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Messymascot's faith in humanity and ginger safe haven

Morning ,

Bit late for me today I'm afraid.

I did an @anjelikaferrett type early morning visit to the gym to see an new P T instructor and get a new exercise plan.

I wouldn't say mine is out of date but I've been using the same routine for the last 30 years!

Anyway Mike , lovely bloke , built like a brick outhouse part time rugby league player - 20 stones and plays on the wing and can do 100 metres in 12 seconds.

So , I was late getting to the gym and didn't have time for brekkie. Foolish me , competitive juices kick in and I try to match him when he's showing me the programme , and after 45 minutes get all light headed and crash due to a lack of food and hydration . What an idiot - @Barnfred 55 is of course always right. Anyway a 10 minute rest and a drink and I'm fine.

Really good programme but think I might drop the weight down a bit until I get used to it !

So it was ghosts and apparations yesterday I wonder what the topic du jour will be . Sassy goes missing in the Bermuda triangle or the Loch Ness monster ? Anything other than the dispute and potential war in Ukraine please.

Haven't heard from @larbert toffee much recently - hope mum and dad are ok.

@Methuselah my thoughts are with you in your sad situation my friend. I hope that all the good wishes on here give you strength.

Have a great day you lovely people.
 
jazzy said:
Morning ,

Bit late for me today I'm afraid.

I did an @anjelikaferrett type early morning visit to the gym to see an new P T instructor and get a new exercise plan.

I wouldn't say mine is out of date but I've been using the same routine for the last 30 years!

Anyway Mike , lovely bloke , built like a brick outhouse part time rugby league player - 20 stones and plays on the wing and can do 100 metres in 12 seconds.

So , I was late getting to the gym and didn't have time for brekkie. Foolish me , competitive juices kick in and I try to match him when he's showing me the programme , and after 45 minutes get all light headed and crash due to a lack of food and hydration . What an idiot - @Barnfred 55 is of course always right. Anyway a 10 minute rest and a drink and I'm fine.

Really good programme but think I might drop the weight down a bit until I get used to it !

So it was ghosts and apparations yesterday I wonder what the topic du jour will be . Sassy goes missing in the Bermuda triangle or the Loch Ness monster ? Anything other than the dispute and potential war in Ukraine please.

Haven't heard from @larbert toffee much recently - hope mum and dad are ok.

@Methuselah my thoughts are with you in your sad situation my friend. I hope that all the good wishes on here give you strength.

Have a great day you lovely people.
Click to expand...
Seriously though Jazz, I know you're really fit and healthy for somebody in their early 60s, but the main purpose of doing exercise when you get to our age is to "stay" fit and healthy, or in some cases like me to "get" fit and healthy. You really don't need to be pushing your boundaries. Sorry, didn't mean this to turn into a pep talk. lol

So, Sassy is really the Loch Ness monster. Now that's a turn up. ;)
 
Barnfred 55 said:
Seriously though Jazz, I know you're really fit and healthy for somebody in their early 60s, but the main purpose of doing exercise when you get to our age is to "stay" fit and healthy, or in some cases like me to "get" fit and healthy. You really don't need to be pushing your boundaries. Sorry, didn't mean this to turn into a pep talk. lol

So, Sassy is really the Loch Ness monster. Now that's a turn up. ;)
Click to expand...
I know you're right , I just can't help myself
 
Had a bit of disappointing news yesterday that, I have to say, left me feeling absolutely livid.

Some of you will be aware that Cal and I had a cruise booked and paid for going in June this year for what would have been our 30th wedding anniversary. I contacted my cruise agents at the end of November to find out what my options were, and it turned out P&O were being quite flexible in what I could do, probably because Cal died on one of their cruises. I didn't feel up to travelling on my own but still quite fancied the cruise if I could find somebody else to go with me. I've also messaged a few friends who do a lot of cruising to see if they fancied it. Anyway, I had no takers so last week I emailed my cruise club and reluctantly instructed them to cancel the cruise and obtain a full refund for me.

Yesterday morning I received a call saying that P&O had changed their policy on this last December, and that they were not prepared to offer any refund now. If I wished to cancel I would have to make a claim on my travel insurance. So it appears I am being penalised by P&O for trying to do the right thing and honour my booking. I could have cancelled it at the end of November and received a full refund, but because I tried to find somebody to go with me and delayed cancelling, I've now been told it isn't an option. And they removed that option without telling either me or my cruise club. I mean, they can't have that many people in my predicament given that the whole industry was shut down for nearly 18 months and there had only been limited cruising since it reopened. So you wouldn't have thought individually advising people like me that my options were changing would present that much of a problem for them. Obviously not.

The lady from the cruise club was very apologetic, not to mention embarrassed, but it wasn't her fault. She actually dealt with me quite well as, whilst not being an actual basket case, I was nonetheless very angry and quite upset as you can imagine. She is going to take it up with the P&O Care team to see if they can influence the company to change it's decision. For my part I've dug out a condolence letter I received from the President of Carnival UK, who own P&O, but I'll wait to see the outcome of my cruise club's complaint before I go down this route.

There were a number of things that P&O handled poorly, especially in the hours and days following Cal's death, but I decided to hold off writing to them until things had settled down a bit. I thought that their initial flexibility with the cruise we had booked went a long way towards healing my bad feelings towards them, and I think I'd subconsciously decided not to risk opening up old wounds by writing a letter of complaint. Now I'm going to give the bugger both barrels. I'm so angry with them.
 

Barnfred 55 said:
Had a bit of disappointing news yesterday that, I have to say, left me feeling absolutely livid.

Some of you will be aware that Cal and I had a cruise booked and paid for going in June this year for what would have been our 30th wedding anniversary. I contacted my cruise agents at the end of November to find out what my options were, and it turned out P&O were being quite flexible in what I could do, probably because Cal died on one of their cruises. I didn't feel up to travelling on my own but still quite fancied the cruise if I could find somebody else to go with me. I've also messaged a few friends who do a lot of cruising to see if they fancied it. Anyway, I had no takers so last week I emailed my cruise club and reluctantly instructed them to cancel the cruise and obtain a full refund for me.

Yesterday morning I received a call saying that P&O had changed their policy on this last December, and that they were not prepared to offer any refund now. If I wished to cancel I would have to make a claim on my travel insurance. So it appears I am being penalised by P&O for trying to do the right thing and honour my booking. I could have cancelled it at the end of November and received a full refund, but because I tried to find somebody to go with me and delayed cancelling, I've now been told it isn't an option. And they removed that option without telling either me or my cruise club. I mean, they can't have that many people in my predicament given that the whole industry was shut down for nearly 18 months and there had only been limited cruising since it reopened. So you wouldn't have thought individually advising people like me that my options were changing would present that much of a problem for them. Obviously not.

The lady from the cruise club was very apologetic, not to mention embarrassed, but it wasn't her fault. She actually dealt with me quite well as, whilst not being an actual basket case, I was nonetheless very angry and quite upset as you can imagine. She is going to take it up with the P&O Care team to see if they can influence the company to change it's decision. For my part I've dug out a condolence letter I received from the President of Carnival UK, who own P&O, but I'll wait to see the outcome of my cruise club's complaint before I go down this route.

There were a number of things that P&O handled poorly, especially in the hours and days following Cal's death, but I decided to hold off writing to them until things had settled down a bit. I thought that their initial flexibility with the cruise we had booked went a long way towards healing my bad feelings towards them, and I think I'd subconsciously decided not to risk opening up old wounds by writing a letter of complaint. Now I'm going to give the bugger both barrels. I'm so angry with them.
Click to expand...
Crap that Fred, give them sh*t
 
Barnfred 55 said:
Had a bit of disappointing news yesterday that, I have to say, left me feeling absolutely livid.

Some of you will be aware that Cal and I had a cruise booked and paid for going in June this year for what would have been our 30th wedding anniversary. I contacted my cruise agents at the end of November to find out what my options were, and it turned out P&O were being quite flexible in what I could do, probably because Cal died on one of their cruises. I didn't feel up to travelling on my own but still quite fancied the cruise if I could find somebody else to go with me. I've also messaged a few friends who do a lot of cruising to see if they fancied it. Anyway, I had no takers so last week I emailed my cruise club and reluctantly instructed them to cancel the cruise and obtain a full refund for me.

Yesterday morning I received a call saying that P&O had changed their policy on this last December, and that they were not prepared to offer any refund now. If I wished to cancel I would have to make a claim on my travel insurance. So it appears I am being penalised by P&O for trying to do the right thing and honour my booking. I could have cancelled it at the end of November and received a full refund, but because I tried to find somebody to go with me and delayed cancelling, I've now been told it isn't an option. And they removed that option without telling either me or my cruise club. I mean, they can't have that many people in my predicament given that the whole industry was shut down for nearly 18 months and there had only been limited cruising since it reopened. So you wouldn't have thought individually advising people like me that my options were changing would present that much of a problem for them. Obviously not.

The lady from the cruise club was very apologetic, not to mention embarrassed, but it wasn't her fault. She actually dealt with me quite well as, whilst not being an actual basket case, I was nonetheless very angry and quite upset as you can imagine. She is going to take it up with the P&O Care team to see if they can influence the company to change it's decision. For my part I've dug out a condolence letter I received from the President of Carnival UK, who own P&O, but I'll wait to see the outcome of my cruise club's complaint before I go down this route.

There were a number of things that P&O handled poorly, especially in the hours and days following Cal's death, but I decided to hold off writing to them until things had settled down a bit. I thought that their initial flexibility with the cruise we had booked went a long way towards healing my bad feelings towards them, and I think I'd subconsciously decided not to risk opening up old wounds by writing a letter of complaint. Now I'm going to give the bugger both barrels. I'm so angry with them.
Click to expand...
Is there any way Citizen's advice could help or ABTA ,I find that losing you rag means losing the case so just see if you can get some advice from a reliable source first .Sometimes the skill is finding the right person to ask .
 
blue1948 said:
Is there any way Citizen's advice could help or ABTA ,I find that losing you rag means losing the case so just see if you can get some advice from a reliable source first .Sometimes the skill is finding the right person to ask .
Click to expand...
It's not something you would involve CAB or ABTA with Blue. It's something that will be covered under the terms of my Travel Insurance and luckily I have an annual policy. If I bought single trip policies I probably wouldn't have purchased one for this yet so wouldn't be covered. But it's a question of principle. Plus I'm not losing my rag with them yet. I'm letting my cruise club handle it for now and I'll only take the matter up with them direct if they fail. But by that stage I would probably have already put in an Insurance claim. So my letter to the Company President will be an all out complaint. We were very loyal clients of theirs.
 
Barnfred 55 said:
Had a bit of disappointing news yesterday that, I have to say, left me feeling absolutely livid.

Some of you will be aware that Cal and I had a cruise booked and paid for going in June this year for what would have been our 30th wedding anniversary. I contacted my cruise agents at the end of November to find out what my options were, and it turned out P&O were being quite flexible in what I could do, probably because Cal died on one of their cruises. I didn't feel up to travelling on my own but still quite fancied the cruise if I could find somebody else to go with me. I've also messaged a few friends who do a lot of cruising to see if they fancied it. Anyway, I had no takers so last week I emailed my cruise club and reluctantly instructed them to cancel the cruise and obtain a full refund for me.

Yesterday morning I received a call saying that P&O had changed their policy on this last December, and that they were not prepared to offer any refund now. If I wished to cancel I would have to make a claim on my travel insurance. So it appears I am being penalised by P&O for trying to do the right thing and honour my booking. I could have cancelled it at the end of November and received a full refund, but because I tried to find somebody to go with me and delayed cancelling, I've now been told it isn't an option. And they removed that option without telling either me or my cruise club. I mean, they can't have that many people in my predicament given that the whole industry was shut down for nearly 18 months and there had only been limited cruising since it reopened. So you wouldn't have thought individually advising people like me that my options were changing would present that much of a problem for them. Obviously not.

The lady from the cruise club was very apologetic, not to mention embarrassed, but it wasn't her fault. She actually dealt with me quite well as, whilst not being an actual basket case, I was nonetheless very angry and quite upset as you can imagine. She is going to take it up with the P&O Care team to see if they can influence the company to change it's decision. For my part I've dug out a condolence letter I received from the President of Carnival UK, who own P&O, but I'll wait to see the outcome of my cruise club's complaint before I go down this route.

There were a number of things that P&O handled poorly, especially in the hours and days following Cal's death, but I decided to hold off writing to them until things had settled down a bit. I thought that their initial flexibility with the cruise we had booked went a long way towards healing my bad feelings towards them, and I think I'd subconsciously decided not to risk opening up old wounds by writing a letter of complaint. Now I'm going to give the bugger both barrels. I'm so angry with them.
Click to expand...
I'm terribly sorry to hear this Fred.
I had sort of guessed that Cal.had died around the time of a cruise from earlier posts but was unaware that she had actually passed whilst on a cruise.

P&Os response is disgraceful but entirely predictable from my dealings with them.

What these companies really fear is the threat of bad publicity.

If I were in your shoes I would email the CEO of the company explaining your position , reminding them of your customer loyalty and your level of dissatisfaction.

I would give them 14 days to resolve this in your favour and advise them that in the absence of a substantive response in your favour you will refer your story to the Sunday Times or Daily Mail ( or whoever, although I think these are the 2 most active) travel editors and allow them to report o your predicament.

Of course , as you say , your travel insurance will recompense you but P&O should be shamed into submission.

Good luck mate.
 
jazzy said:
I'm terribly sorry to hear this Fred.
I had sort of guessed that Cal.had died around the time of a cruise from earlier posts but was unaware that she had actually passed whilst on a cruise.

P&Os response is disgraceful but entirely predictable from my dealings with them.

What these companies really fear is the threat of bad publicity.

If I were in your shoes I would email the CEO of the company explaining your position , reminding them of your customer loyalty and your level of dissatisfaction.

I would give them 14 days to resolve this in your favour and advise them that in the absence of a substantive response in your favour you will refer your story to the Sunday Times or Daily Mail ( or whoever, although I think these are the 2 most active) travel editors and allow them to report o your predicament.

Of course , as you say , your travel insurance will recompense you but P&O should be shamed into submission.

Good luck mate.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I have considered going public with this as I know I would have public sympathy/empathy on my side. I think it's the way they told me one thing, then quickly moved 180 degrees without even telling me that's really got my goat up. I've decided to let the cruise club have a go first, and then I have the President/CEO as a back stop if that doesn't work. I've also considered Spotlight, the BBC local news channel down here. They have a spot on a Friday evening when they champion good causes and take up the fight on your behalf. As you say, these companies that rely so much on customer service reputation don't like bad publicity.

Don't like going back over old ground really but I've documented a few of the things P&O got wrong in the Mental Health thread. I posted in there a few times over a period of a couple of weeks from the 24th September, the morning Cal died. Some of it was pretty poor on their part when I think back.
 

Barnfred 55 said:
Yeah, I have considered going public with this as I know I would have public sympathy/empathy on my side. I think it's the way they told me one thing, then quickly moved 180 degrees without even telling me that's really got my goat up. I've decided to let the cruise club have a go first, and then I have the President/CEO as a back stop if that doesn't work. I've also considered Spotlight, the BBC local news channel down here. They have a spot on a Friday evening when they champion good causes and take up the fight on your behalf. As you say, these companies that rely so much on customer service reputation don't like bad publicity.

Don't like going back over old ground really but I've documented a few of the things P&O got wrong in the Mental Health thread. I posted in there a few times over a period of a couple of weeks from the 24th September, the morning Cal died. Some of it was pretty poor on their part when I think back.
Click to expand...
I'm sure that you will do what's right for you Fred.

Mention of Spotlight takes me back to when I lived in Plymouth.

Fern Britton was a young presenter on Spotlight and one Friday I found myself in Barbarellas ( by the Continental Hotel , still there who knows ) chatting her up.

Suffice to say I didn't get anywhere lol .
 
jazzy said:
I'm sure that you will do what's right for you Fred.

Mention of Spotlight takes me back to when I lived in Plymouth.

Fern Britton was a young presenter on Spotlight and one Friday I found myself in Barbarellas ( by the Continental Hotel , still there who knows ) chatting her up.

Suffice to say I didn't get anywhere lol .
Click to expand...
Don't really know Plymouth Jazz. My sole experience is spending a night there before doing a stem donation for my brother.

I googled old Plymouth nightspots though and Barbarella's didn't come up. Only went back to the 60s though. lol
 
Completely slipped my mind but today is the anniversary of Cal's dads death. Think it was back in 1999. Cal adored her dad and took his death very hard. She was never the same person since as it brought on a number of illnesses including depression, a very early menopause plus a serious thyroid disorder which they never did get properly under control. But I've always thought a part of her died that day. Anyway she's back with him now and that's something to celebrate. I'll be having a scotch with him later tonight. That was his favourite tipple.
 
Cooking a lamb curry tonight. Just gone to check on it and also top up my beer glass.

I had a quick taste and phewwww. It's hot. I realised I adjusted the spice measurements down to reflect that I'm cooking half the normal amount, but i didn't do that with the ground chilli powder. Ha ha. Well I'l always bragging how hot I like my food. This one will test my limits though lol
 

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