Harry Peterson

Curious - our devices did nothing, and neither did our daughter’s family’s in Yorkshire. Doubtless there’ll be an inquest into what went wrong.

Like you, we wanted to get to Rome from Civitavecchia, and I explored the various options, including the train. Reached the conclusion in the end though that it was just too risky. All it needed was a problem with the train or the line and then the likelihood of a missed departure and a whole heap of extra hassle and cost. We went for the ludicrously overpriced, by a factor of around 4, Rome on your own coach transfer in the end. Several hours in Rome and we walked several miles to cover all the main sights, spending a bit of time in the more interesting ones. I think it was around 13 miles altogether, but enjoyable in decent weather. In rain or extreme heat it would have been pretty unpleasant though. The old Roman city’s reasonably compact, so walking’s perfectly reasonable - and from our viewpoint infinitely more enjoyable than being stuck on a coach.

As a Tractor Boy, I wasn’t too bothered. At least, not for some years! Good food at a good price though, complete with unique floorshow. Always a good sign if cabbies eat there. I’d put it up there with Katz’s Deli in New York.

I’m not going to bang on about the high end restaurants we may, or may not, have dined at, but I will make special mention of the Regency Cafe in Pimlico. Way out there on its own, as featured in Layer Cake etc! Seriously though, it really isn’t in P&O’s interest to maintain the previously high standards of the MDR when all that’s going to do is reduce the numbers paying a supplement to eat elsewhere. Tricky balancing act for them.

“We had a lovely meal in Epicurean; never had a bad one in there.” Couldn’t agree more. My sentiments exactly, and I remember those dishes, along with the impeccable service, very well. One of the real high spots of P&O for us.

Amusing, though, that St George was born in what’s now Turkey, and never visited England!

Nope - found it online though. Good one! 😃

He was born in Monk Bretton, Avril, which is maybe even closer. My grandma drank her tea from a saucer - but only ever when she was trying to embarrass my mother in a cafe or restaurant. The rest of the time it was very definitely a coop, rather than a cap. And seeing that interpretation of the pronunciation reminds me that everything, absolutely everything, had to come from the Barnsley Co-op. With a dividend of half a crown in the pound.

Do look into the treatment centres, Graham. My local hospital had a 12 month waiting list but the treatment centre an hour and a half away did mine inside 6 weeks. It’s very much a production line, but the surgeons do nothing else and I was even able to choose the Consultant I wanted. Epidural, as you say, and wide awake during the entire procedure, but with some sedatives in the mix. Completely painless, as you’d expect, with just a vague awareness of what’s going on. Both cataracts also done quickly and successfully at a treatment centre. Usually rather further than the local hospital, but invariably a lot quicker.

My father was from Cudworth but went to school from 11 in Barnsley. He had a few local words, such as pikelet for what’s a crumpet in the south, tabs for ears, and a few others I can’t remember. All the thee and thou was removed at school I think, but I’m not sure that’s Barnsley anyway is it? My grandparents always said though that ‘Our lad’s not t’same since he moved down south’!

Sorry to hear that, Graham, though it’s rare to hear anyone with anything but positives for the surgery. What’s the likely wait, or will you be going private (please ignore that if it’s intrusive)? I only ask because one of the NHS Treatment Centres might prove a very good halfway house if that hasn’t already been suggested. I’ve never met anyone with anything but praise for the one I used, and I imagine they’re all much the same.

Charlie Williams? Certainly not Parkinson!

Reassuring, perhaps? Possibly then just one more chunk of internet misinformation. Trouble is, there’s so much of it now that it’s impossible to distinguish between fact and fiction. Particularly in the light of yesterday’s vast damages award against Murdoch’s Fox News for deliberate and damaging disinformation. Precisely why we’re so lucky to have an independent BBC, which actually fact checks news before it goes out.

Interesting news story today: Google’s AI has taught itself the Bengali language, even though it wasn’t asked to do so. “We discovered that with very few amounts of prompting in Bengali, it can now translate all of Bengali,” chief executive Sundar Pichai told CBS’s 60 Minutes. He says his top researchers don’t really know how it managed the feat, adding that “all of us in the field” refer to the whole system as a “black box” – something “you don’t fully understand”. Just me finding this distinctly worrying? Dave?

It's a very Marmite thing, Marmite.......

Just wow!

I’ll be interested in your feedback on that. Quick thinking on that deal! Have a really good cruise. 😀

I know my place.

This has recently appeared on a 'bargains' website which shall be nameless: 7 Night Norwegian Fjords Cruise for 4 People from Southampton- P&O Iona *Full Board* - 6th-13th May - £754 (£185.50pp) Says from £423pp, add 4 and it's £188.50pp. Amazing price, works out at £27pp/pn! Note that the 4 can be all adults or a mix of children & adults. It's the same price overall if just 2 or 3 go. I've not checked it out properly yet, but that's quite some price!

That's the one, Brian. It's all over the place now, including a lot of supermarket fish dishes. To be fair, it does depend very much on the source of supply, but you certainly don't want to be eating any that was sourced in the far east.

+1. Every bit as good, just as convenient, sometimes more so, and often considerably cheaper.

Nothing wrong with the occasional fish and chips, Brian! The Keighley van was almost certainly haddock - very much the standard in the north. A lot of people won't eat cod, because it's considered a dirty fish and contains worms. Pangasius (aka Basa) is getting more common and sometimes sold as haddock, fraudulently. Whether it's safe to eat depends very much on the source - the Pangasius my wife was given in a restaurant near Covent Garden made her so ill that she collapsed on the floor in Liberty not long afterwards. They owned up to the fact after a couple of emails and very kindly offered to pay all her medical bills!

Pretty standard fare in the south - as you say, though, far less so further north. We used to get it occasionally from Waitrose, along with Dover Sole as a treat, but we now get a weekly visit from a fish van selling really good fresh fish, including proper Grimsby smoked haddock (not the yellow stuff). As the guy running the smokery says - never eat yellow snow or yellow smoked haddock! They won’t touch cod anywhere near Grimsby either - they know it too well! Always, always haddock. With you entirely on the skate!

Almost certainly they’ll claim, rightly or wrongly, that the availability was there, but you missed it. It would be very difficult to prove otherwise, unless there’s an evidenced pattern, but there is legislation aimed at stopping bait and switch selling. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2008/1277/schedule/1/madeParagraphs 5 and 6 are relevant, but not easy to establish.

Exactly our experience. It’s a bit of a myth that orders have to go through the butler - it’s the cabin number that matters.