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

[Peanut006]

Having to do one of my dreaded things, looking at cars. I have a Motability car, I have had my current one for 5 years having been given a two year extension. I hate trailing round garages getting in and out of cars (which I can’t do easily anyway). Test driving a Cupra Ateca on Monday, they are bringing it to my house for me too, what fabulous service.

I hope it’s suitable then that’s the end of the car search

 

Michelle 

[zap99]

5 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

I live on a main road, have had multiple accidents outside or near my home in the 19 years I've lived here.  The road has houses on either side and is a former B road just upgraded to A for expediency the year after we moved in.  All the accidents bar 3 are "property accidents", ie no injuries or fatalities and as such don't exist.  

 

One of these traffic watch things was set up a number of years back and reports to police.  Other than telling us that 65% of drivers are in excess of 40mph in the 30mph zone it does absolutely no good.  As residents we've learned that what we call accidents aren't and the speeding is actually not a game changer, more the definition of what was a minor road as a major one causing the increase in collisions etc.  

 

Judging by the figures in these documents Wales hasn't much to worry about road accidents before they changed the 20mph.

 

However older drivers seem to be a problem everywhere along with motorbikes.  

 

https://www.brake.org.uk/get-involved/take-action/mybrake/knowledge-centre/uk-road-safety

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/reported-road-casualties-great-britain-provisional-results-2022/reported-road-casualties-great-britain-provisional-results-2022

 

It's for revenue. ULEZ in London ( coming to an area near you soon ). Cut pollution.  You can only polute if you pay £12.50 a day.

[yorkshirephil]

3 minutes ago, Megabear2 said:

 

 

However older drivers seem to be a problem everywhere along with motorbikes. 

 

Older drivers on bikes tend to be some of the worst. I have been a lifelong biker until a few years ago when both my hip and Mrs YP not caring to go off on the bike so much brought about the end of an era. The number of new age bikers most dealing with the mid life crisis by buying a super bike was growing exponentially. Every time I went to a bike meet another one had bit the dust. The one thing I learned very young and stuck with was the fact that every car driver was trying to kill you, I always rode with my lights on but that didn't always matter.

[kalos]

7 minutes ago, zap99 said:

When we want a takeaway we go and get it. We go to the supermarket to get our shopping . Folk complain about all those empty shops and the death of the high St, but have everything delivered by some van, or moped.

 Good point Zapp ,we are guilty of having the main shopping delivered but use our local supermarkets and shops. They say "use it or lose it"  and I suppose the same goes for the delivery vans and shops. We tend to avoid take away deliveries. Should we decide to have a chippy meal ,we order and pay online and always collect ,no waiting about .

Our town shot itself in the foot many years ago, with moving our top shops out of town centre 

and leaving little independent shops ,with high running costs and fewer customers as they were now shopping out of town .

It could be said that we also slept walked into the same thing with our banking ,as most now opt for online banking and lo and behold most of the banks are now closing for good in our towns .

If I need my own bank I have to go to the nearby city's that have one .

 

[Presto2]

21 minutes ago, zap99 said:

DW only has caffeine free drinks. On our checklist.

Tickets

Money

Passports

Teabags.

🤣

Am with her on this one. I don't drink anything with caffeine in and its a pain when it comes to soft drinks on the ships. The teabags are there but some horrible posh stuff that's like drinking something unmentionable. I need my Yorkshire Decaff bags 😀

[Megabear2]

1 minute ago, yorkshirephil said:

Older drivers on bikes tend to be some of the worst. I have been a lifelong biker until a few years ago when both my hip and Mrs YP not caring to go off on the bike so much brought about the end of an era. The number of new age bikers most dealing with the mid life crisis by buying a super bike was growing exponentially. Every time I went to a bike meet another one had bit the dust. The one thing I learned very young and stuck with was the fact that every car driver was trying to kill you, I always rode with my lights on but that didn't always matter.

I promise I never try to kill anyone.

 

On a serious note I have a friend who was an Essex traffic cop who had to be taken off duties after years of frequently attending the scenes of motorcycle accidents.  He flinches and ducks if a bike passes him on a road even though he hasn't done the job for 20 years.

[twotravellersLondon]

13 minutes ago, zap99 said:

When we want a takeaway we go and get it. We go to the supermarket to get our shopping . Folk complain about all those empty shops and the death of the high St, but have everything delivered by some van, or moped.

 

We think that many people, like ourselves, just don't have the opportunity to choose.

 

We've lived here for over 40 years. When we first came we would walk the half mile into "town" and do our grocery shopping and walk the half mile in the opposite direction to the local village" butcher, baker and greengrocer... no candlemaker we're afraid.

 

In the course of the last four decades, many of the grocery shops have closed because they've been relocated on "industrial" parks miles away and with no direct train/tram/bus service for us.The only real option is to go by car ( we're within the London Boundary... so both our runabouts have been forced off the road and scrapped). We now have to have groceries delivered.

 

We now have only one supermarket within walking distance which we visit and buy their fresh fish, meat and bakery stuff... but we're just not able to carry or drag a weeks's worth of provisions home or even to the nearest bus-stop.

 

We do have the odd "little-this" or "Whats-it -Express" but the prices are very expensive and what they offer is very limited. (A boiled, shelled egg with a leaf of rocket at £1.30 a pack... isn't going to keep the wolf from the door.)

 

Why's this happened? Local Authorities have been happy to sell off "out of town" land to big retailers  and give planning permission for these mega stores... without thinking about the consequences for the historic high streets. Result... lots of folk are left with very little choice.

 

 

 

 

[yorkshirephil]

1 minute ago, kalos said:

 Good point Zapp ,we are guilty of having the main shopping delivered but use our local supermarkets and shops. They say "use it or lose it"  and I suppose the same goes for the delivery vans and shops. We tend to avoid take away deliveries. Should we decide to have a chippy meal ,we order and pay online and always collect ,no waiting about .

Our town shot itself in the foot many years ago, with moving our top shops out of town centre 

and leaving little independent shops ,with high running costs and fewer customers as they were now shopping out of town .

It could be said that we also slept walked into the same thing with our banking ,as most now opt for online banking and lo and behold most of the banks are now closing for good in our towns .

If I need my own bank I have to go to the nearby city's that have one .

 

We knew these things were going to happen it was just a case of when. We never food shop on line but use amazon for sundries as so many things are not sold in the shops anymore. I actually don't mind shopping and use Barnsley as our go to centre as they have the things we want plus since it was done up it is much better.

 

They also have a nice new library which we also use so for some things we have gone a bit backwards, but that is a condition of retirement and getting us out and about when we are not on holiday. I do however do nearly all my banking online whereas Mrs YP still likes to go into branch and get her little book, again we are lucky as there are lots of banks and building society branches in Barnsley.

 

Parking is also killing off some town centres, we live in Kirklees council area who are millions in debt so are going to start implementing parking fees in many towns that have always had free parking, so the cycle continues, rents and rates go up businesses fold so rent and rates go up some more, rock and hard place spring to mind

[zap99]

34 minutes ago, kalos said:

 Good point Zapp ,we are guilty of having the main shopping delivered but use our local supermarkets and shops. They say "use it or lose it"  and I suppose the same goes for the delivery vans and shops. We tend to avoid take away deliveries. Should we decide to have a chippy meal ,we order and pay online and always collect ,no waiting about .

Our town shot itself in the foot many years ago, with moving our top shops out of town centre 

and leaving little independent shops ,with high running costs and fewer customers as they were now shopping out of town .

It could be said that we also slept walked into the same thing with our banking ,as most now opt for online banking and lo and behold most of the banks are now closing for good in our towns .

If I need my own bank I have to go to the nearby city's that have one .

 

We don't do online banking, but handle investments online. What can we help you with today Sir ?. I want to pay this bill at the counter. ...you can do that at the machine Sir....If everybody did that you wouldn't have a job would you. On Friday we like to pop into town, pay the odd bill and get some cash, have a wander around the shops and get some lunch. With Online banking, Shopping and deliveryooo, we could stay at home. We could watch all the travel videos and not bother going on holiday. Use it or lose it.

Edited November 19, 2023 by zap99

[zap99]

38 minutes ago, yorkshirephil said:

We knew these things were going to happen it was just a case of when. We never food shop on line but use amazon for sundries as so many things are not sold in the shops anymore. I actually don't mind shopping and use Barnsley as our go to centre as they have the things we want plus since it was done up it is much better.

 

They also have a nice new library which we also use so for some things we have gone a bit backwards, but that is a condition of retirement and getting us out and about when we are not on holiday. I do however do nearly all my banking online whereas Mrs YP still likes to go into branch and get her little book, again we are lucky as there are lots of banks and building society branches in Barnsley.

 

Parking is also killing off some town centres, we live in Kirklees council area who are millions in debt so are going to start implementing parking fees in many towns that have always had free parking, so the cycle continues, rents and rates go up businesses fold so rent and rates go up some more, rock and hard place spring to mind

We have had bus passes for a good while, but haven't really used them. Our overpaid and underworked council executives have purchased most of the town centre with low interest loans. Interest rates have increased, the council has now gone bust and the officials retired early.....Those that are left have decided that increasing rents will bring in more cash.....wrong as the shops just move out.....increasing parking charges will bring in more cash....wrong, we now use our bus passes. Eventually we will need to buy more stuff on line, or drive to an out if town shopping centre.

Edited November 19, 2023 by zap99

[Son of Anarchy]

On 11/18/2023 at 11:43 AM, Fionboard said:

Malaga

Although I don't like the idea of Christmas decs before December, good to see that the decs are up in time for our port call there next month.

Edited November 19, 2023 by Son of Anarchy

[kalos]

57 minutes ago, zap99 said:

We don't do online banking, but handle investments online. What can we help you with today Sir ?. I want to pay this bill at the counter. ...you can do that at the machine Sir....If everybody did that you wouldn't have a job would you. On Friday we like to pop into town, pay the odd bill and get some cash, have a wander around the shops and get some lunch. With Online banking, Shopping and deliveryooo, we could stay at home. We could watch all the travel videos and not bother going on holiday. Use it or lose it.

 

Fully understand and as Phil said "he's lucky they still have the banks ".

 A couple of years ago I used to like to use my bank up in the next village but they closed it .

Then we get a letter telling us our town centre bank is closing and our new local branch is Sheffield or nip over to Doncaster and when you get there ,there is two ladies "happy helpers " stood should you need assistance . The ironic thing is one of the ladies used to work behind the counter in our local bank .  

"Hello can I pay this bill at the counter ?"   "No but we have a machine that takes your payments, I will show you how it works if you want."

I used to pay in at the bank but even the credit card payment is now standing order.

We used to like a romp around Wilko in town but .. Same fate as the others .

So to sum up Barring Specsavers ,unless we like Bet Fred a few charity shops our town

has very little to offer in the way of shopping these days .

The council are actually buying up disused shops and flattening them and building residential flats folk can live in .

Still I have the choice I can go to our surrounding City's, go into the bank just to do payments into a machine . Maybe other towns are lucky to still have  banks with bank tellers or even a machine ? Our bank tells us "if your stuck go to your local post office" which we do use .

Edited November 19, 2023 by kalos

[kalos]

43 minutes ago, Son of Anarchy said:

Although I don't like the idea of Christmas decs before December, good to see that the decs are up in time for our port call there next month.

We were told that as we disembarked Ventura in Southampton the festive decorators were 

going to deck it out for Christmas once in port .

[Snow Hill]

2 hours ago, zap99 said:

It's for revenue. ULEZ in London ( coming to an area near you soon ). Cut pollution.  You can only polute if you pay £12.50 a day.

Petrol Cars after 2006 onwards are exempt, as are diesels cars from built after Sept 2015, and vans after Sept 2016. So it’s not every vehicle that pays the £12.50 in London as some in the media and elsewhere would have you believe. 
 

Birmingham has a Clean Air Emission Zone, their fee is £8 if you are driving a vehicle which doesn’t meet above standards. 
 

Cars 40 years old or more can get an exemption. 

Edited November 19, 2023 by Snow Hill

[Eddie99]

Is it my reading, or are we a bit grouchy today?

International Mens Day too, so there’s a reason to be cheerful

 

Anyway, all is well here, other than it being a dull late November day.  The sun peeked out for a few minutes this morning, but that’s it.  At least it’s not raining, and the whole week ahead looks pretty dry.  Wonders will never cease!

 

Enjoying the ODI cricket final.  Looks like it might be a short match?

 

 

 

 

[Harry Peterson]

This is most definitely not a plea for sympathy - it is what it is - but since March 2020 neither of us has been able to go inside any shops, banks, restaurants or indeed any public places barring the very occasional health facility.

 

Which has made online banking, shopping, indeed everything, absolutely critical. When this first kicked off we couldn’t quite see how it was going to pan out, but it’s worked incredibly well. Every single item, food and otherwise, has been delivered to the door. Amazon and eBay have provided most of the non-food stuff, and various supermarkets the rest. Cash has proved almost completely unnecessary, but online financial services of inestimable value.

 

This isn’t good for shops, banks or High Streets, and I’m not proud of it - but it’s literally been a lifesaver to be able to order every single thing required in - even to the extent of a couple of OXO squeegees that Amazon have just delivered!

 

This may be the way forward for a lot of people, perhaps more by choice than the compulsion we’re driven by, and if so there’s a lot more change coming to bricks and mortar shopping and banking.

[Ardennais]

3 hours ago, twotravellersLondon said:

 

Great Grandfather, Dai Roberts, was Welsh but relocated to Scotland.

 

The odd "Welsh"  phrase was used by his daughter, my Grannie, from time to time... so apologies to any purists if it's got mangled over the decades and generations.

 

In Great Grandfathers day (late 1800s)... nothing on the roads/tracks/paths (apart from the occasional racing horse) moved at more that 20 miles an hour! 😃😇

We don’t like to rush even in these modern times! 
 

Similar really to our Uber journey from central London to Stanmore back in June. Stop-start all the way. Don’t think we got to 30mph at all! 

[Ardennais]

2 hours ago, yorkshirephil said:

Older drivers on bikes tend to be some of the worst. I have been a lifelong biker until a few years ago when both my hip and Mrs YP not caring to go off on the bike so much brought about the end of an era. The number of new age bikers most dealing with the mid life crisis by buying a super bike was growing exponentially. Every time I went to a bike meet another one had bit the dust. The one thing I learned very young and stuck with was the fact that every car driver was trying to kill you, I always rode with my lights on but that didn't always matter.

Older motorcyclists are a real pain on some roads here in Wales. They often overtake in the most silly places and in the summer months, you hear of fatalities every weekend. I don’t think car drivers are trying to kill them, more that some of them seem to have a death wish themselves! 

[zap99]

33 minutes ago, Snow Hill said:

Petrol Cars after 2006 onwards are exempt, as are diesels cars from built after Sept 2015, and vans after Sept 2016. So it’s not every vehicle that pays the £12.50 in London as some in the media and elsewhere would have you believe. 
 

Birmingham has a Clean Air Emission Zone, their fee is £8 if you are driving a vehicle which doesn’t meet above standards. 
 

Cars 40 years old or more can get an exemption. 

Yes, I am exempt. Lots of nurse, cleaners, night workers on low pay aren't. A young single mum needs to buy a new car, or pay £62.50 pw. The czar has said 90% are exempt

 I guess the other 10% aren't important. The science behind it is questionable anyway.

Edited November 19, 2023 by zap99

[zap99]

14 minutes ago, Harry Peterson said:

This is most definitely not a plea for sympathy - it is what it is - but since March 2020 neither of us has been able to go inside any shops, banks, restaurants or indeed any public places barring the very occasional health facility.

 

Which has made online banking, shopping, indeed everything, absolutely critical. When this first kicked off we couldn’t quite see how it was going to pan out, but it’s worked incredibly well. Every single item, food and otherwise, has been delivered to the door. Amazon and eBay have provided most of the non-food stuff, and various supermarkets the rest. Cash has proved almost completely unnecessary, but online financial services of inestimable value.

 

This isn’t good for shops, banks or High Streets, and I’m not proud of it - but it’s literally been a lifesaver to be able to order every single thing required in - even to the extent of a couple of OXO squeegees that Amazon have just delivered!

 

This may be the way forward for a lot of people, perhaps more by choice than the compulsion we’re driven by, and if so there’s a lot more change coming to bricks and mortar shopping and banking.

Some folk have no choice and as you say doing things on line can, literally be a life saver. I do have a chuckle at those folk who complain about the death of the high St and then boast that they got a 9.10am delivery slot from Tesco.

 

[Fionboard]

46 minutes ago, kalos said:

We were told that as we disembarked Ventura in Southampton the festive decorators were 

going to deck it out for Christmas once in port .

All up!

[kalos]

 

Right it's that time of year again ..

 

  Santa cam is back  !    Something to amuse the kids   (and me )   Enjoy 🙂

 

 

 

[Snow Hill]

Just seen the Tesco Christmas Ad, no celebs, it’s on their landing page online.

 

Quite like it, better than some that are currently around.

 

https://www.tesco.com

Edited November 19, 2023 by Snow Hill

[Adawn47]

4 hours ago, yorkshirephil said:

 The one thing I learned very young and stuck with was the fact that every car driver was trying to kill you, I always rode with my lights on but that didn't always matter.

We were bikers in 'our youth' and found a lot of car drivers were, 'inconsiderate' shall we say, about bikers, in fact some were plain dangerous. One of the major things we found was the car drivers' determination not to lets us overtake, and would constantly move into centre of the road so Frank had to brake to avoid a collision.

Dad always said that the most dangerous nut on a car was the one that held the wheel.

Avril

[brian1]

1 hour ago, kalos said:

 

Right it's that time of year again ..

 

  Santa cam is back  !    Something to amuse the kids   (and me )   Enjoy 🙂

 

 

 

There's a town in Alaska called North Pole just north of Fairbanks.It has a all year round Santa grotto,we went their to get Christmas cards sent to the grandkids from Santa.Nice little earner Rodders.