Show time on Silver Spirit

TSH and Diva went to the after dinner show – ‘Gran’ Amore’ – for the first time on this voyage. It was billed as a blend of opera, classical and musicals – a combination they have been to in the past and enjoyed. The opera was fine – the entertainers have good voices. But the rest of it was songs they had never heard of or songs they didn’t like or (mostly) both. With really poor choreography.  It was a bit like Dirty Dancing. The ‘before’ part before Patrick Swayze came on the scene. 50 years out of date. Not the fault of the singers, who were trying their best. Who dreamed that up?

TSH and Diva left well before the end and went to the bar to listen to Angela Grace, who is an excellent singer and performer. Accompanied by an excellent pianist who is also a performer. Angela is a Scottish woman who is more accustomed to pub singing and told us she really had to be persuaded to take this contract. She seems to sing every night and is building a loyal clientele. She sings many kinds of song but concentrates on popular music from the 60s onwards. Beatles, Abba, Elvis, Adele, Dolly Parton etc. all sung in her very personal husky style. It is like a breath of fresh air in the stilted old fashioned Silversea entertainment world.

And Angela can handle a crowd. So when two elderly women approached her to ask for ‘something they could dance to’, she switched to late fifties rock and roll that they could jive gently to on the tiny stage. At this stage, Diva’s attention was distracted because a (presumably) drunk young guest in a tight silver dress took a fancy to the pianist and decided to sit beside him. He gamely carried on and Angela smiled broadly. She smiled even more broadly a few seconds later. Diva returned her attention to where the dancers were.  They had both vanished!! Not into thin air but both had taken a tumble and were on the floor. TSH actually saw the sudden collapse happen. The Captain, who happened to be sitting at a nearby table, looked confused and appalled. Angela quickly recovered herself and launched into one of her favourites – ‘Stand by me’. The floosie on the piano stool eventually wandered off. A side-splitting farce like this has NEVER happened on Silver Spirit before.

One of the guests on the ship lives in Mawdesley and in around 1980 taught at Twiss Green Primary in Culcheth. Her mentor was Mrs McFarlane, who was the reception teacher there for many years.

Overheard in dining room: ‘Is the salmon wild?’ ‘No, sir, it is grilled’.