started several directions of study at university from dentistry to law school to economics, chucked that in and went to work at a bank in the securities backoffice, that was in 1987, before the crash, when you had your pick of jobs in that field.

I was born in Hamburg though, and although I met my husband while still at school and he was born in Switzerland, his parents were from Hamburg. My mum married a third time after she was widowed, this time my "biological" father, who had already been married 4 times. A wine women and song party animal, first met him when I was 25. A homöopathic doctor who even when he was already 80 still danced on the bar counter when in the mood. Highly selfish but never boring. From Hamburg, too. So I still have close ties to that place and I know there are also a few more siblings around there which I do not know personally. "Dynasty" is quite dull in comparison, aside from the divine Ms. Collins😊
 

[UKCruiseJeff]

7 minutes ago, Grand Duchess said:

Actually almost all my life from the age of 3, when my mum grabbed me by the hand to cross the border to Switzerland, leaving her poor soon to be ex-husband (actor and at the time speaker of news in German television) to deal with the debts they had both amassed (she fancied herself as a businesswoman). Married soon after that a Swiss cabdriver, who unfortunately fancied himself as knowing how to break the bank in Monte Carlo... gambling addict. Yes she sure knew how to pick them🤣

I grew up in Switzerland with two younger half siblings. We moved around a lot depending on financial status, by the age of 11 I knew what "separation of property" was. Was thrown out at 17 by said stepfather (the opera house riots in Zurich may have played a part...), finished school, started several directions of study at university from dentistry to law school to economics, chucked that in and went to work at a bank in the securities backoffice, that was in 1987, before the crash, when you had your pick of jobs in that field.

I was born in Hamburg though, and although I met my husband while still at school and he was born in Switzerland, his parents were from Hamburg. My mum married a third time after she was widowed, this time my "biological" father, who had already been married 4 times. A wine women and song party animal, first met him when I was 25. A homöopathic doctor who even when he was already 80 still danced on the bar counter when in the mood. Highly selfish but never boring. From Hamburg, too. So I still have close ties to that place and I know there are also a few more siblings around there which I do not know personally. "Dynasty" is quite dull in comparison, aside from the divine Ms. Collins😊
 

 

GD,

 

What an amazing story.  

 

I’m so pleased I asked my nosey question and you posting your extraordinary story.  I’ve read it four times slowly and read to it wifey and we’ve noticed new bits each time.  Thanks so much. 

 

You are exactly the sort of person who one could listen to on a cruise  … or in a bar  …. and never be bored. 

 

I have often pondered and wondered .. mostly both from personal experience and the observation of others … whether in an obtuse and counter-intuitive way .. that those with the hardest and most challenging of starts have a far more interesting path through life than those with a smoother start.  I guess your story to a degree supports my theory. 

 

I will sit at the bar rather than dance on it if I hopefully reach 80 … and simply learn to shrug more.  Without The Cooler I would never have heard such a fascinating story and heard about such an interesting path and so thanks.  🙂

 

Jeff

[Lois R]

That really was a fascinating story, Grand Duchess, sounds like you have lived a very interesting life.

 

[Tothesunset]

4 hours ago, Grand Duchess said:

Actually almost all my life from the age of 3, when my mum grabbed me by the hand to cross the border to Switzerland, leaving her poor soon to be ex-husband (actor and at the time speaker of news in German television) to deal with the debts they had both amassed (she fancied herself as a businesswoman). Married soon after that a Swiss cabdriver, who unfortunately fancied himself as knowing how to break the bank in Monte Carlo... gambling addict. Yes she sure knew how to pick them🤣

I grew up in Switzerland with two younger half siblings. We moved around a lot depending on financial status, by the age of 11 I knew what "separation of property" was. Was thrown out at 17 by said stepfather (the opera house riots in Zurich may have played a part...), finished school, started several directions of study at university from dentistry to law school to economics, chucked that in and went to work at a bank in the securities backoffice, that was in 1987, before the crash, when you had your pick of jobs in that field.

I was born in Hamburg though, and although I met my husband while still at school and he was born in Switzerland, his parents were from Hamburg. My mum married a third time after she was widowed, this time my "biological" father, who had already been married 4 times. A wine women and song party animal, first met him when I was 25. A homöopathic doctor who even when he was already 80 still danced on the bar counter when in the mood. Highly selfish but never boring. From Hamburg, too. So I still have close ties to that place and I know there are also a few more siblings around there which I do not know personally. "Dynasty" is quite dull in comparison, aside from the divine Ms. Collins😊
 

That beats the entire run of "Dynasty"! 

[Tothesunset]

4 hours ago, UKCruiseJeff said:

 

 

I have often pondered and wondered .. mostly both from personal experience and the observation of others … whether in an obtuse and counter-intuitive way .. that those with the hardest and most challenging of starts have a far more interesting path through life than those with a smoother start. 

  

🙂

It certainly means a fierce determination never to return to that life. 

[Downunder55]

11 hours ago, UKCruiseJeff said:

 

 

My nomination for the best live performance by a band  of their own hit is this extraordinary performance by The Eagles of Hotel California.  7 guitars (2 of which are acoustic!) with 6 guitarists (Don Felder with his double-head Gibson Les Paul and EDS 1275 with a total of 18 strings!)  two drummers.  So many pluckers and thumpers!  😄  Almost an orchestra.  

 

Don was fired later for being too argumentative - so they lost two guitars in one hit! 😉

 

Hope you enjoy this performance.

 

Jeff

 

 

 

Thankyou loved it ...

 

Saw them in Piazza Napoleone, Lucca Italy during the summer festival, an old Italian town in Tuscany, where they set the stage up in the Piazza, a nice intimate venue, surrounded by history .... they were sensational. 

[UKCruiseJeff]

6 minutes ago, Downunder55 said:

 

Thankyou loved it ...

 

Saw them in Piazza Napoleone, Lucca Italy during the summer festival, an old Italian town in Tuscany, where they set the stage up in the Piazza, a nice intimate venue, surrounded by history .... they were sensational. 

 

Luccy, luccy you ….. 🙂

 

Lucca is gorgeous and it must have been lovely to have that summertime concert.  As long as you are at the end of a row ….. 😀

 

Jeff

[QueSeraSera]

8 hours ago, Grand Duchess said:

"Dynasty" is quite dull in comparison

Our Grand Duchess!  Thank you for sharing

 

[drron29]

Thanks for reminding me of The Eagles @UKCruiseJeff. This is another that is easy to listen too. They came to Australia after the band had reunited. When they broke up in 1980 Don Felder was asked when the band would get together again. His reply -"When Hell freezes over." So their album in 1994 and tour was hell freezes over.

 

[UKCruiseJeff]

Great performance drron29. 🙂

 

My suggested next category of excuses to post a link to a particularly  well loved Youtube Video is “My Favourite Youtube Video with a few French Words in it”.

 

I never rated Joe Cocker in his time because I simply did’t get it.  The wonderful backing singers of his record “I get buy without a little help from my friends” was Sue and Sunny.  No one ever remembers or values backing singers but they are the backbone of so much of the music industry.  

 

Sue and Sunny use to go to The Gioconda Coffee Bar in Denmark street when it was genuinely Tin Pan Alley of the UK in the 60’s.and where I spent too much time in the 60’s in the hope that something magical might happen for me. Everyone went to the Gioconda.  I was nursing what was then called “frothy coffee” until it was cold and I was receiving glares to vacate when I was once chatting to them about my bewilderment of JC’s success and they said “Jeff you don’t get  it  - don’t listen to what he sings but listen to the silences and what he doesn’t sing.  It’s the gaps that make his style”.  

 

I then got it and now appreciate him.

 

This is my favourite of all of his repertoire.  “N’oubliez Jamais”  with the gorgeous Catherine Deneuve.  

 

Sleep tight Coolers. 🙂

 

Jeff

 

 

 

[lincslady]

I love Lucca too.

 

Just read a description that  is new to me - 'overserved', regarding a cruise entertainer whose set was cut short.  I assume it means drunk, bladdered, or any other word for the condition, but does seem more graceful than most.  I will try to use it in the future, if I accidentally overserve myself.

[Grand Duchess]

16 hours ago, UKCruiseJeff said:

 

GD,

 

What an amazing story.  

 

I’m so pleased I asked my nosey question and you posting your extraordinary story.  I’ve read it four times slowly and read to it wifey and we’ve noticed new bits each time.  Thanks so much. 

 

You are exactly the sort of person who one could listen to on a cruise  … or in a bar  …. and never be bored. 

 

I have often pondered and wondered .. mostly both from personal experience and the observation of others … whether in an obtuse and counter-intuitive way .. that those with the hardest and most challenging of starts have a far more interesting path through life than those with a smoother start.  I guess your story to a degree supports my theory. 

 

I will sit at the bar rather than dance on it if I hopefully reach 80 … and simply learn to shrug more.  Without The Cooler I would never have heard such a fascinating story and heard about such an interesting path and so thanks.  🙂

 

Jeff

Learn to shrug more! I like that as a motto, definitely a challenge for my secretely quite choleric temperament🤣

As for complicated family history, I agree that it helped to grow a thick skin against whatever life might throw at you. On the other side, no roots, which can work for or against you. I decided at some point that it is not terribly important. While you cannot choose your family, you can choose your friends and in the last 3 years since travelling alone I have encountered the most amazing people. I will actually meet two of them next week, one coming all the way from Sydney and one from Leeds, we will meet in London for a long weekend. And booked a cruise for 2025 too😊
 

[Grand Duchess]

5 hours ago, drron29 said:

Thanks for reminding me of The Eagles @UKCruiseJeff. This is another that is easy to listen too. They came to Australia after the band had reunited. When they broke up in 1980 Don Felder was asked when the band would get together again. His reply -"When Hell freezes over." So their album in 1994 and tour was hell freezes over.

 

Went to their concert in Zurich at the time. A brilliant performance. Only time I got to see them.

[lincslady]

Reading the Grand Duchess's life story makes me realise what a comparatively dull, boring, but easy life I have had for the most part.  Kind loving parents who stayed together, two much younger siblings, to whom I was not particularly attached at the time, as the star of the family apparently.  (No good reason for that). A partial excuse for not working hard at school, as everything came easily up to the age of about 14, so no real work ethic.  I had to toughen up with childbirth and two tiny ones to care for virtually on my own  12 hours a day, but then for many years no real problems.  I feel I have toughened up and improved as a person mainly in the last 10 years or so, with various problems to deal with, and am consequently at last really empathetic to others and better at just 'getting on with it'.  But it has taken a long time!

 

I do have two really worthwhile children, both happily married for many years, unlike many of my contemporaries.

 

Who is to say which makes for the more rounded, cheerful, glass half full person?

 

Sorry, a bit early in the day in the UK for any deep introspection, and  maybe a bit too serious for the cooler.

 

Lola

 

 

[UKCruiseJeff]

Lovely to read your story Lola. 🙂

 

I think what makes the more rounded cheerful optimistic glass half full person might be the person who feels secure, wanted and loved as a child  and those that are not will likely not be.  

 

Never too early in the day is it.  🙂  😄

 

Jeff

[Grand Duchess]

Talking of glasses half full or more, this will go nicely with a crisp Rosé and some baguette. Went to the market yesterday and they had the most perfect Coeur-de-Boeuf tomatoes. So here goes, Madame Tomate et sa vanille-citrons verts-vinaigrette:

2-3 Coeur-de-Boeuf tomatoes

200 ml of fruity extra virgin olive oil

2-3 vanilla pods

2 limes

Fleur de sel

Freshly grounded coarse pepper

==========
Preparation the day before eating:

Grate the limes and keep in a tightly sealed separate container.

Then press the limes and put juice into another container. Mix with salt, pepper, olive oil and the scraped out vanilla. Set aside and let infuse overnight.

==========
Finishing: Dip the tomatoes into boiling hot water for about 20 seconds, then cool at once in a bowl with ice water. 
Drain, then peel, tomato skin should come off easily now. 
Cut skinned tomatoes into slices of 1,5-2 cm, drape on a plate. Stir the vanilla vinaigrette and pour over. 
Sprinkle ("from a height, as Jamie Oliver would say😉) with the grated lime peel. Salt and pepper again as needed. Et voilà!

 

[UKCruiseJeff]

Lovely!

 

I saw what you did there!  😀

 

Proverb: “A full MUG of wine is better than a GLASS half full”  

 

Jeff

[Lois R]

5 hours ago, lincslady said:

Reading the Grand Duchess's life story makes me realise what a comparatively dull, boring, but easy life I have had for the most part.  Kind loving parents who stayed together, two much younger siblings, to whom I was not particularly attached at the time, as the star of the family apparently.  (No good reason for that). A partial excuse for not working hard at school, as everything came easily up to the age of about 14, so no real work ethic.  I had to toughen up with childbirth and two tiny ones to care for virtually on my own  12 hours a day, but then for many years no real problems.  I feel I have toughened up and improved as a person mainly in the last 10 years or so, with various problems to deal with, and am consequently at last really empathetic to others and better at just 'getting on with it'.  But it has taken a long time!

 

I do have two really worthwhile children, both happily married for many years, unlike many of my contemporaries.

 

Who is to say which makes for the more rounded, cheerful, glass half full person?

 

Sorry, a bit early in the day in the UK for any deep introspection, and  maybe a bit too serious for the cooler.

 

Lola

 

 

Hi Lola,😃 well, we both lived a relatively boring life then....I am the youngest of 3 girls and our parents were married (to each other) for over 50 years. I was not a good student in school and even remember all those years ago saying "Do I really have to go through 12 years of this"?

 

I do know we were all loved unconditionally and being today is Father's Day......my Dad was my best friend and we loved watching sports together. Today is the final round of the US OPEN. It is one of the events we would always watch together.

 

Anyway, seems we were all raised in different backgrounds, different families, etc......now all these years later, we all love to cruise😃

[Lois R]

Just want to wish all the Dad's, Grand Dads, Step Dad's, etc........a VERY HAPPY FATHER'S DAY😃

[QueSeraSera]

So, maybe one of us men should add some life background.  I'm pretty sure other stories would eclipse mine, so I'll try to keep it short.

My mom was born in the USA to Dutch immigrant parents in Iowa.  My Dad's background was hidden till Ancestry.com revealed things just a few years ago.  His mother was born to Norwegian immigrants in Minnesota, his biological dad disappeared with a woman unknown to me.  Dad was adopted by my real grandpa (not biological) whose name I carry.  Scottish.

My mother's first husband died in Europe fighting the ***, air force, plane shot down by the Luftwaffe.  Mom and Dad met in the US Navy during World War 2 after that occurred. 

Dad served in the Pacific on an aircraft carrier; attacked but never sunk by the Japanese.  They married after the war and moved to a rural location in Pennsylvania.  Their first child, my sister Tina, was born physically and mentally handicapped due to the umbilical cord wrapping around her neck during birth.  My 2 brothers and I grew up well loved and taken care of by Mom; Dad's job required much travel, he was often gone.  We 3 brothers were often called to defend our sister from cruel taunts by classmates.

My father was driven - to ensure sufficient $ were available to provide the best care for Tina.  We brothers resented his absence.  Only recently I have come to understand his sacrifice for his daughter, and really for us all.

Dad and Mom stayed married till Mom died of an aneurysm about 10 years ago.  Tina passed away a few years ago.  Dad's gone now too.

 

 

 

[UKCruiseJeff]

9 minutes ago, QueSeraSera said:

So, maybe one of us men should add some life background.  I'm pretty sure other stories would eclipse mine, so I'll try to keep it short.

My mom was born in the USA to Dutch immigrant parents in Iowa.  My Dad's background was hidden till Ancestry.com revealed things just a few years ago.  His mother was born to Norwegian immigrants in Minnesota, his biological dad disappeared with a woman unknown to me.  Dad was adopted by my real grandpa (not biological) whose name I carry.  Scottish.

My mother's first husband died in Europe fighting the ***, air force, plane shot down by the Luftwaffe.  Mom and Dad met in the US Navy during World War 2 after that occurred. 

Dad served in the Pacific on an aircraft carrier; attacked but never sunk by the Japanese.  They married after the war and moved to a rural location in Pennsylvania.  Their first child, my sister Tina, was born physically and mentally handicapped due to the umbilical cord wrapping around her neck during birth.  My 2 brothers and I grew up well loved and taken care of by Mom; Dad's job required much travel, he was often gone.  We 3 brothers were often called to defend our sister from cruel taunts by classmates.

My father was driven - to ensure sufficient $ were available to provide the best care for Tina.  We brothers resented his absence.  Only recently I have come to understand his sacrifice for his daughter, and really for us all.

Dad and Mom stayed married till Mom died of an aneurysm about 10 years ago.  Tina passed away a few years ago.  Dad's gone now too.

 

 

 

 

A stunning and moving story with some sadness.  

 

How has all that shaped you .. are you able to work out how? I guess you might have an impetus to seize the day?

 

Jeff

[QueSeraSera]

Jeff, I'm not sure how it has shaped me.  I would substitute seek the truth for seize the day, as difficult to find the truth is.  But I am a happy man with a wonderful wife; brothers I hold close.  Admittedly I've little tolerance for those who mock anyone with mental or physical limitations. 

I do enjoy thoughtful interactions with those such as yourself around the cooler 😊