She Loves You, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!

Cheryl and I had dinner last evening (Saturday) at “the Captain’s Table”, not the Captain, of course, although he did stop by, but rather one of his underlings. He was a young, South African man serving as an officer on the Seabourn Legend, and clearly on his way up the chain of command although he looked like he was about 16 years old.

They did one of those boy-girl-boy-girl seating arrangements for our table of about 10, and I was seated between two very interesting women. On my right was Roberta Rosenberg, an elderly (early 90’s?) woman from Philadelphia, traveling alone, with whom we’d struck up a hallway conversation the day prior.

Her husband of 65 years had died two years ago, and she wore his ring around her neck as my own mother did for many years. Without a lot of detail, and I didn’t press, she revealed her background on radio, TV, and stage in Boston and Philadelphia, and told us about meeting her future husband as a dashing B-24 bombardier at the end of World War II. She was very enjoyable to chat with, but quite a contrast to the lady on my left.

Her name was Susan, and her retired husband (David) sat next to Cheryl, across the table from me. He had owned some sort of pharmaceutical business and retired a couple years ago at age 47. While he was a Welshman (like Tom Jones she pointed out), she was English from Liverpool. Her father had known the Beatles there in their early days, while her mother was screaming for them from the front row at the Cavern Club. Her absolute favorite was Elvis, and she was very beautiful and charming. Needless to say, I found myself more drawn to conversation with her, but I did my best to balance it out. A few winks toward Cheryl throughout the evening were made just to let her know she is the proverbial number one with a bullet for me!

After dinner, we accompanied Roberta to her cabin, and saw a British singer/comedian named Nicky Martin perform. He closed his show with a tribute to George Formby playing a banjo/ukele that he’d bought from the Formby family on his death. As he was leaving, I asked him if it really did belong to George Formby, and he was surprised I knew who he was. I explained that I knew of him through George Harrison who cited him as a major influence (He was impressed with the Yank!) He told me of the many nights he’d spent in a local pub with George’s father and how he looked exactly like George. While John was always my favorite (and Cheryl’s too), we both really loved George and was sad when he died, but the discussion put a very nice nightcap on a wonderful day, dinner, and our love for the Beatles (greatest rock band of all time, tied, of course, with the Rolling Stones and The Who).

Now it is morning on Sunday, and we just pulled into port. Outside it is raining and we have no excursions planned. We are indulging ourselves with a massage this afternoon, so looking forward to that. Tomorrow we are in Cannes, France, and our overall cruise map is shown at the left.

Hope your Sunday is as relaxing as ours will be.