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<blockquote data-quote="BillB" data-source="post: 1172314" data-attributes="member: 9985"><p>Our dinner that evening was as good as it always was on board and after that we adjourned to the bar to await darkness when the ship was going to cast off and cruise past the Budapest sights at a time when they were all illuminated.</p><p></p><p>I set my camera up for low light photography as the ship cast off and we climbed the exterior stairs to the sun deck where we would have the best views.</p><p></p><p>We cruised back the way we had come and once we were past the city the ship did an about-turn and headed downstream. What a sight! The parliament building, the bridges, the castles, the churches, the cathedrals, were all either illuminated from the interior or on the exterior by floodlights. Everything seemed to have been covered in gold for the night. This pass down the Danube was so enchanting that I missed several good shots because I was so distracted by the city’s sheer beauty.</p><p></p><p>Once Budapest was behind us Jackie and I set a course for the bar where we found a table and ordered drinks. All too soon a woman named Sally plonked herself down in the seat next to me and my stomach dropped. Her husband was one of those people I had developed a sharp dislike to as I had found him conceited and too full of himself.He had got on the wrong side of me early on as he heard me speaking German to one of the hotel staff in Wuerzburg at at the beginning of the holiday and then began to tell me how he had been a civil servant and had had to negotiate on behalf of the British government with his German counterparts. He then went on to tell me all the instances he had made what he thought were jokes to the German negotiators - vile things about the concentration camps. He then went on, “They just laughed and said, ‘You’re the only one who can get away with that, Terry.’ I didn’t believe a word of any of it - I’ve come across a few people in my time who try to enlarge their careers and work and I’ve developed a pretty good eye for them. Furthermore, it seemed to me that if you are going to negotiate it’s not the best policy to insult the people you are negotiating with. He certainly irritated me as I was impressed with how seriously the younger Germans took their democratic rights and obligations when I was living in Germany. Furthermore, Germany has faced up to its past, admitted the evils of the Hitler regime and got on with rebuilding their country and its institutions, as well as rebuilding its relations with other countries.. Let’s call this twerp Terry, because that was his name. I can’t stand the kind of British person who hasn’t realised the war ended over 70 years ago. I know what the Germans feel now at these jibes as I begin to feel the same whenever the politically correct idiots keep banging on about Britain’s involvement in the slave trade. I made a point of avoiding Terry whenever he came within range of me.</p><p></p><p>However, there I was stuck next to his wife and along he came and sat down next to her. At least I wasn’t trapped next to him! His wife started talking to me and I responded as politely as I could, even though she had a screeching voice that felt like having something sharp jabbed into my ear. She mentioned owning cats so, wishing to appear sympathetic, I got out my mobile phone and showed her a couple of pictures of my son’s kittens. That was a mistake. She set off on a long, long, extremely boring story about her sister adopting a stray cat in Egypt and the saga of bringing it back to Britain. Aren’t there enough stray cats in Britain, I wondered to myself. On and on she droned and then I called up one of my God-given gifts - the ability to switch off a person as boring as this while nodding and smiling in the right places - all the while letting my own thoughts roam free. Then she said something about a black and white cat that brought me up dead. I hadn’t heard anything about a black and white cat before this, so I came back to the conversation but it was just as boring as before. In desperation i turned to Jackie, winking furiously with my left eye while keeping the right side of my face calm. “I’m really tired after all that walking today,” I said to her. “It’s time for bed, I think.” Luckily, Jackie is a very perceptive person and she caught on immediately and agreed. I turned full face on to the owner of the screeching voice, pasted a smile as sincere as I could make it, got up and headed out of the bar.</p><p></p><p>“Thank God I’m away from that voice,” I said to Jackie as I closed our cabin door behind us. “Please promise me that if you see her within a couple of feet of me in future, you will rush to rescue me at once.”</p><p></p><p>Jackie laughed. “Bad as that, was it?” I rolled my eyes towards the ceiling. “Worse, far worse than you could ever imagine,” I assured her.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="BillB, post: 1172314, member: 9985"] Our dinner that evening was as good as it always was on board and after that we adjourned to the bar to await darkness when the ship was going to cast off and cruise past the Budapest sights at a time when they were all illuminated. I set my camera up for low light photography as the ship cast off and we climbed the exterior stairs to the sun deck where we would have the best views. We cruised back the way we had come and once we were past the city the ship did an about-turn and headed downstream. What a sight! The parliament building, the bridges, the castles, the churches, the cathedrals, were all either illuminated from the interior or on the exterior by floodlights. Everything seemed to have been covered in gold for the night. This pass down the Danube was so enchanting that I missed several good shots because I was so distracted by the city’s sheer beauty. Once Budapest was behind us Jackie and I set a course for the bar where we found a table and ordered drinks. All too soon a woman named Sally plonked herself down in the seat next to me and my stomach dropped. Her husband was one of those people I had developed a sharp dislike to as I had found him conceited and too full of himself.He had got on the wrong side of me early on as he heard me speaking German to one of the hotel staff in Wuerzburg at at the beginning of the holiday and then began to tell me how he had been a civil servant and had had to negotiate on behalf of the British government with his German counterparts. He then went on to tell me all the instances he had made what he thought were jokes to the German negotiators - vile things about the concentration camps. He then went on, “They just laughed and said, ‘You’re the only one who can get away with that, Terry.’ I didn’t believe a word of any of it - I’ve come across a few people in my time who try to enlarge their careers and work and I’ve developed a pretty good eye for them. Furthermore, it seemed to me that if you are going to negotiate it’s not the best policy to insult the people you are negotiating with. He certainly irritated me as I was impressed with how seriously the younger Germans took their democratic rights and obligations when I was living in Germany. Furthermore, Germany has faced up to its past, admitted the evils of the Hitler regime and got on with rebuilding their country and its institutions, as well as rebuilding its relations with other countries.. Let’s call this twerp Terry, because that was his name. I can’t stand the kind of British person who hasn’t realised the war ended over 70 years ago. I know what the Germans feel now at these jibes as I begin to feel the same whenever the politically correct idiots keep banging on about Britain’s involvement in the slave trade. I made a point of avoiding Terry whenever he came within range of me. However, there I was stuck next to his wife and along he came and sat down next to her. At least I wasn’t trapped next to him! His wife started talking to me and I responded as politely as I could, even though she had a screeching voice that felt like having something sharp jabbed into my ear. She mentioned owning cats so, wishing to appear sympathetic, I got out my mobile phone and showed her a couple of pictures of my son’s kittens. That was a mistake. She set off on a long, long, extremely boring story about her sister adopting a stray cat in Egypt and the saga of bringing it back to Britain. Aren’t there enough stray cats in Britain, I wondered to myself. On and on she droned and then I called up one of my God-given gifts - the ability to switch off a person as boring as this while nodding and smiling in the right places - all the while letting my own thoughts roam free. Then she said something about a black and white cat that brought me up dead. I hadn’t heard anything about a black and white cat before this, so I came back to the conversation but it was just as boring as before. In desperation i turned to Jackie, winking furiously with my left eye while keeping the right side of my face calm. “I’m really tired after all that walking today,” I said to her. “It’s time for bed, I think.” Luckily, Jackie is a very perceptive person and she caught on immediately and agreed. I turned full face on to the owner of the screeching voice, pasted a smile as sincere as I could make it, got up and headed out of the bar. “Thank God I’m away from that voice,” I said to Jackie as I closed our cabin door behind us. “Please promise me that if you see her within a couple of feet of me in future, you will rush to rescue me at once.” Jackie laughed. “Bad as that, was it?” I rolled my eyes towards the ceiling. “Worse, far worse than you could ever imagine,” I assured her. [/QUOTE]
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