Woody Herman – silverfox175

Will, John and I first met in September of 1960, and we had kept in touch – on and off – over the years, so when we had the opportunity of sailing together we jumped at joining Azamara Quest for the South American cruise.

When Will & John found out that during the cruise Maureen and I would be celebrating our Golden Wedding Anniversary, they insisted on inviting us to dinner at Prime C, which is a specialist restaurant on Azamara Pursuit that specialises in meat dishes.

Prime C  – starboard side, aft, over looking the sea.

The booking had been made for the evening of the 22 nd February, which was the evening of our day in Punta del Easte, Uruguay, and also the date of our anniversary.
Fortunately, by late afternoon of the 22nd, Maureen had recovered from the excess amount of exposure to the hot sun.

Knowing that Maureen is a coeliac, and that I was not fussy on spaghetti, the Italian specialty restaurant was not a consideration.

The six of us around the dining table.

The restaurant has limited seating, so seating can be at a premium, especially when at sea, as against being in port.

The entrance to the restaurant was at the end of this area – on the left hand side of the picture is the galley (kitchens).

Same area different angle.

Our table was the far end of the restaurant, beyond the support pole.

Once the dining staff realised the reason for our celebration, they produced a cake with ‘Happy Anniversary ‘ iced across the centre – and from memory it was GF!

I’m not sure if you will be able to read the menu, but I can say that all the food was beautifully cooked and the steak done perfectly for me – medium – rare, knife went through the meat without any strain!

We were offered a menu of various wines at an additional fee, but we were also asked if we wanted the daily wine special – after checking the prices, we stuck to the daily special.

Old friends from 57 years ago . . .

It was June 1962, after two years at HMS Conway, that we left to go to sea, we joined different shipping companies, so sailed in different parts of the world. Will (who now lives in NZ) is on the left, John (UK) on the right, and the daft one in the middle is yours truly, now living in Australia. I’d just turned 18, and was the oldest of the three of us, I think Will & John were still 17.

I extracted the above from the photograph of the thirty six cadets leaving HMS Conway that time.

Excuse the pun – but a lot of water has passed under our ‘bridges’ since we left the ‘Conway’.
Once again I close with Golden Wedding a different version than the Woody Herman 1939 version.

The last time I visited the Baltic area was in 1965 when I was a cadet in the BI ship Dunera, which at the time was a school ship. This time Leningrad was no more, and St Petersburg had been resurrected.

We considered flying with Garuda International, who had just gained a five star rating, but after various checks in to the logistics of the trip we decided to fly with Singapore Airlines. A little more expensive, but their reputation for service trumped the extra cost, plus in a few months time we will be celebrating our Golden Wedding – try this version in Sydney.

For those who prefer the original by Woody Herman, which was recorded in 1941, Oh! those drums.

I booked us to fly 03rd July from Sydney to Singapore, daylight flight, stay overnight at an airport hotel and fly daylight to London. The ship would sail from Southampton.

The booking was for business class, after all at our age our holidays may come to a halt due to our health, because various bits are already failing.

We checked-in and within a short time we were in the business class lounge.

The flight had a schedule departure of 11.00am, which required Maureen and I to be at the airport at 8.00 am, which meant that we had to be picked up from home at 7.00 am, and up and about around 5.00 am. I was tired out before the holiday had started.

We knew that the lounge would be in breakfast mode, so along with a small glass of  Champagne and a bowl of muesli (for health reasons of course) our holiday began.

We had a window seat in the lounge, which allowed us to watch the early morning airport landings and take-offs.

  In the maintenance area we’d spotted an SQ A380 and thought that this might be our aircraft – we were correct as an hour and a half before departure we watched it being towed to the passenger area.

We were fortunate that the 11.00 am departure aircraft had all the new seats that SQ had designed and were slowly installing in all of their aircraft. Heaps of room, entertainment system was very easy to use – easier than the next leg, which had the older seating.

We left on time and queued with others for the runway.

As we raced down the runway the air, as it rushed over the wing, could be seen. I’m sure someone will send me an explanation of what is happening – please make it simple . .

Goodbye Sydney – not a very good shot, but the best I could get without it blurring.

We both like window seats, and as they are single seats I sat behind Maureen.

The centre seats have the ability pull up a ‘wall’ so that both passengers can have privacy. You can just see the top of one ‘wall’ behind the seat on the right. The ‘wall’ can be dropped if you are travelling with a spouse or friend.

Brunch began – first course, I enjoyed the delicate light taste.

Main course – beef in Thai red curry, not as good as I expected.

Hokey Pokey ice cream

End the meal with a glass of red and a little cheese – I was glad that I hadn’t pigged out in the lounge.

A light snack and a glass of wine a couple of hours before landing in Singapore.

Coming in to land at Singapore – and the crest of air is back . . .
at least it wasn’t On a Wing and a Prayer.