Snow Hill

I guess that would depend on whether Maltese insolvency law allows that scenario to occur.

Yes we found the hotels expensive, most seem to charge extra for car parking, one we looked at was £18 a day. So we decided to look outside of the city and have booked a cottage for 4 nights, we can do our own breakfast and eat out during the day or cook something when we get back.

A cold but sunny morning, currently 3C, most of early morning frost has gone. Have been watching the Test Match this morning with 20 year old England spinner Shoab Bashir confusing the Indian batters, he has 4 wickets so far and considering he only made his debut for Somerset last June he has come a long way in such a short time. Will be booking a 4 day break in Yorkshire this morning, have found a place just outside York, ideal location for visiting the city, Castle Howard and few other places.

As with any car short runs are drain on the battery especially if you have the heating/air conditioning on, radio etc. in my service report it indicated I had a period where my battery went below the recommended levels, checking back on the app I noticed it was a week or 2 where I only did a couple of 4 mile round trip journeys, the next week we went on a 190 mile trip which fully charged the 12v battery. I do at least one or 2 20+ round trips a week which keeps battery charged up. One thing I would like to see added is a battery level indicator for the 12v battery, you can see the level for the hybrid battery, but it’s the 12v that often gives the red light.

A cold but dry morning at 3C, next few days looking dry, so hopefully at some point I can get some gardening done with damaging the lawn, notice lots of weeds starting to appear, so long handle hoe will gone out to deal with them. The mild weather caused our rhubarb to shoot into growth, I pulled two substantial sticks yesterday which my wife plans to have for breakfast with yoghurt. With frosts forecast again I have taken the precaution of covering the crown with straw and the plant with a fleece covering as there are a number of new shoots showing. Took another crop of potatoes from clamp yesterday, we haven’t bought potatoes for months now, other than ones for baking. Amazing how many potatoes we got from just 3 containers.

Until I had my Yaris Cross, I or my wife had never owned an automatic, I must admit I was dubious about it, but after a year I can honestly say I won’t be going back to manual cars. My wife suffers from sciatica in her left leg which caused her pain when driving long distances, with automatic she has no problem driving long distances in her Yaris hybrid and is getting close to 70mpg on average, so is very happy with it. No our dealership isn’t Pinkstone, its a long standing Family run Shropshire based Dealership, W. R. Davies.

We both love our Toyotas, we have had them over a year now, I find my Yaris Cross Hybrid handles much better than my previous petrol Renaults, plus we have had excellent service from the Dealership.

For reference the P&O Policy re bringing alcohol on board at embarkation. https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/articles/po-cruises-alcohol-policy

The one in Madeira was the first cable car I ever went on, been a few others since Mt Teide in Tenerife, Aonach Mòr in Scotland, a couple in the alps, I was going on the one in London, but was closed due to “operational reasons”

Yes there should be vegan/vegeterian/gluten free options for the courses, but there should also be dare I say the standard version as well, P&O used to do that but seems someone somewhere decided to remove that option. My wife being coeliac I often eaten gluten free options at home it’s easier than preparing two completely separate meals. Yesterday we wnt out for a meal to a chain restaurant, we both had the same courses, but my wife had the gf version, they looked identical when the arrived apart from the little GF flag on hers, si if land based restaurants can cope day in day out, then P&O with all their resources should be able to do the same.

Neither had I, sounds like an Italian Footballer. 😂

A second ring on our induction hob ceased working properly last night, one went just after Christmas, so the urgency to replace has gone up a notch or two. Searching for a replacement Bosch Hob, there is no difference in price between retailers, cash back is between 3 & 6% on cashback sites. However during search my local electrical store website popped up, took a look out of curiosity to see if they had one and they did the model we want is in stock and £100 less and a free set of saucepans, so will pay them a visit tomorrow, they do installation as well.

It has been a pleasant day temperature reaching 14C, managed to cut back Princess of Wales Clematis close to the ground to alllow new growth to start and removed all the dead growth. Using new pruning saw I had a Christmas cut death branches from cotoneaster, neighbour has had dead logs for wood burner. Started ripping out lat autumn Ivy growth with a few to complete removal, neighbours gardener has offered to do it for me, might take up the offer as wood be a long job. Great to be back outside after being stuck inside for almost 2 weeks following my hospital incident. Under a Yellow Warning for rain tomorrow so might be a few days until I can repeat today’s gardening.

You are correct, it’s said it can survive for up to 12 days on carpets, curtains and soft furnishing.

Visit to dentist today following spell in hospital, no obvious evidence in the area of an infected tooth x-ray from today virtually matches one taken in 2017 when root canal work was done, he will check again in 3 months at rearranging check up appointment. Dentist believes it could be a sinus infection which spread across check and jaw in form of cellulitis, at moment all remains a mystery but at least it’s cleared up although still redness under my eye where swelling was. Interestingly GP noted on my file also suggest sinus infection. Follow up blood test with practice nurse tomorrow, result of swab taken at time of procedure due with my GP next week. Hopefully everything will be back to normal, well it will be when I can have a small glass of wine on Sunday once ABs out of my system, until then I have indulged myself in some of my remaining Christmas Chocolate.

Probably always been around, but there wasn’t the medical means to identify them. My wife wasn’t diagnosed as coeliac until her 60s, she had suffered from “bad stomachs” for years but despite many tests and investigations the cause wasn’t discovered. It is genetic, with both her daughter and grandson both diagnosed coeliacs. I have an allergy to strawberries since I was a young child and was hospitalised following a reaction to eating them, my mother had a peanut allergy, we couldn’t have then in the house when I Was growing up.

Paprika part of the Nightshade intolerance which includes many plants such as tomatoes, potato’s, sweet peppers (Paprika being made from them) Chilli’s etc. Yes they are all related to the likes of Belladonna, Mandrake and Tobacco, one of the reasons not to eat green potatoes.

Give up chocolate, never! Sacrilege! As not religious don’t give up anything unless for medical reasons.

My seed order came yesterday, two varieties of French Green Beans in the order, one dwarf and one climbing, was tempted to try the purple variety but decided against it.

Up at 6 this morning, last day of Antibiotics which have disturbed my sleep pattern since I have been in them, waking up at odd hours and dropping off up unexpectedly during the day, plus it has been difficult to focus on doing anything at times. Yesterday was the best day so far, I seem to have my appetite back no longer on bland foods, I did some pasta with a slightly spiced sauce and ham last night, followed by home made rice pudding (my OH made that as she recovers from suspected food poisoning from an egg). After the egg issue didn’t fancy pancakes last night. Today we were planning a Valentine’s Day out, however as OH still not feeling well we decided to postpone it until Monday.

Some sad news just announced by the BBC, DJ Steve Wright has sadly died at age of 69. RIP.

That would be a start, but what are P&O doing about dealing with Norovirus that can survive on carpets and curtains for up to 12 days, I assume they already wash bedding, towels etc at high temperatures with the appropriate detergents. As I have said previously my brother runs a cleaning business and he can take him and his team 48 hours to deep clean a building where there has been an outbreak and P&O try to do it in few hours.

Looking at Citizens Advice page on the subject If you’re not getting anywhere If you’ve asked the airline and they won’t give you the right compensation, you can complain to an independent organisation. If the airline is a member of an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) scheme, you can complain to the scheme. Check if the airline is a member of an ADR scheme on the Civil Aviation Authority’s website. If they are, complain to the ADR scheme. If the airline isn’t part of an ADR scheme, you can complain to the Civil Aviation Authority on their website. However since we left the EU and now deemed a 3rd country, pursuing an airline based in Malta is more difficult and I suspect they know that hence the lack of response.

@Selbourne re your sore throat, my brother had something similar a few years back, turned out to be a bacterial infection for which he needed treatment as it also infected his larynx. He finished up losing his voice for best part of 6 months. I know you may not want to, but I would seek medical advice onboard. On the trip did the guide mention the shortage of water which is affecting the canals operation? When a couple of ex work colleagues went there in September it was explained to them that shortage of rainfall is affecting its operation and number of ships going through.

Always a nightmare when we have visited on rare occasions, my OH never trusted that the GF options were not cross contaminated and always approached someone for a fresh gf option, too risky not to.