Snow Hill

Having never been to the US either on a cruise why do you need to clear customs and immigration if you are not planning to get off ship at that port?

Woken up this morning to a light dusting of snow and -2C currently. Looks a dry day ahead, so may venture out to finish insulation in greenhouse and put new fleece covering over winter cabbages after the storm last week damaged covering, new stronger fleece arrive yesterday.

Managed to get out in the garden yesterday, well the greenhouse where it was a balmy 12C, with outdoor temp around 7C, managed to clear out much of the accumulated rubbish from the last 6 months, old sees packets, plant labels, plant pots that I had stuck under the staging, upset a few spiders by removing them. Wiped down framework on one side and put up insulation, with a plant to finish it today. So much for plans, it’s been raining with a little sleet most of the day, temperature around 4 in the greenhouse with a wind chill temp of -2C outside. Hopefully tomorrow will be drier and I can finish off what I started yesterday. Instead I have been looking through land holiday sites and cruise sites (both riviera and sea) to see what we can find for later this year.

That applies usually to PAYG phones, those on monthly or annual contacts for phones or sim only won’t be cancelled.

My OH is coeliac and in the10 years since she as diagnosed we have never had any issues with food in any of the restaurants on the ships we have been on. Assuming nothin has changed the meals are prepared and cooked a separate kitchen with separate pans and utensils. She even had gluten free biscuits in the cabin, we didn’t have to ask they just were there. The only issue is the buffet as you can’t guarantee that passengers won’t have cross contaminated dishes, however when we have asked a waiter for a gluten free dish, in most cases they have been able to provide one from the kitchens.

As Tracksuits and the like are already ruled out of Smart/Evening Casual it is no more likely that it is now for people dress like that.

Hopefully one day they will drop the whole farce altogether and just have smart casual as evening option, after we are on holiday not attending an awards function.

Morning, 1C here and overcast, snow flurries forecast for this evening. I took the car in for its first service this morning, glad of heated seats and steering wheel this morning. Local primary school not back until tomorrow so not too much of a problem revering off drive this morning. I will start planning the vegetable garden this week, deciding what to grow and where, spring cabbage crop coming on well, Cauliflower not so well, think I will invest in cloche tunnel to give some additional protection from the cold.

The grounding had started to revoked around the world, then last Friday when a door blew out on an Alaska Airways 737 Max leading to rapid decompression and an emergency landing, all 737 Maxs are ground in the Us, with airlines in Turkey and Central America also grounding 737 Max aircraft. This could be a further setback for 737s returning to service and complicate leasing arrangements.

An evening meal out with a former work colleague of my wife’s last night, they are have finalised their move to France and leave on Tuesday to start their new life there with their 2 children. We wished them well and will pop into see them when we are in France later this year. She has a French mother and her husband's grandfather was Spanish, so they have used those connections to make the move. Both have got jobs in France that they will commence in February so we hope everything goes well for them. We had hoped to retire to France, but unfortunately that wasn’t possible in the end.

I think we have moved on somewhat since the Victorian era, I quite like the “No Black Tie Black Tie Night” look as I find ties to constraining I own very few now, I gave most of mine to a local charity shop. 😬

It’s been a much more pleasant day, no rain for starters, some sunny spells but quite chilly. We took down the Christmas Decorations inside the house, have left the lights up outside for a couple more days or until batteries run out. Community page has been full of armchair flood experts saying what they would do to stop the flooding ranging from taking around 3m out of the river bed, clearly not thought of consequences of doing that to building a 2m wall along the edge of the river. Don’t you just love these armchair experts, not only are they experts on floods, but some of the same names are experts on repairing roads, bus services, bin collections, and multiple other things.

It has been raining non stop here since 7am, lots of standing water around as drains unable to cope with volume of water quick enough, not designed for these volumes. We have friends in the a Ironbridge Gorge where the flood barriers are in place and a peak of 5.9m is expected on Thursday as the water in the Severn is topped up by the heavy rain in Wales over the last few days, fortunately they are on higher ground and not effected, would need to rise by about 30m for them to be directly affected. Hopefully the barriers will hold out as they have before. Unfortunately those on the south bank of the river have no such protection as no solid ground to erect barriers. The forecast for the rest of the week is much drier, hopefully those under flood warning will get some respite by the weekend.

We have enjoyed the 4 episodes, now with additional Disney funding, the effects are outstanding. In fact the only terrestrial programs we have watched over Christmas have been on the BBC.

I believe they change the recipe for the crème eggs after Cadbury’s were taken over, I find them much to sweet now, if we have one it’s often the Galaxy equivalent. At Christmas had a box of Lindt Lindor Milk Truffles, trying to limit myself to one a day. 😂 Not yet started the mixed box of Green & Blacks Chocolate or the Gingery Orange Toblerone, plus we have 2 boxes of Heroes for sharing with visitors.

Use the same system as you do in cars when seatbelt not fastened or insurance companies may decide if you are injured as a result of not using seatbelt then you won’t be covered or get get reduced compensation under insurance for any injuries.

I found the article I read a few months back on the rise in CAT over the last 40 years, appears to be an increase of 55% over the North Atlantic and US, and it continues to rise as the earth warms up. I wonder how long it will be before wearing of seatbelts whilst seated is mandatory. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2377658-turbulence-on-flights-is-getting-worse-because-of-climate-change/

Damp and breezy here this morning around 10C at the moment, wind has picked up in the last hour, due for gusts up to 45 mph around midday plus yet more rain. Not really “going for a walk” weather so probably get to do some of those jobs saved for wet winters day, if I can remember what those jobs were! Watched the behind the scenes program on the Coronation Yesr last night, fascinating watching a jeweller effectively dismantling the Crowns in the Crown Jewels in order to alter them for the King and Queen to wear.

We have had a nice so far, start per last Friday with a meal out with my son and his girlfriend, caught on their travels this year, with their trips to Japan, Northern Italy and Turkey. We entered the restaurant at 7, left. 10:30, excellent meal and company. Christmas Eve we had visits from my daughter and other son & 2 grandchildren, a interesting 3 hours, especially when my daughter & daughter in law strayed in the world of teaching, both are Primary school teachers, and the pressure they both under in their jobs and the lack of respect their profession is getting. My grandson lost his first tooth last week and was eager to show me the gap! We had a quiet evening, we watched Toy Story 4 without grandchildren present and we both enjoyed the film, followed by the Christmas edition of Beyond Paradise, which featured op one of our favourite groups Bellowhead at the end, we have seen them 3 times over the last 10 years. Christmas Day, we had Roast Chicken, sprouts, parsnips & roast potatoes, the latter cooked in the air fryer with butter we reckoned the best roast potatoes we have ever had, washed down with an excellent German white wine, followed by the King’s broadcast and Christmas pud with Brandy Sauce. We then sat down to watch A Haunting in Venice adapted from an Agatha Christie book, a very dark Poroit film. Then an evening of BBC programmes 2 well recorded the other Call the Midwife was watched live. Looking at terrestrial channels the BBC seem to have the best options. Boxing Day a quite visit to the sales…..online and then lunch, then to decide what to watch this evening.

One is Miller & Carter as looks very much like the meal I had there a few weeks ago, this No 2 must be The Glasshouse

Merry Christmas everyone. This is very weird Victorian Christmas Card. 😂

According to reports the Eu Entry Exit System is going live in October 2024, Simon Calder has indicated the date of Sunday 6 October 2024, this will to apply to Airports and Ports from that date, no indication what effect it will have for Cruise passengers. https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/eu-ees-border-launch-2024-date-b2467028.html Indications are that ETIAS will go live 6 months later.

Nipped into M&S food to pick up some GF Items, the main store is relatively quiet, the food part is a bit busier. We decided to get some sprouts as well as the farm shop hadn’t got any this morning and mine in the garden a very late. Option of prepared sprouts with bacon & maple syrup, looking at pack sprouts looked unappealing, a suspect there was only one rasher of bacon chopped up and as for maple syrup where was it? These were £3.75 or get a bag of sprouts for 65p and add your own bacon and maple syrup, for much less. The words “rip off” come to mind. The parsnips were £4 ready prepared, we got 4 large ones for 45p at the local farm shop this morning, we can prepare them ourselves.

If they accept the exemption certificate without question, I would invoice P&O for the £30.