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

[brian1]

57 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

I'm hopeless on new fiction - never seem to get the time - but as you like Trollope, how about some of the other classics like these:

 

https://www.goodreads.com/author/similar/20524.Anthony_Trollope

 

I'd add Hugh Walpole and George Orwell for a bit of extra variety.  Added bonus if you use the KIndle - most of the authors have been dead for more than 70 years, the books are out of copyright, and they're free!

I read the original Dracula free on my Kindle.It was  hard work reading in Victorian English,lol.

Edited October 18, 2023 by brian1

[kalos]

Morning , 9.c and calm (possibly before the storm)

 

I like reading books, "How to wake up refreshed  "  that was a eye opener  "

My latest is "removing super glue from your hands"  finding this one hard to put down.😉

 

Hope you all have a good day 🙂

[Beckett]

Good Morning Everyone

 

I hope you are all well. It's 12 degrees and very windy here this morning with a few hours of heavy rain expected from late afternoon. Storm Babet is on her way.

 

It's been a very busy couple of weeks for me: I look after my daughter's puppy during the week and he came down with a dreadful stomach bug thing. Long story short he's been in hospital for 5 days and although still very weak he came home yesterday looking very skinny and with shaved legs where he's had cannulas etc. He's still having investigations on a daily basis and back today for more bloods and a steroid injection. My own dear little Ted senses the pup's not well and has been very sweet with him.

 

On a happier note it was my eldest granddaughter's 18th and a big party was held to celebrate. It was huge fun and I surprised myself by enjoying it so much - me not being a party person! It was lovely to see old friends (mums and dads of the birthday girl's friends) but us oldies by silent agreement all decided it was time to call it a night when the music got too loud to talk - sound familiar?

 

I'm reading a P D James at the moment - A Certain Justice - and highly recommend it as a book to get your teeth into. Every December I re-read an old Rosamund Pilcher, Winter Solstice. It's a lovely read and describes a snow covered Winter in Scotland so well that you feel you're there - in front of a 

rip-roaring log fire while snow falls outside. 

 

Have a good day everyone. Be well and be safe. Best wishes. Jane xxxx

[purplesea]

Another hot day here, 23c. I didn’t sleep well last night as the temp didn't drop last night.

I'm all packed and ready to go to the airport for our flight home this afternoon😪 I hope our journey home has less hassle than outward journey.

[lincslady]

I love that Rosamund Pilcher too, Jane, and read that and some of her others when feeling down, which was quite a lot recently.  To be recommended to take people's minds off all the horror and sadness of the present world situation.  Ditto Richard Osman, a combination of detective story and insightful and funny dialogue among the characters.

 

I always have a look on here fairly early in the day - I don't know about the rest of you, but news about family and travels and food and cooking etc. is a good start to get me going after breakfast.  Thank you all.

 

 

[bobstheboy]

I read crime novels, well I would, but get annoyed when the author gets procedures wrong, sloppy research. My real passion is historical novels set between 1100 and 1700. My history teacher would be astounded because I hated history at school, I blame the boring teaching methods.

[Snow Hill]

A cloudy & overcast morning here 9C, showers expected later.

 

I am going through a non-fiction phase at the moment, just finished A Promised Land by Barack Obama, a weighty book, now reading Powers and Thrones a History of the Middle Ages by Dan Jones, then Michel Barnier’s book to follow. Then it will be back to the fiction with Ken Follett’s The Evening and The Morning, with 2 books my wife has been reading by Kate Mosse, The Burning Chambers and The City of Tears, the latter 2 set in Carcassonne, one of my favourite parts of France.

 

All of the books above have one thing in common, they are a long read and quite weighty. 

[Snow Hill]

If you like crime and historical novels, then have you read C J Sansom’s  Shardlake books set in the Tudor period, there are 7 in the series to date.

 

https://pages.panmacmillan.com/c-j-sansom/

 

 

Edited October 18, 2023 by Snow Hill

[Beckett]

5 minutes ago, lincslady said:

I love that Rosamund Pilcher too, Jane, and read that and some of her others when feeling down, which was quite a lot recently.  To be recommended to take people's minds off all the horror and sadness of the present world situation.  Ditto Richard Osman, a combination of detective story and insightful and funny dialogue among the characters.

 

I always have a look on here fairly early in the day - I don't know about the rest of you, but news about family and travels and food and cooking etc. is a good start to get me going after breakfast.  Thank you all.

 

 

Good Morning Lincslady. I was so happy to read your post in that you are also a re-reader of Rosamund Pilcher. I have all her books and they are well- thumbed, well-loved and treasured. I wonder if you've also read the Penny Vincenzi trilogy The Spoils of Time - individually entitled No Angel, Something Dangerous, and Into Temptation. This trilogy is totally addictive and, like Richard Osman, a balm against today's hideous happenings. Jane xxx

[pete14]

I read a lot of ‘Scandi crime fiction’. My favourite is still Henning Mankell who not only wrote the Wallander books and also others, many rooted in Africa, that are really good. 

[Beckett]

6 minutes ago, Snow Hill said:

If you like crime and historical novels, then have you read C J Sansom’s  Shardlake books set in the Tudor period, there are 7 in the series to date.

 

https://pages.panmacmillan.com/c-j-sansom/

 

 

Thanks for the recommendation Snow Hill. These books sound right up my street! Murder, history and Tudor times - luvverly. Jane xx

[davecttr]

Frustrating day yesterday. I waited in all day for a UPS delivery of items ordered Monday for express delivery, nothing arrived but tracking gave a clue to the cause of the shambles.

 

I live in Gillingham, Kent with a ME postcode and tracking revealed the parcel was being re-routed to the correct address, why? There is another Gillingham in Dorset with a SP postcode. They had sent it to either the Southampton or Bristol  distribution centres and they work overnight. The parcel arrived back in London? at 4am this morning so another  wait.

 

I think I will claim a delivery charge refund.

[zap99]

53 minutes ago, Beckett said:

Good Morning Lincslady. I was so happy to read your post in that you are also a re-reader of Rosamund Pilcher. I have all her books and they are well- thumbed, well-loved and treasured. I wonder if you've also read the Penny Vincenzi trilogy The Spoils of Time - individually entitled No Angel, Something Dangerous, and Into Temptation. This trilogy is totally addictive and, like Richard Osman, a balm against today's hideous happenings. Jane xxx

I have got, probably all the Agatha Christy books. DW said ' All these old books, you have probably read them all a good few times. Can they go down the charity shop?.

 '....Nooooo.

[bobstheboy]

6 minutes ago, zap99 said:

I have got, probably all the Agatha Christy books. DW said ' All these old books, you have probably read them all a good few times. Can they go down the charity shop?.

 '....Nooooo.

Joan Hickman was a wonderful Agatha Christie as is Julia McKenzie, I still watch them if their is boring tv on.

 

Agatha Christie must have had a brilliant intellect.

 

[Adawn47]

16 hours ago, Eglesbrech said:

I only tend to have them in December for the same reason. I also load them with brandy butter so they are a massive amount of calories.

 

And  I make BRANDY butter,  not brandy BUTTER.

I also put a piece of marzipan in some of the mince pies too for the marzipan addicts.

Namely me😋

Avril

[mrsgoggins]

1 minute ago, Adawn47 said:

I also put a piece of marzipan in some of the mince pies too for the marzipan addicts.

Namely me😋

Avril

Me too Avril, and what a good idea 👍.  Marzipan is something I always make from scratch with just a bit of brandy added.  As a near non-drinker my Christmas cakes get a good slug of brandy one way or another 😁

[Adawn47]

16 hours ago, Josy1953 said:

I used to make the mincemeat from a Delia Smith recipe but I now buy it.  Last year we had Sainsbury's Maple and Pecan mincemeat which I hope they will have again this year.

I've used Delia's mincemeat and christmas pudding recipe for years. It's become a custom now for Christmas. 

Avril

[Josy1953]

Good morning everyone.  A lovely  autumn morning here.  I went out for my first walk since Saturday.  I am clear of covid and it's unpleasant side effects now but I have decided that I am going to be wearing my masks whenever I  go out, I had got into the habit of only wearing them when I went inside shops etc so I think that I probably caught it when I stopped to speak to someone when I was dog walking.

I found that the current version affected me far worse than the previous version, my walk today was only just over 1.5 miles but I am scattered. 

[lindyloo22]

Dog walking on the beach this morning, drizzling with rain and very windy temp reading 14c but wind makes it feel colder going to have a lazy day till I have to take him out again later this afternoon.

[Harry Peterson]

40 minutes ago, Adawn47 said:

I also put a piece of marzipan in some of the mince pies too for the marzipan addicts.

Namely me😋

Avril

Good one, Avril. Suggestion duly passed to chef. Her tip comes from the WI, and it works for us. It’s to put the home made mincemeat into the pastry frozen. Keeps the flavour and moistness of the mincemeat, while still allowing a properly cooked pastry.

[Caullkhead]

Less windy today, but raining. Put the heating on 17 this morning for the first time as it’s starting to damp. The mincemeat is cooking in the slow cooker ended up using the veg suet, found some extra in the cupboard to make up the weight as the well known brand at the extortionate price I picked up is less that 1/2lb now. The cake is cooking in the oven hopefully it’ll be to Siegfried Farnham's liking! Have added walnuts as well as almonds to Delia’s recipe and pecans to the mincemeat, love nuts which is why I make my own shop bought don’t seem to contain them and I’m always disappointed. 

[Caullkhead]

1 hour ago, davecttr said:

Frustrating day yesterday. I waited in all day for a UPS delivery of items ordered Monday for express delivery, nothing arrived but tracking gave a clue to the cause of the shambles.

 

I live in Gillingham, Kent with a ME postcode and tracking revealed the parcel was being re-routed to the correct address, why? There is another Gillingham in Dorset with a SP postcode. They had sent it to either the Southampton or Bristol  distribution centres and they work overnight. The parcel arrived back in London? at 4am this morning so another  wait.

 

I think I will claim a delivery charge refund.

My grandparents lived in Gilliingham Dorset for a bit! 

[Caullkhead]

58 minutes ago, Adawn47 said:

I also put a piece of marzipan in some of the mince pies too for the marzipan addicts.

Namely me😋

Avril

Me too! 

[grapau27]

57 minutes ago, Adawn47 said:

I also put a piece of marzipan in some of the mince pies too for the marzipan addicts.

Namely me😋

Avril

Marzipan is a favourite of mine too Avril.

[Eddie99]

It’s looking like being a nasty old afternoon.  It’s been spitting rain all morning but not enough to keep us from getting to the market or getting the dog out.  
Strong winds and heavy rain expected