Cunard Cruisers - How are things where you are ?

[Lanky Lad]

It's beginning to look at lot like Christmas here. Well the tree is up anyway. I went to a concert last night by the Accrington Pipe Band (possibly the oldest civilian pipe band in the world) and the Baxenden Concert Band. A regular fixture in my pre-crhistmas calendar. I even managed to win a box of biscuits in the raffle. 

[Kynance]

I’ve already started my Christmas holidays - I finished work last Thursday and don’t go back until 3rd January, which is possibly my longest festive break since the distant days of university.  Mr Kynance & I are off to a concert tonight - “Midwinter Revels” - period instruments and music from Yuletides’ past.  We went to something similar back in 2019 and really enjoyed it, so hoping it will be worth the while of stirring from the warmth of the sofa to go out into the cold!
 

Like a number of other forum members, I received the Cunard Christmas card with the wording intended for the ship’s company, this morning. It made me chuckle - I wonder if crew members received the card with the guest wording? That said, I do have 2 voyages to look forward to next year, as I recently booked QV’s 7 nighter to Northern Spain in June, to go with 4 nights on QM2 to Hamburg. If it all works out, it will be only the 2nd time I’ll have done 2 separate trips in a year and the first time on two different ships. Quite excited about it - I just need to let Mr Kynance know about it as I haven’t told him yet. ☺️
 

Hope all your seasonal preparations are going well.

[Bigmike911]

Queen Mary 2 arrived in New York Harbor before three this morning. I would not want to be one of her arriving passengers trying to fly home across the US, in the worst winter storm in years. 

 

Here in southeast Texas we are expecting and overnight low of 15f -9.5c and it is not expected to be above freezing til mid day Saturday. The rest of the central US is colder. My citrus trees are tightly wrapped in Plankets and I have said a prayer for them. These were planted last year after the freeze of '21 which killed their predecessors. I got enough fruit to make 16 pint jars of marmalade. I would hate to lose them again.

 

All of the goods are in for Christmas, so we can button up and stay warm. To all of our friends around the world. Merry Christmas. 

[alc13]

Here in coastal Maine we're having powerful winds and rain, and weirdly warm temperatures.  We will most likely lose power to our house today as the wind blows trees down near power lines.  We have a solar-powered battery as backup, and a gas-powered generator to back up the battery, and I expect we'll need both of them.  Crews can't go out to repair downed power lines until it's safe, which won't be until tomorrow morning according to the forecast.

 

Ah, rural living.  But I love it.

 

Happy Christmas to all - stay safe, warm, and healthy. 

[Bigmike911]

Friday morning, When I got up this morning the outdoor temp was 17f -8.3c and brilliantly sunny. When I went down the driveway to collect the newspaper it was 'brisk' to say the least. 

 

The Banana trees in the rear garden look very sad, but I will cut them down as I do every spring and they will grow anew. It will take weeks or months to see the fate of other warm weather plants, 

 

I pulled the attic stairs down a foot to let warm air from the second floor sitting room go up to keep those pipes warm. Construction here is concrete slab with some pipes within the slab but many more crossing over in the attics, so it is necessary to keep those spaces above freezing. Basements are impractical because of the high water levels in the soils.

 

I left the kitchen sink tap run minimally and so far so good. There is a fire in the fireplace, and it will be a good day to stay indoors. 

[Host Hattie]

Stay safe everyone, we've got mild weather in Pembrokeshire. Just as well as Mr HH has been doing something with the electrics for most of the day !

[Lanky Lad]

I hope things don't get too bad for those in the USA. No work for me until Wednesday. Well unless you count cooking Christmas dinner on Sunday.

[techteach]

Returning home from QM2 on Thursday was an adventure. Disembarkation was great! We flowed from the ship to claim luggage, where help was immediate, moved quickly through immigration, out to clearly displayed signs for Luggage Forward and Cunard booked private cars. We have a very cold and long wait at JFK due to ice in Seattle which delayed our plane from San Diego. We left the ship at 9:00am EST and arrived home 4:30am EST. Lots, as in over 100, cancelled flights out of Sea Tac airport left luggage confusion. Freezing rain was falling as we left the airport and fortunately our son had shoveled the snow from our driveway. We still couldn’t drive up it, but we didn’t fall down. The pipes to the house had frozen, 1st time in over 30 years, but carefully placed area heaters got the water running around 9:00am Friday morning. The voyage was amazingly smooth. We’re ready to sign-up for our next one!

 

Bring on the Christmas cheer! Happy Holidays to all of you. 

 

Peace —

[Host Hattie]

Welcome back @techteach, I hope your weather improves soon. 

[Bigmike911]

5 hours ago, techteach said:

Returning home from QM2 on Thursday was an adventure. Disembarkation was great! We flowed from the ship to claim luggage, where help was immediate, moved quickly through immigration, out to clearly displayed signs for Luggage Forward and Cunard booked private cars. We have a very cold and long wait at JFK due to ice in Seattle which delayed our plane from San Diego. We left the ship at 9:00am EST and arrived home 4:30am EST. Lots, as in over 100, cancelled flights out of Sea Tac airport left luggage confusion. Freezing rain was falling as we left the airport and fortunately our son had shoveled the snow from our driveway. We still couldn’t drive up it, but we didn’t fall down. The pipes to the house had frozen, 1st time in over 30 years, but carefully placed area heaters got the water running around 9:00am Friday morning. The voyage was amazingly smooth. We’re ready to sign-up for our next one!

 

Bring on the Christmas cheer! Happy Holidays to all of you. 

 

Peace —

I am pleased that you enjoyed your voyage and got home safely if not swiftly. We have had very cold, but no precipitation, thank goodness. Now enjoy your Christmas, I am looking forward to mine. 

[Kynance]

It’s a mild and overcast but dry Christmas Eve in West Berkshire.  It is also Saturday which means it is chores day before I make mince pies and sausage rolls. (If I am honest, it is more like assembling than making them from scratch). Mr Kynance is out in town, last minute Christmas shopping and will no doubt be following his tradition of wrapping gifts very late this evening…🙄 I have 2 small presents to wrap and then I am finished. 
 

A merry Christmas to everyone, especially to anyone struggling with the weather or other adversity - I hope tomorrow brings enjoyment, relaxation, peace or whatever else you may be hoping for from the day. 🎄🎅🏻🎄

[techteach]

@Kynance Merry Christmas! I would love your sausage roll recipe. We had one in a pub in London and it wasn’t very good. I want a really good one. FYI to all, it is pouring rain this morning. The ice is gone. @Bigmike911 We became friends with a couple from outside of Dallas on the cruise. Wonderful people.

[turnip eater]

Yesterday on QM2 was horrendous….hit a storm. I was having a manicure, chairs were moving, lots of crashing. Nail technician sucking on sea sickness tablets.😳
Today on QM2 wind has dropped and people  are walking on deck. Temperature 20c. Getting quite Caribbean like. 🌴
 

Happy Christmas everyone.🎄

[Kynance]

@techteach - I’m flattered to be asked for my recipe 😊. As I said above, it’s more about assembly than baking from scratch but I have adapted a recipe by a lady named Martha Collison who was a contestant on one of the early series of “The Great British Bake Off”.  Martha’s recipe called for a 320g sheet of ready-made all butter, puff pastry, which just so happens to be available in exactly that weight in the UK from a company called “Jus Roll”. I think the “all butter” bit is key. 
 

I used 450g of pork sausagemeat with black pepper and nutmeg, courtesy of Waitrose supermarket, then stirred in 2 dessert spoons of cranberry sauce and then used another couple of dessert spoons of cranberry to paint a cranberry stripe down each half of the pastry sheet, which I cut width-ways, before dividing the sausagemeat between the two halves.   Once assembled, I brushed with egg wash and cut each large sausage roll into 6 smaller pieces. Finally,  they went into the oven for 30-35 minutes.  I have a fan oven so it was 180 degrees (200 without a fan, not sure what it would be in Fahrenheit but that’s easy to look up).

 

The finished items look a bit messy but I am informed by Mr Kynance that they are better than Marks & Spencer’s! (I think he is obviously biased though…). 
 

I really like turkey, bacon & cranberry sausage rolls but making the filling for them feels like a step beyond assembling for me! 

[Host Hattie]

Happy Christmas everyone, we had a lovely meal out at lunchtime and crumpets with cheese for supper!

It's still mild but we had a short electrical storm earlier. 

 

[Lanky Lad]

Happy Christmas everyone

[techteach]

@Kynance Thanks for the recipe. It sounds fantastic. I can do that! 

[techteach]

Presents were opened, dinner and wine consumed. I see there is still part of a bottle of port. Only one melt down because we didn’t build all of the new Lego sets as they were opened. There are pieces of wooden train track strewn throughout the main floor. All are still in bed and Santa has visited. 😉 (More trains to run on those new tracks!) Merry Christmas everyone.

[Kynance]

It’s been the usual quiet Christmas in the Kynance household. Turkey & Christmas pudding followed by presents and watching an adaptation of A Christmas Carol. Yet again, “O Holy Night” was voted the nation’s favourite carol by the listeners of Classic FM. The top 5 has been the same for years - I feel like next year we need a social media campaign to shake it up! Nice to see “Carol of the Bells” in the top 10 though. 

 

I did also enjoy watching the King’s first Christmas broadcast - he was very eloquent and I think the tone hit the spot for the times we are currently living through. 

[Camgirl]

It didn't quite go to plan here. We were due to go to my sisters house on christmas eve for our Christmas Dinner. She has a chest infection (not covid), so the meal has been postponed. We were still going to go over for Christmas day and boxing day. However, this morning, she rang to say her husband has woken with a sniffle, and has tested positive for covid. Luckily, it seems to be pretty mild, at the moment.

 

So, we were suddenly left without anywhere to go, and no fresh food in the house! 

 

In the end, we travelled over to my sisters house, an hour away, collected some food that she wouldn't be able to use, waved at her husband, who looked dreadfully crestfallen, commiserated at length with my sister, and returned home.

 

One of my two sons, and his wife, joined us, and we had a quiet evening at home together, eating the food my sister had provided.

 

To top it all off, for my poor sister, she has done something to her hands, which have got more painful during the day. She contacted 111, and they told her to go to her nearest nhs walk in centre, to be seen by a doctor. She is still there, waiting to be seen, four hours later...... 

 

What a day!

[MelbTone]

Sunny 32C (90F) Christmas Day here in Melbourne (Aus). I was great to go back to my normal pre-Covid Christmas: living on my own and having no family here, I was at church in the morning, then the lunchtime 'orphans picnic' held in one of our parks, then hosted my 'open house' - 15 came; it was like the United Nations, not one of us born in Australia. So good to be able to do this.

 

Next weekend I start my self-imposed semi isolation before my first cruise in three years. I probably ought to go on a week's fast too: diet-wise I have been pretty tough on myself since a heart attack but all rules are suspended while at sea! Two to follow (2021 and 2022's cruises cancelled and rebooked) so I will get to compare Princess, Cunard and Celebrity in quick succession. Third cruise on the QE; traded my longer cruise cancellation FCC for a three-nighter in PG.

[techteach]

@Camgirl I’m sorry the day has not worked out. I think you should be proud you’ve rolled with the punches. This will be a Christmas you won’t ever forget. I hope tomorrow is better.

[Host Hattie]

Oh dear @Camgirl, I am glad you managed to salvage something,  I hope your sister is feeling better. 

We had a lovely day, we managed to make our meal from starters through Beef Wellington, pudding to cheese and biscuits last pretty much all day. We had a mixture of bright sunshine and short, sharp showers. We watched the latest Knives out film.

 

[ronpes]

We had a lovely Christmas day. 

We went out very early in the morning to tend to the horse and give him some extra treats along with his feed. 

 

Then Back home for quick change and then round to the pub for a sit down meal and some bubbly stuff which was lovely. 

 

We then decanted to the bar afterwards for a refreshment or two before a brisk walk home in the very cold to sit down with the track suit on to catch up on some telly and and perhaps another refreshment with a chocolate or two. 

 

Today it is absolutely freezing, and with the windchill it is -4C but seems much colder. 

The pony has a nice thick rug on to keep him cozy. 

However my heart goes out to those folks in North America who are experiencing unprecedented weather.

 

I hope you all have a break.

[ronpes]

25 minutes ago, ronpes said:

 

I hope you all have a break.

Meant to be “I hope you all have a nice break”