Snow Hill

A a damp and overcast start to the day, on a yellow warning for thunderstorms this afternoon, so not planning to go anywhere today. I have some work to do in the greenhouse to prepare tomatoes for planting in the final locations, but not sure if I want to be in a metal framed greenhouse during a thunderstorm.

I believe they should be reporting outbreaks of Norovirus and the like to Public Health England.

Doubt he would have the intelligence to find the garage, as access is from a side street. He came again yesterday with another parcel that was ordered same time as the previous ones and did exactly the same. Again the door camera caught him dropping and running off without ringing the bell.

Fairly successful day today, I raised a complaint about Amazon Delivery regarding driver leaving 2 parcels on front step in full public view rather than our alternative safe place. Noticed from the cameras that he dropped the parcels, never rang the bell and was gone in less than 30 seconds, on the delivery email he had stated that he left in safe place. Amazon took complaint seriously and have passed complaint to fulfilment team and have credited £20 to my account. Second success was to negotiate my Ancestry subscription renewal, getting a 25% discount for forthcoming year after around 10 mins on phone.

So how do they deep clean a cruise ship in a few hours? Do they wash all the bed linen, pillows, duvets at 60C? Steam clean carpets & curtains? Use Anti-Viral fogging methods?

We do it all the time, any vegetables that are not quite at their best get turned into soup. My OH is a dab hand at conjuring up a meal from various ingredients in the fridge to use them up.

We often start of speaking French to someone, only to find they reply in English so they can practice, very annoying when we are trying to practice our French. Same has happened to me in Spain when I was trying to practice my Spanish prior to my aborted job move to Malaga.

We have the Michelin Guides to Brittany and Normandy, we find them very useful much better than any other guides we have seem. I also use the Via Michelin website to plan route in France, gives details of Toll charges, we have a Tag, so no scrabbling around for change on arrival at toll booth as we did when we first went, our friends in Brittany advised us to get one makes it much easier.

I was looking for a new French motoring atlas for our forthcoming trip to France, our current one is from 2018 and knowing how quick new roads are built in France, thought we better get a new one. Looking at the reviews for a couple I came across one which said “I wouldn’t buy this atlas too much green and not enough roads” A review of the Michelin Atlas, probably the best atlas you can buy for France. We use the inbuilt satnav in the car but my OH likes to follow the route in atlas, an will suggest stop off places in advance.

We have had postal votes for the last few years, mostly for local elections as we have often been away when they took place, we always vote in every election.

Perhaps rise is due to inflation, soft drink prices in U.K. have risen by 7 to 10% in last 12 months.

It was raining when we went to bed last night, still raining this morning and according to Yellow Warning will be raining until 6 am tomorrow. So no gardening today, will sort a couple of overnight stays for our Brittany Trip and the Le Shuttle booking, plus some remote volunteering work on my laptop.

Seems a sensible approach, if only to protect the passengers liver

The Euro2024 Games will be shared between BBC and ITV, as they are a protected event to be shown on Terrestrial Channels. So if the ship can receive those channels then they would be shown I guess

Until those charges are investigating and proven or disproven then there will be a question mark hanging over their achievements, the punishments for breach could well be severe including relegation and stripping of titles as well as significant fines. To many supporters we see the PL favouring the bigger clubs of the smaller ones, hence the rapid investigations of Forest and Everton. With City and Chelsea under investigation and still no outcome of those investigations it’s no wonder supporters of smaller clubs think the PL have their favourites.

Let’s not forget the 115 charges they face from the Premier League if they ever get round to hearing them, the PL had more important matters with Everton & Forest.

Well that’s it booked 2 weeks in Brittany, cottage with heated pool, no hire car issues as will have our own car. Will use Tesco vouchers to pay for Eurotunnel crossing and plan to stay in or around Honfleur for one night on the way down. We have been to the Morbihan area previously and weirdly the cottage is own by the same couple were hired from in 2016, they remembered us from then. We will also be able to visit our friends who live around 40 miles away from where we are staying, they are now officially French Nationals, a change from when we last saw them.

A warm day blue skies with a temperature of 22C, warmer than that on out south facing patio, which my OH has just finished sweeping and washing down. Finished putting up the trellis this morning, and tied in the clematis as its rapidly begun to grow in the last 10 days. Next job to remove the insulation from the greenhouse and put the automatic window openers back on and then put up the shading. I wonder if my team may spoil the leaving party at Anfield, probably not given our current form, I hope the Hammers at least get a draw, and let Arsenal win the title, assuming they beat Everton.

I have been to Pafos twice, did a lot of touring around in our hire car, didn’t enjoy as much second time as temperatures were in the high 30s and for a week in the 40s, we found it too hot and one day we spent time sitting on the plastic patio chairs submerged in the villas pool! The poolside temperature was 46C and the pool temperature 28C.

They would also consider an option of a per cabin drinks package, as it stands we would never purchase a drinks package on any cruise line, although we note that Virgin Voyages don’t offer a drinks package, but their Bar Tab can be shared.

My sister used to work at a Severn Trent sewage works, she said the same. The sludge is still used as fertiliser on farmlands and also for creating biogas

It is an option we are also considering and will be looking at today. As for Menorca I have never been there, my OH has before we met, I have been to the other 3 islands in the Balearics, Mallorca, Ibiza and Formentera. However we are leaning towards going to France, we have found a few potential villas/cottages with pools and near places we would like to visit, plus I can drive my own car, so no rental costs.

Well the visit to local TA was a short one, the vast majority of travel companies have 70 as an upper age limit, will often push it to 71 if you reach that age after you have booked, but as will be 72 when we would be going, the answer is no. Apparently it’s the cost of insurance that is the reason for this age discrimination, likewise at other end it’s usually 25 before you can hire a car and 30 for some models. So we have a few choices 1. seek out a suitable AI hotel and use bus if we want to go anywhere 2. Self drive to France, no issues with age or insurance 3. Find a villa in Northern Spain and catch the ferry to Santander, downside to this is the BoB 🤮 4. A fly cruise in Europe a possible option, but none of the itineraries seen so far are that attractive, revisiting places we have already been to a few times. Have already looked at villas in France for late August early September and there quite a few I like but needs to be a joint decision.

The chicken manure pellets are one of the recommended accelerants, don’t use the powder ones, they don’t work in hotbin composters. Another accelerant is fresh grass, but in small amounts and mixed with top layer. You need to get the temperature up into the red zone on the thermometer and ensure any liquid is drained off. I use mine as a liquid fertiliser mixed with water.When I get a few dry days I will be emptying mine, using the composted element on the garden and the partially composted back in the bin once cleaned out.

It made a change from the usual dead cats, badgers and the occasional muntjac deer that are usually posted.