Splice the mainbrace

8c and partly sunny here. I redid the washing up liquid method of moss killing on our patio yesterday on the forecast prospect of 2 days of dry weather but woke up to damp ground, so we must have had some light rain overnight😪. The same happened the last time I did it a few weeks ago, I drenched it more this time with the solution so I hope that it has worked. I also pencilled in today for cutting the grass so I hope that it dries off in the sun and breeze.

It was probably the Cowherds pub which backs onto Southampton Common, it’s only a short walk up the Avenue from Elizabeth House.

I was surprised when Jet 2 chose Bournemouth (Hurn) airport as their southern hub over Southampton airport last month which has much better facilities and connectivity, they must have their reasons as they are a good company. 8c dry but breezy here this morning. I managed to cut the grass yesterday before we had heavy showers late afternoon. Also pruned the buddleia and used a face mask after reading why I cough so much when pruning, it’s the fine hairs on the shrub being breathed in. My team Southampton won last night that’s 3 in a row and after thinking we were out of automatic promotion from the Championship are back in the race and we’re reining in Leicester, Ipswich and Leeds. I saw this video online and found it very funny and clever summing up the current situation. https://x.com/jhgolld/status/1779477155870642229?s=48&t=ZaIQ9msuYS3ZMidRv6Tkmg Bad news though is that Portsmouth got promotion to the Championship. Hampshire police will be hoping that Southampton now get promotion because the derby causes huge issues and resources. In recent times they’ve had to ‘bubble’ the coaches in and out of the cities and they still got attacked.

I’ve just read on the bbc an article from 3 days ago about the spring booster being available to book from today online or on tel no. 119 for over 75s, people in care homes and immunosuppressed. Eligible people will be contacted but I hadn’t seen it publicised. It’s under the bbc news health section.

We were awoken this morning at 6.15 by 2 claps of thunder, torrential rain and wind beating it into the windows. Now it’s still windy with a few passing showers and 8c. Tomorrow is forecast to be dry so I have allocated it as a gardening day.

I don’t remember this sort of small flies years ago but we have just a few of them now and again, I’ve noticed them when staying in hotels as well. We don’t often have fresh fruit out, we do have a couple of house plants and I think they must ‘live’ in the moist compost?

We had unexpected light rain as well not long after I’d applied washing up liquid solution onto our patio to kill the moss, I’ll have to do it again if the rain nullified it.

14c bright with a light breeze here at the moment. Getting ready to spend 4 days watching the Masters golf, like tennis I only watch the major tournaments but love it when they are on, part of my sporting year. However I need to contact Sky to go through the 18 month charade of getting their renewal price down, it’s very annoying, I’ve been with them for 32 years and they have VIP this and that but not on renewal price for loyalty. I accessed my blood test results online yesterday for statin lipids, liver and kidney analysis and all is ok apart from slightly low sodium and high 2.3 mmol hdl (good) cholesterol.

Supposedly the Man City and Chelsea investigations are more complex so will take longer, however if found guilty they should have a HUGE punishment but the Premier League will probably not.

Good draw last night👍

8c, cloudy but dry at the moment but rain not far off according to the rain radar. Our lawn treatment service was postponed yesterday due to the deluge and storm yesterday, now coming tomorrow. Following the travel insurance chat, with the Nationwide I get free cover for one prescription statin drug, I wonder how the new arrangement with Aviva will view this. However my wife’s charge is £63 for statin plus one other. I am classed as high cholesterol because I had a total cholesterol of over 6 nearly 20 years ago in my mid forties and have been on statins ever since. However my bad cholesterol since has always been below the 4mmol max but I have higher good at around 2 when the minimum target is 1 so still around a total of 5 overall.

We’ve been very satisfied with the Nationwide flexplus travel insurance for many years. They paid out quickly when we had to curtail our holiday in Vietnam when the world was locking down 4 years ago. I have just renewed our add ons which means we will be with UK insurance until next year however renewals after 30th April? will be with Aviva. We’ll have to see what health renewal costs are with Aviva if we continue with flexplus or not.

7c, rainy and stormy here this morning and the forecast is for it to stay this way until mid afternoon😩 Since I retired we only have one car now and we manage ok between us, it is 4 1/2 years old and we have had it for 3 1/2 years. A complete contrast to when I was working when we had 2 cars from the company which we changed every 6 months, so 4 new cars a year. It’s taken a bit of getting used to having to arrange servicing and MOTs after 20 years not having to do so.

This is where the mobility shop is. MIL managed to buy a rollator that suited her.

The shop is on Tunstall Trade Park so we can park right outside. MIL is only 4ft 10in so it’s important that the rollator is comfortable for her height, so she needs to try before she buys.

12c and cloudy here but at least it isn’t raining, for now. We’re taking my MIL to Stoke (Tunstall) today to buy a rollator. Her mobility has deteriorated a lot in the last year and after starting to use a stick last year she has reached the stage where she needs the stability of a rollator, much to her disgust as she has always prided her mobility compared to others of similar age. She is 90 next month.

11c and quite bright here this morning after overnight rain. Even though the grass was still bit wet I managed to cut it yesterday because looking forward there doesn’t seem to be many dry opportunities coming up😩☔️

7c, bright and light breeze here at the moment. MIL is round for lunch today and it’s home made fish pie including cod, haddock and salmon. Tomorrow we are driving down to spend a few days at my sister and BIL who live near London, it will be the first time that we have met since November 2019, although we have had regular zoom calls over the past 4 years. On Sunday our cousin and family from New Zealand are coming around to meet up and have afternoon tea, and on Monday we are going into central London to meet up with friends that we made last year on a cruise. So quite a busy weekend for us. Have a good weekend everyone 🐣🐥🐇🐑🥚

The Titanic disaster hit Southampton very hard, there are many monuments around the city, there is a Titanic trail and the Seacity Museum. 546 crew members who lived/resided in Southampton lost their lives and many came from the same streets. (see link below). The amount of residents lost was a huge shock to the city. Passenger shipping was booming at that time and there was a shortage of crew to spread around all of the expanding shipping fleets, my great grandfather was approached to go on Titanic but he was happy to stay with American Line (thank goodness), he did the Southampton to New York run for nearly 20 years as a steward. https://historicsouthampton.co.uk/crew/

We've had problems booking our flights for our Pacific cruise next January/February. We asked for a Premium Economy quote from our TA who contacted P&O and got us some good flight times and a reasonable on cost last week. For comparison we asked for a quote with Economy flights to San Francisco (relative shorter flight) and Premium back from Sydney, after 2 more emails and apparent confusion at the TA we yesterday got an 'automated' Economy standard flight conformation via TA from P&O that also didn't account for us staying in Sydney 2 more nights after the end of the cruise. We have this morning emailed the TA again to clear things up. Why don't P&O contact the customer or via the TA at the time of flight booking to see what grade of flight they want and dates of flight required?

I was up early today with alarm set for 3.55 this morning to get up and watch the Australian Grand Prix but went back to sleep for a couple of hours afterwards. 8c dry but cloudy here at the moment, the forecast is for it to remain dry for the rest of the day. MIL is round for Sunday lunch, my wife is cooking pork, leek and apple casserole with new potatoes and P&O style squeaky beans.

We’re on Sky Princess in September for a 31 day USA and Canada cruise and then again in May 2025 for a 14 day med cruise with Tony Hadley ( Spandau Ballet), Anton Du Beke/Erin Boag (Strictly) and Brian Conley doing shows.

Rained earlier but passed over now. One pair of our resident black birds are building a nest in the ivy, but it is close to the bird feeders where squirrels and magpies also frequent so if they are seen I fear for their eggs or chicks. Our forsythia is in full bloom now and the spirea Bridal Wreath is just coming out, spring is here😀🪻🍾

We are spending 5 days based at St Merryn just outside Padstow in June, it's the first time that I have been to this area and my first time to Cornwall since 1980!! Really looking forward to it.

Lovely sunny but chilly start to the day here. Wife is taking our 5yo grandson to the local Agricultural College this morning for the Lambing 🐑 open day and I’m just going to do some more gardening and sport watching.