Harry Peterson

Like these? Jamesons still make Merry Maid caramels it seems, and they’re apparently Nigel Slater’s favourite toffee. I remember them mainly for the wrapper, which could be stretched with your finger to distort the face - early CGI I think!

Excellent news, perhaps, for our many friends in the beautiful south west. Hull has just revived its plans for a cruise terminal too. If that comes off too, a lot of those long journeys to Southampton could become unnecessary.

All of those, along with Crispets, 1.5d Everlasting Strips [no, not that!] and 3d Jamboree Bags. Floral gums a great favourite with my wife because they were small enough to put in your mouth without the teacher noticing. Imps had the same advantage, and I think you can still get those. My wife was given a detention on the very last day of term when the headmistress saw her eating an ice cream on her way home, still in uniform. Sweets in class probably meant a flogging.

You must really have seen some changes over those 40 years in your line of business, Graham. A lot of us here can still remember sweet shops and traditional newsagents in every village and all over towns and cities - until supermarkets took most of the business and a lot of people stopped buying papers. I’ve a very fond memory of a small sweet shop near the station in Woodford Green, 1980, around the time our daughter was born. I was working in London, but my wife was still in Taunton with the house on the market and about to give birth. She had a real thing about some sweets which you might recall - pink fondants, with a hazelnut on each one. Sold loose from a box. This shop had the last ones we’ve ever seen, and I bought a box for her - no longer made now, but she still talks about those last hazelnut fondants that we never saw again, 42 years ago. Maynards Matinee Selection was another of her favourites, and the last of those came from a small sweet shop near the cinema in Weston Super Mare, around the same time. Are those customers you mention still running the same sort of business, or have they moved into new areas?

I think he might be spending time on other threads, such as Princess. Maybe he’s changing loyalties? 🙂

I think we must agree to differ. Exploitation does not require force - it simply requires one party to a transaction to be in a much weaker bargaining position than the other, and the stronger party to take advantage of that. Wherever the staff are recruited, it's simply unfair to pay UK staff one one payscale and overseas staff on a much lower one when they're both working in the same place. Exploitation like that was stopped in most countries by minimum wage regulation, but companies like P&O get round that by other means. It gives passengers cheaper cruises, and Carnival higher profits, but that doesn't make it morally right. Legally, yes. Morally no. And that, I suspect, is why P&O don't have enough staff to provide passengers with an adequate service.

Goodness, Jane. I read that out of context and thought you were referring to tins of vaping fluid! If such things exist……

We used that once. Absolutely nothing wrong with it, and reasonably priced. Just not as convenient as CPS or P4C.

My wife would agree with you on the HP sauce, having tried most of the equivalents. As for the tomato, tastes vary, but blind tastings have usually let Heinz down and people have chosen various alternatives as better. In terms of actual tomato content, Heinz isn’t a leader - maybe it’s the sugar and salt.

Maybe all those overseas staff that Carnival have exploited for so long have decided enough is enough. P&O Cruises has been very keen to distinguish itself from Ferries, but in reality the similarities are stark - pay rates a small fraction of European minimum wage rates, exhausting work, and extremely long working hours. I know all the arguments, and I know it’s not illegal as laws currently stand, but when it comes to basic fairness you’ve got two sets of people on the same ship being paid on entirely different pay scales. Saga and Virgin pay better and look after their staff better - little wonder that they’ve defected!

They may well be - Aldi and Lidl prices certainly are. But when you start off at half the price of the branded equivalent, it’s still a big saving.

Fair point!

Too right. Rip-off branded goods are an absolute last resort so far as I’m concerned. Ludicrous prices, rarely any better than own label, and usually made on the very same production lines to near identical formulations. Even the fabled Heinz Tomato Ketchup, which people seem to stick with, can easily be matched in blind tastings. And for less than half the price.

That’s encouraging - thanks. Turndown and chocolates are trivial for most people, I suspect - and a £2 box of After Eights should see the grandchildren happy!

Not seen you for a while. Hope everything’s working out better now? Harry

Prawns?

I can think of a few people who’d relish the prospect of one of these ‘on display’ cabins. Mind you, most of them are still doing time for the last similar offence.

Ahhh.....sorry. My mistake. Thinking of Azura and Ventura.

Do insist on being able to breakfast in the Epicurean as part of whatever deal you do. It’s a stunningly good way to start the day, particularly outside in good weather, and since the cost to P&O is precisely zero it should be fairly easy to achieve.

I hope you’re able to get it replaced quickly - not a good time for it.

Are The Who still touring?

Very true - and this has always been the case with Freedom Dining. Popular times always meant some sort of managed wait. And actually, if you chose to eat even at the ‘opening time’ there was a longish queue - though it moved quickly of course.

Yes. Chilling.

Covid/norovirus isolation areas?