Crew Party

The cat is out the house and the Mice start dancing, or at least something similar like that. All the guest went out overnight to see the temple of Borobudur, so we had time to catch up a bit, give everywhere a good clean and, yes, have a little crew party on deck.

Amazing to see how much care everybody takes to prepare the food for the crew, sometimes I think they try to cook even nicer than for the guest. We just wanted to make a buffet for everybody, but then when it came to the set up we were running out of space and had to add more tables.

A big hit was of course the BBQ. We just put everything there and if someone wanted the meat cooked they would stand around the BBQ and grill away. A very social way to cook as the crew was all happily standing there, grilling away and having a drink and a good time. There are prawns, chicken, steaks, sausages and fish fillets, everything marinated and just waiting to be eaten.

Then there is naturally the "normal" buffet section with a little carvery, a lovely roast porkleg and a marinated and slow cooked pork belly which was just melting on the tongue. Can't do without French Fries on a crew party, but then there is as well pasta, Asian vegetables and of course plenty of fragrant, steamed rice and the Filipino bread rolls, rich in butter and then topped with sugar and....Cheddar! Sounds strange, but this mild cheddar goes really well with it. Often there is some ham in the bread as well, really, a lovely combination!

Of course the food was mainly Filipino, but there were plenty of more European options, so we all had a good time eating. The only part of the buffet, I insisted had to be there, is the Halo Halo Station. Halo Halo is a traditional Filipino dessert consisting of shaved ice, condense milk and a whole lot of toppings including but definitely not limited to: agar jellies, in sugar cooked sweetcorn, white beans and butternut, papaya strips, purple potatoes and caramel. It was extremely popular and was finished within no time.

We were all waiting for the on board crew band to play, but the lead singer, Roger, overdid it a bit with the pork crackling and wasn't feeling too well after dinner, he should have washed it down with more beer! So there was just Disco till the early morning hours, or so I believe.....I was fading away after dinner and with no band playing I heard these pillows of mine whispering in my ears that it is time for bed........getting old I guess!