Tothesunset

Shh. It was stolen from Buckingham Palace and now the King's Cross.

Don't, whatever you do, Google "BBC at the pool"!

Oh no! I left my beer mug on the barbecue. Now it's a burnt stein

Apparently they've just found part of a composer's skeleton at a London railway station. It's a Mahler bone.

As one woman who considered herself not a racist said at dinner one night: "I don't have a problem with black people at all. But would you want your daughter to marry one?" I suppose it's inevitable that among 900 older people there will be some that can't see their own prejudices. Just ignore them.

They are good dogs. The black one is now 8 1/2 and he is beginning to slow down. The fox red is 4 1/2 and she's the more spiky of the two. It's funny when we go somewhere new to them - the little one always looks to the older one and follows his lead. Thankfully, we can take them anywhere and they don't embarrass us.

When it's nearly dinnertime and they're trying the Vulcan mind meld on both of us:

We have a hut for each season: four shacks. Are we done with the composer puns yet? We could make a list. I suppose without the puns this thread would unRavel.

Our dog's always filthy. He's a messy 'un.

It takes us 60 minutes to buy our groceries. We call it shopping hour.

She really was exceptional. Brasil should be proud of her achievement.

No. Monthly subscription. It's handy, though because you can Bluetooth it to a sound system. Or in the car. Or even on a motorcycle if it has a sound system (which mine does not).

Spotify. Problem solved

That's autocorrect for you!

So probably the greatest gymnast of all time, wealthy, deeply intelligent and drop dead gorgeous. Not much going for her really....

Simon Biles! What a phenomenon.

Our two plus our son's waiting for their tuna-filled Kongs:

Galen Rupp won a silver for the USA in the 10, 000m at the London Olympics 2012.

Last August we had return economy flights from London to the Maldives. 12 hrs overnight. Never again. Ever. (5x reward flights. If son and his wife and daughter hadn't been with us we'd have used BC but weren't going to pay the silly prices BA wanted. We love our family - but not that much!)

Yet SS book flights for arrival on departure day. I'm sure seasoned travellers are aware of the dangers so you would think the cruise line would factor this in to the itinerary. Or have contingencies in the event of part of the package failing. Surely it's not up to the customer to advise the cruise line. If the line chooses to book an itinerary which is disrupted by a late flight (they can't pretend it never happens) I would hope they would properly accommodate the customer when the plan fails. I don't understand how the line can just shrug and say "tough" in the OP's case. And I don't understand how it can be excused.

I think you misunderstand. It was not the passengers' choice to arrive on the day of the cruise - it was the flight SS arranged as part of the D2D booking. An honourable company would have ensured its customers were properly looked after when the flight that SS arranged was delayed. At least that's what would have happened when Silversea was a company, not a punchline.

A company that cares about its "esteemed" guests would move heaven and earth to ensure the comfort of its guests in extraordinary circumstances. That used to be Silversea. A company that cares only about its bottom line and pays only lip service to customer care is behaving somewhat cynically. Are we still pretending SS exists other than as a branding exercise?

I think that ship has sailed.

Bit harsh:

Shall we have a picture of dogs for no good reason? OK: (The one that's impersonating a teddy bear is our son's.)