Snow Hill

The airport scanners can detect alcohol, but I don’t believe they can distinguish between types of alcohol,

Currently 13C with hazy sunshine, due to reach 21C this afternoon, I am making the most of it catching up on outside jobs, as the forecast for next week shows a return to cool and showery weather. Today’s line up is - Transplanting tomato seedlings, all 20 of them, some will be given to friends and family. - Clearing out cold frame and moving young geranium, lobelia and petunia plants into it, to prepare them for planting out later this month. - Put up small trellis to support a clematis - Restain small panel above garage door Hopefully I can get it all done.

Not sure how they will detect if you have spirits in you suitcase, security at Southampton is under the control of Associated British Ports, not P&O and as far as I am aware scanners can’t distinguish between a bottle wine and a bottle of spirits. I guess if the bottle was a distinctive shape they might.

Apparently Scottish whisky only accounts for 2% of that market, guess to 150% tariff on it has some effect.

As a a former trade Union lay officer for over 20 years, overtime bans were seen as an effective tool as many businesses relied on overtime working, certainly in the rail industry they do. If a driver for example goes off sick, then often another driver is asked to cover on an overtime basis, but with a ban in place then that doesn’t happen this leading to uncertainty on whether service will run or not. So if you are planning to go by train, then I would suggest you give yourself plenty of time to get there. As for seeing Elbow at the O2, very envious.

Is this the start of change in a policy of what alcohol you can bring onboard? From the accountants point of view only allowing alcohol purchased onboard to be drunk on board would maximise the profit from those sales, especially with the markup on the price of a single alcoholic drink and non alcoholic as well. To make the changes in one fell swoop would cause a bigger uproar no doubt, factor it in over couple of years then maybe different. So this year prohibit spirits, next year add wine to the list of prohibited items. At the same time raise the price of drinks packages and exclude certain drinks from said packages. The airlines have been doing it for sometime, what used to be included in the fare is now chargeable and you can’t go elsewhere whilst in transit. What next a charge for the number of cases you take onboard that would be a nice little earner from the accountants point of view. Let’s face it Cruise Lines are like any other business they are there to make a profit. Am I being too cynical about the accountants involvement in respect of this policy change?

Same estate has had numerous instances of theft of garden ornaments such as plant pots, one incident last week when a homeowner challenged a woman who had taken a plant pot from garden at 1:00 am and was threatened with a screwdriver, fortunately other neighbours heard the commotion and managed to detain her until the police arrived.

Last night there were thefts of 3 cars off the drives on a nearby new housing estate, clearly owners were up in arms about the thefts, quite rightly. Lots of suggestions how to prevent thefts, such as make sure doors are locked, security lighting, cctv, faraday bags, disklok for steering wheel etc. One glaring item was missing, put the car in the garage, all the shared cctv footage shows cars parked outside the garage, often a double garage, why not put car inside out of view, that’s where mine goes each night. I wonder how many have on their insurance “locked in a garage overnight” but actually leave it on the drive.

Depends where you live, a glass of wine in my local/pub restaurants is cheaper by around £1 on what P&O were charging before the latest increase.

Another day of warm sunshine, the 4th in a row, albeit we had some overnight showers at weekend. Have been sitting on patio this afternoon, had to put on my sun hat as sun was burning the top of my head where hair covering is thinner, temperature was 23C, the patio is south facing and sheltered. Have been trying to find some Trellis fixing kits, was offered kits fir metal trellis at 3 well known DIY stores, in the the end I have put together my own version using 10mm pipe inserts & long screws, much cheaper than the online offerings. So I will attempt to put the trellis up tomorrow as clematis needs support as it has grown rapidly in the last few days.

Looks like a Horse Chestnut, given the size when fully grown not really a tree for garden unless you have a very big garden.

I think it affected by sleep, I woke up about 5:15 am from a dream in which moles had invaded my garden. 😂 Glad to say this was not the case.

I remember my sister mentioning that, she was a midwife in the hospital and the last thing you would want is norovirus in a maternity ward.

I suspect people still attempt to and a number will no doubt succeed especially if packed in a suitcase. We have 2 sturdy bottle cases which we have used in the past to bring a bottle or 2 of Rioja back from Spain, put in suitcase as would not be able to carry it on thru security at the airport. Nothing to stop me using them to take alcohol onboard in one of those containers. Security at U.K. ports is a third party contracted to the port not the cruise line. Scanners cannot distinguish between a bottle of gin and a bottle of lemonade, so I can’t see any cruise line wanting to open ever suitcase which might or might not contain alcohol, not cost effective use of time. The restrictions on spirits wouldn’t affect us as we rarely drink them, but others will no doubt see it as a restriction of freedom to take a bottle on board for personal use in a cabin.

Not been a bad day again, with sunshine for most of the day and temperature reached 20C. Managed to get a lot of gardening jobs done, mowed and edged the lawn, hoed the borders, mulched around some perennials and bushes, deadheaded the last of the remaining daffodils and the tulip, removed lot more Ivy from the garden walls, prepared the remains stems for a dose of SBK stump killer. Started to cut back the Japanese Flowering Quince now the flowers have died back, it gone a little haywire in the last couple of years so cutting it right back to make it more of a flowering shrub rather than flowering branches on a bare central stems. Hopefully can get some more done tomorrow, but showers are forecast from mid morning will see if that changes overnight.

Maleth should not be allowed anywhere near P&O until they have settled every single claim made against them for flight delays etc made after last winters debacle.

Well at 5am it was raging 9n the way to the airport, but only took 50 mins as no traffic about, the same coming back. I was back home and in bed by 7:30, managed to get about another hours sleep, but woken up by postie ringing doorbell with a small packet that would go through letter box. Still overcast and damp at 10C due to remain the same much of the day except for a rise in temp to 13C this afternoon. Tomorrow looks better with some sunshine and warmer temperatures. A quiet morning, then on duty at stand for group I volunteer with. Happy Star Wars Day. May the fourth be with you.

A mixed day today rain this morning, the dry but overcast this afternoon and now it’s raining, I am beginning to wonder if I will ever get the list of outdoor jobs done, two of which involve painting. A poor nights sleep last night just about got 5 hours, early night tonight as I have to take someone to Birmingham airport at 5 am.

Not too bad a day weather wise, cool this morning with some sunny spells, I went to local timber merchants for 2 trellis panels at attach to the wall for Clematis plants to cling to, they said they would deliver mid afternoon which was excellent service at a reasonable cost. When I left the sun was out, but temperature was just 13C, went to Dobbies to get a couple of packet of seeds and look at some wall baskets which they advertised, by the time I left around 45 mins later temperature had read 18C, very muggy and darker clouds. I was expecting a thunderstorm as a Yellow Warning had been given, however one didn’t appear and the sun returned around 4pm and Yellow Warning was cancelled for this evening.

Looks like they just added balconies and windows to a stack of containers, perhaps designed by AI. 😂

Some sad news today the author of the Shardlake books, C J Sansom has passed away aged 71. Lovers of historical fiction will mourn his passing as was one the best writers of that genre. The mini series based on his books is due to start streaming on Disney+ on Wednesday.

Overcast here this morning around 8C, strong winds and showers forecast for this afternoon, so my volunteering shift will be spent mostly indoors. What we don’t need is more rain, we already have a few areas roped off due to mud.

Starring Victor Meldrew

I had a similar experience in York Minister 2 weeks ago, I got told off by a vlogger for walking across the area he was filming and having the temerity to speak to wife. He told me he was filming for his online channel and would have to redo the shot again. I said did he have permission from the Minister for commercial filming, he went quiet and moved off.

It’s 5C here feels like 1C and of course it’s raining again, has been midnight looking a security cameras. Doubt we will be going anywhere today we are not ones for wandering around shopping centres. My outdoor jobs are starting to mount up, but need dry weather for many of them, in the garage I have paint for the fence, clear stain for the decking, masonry paint for the walls of the garage and paint for the door Then there is a need for a skip for the pile of old wood, bricks etc behind the garage from various jobs done in last 6 months. I am hoping for a long dry warm spell in the next month.