General Chat

Validity info for lots of countries here:

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice

Yes. A passport is only valid for 10 years, then it needs renewing. In the past you could apply to renew a British passport up to 6 months before it expired, so lots of people were travelling on passports valid for 10 years and 6 months.

At some point (I can't remember when) the EU made a rule that passports could not be valid for more than 10 years, so lots of Brits, including me and OH, lost a few months off the life of our passports.

Less than 10 years old?

Going abroad it depends where you are going. We are currently in the Canaries and sailed through passport control with no bother at all. We had with us printouts of our most recent vaccination certificates, but nobody asked to see them.

The airline websites are usually quite good at telling you what you need to go wherever you are going.

More important is to make sure your passport is less than 10 years old. You will be stopped from flying if it isn't, even if it hasn't officially expired.

It is for the over 75’s or those at a serious risk. You would get notified the same way as normal if eligible.

I would take your NHS covid pass with you. Family went off yesterday and there was no suggestion that they needed anything else, but they are under 75. ;-)

Erm, how do you find out if you are due a jab and do you have to have one before traveling abroad?

I can understand not making an appointment, but if you've agreed to have the booster then you should turn up on the alloted day and time.

We went for our 7th booster jab at our surgery last Saturday ( following a phone call offering us an appointment ) and were astonished to find the place - and car park - eerily quiet. It's a very large practice and another practice is in the same big modern building - large park is usually crammed full and you have to wait for someone to come out before you can park.
No queues at all inside, just shown straight into the nurse's room and duly jabbed. The staff were all equally bemused and thought maybe people just weren't bothering to turn up for their appointments.

When we went for our 6th jab appointment last week, the staff there were less than happy. They had found that morning that the place had been listed as a walk-in centre
so they were having to deal with a number of extras in addition to a full day's scheduled appointments. To their credit they were coping very professionally.

I had a talk on the phone with a cheery pharmacist on both Monday and yesterday.

I'd phoned the pharmacy on Monday evening to check which prescriptions needed refilling when I saw the doctor on Tuesday morning. The one I spoke to was very helpful, friendly and sounded happy.

I phoned back on Tuesday afternoon to tell them the prescription refill (all on one sheet) was being sent direct to them but I only needed 1 immediately.. The same pharmacist answered the phone, recognised me, and sounded really happy to help me again.

Today I've been to physio, my guy just back after 6 weeks visiting family in NZ, which was longer than usual because there was a wedding. He's always happy. But so are his staff.

Maybe I'm lucky in that I rarely meet uncivil staff where I go?

It's nice meeting cheery people :-D :-D :-D

My latest cheery day was a couple of weeks ago, at my grand daughter's 21st.
We (daughter, grand daughter, her boyfriend, her 2 brothers aged 15 and 14, my ex and I) decided to meet up in town.
Grand daughter and boyfriend were late - grand daughter was hungover, so we had brunch, to help her overcome her hangover, and wandered around town, then went to a pub.
For some reason, if say, we wanted to go in a door, and one person wanted to come out of that door, the 7 of us would say 'after you', and neatly line up as the person came in or out.
I don't know why, but this caused great hilarity - both with us, and the person/people coming in/going out - even before alcohol was imbibed! . :-D

Makes being jabbed ok. :-D

Just got home after my latest Covid booster. Have to say what a joy it was to meet someone who seemed to enjoy his work. The whole thing went without a hitch and his cheerful attitude made the experience almost enjoyable.

I made a point of thanking him as it is so rare to encounter a cheerful person at the moment.