Tothesunset

Oooh. Not good.

We make the donation by getting them to debit our onboard account. No temptation for sticky fingers.

They saw you coming. So will everyone else when you're wearing that jacket!

What an excellent account of your voyage. Keep the instalments coming!

It's the free of charge Silversea inoculation program. All part of the service.

Rather less than joint relief cream and denture fixative, I expect.

My wife just informed me that she thinks vacation sex is the best. Not the sort of postcard I'd hoped to receive.

Respiratory Syncytial Virus: https://www.cdc.gov/rsv/index.html#:~:text=Respiratory syncytial (sin-SISH-,severe RSV and need hospitalization.

If you're paying I'll take any of them.

Just one?

We know exactly how much - 20%.

This is focusing on travel. In fact the very point is about travelling to somewhere that certain people would be potentially open to criminal proceedings were they to visit the place. There are plenty of posts about the attractions or otherwise of many destinations, how visitors support the economy, provide jobs and so forth. Equally political. If you can seperate travel from politics, enjoy your visits to N Korea, Russia etc.

Spoilsport.

I've no problem with people needing the facilities but can they really not last without comestibles for 3 hrs? Especially before and after the eating-fest that is Saga? Mind you, judging by the appearance of the average adult these days, going 20 minutes without a pie would be a challenge!

The downside of sharing transport is that when you make the pit stop you have to accept the whim of the other party. For example, we would rather just get to the ship or get home. It's a 3.5 hour journey - surely even the most voracious can forgo a face-full of motorway services fare for that length of time. Well, apparently not! Maybe it's being ex-military, or maybe I'm just impatient but, for goodness sakes, let's just get there!

We live about 180 miles from Dover and Southampton. On the 2 occasions we have sailed Saga the transport has picked us up around 0900. Stop on the way and at docks around 1300-1330.

While we were at the shop collecting our watches we had a good look at what was available. That would be nothing! Rolexes are such a fashion statement that, in the UK at least, you just can't wander in off the street to buy one. Only to order with no firm delivery date. However, they had several watches for display and I have to say that we thought some of them were vile - massive clunky things encrusted with diamonds and other embellishments of questionable taste. Having said that I came within an inch of ordering a Submariner before common sense prevailed. And OH very nearly ordered a steel and gold ladies watch with a girly pink dial. A quick punch to the temple disabused her of that notion.

A lot. But £1800? Mmmm...

As something totally unrelated to anything that has gone before: OH and I treated ourselves to a new watch each in 1986 - the year our 1st-born came along. At the time mine cost £750 and hers £550. Both are Rolex Datejust with the simple steel cases and jubilee bracelets. So? So, we have recently had them serviced after maybe 10 years since the last time they were done. Apparently, once 35-years-old or more they are classed as vintage. This means that they have to be fettled at a central Rolex service dept, or even have to be sent back to Switzerland if they need substantial restoration. Gulp! Luckily we are 50 miles from a service dept that could do ours (including new hands, new bracelets, sapphire glass, crown, O-rings and stuff) because they carry the parts for "vintage" Rolexes (Rolices?). The cost? £1800. EACH! OK, so they look like new and will see us out but, really, one thousand eight hundred of our British pounds? And new ones start around 8 grand! So what is the moral of this tale? Well, there isn't one really. I just needed to get it off my chest.

Did you visit Donegal City? The main square is triangular and called The Diamond. Only in Ireland...

Why "Irish Bar"? In Galway shouldn't it just say "Bar"?

Do have a walk round Galway town centre. It's small and easily navigable with some good little shops. And in that typically Irish way, if you get chatting in the shops the time will fly by! God, we do love the craic, so we do.

To echo Alithecat - if you have good leather shoes DO NOT let them "polish" them. (But I'm one of those dwindling band of wearers that polish their own shoes properly.)

I thought I was being kindly giving up my seat on the bus for a woman. Now I've lost my job as the driver.

An allergy is a specific immunological reaction, or set of reactions, to an allergen manifesting from the mild (rhinitis, urticarial rash) through to the life-threatening - the justly dreaded anaphylaxis. There is no difference in terminology related to the physiological events - I'm sure American, Indian, Australian etc drs wouldn't dream of belittling allergy by using the term except where it specifically applies - although I agree that the term allergy is widely misused in social rather than medical discussion. Using the term "real allergies" pejoritively (and note my first para in the quoted post) neither diminishes nor affects the simple fact that ambushing the term to include intolerances, delicacies and mere dislikes is medically wrong. It is an important distinction because the clinical management and treatment of allergic reactions is based on preventing the immunological overreaction characterised at its most severe in anaphylaxis. Whether someone likes this approach or not is totally irrelevant to the immutable and scientifically demonstrable process that occurs in response to an allergen. Intolerances and other physiological conditions separate from allergy need a different approach.