P&O Cruisers - What are things like where YOU are?

[Jennizor]

Good news - I have managed to book the Limelight Club, Chefs Table and Sindhu for our Iona cruise two weeks today, the Olive Grove just says coming soon so I will watch out for that.

 

Bad news - the deer are back, tucking into my begonias and geraniums. Not touched my dahlias but I’m not holding my breath on that. It was a beautiful young red deer who managed to jump over our new fence that we thought would be too high for them. When it stops raining I will try again with tying foil strips round the top fence boards. 
 

Hope you all have a good weekend.

[kalos]

22 minutes ago, Jennizor said:

Bad news - the deer are back, tucking into my begonias and geraniums.

 

We have a neighbour who loved to buy bird food and throw it on the roof of a shared out house.

Trouble was the Pidgeon's would walk over to our side and crap down onto our wheelie bins.

He thought it was ok as he was only putting food on his side and he cant control where the 

birds crap .

One day out shopping ,we were in the Range and they were selling a heavy duty multi

coloured windmill , like you would stick on a sand castle .

Over a year ago now and the pigeons stopped coming and our bins remain clean .

Maybe the deer's will not like something that moves fastened to your fence and move on 

to another garden .

[Jennizor]

1 hour ago, kalos said:

 

We have a neighbour who loved to buy bird food and throw it on the roof of a shared out house.

Trouble was the Pidgeon's would walk over to our side and crap down onto our wheelie bins.

He thought it was ok as he was only putting food on his side and he cant control where the 

birds crap .

One day out shopping ,we were in the Range and they were selling a heavy duty multi

coloured windmill , like you would stick on a sand castle .

Over a year ago now and the pigeons stopped coming and our bins remain clean .

Maybe the deer's will not like something that moves fastened to your fence and move on 

to another garden .

That sounds like a good idea Kalos. I will have a look in our local Range next week. I am willing to try anything. The gardens either side of us do not have many flowers but further up there a couple that have some, I wont mention to them why I have a windmill!

[Harry Peterson]

Don’t suppose there’s anyone else in here currently weighing up the options on switching energy supplies to the Octopus Tracker tariff after all the invites went out earlier today?

[terrierjohn]

14 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

Don’t suppose there’s anyone else in here currently weighing up the options on switching energy supplies to the Octopus Tracker tariff after all the invites went out earlier today?

I keep reading about the benefits on the unofficial forum on the umentionable social media site. But without an electric vehicle I doubt that we could switch enough of our usage to off peak times to benefit from any of the various  tariffs they offer, and it would be just my luck for the wholesale price to suddenly increase if I did switch to the tracker.

[Harry Peterson]

36 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I keep reading about the benefits on the unofficial forum on the umentionable social media site. But without an electric vehicle I doubt that we could switch enough of our usage to off peak times to benefit from any of the various  tariffs they offer, and it would be just my luck for the wholesale price to suddenly increase if I did switch to the tracker.

No EV here either, so there wouldn't be any opportunity for switching usage.  I'm probably going to take a chance on it though because the wholesale rates Tracker's based on are currently so much lower than the cap, and have been for months.  Could take two weeks to switch away from Tracker again, so if rates do rocket again, taking you to the Tracker cap it could be very expensive for that period. 

 

"Tracker features Price Cap Protect, which caps the maximum daily price at 100p / kWh for electricity and 30p / kWh for gas – keep in mind that's a lot higher than the Ofgem Energy Price Cap."

[Josy1953]

We are back from our trip on Sky Princess and now need to find something for November / December.  

Loved the cruise but not the coach journey so we are going to revert to the car again for the next cruise.  We had used the coach once before and were very happy to book again with Eavesway but it was a totally different experience this time.  On the way out the coach arrived at Keele late so the driver decided to make up time by speeding,  I don't know what speed he was doing but I was worried that we might be involved in an accident, the coach was eventually pulled over by the police on the M6 and the driver was given a ticket.  On the way back the coach arrived late at the docks so we spent 20 minutes waiting outside because we got off the ship at the time that it was supposed to be there.  Some passengers were still not out when the coach did arrive and the driver had to ask Princess to put out a call for them so we were further delayed.  When we are in the car the journey is usually just over 3 hours but today it took over 4 hours.

[Presto2]

27 minutes ago, Josy1953 said:

We are back from our trip on Sky Princess and now need to find something for November / December.  

Loved the cruise but not the coach journey so we are going to revert to the car again for the next cruise.  We had used the coach once before and were very happy to book again with Eavesway but it was a totally different experience this time.  On the way out the coach arrived at Keele late so the driver decided to make up time by speeding,  I don't know what speed he was doing but I was worried that we might be involved in an accident, the coach was eventually pulled over by the police on the M6 and the driver was given a ticket.  On the way back the coach arrived late at the docks so we spent 20 minutes waiting outside because we got off the ship at the time that it was supposed to be there.  Some passengers were still not out when the coach did arrive and the driver had to ask Princess to put out a call for them so we were further delayed.  When we are in the car the journey is usually just over 3 hours but today it took over 4 hours.

Goodness - that's terrible re the speeding !!!!!!!

Have to say our coach transfers in April were fabulous with Ellison Coaches.

A shame when the transfers put a damper on your holiday.

Welcome home 😉

[grapau27]

A friend asked me if there are any venues on P&O that classical music was played.

I couldn't remember but I wonder if any of my good friends on here could enlighten me.

Many thanks.

Graham.

 

[Angel57]

9 minutes ago, grapau27 said:

A friend asked me if there are any venues on P&O that classical music was played.

I couldn't remember but I wonder if any of my good friends on here could enlighten me.

Many thanks.

Graham.

 

Sometimes there will be a classical pianist in the Playhouse on deck 8 on Aurora…….

[grapau27]

12 minutes ago, Angel57 said:

Sometimes there will be a classical pianist in the Playhouse on deck 8 on Aurora…….

Thank you Gill.

My friend has never sailed on P&O but she loves classical music.

Aurora was our first P&O cruise in 2004 and we are going back on her next year.

Graham x

[Josy1953]

51 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

Goodness - that's terrible re the speeding !!!!!!!

Have to say our coach transfers in April were fabulous with Ellison Coaches.

A shame when the transfers put a damper on your holiday.

Welcome home 😉

We enjoyed the cruise regardless of the coach journey.  We have travelled with Eavesway and Ellisons in the past and had great transfers with both.  I am a nervous passenger even when OH is driving but a speeding coach driver has the potential to cause a disaster.  OH said that I now have no reason to moan about his driving after seeing how bad some "professional" drivers are.  My sister said that I should let Eavesway know about their driver speeding because it is their reputation at risk. 

I blame Princess for having to wait outside for the coach this morning because they called our group colour to disembark saying that the coach had now arrived at the port when it clearly hadn't.

There were 5 ships in Southampton this morning so a lot of coaches.  I commented to OH that I can't imagine what it's like for the locals having this level of traffic regularly 

[Presto2]

3 minutes ago, Josy1953 said:

We enjoyed the cruise regardless of the coach journey.  We have travelled with Eavesway and Ellisons in the past and had great transfers with both.  I am a nervous passenger even when OH is driving but a speeding coach driver has the potential to cause a disaster.  OH said that I now have no reason to moan about his driving after seeing how bad some "professional" drivers are.  My sister said that I should let Eavesway know about their driver speeding because it is their reputation at risk. 

I blame Princess for having to wait outside for the coach this morning because they called our group colour to disembark saying that the coach had now arrived at the port when it clearly hadn't.

There were 5 ships in Southampton this morning so a lot of coaches.  I commented to OH that I can't imagine what it's like for the locals having this level of traffic regularly 

Am guessing Eavesway will be told... driver in a lot of trouble am guessing. Anyway glad you had a lovely time. If you are like us first night back we enjoy find and chips on a tray infront of the telly !!!

[Josy1953]

29 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

Am guessing Eavesway will be told... driver in a lot of trouble am guessing. Anyway glad you had a lovely time. If you are like us first night back we enjoy find and chips on a tray infront of the telly !!!

Fish and chips from Blue Ocean chippy in Weston Coyney Road is our go to when we get back from holiday, not the nearest chippy but the best.

A nice glass of pinot grigio is on the menu this evening while watching the TV.

[Purdey16]

Glad you had a lovely time on sky , you must of embarked when we got off on the 17th , push those driving memories out of your mind now , relax and enjoy your other half’s driving instead of coach travelling.

[Snow Hill]

5 hours ago, Josy1953 said:

We are back from our trip on Sky Princess and now need to find something for November / December.  

Loved the cruise but not the coach journey so we are going to revert to the car again for the next cruise.  We had used the coach once before and were very happy to book again with Eavesway but it was a totally different experience this time.  On the way out the coach arrived at Keele late so the driver decided to make up time by speeding,  I don't know what speed he was doing but I was worried that we might be involved in an accident, the coach was eventually pulled over by the police on the M6 and the driver was given a ticket.  On the way back the coach arrived late at the docks so we spent 20 minutes waiting outside because we got off the ship at the time that it was supposed to be there.  Some passengers were still not out when the coach did arrive and the driver had to ask Princess to put out a call for them so we were further delayed.  When we are in the car the journey is usually just over 3 hours but today it took over 4 hours.

His employer will be informed so likely he will also be disciplined and possible lose his job as they may see it as endangering passengers and other road users lives.

 

We have just returned from Edgbaston after watching England v Australia Women’s T20 match, Australia win off the penultimate ball. On the way back we saw probably about a dozen taxi drivers doing u-turns in the middle of the road to try and avoid the queues, almost 1 or 2 accidents due to these stupid manoeuvres. I have them on my dash cam, so may download the incidents and send them to the licence authority In Birmingham, many of these vehicles were marked as Uber. 

[Rupert2251]

13 hours ago, Josy1953 said:

We are back from our trip on Sky Princess and now need to find something for November / December.  

Loved the cruise but not the coach journey so we are going to revert to the car again for the next cruise.  We had used the coach once before and were very happy to book again with Eavesway but it was a totally different experience this time.  On the way out the coach arrived at Keele late so the driver decided to make up time by speeding,  I don't know what speed he was doing but I was worried that we might be involved in an accident, the coach was eventually pulled over by the police on the M6 and the driver was given a ticket.  On the way back the coach arrived late at the docks so we spent 20 minutes waiting outside because we got off the ship at the time that it was supposed to be there.  Some passengers were still not out when the coach did arrive and the driver had to ask Princess to put out a call for them so we were further delayed.  When we are in the car the journey is usually just over 3 hours but today it took over 4 hours.

Oh dear Josy, we are travelling with Eavesway from Keele in September, hope we don't get the same driver. We have never had any problems with them so hope we don't this time.

[Ilovemygarden]

On a different topic - I hope Eglesbrech is ok.   Fred has been getting a pretty bad press about the cruise she is on and no one has posted on the thread she started since Tuesday.   I’d think she’ll be home soon so hopefully she will give us an update.  

[Snow Hill]

10 hours ago, Snow Hill said:

His employer will be informed so likely he will also be disciplined and possible lose his job as they may see it as endangering passengers and other road users lives.

 

We have just returned from Edgbaston after watching England v Australia Women’s T20 match, Australia win off the penultimate ball. On the way back we saw probably about a dozen taxi drivers doing u-turns in the middle of the road to try and avoid the queues, almost 1 or 2 accidents due to these stupid manoeuvres. I have them on my dash cam, so may download the incidents and send them to the licence authority In Birmingham, many of these vehicles were marked as Uber. 

Just noticed that the Edgbaston bit was included in above post, it should have been a separate post, guess I should not post around midnight when I should really be in bed. 

[bobstheboy]

I had a look at the Octopus site and the Tracker plan has been withdrawn for new customers. I will have a decision to make when my fixed 2 year deal with Ovo finishes in September. I was very fortunate to fix then, a week later all the fixed deals were withdrawn. I know I will be paying at least double my current £100 pm for duel energy. Good while it lasted.

 

 

[P&O SUE]

On 6/30/2023 at 8:12 AM, terrierjohn said:

Has the BBC weather page been hacked  or are we really in for an arctic blast next week, with daytime temps no higher than 8 deg C?

I had a big shock when I saw that as we were planning a day out Saturday! Luckily we went anyway and although the sky was a bit moody at times it was lovely and warm.

[P&O SUE]

1 hour ago, Ilovemygarden said:

On a different topic - I hope Eglesbrech is ok.   Fred has been getting a pretty bad press about the cruise she is on and no one has posted on the thread she started since Tuesday.   I’d think she’ll be home soon so hopefully she will give us an update.  

What’s happened with Fred?

[P&O SUE]

So… yesterday we went to Pashley Manor Gardens, just over the border in Sussex. Never been there before and it’s not open every day. It was a lovely day with lovely food in their cafe with ingredients from their kitchen garden. We had a salad when we got there and after walking round shared a cream tea on the terrace.
There are also many sculptures in the garden and I was intrigued by one of Ann Boleyn that was by Philip Jackson. Here are a few pics 

 

 

[Ilovemygarden]

57 minutes ago, P&O SUE said:

What’s happened with Fred?

There seems to have been quite a substantial outbreak of the dreaded lurgy and today’s departure has been delayed for a “deep clean” - there are a couple of threads on the Fred Olsen board and evidently there were also complaints in the press.  Eglesbrech fell victim at the beginning of her cruise and was confined to their cabin. 

[Ilovemygarden]

46 minutes ago, P&O SUE said:

So… yesterday we went to Pashley Manor Gardens, just over the border in Sussex. Never been there before and it’s not open every day. It was a lovely day with lovely food in their cafe with ingredients from their kitchen garden. We had a salad when we got there and after walking round shared a cream tea on the terrace.
There are also many sculptures in the garden and I was intrigued by one of Ann Boleyn that was by Philip Jackson. Here are a few pics 

 

 

The gardens look lovely as do the scones.  Funny how we never take photos of a salad! 🤔