Snow Hill

My step daughter has a Hyundai Kona Hybrid, she loves it, gets average of 60+ mpg.

Defrosting freezer a job I used to hate, when we bought our freezer over 10 years ago we opted for a no frost upright one, it was replaced recently with another no frost one, no more kneeling on the floor or bending over and nearly falling into a chest freezer scraping out the ice.

The last time I visited a branch of my bank was back in 2012, I have been using online since 2007, I worked for a bank and worked on the implementation of online banking. It was fairly basic then, still had to use a branch to pay in cash or cheques, now I scan the cheques in, I hardly use cash anymore except for small purchases, my local independent convenience store doesn’t take cards for less than £5, although the Coop Convenience around the corner does.

Yes there are some manufacturers with diesel engines before 2015 that are compliant.

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

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.

No longer buy Cadbury chocolate, partly because they seemed to have added wheat to their recipe, which means my OH can’t eat it. Apparently Mars own Whiskas, hopefully they hever mix the recipes up. 🤮

That’s an eye watering amount for drinks, think we would be checking in to a clinic on return to sort liver out. 😂

I have used a walking stick from time to time as a assistive device, as my physio call it. I have on occasions had inflammation of the tendons in my knee, the result of a football injury in my late teens. I used the stick as a balance aid when standing still, not when walking, although I do us walking poles when out walking in the countryside. I don’t need any assistance walking and would feel insulted if there was a suggestion that they were defined as mobility aids, when they are not. I have taken my walking poles with me when we went to Norway, does it mean I have to declare them as a mobility aid ?

One reason we only book cruises with the minimal number of sea days, which means we often settle for a fly cruise.

Are P&O trying to put off those who have minor Mobil issues from travelling with them? My understanding of a a walking stick, is that is an assistive device not a mobility aid. Suspect the the form was written by someone without a medical back ground.

Well that was a whole day wasted waiting for ParcelForce to deliver, email said printer would be delivered today, at 4pm got a message to say parcel now at hub ready to be passed to delivery office, so despite the website and an email saying it will be delivered today, it turns out it won’t be after all. Will see what tomorrow brings.

I have been using Windows 11 for a while now, I find it better than Windows 10 had no issues with it. As for the Mail update it’s independent of Windows 11 so will eventually apply to both sets of users. I have been using Outlook for some years as part of the Office suite, the Mail app now mirrors what I have been using for sone years now. The windows 11 update on my laptop took just under 3 mins to install this evening, so no need to leave on overnight.

A bright and sunny morning here, around 9C. Waiting for confirmation of a delivery time for my new printer from HP, my old one stopped printing in colour and was making odd noises when printing, it was 7 years old and no amount of reinstalling software would fix the issue. HP support did indicate that there was a possible compatibility issue with Windows 11 that some users had experienced. I used my former employers perks system which I have access to as a pensioner to get a significant discount on the retail price.

Some parts of the Equality Act don’t apply to ships including cruise ships. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/maritime-passenger-rights-your-journey

Well that was an interesting training day, 30 mins we get a power cut, the National Grid website give a back on time of 3:30pm. Some one had the idea of emailing the presentation to us so we could follow on our phones, which we did, made for an interesting presentation. Then moved on site to put what we had learnt into practice, halfway through a small tree next to the site was blown down, it was a wooded area so no danger, but the noise did startle us. Despite the power cut a worthwhile training exercise.

My wife does the same in respect of Motsi, she was annoyed last night when Krishna’s went out as she thought he performed better. While she was watching strictly on Saturday I was catching up on a couple of Archeology programs I had recorded via my iPad.

If I am booking anything of significant cost I record the calls on my mobile, I then have my own copy in case the one of the “supplier” mysteriously vanished. I also ensure by a series of confirmation questions that I get confirmation of everything agreed. I destroy the recordings once the purchase has been satisfactory, I also advise I am also recording the call, especially if they are recording mine.

My father was conscripted in 1942 when he was 18, I know this from my cousin, however that is all I know, my parents separated when I was 10, and have not seen him since Christmas Day 1963, no idea where he is or whether still alive, he would be 99, but I have not found any death registration for him in England & Wales. One of my cousins thinks he may have emigrated but we don’t know where. My paternal grandfather was a sergeant in the Machine Gun Corps and given the high rate of casualties was lucky to survive the war, he died in 1956 in his early 70s, I was 4 at the time.. My maternal great grandfather was in theory too old to join up he was 40 at the outbreak of WW1, a husband and father to 7 children, yet he joined up saying he was 36. He was a miner and thus exempt from conscription, however he volunteered saying he was a groom, he worked with the pit ponies in the mine. After training he was quickly assigned to groom duties in loading horses on to ships for the front in France and unloading at the other end. His war record shows numerous cross channel trips. All this came to an end in 1917 when he was kicked by a horse and sent back home for treatment, where they then found out he was 43, he was then discharged as physically unfit and over age.

The DDA was replaced by the Equality Act in 2010, which covers all forms of discrimination.

Currently pouring with rain here, temp around 4C, a few hardly souls have been going past for the service at local war memorial, not a pleasant morning after yesterday’s sunshine. Just had a weather warning for strong winds tomorrow as a result of Storm Debi, 45 mph gusts tomorrow afternoon, looks dry though, which is good as I am on a training course tomorrow to teach us how to identify and record structural issues at the site I volunteer at. We have had some minor masonry issues of late and our Volunteer Manager thought it would be a good idea to train the volunteers to look for early signs of structural problems, so the estates team have arranged for that training, should have happened in early October, but a number of the team went down with it that can’t be named.

It would seem they were planning to use biocidal fogging of some description in order to kill the virus if it was lurking on carpets, curtains etc, where it can survive for a long period. My brother who owns and runs a cleaning business has often said you can’t clean a cruise ship infected with Norovirus in a few hours, to to do it properly would take more than a day and effectively require completely evacuating a ship.

An astronomer I follow on SM said the aurora should be better to tomorrow as the full effect of the solar storm has not yet reached Earth.

Some dispute over whether the pollution increase claim is true, NICE disagree with the claim. One of the roads close to me has speed cushions installed at the request of people living there as the road was notorious for accidents due to excess speed. The cushions and other traffic calming measures have reduced speeds and number of accidents. The air quality monitor showed no increase in air pollution.

Had a few of those during our many visits to France, both savoury and sweet, one favourite being the the Almond & Raspberry Pithivier.