Birthday

I was treated to a very special outdoor birthday lunch party today organised by our hosts.

During the cruise, I had the opportunity to visit all the various behind the scenes places on the entire ship, even the private quarters of the crew. Another day I will describe this. One of the aspects is the various nationalities and functions carried out. A large number of the crew were from the Indian subcontinent and many in the kitchens. However there was an extra brigade of Indian chefs whose job it was to cook for the Indian crew. In other words produce true Indian dishes.

Our host, knowing my connections with Trinidad and being brought up on real Indian food as well as my father's service in 1940-6 in the Indian army and his passion for Indian food, arranged for a full blown, give us all you've got Indian birthday meal.

Served on "our" deck, kindly loaned to us by the Captain for the 14 days, it sits just behind the bridge and one level down so that one has the roof of the small deck above as a shade cover from the sun. And naturally as it is facing to the back of the ship, protected from wind.

So the eight of us were honoured with the "Full Monty". Our personal deck steward taking a back seat while one of the crew in full regal Indian gear including ornate head wear, served us the meal. At the end, our host asked for the chef and he came up, blushing, and was applauded and thanked by us all for the amazing feast.

I think it goes without saying that the chef held back on most of his creations and I think the children may have had quite a few "normal" western dishes served.

A day I will never forget. It was a lovely day even weather wise for our first day back in the Atlantic and the ocean played along, staying relatively calm. Thus the food was not involuntarily ejected later.