Snow Hill

It has been a day of 2 halves overcast and rain this morning and sunny with a strong breeze, I quite warm in the sheltered spots. Problem with outside tap leaking when in use, our usual plumber has retired, so had to find a new one, finally found one who is coming on Friday to resolve the issue. The people we are renting the cottage off in Brittany sent us some pictures of the new heated pool and poolside dining area, not long now before we will be trying it out.

Awake early with stomach ache, we had meal out last night and dish I had was overrun with onions, a cup of peppermint tea has eased it off. Anyway it’s currently bright and sunny, with a temperature a chilly 9C 🥶

The volcanic gases are on the opposite side of the island from where the Ventura would dock, The who of the Canary Islands are on Wildfire alert so could be that

Well both granddaughters got the grades they needed so both off to University in September, one studying Engineering and the other Law. We are proud to say we have 2 very intelligent granddaughters.

Morning 18C with cloud and sunny intervals, rain this evening, so won’t need to get hose out today. Skip delivery day, finally getting round to removing the rubbish from the back of the garage, should have done it in the spring but the incessant rain prevented us from doing it. Will take our time intend to finish by Friday, will need to use circular saw to cut up some lengths of wood.

Three days until our granddaughters get their A Level results, we hope they get what they want to start them off on a journey in their respective chosen careers. 😦

Started off sunny now cloudy with claps of thunder in distance, had a few light showers but amounted to little. Currently 24C and quite humid, expected to hit 28C or more this afternoon. Audiology appointment this afternoon as tubes fitted 2 weeks ago appear to be too short and making it difficult to keep mould in place in one ear.

There is no law the requires you to accept cookies, once you reject it should if, coded properly, record that you have rejected cookies, except for those which are needed to make the site work. If you clear cache and cookies every time you quit the browser the website no longer knows you rejected them, it places a functional cookie on your PC/Tablet/Phone which it looks for at the start which would get deleted. I have not had the issue on my iPad, which automatically declines third party cookies unless you change that setting, Apple decided some years ago to decline 3 party cookies as party of the quest to improve privacy in their safari browser.

Two beetroot pulled for boiling also have green beans with our evening meal, a mix of 2 varieties, one just green, the other green with purple flecks, a new variety I have tried for first time.

Planning to pull a couple of beetroots from my raised bed tomorrow and boil them.

I suspect that will change at some point especially now EVs will start paying from April 2025. I used to drive a diesel when I drove 12,000 miles a year, but it worked out more expensive when I reduced annual mileage to 7,000, so switched to petrol, since January last year I drive a petrol hybrid which I average 62 mpg, longer journeys I am up in the mid 70s, my wife’s hybrid averages 77mpg. My last car averaged around 40 mpg, around 55 on a long journey, so fuel costs have dropped for us.

Euro7 comes in for new cars from 1 July 2025. https://www.cinch.co.uk/guides/ask-the-experts/euro-1-to-euro-7#

Went out for lunch today, I had the Ploughman’s Lunch

A wet morning here around 17 C, so not clearing the compost bin out today, needs doing as leachate drainage is blocked, not a job I am looking forward to. 😷 Watched the Athletics on Eurosport last night athlete Matt Hudson-Smith from my home town just missing out on a gold medal. We watched an exciting Women’s Pole Vault competition followed by the men’s discus in which Jamaican Discus thrower Roja Stona was the surprise winner and also broke the Olympic record, the non European winner since 1976.

Hopefully there will be a cruise exemption, but if they copy what the previous U.K. Government rule that Honduran Citizens need a visa to visit, then I fear there will be no cruise exemption for British Passport Holders.

Probable reason is because the U.K. requires Honduran citizens to obtain a visa to visit U.K. as from July last year, which was imposed with no notice. So unless the new government lift the visa requirement for Hondurans, U.K. visitors are for now going to need a visa to enter the country. The Honduran Government announced this mid July and gave a 4 week transition period which seems to match what the previous U.K. Government gave Honduras last year. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/introduction-of-visa-requirement-for-honduran-nationals-visiting-uk

Channel 4 is publicly owned as a not for profit corporation and receives no public funding. https://www.channel4.com/corporate/about-4/operating-responsibly/freedom-information/frequently-asked-questions# Part of the TV Licence fee also contributes towards Freeview and Freesat, and towards the UK broadband rollout, funding local TV channels and S4C, the Welsh language TV channel.

That’s because it’s a TV Licence Fee not a BBC Licence fee, the fee is for watch TV broadcasts be that terrestrial or Pay TV. The fee goes to the government out of which it gives a grant to the BBC, which amounts to around 65% of its income.

I like to see that, gives me an idea of what is coming, darn site better than back to back betting ads you get on sky sports channels. Commercial TV isn’t free, we are all paying for in when we buy anything as a small percentage of what we pay goes towards the companies marketing budget out of which come s the creation of the advert and paying commercial tv companies for the advertising slots, which can be eye watering amounts at peak times. The ads are one reason why we record programs on commercial channels and fast forward through the said ads, what is listed as an hour long program we can watch in 40 to 45 mins. A marketing man once told me that marketing companies tried to get the fast forward button banned on video recorders when they first appeared as they believed it would hit the businesses income. Guess it works a few years ago I could name adverts, today I have no idea who advertising what in the majority of cases.

I listen to our local radio station, Radio Shropshire, very useful during bad weather, the local commercial stations are poor imitations of what they once were. The BBC is the main TV station we watch for its excellent programming uninterrupted by inane adverts. We do have a cable TV subscription, mainly for the sport, movies and documentaries. In the car I tend to listen to Virgin Anthems channel which plays music from 70s and 80s otherwise it’s music I have loaded on my phone or the occasional podcast.

Not correct, the IOC awarded the rights from 2016 to 2024 to Warner Discovery TV & EBU for $1.45bn, they then licence packages of live events and highlights with restrictions to other broadcasters, including the BBC. The same has been done for the games both Summer and Winter from 2025 to 2032, it’s is believed the package offered to the BBC, who currently have sole rights to broadcasting the games in U.K, is an improvement on the 2024 package. I don’t think the licence payer would approve of the BBC using a third or more of its income on one event that is broadcast every four years.

Went to Currys yesterday get a new Amazon Fire Tablet as my OH 13 year old Kindle fire was on its last legs as battery only held charge for a couple of hours. We bought the tablet then had a wander around store as we were looking for a replacement induction hob as one of the rings has failed. We were admiring the very large TVs and the quality of picture compared to out 8 year old TV and as often happens a member of staff came and asked if were interested in a new TV, she was a Sony Rep who worked in Currys. We said we were not looking for a TV currently but we were happy to have a demo. Well the TV she demonstrated was light years better than our current set and after a quick return home to check the unit, we opted to buy it. So what turned out to be an exercise to spend some Currys vouchers, turned into an upgrade of our TV. Took me just over 2 hours to remove old set and install and setup new one. We watched some of the 100 on Sky so much clearer than the game I watched the other evening. We ended up watching the Day after Tomorrow after our evening meal, been a while since we last watched it and gave us food for thought afterwards which we hadn’t thought about the first time we saw it.

Amazon has 5 for £6.99, same ones that Boots sell.

Check the use by date on the box.

After yesterday’s charging error, I cut the hedge this morning whilst it was in the shade of my neighbours tree.Finished the job including clearing up just as the sun appeared over top of tree. Now around 26C and quite humid.