Snow Hill

Not surprised they are offloading a number of their restaurants, have been in a beefeater today, at lunchtime next to a motorway junction, besides the 2 of us there were precisely 5 other diners, there were more staff than people eating. The meal was excellent, although we have found it can vary significantly between locations. They are also suffering from supply issues, we were advised that 5 items were not available on the menu as they were not included in last 2 deliveries.

Simple answer you can’t, my brother who owns and runs a cleaning business, part of which deals with deep cleaning of medical facilities after such breakouts, has said it is impossible to deep clean a cruise ship in 2 hours.

Just noticed that the Edgbaston bit was included in above post, it should have been a separate post, guess I should not post around midnight when I should really be in bed.

His employer will be informed so likely he will also be disciplined and possible lose his job as they may see it as endangering passengers and other road users lives. We have just returned from Edgbaston after watching England v Australia Women’s T20 match, Australia win off the penultimate ball. On the way back we saw probably about a dozen taxi drivers doing u-turns in the middle of the road to try and avoid the queues, almost 1 or 2 accidents due to these stupid manoeuvres. I have them on my dash cam, so may download the incidents and send them to the licence authority In Birmingham, many of these vehicles were marked as Uber.

Or in the U.K. the FSA (Food Standards Agency)

You don’t have to order them, just choose the non vegetarian/vegan/gluten free option, it’s not difficult, the menu list options for meals for those who are the above, so say for sausages, for you it would be standard sausage, for a vegetarian it would be a non meat option.

We have seen an increase too, fields are over a mile away now new houses have been built, we have one these, practising my forehand and overhead smashes.

The 90/180 rule came into affect in 2013, replacing the previous Schengen rule so predates the U.K. leaving. It’s a visa waiver type system, you can stay longer than 90 days but you would need to apply for a visa, as you would for many other countries.

The EES system will be at the point of entry into a Schengen country, I haven’t seen anything to suggest it will be accessed at point of departure except for the likes of the Channel Tunnel and Dover Ferry Port when French Passport Control have their posts. Given the EU data protection laws I would doubt they would give a Third Country which the U.K. now is access to their frontier system.

Morning, already 21C this morning, awful nights sleep even with fan on room was so hot, got up at 1pm and sat on patio to cool down. Finally got back to sleep at 2, woken up by some idiot who stoped his car outside our house with sound system blaring at around what seemed like 200 decibels. 🤬 We were due to go out for a walk today and go for Sunday Lunch afterwards, but abandoned the walk idea as midday temp due to hit 29C, just go for lunch instead.

ETIAS is one thing EES (Entry Exit System) which requires biometric data including fingerprints also comes into force in 2024 for countries not in the EU, It will operate at all airports and EU countries with a maritime ports, not clear yet how this will operate for cruise ships or ferries. https://travel-europe.europa.eu/ees/general-information_en

Yes there are, have been looking at other cruise lines for a possible cruise in 2024, in particular different itineraries, but it is noticeable how many have a relaxed attitude to dress code and no formal night as such.

Wouldn’t bother me, when we shared tables on a short cruise I wore my one and only suit, whilst others on the table were in dinner suits, did get a few muttering though, good job wasn’t wearing smart casual they would have had be swab the decks or worse still walking the plank . 😂

A bit of Heras fencing down the middle, smart casual one side formal the other. 😂

That would be another option

We have done the train twice, got shuttle bus to Blankenberg train from there to Bruges costs about €7 return. Takes about 10 mins or thereabouts, about 15 min walk into centre of Bruges from station. Very easy and trains are usually on time. https://www.belgiantrain.be/en

Perhaps they should look to making the likes of Sindhu free on nights where formal attire in mandatory in MDR & some other eateries. That would radical!

Well said. Why do people think that they can’t eat Gluten Free food? It’s good to see P&O improving what they offer for coeliacs, when we started cruising the options for my wife were limited, I remember 1 occasion where she had steak 3 nights on the run as the was nothing on the menu gluten free or that could be adapted. One place we go for Sunday Lunch on occasions stopped mentioning it Sunday offerings were gluten free, as people kept asking for a non gluten option. The solved that problem with a complete gf Sunday option. Options are advertised for vegetarians and vegans still.

It was his decision not to have a crown on stamp. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64554857

Had our first letter, well birthday card, with the Kings Head on the stamp today, first time seen one in the “wild” so to speak, looks very odd after all these years with the Queen on them.

Rained quite heavily for a few hours, we noticed our front guttering was overflowing, I got in touch with a local business who had sorted a similar problem about 7 years ago. Rang him at 9:45 he said he would come out, 11am he was here, by 11:15 problem solved, a small piece of tile had stopped moss and leaves and created a dam in the gutter. Excellent service.

As I had never heard of him, I had to look him up, I had heard of Liberty X, but I hadn’t associated him with the group, Nit someone I would pay to see though.

Showery morning, cooler than of late, around 18C, opted to watch the Test Match this morning, rewarded with loss of 3 Australian wickets

My first car was a 1971 Ford Escort 1.3L, not a bad first car, except when part of the exhaust fell off one night returning home from my then girlfriend’s home, got pulled over by the police, who gave me 24 hours to get it fixed or face a fine, cue a lot of frantic phone calls the next morning, got it fixed then had to drive to police station to get it inspected, only to find there was no record of me being stopped or the need to bring it in. Never had a company car, but I was responsible for the departments pool car, which got swapped regular, in my time we had a Golf GTI, Ford Sierra Cosworth, Golf TDI, RAV4 and an assortment of less powerful cars. We had the Sierra Cosworth for about 6 weeks until senior management found out, it had originally been swapped for a run if the mill Ford Sierra, which we had to return when a engine gasket blew, we need Ed a replacement quick as we were undertaking a lot of computer installations and the only car they had was the Ford Sierra Cosworth previously in the hands of one the senior advisors. We had a great time driving it, never had so many “volunteers “ offering to help on the project.

Another early morning woke up at 5:15, temperature in bedroom was 24C despite having fan running and strategic windows & internal doors open. I notice the forecast is for temperatures to fall to a more reasonable 21C over weekend, might get a good nights sleep then. Dental Check up this morning, theatre this evening, don’t think theatre have a dress code so if hot will where my shorts.