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 […]

Holidays fall into one of two camps.  Either truly memorable with fantastic locations, good hotels and excellent service….. or they are quite the opposite, with flight delays, dreadfully over booked hotels and food poisoning as an additional little treat.   I have to say that my family have never been very adventurous travellers.  We tended to […]

It can be quite difficult to ensure the gift you want to buy that special someone is the genuine article.  Anyone can buy goods off a website – the choice is almost overwhelming some times.  But to get the real thing means doing some proper research and using only online shopping and gift sites that […]

This is the busiest time of year for families – weddings, outdoor bbq functions and family parties all going on at the same time.  There’s all the organising to do and the house to get in order.  Nothing is more anxiety raising than to be tasked with organising a big function that needs gifts or […]