The Night Mail

[SM42]

A lurgie has visited SM42 Towers 

 

I had to leave work early yesterday and have been ill in bed and worse up ever since.

 

Fortunately it seems to have passed the worst and feel a lot better today so far. 

 

I feel like I may be able to do something useful today, although being Sunday it will be mostly useful resting.

 

Andy

 

 

[AndyID]

The humming birds are back! (despite the fact that it's not very warm)

 

MrsID's favorite seat is in the living room and she likes to read there. Unfortunately it's some distance from any power outlets and we've been using a floor-lamp attached to a longish power extension which, apart from looking very ugly, is an accident waiting to happen.

 

I thought it would be noproblembo to find a decent rechargeable cordless floor-lamp that we could use instead but I was not successful so I have ordered a couple of 60 watt LED equivalents that run on 12 volts and a decent size LiFePo4 battery. The cunning plan is to modify the existing floor-lamp 😀

[polybear]

8 hours ago, Tony_S said:

 just must have had an outbreak of stupidity. 

 

 

 

Welcome to the Muppets Club - don't worry, there's a "few" of us in it.  Just don't plan on being Cookie Monster though, cos' that seat's already taken.  So's Oscar the Grouch's bin, but this Bear's not telling' who by....

[pH]

1 hour ago, AndyID said:

The humming birds are back! (despite the fact that it's not very warm)

Ours never left. They’ve overwintered for quite a few years now - possibly due to the number of feeders kept up all year. In cold weather, we alternate two feeders to make sure there’s always an unfrozen one.

[Oldddudders]

Good moaning from Riga. Lovely morning and the loungers are in demand. MS Balmoral is docked for the day, and Sherry and I have an afternoon coach-tour booked. I am sitting in one of the lounges, where the captain and his top team were having an informal gathering just now. Having been to Copenhagen, we next visit Tallinn, Helsinki and various places in Sweden and Norway. Very relaxing. 

[New Haven Neil]

Saw the sunrise photo Sherry put up - lovely.

[PhilJ W]

Mention of cruises reminded me this was in my in-box this morning.

https://cruise2.com/offer/ultimate-australia-new-zealand-adventure/

[rockershovel]

2 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

Good moaning from Riga. Lovely morning and the loungers are in demand. MS Balmoral is docked for the day, and Sherry and I have an afternoon coach-tour booked. I am sitting in one of the lounges, where the captain and his top team were having an informal gathering just now. Having been to Copenhagen, we next visit Tallinn, Helsinki and various places in Sweden and Norway. Very relaxing. 

I more-or-less "did" the Baltic when I was working on the NordStream 1 project in 2010-11, very interesting. One thing which surprised me was the distances covered by yachts there, I suppose it's windy most of the time, relatively calm and no tides to speak of so it suits them, and you can't really get lost 

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, PhilJ W said:

Mention of cruises reminded me this was in my in-box this morning.

https://cruise2.com/offer/ultimate-australia-new-zealand-adventure/

Note that the prices are “from…”. If you are happy with an inside cabin that is fine but for anything longer than a ferry crossing I like access to daylight, fresh air and somewhere from where to look at the scenery without searching for a sun lounger on deck. 

[PhilJ W]

2 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

Note that the prices are “from…”. If you are happy with an inside cabin that is fine but for anything longer than a ferry crossing I like access to daylight, fresh air and somewhere from where to look at the scenery without searching for a sun lounger on deck. 

I thought that was rather cheap but then I'm not into cruising. Not forgetting that its a lot longer from Australia to New Zealand, over 1,000 miles or about half the length of the Mediterranean Sea.

[Happy Hippo]

Morgan brought the Landrover around this afternoon to see if the baseboards for Pantmawr North would fit in the back.

 

They just squeeze in!

 

[Tony_S]

14 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Morgan brought the Landrover around this afternoon to see if the baseboards for Pantmawr North would fit in the back.

 

They just squeeze in!

Wouldn't fit in mine! The really useful boxes  would though. 

Edited May 22, 2022 by Tony_S

[PhilJ W]

FYI The Platinum Jubilee Flyover schedule is below.

https://inews.co.uk/news/platinum-jubilee-flypast-when-date-route-map-flight-path-rehearsal-schedule-timings-flyover-1637278

[AndyID]

11 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Morgan brought the Landrover around this afternoon to see if the baseboards for Pantmawr North would fit in the back.

 

They just squeeze in!

 

 

No prob in MrsID's Jeep Wrangler if I was allowed to use it 😀

[iL Dottore]

13 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Morgan brought the Landrover around this afternoon to see if the baseboards for Pantmawr North would fit in the back.

 

They just squeeze in!

 

I see you had to bend two to get them to fit!

[Happy Hippo]

24 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

I see you had to bend two to get them to fit!

So much room that I briefly considered another two boards on the scenic section!

 

But then I realised it's taken me so long to get just the two boards to the shambolic state they are currently in, I'd better cut and run! 

[iL Dottore]

22 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Mention of cruises reminded me this was in my in-box this morning.

https://cruise2.com/offer/ultimate-australia-new-zealand-adventure/

I had a look and I must say that I noted some omissions: they don't say in what class you are flown to your departure port nor do they say how big the ships are (both types of information must be somewhere on the website, but damned if I can easily find them). They also all seem to be humongous ships: the smallest that I could find (ultra-luxury category) was 750 berths, a whole lot more were in the 2000+ berths (at least according to Wikipedia).

 

Quite frankly, being one of 5,600 passengers and crew (Majestic Princess - the cruise above) or 3,560 passengers (Royal Princess - also the cruise above) doesn't feel very exclusive - no matter how much the ticket costs or how luxurious the cabins and suites are (although the cruise line's idea of luxurious and mine differ over a number of points. e.g. "Free WiFi". Seriously? "Free" WiFi a luxury? [and what's the point of WiFi on a luxury cruise?. Can't eMail wait?])

 

And as for flights to/from the departure and arrival ports - undoubtedly they stick you into economy (economy Europe - S America? NOT recommended!)

 

Quite frankly, you'd be better off arranging it all yourself. Some of the internationally famous Swiss owned travel companies are particularly bad (in my eyes) for putting together "luxury holiday" packages for Asian destinations at (mostly) high end hotels at a ridiculous per diem cost with only economy flights included. I once sat down and created the same "package" as the travel company, but including business class flights, at about 1/3 less expensive (if not even less) than WHAT the travel company charged.

 

I can't remember the last time I booked a holiday through a travel company (probably about 30 years ago)

Edited May 23, 2022 by iL Dottore
TYPO

[simontaylor484]

I wouldn't go on a cruise because her ladyship would spend most of the cruise with her head over the railings throwing up. She got seasick on the River Ouse in York when I took her on a river trip 

[Happy Hippo]

12 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

FYI The Platinum Jubilee Flyover schedule is below.

https://inews.co.uk/news/platinum-jubilee-flypast-when-date-route-map-flight-path-rehearsal-schedule-timings-flyover-1637278

I notice they are coming nowhere near Wales, the west of England Northern Ireland or Scotland (Please add your preferred location.)

[Happy Hippo]

21 minutes ago, simontaylor484 said:

I wouldn't go on a cruise because her ladyship would spend most of the cruise with her head over the railings throwing up. She got seasick on the River Ouse in York when I took her on a river trip 

My great aunt, who was  a CPO in the WRNS, would go green if you threw a bucket of water at her sitting room window!

[Northmoor]

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Quite frankly, being one of 5,600 passengers and crew (Majestic Princess - the cruise above) or 3,560 passengers (Royal Princess - also the cruise above) doesn't feel very exclusive - no matter how much the ticket costs or how luxurious the cabins and suites are (although the cruise line's idea of luxurious and mine differ over a number of points. e.g. "Free WiFi". Seriously? "Free" WiFi a luxury? [and what's the point of WiFi on a luxury cruise?. Can't eMail wait?])

 

I've never been on a cruise - although there are cruises and there are cruises - but I completely agree with your exclusivity point.  Large cruise ships are mass-market holidays by another name.  Note that it is all the very largest cruise ships and companies that have had the incidents and accidents, Costa Concordia and the countless examples of half the passengers coming down with food poisoning.  You never hear of this on the smaller ships (1/10th the size) touring the Norwegian fiords for instance. and you can understand why.  In my days of working on RN ships, the cleanest were always the smallest; with small crews, there isn't anyone else to clean up after you, so you just do it or the Captain is going to know who hasn't.

 

The big cruise companies have a Ryanair-like business model of eye-catching headline prices, until you add all the extras which would be considered pretty much essential by most people (and free Wifi falls into that category), then you quickly find the holiday to be rather more expensive. 

[J. S. Bach]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

I notice they are coming nowhere near Wales, the west of England Northern Ireland or Scotland (Please add your preferred location.)

Chester?

[J. S. Bach]

4 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

 ...snip...  I once sat down and created the same "package" as the travel company, but including business class flights, at about 1/3 less expensive (if not even less) than WHAT the travel company charged.

 

I can't remember the last time I booked a holiday through a travel company (probably about 30 years ago)

Probably because the travel company gets a major kick-back from the contracted parties.

[J. S. Bach]

I have been on one cruise in my life; an all-expense-paid tour to the Philippines, Japan, Hong Kong, & Hawaii. Our boat even had the luxury of an airport on the roof!

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Never been on a cruise either, although I’ve been on my fair share of ferries. The longest being between Hyannis MA out to Nantucket, and Falmouth MA to Martha’s Vineyard. I was about 9, and was totally fine even though we were in choppy water.

 

They were tired, slow ships though, awful things built in some sort of late 90s brutalist style with plastic seats everywhere that looked like they should be in a McDonalds. It felt like you were on a Soviet era Caspian sea ferry.

Edited May 23, 2022 by Florence Locomotive Works