Splice the mainbrace

After a few chilly days in the house when it wasn’t worth putting the central heating on to raise the temperature up a degree or so, this morning was down to 17c in the house so heating came on. Fortunately we can afford the high energy prices but when it costs £6 a day just to take the chill off the air, jumpers and fleece blankets are a cheaper option. We have 15 radiators in a 4 bed house but have switched off 5 because we are the only ones in the house after our 3 sons have flown the nest. We’re setting the thermostat in the hall at 18c which gives us 19 to 20 in the lounge which is a degree down from previous years but now that our gas smart meter is working it shows how much heating costs. When just hot water it was 60 to 70p a day but just slight heating costs an extra 4 to 6 pounds a day, gawd knows what a full power cold winter day will cost. Electricity stays fairly constant throughout the year between £2.50 and £3.50 a day at todays prices, was £1.25 average. Is anyone else doing anything different now with the higher energy prices?

I’ve noticed on other treads that there is a lack of staff which causes specialist restaurants to be closed and slow bar service. What is the reason? Staff not coming back from overseas after covid, staff falling ill or P&O just saving money? Anyone have inside knowledge or recently been onboard and been told?

Our first cruise on Arcadia will be in 2 weeks time, it will be our first cruise on P&O since 2015 so will be interesting to compare to Cunard and Princess who we have cruised with since then. As Wowzz says Princess have also impressed us, apart from a 10 days Australia cruise which was full of partying Aussies and was rather raucous.

I have joined the roll call and posted a few times. We originally booked this cruise 4 years ago to go 2 years ago then booked this on launch day 2 years ago. I haven’t been to the eastern med since 1978 on a school educational cruise on ship Uganda and it is the first time there for my wife. It will be my 60th in October so we were hoping to book a speciality restaurant but my wife received an email today warning of potential staff shortages! My wife has now managed to print my boarding pass, she did from her iPad rather than laptop. I misunderstood what she meant about it not printing, what was happening was that she would put my details in but when she went to print her details came up again, might have been a computer cookie issue or something that she was doing.

We’ve just got back from having our flu jab done. I had to pay for mine as people in their 50s without underlying health conditions have to pay until October 15th, I was aware of this but wanted to get it done before our cruise in 2 weeks time. Also due to my age I can’t book my covid booster yet so I’m going on the cruise with 10 month old protection.

Our luggage tags and my wife’s boarding pass printed ok but not mine. I was thinking like you did screenshot forward and then print.

I’ll check with my wife but we both have middle names so she would have done the same for both of us I would have thought.

We go away on Arcadia in 2 weeks time and my wife has been completing the necessary info into their system. She managed to print out her boarding pass but despite several attempts mine won’t print, has anyone else had similar problems?

Like others on here I watched the Queens Funeral all day from 8.00 until 5.30pm, I found the most emotional part when the Gun Carriage set off from Westminster Hall pulled by the Sailors with mass bagpipes and banging drum. Even though I've followed much of the coverage since HM death was announced that moment brought it to me what an historic moment I was witnessing. Mind you the procession could have been quicker if the Sailors had handled the Gun Carriage like they used to 🙂 (note a young Philip Schofield at the start!), see below. Royal Navy Field Gun Competition 1997 - YouTube

Wife looked online yesterday to book a covid jab but closest place is 10 miles away even though locally we have 80,000 and 20,000 towns a few miles away, she'll leave it for now. All of the mass vaccination centres have not reopened near to us. I'm below the current 'call up' age but I think that I'll delay getting it until mid/late November to get max protection during the winter months for Christmas and our early 2023 land/sea tour of South America. My 88yo MIL booked locally in a small pharmacy last week but is all that seems available locally but even that doesn't show for my wife to book this week.

So that people don't miss their favourite programmes the following BBC 1 and 2 schedules have been released, understandably I guess these could change again. Of particular interest to us is 'Celebrity' Masterchef and Strictly. BBC SCHEDULE CHANGES: 15-23 SEPTEMBER 2022 (tvzoneuk.com)

HM Queens last flight has just flown over Stoke could see it here from South Cheshire.

I had to ring my bank yesterday (first time in years) and was on hold for 20 minutes but I needed to hang on as it was urgent. I wrongly thought that my Fixed rate ISA had matured in March after 12 months and had started transferring the ISA to another provider. However yesterday I got a letter telling me that the ISA will mature at the end of September (it was an 18 month fixed ISA) and inviting me to move onto another fixed rate ISA. If I had transferred early I would have incurred a 6 months interest penalty!!! Fortunately when I got through I caught the transfer only hours before the transfer would have happened overnight and they cancelled both the transfer and closure of my account. I've always been on top of my savings and investments but I must double check things next time.

Looking at your location it shouldn't affect you but for people travelling from the Midlands and North they need to be aware of the A34 at Oxford being closed due to a sink hole and watermain flooding. For people travelling from the West Midlands or North West I would recommend the M5, A417 to Swindon, M4 to Newbury and then pick up the A34 from there (if the road is still closed tomorrow that is). Why the A34 is closed in Oxfordshire today as southbound carriageway remains shut and traffic diversions are in place - Berkshire Live (getreading.co.uk)

5 cruise ships departing Southampton today and 5 tomorrow. Coverage and commentary for today on the link below. Starting with Sky Princess at 4pm. Ships TV- Sky Princess, MSC Virtuosa, Ventura, MSC Magnifica & Iona Departing Port Southampton - YouTube

Partly cloudy and 16c here in South Cheshire. We're walking into Nantwich today to go to the Nantwich Food Festival, around 170 interesting and specialist food and drink stalls. It's the first time that it's been on for 3 years but is well worth a visit. Several 'famous' chef demonstrations as well. It's on all weekend. It's interesting to read about the use of dry air fryers / Ninja type way of cooking, I'll look into it further as there are only normally the 2 of us to cook for and I didn't realise that they were so versatile. I thought that they were just a more healthy way to fry things. I can't get my mind around how you could do for example a roast chicken lunch with veg, roasties etc....in one device. Having said that veg steamed on a gas hob for 10 mins or so costs are not much.

We normally use a 30c daily quick washing machine programme which is about 40 mins sometimes with an extra rinse, our clothes aren't very dirty as we don't roll about in mud in white clothes like they do in detergent adverts!. We have an option for a quick wash on the main programmes but surprisingly the 30c wash becomes longer than the 40c wash. If we have a stain we spot pretreat with liquid detergent for 5 minutes before washing.

Quiet day for me today. Son has just set off back down to Southampton but may be back up to Cheshire at the end of September as his flat rental runs out and he hasn't found anywhere else yet. And wife is out taking two grandsons to monkey forest at trentham. Lovely day here sunny, light breeze and warm.

My son is doing the opposite driving up from Southampton to Cheshire this afternoon after going to the Saints v Man Utd match at lunchtime. I hope that Man U aren't as good as they were v Liverpool on Monday, Saints can do heavy defeats a bit too often ! I hope that you have a good cruise.

Lowest petrol price around here is now £1.66 which is down from £1.90 in July, the current price is roughly where it was in early May. I see that Supermarkets are rightly promoting wonky fruit and veg to help the farmers with the dry weather affecting crops. No doubt it is also so that they have enough produce on the shelves to sell. Surprisingly I noticed that a supermarket had wonky strawberries slightly more expensive than normal ones! I hope that the recent rain will help some of the late autumn and winter crops recover a bit. From what I've seen the fruit trees and shrubs seem to have really good crops this year but of course they have deeper roots.

A longer list from the RHS on the link below, some seem to contradict those on the other list. Deer-resistant plants / RHS Gardening

They don't seem to be eating the dahlia? in the background. According to the British Deer Society the plants below are Deer Resistant but I expect they've eaten these as well in your garden! DEER-RESISTANT PLANTS CAMELLIA CISTUS FUCHSIA HELLEBORE HOSTA HYDRANGEA IRIS LAVENDER POPPY PRIMULA RHODODENDRON SEDUM

19c and breezy here, has been raining but has stopped for now. First day for a week today where we have a free day after having work done on the house and appointments. I had an opticians appointment yesterday for a contact lens check , all ok but had to have an ingrowing lower eyelash removed (never knew there was such a thing!), I wondered why that eye felt sore sometimes.

I was brought up in Southampton and at school my friend was called a Northerner and he had moved down from.........London !!

22c mostly cloudy and humid but bright. Had useful steady rain yesterday afternoon and early evening for about 6 hours. We had a new roller garage door fitted yesterday, we've brought forward quite a few planned future house improvements the last few months to try and buy at this year's prices rather than next!