monasqueen

I probably count as a "geriatric", but I make a point of trying to have my card/s in my hand to ensure that I can make a quick getaway. What I find really pathetic is the youngsters who have to pay with their mobile phone, after spending about 10 minutes looking for "smart" vouchers. It's those people who cause queue blockages. At least if you use the self service, it's only yourself you are holding up, but give me a human at a till every time (and give someone a job).

It wasn't that simple. After you had bought 5 tickets, they'd total the payments, divide the figure by 5, and give you that amount against the 6th sailing. When they did away with it, probably because they'd made it far too complicated, they were, in effect, imposing a 20% increase on loyal customers.

Surely some of them were not odd cars?

Can someone explain what facts are?

Dredging costs money. Peel do not like to spend money. As an example, the state of the bridge, and other, infrastructure along the Manchester Ship Canal, which they own, is appalling.

The trouble is that you can't force people to only flush down their turds just after high tide, when they'll be carried away, rather than brought in and dumped on the beach.

We had a postal delivery today, Tuesday 9 April. Yippee!! One item is a catalogue with a flash heading "Offers end this Friday". Fine, we thought, that gives us a couple of days. Wrong - inside, it says the offers end on April 5 2024 - "That's this Friday!". There is no indication as to when it was posted. Probably most of the delays were in the UK, including however many days it had to wait at Heysham for boat space.

We had a UK advertising catalogue delivered yesterday (Friday 5 April) with a flash on the literature telling us that the "Special Offers end this Thursday". The offers ended on Thursday 28 March. There were no hints as to when it had been sent. Packages sent on 24 March, "Tracked 48", arrived here on 4 April.

There was a well known saying in relation to a different police force (nowhere near here) but which is probably just as relevant.... People were "promoted into incompetence". This may well be the case in other jobs, too. Why take on monkeys from outside when you've got enough of your own?

There are a couple of places where there's an Aldi next to Booths, but give me Booths every time!!

Tesco Lake Road has a large quantity of lines that are more expensive than "normal" UK stores. Wine is 30p+ per bottle extra, for instance, unless on offer. Has anyone tried doing the comparison in prices between Lake Road and, say, Onchan village Shoprite? Onchan now has a large range of Tesco branded products, which seemed to me to be fairly consistently more expensive. They seem to be aiming for (at least) Tesco Express pricing for all of the original Shoprite stores.

And still the silence over what the technical issue/s is/were/are and whether it/they has/have been fixed, is deafening. Are these all myths that cannot be busted?

Try this one

I've said this before, and it's still valid. Common sense is extracted at birth nowadays.

Out of the mouths of babes..... Seen on a newspaper letters page..... "SIR – When I was helping at a children’s service, the visiting clergyman asked the children if they had any questions. One little girl asked him earnestly: “Is God short for Godzilla?”"

The SPCo's Sailing Update page does usually give the actual times of arrival and departure. Arrival time allows for getting onto the berth and tightening the ropes. The tracking time of 06.45 given by John Wright is probably when the ship first arrived at the pier. The tides in Heysham overnight last night/this morning were Low 00.38, High 06.34, so that should not have had any effect, other than, perhaps at the Douglas end, where there might have been a slight tidal pull into the harbour.

The increased amount of time it takes to start a discharge is very noticeable. Also, the time on passage does not appear to be improving much. Last night, for instance, the Steam Packet's Ferry Sailing Updates page told us that Manxman took from 02.15 to 06.57 to get from Heysham to Douglas. That's an hour longer than the suggested 3 and 3/4 hours "normal" crossing time. Why?? That leaves ropemen in Douglas hanging around for an extra hour, newspaper suppliers' workmen hanging around for an extra hour, shop shelf stackers, people coming out to meet and greet, taxi drivers, etc., etc., That's a lot of unproductive time, which somebody is having to pay for.

I've heard that the mattresses are rock hard. I suppose that's so you don't oversleep!

Just looks like a giant photo frame, which is probably what was intended, though if you stand behind it, you'll probably stand out as much as an ant. Whatever happened to that seagull?

You're welcome to them.

One thing that worries me is the light fittings, which shake horrendously. I won't sit under one.... Like these....

Isn't Snaefell Mint Cake being produced any more? A long time since I've seen it.....

Das Boot is in now. Will it go out again?

Yeah, ok, if you could get out early enough to get to the first in time, and if you could stay up long enough for the other! No chance today, but it looks as though they may be taking the post across - they're going to Heysham this morning, but have not told anyone about it - could be just a fright trip for the freight?

What was that??? Did somebody need to be across by Monday? What sailings?