yorkshirephil

It doesn't seem to know what to do here weather wise, it started bright sunny and mild but had clouded over and a couple of light showers, no chance of a hat trick of dry days here. We did our usual run to Barnsley for breakfast and pick up supplies for the weekend. There is a food fair on this weekend and the smells were tantalising as we walked around. I nipped into the bookies for my yearly punt on the Grand national, I have plumbed for Noble Yeats at 22/1 ew. Bet Fred is paying out on the first five at fifth of the odds for a place. Easy come easy go. Enjoy the weekend all especially the folk heading out on a cruise.

Check your account, you may be a higher level than you think as cruises with P&O up to 2017 contributed to Princess loyalty. This is how we got to Elite and we booked for the restaurant last year for our Sept 2024 cruise.

Lovely and warm here, we had our annual trip to Halifax today, we like to see how the Piece Hall is developing and have a good mooch before our morning coffee and cake. All is well. I stopped off at Sainsbugs in Huddersfield on the way home as their petrol is 138.9/L which is the best around. As we were there we popped into the supermarket as there is always a few bits required. I see they are now pulling the same stunt as Tesco and over inflating prices to then reduce them by using the nectar app. Since retirement we are much more aware of prices and who has the better offers and I will definitely not be using Sainsbugs for anything other than fuel. I usually moan about th'ASDA prices when we do our once a month shop there but by gum they beat Sainsbugs hands down on our usual purchases. So nice we sat out earlier in nice sun prior to a stroll, the fields are far too wet to walk at the moment, some of the lanes and paths are tricky but the sun and gentle breeze seems to be helping. Best wishes for @indiana123 hopefully a positive post soon. Keeping up with bacon and weather themes currently airing.

Just use the lifts, the advantage being they would only need to go up😆

Getting in on the rain songs these guys crack me up

You snooze you loose. Good luck tomorrow.

I think that if/when the Nationwide and Virgin merger takes place they will likely be run as two companies for several years. When we received the emails spelling out the proposal I seemed to remember something about up to five years to become fully consolidated. It is a shame as I have been pleased with Virgin since they took over Yorkshire bank with generally better interest rates and my accounts.

I agree, there always seems something new to see. We took a tour guided by an archaeology student the last time we went and visited a new museum which is mostly underground, based on findings while digging foundations for new buildings. The guide was so interesting and exited by some of the new digs we were sad to end the tour.

It used to be £125 OBC for two weeks when we started cruising which was about the same value as $250, then they realigned the OBC to £150. Another realignment is long overdue but I won't hold my breath.

It is absolutely fine Julie and welcome. I think sometimes these threads seem a bit clicky as lots of us seem to have been here forever and know each others back story. Even then we do not always agree with each other. Dive in whenever you please.

I always use a credit card as this avoids any issues for me. I think it is the merchant that places the hold and is their responsibility to clear it when they have received funds and not the bank's responsibility. @molecrochip posted about this previously.

We joined last year, short medical and a blood test. We were given the bumph and a printout of our results. I have not heard anything from them since, not that I was really expecting to. .

I often get asked to reach items down in the supermarket, sometimes I know beforehand that someone is going to ask, you just see them gazing longingly at that chocolate on a high shelf, even the order pickers will sometimes ask. We only have one car now since we retired, but I used to do a fair bit of off roading and trial biking so always had various land rovers and motor bikes in my younger years. We currently have a Citroen C3 Aircross which is 3 1/2 year old. Normally I would be looking at changing but with less than 22K on the clock it seems pointless. Top of my list is the Yaris cross hybrid, but I do have a couple of others on my watch list. Weather wise it isn't too bad cloudy and mild with rain later. Like we need more rain, hey ho. I did get to potter in the garden yesterday albeit not much to do.

Fair day here again, this will be the fourth day on the trot where we have not needed to put the heating on. Not quite time to cast a clahht though. Seems to be a fair few vertically challenged folk on here. Reminds me of my old mam as she was just under five feet, which is probably why she struggled to put food on the table. My dad was 5'7" yet my younger brother and myself are just over 6'2". Both my grandchildren are taller than me so I recon there is a tall gene lurking in the family.

Dress like you would for any British summer😁. Joking apart I have always found the way to deal with cold when stood out watching various sports and moorland walking is to have a good waterproof coat with a rating of 10000mm. The extreme waterproofing keeps the wind at bay. I always have a size bigger than required so a fleece can be worn underneath if stood around. Mountain warehouse supply a good range at sensible prices if you don't want to splash out too much for what could be a one off. A pair of waterproof walking trousers with a base layer if you feel the need. Plus a lined hat and gloves.

Same here Brian, although th'asda does a fair butter chicken.

We wanted a long Med cruise after the kids go back to school in 2025. P&O: nothing above 19 nights so ruled out. Princess: 31 day Med marvel, Southampton- Southampton. Inside from £2999 pp. Fred: 32 nights Spanish colours, ex Newcastle-fly home. Inside from £4999 pp. Cunard: 32 nights Med and Greek islands, fly to Venice- Southampton. Inside from £ 2500 pp. We opted for a balcony at £2999 with an overnight stay in Venice the day before. We only booked last week and the balcony price has gone up several hundred £. As you say it is difficult to get an exact comparison but I feel this is pretty close.

We cruised with Fred until 2013 and liked them for the itineraries and smaller ships. Then the prices were comparable with the other main stream lines then for some reason the prices seemed to go up and up. Even with offers it is rare that we see any good deals with Fred. When I have done like for like comparisons Fred is usually the more expensive of the main stream cruise lines. Fair play to them if they can maintain their prices and not lose their customer base, I bet all the cruise lines wish they could do that.

I do know that KM travel do coach tours to Warners as I saw a couple this morning in their window. They also pick up by minibus to take you to the depot for the coach. We have done Bodelwyddan castle and Alverston hall and enjoyed the.

The wind has got up here but the sun has come out and it is pleasant, I have been sat in the garden reading and Mrs YP's bloomers have been almost horizontal on the washing line😁. Now I have an earworm "the answer my friend is blowing in the wind" Our neighbour often leaves me washing messages:

I have also tried some of the desserts as they looked fine from the description but were tasteless. We used to have a local cafe where the lady who ran it made various vegan cakes and pastries which were delicious, so it can be done.

Don't give up Avril, you and Frank deserve a cruise. We used Staysure for many years, however we don't know how good they are when faced with a claim as we have fortunately not needed to make one. When the Nationwide flexplus account was discussed on here I decided to look into that as we also wanted to open a joint current account. I phoned the advertised Nationwide number to see what any extras would be and whether the insurance looked suitable. It looks fine and is considerably less than Staysure for similar/better cover so we opened an account, with the added bonus of having £200 added to the account as a new customer. Again I won't really know how good they will be until I need to claim.

Morning all (just) The forecast today was wall to wall sunshine with a light breeze. I put my shorts on and Mrs YP had a load of washing on the timer. It has been dull all morning with no breeze so the washing is still hanging limply on the line, fortunately it is warm enough for the shorts so not all bad. Hopefully those suffering storm Kathleen will get through unscathed. Enjoy the weekend all, especially if you are on a cruise, and for those having trouble standing up even without a storm I hope you are feeling better. You know you are getting old when Dennis the menace and Gnasher are all grown up

I have found the veggie curries to be very good, we very rarely use meat in curries at home as the flavour is from the spices not the meat/veg base. Similar for chilli, which I now make using lentils. I am sure that other spicy dishes would be fine for us.