UKCruiseJeff

You can do exactly the same - in fact much better than the old cassettes - and you have many options to make your “playlist”. A “perfect” option might be to connect your tv to the stereo - if you can using optical cable - but if not then HDMI - and if not then RCA cables. What you then do is add Youtube app to the tv and within the basic Youtube Music offering is search music for your favourite version of your favourite tracks and create a playlist of all your favourite tracks and then you play the playlist on the TV and it will play through your new stereo. Make several playlists for different moods or time of day. I have reggae, ragtime, jazz, of several flavours as examples. What youtube will then do is also suggest music based on your tastes that you might also enjoy. This will give you a full super duper video stereo jukebox of all of your favourite tracks. You can also easily simply add tracks even for the cds you do not own. All of your favourite music is likely free on Youtube Music basic. You coud also do the same with Amazon Music if you have it. You could also add Tunein Radio to your TV to listen to virtually any station anywhere. If you cannot add the apps to your TV you can achieve the same by buying an Amazon FireStick. I have one on every TV we have and just bought a few of their latest. They are extraordinary value for the quality of what they do. It is generally much better than even my expensive TV’s internal apps. They have short cuts to both Amazon and Youtube on several remote controls. It is a great solution for you. No one will believe this but I spend a fair amount on streaming services, but the best by very far is paying the Youtube monthly charge for advert free. We watch more Youtube than all terrestrial tv and other streams. It essentially learns what you want and provides a customised TV ad-free channel. So Im currently “obsessed” with stuff like understanding daily Roman street life and living in insulae, and daily normal life in out of city China, obviously cruises, travel, social history etc. Another obsession isextremely early ie thousands of year old technology. Not just pyramids but ancient precision stone work that we couldn’t do today for example in Peru. We also like “walking” around places we know through many people’s”walk” videos. We like seeing during advent what all the Christmas markets we know look like. We love seeing restaurant visits etc. There is so much we learn from. It is basically completely unlimited when compared to “waiting” for a topic of interest to be broadcast on terrestrial TV. I love learning and Youtube is a perfect resource with almost everything and anything you could ever wish for. The range of commercial programming on Youtube is extraordinary and it isn’t about viewing people’s content but other factual content. We also like watching live camera feeds around the world. If you need any help or tips - ask. Jeff

Being confused about what is my own favourite piece of music it occurred to me that it’s perfectly acceptable and indeed consistent to have your very favourite changing moment by moment. It is what is right for that moment than a life-long commitment. Jeff

Hope it passes softly Ems. Jeff

I don’t mean to “out” you J, but you aren’t indulging that orchid with bottled water are you? 😉 Jeff

Have you visited The Orchid Garden in Singapore? It is Orchid Heaven. It is worthwhile visiting if you are an Orchidy just for the garden. Jeff Jeff

Good Evening Coolers, All the talk of food, I thought I’d mention one of my favourite films that many haven’t viewed or even heard of and it is Babette’s Feast. It was in fact the first Danish film to win an Oscar - for Best Foreign Language Film. It’s very atmospheric and a lovely film. It’s to buy or rentable for a few pounds/dollars/euros on several streams including Amazon, Apple and Youtube - but if you are going to watch it and are dithering about paying double - then buy it. I watch it around once a year. It has been said by many that it is the best foody film of all time. If you plan to watch it then I suggest you don’t read any full reviews because it might spoil it a little, although in spite of viewing it often I find it sublime regularly. A late night film when it’s quiet in order to enjoy it fully. I’d like to hear if you give it a view. Jeff https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092603/

Coolers, today’s light lunch at seaside with Cremant, Jeff

Davey, it does not appear to be “for whatever reason “ because Sololux is based in SW France and posted in a thread about consumer rights following our specific posts with respect to those enhanced rights and protections offered in the UK. I meant no harm but simply suggested that they could enjoy the identical rights that we had described without making travel the arrangements through a UK agent and thus avoid the first unnecessary flight leg. It seemed like a reasonable interpretation of what was posted to offer the bit of advice and clarity to suggest that this wasn’t necessary just in case the reasons were for doing so was for the ones that they appear to be stating. Jeff

The point is that he could book through a French agency and enjoy the same protections and then not have to travel to the UK.

You have identical protection in the EU for bookings made with French TAs and the advice you have received is bewildering. Jeff

Quite right. For some reason in the UK called “deck chairs” but they are still the chairs rented out daily in virtually all British beach resorts. In this area the local council even hires them out in bulk for events at £5 per chair per day. We use to have some great comedy skits with people wrestling them to put them up. When I get back to base I’ll photograph some of the others. It can be an obsession. This is an expert putting up a deck chair. Jeff

Tell people to stand on their head. Jeff

That is specifically travel industry protection. They are however covered by much much more wider protections - including travel - covering all consumer contracts in the UK, EU and other places. Almost all EU consumer law is based on the Uk as is much of Oz. Consumers pick whichever legislation that better supports their claim. Anyone interested in learning more might google UK+ “Consumer contracts unfair contract terms” and “Consumer contracts implied terms” and the more obscure term but equally important of “balance of power considerations in consumer contracts.”. Anyway … we go over this many times! American’s need to move to the UK to enjoy our consumer protections! Jeff

You are now missing my point. And seem unaware of the varying rights of SS customers and consumers world-wide. Most people do not read all of the small print. They make rational presumptions. In many countries there is in fact no need to read the small print on consumer contracts because a large number are completely unenforceable - although it is of course always wiser to read them than not to, Of course all customers should have travel insurance but that is a different point and may provide questionable and uncertain cover. In many countries if SS fail to make “a reasonable effort” to get them to the cruise then they would have full legal recourse. They will also highly probably even have that full recourse if the cruise-line tried hard and failed. You may not have that protection if you are in the US - but you are comprehensively protected if you are in the UK and EU and several others etc irrespective of the terms you cite. So Brits will have different set of rational expectations and protections than Americans. The different rights that different people have adds to the complexity for customers when making rational decisions. That is why the OP’s warning is a great thing for him/her to do - and they were right to - and they should be thanked for taking the trouble. Jeff

You seem to be missing the point that the OP made. He was not saying literally that they were in the airline business. He was expressing the way that customers are wilfully lulled into a false sense of security and expectations and also regularly paying more than if they made their own arrangements whilst also preventing them from making the rational decision of having a pre-cruise overnighter and that they only learn better from when it is too late. They simply and reasonably feel that this arrangement guarantees what they incorrectly but reasonably presume. It seems like a valid point to me and of use to others without your knowledge and experience. Jeff

The beaches …… from the balcony. Jeff

Thanks, In fact these are full size station platform posters rather than carriage prints. Some are even double sized than the other large ones and are very very large. They take much of some of our walls. I was fortunate in that I became convinced several decades ago that this was an unappreciated and under valued sector original art that I might be able to afford to buy and enjoy. I couldn’t afford original 19thc French Impressionism - my first passion - so this had to do! But they were expensive even then. Thankfully I wasn’t bothered about other countries or car racing stuff. Just nostalgic British vintage travel posters of seaside holidays. I use to try and buy the originals unmounted and the clue was this. When they were sent to stations some station masters couldn’t be bothered to go out and paste them over their perfectly good existing posters on their platforms. So they shoved them into the back of a drawer and forgot about them. Most of course didn’t survive but sometimes they rarely come up for auction and the clue is that they were folded two or three times ie they are in 4 or 8 panels between folds. Some clever forgers did catch on but when you’ve seen a few you can tell. The other challenge is condition. If they were kept in the drawer and out of the light and then discovered then your luck is in. The value of perfect ones are extraordinary compared to slightly less. I have one poster which I bought by accident, it was a railway coach holiday poster. in other words you rented a coach in a field to camp in. No other of this poster that I have seen exists. There is no image I have seen of it on the web. It is now in fact my favourite of my collection. I returned it to Sothebys thinking they’d sent me it to me by accident but they sent it back saying “thanks for your honesty - but no you bought it with the other one you won”. I’ll take a piccy when I get home. Sometimes the auction houses put people seeking a particular one in touch with me and they make daft offers, but it would be like giving up one of your kids. Perhaps even worst! 🙂 Jeff

Good Afternoon Coolers, Today’s Elevenses on TheBalcony@Seaside! All light eatings for the next days and weeks until we shrug and return to base. It’s school holiday time in the Uk so we are enjoying the sartorial elegant contents of thoses cases that have been stored on top of wardrobes all over the country in prep for beach holidays. Every kid has a bucket and a spade and the family groups are ensconced for the day on the beaches below our house. It’s lovely to see the joy. Tomorrow’s shop is complete which is full of lovely light stuff … proscuito, salami, anchovies, quiche, salad, a corn fed chicken to be coked and eaten cold …. and loads of stuff to drink! Jeff Edited: I’ve added a couple of posters we have at home that is at the heart if my addiction to British Travel Posters. To disclose, there are NOT of my wall but scraped images. I am the proud owner of the two originals which I adore. It captures a bygone era of Brtish life. Tonight there is a firework display. 🙂

Good Evening All, We finally made it down to Devon on the slowest roads ever. People ground to a halt at Stonehenge to take photographs whilst they travelled slowly along the single track A303 with their cameras out of their windows and roofs. But we are here! Balcony@seaside. And a curry was consumed. My greatest collection obsession is that I collect original British travel posters. I cannot resist. Christies told me I have the largest private collection of Devon travel posters that they know of which I find odd. British travel posters capture a time long lost for so many reasons. Old fashioned beach holidays with steam trains and buckets and spades. I have quite a few …. and ‘er indoors doesn’t know all that I spent! 😉 The one poster I have always wanted - not Devon - but was so magical and evocative I could never justify buying because it is so rare and valuable in A1 condition is Southport (c1932) - for winter holidays. It is genuinely the poster above all that I don’t have but crave. I so want it. I thought I’d share the poster - this doesn’t do justice but was the best I could find … that I fear I’ll never own. Jeff

Lola, I was saddened to see you down and I wanted to at least let you to know I’m thinking of you and empathise. The horrible thing about maturing is that increasingly nothing is where you left it in terms of stuff like your own country and your own perception of stable decent long-learned values. My solution isn’t the best one because it isn’t my first choice, I want everyone to be what they were with the same values as when I was younger. So I create a bubble of isolation to keep me away from confronting what use to be - for example - consideration for others as against total universal entitlement and selfishness. And why is everyone so angry? Why does so many people think they are celebrities when they are totally unknown. The entitlement seems to have created a world of anger. When some of us were kids. it was post war and in spite of the sacrifices people cared and looked out for each other. They had little but they shared. Kids played in the streets and they were safe and people shared the little they had. The only rules I have tried to concoct for us is to deal with this is firstly (1) Never waste your precious time trying to rationalise the irrational. … it’s an oxymoron. You can never put yourself in the head of someone else. (2) Never begrudge yourself an indulgence simply because you had a tough time earlier in life and the self-indulgence was something you were taught was selfish. It might have been then but now they are not. The sad fact is that the only option is to shrug and dwell on that currently we are alive and the people that are following us are joining a world that was nothing like the one that we have been privileged to enjoy. I might not like getting older but I am also pleased not to be young today and blossoming in the current world. I ramble yet again and even I can only make limited sense of what I’ve just said so I’m hoping you detect at least some solidarity and empathy. Jeff x

Your grandaughter-in-law will have a great life here. Jeff ps .... the square root of nothing ..... but a few hours ago there our lights flickered and then went off ... followed by a large explosion close by and it all went black. Several villages lost their power. Luckily I am stocked with power stations and got our broadband back on and we streamed to an ipad. We have loads of rechargeable lights which gave a slightly romantic air to our blackout. Contingency plans seems to silly until you are sitting in the dark and get up and promptly stub your toe.

And I guess for the saddest of completeness - not just Elsie - but three kids so far, and several more at risks plus some adults.

Thanks. We live in bewildering times. No one here can make sense of this. Jeff

Good Afternoon Coolers, I read this in today’s Times and thought I’d share it. It will be of interest to anyone fortunate enough to have visited Ludwig’s Bavarian castles and was in awe of them. He never saw his finest as it was completed years after his death speculatively drowned in order to stop his country’s bankruptcy. But that will never now be resolved. These are some documents that shed light on his achievements and also suggest that he is/was under appreciated. I hope you enjoy. Jeff Tech that brought ‘Mad’ King Ludwig’s fairytale castles to life. https://www.thetimes.com/article/4826ff6b-49c1-4800-951b-5b1e2a8579c6?shareToken=2a366d14aefe1b5f362ee54c4a19b8b1

It might be that the other post was incorrect. On balance it might be unlikely that you’ll win this one on the basis of current rules. 300 days is extraordinary and part of me is envious! You need to consider whether spending on a further 50 days is worth the possible but not guaranteed free 7 days. Bestest, Jeff