Snow Hill

We use 30 degree wash regularly as is default temperature for machine, very few problems.

I was reading an article in the FT this morning, which highlights the issues cruise ships ina number of ports in Europe, the likes of Marseilles, Barcelona, Palma, Venice, Bergen and Dubrovnik have already or are I the process of placing restrictions on numbers of cruise passengers and sizes of ships allowed to dock. Others will no doubt follow in the coming years. With the EU requirements that cruise ships use port side power from 2030 the pressure is on cruise companies to adapt. Often said that LNG is the answer to pollution from cruise ships and container ships, but currently there are only 26 out of 272 cruise ships that use LNG.

Aching a bit this evening have spent a great deal time stripping the paint off garage window, which as flaked off after just 18 months, do needs to be done again so back down to bare wood. Also removed loose masonry paint from external rendered walls, and sanded garage doors in readiness for re-staining. Have chosen new paint for walls an Olive Green colour after 10 years time for a change. Tomorrow will prime the window frame plus a trip to either B&Q or Wickes, depending which I can get best deal on the paint. Was planning to do this a few weeks ago, but the extreme heat put a stop to that, but the next week looks dry so might get much of it done over next 5 days or so.

We have been on Azura twice, We are OK with her, but didn’t like Britannia. Couple of cruises each on Arcadia, Oceana and Aurora, doubt we will entertain going on Iona or “Our Vera” given their size and number of passengers. Hence if we did eventually book a cruise, it may not be with P&O.

If unvaccinated then a number of insurance companies won’t provide Covid Cover, this includes Holiday Extras Travel Insurance, which I believe P&O recommend. Am I covered if I do not have the COVID-19 vaccination? If you or any other traveller on this policy contract COVID-19 and have chosen not to have the recommended vaccination(s) you will not be covered for any COVID-19 related claims under this policy. The UK Government has recommended that all eligible persons have a booster vaccination. If you have not had the booster vaccine you may not be covered under our policy. Discretion may be applied if you are medically exempt to have the recommended vaccination(s) and this is shown on your medical records. Currently P&O are not accepting unvaccinated passengers, but that could change at some point, but when it does P&O will need to review who they recommend as travel insurers.

Decided to increase the number of water butts we have went to 3 locations none in stock, the man at B&Q said that as fast they get them in they go. Went online just found a few including this one with a planer on top, might put this one in front garden as quite decorative, but typically it’s current sold out in the colour we like. https://www.freeflush.co.uk/collections/water-butts/products/180l-city-water-butt-planter?variant=32319059132503

If you are on any medication, check with your GP, this and another sea sickness remedy clash with one of my medications, so I have to resort to the bands & ginger biscuits!

Been a busy morning messages from both granddaughters who received their GCSE results today, both girls remarkable results, one with the equivalent of the 7 A’s or A*’s the other with 5 A’s & 2 Bs. Very happy granddaughters, parents and grandparents, they have both worked extremely hard over the last 2 years in difficult circumstances.

Paid £1.679 for petrol at Sainsbury’s on Sunday, notice from PetrolPrices site that 3 non supermarket petrol stations locally are selling it cheaper, nearby Esso Garage is £1.659. The service area on M54 is selling at £1.859 as usual Motorway Service stations ripping off motorists, probably 15 years or more since I last used one to fill up, and that was in the works pool car, for which I claimed it back on expenses.

It’s still around, at least on land, my brother’s business had to deep clean a health facility only a few weeks ago, the only way to get rid the virus which can survive on surfaces for up to 12 days. He often said to me that a cruise ship needs deep cleaning after an outbreak, no way can they eradicate and let passengers back on ship for a new cruise the same day. Oh and alcohol based hand sanitisers don’t work on Norovirus, only thorough hand washing with soap is effective.

Currently 23C here, no wind and very muggy, overcast but rain due this evening, allegedly. Lawn is slowly return to a green colour after the recent showers, but soil is still dry down to about 5 to 10 cm. My late lettuce seeds are coming on strong, will be transferred to my new veg grow table when it arrives, should have enough lettuce until November. Another P&O Mailshot this morning second this week and it’s only Wednesday

Entirely agree, in the 12 years we have been cruising, only ever purchased 2 photographs, these were the only 2 decent ones, the rest were poor. Having a a wife who is a very keen photographer and worked as one for a few years, she examines the photos very closely hence the high number of rejections. She calls them snappers not photographers.

It is, but guess I am biased as I volunteer for the Trust and also for English Heritage on the Ironbridge and Buildwas Abbey.

After our time at the Commonwealth Games where we met and spoke with people from numerous other countries, we are likely to look beyond P&O for our next cruise. We will still possibly do some short cruises with P&O but for longer cruises we will probably look elsewhere, this will probably mean flying, but we don’t mind that. For cruises we have decided to focus on destinations, the small stuff mentioned in this post doesn’t really matter in the scheme of things, doesn’t really matter if my bedding isn’t turned down at night, if the place we are calling at next day is exciting and new, to be honest P&O itinerary is very samey year in year out especially the Med and Norway, we might give Hurtigruten a try for the fjords.

Hope you have better luck than I did on Wednesday visited a churchyard for a client, to find it all the headstones removed and the churchyard was all grass, some of the headstones were against wall, but not all survive. I know where many of my ancestors were buried, but most were too poor to afford a headstone.

A visit today to Redhouse Glass Cone & Glass Museum in Wordsley, Stourbridge, the glass cone is one of a very few surviving examples. Stourbridge became the centre of glass making in the 19th C with glass makers coming here from Germany, what is now Czech Republic, Eastern France and other parts of Europe. A pleasant afternoon out and some Christmas shopping done as well (sorry I mentioned the C word) Got home to find an email to say our Netflix account has been hacked, Netflix helped me sort it out very quickly, excellent service. Was hacked allegedly from Columbia, at common location for hackers apparently. Password change and account now secure, appears password had been leaked on internet as found out via Have I been Pwned website, so now change any sites that use that password, only a few thank goodness. https://haveibeenpwned.com

Had a phone call today from water company after I raise complaint about the recent work to fix a leak blocking access to our shared drive and failure to give advance notice of work. The manager responsible for the work made a grovelling apology he said the instructions given were 1. Ensure all neighbours nearby are given advance notice by door knocking before work starts, only 1 person was told. 2. Given the narrowness of road width of hole should be no more than 1m wide, it just under 2m 3. The backfilling of hole would have been the same day 3 years ago, but now 2 different sub contractors are one to fill hole the other to tarmac, so a what should be a 1 day job has become 3 days. He said they get a large number of complaints about this and he and others are seeking to return to the old method where a fix for a small leak is completed in 1 day. 4. He also said that they had complaints from other services that use the road to reach nearby care home and that the effects on the care home had not been factored in to work. He assured me that my complaints were valid and will be fed up to Planning Team for future work such as this, he did however state that the pipe is a galvanised pipe and these are the worst for fracturing and there is a likelihood that the whole of the pipe work will need to be replaced at some point,he estimates the pipe is probably over 60 years old and according to their records this is 5th time in 10 years it has cracked in different locations. Begs the question as to why with that level of leakage they haven’t addressed replacing pipe work by now, .

I haven’t been, but my daughter in law has, a place she never ever wants to visit again, continual harassment from men in the Medina, she is almost 6ft tall, and was with her husband and children, but that didn’t stop the gestures etc, they returned to the ship fairly quickly.

We saw a Queen tribute band on Britannia back in 2016 on a short cruise to Guernsey

Very useful, I have used mine 3 times whilst on holiday, a fall which meant stitches in wound, a sting from a horsefly which became infected and a nasty gastric virus I caught in Greece. Of courses EHIC or GHICis absolutely no use on a cruise ship. I just checked and my EHIC ran out on 12 July, so will renew at some point.

Overcast and 24 C here, had some very short showers yesterday, not heavy, so not made any difference here, we are due some rain overnight tonight. To be fair, local forecast did say showers could be hit and miss, a volunteer colleague who lives 15 miles away from me had some heavy rain yesterday. Chatting with a friend who has retired from Environment Agency, he said the unpredictability of these heavy downpours makes it difficult for forecasters to predict exactly where they will fall in the next 12 to 24 hours, which is why it is a good idea to keep in eye on local forecasts which cover the next couple of hours or so as they can be more accurate. He said what we have experienced this year so far is going to happened more often in coming years and we will need to adjust.

We try to choose cruises that have very few sea days, we bring a couple of books with us to read on sea days we find a quite place on deck or sit on balcony, if weather is bad we find somewhere inside. I see cruise ships as a means to get to places I may not see otherwise, we have found the entertainment on board akin to that performed by our local rep some good, some bad, yes we have walked out of P&O theatres a number of times mid performance. When we first started cruising the talks on sea days were good, but have progressively gone downhill over the last few years. Now we have had this enforced break from P&O Cruises, we have begun to look at other lines, our friends who went on the Scarlet Lady in the last month thoroughly enjoyed it and would go again, it’s nothing like the TV program which only saw after they went.

We are aware of that, some friends of ours did the trip a couple of months ago and have filled us in on the transport aspect of the journey.

32C here and still not the hottest part of the day. Have been soaking my wall baskets in large containers with water in them, in order to rehydrate the compost, watering them whilst in situ the water was just draining though & I have plastic liners in the baskets. I came downstairs last night and sat on the patio for about an hour between 1 & 2 am temperature was 21C but I did spot a few perseids meteors. We had breakfast outside for the 5th day ina row, unheard of here, usually only get to do that when have holidayed in France. We are thinking about doing the TransCanadian Railway next year, from Vancouver to Halifax Nova Scotia, however the flight time from Gatwick to Vancouver is 10hrs, longer than we have ever flown before, which was from Gatwick to Halifax Nova Scotia which was just over 6 hours.

Just checked my emails, seems my new car is now delayed until mid-January 2023, original date was late November 2022. Dealer is investigating the reason for the delay and will advise next week, but he has indicated this could change back to 2022.