Eglesbrech

3 minutes ago, Josy1953 said:

I feel like winter has arrived today so I have switched the pretend fire on just to give the impression that the warmth is coming from a fire rather than the radiators.

Very pretty and it does make you feel warmer doesn’t it.

I sent Oh up to get the heavy duvet down as it is heading towards minus already at just 8pm. It’s been lovely through the day, bright and sunny but frosty at night.

The bushes and trees are amazing colours. It was hot last week (Scottish version of hot anyway)then went to cold very quickly which is the best weather for autumn colours.

4 hours ago, Jules. said:

It’s getting very close to our Northern Spain cruise and today we’ve had our luggage labels delivered.

Our embarkation time is 1.30pm, quite exciting as  we’ve never been on a ship that early having always sailed from Southampton or Dover and travelled down on a coach on the day. Will there be anywhere open at that time when we embark to go and get some lunch? 

We’ve treated ourselves and booked a two hour slot in the spa area for the first sea day. Are there any free to access saunas and steam rooms that we can use at other times, apart from in the spa area?

Thank you. 

Yes there will be lunch available in the buffet and the magradome as well usually.

Sorry I don’t know about free saunas but the bookable spa is really nice, you will enjoy that.

Extremely cold again today but sunny and crisp.  Nice day for a walk.

The news is all depressing at the moment so I have been listening to more audible books if I can’t sleep at night (which is most nights now).

I love a proper book but audible is great for the things that I would probably not work right through (like Pompeii which makes a good door stop as a book) or authors I don’t yet know. I’ve also been listening to Alan Cummings second autobiography and it’s amusing, I read the first book and it was quite harrowing.

My hand is till badly bruised so off into town to buy bread, which just doesn’t taste the same at all but needs must for a few more days.

@Josy1953 the news re Florida is dreadful, I hope they have all evacuated and stay safe. I presume any cruise ships in the area will have got out of there fast.

1 hour ago, amurray88 said:

The people who gave us dirty looks were talking during the show and let me assure you, I had fun giving them dirty looks back.

Yes poor and annoying behaviour applies just as much to adults as to children. Children at least have the excuse that they are young and learning. Some adults never do.

Lots of you on the same cruise.

Meet and mingle party!

Venue, Chateaux Frontenac cocktail bar (small mortgage required for each cocktail  - plus tip and state tax)

41 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

I would expect that any couple with a baby would want to take advantage of the night nursery, if they want to enjoy a meal at most of the speciality restaurants.

I know that we would not be happy to find a baby or a toddler sitting at the next table, when we have paid a premium for a special occasion meal.

John I am as you know a grumpy old woman and I can’t stand badly behaved children. I have been known to say something to the parents or the Matre,d if they let their children run riot (much to OHs embarrassment). 
 

I do however think that for children to learn how to behave properly  they need to experience dining. We used to take our nephew (who is now in his mid 30s) with us and if he was fretting one of the adults got up and took him out to the way so that he did not annoy others. As he got older he was perfectly behaved and could be taken absolutely anywhere as a result.

P&O are aiming at families so there will be children in the speciality restaurants. It’s how the parents manage this that counts. If they don’t manage it properly they should not be surprised if other diners comment, as you say a special occasion meal should not be spoiled.

If meals take far too long then yes children will get bored and so will some of the adults.

Well the frost of this morning (zero degrees) is now a really beautiful sunny day so just back from a nice long walk.

@P&O SUE I would be really interested in your thoughts about Woburn as it’s the only Center Parks we have not been to. We used to go every year from when they opened in the mid 1980s but more recently it became targeted for children and families and the restaurants more like fast food joints IMO.

We stayed in Sherwood for the 10th anniversary and as we had been every year, when we arrived they had left a lovely hamper of goodies and vouchers to use around the park. That was back when they had a fine dining restaurant with a piano player, European nights, medieval banquets and Australian beach bbqs (where I first tried shark) . Changed days.

I would still like to try Woburn to complete the full set. 
 

Enjoy your break.

Well I eventually got an hour or two of sleep and woke up to…. Frost!

I knew it had got colder as the heating was kicking in and out but the roofs are white and the car will need a heat up to clear the windscreen before going anywhere. Fist frost of the winter but a beautiful clear sunny day.

Off to dig out the thermals!

Anyone else awake? I can’t sleep tonight at all.

I have listened to a couple of podcasts, read a bit of news and sorted tomorrows dinner. I normally do a bit of nocturnal baking but I have an injured hand at the moment so kneading bread is not possible for a few days so no sourdough.

Im envious of those above who are in Quebec at the moment, it’s such a lovely place to visit. We stayed there for a week as part of a tour of the East coast of Canada. In fact we enjoyed all of the Canadian cities.

Anyway I hope you are all fast alseep and properly rested.

4 hours ago, Splice the mainbrace said:

Woke up to this view of Quebec City from our balcony this morning. It’s a lovely city, we spent 4 hours exploring and we shared a plate of Poutine and glass of wine each for lunch. There is so much to see/visit in the city, more than I thought that there was. We are staying in port overnight but moving berths at 11.00 pm, tomorrow we will be exploring more and then a excursion in the afternoon.

 

 

Quebec is a lovely city. There is an amazing restaurant in the old town that specialises in rabbit dishes called Le lapin sauté. You can’t miss it as it has terracotta rabbits& bells etc outside, looks like a cottage, just along from the funicular. It’s really good food, if you like rabbit that is.

Cocktails at Châteaux Frontenac are excellent as well. There is a lovely view from the cocktail bar.

Enjoy your stay.

@tring I hope DH feels better soon. 

5 hours ago, purplesea said:

Yes, but thought it was me as I'm away!

I’m at home and still slow as treakle.

Enjoy your break!

Lovely day out today. Light breakfast before an interesting tour round a distillery and a few really interesting drams. Then a country drive and tasty high tea.

Do you have high tea elsewhere in the U.K. or is it a Scottish thing? Afternoon tea is sandwiches, savouries, scones and cakes. High tea is later in the day and a hot dish like fish, steak pie, Mac cheese etc with lots of toast, tea, cream scones and cakes.

Just seeing the news about the tornado in Hampshire. Hope everyone down there is fine, it looks horrendous.

Always nice to hear positive feedback. Food is such an important part of a holiday for many.

Enjoy the rest of your cruise.

48 minutes ago, Purdey16 said:

Maybe our friend Moley can enlighten us about this , are we getting a replacement specialty restaurant?

I just had a look at the website and they are still advertising Sindhu and The Glass House as current dining choices.

As you say perhaps Moley will know something.

5 minutes ago, Josy1953 said:

My favourite plumber had just left after replacing all of the bathroom taps.  I  do wish that he would let us pay him for his time but he never wants anything more than the cost of the parts.  I will have to find a nice bottle of whisky for him and leave it in his house when I go to take his daughter to school next week.

Amazon have got a really good offer on Caol Ila 12 year old in their offer of the day today. 30% off. A good price if he likes a peaty dram.

Well I have slept away most of the day which is not like me at all. Still feeling less than stellar after the flu jag.

Oh says it has been a brilliant sunny day here. A nice change after the rain of August.

Currently sitting outside on the tete a tete seats enjoying the last of the sunshine with a G&T in a big balloon glass. Life is good!

I have been up early as well Josy.

I had my flu injection yesterday afternoon and my arm is killing me, my head anches and I feel generally lousy. The nurse did warn me that I may not feel the best today. Anyway at least that’s it done for another year.

The sun is just beginning to come up here and it looks like another lovely day. It was cold overnight after a beautiful sunny day yesterday but no cloud means colder nights.

Have a good day all.

22 minutes ago, zap99 said:

Yes we had all the statistics. Perhaps people compiling the call centre dropped call report may be better employed picking the phone up.....the minister bullied me....what did she say....you've all effing useless. 🤣

You don’t compile them, they generate automatically and display on the manager(s) screens.

Staff also saw their own statistics. Perhaps systems don’t all work the same way but most modern ones did.

Your theory is right though, sometimes people just need to get on with the job.

I also worked with scan and workflow systems which had escalations inbuilt if targets were missed. They escalated up to a supervisor, then a manager until it hit the CEO if it was happening too often.

2 hours ago, zap99 said:

Our leaders want everybody to have the right to Work from home. My last couple of years was spent as a Technical Consultant attached to a call centre......The nice young manager Lady shouted out. ' is anybody going to answer the phones today?. As she walked past my desk she said ' if they spent as much time working as the did making coffee they might get some work done '.She added I may try your tactics.  I'll shout out " why don't you lot shut the FU. In my humble opinion work from home isn't a panacea for employers.

She clearly she was not managing properly then. All modern contact centres with CRM have an accurate record of calls taken, time taken, Ox time between calls, time away from desk, reports take this down to the minute including any dropped calls because they were not answered, calls in the que, wait time in que etc.. It can even count keystrokes to foil the mouse wigglers.

As an aside any organisation which has long wait time and lots of abandoned calls is well aware of it and simply don’t care enough about their customer base to make it better. That applies whether people are in the office or at home for call handlers (obviously not for other job roles so much).

Did anyone watch Pointless tonight?

I aced it as two of the subjects were Queen songs and StarTrek. I ask you, who doesn’t know who Bilana Torres is, And she was pointless.

3 hours ago, yorkshirephil said:

I think it is more to do with your own personal car usage and circumstances than whether the country is ready

That’s a fair point. If you live in a fairly populated area with lots of facilities it is fine to make the change over.
 

If however you live in a more rural area, where there are few public charging points many, many miles apart (and have to keep heating on in the car in the much colder winters which drains the battery) then the infrastructure is not ready.

Add to that the fact that those in power up here actually don’t want car usage in the first place.

I don’t have any issue with changing technology but right now there is just not sufficient infrastructure, here at least.

21 minutes ago, lincslady said:

Is the country honestly going to be ready for all electric cars when it should be?  I find it hard to believe that everyone with a car will be able to charge it as and when needed, whether at home or 'on the road' the way things are at present.  Opinions,  please.

No. The idea seems to be to price people off the road and onto public transport. There was never any plan for a like for like transition.

It will be back to the 70s when only the few had access to private transport. Everyone else will have to work around public transport which will be good for emissions but not so good for convenience and in some cases impossible for getting to work etc.

Having commuted for decades all around Scotland (when I worked) I am not a fan of public’s transport which is generally overcrowded, overpriced and not reliable. If that could be improved then perhaps people would use it more.
 

Add to that the fact that one journey I make regularly by car which takes 20 minutes would take 2.5 hours each way by bus and I would have to turn round and come home almost immediatly as there are no buses after 6 pm.

11 minutes ago, Grandad John said:

Reminds me of the Billy Connolly joke, although I daren’t repeat it on here, suffice to say it was a little cruder!

I know exactly the one you mean. Words to live by.

I enjoy wine in moderation, don’t smoke, I’m a bit chubby in spite of not liking sweet things and exercising every day. I enjoy good food. I would rather do that and have a few years less than the alternative but unfortunately it’s not a choice