I've been hovering but not actually written anything. I saw the picture of the Hamburg market at the beginning of the post but the one John and I went to pre Covid was very underwhelming, maybe it wasn't the main one that we found, there weren't a great many stalls. I do remember it was freezing cold. I would love to have gone to one in Bruges I'm sure that would have been fantastic. We went on a pre-Christmas cruise, 10 days on Aurora and we had a really good time. At one of the ports, I think it may have been Oslo, I'm not sure, a group of singers came not long before we were due to leave and sang and danced on the quayside. The women were dressed in outfits that could have come from the film of 'White Christmas', lots of red velvet and white fur. It really was lovely. I guess David is right, lots of people out shopping, whether they're all buying presents for you David I wouldn't like to say! Next week I'm going off to Bath for a few days with my daughters. This is something we've done for the last three years as we celebrate both John's anniversary and my birthday, one followed the other. Bath is a beautiful city to be in around Christmas. All the lights on shops and houses seem to only use white lights, no coloured ones and it gives the city a really magical feel.
I wonder if there are others, like me, who are really grateful for on line shopping, particularly at Christmas. Now I have mobility issues due to arthritis I couldn't manage to go out and round the shops. It does mean I can buy all my presents on line and also that I've found things that I'm sure I wouldn't have found just wandering round the shops. I also arrange for things like all the food shopping for my elder daughter for Christmas Day as that's where the family gather to celebrate. It means that my daughter doesn't have to worry about it and I can arrange for it all to be delivered to her on a day and time that suits her. I quite like doing it too.
I have been receiving several emails from P&O concerning the cruise I'm doing next June with my sister-in-law. These emails keep urging me to book excursions. Well I would do if P&O would allow me to take my scooter on the coaches but they won't, not even on what they call 'Accessible' tours. I suppose it's too much to expect the IT department to tell that it's a waste of time sending those emails to passengers who have applied to have an evacuation chair due to taking a mobility scooter so I just ignore the emails. I will go ashore and maybe use shuttle buses if I can and perhaps take some a tours. It will be good to be back on a P&O ship - Arcadia - and I have been to several of the ports before - Northern European and Scandinavia - so I'm not too bothered if I can't go ashore at all the places. Now I've got some Christmas cards to finish, I'm still sending some, are any of you still doing that?
If I had my way, I wouldn’t send any Christmas cards…complete rip off. My wife buys boxes of ten costing £6/£7 a box, add on the 85p postage then it’s no wonder I can’t afford to cruise
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