RMweb Premium Popular Post Dave Hunt Posted March 20 RMweb Premium Popular Post Share Posted March 20 (edited) Well, here I am back from the briny having spent five days above the arctic circle. My absence from TNM was due to Jill threatening allsorts of retribution if I spent any time while we were away on "that flamin' website" and I confess that I wilted before the threats. The cruise, though, was fantastic and I can recommend Saga to any of our readers of an age. We were collected at our front door, driven to Portsmouth, boarded the ship whilst our luggage was delivered to our cabin, spent 15 days in what is basically a 5 star floating hotel with several excursions and seeing the northern lights on three occasions, driven back home after our luggage was picked up from the cabin and delivered to the waiting car, and didn't have to spend anything at all on board as everything was included. The ship's appointments are top class, our cabin was brilliant and the service on board was superb; the only drawback is that the weight I lost since new year has reappeared as we basically ate and drank for Britain. The two Saga ships are smaller than most of the cruise ships and only accommodate about 900 passengers so with 500 crew you gat a lot of attention. We got back home on Sunday night but it has taken until now to sort out the unpacking, get on top of the jobs and admin niffnaff and trivia that have piled up in my absence., and try to catch up with what has been going on hereabouts; even with speed reading and a lot of skipping over, though, that has taken quite a while. Dave Edited March 20 by Dave Hunt 19 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Dave Hunt Posted March 20 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 20 32 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said: If you missed a huge chunk of golden hippo tooth, then it's no wonder you needed a back seater to help you navigate the skies🤣. Since it was GWR territory I was in a bit of a hurry to get away so I probably missed quite a lot. 40 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said: Did you and Jill enjoy your cwooze? Just a lot - see post above. My wallet has been in intensive care since though and when Jill said, "I wouldn't mind doing another cruise but to somewhere warm," I'm sure I heard it whimper. Dave 1 15 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Dave Hunt Posted March 20 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 20 On 11/03/2024 at 09:01, iL Dottore said: Continuing on with the all digital vs analogue discussion (for want of better description) I think that it's worth while to note that aircraft flight decks have analogue back-up for their digital displays. And, if I recall correctly, most (all?) essential on-off/stop-go/select-setting sort of controls have either toggle switches, rocker switches or rotary (round knob or "chicken head") controls. The reasoning being (as I was informed by the pilot on one of my many flight-deck visits) that it's incredibly quick to check if something is set properly (on or off, set to zero/set to 10) simply by a quick glance or by lightly running your hand across the bank of switches (perhaps our resident Wing Commander @Dave Huntcould comment further?). That has certainly been the case in my experience although I can't comment on the very latest aircraft, e.g., F-35/Lightning 2. Dave 6 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Tony_S Posted March 20 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 20 29 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said: wouldn't mind doing another cruise but to somewhere warm, I believe bits of south Iceland are quite warm at the moment. Hopefully when we go in July it will be cooler. 1 1 10 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Popular Post Happy Hippo Posted March 20 Author RMweb Gold Popular Post Share Posted March 20 1 hour ago, Tony_S said: I believe bits of south Iceland are quite warm at the moment. Hopefully when we go in July it will be cooler. We are going to look at the Jurassic Coast in June. My daughter has already told me not to stop during any walk we do, in case I get picked up as a fossil. 18 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium polybear Posted March 21 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 21 8 hours ago, Dave Hunt said: The cruise, though, was fantastic and I can recommend Saga to any of our readers of an age. We were collected at our front door, driven to Portsmouth, boarded the ship whilst our luggage was delivered to our cabin, spent 15 days in what is basically a 5 star floating hotel with several excursions and seeing the northern lights on three occasions, driven back home after our luggage was picked up from the cabin and delivered to the waiting car, and didn't have to spend anything at all on board as everything was included. The ship's appointments are top class, our cabin was brilliant and the service on board was superb Cake? Pizza? Curly Fries? Full English? Beans? Fried Bread? We need to know..... 1 10 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jamie92208 Posted March 21 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 21 6 hours ago, Happy Hippo said: We are going to look at the Jurassic Coast in June. My daughter has already told me not to stop during any walk we do, in case I get picked up as a fossil. Aren't children wonderful. Jamie 1 3 1 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Winslow Boy Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 3 hours ago, jamie92208 said: Aren't children wonderful. Jamie It's payback for all those years of psych ops you did on them. 1 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold DaveF Posted March 21 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 21 As most of you know for the last 5 weeks I have been recuperating after a hernia repair. I was signed off on Monday evening by the consultant who told me I am making very good progress but have to be careful (no digging or moving furniture etc) for another three months. Obviously I have been doing some railway modelling as well as gradually uilding up the amount of exercise I do i.e. walking. As the consultant said it takes longer to recover when you are 74. I don't like daytime TV and eventually I get fed up of sitting reading so started to look properly at YouTube which I've never really bothered with in the past. So I've been having a lot of cab rides, mainly around Switzerland and Austria and a bit of Germany and France revisiting lines I've either ridden on or taken photos from the lineside. It has been a revelation to me as to just how many railway videos there are, some clearly professionl, others (very) amatuer. Last night I found a UK ride on the Blyth and Tyne from Benton Junction (was Benton Quarry Junction) along the Blyth and Tyne to Morpeth which was enjoyable, especially as it was filmed before the work started to reopen the line to Ashington to passenger traffic. The passenger trains will turn off from the section filmed at Bedlington North for Ashington, the line from there to Morpeth will remain freight only. David 16 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Kazmierczak Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 4 hours ago, polybear said: Cake? Pizza? Curly Fries? Full English? Beans? Fried Bread? We need to know..... More importantly, anything of MR interest up there? I think we should be told... 7 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Dave Hunt Posted March 21 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 21 5 hours ago, polybear said: Cake? Pizza? Curly Fries? Full English? Beans? Fried Bread? We need to know..... All of the above except curly fries as I believe that they are in short supply following a certain ursine citizen of UK coming off a diet. Dave 1 1 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Dave Hunt Posted March 21 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 21 12 minutes ago, Peter Kazmierczak said: More importantly, anything of MR interest up there? I think we should be told... Sadly not although we did go on the Flam Railway that goes from the coast up into the mountains with a ruling gradient of 1 in 18 (which occurs quite a lot) and is electric loco hauled. Dave 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Tony_S Posted March 21 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 21 5 hours ago, polybear said: Cake? Pizza? Curly Fries? Full English? Beans? Fried Bread? We need to know..... I think that is why some people go on cruises. You can have almost anything you want to eat… 4 2 2 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Tony_S Posted March 21 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 21 12 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said: Sadly not although we did go on the Flam Railway that goes from the coast up into the mountains with a ruling gradient of 1 in 18 (which occurs quite a lot) and is electric loco hauled. Dave We went on that on a really rainy day. It didn’t spoil the journey at all. Some of the waterfalls were spectacular. 9 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium polybear Posted March 21 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 21 4 hours ago, Dave Hunt said: ……..in short supply following a certain ursine citizen of UK coming off a diet. Dave Not for a while yet……😭 10 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium J. S. Bach Posted March 21 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 21 18 hours ago, Dave Hunt said: ...snip... and didn't have to spend anything at all on board as everything was included. ...snip... Dave Tips too? I recall reading about a small (comparatively) cruise ship that the passengers did not tip; company policy, the crew was very well paid. 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted March 21 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 21 1 hour ago, J. S. Bach said: Tips too? I recall reading about a small (comparatively) cruise ship that the passengers did not tip; company policy, the crew was very well paid. Tipping is optional on Fred Olsen. But you can simply sidestep the awkwardness of tipping this waiter but not that one by paying a fixed sum as part of your cruise fee. The army of Filipinos that provide all the courtesy services are not well-paid, I am sure. Competition for jobs is fierce, and that bespeaks a buyer's market. 3 1 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Happy Hippo Posted March 21 Author RMweb Gold Share Posted March 21 Today, I finished my latest bout of procrastination and finally made a fixture for my large router in order to make halving joints. It didn't take that long to make, and it seems to take a lot of the guesswork out of the task, and there is good repeatability (which was why I made it in the first place. I've carried out 25% of the work now, and I should be able to do the rest tomorrow. 10 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Dave Hunt Posted March 21 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 21 8 hours ago, Tony_S said: We went on that on a really rainy day. It didn’t spoil the journey at all. Some of the waterfalls were spectacular. Most of the waterfalls were like this….. ….hanging rather than falling. Dave 17 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Dave Hunt Posted March 21 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 21 (edited) 4 hours ago, J. S. Bach said: Tips too? I recall reading about a small (comparatively) cruise ship that the passengers did not tip; company policy, the crew was very well paid. Tips are included although we did give our cabin maid a tip when we disembarked because her service was so good. Most of the crew were Filipinos on 8 month contracts with 3 months off. Saga apparently pay well and help look after the crew's families when they are away so many of the ones we talked to had worked with the Company for ten years or more. The fact that they were happy in their work was shown by their virtually unfailing cheerfulness and friendliness. The Saga ships are classified as small as they only cater for about 850 passengers. I don't think I'd fancy one of the big multi-thousand ones. The facts that there were no children on board and there wasn't a casino helped too. Dave Edited March 21 by Dave Hunt 13 1 1 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SM42 Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 SM42 Towers are a hive of activity as preparations are in full flow for the next visit to the motherland. The luggage pile is slowly growing. Andy 14 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Dave Hunt Posted March 21 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 21 2 minutes ago, SM42 said: SM42 Towers are a hive of activity as preparations are in full flow for the next visit to the motherland. The luggage pile is slowly growing. Andy By 'eck, SM42 Towers going on a visit to the Motherland must be a logistical exercise and a half. Do you have to repaint it when it arrives? Dave 4 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium figworthy Posted March 21 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 21 This may be of interest to at least one contributor. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/20/wolves-less-dangerous-dogs-brought-back-britain-rewilding/ You might need to turn off javascript to avoid the paywall. Adrian 3 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Dave Hunt Posted March 21 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 21 6 minutes ago, figworthy said: This may be of interest to at least one contributor. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/20/wolves-less-dangerous-dogs-brought-back-britain-rewilding/ You might need to turn off javascript to avoid the paywall. Adrian According to the keepers at a wolf sanctuary in Oregon, wolves are indeed less dangerous than dogs and try their best to stay away from humans. They said that there is no recorded instance of an unprovoked attack by wolves on humans. Dave 1 1 1 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SM42 Posted March 21 Share Posted March 21 19 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said: By 'eck, SM42 Towers going on a visit to the Motherland must be a logistical exercise and a half. Do you have to repaint it when it arrives? Dave I do have some painting jobs to do in the motherland. Andy 12 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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