Snow Hill

Into our third full day in Yorkshire, weather has been good so far albeit some what windy💨 We visited Byland Abbey, Mount Grace Priory and Gardens yesterday and Pickering and Hutton Le Hole today. A pheasant posed for me at Mount Grace! We also seemed to have consumed a lot of Tea and Cake! Rest of the week’s agenda is RHS Harlow Carr, York, Scarborough and the coast.

Couldn’t you get someone to collect on your behalf? They do delivery https://www.boots.com/prescription-support/prescription-delivery-service

Quite a pleasant sunny day for out first full day, in North Yorkshire, face a little red this evening, just a local walk today, Mount Grace Priory, House and Gardens on the agenda tomorrow.

Backpack or trolley case. I spent 20+ years carrying a laptop around either on commute to work, train or plane. In 2008 my shoulder decided it had enough, I was retuning on a plane from Canada when my shoulder seized up, I was off work for 4 months, I had a severe frozen shoulder, after physiotherapy a couple of cortisone injections I eventually returned to work. A surgeon who examined me an reviewed MRO scans & x-rays showed me the tendon damage in my shoulder, which in his opinion caused the damage and recommended I switched to a backpack to even the weight distribution out. On my return to work the backpack laptop carrier was on my desk the day I returned, however I still suffer from a sore shoulder from time to time.

We haven’t used a TA for over 5 years after they messed up our booking, we had to keep chasing them alll the time never returned our calls, ever since then we have never used a TA for cruise or land based holidays, always booked direct cutting out the “middleman”

Surprising developments local when the the Diocese of Lichfield announced that motion to close one of the 2 local churches has been put forward, a public meeting has been called for later this month. To me it has come as no surprise as the church building Grade II listed, is in need of a significant investment to repair the issues raised when it was put on the Historic England at risk register 5 years ago. The list includes 3 serious problems with the fabric of the church 1. The Tower needs attention as masonry has fallen on occasions, cause is due to weather erosion 2. All the roofs of the church need stripping back and relaying 3. The Chancel is rotating away from the Nave, subsidence is the mostly likely cause, and it will be very expensive to fix. So with dwindling congregations and the inability of the church to raise repair funding it would seem logical to merge the parishes under the auspices of the other parish church. I suspect over the coming years we will see other Dioceses taking similar action to reduce the church estate. Needless to say this hasn’t be received well in some quarters, but there is a real risk the church may be forced to close at some point as too dangerous for the public.

Think I might binge watch something on Netflix on the day😬

You could raise a complaint with ABTA about the TA

We did one sail away on our first cruise, never went to one after that, felt like we were in some drunken event in Magaluf!

Of course it is, got it confused with Mount Grace Priory. No intention of stopping off in Harrogate itself though as we have been before.

We don’t do pubs owned by Wetherspoons, so will give that a miss, plus Harrogate is 3 and a half hour round trip from where we are staying in North Yorkshire.

Quite a wet morning, I suspect the builder coming to rebuild one of our side path steps may not be coming weather not conducive to repairing concrete. Getting prepared for our break in Yorkshire next week, grocery delivery to cottage arranged, hopefully weather will be kind as planning a visit to Harlow Carr RHS one day.

You could try using Resolver, I have used them a successfully couple of times. https://www.resolver.co.uk

From anecdotal evidence from friends an family who have recently renewed their passports, if you do it online it comes through quicker than via a paper renewal. The online system does the checks automatically those submitted via paper have to be done manually, which will take longer. Same with driving licences I had to update mine as I am 70 in a couple if months I submit the request on a Saturday, new licence arrived following Thursday, a friend of mine did his by paper form over a month ago, still waiting.

Had my haircut today, never left the house though as my wife cuts it, she started to do it during lockdown and done it ever since.