D&N

When I was young it was the Home Service and the Light Program. I think The Clitheroe Kid was Sunday afternoons. I was expected to keep quiet during Alistair Cooke's Letter From America. Radio 4 was apparently launched in 1967. In more recent times she was bedridden and we would visit and she would be moaning about cricket and being expected to listen to programs on FM or DAB. But her wanting to listen to radio wasn't a bad thing as we didn't really share the same opinions on anything so it saved us getting into arguments.

Not a sport I follow. My mother hated it. She wasn't remotely interested in participating in sports or structured exercise. But the real issue was that when there was a test on, the BBC would replace all her beloved Radio 4 programs with cricket!

We'll see how they look when I try them with tux and alongside my wife's red gown, which won't be before October as they're being delivered to friends to bring over with them. When I looked up the MCC tie, which I hadn't seen before, I realised that I might also be mistaken for a patriotic German or Belgian as well! 😀 They are certainly a bit garish but I think they are closest to theme that I've come across, and the supplier does have lots of more understated products.

It's not the sort of wine I would buy by the bottle, perfectly acceptable for refreshment (along with a much greater volume of water) when we're up dancing for 3 or 4 hours. VIVINO feedback only rates the 2015 & 2016 vintages due to lack of comments on the others, but the 2015 edges it: https://www.vivino.com/FR/fr/la-croix-bordeaux-vermentino-sauvignon-blanc/w/1948567?year=2015 But if you prefer it young and fresh I would check what vintage they are serving before ordering.

They're effectively wines that are sold here as non vintage. We buy similar in 3L & 5L boxes. They are surprisingly robust and will be drinkable for many years provided they are stored properly. We certainly had all the Cunard wines last year but I can't remember the vintages that were served. I don't think they were particularly recent. The one I can confirm is the Grenache/Syrah/Mourvèdre; a friend had arranged a cabin gift of one, which we brought home since we were on drinks package. It was the 2017 vintage in June 2022 and shows 2018 in that list. They are all effectively glugging wines, fine for refreshment. Edit: You can't copy/paste because the PDF is secured.

We're having a few days "canicule" (heatwave) just now, where temperatures never drop below 20C at any time of day. Indoors isn't too bad as there is a breeze off the sea. My wife returned from her walk and informed that a small cruise ship was anchored off Antibes. Marine Traffic are showing EUROPA 2 there today. Transponder programming must be mixed up between the ship and a tender. It appears to have been in the marina part of Port Vauban and may have mounted the quay at the customs post 🤣 I'm sure some of you, such as @bluemarble may find the past track mildly amusing.

Do you have some examples of what you mean?

Not sure the latest one is there or not. There was an update last August to the one I photographed: https://www.cunard.com/content/dam/cunard/my-voyage/pdfs/qm/qm_wine_list_aug_2022a.pdf

I did think about keeping this to myself, however since the supplier was good enough to re-order an out of stock pattern of tie at my request, and also agreed to order bow ties and pocket squares in the same pattern, it's only fair that I make their availability known to others that might be interested. It's a UK company called TIESPLANET.COM https://www.tiesplanet.com/ I have spoken to the folk there a couple of times and had order delivered to a Scottish address before a wedding we attended in April. The products were of decent quality for the price. I only requested pre-tied bow ties, there are no self tie versions of this pattern. I believe they've recently stopped delivery to Europe due to Royal Mail problems but deliver to USA, Australia and New Zealand as well as UK. Here are links to the sample pics:

There is merit in booking everything through Cunard from the UK as the whole lot should be covered by ABTA. However the prices I've seen Cunard quote for New York were not close to being competitive. I agree with "lissie". Look for deals that require no upfront payment and can be cancelled without fee 24 or 48 hours before stay on booking.com or similar. Your risk is then limited to the period after you start to travel.

And today's sunrise. My usual view; I thought the sky looked particularly interesting this morning.

This was a sunset in Bay of Biscay, on Sunday July 7th or 14th 1996 from Langan's Brasserie on P&O Ferries Pride of Bilbao. Excuse the quality, it's a scan of a not very good 35mm print.

I did say, what we buy here. Hypermarkets and many supermarkets have instore bakeries that produce scores of different breads. Some of the small independent artisan bakeries are wonderful. One of our favourites has this list: https://www.facebook.com/368459773652819/photos/pb.100063476623209.-2207520000./923589248139866/?type=3&locale=fr_FR And we particularly like their "Sportif": https://www.facebook.com/368459773652819/photos/pb.100063476623209.-2207520000./715295478969245/?type=3&locale=fr_FR

We're in the minority camp that prefer smaller servings. We rarely plate more than 300 grams for our main course and we don't want meat or fish to account for more than half of that. We also have bread, fruit and ice cream with that, plus cheese a few days a week. We generally found the servings to be about right, and all our meat, fish and poultry was of decent quality and cooked to our liking. We did make it quite clear to waiters that we didn't want huge servings and would order something else if we were still hungry The dauphinoise potatoes were the biggest disappointment, dry and industrial. What we make here is swimming in cream. Needless to say we don't make it often, perhaps Cunard's is the healthy version! The bread rolls are also a bit boring compared to the variety of breads we buy here.

Firstly a Gala Evening simply requires a dinner suit or lounge suit including a suitable shirt and tie, and shoes. You could wear a white dinner jacket to any of them. I'm not sure how authentic it would be if you wanted to follow a Roaring 20s theme, or whether participants at a Venetian Ball would have worn one. Personally I think black has a more formal look to it, although I did see a couple of guys wearing very smart slate grey dinner suits. I tend to wear my cream dinner jacket on nights that are not officially gala nights. We usually dress beyond the minimum advised code on non gala nights.

Have a great voyage! Best to run an Ookla speed test early in the voyage and check it mentions "Starlink" under detailed result. If it says "Equinix" it's probably not been changed although the hardware was seen being installed. A test run on the recent Med cruise after the installation was still showing Equinix.

Good to hear. Much Scottish Salmon these days has a pale pink flesh and is raised in vast net cages. They may have cleaned up their act, but for years these had a bad reputation for sea lice and antibiotics being added to the feed. Have found Foreman and their retail site. Will give them a call. We get smoked Pacific here easily, but need to bring fresh from UK as there's only a couple of chains of freezer shops here that stock it. We've tried both and they didn't match up to the stuff from Waitrose or M&S/Ocado.

We try and avoid the stuff unless it's line caught. And that's very rare. We only buy Pacific Salmon, and rarely order in a restaurant as it's likely to be from Scottish or Norwegian farms.

For UK bookings it's normally charged to onboard account. I believe many US deals include that and other perks. You need to check your contract including any reference to Terms & Conditions. The levels vary between Britannia & Grills. Best to read that section of website.

Looks Very tasty . You should be down the sea front at Cagnes-sur-Mer on a Sunday morning selling your work! 🤣

Gratuities, now I think titled something like service charge, are charged per person per day to your onboard account. There is no obligation to give anything else. That question often leads to lengthy debate. Tipping cultures vary in different countries. As Brits living in France, we felt the sums levied were a bit low in comparison with what we would tip if we went out for 3 meals a day and stayed at a nice hotel. Those from US might be used to tipping far more. It's a matter of personal choice, we tipped nominal sums to those we felt made the most impact on our enjoyment of the trip. A table neighbour planned to tip the cabin stewardess handsomely because he felt guilty about his wife not removing makeup before bed, requiring changing of linen daily!

We're used to making our own. I'm up about 7am and go to Pavilion and do all my news, banking, social media stuff on phone. We go to breakfast about 8am (take all our meals in dining room). Short period to digest that, change then gym, walk or swim. Change, shower, rinse gym-wear and off to elevenses. Change, quick look at shops (Radley bags might be 25% off one day of trip). Lunch. Possibly have an hours nap or wander around. Coffee/tea/hot chocolate between 3 and 4 pm. Back to cabin prepare for evening. From 6 pm take photos/get pro photos taken, then go for aperitifs. Dinner. Queens Room for dancing G32 for dancing Nightcap Bed about midnight. Didn't get to a lecture or show last time. Hope to schedule better next time to take in all the dance lessons. Will miss out on zumba & line dancing though.

My wife had several hundred titles on her e-reader. She read as usual on the flights to and from Heathrow. She had no time to use it on 14 days of a 2 way crossing.

It would be if you were using as intended. For the pouch you need to fold the brightly coloured bits over on each other. Therefore you don't fold again or the other details are completely hidden. I should probably have explained that in #34 And of course that's for the pouches we have. I suppose you could have much smaller pouches and not have all the info visible both sides. And just to edit a third time here's a pic of one side. The reverse being similar but with name, phone and booking ref details.

If you fold as instructed printed to fit A4 paper they will be 3" wide. If you fold all the end bits that are designed for stapling under and fold over so you just have the ticket detail double sided the length is 4¼". The Amazon pouches we bought could take 3¼" wide and almost 6" long.