Splice the mainbrace

Yes I agree about escooters. They are illegal to use in most areas apart from on private land. Some cities and towns do run escooter rental trials, in fact my son rents one to go between his flat in Ocean Village in Southampton and the railway station 3 days a week for him to commute to and from London. I didn’t realise until a few months ago, after watching a channel 4 or 5 police programme, that if you commit a road traffic offence, for example over the drink drive limit, it goes against your driving licence as if you were driving your normal car.

I think that it is coming your way, only light here for a few minutes which has just dampened the ground. I need to mow the grass today (during lunch at the test match😊) so hopefully will have dried off by then.

I woke up earlier than normal this morning and rather than roll over and go back to sleep got up because The Open has already started. We don’t normally have the TV on in the morning unless there is sport on that interests us. it was supposed to be dry today but there is a shower or 2 around the only ones in the whole of England from what I can see.

I think that you enter the number as normal starting with your area 0 but then enter the rest of the number without a space between the area code and the rest of the number?

17c here and overcast forecast of rain later. We’re meeting up at lunchtime with a couple that we met on our South America cruise and tour in February. They live on a canal boat and are travelling through our local town today. 🤞

Whatever grade of cabin you are in Platinum level and above get early priority boarding only at Southampton and New York, whatever the boarding time you’ve been allocated.

Just got through our boarding time for our cruise in 3 weeks time and pleased that it is for 1.00pm and not unnecessarily hanging around to a later time.

It’s been busy sports wise for the last few weeks. I’ve got into the tennis this year more than before, I only normally get into it from the quarter finals onwards. My wife has been watching the Tour de France most afternoons on another tele, that will be my go to sport this week until Wednesday when the ashes start and the Open on Thursday. The trouble is when I get to November with the dark and cold weather I regret watching too much sport and not making the most of the warmer weather😩

My mum also used to say “I’m going to give you a jolly good hiding”, and she was right as I never could find her😊

And my mum kept thinking I’d forgotten my name with “who do you think you are”?

No I vote for what I would order if I was out eating not if I like or dislike the guest on the show.

We’ve booked an Airbnb house at St Merryn next June which I think is within walking distance of the Cornish Arms. It will be my first time in Cornwall for over 40 years.

I voted for hell because I don’t like over sized burgers and I quite like haggis😊 Ive recorded it to watch the rest later, I switched over to watch the T20 finals where my team Hampshire are playing yours Essex. All 4 teams in the finals this year are Southern counties.

There was an air display at the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch in the early 80s and I always remember a Vulcan bomber coming over the crowd and then doing a steep climb at full throttle, the noise and vibrations around us were tremendous.

I don’t eat out much, only a few times a year. My wife goes out once a month or so with friends because she knows how reluctant I am. Although we did go to Maritimos (part of the Lounge Group of restaurants) in Ocean Village before our last cruise in May and the food was very good and was worth the money, which in many cases else where it is not worth it IMO. I don’t mind paying high prices for top notch restaurants on special occasions but the prices now at mediocre restaurants and pubs puts me off. Graham and others keep posting your food pictures because I can eat virtually for free and it’s low in calories 🍔🥙🌮

I think they give a 10% discount if booked online at least 3 days before the cruise starts + the % discount depending on loyalty tier.

P&O have smaller ships.

It’s never been made an issue until the bigger ships came with P&O. Even in May when we sailed from Mayflower 106 with Cunard we have priority boarding but there weren’t any queues outside for those that don’t. So maybe the cruise companies are instructing/influencing the land side operations.

The Redbridge causeway closure this weekend and next is now cancelled. A35 Redbridge Causeway will remain open this weekend | Daily Echo

On our first cruise back after lockdowns we were told that by staff serving in the buffet rather than help yourself saved 30% food waste. I guess people like me are embarrassed to be served a lunch of chilli, curry, fried chicken, chow mien with sides of chip, pasta, potatoes and rice on the same plate😂

One strange thing that I’ve noticed from food shopping is that the price of big pot natural yoghurt has actually gone down, it is actually half the price of a pint of milk. At 2 supermarkets that we use where a pint of milk is 90p the equivalent size yogurt own brand is 35 and 40p. When I saw the price online I thought that it was a mistake. I’ve also noticed that price rises have slowed and that there are more ‘special’ offers around now on food stuffs. Hopefully the lower energy costs will feed through to producers and shop shelf prices. Gas price markets are around 70% less than a year ago and oil 20%.

I thought so as well but link below explains more. https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/insurance/insurance/cancelling-an-insurance-policy/

Talking of wildlife, I noticed when gardening at the weekend that we have 2 wasp nests this year, one in the porch roof space and one in the ground under an old tree stump. For the last 5 years or so we have 1 or 2 nests per year, they don’t bother us so we just leave them. However last year they had nested by our driveway and I had to be careful when washing the car, I was directly in their flight path into their nest which was a bit disconcerting. They never seem to use the same site twice. We also noticed recently that we were getting a few tiny Hoverflies coming into our lounge, today I have seen many coming and goings of them just outside our lounge window into the shrubs, so there must be a nest of them there. Until I looked it up just now I didn’t know that they had nests I thought they were solitary insects.

I've just booked the Holiday Inn Southampton by Mayflower Park direct their best Premium Super King room for £99 we added breakfast so it was £113 at the end of November. Their room rates for that date start at £68.

I put in a random March 2024 date at the Holiday Inn by Mayflower Park Southampton and the prices are from £88 for a room and £223 including breakfast and up to 15 days parking.