yorkshirephil

A lovely warm day here with a breeze, we went out for breakfast with one of my old workmates and his wife this morning. So a good chinwag there. Mrs YP then had to go for the dreaded mammogram. I am now going to have a whinge about the NHS after extolling their virtues over the last few years with our own experiences. Usually the mobile unit parks at a local surgery where they can fence off part of the car park. However this has now changed and no local facility is available. It is no more than an inconvenience and a low cost to us, but for people that have to use public transport it will be more onerous as most of the towns and villages around us do not have a particularly good bus service plus the new facility is out of town meaning that more than one bus is required. I fear that some people will not go which will then add more load onto the NHS at a later date.

I also think P&O lack imagination with their cruise itineraries and have for many years. Same old same old is fine for us for the longer round trip cruises to the Caribbean for some winter sun or a shorter cruise just to get away. However for our bucket list cruises they are limited and do not travel to many parts of the world. We quite like a nice long med cruise in summer but that usually means we have to look elsewhere. New cruisers are fine just as we were when we were new but some of us seasoned cruisers who are still pretty mobile and want to visit new places then P&O don't fit the bill for us.

If those ports were removed I wouldn't be interested in a fjords cruise, if it could actually be called a fjords cruise.

I usually wear one glove in October as it can be quite cool but on the other hand it can be a bit warmer.

Maybe have a whip round and get him to stay at home😁

This same cruise did drop in price and like you we rebooked and made a nice saving, I see that the current price is actually more than our original offering was by booking first day with less OBC. I also noted that there are not many cabins left so don't expect much discounting before the cruise date.

I am sure you are right, some will complain, I would imagine that some who do get to see him will also complain that he wasn't very good and not worth a tenner even though it was for a good cause. Such is life. I would be happy to pay to see someone I liked or a better class of act but if P&O were to put such acts on in the main theatre with a surcharge I am sure there would also be complaints.

Turned out nice again, after a miserable grey day yesterday and a damp and murky start today it turned into a lovely evening. It is so nice to be able to go for a walk after tea now we have some evening light. I also managed to book a cheeky med cruise for next year on Queen Vic. I keep saying I need to stop booking cruises so far in advance but sometimes something catches your eye and you just have to do it.

We like to go to the Med in late Sept/Oct and have had everything from hot to wet and windy while travelling up and down the coast of Portugal Spain and France. Last October on Aurora it was lovely and sunny from day one from Southampton until coming back where we had three wet and windy days force 9/10 from Gib.

We have just booked a Med cruise which can be taken as 3 or 4 segments. We have saved approx 45% by booking a package with our TA. Plus we have a night stay before the cruise.

They are going to use this system for disembarkation in the UK. They are calling it buffet to baggage in 3 seconds.

The attributes of copper, brass and tin have a similar effect have been known for several thousand years. One of the reasons that hospital doors had brass or copper contact plates back in the day. I remember a programme where the benefits of copper were highlighted during a Cholera outbreak in France where people who worked the copper mines were unaffected. It is still not fully understood exactly how the process works as it can vary from microbe to microbe and there is no real value in spending money to find out as modern alternatives are cheaper. Slugs and snails are not keen on copper with some gardeners swearing by copper wire and tape to protect their plants. However as with most things there are arguments against this. I have noticed we have quite a few snails on our hydrangeas now that the leaves have opened, plus the white and greenfly are hovering around the rose growth. Spring is definitely in the air today with lovely warm sunshine.

You will need to be vigilant. Lovely warm spring day here. We went to Barnsley for breakfast as usual and picked up the shopping for over Easter weekend. We saw our first swallows of the year which I assume are nesting in the arches of the train wall. We have not seen them so early before up here. I hope everyone has a nice Easter

I would contact Jet2. I was under the impression that you could only book the luggage in the evening before if you has booked via Jet2 and had a reference number to access their app. The P&O number that you get for accessing the Jet2 system didn't allow full access but as with lots of things that may have changed.

Started off lovely and sunny here, we decided to have a drive to Junction 32 and have our brekkie there. There seems to be 20% off in most of the shops which was the case at Blacks who stock Peter Storm T shirts which I like, £7.65 a pop so filled my boots. While we were there I pointed out that there was an item for Mrs YP. I got the look but there wasn't a lot she could say as I didn't actually mention which one. I hope everyone enjoys the Easter weekend, remember Easter eggs will be half price or less from Tuesday, plus an hour's less rain on Sunday when the clocks go forward. Don't forget to send in you gas and lekkie readings if not on a smart meter as the prices go down on 1st April.

A much better day weather wise today, yesterday was one of those cold grey damp offerings. I am sure we will get a couple of decent walks in today even though Mrs YP is still a bit rickety. I quite like Tuesdays as it is knit and natter day so get my scone with jam and cream this afternoon. The cafe owner makes his own cakes and is top notch.

We have taken a couple of half day tours around Kirkwall with shortish walks included, not with the ship tours. The town is nice to mooch around, the tender usually drops you off next to the town. Cohb is also nice to mooch around, it is not very big but quaint. We usually get the train into Cork now we have been a few times.

Nice cheese wheel Gromit

The more you eat the better value the cruise.😁

Cracking start to the day here, it is unusual for us to be up so early but the sun is streaming into the house and the birds are singing. Mrs YP is putting the bedding in the washer as we speak as it looks like a good drying day. Enjoy your day whatever you do.

You need more than a pint to wash a vindaloo down Brian.

I haven't been impressed with Sindhu for quite a few years, like you keep trying, it is far too bland for us, we have asked what meals were deemed the spiciest and asked for it to be spiced up but to no avail. I have had better curries in the MDR.

We are also having a four seasons in one day weather event. Better day forecast for us tomorrow. Enjoy the weekend everyone. At least the clocks go forward an hour next weekend so we get a day with an hour less rain.

As a regular cruiser before and after covid I would agree that P&O has gone downmarket (I looked up the definition of downmarket) so as to try and not sound pretentious. In my experience this was happening well before covid. However the costs have also fallen which IMHO still makes a P&O cruise good value. We have also cruised on several other lines and are seeing similar trends. Clearly we are all different and have our opinions based on experiences and likes. All I would say is give it a go and then decide for yourself whether P&O still meet your needs.