Snow Hill

I was signing for a delivery this morning when a young girl walking into our wheely bin on the footpath awaiting collection. Appears she was looking at her phone and wearing headphones at the time. She looked rather embarrassed as there were a few people around at the time, no damage to the bin though. 😬

Spent much of this afternoon and early evening doing a clean reinstall of Windows 10 on my wife’s old laptop so we can pass it on elsewhere for reuse. Took 4 hours to download and install and another hour to set up, a few hiccups in this process that’s to Microsoft’s security procedure but got there in the end. Tomorrow our annual meeting of volunteers where we get to hear of plans for the sites we cover for the coming year, we are expecting some interesting events this year.

Many organisations provide links to Trustpilot, they are usually labelled as invited on the Trustpilot site, Feefo don’t indicate invites on their site.

I wonder why they recommend Feefo?

The Maleth fiasco is certainly pulling down the P&O rating on Trustpilot and other review sites, it must be costing Maleth a fortune in flight compensation payments as P&O refer customers to Maleth to claim, whether customers are receiving compensation is not known. There was a response from P&O to say that TUI will be providing flights next year, but isn’t that what they said for this year. The review of Maleth from an employee point of view, yes these could be just disgruntled employees, is isn’t good either frequently stating business is disorganised, a shambles, chaotic,and worryingly if true flight hours for crew have been exceeded.

I have done that many times.😂

Late night last night, my wife wanted to watch the final of The Traitors which we had recorded, so was after midnight before we got to bed. I was woken up by the post being delivered at 8:20 on a Saturday morning, a couple of magazines we subscribe to, a small package and one standard letter. 15 mins later Tesco turned up with our order, which was due between 9 - 10 am, everything present, although cucumber will be lucky to last 3 days. Not sure where they are coming from, but no longer last a week like they used to.

The main ones involved in the U.K. being Whistl (formerly owned by Dutch state run postal service) and UKMail owned by the German State owned Postal Service, known as DHL. DPD is owned by LaPoste, the French State postal service, LaPoste also has a banking and insurance services business. Noticeable that State owned postal services can own and provide services in the U.K. which compete against the Royal Mail who get dumped with the less profitable last mile delivery service.

Post a little earlier than normal today, letter from HMRC saying I own them tax after reassessing my self assessment, rather than they owing me £42, I owe them £2.00. Must have cost more than that to send out the letter. 🤷‍♂️

Our posties are excellent, we get post between 8:30 and 9:30, last week we had post 5 days out of 6, for some reason we got the same marketing offer from P&O 3 times on 3 different days, no idea why. As they all referred to Britannia Carribean Fly Cruises they were recycled, as we don’t like Britannia.

My practice has fortunately managed to recruit two new GPs in the last 18 months, after the senior doctor retried at the age of 77, and the other returned home after his wife was denied the right to remain in U.K. as they had not been living here long enough and returned to Spain. We also have one locum GP, in total 4 GPs 2 male & 2 female. The practice has been restructured, there used to be 3 sites, one is now used as a vaccination centre in the autumn for Flu & Covid vaccinations and also for pre & post natal appointments, plus some other clinics. We also have 4 pharmacists on a rota, a physiotherapist 4 days a week, 3 Advanced Nurse Practitioners, a Practice Nurse, A Mental Health Nurse, Cancer Cordinatir and a Sicial Prescriber. I find it works very well, depending on ailment I usually can get an appointment either same day or in a couple of days with one of medical staff at the practice. I have been to see the physio a few times in 2023, if I had been referred to hospital it would take weeks to see a physio. Another big plus is the local Primary Care Trust has recently opened a diagnostic centre in a empty office block to take pressure off the hospital, it does blood tests, MRI scans, X Rays and other diagnostic tests. My OH went to GP last Thursday as a follow up to Long Covid monitoring, referred her for an X-Ray, letter arrived Saturday, appointment booked yesterday for next Monday at new centre. GP rang today, she is also in for Shingles jab first thing Monday morning at a Shingles Clinic run by Practice. In all very satisfied with the service we get from NHS.

From what I read the outright ban was overturned by the State Governor, however they now have a maximum of 1300 passengers allowed to come ashore each day, unclear whether that is in total or per ship. Not sure what the number of passengers on the current cruise is, the capacity is almost 1900, which would mean 600 passengers wouldn’t be able to go ashore.

Have done a brief check outside, no damage as far as I can see, the currently empty wheely bin appears to have tried to escape last night but fell over the steps, a bit like a Dalek unable to negotiate steps, until they learn to fly. 🤣 All the advance notice of road works and road closure in our street put up yesterday have all been blown down, again not many branches in the road. I have seen from local community page that a tree has gone down across a footpath on a popular walking route, won’t be easy to remove given its location.

I suspect the bad weather you had in Bermuda and Bahamas, may have well been the storms Isha and Jocelyn that we have endured over the last few days.

Quiet here at the moment, but forecast of rain and strong winds for later today as Storm Jocelyn follows hot on the heels of Storm Isha. Already 10 named Storms and it’s still only January, 11 is the U.K. record, made in 2015-16, with Henry, Imogen, Jake and Katie all occurring in February and March, so possible record could be broken. The downside to this is we could see yet another hike in Home Insurance cover as payouts for storm damage increase.

There is a Hazardous Weather warning for Key West, especially small craft and if it was a tender port this could explain cancellation. I certainly would have expected the Captain to explain the reasons for cancellation in more detail. https://marine.weather.gov/MapClick.php?x=153&y=199&site=key&zmx=&zmy=&map_x=153&map_y=199

Woke up at just before 6 feeling hungry, realised that hadn’t had much to eat since lunchtime yesterday so probably no surprise. Had a good nights sleep, the wind seemed to die down at around 10pm last night, so didn’t get woken by it in the night. Usually when windy the trees over the road in churchyard shed a few branches in the road, looking outside there is virtually nothing this time, very odd, perhaps it all fell the other side of the wall. Once daylight returns might beep able to tell more. Hopefully my greenhouse survived the night, its predecessor was destroyed by gales around 14 years ago. The security cameras show that my neighbours damaged fence survived Isha, which surprised me and probably my Neighbours.

So you are ill and they “fine” you for not turning up and then resell you place, have P&O sunk that low in fining the sick, even if it is coming of OBC.

Wind Weather warning as been upgraded to Amber for much of England, I think I will remove a few more things that may become mobile later today. Forecast of gusts up to 58 mph. Late this afternoon, just as we are off to visit my granddaughter on her 18th Birthday. I suspect my neighbours fence at the front may disappear after it was damaged in previous storm, he has replacements in order, but being non standard they are taking time to come through.

There are gulls in the Islands, but less than there are in Northern Europe, I have seen them when visiting the islands, certainly not in the numbers we see at home. https://www.gomeravive.com/en/nature-portal/birds/gulls-and-terns/

No iced up windscreen on the car on the this morning so must be warmer than yesterday. Will spend some of the day ensuring there is nothing loose in the garden given the weather due tomorrow with up to 50mph gusts forecast. And now that the batteries have finally run out, take down the Christmas lights which have been up for 6 weeks.

Admin Fees known in some quarters as “extra profit fees”,

Currently -5C with wind chill -8C according to app, glad that I used my unexpected free afternoon yesterday to put a double layer of horticultural fleece over the winter cabbages, hopefully will protect them. Currently clear blue skies, might venture out for a walk later, but stay indoors for now. A car was pulled over by police outside our house about an hour ago, reason only had cleared the windscreen in front of the drivers view. It was unfortunate for the driver that the police had been attending an incident further down the street this morning and had caught him as they were leaving.

Well I attend the training, as expected was cold, glad I put thermals on and layers, even kept my Norway woolly hat on. 🥶 The H&S session ended early as no one asked any questions even though the H&S Manager asked if there were any questions numerous times. I think most wanted to find somewhere warm or get a hot drink at the end. Second training session in a different room initial had heating, but presenter turned it off, so was chilly for last 30 mins, I managed to opt out of the 3rd session on HR policy as not relevant to volunteers, So boxes all ticked for another year, now to complete feedback firm, hopefully enough room for all the observations!

Because they might lose their access and freebies if they did.