S-Westerly

Bit pointless I'd say or perhaps more to the point you'd not look particularly sharp. I'll get my coat.

Don't know if unemployment is that high but it's irrelevant anyway. The behaviour of p&o is reprehensible. The hotel staff may be able to find jobs ashore as there's a desperate shortage in my neck of the woods anyway. The engineers and officers though may struggle unless they get re-hired through an agency which is what I suspect the company is after. You do of course generate an awful lot of ill will in your employees when you pull this trick. Deservedly so as well.

P&O are using a tried and tested ship owners system. Back in the 80's all the so-called oil majors made all their officers redundant then re-hired them through an agency with considerably less good conditions. The actual monthly cash didn't change much but all the extras disappeared and I suspect that's what P&O are doing. What we found back then was the senior officers mostly liked it as they got large redundancies and in most cases their pensions too. Then they came back doing the same job with a salary on top of all their loot. The first thing us low lives lost was any kind of pension. On ferries they must have got some of the Masters on side as these are the guys with the pilotage exemptions and you don't get those by doing an online course. Most of the rest of the crew though are probably replaceable by cheaper crews from somewhere else. Not a good look from P&O though as a lot of the folks on those ships will live in Dover or whatever port the ship runs from and it would have a knock on effect. Also if the unions can mobilise support from terminal staff it could be difficult for the ships to operate.

True you are spot on there. Never understood the mindset though. Its not as if he can enjoy his wealth and spend his later years basking in the sun somewhere. Nor could he retire without having a fatal heart attack shortly afterwards.

Sberbank is exempt from the SWIFT sanctions and surprisingly its how Germany pays for its gas (with others) to the tune of 750 million dollars per day into Vlad's warchest. Nice eh?

See Putin is upset over being called a war criminal by Biden. Diddums. You invade another country and have your barbarous thugs deliberately target civilians I'd say being called a war criminal is about right.

It was told me by my last remaining Russian. Bad jokes never die!

Tourist arrives at an Eastern European border. Border official asks "nationality"? Tourist "Russian". Official "Occupation?" Tourist "no just visiting". Sorry chaps.

For a whole raft of reasons of which only one is quality or lack.of it I will go out of my way to try and avoid buying anything made in China. Note I said "try" as its damned hard and for somethings almost impossible to avoid buying stuff made in China.

Presumably he's found an alternative job and is a dick by dropping all his colleagues in it. Does happen. Had a guy on here dropped out of rejoining literally on the day he was supposed to be coming. Turned out he'd got a better job elsewhere which is fair enough but he strung everyone along until the last minute.

Personally "baby" bikes don't do it for me as I feel somewhat over large for them. I like to feel comfy on a bike and on these kind of bikes comfort is a distant concept for me. Might be fun to play with for about 10 minutes but no more.

Just found out probably going to be in Scapa for another week! At least when the sun does shine its quite nice. Couple of pics - moon set this morning and sun set this evening.

Just found out my sole remaining Russian's oldest son (21) got drafted into their navy last year and is currently in the Black Sea. Although I violently disagree with what his country is doing I feel for him as all the poor sods on both sides are some mother's son and put where they are by the insane actions of one unmitigated evil bast*rd.

My youngest grandson (14 months when I last saw him) tries to climb into my helmet. Strange boy.

2 now.

Standard Russian tactics. If opponents resist resort to terror. What they did in Syria too. Quite how they manage to square it with liberating the poor Ukrainians from the wicked west I'm not sure. The mental gymnastics must be quite challenging.

Good morning. Why is it that you hang about for days waiting for something to happen then the powers that be decree it must happen right the f**k now at 0200? Twats.

Ooh sun! Here in Orkneys I don't think it's allowed.

They weren't that bad and I used to quite like the Ponderosa in Canada Docks.

Faslane's a bit pointless as the missile subs won't be there.

Ditto but very disappointed with the loose leaf tea I have. More like loose leaf powder. Still I'll try and get some decent black Oolong in Singapore but that's going to be the end of April.

My house is about 12 miles from GCHQ so I reckon we'll be toast if that Russian f**kwit loses it completely. Being at sea might survive long enough to find out if the counterstrike kills the shithead. Of course we'll be back to morse code for comms if we are lucky.

If I remember correctly his book can be summed up as kiss your ass goodbye.

I've been over indulging in coffee for 40 years so it's too late for me. I never, ever drink that foul brew Liptons even if its ship standard. I've got Twinings loose-leaf but it's not that good, it's too fine.

I drink more than a litre a day of the stuff when I'm away. Probably doing me no good at all.