Cunard Cruisers - How are things where you are ?

[alc13]

Sorry about the lockdowns.  My state of Maine contained covid effectively for a long time but is now grappling with community spread in a couple of areas.  Wishing everyone safety and patience.

 

For Netflix recommendations, we are almost no help to those of you in the UK, because Netflix has identified us as fans of British detective stories and recommends nothing else to us.  So we just finished The Bodyguard (loved it) and are now watching Paranoid and Hinterland (liking both; beautiful scenery).  However, we recently watched the final season of The Good Place and think it's some of the best TV out there.  So I recommend that.

[Host Hattie]

I had to check Paranoid, I can't remember the outcome but I do remember that our friends' son Dino played one of the police officers. Hope you enjoyed it.

[frankp01]

2 hours ago, alc13 said:

we recently watched the final season of The Good Place and think it's some of the best TV out there. 

I concur, 100%. However, if someone is not familiar with the show, they need to start with Season One, at a minimum.

[Bigmike911]

What a difference a week makes. Today's grocery buying took me to the Woodlands again. Now the trees have really begun to get their fall color. There is red showing in the deciduous oak trees and the ornamental pears bushes are magenta. A couple of cooler nights has gotten them in gear. My large Acer in the front year, is Turning its fall red. 

 

This morning, my gardener and I worked on removing some over grown bushes from my garden retreat and removed some variegated Ligustrum from the front of the house, which made a poor hedge. I am going to have 7 dwarf Burford Holly bushes planted next week. They make a much more attractive hedge. With our long, warm, wet growing season in South East Texas bushes, shrubs and trees grow like topsy, and soon cute little bushes grow into large unattractive messes, so pruning and trimming make the garden look much better. 

 

I am awaiting my DHL delivery today from Fortnum's bringing my Christmas Crackers, the Christmas Tea, and the Special Halcyon Days Georgian Christmas Bauble commissioned by Fortnum's. Next week I will undertake my serious Christmas shopping. Most of my friends and family have more 'stuff' than they need, so I try to buy food and wine gifts which can be consumed. 

 

I hope our UK friends make it through their 'lockdowns' and that the vaccine is the worlds Christmas Present. That will be a really great one. 

[Kynance]

I received a text this morning from a friend who lives in an outer London borough to say that people were queuing outside the specialist card shops in her local high street as these will be shut under the rules to come into force in England on 5 November. These shops often have the best selection of Christmas cards which was no doubt the reason for the queues. In the same vein, a colleague who lives on the London/Surrey borders said her M&S Simply Food Store had no crackers and very few cards. My partner made a planned visit to our local IKEA and said he couldn’t believe how busy it was. 
 

The same colleague referred to above had just ordered an artificial tree in case in it proved difficult to get a real tree - the good news now , is that under the government guidance garden centres can stay open - these are the main outlets for real trees, so we can both rest easy. (I had done the same thing a couple of weeks ago ☺️).  There is nothing quite like a real Nordmann Fir 🌲 at Christmas 🎄, in my view. It is absolutely the best tree for use in the home. We had one up for about 4 weeks last year and it was in virtually pristine condition when it was taken down for Twelfth Night. 
 

Apart from the damage to the struggling high street and local, independent retailers, another consequence of these new regulations is that it will be harder for people who rely on low cost retailers without an online option to shop for their families this Christmas - they are also more likely to be people working in the sectors that are being forced to close (pubs, restaurants, hair & nail salons, arcades etc). 
 

Let’s hope, therefore, that wherever ever we live, in the U.K. or beyond, that all of these restrictions currently imposed work sufficiently to allow people to enjoy the best Christmas and other celebrations that they can possibly have this year whilst we wait for a vaccine. 

[navybankerteacher]

The direction of this thread makes me appreciate my now well-honed shop avoidance expertise.  Having developed an increasingly severe case of mall-anxiety (a condition whose formal recognition has not yet been granted by the American Psychiatric Association) over the years, I have come to within a hair’s breadth of my goal:

shopless shopping.

 

With the exception of one short stop at a local book store which netted me the German Advent calendars for my grandchildren - the rest (ALL THE REST) is being done on line.   New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art has a broad selection of traditional and modern cards (already received) and everything else - for my wife, four children, and ten grandchildren is in one of three stages of acquisition: selected, ordered, or in hand.  My daughter and son in law can be trusted to select our tree while picking theirs.

 

A painless pre-Yule to you all.

[alc13]

20 hours ago, navybankerteacher said:

The direction of this thread makes me appreciate my now well-honed shop avoidance expertise.  Having developed an increasingly severe case of mall-anxiety (a condition whose formal recognition has not yet been granted by the American Psychiatric Association) over the years, I have come to within a hair’s breadth of my goal:

shopless shopping.

 

With the exception of one short stop at a local book store which netted me the German Advent calendars for my grandchildren - the rest (ALL THE REST) is being done on line.   New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art has a broad selection of traditional and modern cards (already received) and everything else - for my wife, four children, and ten grandchildren is in one of three stages of acquisition: selected, ordered, or in hand.  My daughter and son in law can be trusted to select our tree while picking theirs.

 

A painless pre-Yule to you all.

I miss shopping, especially window shopping.  Something about looking at pretty things and maybe being out in the world in an aimless, casual way, or finding exactly that thing you wanted; it was just very pleasant.   But in no way do I miss holiday shopping.  Thanks for the reminder, though - I need to buy some Christmas cards!

[Bigmike911]

1 hour ago, alc13 said:

I miss shopping, especially window shopping.  Something about looking at pretty things and maybe being out in the world in an aimless, casual way, or finding exactly that thing you wanted; it was just very pleasant.   But in no way do I miss holiday shopping.  Thanks for the reminder, though - I need to buy some Christmas cards!

I got my Christmas Cards this year from the Met Museum, as I have in years past. They have a wonderful selection from very religious to contemporary.  I always have some left over so I date the boxes and use older cards much later, so I don't send the same card two years in a row. 

[alc13]

Thanks for the tip, NBT and Bigmike - I've ordered Xmas cards from the Met Museum!  It is indeed a really nice selection.

[Host Hattie]

Friday has come round quickly this week ! The wind and rain finally stopped and we've had a few bright days to end the week. 

We had a few fireworks going off around us and a bonfire in the field behind the house last night. We have celebrated Bonfire Night in the past but we're still in our firebreak. Once it ends on Monday we won't be allowed to meet in each other's gardens so that's ruled out another picnic we were planning next weekend. We are allowed to meet in a pub so Mr HH should be able to play chess with his brother.

Mr HH went back to work today and I had a training course via Zoom.

All eyes are on the US election .....still.

[Lanky Lad]

I managed a trip to Blackpool (a seaside resort) on Wednesday before our lockdown started.  It was a lovely sunny day and not too chilly. 

 

Still no job, but I am still looking and have a few irons in the fire so there is hope.

[navybankerteacher]

We are enjoying our “Indian Summer” (perhaps put more politically correctly as:  “Indigenous Peoples’ Summer”) weather —- a warm spell following the first frost —- a lovely few days of sunny weather in the 70’s F -giving us a chance for some more time at the beach.

 

Sadly, if tradition holds, a good warm spell in November portends a hard Winter.

 

 

L L :   ”Irons in the fire” ?  Are you a farrier?  

[FennoExpress]

Greetings from Finland. Here we are enjoying the warmest November in recorded history. Today glorious sunshine, zero wind and temperatures above +10 degrees Celsius/50F. Could have been a day in April except for the short daylight hours.

 

We have fared quite well with the Covid-19.  Even though working from home is recommended there have been no lockdowns and summer was almost normal, some people even managed to travel abroad. Now the borders are more or less closed again. My last trip to another country was a day cruise to Tallinn in July, other than that just a few short domestic staycations. Schools were closed in the spring and kids sent to home school, but after summer holidays they remain open as normal. Gyms and shops are also open almost as before. Restaurants have to stop selling alcohol at 10pm and close at 11pm, which means nightclubs have remained closed for some time now. There are also restrictions on the amount of customers the restaurants can take in, I believe it is 50 or 75% of their capacity. Wearing masks in public places is voluntary but strongly recommended and on public transport and in the shops I would say 70% of people do wear them. Restaurants, theatres, cinemas, high street retailers and the whole travel industry have been hit hard. Cruise ferry traffic to Estonia and Sweden has almost ended, the ships transporting mostly just cargo. Daily passenger volumes at Helsinki airport are less than 10% of what they were a year ago. I have managed to keep my job, but as I work in the airline business a third of my colleagues have lost theirs. Simply awful. Fortunately we have a system of temporary redundancy where you can be laid off for a week, some months or indefinetely and get unemployment benefit of about 50% of your salary, still keeping your job.

 

Luckily we managed to make one cruise this year, a week in the Persian Gulf in January. We do have a Fjords cruise booked for next July but I'm quite pessimistic about that happening. A safe and working vaccine would be the best Christmas present ever! A couple of good thing have come out of this horrible year: I've never exercised this much or read so many books in so short time.

Edited November 7, 2020 by FennoExpress

[Lanky Lad]

2 hours ago, navybankerteacher said:

L L :   ”Irons in the fire” ?  Are you a farrier?  

I am not that skilled, these are metaphorical irons.  

[navybankerteacher]

1 hour ago, Lanky Lad said:

I am not that skilled, these are metaphorical irons.  

I didn’t really think so - but was hoping to hear from posters with interesting/exotic careers - I have no real hopes of hearing from a necromancer or alchemist on these threads - but thought there might be a chance, perhaps from a less urban area, of running into a wainwright or coopersmith or the like - so I leapt at your metaphor.

[Host Hattie]

@FennoExpress thanks for the update from Finland.

Our weather was quite gloomy today, I had a 2 hour Zoom call with friends. I think we've given up on being able to meet in person anytime soon. One of my friends is a nurse in A&E (ER) and is having quite a tough time. She has colleagues who are seriously ill or still having health problems months after being I'll.

 

 

[Lanky Lad]

4 hours ago, navybankerteacher said:

I didn’t really think so - but was hoping to hear from posters with interesting/exotic careers - I have no real hopes of hearing from a necromancer or alchemist on these threads - but thought there might be a chance, perhaps from a less urban area, of running into a wainwright or coopersmith or the like - so I leapt at your metaphor.

My great great grandfather was a shipwright working on canal boats if that helps. 😀

[navybankerteacher]

2 hours ago, Lanky Lad said:

My great great grandfather was a shipwright working on canal boats if that helps. 😀

 

It's good to recall the days when real people did real work.  My great great grandfather fattened cattle in Riverdale after they were driven down from the Hudson Valley farms before having them ferried to the stockyards where the UN now sits on the east side of Manhattan.

[Kynance]

It is Remembrance Sunday here in the U.K. Due to Covid, commemorations at the Cenotaph and across the country have been much reduced in scope and people were encouraged to pay their respects instead from their doorsteps at 11am for the two minutes silence. I think this was a very good idea and something we should repeat next year - such a simple way for neighbours to come together in a communal act of remembrance. 

 

As so often seems to be the case, it has been a cold, damp and miserable day for weather. I’ve been reading lots of news reports about people decorating their houses early for Christmas and lights are already being switched on in some town centres. Normally, I am ambivalent at best about too much festive atmosphere before 11 November but I can quite understand the desire of many people to bring light into their lives at this dark time (metaphorically and literally for those of us in the northern hemisphere). 
 

[Bigmike911]

3 hours ago, Kynance said:

It is Remembrance Sunday here in the U.K. Due to Covid, commemorations at the Cenotaph and across the country have been much reduced in scope and people were encouraged to pay their respects instead from their doorsteps at 11am for the two minutes silence. I think this was a very good idea and something we should repeat next year - such a simple way for neighbours to come together in a communal act of remembrance. 

 

As so often seems to be the case, it has been a cold, damp and miserable day for weather. I’ve been reading lots of news reports about people decorating their houses early for Christmas and lights are already being switched on in some town centres. Normally, I am ambivalent at best about too much festive atmosphere before 11 November but I can quite understand the desire of many people to bring light into their lives at this dark time (metaphorically and literally for those of us in the northern hemisphere). 
 

Several years ago, I was in Portsmouth aboard HMS Victory, on 11/11 at eleven am. The guide asked all of us to observe two minutes of silence. All aboard did so.  It was a lesson to me in remembering those who gave much or all for our freedoms. I watched the event on television since and it never fails to impress me. 

[Host Hattie]

Biggles and I were on the doorstep at 11am this morning but I can't see many others from mine so I'm not sure how well it was observed in this village.

It was a bit misty here for most of the day but it looked like a beautiful November morning for the ceremony in London.

Our guidelines prevent me commenting too much on events in the US but I think we're all pleased that your election is over. Congratulations to President-Elect Biden and particularly to Vice president-elect Harris.

[navybankerteacher]

1 hour ago, Host Hattie said:

Biggles and I were on the doorstep at 11am this morning but I can't see many others from mine so I'm not sure how well it was observed in this village.

It was a bit misty here for most of the day but it looked like a beautiful November morning for the ceremony in London.

Our guidelines prevent me commenting too much on events in the US but I think we're all pleased that your election is over. Congratulations to President-Elect Biden and particularly to Vice president-elect Harris.

Your relief at the “completion” of the election does not come near mine.  A really interesting corner has been turned - representing a sharper change of direction than many now realize.  

[steve1young]

On 11/7/2020 at 2:31 PM, navybankerteacher said:

I didn’t really think so - but was hoping to hear from posters with interesting/exotic careers - I have no real hopes of hearing from a necromancer or alchemist on these threads - but thought there might be a chance, perhaps from a less urban area, of running into a wainwright or coopersmith or the like - so I leapt at your metaphor.

 

My Grandfather was a stevedore working on Cunard's Manhattan docks.

[Lanky Lad]

It's hard to think I was on QM2 two years ago today.  The remembrance service on board is always very special.  Cunard ships, among others off the coast of the UK sounded their whistles at 11am today to mark the start of the silence and again at 11.02.

[LadyL1]

2 hours ago, Lanky Lad said:

It's hard to think I was on QM2 two years ago today.  The remembrance service on board is always very special.  Cunard ships, among others off the coast of the UK sounded their whistles at 11am today to mark the start of the silence and again at 11.02.

Last year we were QE on the way to Cape Town. A very moving tribute for Remembrance Sunday in a packed theatre.