Tothesunset

My wife and I have had 20 happy years together. We've been married for 40 years.

Bill Bryson plays words like Yehudi Menhin played the violin. An absolute master of his craft.

Better than the horse's ass who thought it was dez moynz!

It's not just silly names that's fun but local accents too. We Ulster folk have the peculiar knack of making many one syllable words into two syllables, then, just to be contrary, turn some duosyllabic words into monosyllables. Some examples: Face becomes fee-ass Eight becomes ee-at Film becomes fill-um Yet Northern Ireland becomes Norn Iron I no longer have my abrasive Shankill Road accent and in almost all respects use accepted English pronunciation. The one strong exception is the word eight. While mostly I pronounce it as 'ate' I have to concentrate. 8,888 still takes some getting out.

Phew! Happy to be corrected. Now I'm wondering how many Iowans laughed inwardly at my poor attempt at pronouncing that fine city's name.

Diolch an fawr!

My personal, favourite strange pronunciation is a town in West Yorkshire: Skelmanthorpe = Shat Yeah, me neither.

I'm no authority on Iowan dialect but it seems Dez Moynz is their pronunciatory preference. I know!

Oh, and while we're at it. Why are Leicester, Worcester and Bicester respectively pronounced Lesster, Wusster and Bisster yet Cirencester is fully enunciated? And isn't it about time we loaned the Welsh some vowels?

We got by with Dez Moynez. English villages seem to specialise in pronunciations that bear little relation to their spelling eg: Cowbit = cubbit Slaithwaite = Slowit (slow as in cow) Staithes = Stee-ahs Not just English, actually. Have a go at the following: Milngavie Dun laoghaire

In South Dakota I stopped at a petrol station and asked if I was on the right road for Pierre. Well, it's a French word so I assumed it was Pee-air. "Don't know any Pee-air." "You must. It's your state capital!" "Oh, you mean Peer." So I knew better than to ask for Day Mwan in Iowa.

New passengers to SS almost certainly won't compare SS now to SS then and will make their choices without prejudice. I suspect old-timers, like many on here, feel that the pricing changes have penalised those that like to arrange their own travel or offer a D2D plan that is often anything but and is expensive based on the prices of 2 or 3 years ago. As long as cabins are filled I doubt that we shall return to the previous pricing structure. If they lose fewer Ventians than they gain in new custom then they clearly won't change. Rather than complain (that's a bit disingenuous because I am complaining) we've moved our custom elsewhere that offers us better value for our needs. And for that I feel truly saddened.

Three words that rarely occupy the same sentence.

In trying to scam huge amounts from passengers with this D2D v PTP nonsense I wonder how many current Venetians they have lost compared to the number of new passengers gained who probably are less likely to see the penalties in the new fare structure? Sadly, our days of buying the cruise then arranging our own travel and accom have ended - at least with SS. We are not ingenues who need to have D2D at a silly mark-up nor are we daft enough to book P2P with the, frankly, disgraceful deposit terms and Venetian savings loss. We are both really sad to say farewell to the line which has given us over 200 days of great cruising but we would be even sadder to be taken for fools by handing over cash to SS when there are other lines ready and able to accommodate our needs. Once P2P returns with previous deposit rules and Venetian savings we will look again; if D2D persists but at sensible rates we will look again. It's all so desperately sad and unnecessary.

Maybe it was the very last time she played the sax. Her swansong?

Which is a good tip for those from other decks whose laundries might be on use.

The D2D v P2P pricing is a horror show. It's the reason we have 2 future cruises booked, neither with SS. Until they come to their senses on this I'm sure we aren't alone in looking elsewhere.