Harry Peterson

I think that hits the nail on the head, molecrochip.

Good point Kalos. That was what started off my replacement round to be perfectly honest. I was going to change the battery until I noticed the expiry date of the device itself!

Sounds good, Dave! Envious already!

This afternoon I replaced a smoke alarm because it had reached the end of its 10 year life. No big deal, maybe, but for me replacing or repairing anything without a major disaster or getting a professional like Brian in (well, maybe not Brian for a smoke alarm, apart from the water powered variety) is a very big deal! Took just a few minutes, the new one fitted perfectly without any rewiring, and incredibly direct replacements for the originals fitted when the house was built 20 years ago are still easily obtainable. So no rewiring work at all. One down, eight to go! They last ten years, which may well be longer than I will - a bit like buying your last car!

Wouldn’t bother us at all. We book suites for just three main reasons: space, location and access to the Epicurean for breakfast. Spin off benefits like free room service meals or snacks are a bonus, along with priority embarkation and disembarkation, but we make very little use of the butler. He does of course bring the canapés, but they’re pretty awful and I see even that’s gone now, apart from certain nights. I agree that they’re likely to go, along with all the other little touches that made P&O stand out a few years ago. A great shame for the butlers, nice people who usually enjoyed their jobs, but of no great consequence for us. Others however made have made greater use of them.

And they say that hardly anyone in Britain can name more than 5 fish! 😉

Thanks for your post. You may get a bit of flak for it from some quarters, but don't be put off - genuine feedback from a cruise is always useful, both to old and to new cruisers.

Probably, just as you say. I love words and where they come from, and I love dialects and local accents. Mine's totally anonymous, but I can do a passable Cornish from having lived there a while, and a very good Suffolk for the same reason. One of the funny things is that people go on (me too!) about importing Americanisms. Gotten is a word that gets a lot of objections - yet it originated here and went there with the Pilgrim Fathers. Still in use in some parts of the UK, not that long ago.

Still in use in some rural areas, Brian - maybe even in Italy! I thought victuals died out in Dickensian times, and maybe the Licensed Victuallers’ Association, but apparently not! Etymology: < Anglo-Norman and Old French vitaile, -aille (Old French also vitale , -alle , vittalle , victaille ) feminine < late Latin victuālia , neuter plural of post-classical Latin victuālis , < victus food, sustenance: compare Provençal vit(o)alha , Spanish vitualla , Portuguese vitualha , Italian vettovaglia . The variant Old French and modern French form victuaille has been assimilated to the Latin original, and a similar change in spelling has been made in English, while the pronunciation still represents the forms vittel , vittle .

Still more than happy with what’s on Freeview, carefully selected and recorded via a Humax PVR (hours and hours backed up), but with you entirely on the sound. Using the subtitles now when that happens, and it’s a big help. What does amaze me though is that using subtitles on British programmes is now incredibly common with young people. Why? Apparently it enables them to multitask, but I just don’t get that!

Jim Broadbent comes from just north of Lincoln and he can do one, but I’d struggle to find a clip! It’s now dying out fast, but here’s an example: As you get nearer the Norfolk border though, it merges with the very different Norfolk accent. Still prefer the Suffolk accent - but that’s dying out too. Essex once had a similar accent (my grandparents had it) but it’s mostly been swamped by a London mix now.

Several quite different accents/dialects in Lincolnshire though - big county. If you compare, say, Louth, with, say, Long Sutton, you'd not put the accents in the same county. Though having said that, they're all being mixed, merged and watered down now. Quite a shame really. Used to know an actor from Lincolnshire who could speak in a genuine mid-Lincs rural dialect and it was almost like a foreign language!

I hope that clears up quickly, Jane. I had something very similar recently after an extraction. It seemed to be taking ages to calm down, and then, suddenly a tiny piece of left behind tooth appeared and everything calmed down immediately. Hope yours goes the same way.

Thank you, Jane, I’ll tell her [adding of course, sotto voce, ‘in husbands’]. Harry

You're not far off the mark there! But hers are brighter and louder. Ever since she was at school (I've known her a very long time!) she's never dressed quite conventionally - there always has to be at least one stand-out item. Always determined never to dress like 'an old lady' as she put is, despite being in her 70s. Mind you, my Grandma was still talking about 'helping the old ladies' when she was in her 90s. Just an attitude of mind.

Absolutely! My wife complies absolutely with the rules, as do I, but she wears Doc Martens under a long dress because they're much more comfortable than traditional shoes. Nobody sees them, but she does enjoy the occasional 'protest'!

Couldn't agree more, and you certainly don't want to be using any kind of legal route, or even mentioning it, unless you hit an absolute brick wall. Politeness, courtesy and friendliness are the watchwords to resolving consumer issues, and most companies respond accordingly. The one that really stands out for us is Lakeland, who recently replaced a complete air fryer costing £129 that was damaged entirely because of our stupidity in using an inappropriate cleaning fluid. All we did was ask whether a chargeable repair was possible - the replacement was a shock! P&O are at the other end of the scale though, and if the softly softly approach doesn't work there are just two options. Put up with it or make it very plain indeed (if your case is sound) that you're ready, willing and able to use the small claims procedure. Not difficult, and they do settle well before that stage is reached. Others here will confirm that.

I don’t know why more people don’t take this route. It’s not difficult, and it is effective. Does require perseverance, though, and an understanding of the legal position, but there’s plenty of free online guidance on that. P&O have a habit of using non-disclosure agreements to settle claims, but so what if it achieves the goal.

I wholeheartedly agree. And there might even be a legal obligation under the unfair terms legislation: www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/unfair-terms-in-consumer-contracts-regulations-1999-aStUy9R7ArXw

The asparagus is ready- celebration time! Incredible, fresh from the garden - well worth the effort, and the three year wait. My wife’s efforts, that is. One of the very few things really worth the time and effort in growing your own.

It was a good price, and not even last minute either. Booked some months in advance, but after the Costa Concordia tragedy, which was I suspect the real reason for the price being so low. The two penthouse suites are very good, but as you say, the two inner suites are better value. They’re all very much in need of refurbishment now though.

That’s a pretty staggering price for one of the two aft penthouse suites (which cleverly makes them sound rather grander than they are!). 11 years ago, admittedly, but a 14 day Western Med cruise in one in 2012 cost us £1899 pp. And that was the full price - not the upgrade.

She’s excellent, whatever she does, as was her late husband Jack Rosenthal, who, funnily enough, was a key Coronation Street scriptwriter quite apart from the less lightweight stuff he did. She did some really funny monologues for Radio 4 fairly recently: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000cmzd Born in Hull too - a fine, but much maligned, city.

If you take a look at some of the old menus here, even on Cunard, you might actually think the food’s improved! https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/334809743530

Likewise on the Grove Family. It was about the first television programme I was ever aware of back in the 1950s. The first British TV soap according to this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grove_Family Nice to get that letter! How very kind of her. I watched Pat Phoenix open a new Tesco in Ipswich in the 60s, but that was about it. Used to watch Coronation Street and East Enders way back, along with Brookside, which was great in its early days under Phil Redmond, plus Angels because my wife was a nurse. We gave the whole lot up more or less overnight though years back when they started monopolising the schedules. Even given up on the Archers now, though the coercive control story they ran a while back was excellent and incredibly useful. On a related subject, Great Expectations has been slammed by most of the critics, but we must be the only ones who think it’s the most interesting adaptation yet. Looking forward to tonight’s episode.