We’ve seen so many changes to our ways of operating in recent years that it’s hard now to think back to the days of automatically strolling along the ‘high street’  for whatever we needed.   Definitely gone are the trips to get a fancy dress for the lady wife from one of the selection of independent […]

Many of the things we buy via the internet are causing a bit of a problem on arrival now that brexit has actually occured and is in place.  All the political wrangling and back biting has nearly gone away.  Only to be replaced by confusion and mayhem when goods arrive at the port or at […]

Holidays are a mute point just at the moment.  So many cruise lines have had problems that it’s a worry that my favourite form of holiday will not be able to survive!  In these days of ever more exotic travel, in a normal years, it’s possible to plan and book trips to the most deserted […]

I’ve been away staying with chums who live in a wonderfully sunny spot in the Med.  They’re used to driving miles to the nearest decent shopping outlet – generally for groceries and essentials.  Gifts and other household shopping need something far more organised.  When someone lives far off, in an idyllic spot, it’s not easy […]

There has certainly been a turn down in the travel markets lately.  Cruise liners are parked up in every available home port, being thoroughly stripped out and sanitised.  It’s probably the only time since the second world war that there have been no cruises out there picking up and disgorging thousands of happy passengers and […]

Well there’s one area that will definitely take a long time to recover from our current malaise.  Holidays and travel have been hit very badly by the pandemic and much of it has been centred around the problems with cruising.  Massive ships carrying thousands of passengers and crew are a live petrie dish once one […]

There are problems with the world of travel just as I write.  There being the massive virus that’s spreading to total world epidemic proportions and almost all the newspapers, in this country, certainly, are going mad and causing as much mischief and panic as they can.  The serious side of this though is how to […]

Whilst checking the latest trends in a rather more upmarket magazine than I usually read, I was struck by the number of adverts that had young models with extremely slim arms sporting unwieldy and heavy looking watches.   Two or three of the items looked almost identical to the very nice but rather heavy watch I […]

It is most interesting to listen to a group of older folk discussing memories of their family Christmas and new year festivies.   I belong to a social group who have all lived in the immediate locality for most of their lives.  Most went to school together so they have really only ever known the little […]

This can be a very trying time of year . .. .  early winter, or autumn as we used to know it.  The weather is not particularly good just now, lots of rain and high winds.  This tends to put folk off going out and particularly to the shopping centres so there is another blip […]