Dinner for Eight

Dinner for eight

Dinner is at eight every night and we chose to sit at a table with 3 other couples. As we were the first booked on to the table, it was anybody’s guess as to who would be seated with us. At Rotterdam before embarkation we had a chance to see many of the other guests. It was a bit alarming to see so many wheelie walkers, wheelchairs, walking sticks to say nothing of the average age of the people boarding the boat. We spotted a couple of people who appeared to be around our own age and when we ran into them at lunch, invited them to join us at our table for dinner. Thank God – someone else under 80. So that made 4 – two Canadians Peter and Jane and ourselves. At eight, we made our way to the dining room. Jane and Peter were already at the table. Shortly after an elderly German couple Giselle and Bernard (who seemed quite well to do) arrived and sat down. Then last but not least Bev and Alan from Melbourne joined us. They seemed to be in their late 60’s/early 70’s, and quite high brow – he being a lawyer and she being one of those “ladies” who spoke slowly with a very cultivated accent. A motley crew! Turns out, we have the best table in the dining room. Bernard and Giselle are extremely wealthy and travel the world, have some amazing tales and Bernard’s humour keeps us all in stitches. He looks a little like Victor Meldrew and his English with a German accent is such that when he says “unbelievable” it’s just like Victor. Bev and Alan also have a great sense of humour. Bev, in particular, cracks extremely funny jokes that you would miss if you didn’t listen carefully because they are spoken with “a plum in the mouth” but with a wicked twinkle in her eye. One evening, she told us she “liked it rough” referring to the sea of course. But of course it was her little play on words that has kept the conversation going many an evening. Jane and Peter complete the table of eight, nothing extraordinary about them except they are great company too.  And so we all look forward to eight o”clock every night and we are never disappointed. The conversation is always lively, interesting but most of all funny.

PS We have met quite a few others of our own age and catch up with them for drinks here and there so all is good on the social scene.