Snow Hill

After yesterday’s busy and emotional day at my FiL funeral, today has been one of doing very little, given it was a showery day, we probably wouldn’t have ventured far anyway. Tomorrow looks a little better, so hopefully I can finish of the bulb planting, cutback some shrubs and generally tidy up the garden and put away the loose pots in case Storm Ciaran makes am appearance next week.

Bulgaria, Romania and Cyprus all expect to join VWP by 2025.

I bought some petrol today paying at ADSA auto pump, message on screen said that a £100 hold would be put on my bank account. I filled my tank, took the receipt and left, I checked my bank account an hour later no hold on my account. So if ASDA can get banks to release half funds within an hour why can’t P&O do the same once they have received payment. I suspect the issue is with P&O and their tardiness is tell the respective bank that the payment has been received.Perhaps P&O need to speak to,ASDA, Tesco or Sainsbury’s who all operate the same system on how they release funds back to customers quickly.

The hold on the account should be no more than 5 business days I understand, if P&O have had their money then the hold should be immediately released. I would suggest if they don’t do that you may have a claim against P&O for any bank charges levied.

I have flown from Birmingham Airport multiple times over the last 20 years and can count in the fingers of one hand the number of times I have had any problems. My son flew from Birmingham to Dublin 2 weeks ago on business, he said he was through security in around 10 minutes, however his flight was delayed from 3pm to 10:30 pm, he was not impressed with Ryanair.

Allegedly it should improve connectivity, however it will depend on what Is installed and where onboard.

This is Starlink Case Study for Carnival Corp, indicates it’s a supplement to the existing Geo Stationary Satellite system. https://api.starlink.com/public-files/Carnival.pdf

Are P&O seeking to phase out the current inclusion of meals in the MDR being included in the price paid for the cruise by introducing this “up sell” option to increase profits. Are they following airlines who once provided a meal included in the price of the air (yes the quality was questionable in economy), that dropped to a snack, then food and drink became a payable option. What next charging for items of baggage brought onboard, a charge for the theatre etc, removal of OBC. I am sure P&O accountants are looking new wheezes to extract more money out of cruisers in order to maximise profits. Are these upsell menu options the slippery slope for charging for all meals in the MDR in the long run?

It took me almost 4 and half hours to get to Prestatyn yesterday, a journey on a normal day that would take under 2, drove through a number of flooded roads most passable with care. Never have I seen so much water cascading down hillsides as I did yesterday, much debris being washed of fields onto roads thus adding to problems with drains that are overwhelmed with the sheer volume of water. Looking at community pages in my area, many people seeing flooding in areas not normally affected, plus I never knew given the various comments that we had so many drains and river dredging experts in the town! One such “expert” suggesting that the River Severn should be dredged its whole length by removing 12ft of the riverbed along its whole length to remove flooding completely for years ahead. Yes the keyboard warriors were out in force yesterday.

Spoke with my brother earlier, he lives in Prestatyn, said there is Yellow Warning for rain tomorrow, the weekend I am visiting him, typical! I was in Worcester this after, although cloudy & mainly dry, temperature was 19C, ridiculous for late October.

Wrong post & deliveries that’s nothing what about wrong address for scaffolding. We we having external insulation on the house 8 years ago, one day I got a call from the installers to say they would be starting on Thursday now the scaffolding has been erected, I said what scaffolding? Cue a panic at the other end of the line, 45 mins later owner of scaffolding company turns up and agrees we should have scaffolding because job is listed as complete on the system, the question was where had it been erected. Tried to contact scaffolders who by 6:30 in evening had gone home, eventually at 7:30 he returned to say they had tracked it down same house number, same street name, similar postcode, appears owner of that house had returned from work to find scaffolding around his property. Made an irate call to scaffolding company, owner of the firm had to apologise profusely in person and then get the scaffolding removed next morning and erected at correct address.

The point is the airlines are using them to seek advantage over each other from an SEO by cutting the headline price and giving the impression they are cheap fares, but when the hidden costs are unavoidable then this is being deemed as not in the internet of the consumer. Spanish government consumer protection is in the process of prosecuting a number of airlines for breach of Spanish Law. https://www.surinenglish.com/spain/spain-opens-case-against-lowcost-airline-hand-20230804122139-nt.html

The EU and USA are looking to act on such charges as seat allocation and hand luggage charges, which are often billed as optional, as both believe airlines are using them to advertise the lowest fares online.

Personally I would have told them to stuff it and gone elsewhere, this response of “computer says no” needs to resolved. It’s stressful enough having a 6 month old baby to care for without having to sort all these issues out on board as well. If P&O wish to attract a younger clientele then they need to address these issue PDQ.

If you like crime and historical novels, then have you read C J Sansom’s Shardlake books set in the Tudor period, there are 7 in the series to date. https://pages.panmacmillan.com/c-j-sansom/

A cloudy & overcast morning here 9C, showers expected later. I am going through a non-fiction phase at the moment, just finished A Promised Land by Barack Obama, a weighty book, now reading Powers and Thrones a History of the Middle Ages by Dan Jones, then Michel Barnier’s book to follow. Then it will be back to the fiction with Ken Follett’s The Evening and The Morning, with 2 books my wife has been reading by Kate Mosse, The Burning Chambers and The City of Tears, the latter 2 set in Carcassonne, one of my favourite parts of France. All of the books above have one thing in common, they are a long read and quite weighty.

Cruise ships are not covered by the Equality Act 2010 https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/legal-work-scotland/ship-called-dignity#:~:text=But while services on ferries,at ports and ferry terminals. Airlines are a different matter, but whether it would extend to PE is unclear https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/advice-and-guidance-faq/air-travel-faqs#:~:text=The new law states that,the necessary staff and equipment'.

I know booking ahead can get you what you want, but booking 202 years ahead😂

I was a local councillor for 10 years, some of that time spent on planning committee, unfortunately wrong decisions can be made by officers, but sometimes they are mislead by the agents of the applicant who get creative with location plans, I have seen some interesting examples in my time. Unfortunately officers don’t have the time for site visits for every application, which is why planning notices are issue to neighbours who can raise issue either direct to the planning office or via local councillor. In my time as a councillor probably around 30% of issues raised with me relating to planning, most could be resolved by conversations with the applicant (no brown envelopes involved), others would need to be called in for a fuller debate by the planning committee. To this day I still receive notices of planning applications in my area, as any local resident can, so I can be aware of what is happening in my area. I am glad your situation was resolved thanks to you local councillor get involved and someone with experience speaking on your behalf.

Doorbell rang just after 8:30 this morning I had not long got up to make a couple of cups of tea, looking at video alert on phone could see it was Royal Mail. I opened door and said I thought it was Sunday and you didn’t deliver in a Sunday, He said we do from late September as the Christmas rush starts and now more people shop online the amount of parcels rockets. He had been at work since 5:00 am and out on the round at 8 would finish delivering around 2 this afternoon.

But if you are doing a land based holiday to any of those countries it will affect you,

It’s been announced as from 2025 that ETIAS will be extended to EFTA & Non-Schengen Countries as well, so one will be needed for Norway, Switzerland, Iceland & Liechtenstein, plus non-Schengen countries of Romania, Bulgaria & Cyprus. Ireland is exempt for U.K. travellers currently due to Common Travel Agreement.

I have 2 compost bins, one for hot composting the other standard composting both are full or nearly full, so have been using the green bin more as of late. However just replace my shredder, so will be shredding the branches and twigs and using as a mulch on borders. The mulch will keep weeds down so less for the bin. I used the leaf mould I started off two ears ago in my large planters this year mixed in with the multi purpose compost, plants have done well this year as result.

I have been toying with the idea of fixing although more than current price cap, will give some stability in costs for a year, we are currently £500 in credit, a deliberate action for the winter.

Ours is based solely on numbers of items 1 - 3 items £15 4 - 6 items £28 7 - 9 items £43 10 - 12 items £56 There is a list of items that they won’t collect mainly related in garden, building or household waste, but curiously includes pianos. Those aged 80 and over get 2 free bulk collection of 1-6 items per year, those 65-79 get 1 free collection as do those with a long standing illness or disability. Those on Housing Benefit or CT support get 50% reduction on 2 bulk collections, whist those with Council loyalty card get a 10% discount. All scrap metal dealers etc have to have a licence, those without are liable to prosecution, as for fly tipping there have been a number of prosecutions this year, both the tipper and the householder who engaged them.