P&O Cruisers - What are things like where YOU are?

[Harry Peterson]

1 minute ago, Josy1953 said:

 

I believe that there are long delays here too but money doesn't seem to be an issue for the youngsters that we know, bank of mum and dad seems to be the answer.

Fair point. We paid for our children. And their tuition fees, living costs etc. But we’ve always got on well with our children, and still do. The relationship I had with my parents was a little more fractious! 

[Adawn47]

1 hour ago, zap99 said:

We are driving down from North Devon. Rain All the way. We just stopped at Costa. The sun has come out and we had 8 beans. Result.

Only 8 beans?? That's a bit mean. I hope you had plenty of toast with them☺️

Avril

[Adawn47]

1 hour ago, Harry Peterson said:

 

I’m out of touch!  I thought there were still long delays in getting the theory and practical tests. And the money?

 

Our daughter failed her first test at 17 and we dropped it after that because of the potential impact on A levels.  Our son sailed through a few weeks after his 17th birthday, but then didn’t drive again - or need to - for close on 20 years! That was a baptism of fire, because you couldn’t get any refresher lessons at that point because of Covid.

 

I was about 20 before I could afford lessons. Just 12, in Birmingham when I was a student, and failure wasn’t an option. No more money!

My grandson was 38 when he passed his driving test after 21 years as a very accomplished motorbike rider. He failed twice and his examiner told him that quite often long time ex bikers have a problem adjusting from motorbike to manual car. He took his 3rd test in an automatic and passed, no problem.

Avril

Edited July 10, 2023 by Adawn47

[Harry Peterson]

2 minutes ago, Adawn47 said:

My grandson was 38 when he passed his driving test after 21 years as a very accomplished motorbike rider. He failed twice and his examiner told him that quite often long time ex bikers have a problem adjusting from motorbike to manual car. He took his 3rd test in an automatic and passed.

Avril

How’s the garden, Avril, and particularly the rose and the veg?

[zap99]

3 minutes ago, Adawn47 said:

My grandson was 38 when he passed his driving test after 21 years as a very accomplished motorbike rider. He failed twice and his examiner told him that quite often long time ex bikers have a problem adjusting from motorbike to manual car. He took his 3rd test in an automatic and passed.

Avril

When I was a mere child, I took driving lessons in a car just after I passed my motorbike test. My very old BSM instructor said. You may find it better to use the steering wheel. Leaning a car around corners doesn't work too well......Sir.

[purplesea]

1 hour ago, Ardennais said:

Very common around here as they can’t wait to drive. They book their theory for the week after their 17th and then book a test straight away. Of course the pandemic affected the waiting lists, but it’s back to normal now. The school car park is full of cars belonging to the upper sixth! 

It's like that down here, as the buses only run on the main roads if they run. 

I waited for three quarters of an hour for a bus into St Ives the other day and my return journey over half an hour. I knew I hadn't missed the bus as it goes down the road, then turns round and comes back up. When it did turn up, there were two of them. Making the old addage 'if you wait long enough two come along', true!

[P&O SUE]

4 hours ago, brian1 said:

And it inspired the Alexei Sale big hit,"Hey John, got a new motor".

That song was out when I first met John, he’d got a new car too 😆😆

[P&O SUE]

Afternoon all, a good time was had by all yesterday for my Dad’s birthday celebration. I didn’t sleep much the night before as my Dad was a bit off colour for a couple of days, luckily he rallied yesterday and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. My grandson has really taken to my sister, it must be the ex teacher in her!

 

Slept much better last night and woke early. The weather forecast isn’t good for the next two days so managed to get a wash on and hanging outside by 7am! Went to work and we were keeping up with the phones well, steady for a Monday THEN the internet went off! Our work is useless for that - 11-30 it went off and they sent us all home to work at 12.40! The poor two girls working from home today had a lot to do! As I finish at 1pm no more work for me! Yes I could have worked extra but I did that last time and got no thanks. Now I’m chilling in the garden, it’s really warm.

[brian1]

1 hour ago, Adawn47 said:

My grandson was 38 when he passed his driving test after 21 years as a very accomplished motorbike rider. He failed twice and his examiner told him that quite often long time ex bikers have a problem adjusting from motorbike to manual car. He took his 3rd test in an automatic and passed, no problem.

Avril

Yeah,it must be hard to transition to 4 wheels sis,bro.

[pete14]

3 hours ago, Adawn47 said:

Only 8 beans?? That's a bit mean. I hope you had plenty of toast with them☺️

Avril

Not at the price they charge. 

[grapau27]

5 hours ago, Jennizor said:

We are in 12426, we were in 12430 last time but I decided to upgrade a bit for Ian’s 70th birthday on Sunday (well is a good excuse).

Happy belated birthday to your Ian @Jennizor.

[SarahHben]

5 hours ago, P&O SUE said:

Afternoon all, a good time was had by all yesterday for my Dad’s birthday celebration. I didn’t sleep much the night before as my Dad was a bit off colour for a couple of days, luckily he rallied yesterday and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. My grandson has really taken to my sister, it must be the ex teacher in her!

 

Slept much better last night and woke early. The weather forecast isn’t good for the next two days so managed to get a wash on and hanging outside by 7am! Went to work and we were keeping up with the phones well, steady for a Monday THEN the internet went off! Our work is useless for that - 11-30 it went off and they sent us all home to work at 12.40! The poor two girls working from home today had a lot to do! As I finish at 1pm no more work for me! Yes I could have worked extra but I did that last time and got no thanks. Now I’m chilling in the garden, it’s really warm.

Glad you had a good time! Is your Grandson off to school in September?

 

My son took the day off work today and treated me to lunch in a pancake restaurant in Kensington, London, very nice, it was like a pizza but pancake. Then we walked and walked and walked, Kensington Gardens plus the Italian Gardens, Hyde Park, Harrods, Piccadilly, Fortnum's, Green Park, St James's Park, an ice cream break then back to the station and home. Exhausted now.

 

3 and a half weeks until our cruise so I need to do as much walking as possible 😏 

[Beckett]

7 hours ago, Harry Peterson said:

Fair point. We paid for our children. And their tuition fees, living costs etc. But we’ve always got on well with our children, and still do. The relationship I had with my parents was a little more fractious! 

A late post from me Harry but further to your (much) earlier post about costs etc for young drivers, I thought you may be interested to know about our day spent securing insurance for my granddaughter. Thank you very much by the way for your kind comments regarding her success today.

 

The cost down here for lessons is £70 per hour - I don't know if that's a nationwide cost or not - and we worked out that she's spent circa £2k on said lessons with me filling in as a passenger/tutor once or twice a week for practice. She has her own car -  an oldish one, nothing posh. So after today's excitement after her passing, we all sat down (with her mum and dad) to sort out her full insurance. OMG! The best fully comp we could find with all the appropriate legal cover etc was £4.5k. That cost includes a Black Box tracker with a curfew on the hours she can drive without penalty.  As she's paid for everything herself up to date (another thing I'm proud of her for) it's time for us grown-ups to step in and take the hit - and what a hit it turned out to be! 

 

Have nice evening Harry - from your now much worse-off friend! Jane xx

 

 

[Ardennais]

8 hours ago, Harry Peterson said:

 

I’m out of touch!  I thought there were still long delays in getting the theory and practical tests. And the money?

 

Our daughter failed her first test at 17 and we dropped it after that because of the potential impact on A levels.  Our son sailed through a few weeks after his 17th birthday, but then didn’t drive again - or need to - for close on 20 years! That was a baptism of fire, because you couldn’t get any refresher lessons at that point because of Covid.

 

I was about 20 before I could afford lessons. Just 12, in Birmingham when I was a student, and failure wasn’t an option. No more money!

My 3 had about 10 lessons each and I took them out a lot in the car during the week. They all passed first time within about 12 weeks of their 17th. To be honest, a lot of the rural youngsters have been driving on farms for quite a while before their 17th and only need a handful of lessons. Public transport is very patchy, but a lot of us live miles from the nearest bus stop so makes no difference! 

One thing though, I really wish mine had taken up the offer to do Pass Plus. The local driving instructor used to take pairs of youngsters who had recently passed for a full day to Telford so that they could experience the motorway and traffic! I thought that was a good idea but mine didn’t get round to it at the time. It would have been for me too! 
 

 

[Harry Peterson]

9 minutes ago, Beckett said:

A late post from me Harry but further to your (much) earlier post about costs etc for young drivers, I thought you may be interested to know about our day spent securing insurance for my granddaughter. Thank you very much by the way for your kind comments regarding her success today.

 

The cost down here for lessons is £70 per hour - I don't know if that's a nationwide cost or not - and we worked out that she's spent circa £2k on said lessons with me filling in as a passenger/tutor once or twice a week for practice. She has her own car -  an oldish one, nothing posh. So after today's excitement after her passing, we all sat down (with her mum and dad) to sort out her full insurance. OMG! The best fully comp we could find with all the appropriate legal cover etc was £4.5k. That cost includes a Black Box tracker with a curfew on the hours she can drive without penalty.  As she's paid for everything herself up to date (another thing I'm proud of her for) it's time for us grown-ups to step in and take the hit - and what a hit it turned out to be! 

 

Have nice evening Harry - from your now much worse-off friend! Jane xx

 

 

Hell's teeth, Jane, those figures are shocking! She's done extremely well to have achieved what she has, and that includes having such a supportive family.

 

She's very clever - and very lucky!

 

Our 'little' granddaughter started school for the first time today. At 12! Just an induction week, but she's been home educated until now.  She decided she'd like to go to secondary school,  and it went every bit as well as I thought it would.  Very confident and extremely socialised.  Almost as if she'd been to a public school.  But with maybe some very different views on certain matters unmentionable here......

[yorkshirephil]

21 minutes ago, Beckett said:

The best fully comp we could find with all the appropriate legal cover etc was £4.5k. That cost includes a Black Box tracker with a curfew on the hours she can drive without penalty.  As she's paid for everything herself up to date (another thing I'm proud of her for) it's time for us grown-ups to step in and take the hit - and what a hit it turned out to be! 

 

Have nice evening Harry - from your now much worse-off friend! Jane xx

 

 

That is scandalous, I assume you have considered her being added to mum and dads insurance until she gets a bit older and has built up her no-claims as that usually works out cheaper?

[mrsgoggins]

5 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

 

 

Our 'little' granddaughter started school for the first time today. At 12! Just an induction week, but she's been home educated until now.  She decided she'd like to go to secondary school,  and it went every bit as well as I thought it would.  Very confident and extremely socialised.  Almost as if she'd been to a public school.  But with maybe some very different views on certain matters unmentionable here......

 

I'd just be guessing of course, that your young granddaughter might have similar views to my 13 year old grandson, whose own views (currently!) reflect those of his grandmother! 😁😁

[Ardennais]

24 minutes ago, Beckett said:

A late post from me Harry but further to your (much) earlier post about costs etc for young drivers, I thought you may be interested to know about our day spent securing insurance for my granddaughter. Thank you very much by the way for your kind comments regarding her success today.

 

The cost down here for lessons is £70 per hour - I don't know if that's a nationwide cost or not - and we worked out that she's spent circa £2k on said lessons with me filling in as a passenger/tutor once or twice a week for practice. She has her own car -  an oldish one, nothing posh. So after today's excitement after her passing, we all sat down (with her mum and dad) to sort out her full insurance. OMG! The best fully comp we could find with all the appropriate legal cover etc was £4.5k. That cost includes a Black Box tracker with a curfew on the hours she can drive without penalty.  As she's paid for everything herself up to date (another thing I'm proud of her for) it's time for us grown-ups to step in and take the hit - and what a hit it turned out to be! 

 

Have nice evening Harry - from your now much worse-off friend! Jane xx

 

 

Gosh, that’s very steep! You could get a 2 hr lesson for that price around here, and most lessons are 2 hrs because of the distance to the nearest test centre where the lessons take place.  That insurance quote is OTT. We also paid the insurance for the girls through Uni and even though it was in their own name, I can’t remember it being more than £500 each. My youngest is 24 and her fully comp insurance is now around £300 with Aviva Zero. 
 

It’s no wonder that some youngsters chance it without any insurance if they’re quoted those astronomical sums! 

[Beckett]

6 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

Hell's teeth, Jane, those figures are shocking! She's done extremely well to have achieved what she has, and that includes having such a supportive family.

 

She's very clever - and very lucky!

 

Our 'little' granddaughter started school for the first time today. At 12! Just an induction week, but she's been home educated until now.  She decided she'd like to go to secondary school,  and it went every bit as well as I thought it would.  Very confident and extremely socialised.  Almost as if she'd been to a public school.  But with maybe some very different views on certain matters unmentionable here......

Thanks Harry.

 

I think your 'little' granddaughter is extremely brave to go to school for the first time at 12. Good on her. I'm with you on the "matters unmentionable " and "different views" but she sounds as though she's a confident and well adjusted girl from her upbringing and homeschooling. I wish her well for her future. Jane xx

[Beckett]

11 minutes ago, yorkshirephil said:

That is scandalous, I assume you have considered her being added to mum and dads insurance until she gets a bit older and has built up her no-claims as that usually works out cheaper?

We have Phil - especially when we realised how, as you rightly say "scandalous" the cost would be. However, this was something we'd planned for and thought we'd bite the bullet now and get her up and running in her own name from day one. Well, I say planned for but we were all a bit shocked by the quotes we were getting. She's very aware of how lucky she is. Jane xx

[Beckett]

12 minutes ago, Ardennais said:

Gosh, that’s very steep! You could get a 2 hr lesson for that price around here, and most lessons are 2 hrs because of the distance to the nearest test centre where the lessons take place.  That insurance quote is OTT. We also paid the insurance for the girls through Uni and even though it was in their own name, I can’t remember it being more than £500 each. My youngest is 24 and her fully comp insurance is now around £300 with Aviva Zero. 
 

It’s no wonder that some youngsters chance it without any insurance if they’re quoted those astronomical sums! 

I totally agree Ardennais - about youngsters chancing to drive without insurance. The costs are prohibitive without support from family. Furthermore, if you live in a remote area, need to drive for work or just living purposes, having no insurance could be seen as a risk worth taking. Jane xx

[P&O SUE]

4 minutes ago, Beckett said:

We have Phil - especially when we realised how, as you rightly say "scandalous" the cost would be. However, this was something we'd planned for and thought we'd bite the bullet now and get her up and running in her own name from day one. Well, I say planned for but we were all a bit shocked by the quotes we were getting. She's very aware of how lucky she is. Jane xx

I can’t remember what the cost was for our son for the insurance ( he was 18/19 when he passed and is 33 now) but it was awful in our opinion ( not as much as your granddaughter though) so John  put our son’s car in his name and added our son as a named driver which made it more palatable. Poor John’s insurance went up as well! The insurance did go down each year after that though. Shocking really.

[Ardennais]

7 minutes ago, Beckett said:

We have Phil - especially when we realised how, as you rightly say "scandalous" the cost would be. However, this was something we'd planned for and thought we'd bite the bullet now and get her up and running in her own name from day one. Well, I say planned for but we were all a bit shocked by the quotes we were getting. She's very aware of how lucky she is. Jane xx

I’ve just had a look and Pass Plus Cymru (for youngsters between 17-25 who have passed their test in the past 12 months) only costs £20. There must be something similar in England and it appears that it helps reduce insurance costs. Only takes 6 hrs. 

[P&O SUE]

1 hour ago, SarahHben said:

Glad you had a good time! Is your Grandson off to school in September?

 

My son took the day off work today and treated me to lunch in a pancake restaurant in Kensington, London, very nice, it was like a pizza but pancake. Then we walked and walked and walked, Kensington Gardens plus the Italian Gardens, Hyde Park, Harrods, Piccadilly, Fortnum's, Green Park, St James's Park, an ice cream break then back to the station and home. Exhausted now.

 

3 and a half weeks until our cruise so I need to do as much walking as possible 😏 

He is indeed, can’t believe it! He went to see his classroom the other day and ‘the staff’ they don’t find out the exact teacher until nearer the time, the reception and nursery mix a lot so he knows the staff a bit. I shall miss seeing so much of him.
 

I’m  looking forward to hearing about your time on Ventura, I hope you have as much fun as we did!

[SarahHben]

11 minutes ago, P&O SUE said:

He is indeed, can’t believe it! He went to see his classroom the other day and ‘the staff’ they don’t find out the exact teacher until nearer the time, the reception and nursery mix a lot so he knows the staff a bit. I shall miss seeing so much of him.
 

I’m  looking forward to hearing about your time on Ventura, I hope you have as much fun as we did!

Those years have gone quickly! It's good that he knows the staff a bit, that will help him settle. We have another year before our Grandson goes to school and I think he'll be going to the school that I volunteer at.

 

Thanks, I'm getting very excited now, my sister and her family are travelling down to Southampton with us but they're going on Iona the same day that we go on Ventura.