Snow Hill

Currently cloudy & 21C here, sun trying to peek thru, due to hit the dizzy heights of 22C this afternoon, will wait and see. We had our Covid & Flu vaccinations this morning 2 sore arms now went into practice at my booked time of 10:45, out again at 10:55, my GP and 2 practice nurses doing the jabs, nurse said they have almost 250 patients at Covid/Flu Clinic this morning and all have turned up on time. Once again a well organised session. Then went into town had a coffee and a muffin, bought a pair of boots in sale reduce from £85 to £27 plus 10% BLC discount. Back home now with 2 sore arms and a headache, probably mixture of vaccine and caffeine!

Temperature currently at 19C, cloudy with the occasional sun spell, just checked the lawn, it is dry so will cut it now, although due to be dry and warm tomorrow, we are due our Covid/Flu jabs tomorrow at our GP Practice, so not sure whether will be able to cut lawn tomorrow if any reaction. Removed summer bedding from planters ready for the winter bedding to go in and bulbs to be planted. I have winter pansies, cyclamen and wallflowers to plant, as well as narcissuses, tulips and hyacinths. Looking a dry week ahead, so should get them all in, plus I may even order a skip to get rid of rubble of small wall I demolished in the garden a few weeks ago, together with pile of accumulated rubbish behind the garage. After the failure of our Fridge Freezer a few weeks back and the subsequent delivery of a replacement, yesterday our small freezer got written off as well when the part needed to fix it was no longer available. So after almost 14 years of service both have given up virtually at the same time, glad we had both covered, so we get a replacement, just need to choose which one from list sent us.

With Bluetooth you can only share to one device and it’s very slow, the wifi option is quicker and allows more than one device. A travel router would be better option than hotspot on your phone.

I am fairly sure you need to be attached to land based cell towers in order for hot spot to work.

Annual blood test done this morning in and out of the surgery in less than 5 mins, Pracitce was running a blood tests session this morning so 3 phlebotomists in this morning. Guess GPs will be having a lot of phone calls to make next week if tests show any abnormalities. Will check mine online on Tuesday when they are back. We were due to be away visiting friends in Nottinghamshire this weekend, but got a call last night postponing it, they have just returned from a cruise and yes they have “it that must not be named”. Wind not as bad as predicted, although a gust blew over a couple of patio chairs around 8:30 last night which made me jump as I was engrossed in a book that I started reading earlier this week. This morning surveyed the damage, petals all gone on cactus dahlias, a sunflower snapped in half and a plastic back stuck in the pyracantha bush. To be fair we were on the extreme easterly edge of the yellow warning, so were not expecting to see excess wind speeds or heavy rain. This morning temperature around 16C off to Post Office to return a padlock to manufacturers under its 10 year guarantee, I have had it a year. Then to garden centre to get some pansies, wallflowers and cyclamen for some of the planters which are now looking bedraggled with the dead and dying summer planting. Might even get car washed if I have time, it needs it.

Not affected by this, but what would happen should one of these planes goes “technical” before takeoff, where would Maleth & P&O source a replacement plane from in a few hours. We were on a fly cruise to the Med in 2017, our plane went “technical” as the pilot called it, just before we were due to start our takeoff. TUI the providers managed to source another of their planes within a couple of hours. This was short haul which I guess is easier to deal with, but long haul,with a company with few planes is a different matter. I wonder what, if any, plans P&O have in place to deal with this scenario regardless of which provider is used?

There is a blueberry shortage apparently, due to climate related problems in Peru and elsewhere, https://www.freshplaza.com/europe/article/9556049/i-expect-the-blueberry-shortage-to-continue-at-least-until-mid-late-october/

I was awoken at 5 am by the rain lashing against bedroom window accompanied by strong winds, try as I might I was unable to get back to sleep for the 3rd morning in a row, last 2 where due to inconsiderate taxi passenger slamming car doors, I know who the culprit is she is a recent new tenant in the flats opposite, she is a care worker, but seems to care little for her neighbours I have some ear plugs somewhere may need to use them.

I have seen those comments attached to a GB post, many saying bet he would be expected to fly with a cheapskate airline. P&O keeping pushing it will be an equivalent experience, but with no IFE, premium economy or extra legroom many saying P&O have an odd definition of equivalent. Another question that needs asking is that did TUI take on the contract knowing they couldn’t fulfil the provision of long haul flights from their own fleet?

Bet it won’t reduce the cost of accessing the internet at sea though.

Unfortunately my French, Danish and Irish Ancestry is too far back to allow me to claim a passport from any of those countries.

Have ours booked at our GP Practice for 2 weeks on Saturday, together with flu vaccine one for each arm! Using the same process as last year making Saturdays for the next 8 weeks vaccination days, practice not normally open on a Saturday, but doctors and other qualified health practitioners coming in to give the vaccines, an excellent service. Have my annual blood test next week, think my arms are going to be a bit sore over the next couple of weeks.

Mixed day weather wise, none of horrendous thunderstorms and biblical amounts of rain here, sunny first thing, then a speed of rain nothing out of ordinary just a initially heavy shower followed by steady rain for a hour. Since them mixture of sunshine and clouds, temp hit a high of 17C. leaves falling everywhere, but council have swept them away today, reducing risk of drain blockages. I noticed the authorities tree surgeons across the road today picking up on the issues I raised with the environmental team a few weeks ago, the large number of dead branches which overhang the road, lots of photos and notes made, hopefully they will be back to remove the dead branches before winter sets in.

Same here, got to like after seeing Roxy Music live and their sax player Andy Mackay, what I didn’t know was that one of my work colleagues was at same concert and he inspired her to take up the sax, I saw her play in a band a few years later An aside from that, after the concert we went clubbing and In Birmingham and I found my self standing at the bar next to Bryan Ferry & Jerry Hall.

We were staying with friends in Halifax Nova Scotia, when Hurricane Kyle hit Nova Scotia in 2008, not a pleasant experience. We has spent the day prior to its arrival removing everything that was loose in the garden and tying down every that couldn’t be moved, it was a very noisy night, we slept downstairs.

I do that, but not all insurance companies are on them, plus since the ruling that existing customers must be offered the same deals as new the savings have reduced, most of the quotes on car insurance are coming in at just £20 or £30 more others are more expensive. The excuses of increased number of accidents and car crime don’t wash, my last claim was back in 2005 after my car was hit by an unknown driver whilst parked legally on a street. As for car crime, the police figures for my local area don’t support that claim. It’s pure profiteering by insurance companies.

Not to bad a day, kept dry and mostly sunny, I was able to plant cabbage and cauliflower plants in new raised bed, rig up a Heath Robinson like protection a few canes, some nets, a few ground anchors, all this to keep pigeons off them. Finally managed to mow the lawn it’s taken a sudden growth spurt over the last few days, it filled the mower box 3 times. Noticed a lot of pigeon feathers on the drive this morning on the grass central strip, seems the local Sparrowhawk or the Goshawk that has been spotted recently. Tonight is sorting out house insurance and car insurance, the latter has seen a 51% increase in the premium on renewal, the usual waffle as to why it’s gone up and no leeway for reduction. Tomorrow it’s going through the list of options for a replacement Fridge Freezer as our current one has been written off as a part no longer available, it has served us well over the last 14 years.

Yes Bellingham was exceptional again, hard to believe he is only 20 plays with a maturity beyond his years. I also thought Lewis Dunk had an excellent debut and will probably be challenging Maguire for the centre back position, especially if the latter fails to get any significant amount of playing time with United, he seems to be out of favour with Ten Haag. Kyle Walker once again showed that he probably the best right back in Britain, and one the best in the world.

We won’t be affected as never visit ours just for drink, we may visit a pub with a restaurant, but if this was introduced in any of our local pub restaurants then we would go elsewhere. This for of “Fluid pricing” would be the opposite of “Happy Hour”. What next fluid pricing in supermarkets shop at a busy period and you pay more. Hospitality is struggling at the moment the last thing it needs is a system that could well drive customers away.

After a very warm night, I was sitting outside on patio at 11 last night, it was still 24C, in our bedroom was 26C. Despite having the fan on all night, still an uncomfortable nights sleep, going to freeze some ice packs today to put in front of fan tonight. Currently 20C with predicted high of 29C this afternoon.

Same here, too hot to sit on patio at back of house as faces south and shade temp currently just over 33C. Can’t sit on the area at the bottom of the garden as currently occupied by raised bed and bags of soil which relate to my new raised bed which I have had to stop installing as it’s too hot for physical work.

I loved going around La Boquirea the colourful sights of the produce, the smell and the sound of a bustling market, also an opportunity to practice my Spanish.

Pont du Gard been a good few years since I was there, the river had water in it then. Have you been to nearby Avignon, and the Pont de Avignon, the song/nursery rhyme which takes me back to French Lessons in my school days when we had to memorise the words.

Went out for meal this evening to Zizzi’s, been over a year since our last visit and all didn’t go well. Fitst they explains we should order via QR code on menu, tried that got message referring to the restaurant website as a malicious site (given the price increases that might be correct) so couldn’t order, manager said he had never seen that before, guess not tested against Norton security software and VPN it seems. So he had to take the order via his tablet, first drinks my wife wanted a mojito, sorry can’t do that we have no white rum, but could substitute with vodka! She opted for Aperol Spritz instead.My wife is gluten free, but as they had no gluten free bread she couldn’t have the bruschetta. Main course was fine although couple of options not available which she wouldn’t have had anyway. Dessert she had 3 choices the standard brownie (boring), a Marshmallow and salted caramel sundae with honeycomb pieces, bad news no marshmallows or vanilla ice cream, but could add chocolate ice cream instead and extra honeycomb. We both opted for this, but we’re disappointed the chocolate ice cream overwhelmed the salted caramel sauce and ice cream, plus additional honeycomb was stingy. When I asked why so much was missing, he said they were missing from order when delivered, that is supply chain problems. We said the reliance on technology must have made things more difficult, he said it had made it easier for him and his staff, I said it had made it more complicated for customers, we had a 25% discount voucher, which was accessible via app, but not the menu which you had to access via website, which was blocked for being malicious. Needless to say no tip was left and we probably won’t return. It will be interesting to complete the feedback survey later. 😉

Currently 28C, gone up by 3 degrees in the last hour, probably even hotter on our south facing patio. I did a bit of gardening this morning, watered planters and baskets at 6:30 this morning by 8am I had deadheaded the flowers that needed it in the borders, disposed of the bolted lettuce into the compost bin, the second crop of Lollo Rosso is coming on well, should have a lettuce supply for next 2 months. The sun has been good for ripening the tomatoes in the greenhouse, many that were green last week are now red or turning red. By 10.00 am to warm to do anything strenuous in the garden, so completing new raised bed is on hold for a few more days. I guess need to enjoy it while it lasts, which looking at the forecast is until Sunday.