Snow Hill

It’s mandatory to have emergency braking system on new cars built in the U.K., EU and Japan plus a number of other countries. It was an initiative put forward by the UN supported by the EU and Japan a few years ago.

As it’s a safety feature I don’t think it can be adjusted on most cars that have AEB or Collision sensing systems, it is possible to turn it off, not advisable, I turn mine off when I put my car in the car in the garage or it hits the brake when I am about 1m from the wall at the back. Mine only comes upon at low speeds if I get too close to the car in front, I just keep my distance to stop that happening.I find it very useful when reversing so car doesn’t hit the idiots who walk across the back of the car.

I tried to correct but system kept telling I couldn’t repost for some reason. 🤷‍♂️

My son drives a Polestar 2, gets around 350miles on a charge, there is an increasing number of charge points across the country, he should know he manages the installation of many of them. He uses the Zap App to plan his journey, in his three years of driving electric cars he has never run out of power. Most of the time his car is charged at home, much cheaper than on the road and much cheaper than filling a car with a tank of fuel. I would have probably gone electric when I changed my car in 2023, except the cost to install a connect to my garage which is remote from the house was extortionate, so went hybrid instead and I am extremely happy that I did. I purchased less fuel than I did in 2033 and drove more miles.

We have already been to National Railway Museum, we have a McArthur Glen outlet centre not far from where we live so not likely to visit the York one, Fountains Abbey is on out possible list, wouldn’t cost us anything as NT members, we went to Harrogate in 2022 when we were last in Yorkshire. The trip this time is to do things we didn’t manage then which includes York, we plan to visit Minster, Shambles, Clifford Tower and few other places, plus a trip to Castle Howard and if we have time Fountains Abbey.

Another cold morning currently 2C, but another dry day ahead with no rain forecast, need a few more of those days so we can see the flooding subside in the area, we went to Coalport yesterday and had lunch at a pub by the River Severn, the gardens were closed as partly under water, not that we would have sat there. This is a view of the Coalport Bridge yesterday with the river flowing high beneath it, glad to say the river gauge reports a drop of just over 1m in the last 12 hours from a peak of 4.8m yesterday afternoon to 3.68 this morning. Some respite for those living near the banks of the river and fearing an increase in levels.

I am biased, but I would put visiting Shropshire ahead of visiting Gloucester. Shropshire has been named as one of the top 10 places to visit in 2024. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-67883475

Finally worked out where the fur had come from on our front garden over Friday night. At first we had thought something had gad one of the stoats we have seen in the churchyard across the road or one of our local raptors had caught one. The fur was white and brown, the colour of the stoat, but also the colour of our Neighbour's cat. I saw her this evening and asked if her cat was OK as we had fur on the front hitch seemed to match. She said he had come in early Saturday morning and had blood on his body, she thought he has got caught on some whilst out on the hunt. It looks like he was in a fight with another cat, we hsve seen 2 or 3 feral cat’s recently which hiss at you if you approach them. Think he may have taken on one of these cats in a territorial fight, he is noted for chasing away other domestic cats, but with a feral one it may have fought back.

Our Park and Ride in Shrewsbury charges half price for bus pass holders

We used to opt for non-refundable rate, until we had to cancel a 2 night stay, finished up over £200 worse off, haven’t used that rate since. I dislike coach travel so not an option we would use.

We tend to use P&R where available as avoids extortionate parking charges in some cities and locations. Already identified that we will use the P&R from Monks Cross. The place we have chosen is just 20 mins drive from York and 10 mins from Castle Howard.

The Premier Inns in York wanted between £350 and £570 for 4 nights on the flex and semi flex rates, on top of that was £15 a day parking. We are paying just over £400 and that includes free parking!

I guess that would depend on whether Maltese insolvency law allows that scenario to occur.

Yes we found the hotels expensive, most seem to charge extra for car parking, one we looked at was £18 a day. So we decided to look outside of the city and have booked a cottage for 4 nights, we can do our own breakfast and eat out during the day or cook something when we get back.

A cold but sunny morning, currently 3C, most of early morning frost has gone. Have been watching the Test Match this morning with 20 year old England spinner Shoab Bashir confusing the Indian batters, he has 4 wickets so far and considering he only made his debut for Somerset last June he has come a long way in such a short time. Will be booking a 4 day break in Yorkshire this morning, have found a place just outside York, ideal location for visiting the city, Castle Howard and few other places.

As with any car short runs are drain on the battery especially if you have the heating/air conditioning on, radio etc. in my service report it indicated I had a period where my battery went below the recommended levels, checking back on the app I noticed it was a week or 2 where I only did a couple of 4 mile round trip journeys, the next week we went on a 190 mile trip which fully charged the 12v battery. I do at least one or 2 20+ round trips a week which keeps battery charged up. One thing I would like to see added is a battery level indicator for the 12v battery, you can see the level for the hybrid battery, but it’s the 12v that often gives the red light.

A cold but dry morning at 3C, next few days looking dry, so hopefully at some point I can get some gardening done with damaging the lawn, notice lots of weeds starting to appear, so long handle hoe will gone out to deal with them. The mild weather caused our rhubarb to shoot into growth, I pulled two substantial sticks yesterday which my wife plans to have for breakfast with yoghurt. With frosts forecast again I have taken the precaution of covering the crown with straw and the plant with a fleece covering as there are a number of new shoots showing. Took another crop of potatoes from clamp yesterday, we haven’t bought potatoes for months now, other than ones for baking. Amazing how many potatoes we got from just 3 containers.

Until I had my Yaris Cross, I or my wife had never owned an automatic, I must admit I was dubious about it, but after a year I can honestly say I won’t be going back to manual cars. My wife suffers from sciatica in her left leg which caused her pain when driving long distances, with automatic she has no problem driving long distances in her Yaris hybrid and is getting close to 70mpg on average, so is very happy with it. No our dealership isn’t Pinkstone, its a long standing Family run Shropshire based Dealership, W. R. Davies.

We both love our Toyotas, we have had them over a year now, I find my Yaris Cross Hybrid handles much better than my previous petrol Renaults, plus we have had excellent service from the Dealership.

For reference the P&O Policy re bringing alcohol on board at embarkation. https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/articles/po-cruises-alcohol-policy

The one in Madeira was the first cable car I ever went on, been a few others since Mt Teide in Tenerife, Aonach Mòr in Scotland, a couple in the alps, I was going on the one in London, but was closed due to “operational reasons”

Yes there should be vegan/vegeterian/gluten free options for the courses, but there should also be dare I say the standard version as well, P&O used to do that but seems someone somewhere decided to remove that option. My wife being coeliac I often eaten gluten free options at home it’s easier than preparing two completely separate meals. Yesterday we wnt out for a meal to a chain restaurant, we both had the same courses, but my wife had the gf version, they looked identical when the arrived apart from the little GF flag on hers, si if land based restaurants can cope day in day out, then P&O with all their resources should be able to do the same.

Neither had I, sounds like an Italian Footballer. 😂

A second ring on our induction hob ceased working properly last night, one went just after Christmas, so the urgency to replace has gone up a notch or two. Searching for a replacement Bosch Hob, there is no difference in price between retailers, cash back is between 3 & 6% on cashback sites. However during search my local electrical store website popped up, took a look out of curiosity to see if they had one and they did the model we want is in stock and £100 less and a free set of saucepans, so will pay them a visit tomorrow, they do installation as well.

It has been a pleasant day temperature reaching 14C, managed to cut back Princess of Wales Clematis close to the ground to alllow new growth to start and removed all the dead growth. Using new pruning saw I had a Christmas cut death branches from cotoneaster, neighbour has had dead logs for wood burner. Started ripping out lat autumn Ivy growth with a few to complete removal, neighbours gardener has offered to do it for me, might take up the offer as wood be a long job. Great to be back outside after being stuck inside for almost 2 weeks following my hospital incident. Under a Yellow Warning for rain tomorrow so might be a few days until I can repeat today’s gardening.