I have just read a “news” headline saying “Britain to experience hottest day of the yr so far”. A day in March warmer than any day in Jan or Feb? Astonishing!
Unfortunately I can remember live cattle being exported from our local port (East Coast) to Europe. Used to see them being driven down steep ramps into the holds of the boats, when we visited the docks.
My wife received a number of gift cards for Christmas and has just got round to trying to use one of them. The type of card she gets generally has a list of umpteen places it can be used. Just hand over the card at the till, have it swiped and job done, and this one seemed no different. She went into one of the listed shops and was told it needed to be registered before use. That was annoying for her but if she'd read the info on the card she would have known. However that itself isn't a straightforward process. Log into the site to register, provide everything other than inside leg measurement, retrieve 'security code' from e-mail and enter that. Create password of minimum 10 characters including capital letter, number, and punctuation mark. That done she then has to decide which shop she will spend it in, then an eGiftcard will be sent to her e-mail address. Just be warned, not all gift cards are easy to use!
Not quite. Steerage started to be called 'third class' after WWI but that soon went and eventually became 'second class' and then became 'tourist class' by the end of the 1950's. We did have a form of steerage or third class when we took passengers/workers between St Helena and Ascension Island where the St Helenans worked at the American missile tracking station. They spent the 36 hours aboard on the open deck. They were great fun and spent most of the time playing guitar, singing and dancing - with the help of a little booze. Of course, on other lines that went to OZ there were the £10 Poms and about 1.5 million Brits emigrated to Oz that way. That went on until the 80's but the subsidised 'fare' gradually increased during the 35 years that it went on.
what a headache, I'd be totally annoyed. Wonder if the giftee knows all that has to be done? Thank goodness I have very little gifts to give, and when I do its always baked product. People seem to love what I bake, and ask for it every year.
@cactus_girl I totally agree, it's just sending money round in circles. I'll let you try to convince my wife and her family of that fact. I've tried for a long time and got absolutely nowhere. Give birthday/Christmas cards to show people haven't been forgot, but gift cards and/or cash between adults is utterly pointless in my opinion.
@cactus_girl I too agree. I always get a cheapie card at a poundland type store and stuff money in it. When the grandkids were small, I used to buy them a new book every year and put the money in those but the price of books shot up so I can't afford both book and money and lets face it, keeping track of books bought for the number of grandkids I have was a spreadsheet all on it's own!
Living abroad means we have developed a great adult gifting tradition- online giftcards to eat out. We have been gifted a meal in a posh Tapas restaurant and a Prosecco tea for two in Baltic, and have in turn collaborated on getting our old Dad out for coffee and cakes in a traditional cafe in Helsinki and so on. These tend to be valid for a year and even though are in practise just cash doing circles amongst adults, a very nice thing to plan and to receive. Locally I usually gift adults some Finnish home baking (has exotic value even if the the flavours are not spot on to the recipient's liking), rooted plant cuttings (possibly with a thought out "container" which can be of further use, such as enamel mug for camping) and other little things. The only child in the immediate family however gets a proper parcel.
I don't have many relatives, but those I do have just get a £20 note. I stopped having birthdays years ago and I wish everyone else would as well.
