Cunard Cruisers - How are things where you are ?

[Lanky Lad]

A lovely sunny and warm day in Lancashire. I was off work today so after dropping my car off for a service I headed off on a tram ride to Manchester. The first time since either late 2019 or early 2020. Very quiet so felt pretty safe.

 

Starting to get excited abut my short trip to the South Coast followed by 3 nights on board Britannia.

[Lanky Lad]

A bit of a test which might be easier for our UK members.  Who is this and where can she be found. I will give the answer tomorrow if no-one else has.

 

 

[Ray66]

Victoria Wood in Bury.

[Lanky Lad]

20 hours ago, Ray66 said:

Victoria Wood in Bury.

Correct on both counts. It's a pretty good likeness.

[Essiesmom]

We are just finishing our 7 day Crystal Serenity cruise to little known Bahamas islands.  Back in Nassau tomorrow morning.  Weather has been beautiful, a couple of the tender rides were an adventure...  Spending a couple days in Nassau, flying home Monday.  EM

[Host Hattie]

Sounds great @Essiesmom, summer has returned to Wales and some restrictions are being lifted here today. 6 people can now meet indoors in a private house or holiday accomodation and limits have been removed for outdoor gatherings. Our government is being more cautious than in England and some restrictions will stay in place until the beginning of August.

I'm reading the first of the "Bryant and May" books under a tree in the garden.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

[Tonopah]

3 hours ago, Host Hattie said:

 

I'm reading the first of the "Bryant and May" books under a tree in the garden.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

I love those books. Perfect for reading under a tree in the garden. It is too hot for me to be outside today, 90°f (32°c) with high humidity. I’m hiding in my air conditioned house, surrounded by cats (and a dog), listening to Stephen Fry narrate the Harry Potter books (just starting #6). I got the entire UK set of audiobooks in London in 2018 after a QM2 TA from NY to Southampton. Best souvenir ever.

 

We are unable to go to the cooler, breezy local beaches or eat out at Gulf-side tiki bars because of Red Tide, so this summer has mostly been inside. I am counting to the days to Autumn (65) and dreaming of our next Cunard Holiday (November, 2022). 

[LewiLewi]

It is very hot and humid in Palm Beach County, but we have a huge overhead fan, and occasional breezes. I love to sit on our patio and look at the lake while playing bridge on line. I can take about two hours and then back into the AC house.

[Essiesmom]

Sitting in the Bullion restaurant/lounge at the British Colonial Hilton in Nassau.  Lovely weather. Got off the Crystal Serenity this morning, went shopping, and a nap.  Good but expensive dinner.  Not included.  EM

[Host Hattie]

Still Summer here for the moment, rain and thunderstorms forecast for the weekend unfortunately. I got my office air conditioning working yesterday so that helped. 

I haven't booked any of the new cruises yet, I'm still not convinced I'd want to travel with the sort of restrictions that might be necessary. For the moment all we have planned is a week in our house in Pembrokeshire in September.

Mr HH has gone to play chess with his brother for the first time in months and he's taking his Mother out for a birthday treat tomorrow.

[Kynance]

We had a lovely bbq at my aunt’s last Saturday and I got to see my brother for the first time in 2 years. My aunt is the convenor of our small family: my aunt & uncle, brother, cousins and their families all live on the other side of London in Essex. I am the outlier here in west Berkshire. My other half has family scattered further away too. Unfortunately my cousins could not come over for various reasons but I will hopefully see them at some point in the not too distant future.

 

Despite England moving to stage 4 of the route map, I am still working from home on the instructions of my employer. I’m very happy about that and in no rush to return. Certainly this week, when it has been far too hot for me, I was glad that I did not have to go into my office where the air con was broken and temperatures at 10am on Tuesday morning reached 30 degrees according to a colleague! I am looking forward to some cooler weather this weekend.  The upside of the hot weather though, is that I have been fully justified in my increased ice cream consumption! 🤣

[navybankerteacher]

On 7/15/2021 at 6:38 PM, Ray66 said:

Victoria Wood in Bury.

Who?  And in where?

[Lanky Lad]

16 minutes ago, navybankerteacher said:

Who?  And in where?

A very funny and much missed British comedian hence the statue. Bury is a town in Lancashire where she was born. 🙂

[Lanky Lad]

A busy day here trying to print off the e-tickets, boarding passes and luggage labels.  For some reason my printer did not want to print the whole documents and just did bits.  I finally managed to get it to do what I wanted.

 

Last day of work tomorrow then off to the South Coast for a few days before boarding a ship for the first time since October 2019. Only 3 nights but I can't wait. 

 

We had thunder today and a bit of rain but only lasted about 30 minutes and has not brought the temperatures down.

[naturelovergirl]

We had our first get-together in over a year and a half with some of our vaccinated friends the other day... and it was glorious. We are three couples who have known each other for close to 25 years... We met working at a theatre in another state and now live just a few miles away from one another. 

One of the couples has a home pool... so we ate delicious food for lunch, swam in the pool, talked and laughed... and then were enjoying it so much, we got a pizza for dinner.

Normally this group of friends always gets together for a pool party in the summer and on New Year's Eve... but this past year we all sat at our respective homes on our computers and had a virtual New Year's Eve party together via zoom. So I think we all felt like we needed to make up for some lost time, even though we all keep up with each other's lives on social media.

Though we are certainly not out of the woods yet (yes, the delta variant of the virus is burning through some of our unvaccinated population right now in FL) know that my heart was full seeing my friends in person. It felt hopeful.

[LewiLewi]

My choir got together for the first time in over a year and a half. Our conductor has established rehearsals for sopranos at separate times than the rest of the choir so there are not more than 20 people, spread out in the hall at one time singing together. The Altos, Bass, Tenors all have their own rehearsal times. It was wonderful to be able to sing together once again. Hopefully, we will all be able to sing together as a group once again.
The news in Florida is not good for the Delta variant, our state has the largest infection rate in the entire USA. I hope that this will not impact our ability to perform together; we are all vaccinated, but there have been people who have been vaccinated who are still getting ill. I guess time will tell. States are beginning to issue vaccine mandates. I think that this is a great idea.

[Host Hattie]

19 hours ago, navybankerteacher said:

Who?  And in where?

I think this is supposed to explain who she was for Americans

 

https://slate.com/culture/2016/04/victoria-wood-1953-2016-farewell-to-a-great-british-comedian-video.html

[Tonopah]

19 hours ago, Host Hattie said:

I think this is supposed to explain who she was for Americans

 

https://slate.com/culture/2016/04/victoria-wood-1953-2016-farewell-to-a-great-british-comedian-video.html

Once again, we need an “educational” button. Thank you for sharing. 

[Host Hattie]

It's great to hear of people getting together again. Our weather has turned but we seem to have avoided the worst of the thunder storms so far.

It was a friend's birthday so I dropped her card and present round and had a chat on the doorstep. She usually hosts a party but was pleased she'd had a succession of visitors.

Have a great time @Lanky Lad, I look forward to hearing about your cruise experience.

[Camgirl]

Have a wonderful cruise and holiday, Lanky Lad.

[Lanky Lad]

Hi thanks for the good wishes. A bit of rain this morning but come up nice after dinner. Got to do health declaration  tomorrow or tuesday then that's me set. Next hurdle is the covid test on thursday  I am used to doing those weekly at work. So long as negative I will be on a ship  woo hoo 

[Lanky Lad]

Hello from the Mayflower terminal. I am in a long queue waiting from my covid test. Things are moving quite quickly and seems to be well organized. I will update when completed. I arrived about 1.45 . 

[turnip eater]

Good luck! Looking forward to your update.😀

[Host Hattie]

Bon voyage,

[Lanky Lad]

At the ocean terminal now. Took about 10 minutes longer than needed as we had not printed our covid vaccine certificate off. Will know better next time. Just under 2 hours.  Now waiting for results.