sgmn

I did years ago with a chicken, it was ok, never done again , not sure why

With my second, I was working full time up to two weeks before ( he came early, was due on 24th Dec). I did shifts (airline) and remember picking up my 2 year old at 2pm after an early shift and desperate for him to nap so I could, but he was growing out of naps by then or had one at his childminders. I had to take him for a walk, otherwise I would of fallen asleep with a lively two year loose in the house.

We always do. When my children were small it use to after my youngsters mid December birthday but now we're aiming for the 7th. It does seem to get earlier each year. A few houses in our road have their outdoor lights up already . I'm enjoying seeing everyone's fabulous trees

Agree, it's never made a difference to us, though we always tip for Diamond drinks (plus do the auto tips ). We're not USA based so no tipping mentality here, though we do try to follow the 'when in Rome rules' Hubby still talks about when he was waiting patiently in line at a bar to be served and the barman served the guy at the back of the queue, presumably because he tipped well (bribed). Doesn't sit well with our sense of fairness

If raising grats twice in two years and cutting service on top of sky high prices leads to more people refusing to pay the (optional) grats, then the rises seem self defeating. There will come a tipping point (no pun intended), when the rises are unsustainable because of more and more opting out.

Meant to say half pound a week (not in total )

Sorry to hear Len

That's what I feel about walking the dog. I read Dani's thread over morning coffee whilst Molly is waiting for her walk

It's £200-300 per month through Boots Chemist online over here. Think you have to do an online consultation first. Through the NHS (free) you would have to get a referral through your GP to a specialist weight management service. I don't know anyone who's done it so I don't know much about it. I would think you would have to have a very high BMI to qualify under NHS. I really strugle to lose even half pound when following a strict weight loss programme and I exercise quite a lot. So it's something I'm quite interested in. Will be interested to hear @brilloheadhow you get on with it. Typical diet for me is one weetabix with a little milk, berries and plain yoghurt for breakfast, home made veggie soup for lunch and a calorie counted homemade dinner in the evening. Maybe a couple of glasses of wine a week and a small sweet treat in the evening with my herb tea

Though its similar to when lounges or areas of the ship are closed for large groups. I remember one transatlantic when the VC lounge was closed every night for diamond happy hour between 4 and 8, just the time when hubby and I liked to go up there for pre dinner drinks and watch the sun set . As we were pre Diamond then, our favourite lounge was denied us every evening

Glad you had a good cruise. I've been looking at other lines (annoyed about being kicked out of crown lounge during HH. If we had stuck with RC we would be diamond plus now but there's always the thought that HH may be taken away from D+ too eventually 🤷‍♀️). What 'experience' did you book. We can't afford the suites but I get confused about the three different levels on MSC

Congrats on the fast mending of your new knee Greg and good wishes for a speedy resolution of your stomach issues

What a wonderful story, you're friend looks amazing. Many Happy Returns for her 100th. What a great granddaughter she has

I made the mistake of letting Gary go to our village butchers to order the Xmas turkey instead of getting one from the supermarket. He's ordered a huge one costing over £100 😳 AND I think number 1 son and family will be at his partners family so it will just be four of us plus baba

It's night time now so you can see there's nothing coming from the panels, but we're using from the grid. The little circles run along the lines in the direction of where the power is coming from. If its a sunny day we should go into the evening with enough stored in the battery to last all night, so the electricity used from the grid is not much. We've just bought an air fryer today. They're all the rage, apparently cooks very quickly and with hardly any power.

So frustrating, tried to book a short Asia cruise on RC and kept getting an error messsge. Gave up in the end, will try again tomorrow.

Sorry for your loss, our pets are so much part of the family

My first job at age 17 as a secretary was at ICL (International computers ltd). The computer room the operators worked in was massive, with floor to ceiling computers whirring away.

We had them installed earlier this year. We've got an app that tells us how much power is going from the solar panels to the battery and how much is used by the house from the battery or from the grid. And yes, Gary nags me to use the washer/dryer and dishwasher washer during the day when the solar panels are working.

@grapau27Graham, I believe you cruise P&O sometimes. Spotted this today. Seems an amazing price, though not sure what the weather will be like Nov/Dec or crossing Bay of Biscay

Sorry to hear about Joebob, a beautiful cat 🐈 Hope the root canal went well, some days you are glad to get to the end off ....

When he first booked the world cruise he said he was going to do a blog. He's got a great way with words with his trip reports and I was really looking forward to hearing about all the unusually ports.

Yesterday was our normal weekly grandson childcare day. Started off with music class, which our other grandson and his mum goes to too. Great fun. Absolutely pouring with rain so our normal park visit didn't happen. Later in the afternoon we had a walk in the woods 'going on a bear hunt'. Lots of mud and puddles to splash through Lovely day

I don't think there are any Lands End stores in UK but I buy on line quite a few things. Love their 'no tug' swimsuits and matching cover ups

I'm so so sorry to hear about your hairdressers employee. You're right, when it's personal it hits so much harder 😪