Aquavit and Academia

Dinner included a trio of smoked salmons and Diva cautiously drank the Aquavit served with it, surprised that she liked it as normally she doesn’t ‘do’ spirits. Very strong, so little or no wine that night. At the cookery demonstration the next day, the chef claimed that all Aquavit crosses the equator twice to improve the flavour. The demo covered a Thai curry which may get made at back at home and a Norwegian venison dish which would require modification as it contained cream and was undercooked for Diva and TSH’s taste. TSH and Diva stayed up late, well 23:00, to watch Kashena Sampson’s show. They have seen her before and enjoy her mixture of folk and country singing. She is about to release her first album, including some of her own songs.

The lecturer, Dr Peter Crimes, is excellent, both for knowledge and presentation. He is from Chester and was studying at Liverpool University when Diva worked there in the computer lab.

On a day at sea, Tai Chi was harder than usual because of the wind and the ship’s movement. A woman who looked Asian was also doing Tai Chi, but hers was from a different tradition. Later, both put in a long hard shift proof-reading Diva’s Leonard Cohen dissertation.

A couple of things Silver Cloud got wrong: The Captain said the forecast was for ‘moderate to rough’ seas, but fortunately this did not happen.  They don’t know how to make an omelette ‘well done’.