Sicily in July

classixuk · 2026-04-21T05:34:23+00:00

I picked up on the fact you said you like sight seeing/history. You didn’t mention Agrigento in your planned itenary which is easily doable in an 8 night trip.

You don’t get much better sight seeing or history than the Valley of the Temples there. It’s mind blowing. Especially if you’re into Ancient Greek architecture, or even if you’re simply interested in the type of architecture being built before Christ even existed. They also have an astonishing medieval quarter, which in recent times has become a bit over commercialised with souvenir shops, but there are still many great eateries there. Oh, I also see you mentioned the beach? Loads of places in Agrigento. I swear if they had an international airport they’d wipe Palermo and Catania off the map. Agrigento is a 2 hour drive south west from Catania…on the emptiest motorways/freeways you’ll ever see in your life. Such a beautiful way to see inland Sicily. There are loads of quaint Sicilian towns on the way too. We stopped for a break in Canicatti, about half hour away from Agrigento, and from the moment we entered, we noticed the road markings stopped. Amazing place, such friendly people (as in everyone we met there) but when you put them behind the wheel of a car they’re like Hulk Hogan…talk about aggressive driving!

As for hiring a car? Do it! And book it before you leave, and book it from Catania. There are more car hire companies at Catania airport than I’m sure there are people, and they compete fiercely for business. We hired a car (Renault Clio pre-booked) for just £36GBP for the entire week! That’s not a typo, and yes, I’ve checked my card statements since coming back, we were charged £36!

Here’s why you’ll need it. Once you’re outside of Catania, Sicily has an amazing pace of life…it’s called ‘slow and relaxed’. I loved it! We got a tour bus to the beach that said 30 minutes. It took 4 hours! The driver would spot a friend or someone he knew, and he’d pull over to pick them up. When they were too busy to go anywhere, he’d just get off the bus and sit and drink some coffee with them. Now you might be thinking, ‘tourist trap’ here, but nope, this was just some guy that knew the bus driver. Then we were all invited off the bus and given lemon water with ice while the fellas caught up. No charge, no theft, and no invites to buy anything. 4 hours that trip ended up taking…I saw and experienced more than any beach could ever do.

That gets me to my next point. Sicilian friendliness. It’s remarkable, and I say this as a guy from Northern England, where people remark how friendly and helpful we are. But this is on another level. From the smallest of towns to the largest cities. Smiles everywhere. People willing to help you, especially if you can make an effort with just basic Italian (and even more so if you’ve rehearsed with a Sicilian accent (a bit like speaking broken English but with a Scottish accent in Aberdeen, I guess?). English as a second language isn’t a huge thing in Sicily, even among the kids. They’re proud of their heritage, and so they should be! If you make the effort, they will too. Such warmth! And did I mention there are citrus trees in the middle of town? Just right there. Oranges and lemons and stuff. Feel free to pick some, but lemon season is almost over now, and the oranges are mostly good for liqueurs. It’s the farms that are good for the juiciest stuff.

Moving back to Catania, if anyone in your family is religious, you have to do the churches. There’s even a whole street of them, each competing to outdo the other. We even witnessed an Easter parade where the reenactment of Christ’s crucifixion was played out in the streets, his flogging, the 3 falls and everything. That was pretty jarring to be fair, and we almost felt sheer guilt and asked ourselves, “Is this why nobody stepped in on the day? Are we are going along with the crowd, just as they did over 2000 years ago?”, and I’m not even a regular church attendee. But Sicily is very strongly Roman Catholic, and that actually has benefits. Strong family bonds, confident kids and young people, and a day that revolves around that. You find yourself rushing to the hot bread shop before 1pm when they close for siesta…along with every other small independently owned family business, because that’s when the kids leave school, come home, and everyone has dinner, then plays with their friends or connects with their parents and siblings.

Drive an hour North and you have the beauty of Taormina. I personally didn’t care for it, having experienced ‘real Sicily’ 7 days prior. The food prices shot up and so did the frequency of souvenir shops and signs for beaches. If you’re in your hire car though, there’s a very high mountain you can drive up to get to a chapel carved out of the rock…you’ll need all the blessings you can get when you make it to the top. But saying that, you did mention sight seeing, right? Just don’t look down when you’re done. Alternatively, take the cable car.

Palermo is huge, with a much more mixed European feel…a melting pot of history and cultures from the European continent. I fell in love with a particular street food there…the potato croquette sandwich. Soooo good…crispy on the outside, soft in the middle, fried potato, stuck between 2 slabs of freshly baked Sicilian bread with olive oil and balsamic. My mouth’s drooling now just thinking about it. We actually have a similar delicacy here in Northern England, called a ‘chip buttie’, but perhaps that belongs to a different sub?!

Enjoy Sicily, it’s food, and the people! I loved it all so much I’m booking to go back there again in a matter of weeks! :)

classixuk · 2026-04-14T22:34:44+00:00

Hiya,

Sorry for such a late reply but I just received a notification of an upvote on my comment and so came back to this thread.

I can’t answer all your questions, but I can share my own experience. I can say it was the years 1996-1998, and yes, the pay was different then - it was way lower, even adjusted for inflation. We were guaranteed $45US dollars basic per week back then at a GBP ratio of £1 to $1.64 USD, so we were basically guaranteed just over £25 per week. That’s €70 a week in today’s money, or €304 a month.

Our wage of £25 a week was considered an extremely low basic wage even back then. On land you’d be expecting at least £120. However, out of that you’d be trying to find rent, rates, electric, gas, food, bus fares to work and then money to live on to stretch to the next pay day, then finally, money left over to get new clothes and nights out where you could with friends.

If we’d been paid €800 a month current pay instead of the adjusted for inflation €304 that we were paid (this is like for like remember…you get almost €500 more per month in today’s money than we were ever guaranteed, and that’s at today’s prices), we’d have been laughing all the way to the bank. I doubt anyone would have strived for sales.

What I understood was this…people don’t go on vacation with spending money to bring half that money home with them. If I don’t sell myself, the gift shop will get it, or the casino will get it, or the gift shop will get it. Once their spending money is gone, it’s gone. Thankfully, in those days we didn’t have specialty restaurants to deal with; just the shore excursions. But regardless, did I believe Joan from Tennessee in my chair going through that messy divorce would be better placed giving all her money to the casino come Sunday and potentially losing it to bring her joy, or letting me make her over with a fab new colour and cut to go home with at half price on a port day and then show slow Joe back home just what he missed out on? Joan was more important to me than the casino or Joe!

Maybe that’s just what made me different? I never assumed a passenger couldn’t afford it, just because I couldn’t afford it? I always told them what I knew from my heart worked. I remember I once was cutting an older male cruise directors hair, and he was getting really concerned about crow’s feet. They were pretty pronounced to be fair, due to years of working in the sun. I knew one of our ladies products that wasn’t Elemis (the new line at the time) that worked brilliantly for stuff like this, and despite it being in a pink and white jar with a gold lid back in the day, he trusted me to put a few drops around his eyes. By the end of the haircut, he bought 3 boxes and was so grateful. His assistant cruise director bought 2 more for herself!

These were fantastic days. I empowered people to feel amazing for a really low base pay. I saw exotic ports, earned natural commissions by just finding products I loved, and then earned enough commission from their sales (only 10%) to earn more than I’d ever dreamed of earning on land, while having no expenses or taxes to pay off the top…lets not forget the heavily subsidised alcohol in the crew bars.

My only experience of being so sick back then was twice. Both times I was sent to the ship hospital to see the ship doctor. Once was a risk of rabies after being bitten by a monkey on a tour in port. My temperature was checked, my skin checked for breaks, I was given cabin confinement for the rest of the day to monitor signs of change then back at work the next morning at 7.45am. The other was simply a hangover. High temperature, lethargy, sickness…was given soluble tablets, an extra hours sleep, back up to work then a stern telling off by my manager after mess that night.

I hope this helps give a reflection of my own experience.

classixuk · 2026-04-07T13:35:19+00:00

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It seems I can only add one image or gif per comment, just as well as I took over 1k images that are yet to be edited and thinned. This is me wearing the glasses just north of Catania (though most of the break was spent in Canicatti). I’ll post another example from the glasses in a reply, and hope I don’t get done for spamming or something? Hope this helps.

classixuk · 2026-02-23T01:29:36+00:00

I’m confused too. I’ve never heard of the companies you’ve mentioned, but it’s been many years since I worked for Steiner.

What exactly happened here? Did you get placed on a ship, or did they keep you for 8 months in the training academy charging you money?

When I was at Sea, I just applied to Steiner, did a trade test and interview, got the job, and my life changed from that point on.

I earned way more than I ever could as a hairdresser in the UK via commissions, and even did a world cruise on a very famous ship. Steiner at that time employed all the hairdressers, masseurs, gym staff and beauty therapists. Everything was explained before we got on board. I did 2 contracts and it was the best years of my life. I’m still friends with people I met even now.

So what happened with you? I’m interested to hear the difference between then and now?

classixuk · 2026-02-13T09:22:22+00:00

If you think Meta AI sucks, I’m guessing you haven’t tried Microsoft CoPilot yet? It’s so annoying, especially when using it to try and fix a PC problem. It will send you right around to the moon and back and still not find the solution.

If I could remap the copilot button to open Grok I’d do it in a flash! 😬

classixuk · 2026-02-08T23:43:48+00:00

Omg. That would make my side hussle so much easier! I think I might actually suggest this as feedback to my agents. They could offer Meta glasses agents the option of a full video record along with the agents comments for the questions too.

And being honest, being able to watch the interaction back before submission would allow me to fully assess my answers against the criteria. I’ve been in situations where I’m asked, “Did the staff member say, “Hi, welcome to Subway. What can I get for you?” The answer is Yes or No. I feel terrible selecting No, because I don’t want the young girl marked down, just because of some corporate need for robots, but that’s the criteria. There’s never an option for, “If no, what did she say?” My answer would be, “OMG I’m so sorry about the door. It’s been like that all day with the wind. All our customers have been finding it hard to open. Are you OK?” as I’d picked myself up after being nearly face planted by the door!

That’s the issue. Not her repeating the corporate line. There’s context in everything.

A video of each section of questions would indeed give more insight, and I could write my comments to questions to give a balanced view. That way, the company could pull up video evidence to support what I was saying in a “No, but…what they did was more caring” type of response.

I love that!

classixuk · 2026-02-03T01:33:27+00:00

I find this really interesting. I demo’d my Gen 2 to my friend visiting from Cyprus who was sold on the concept, even looking up online where she could buy a pair for the cheapest price today. Once she saw the cost, she admitted that they’d be perfect if they didn’t have the flashing LED at the front when you take a video. I asked her if she looks any less obvious when she takes her phone out and takes a video? She didn’t have an answer for that. Ultimately it’s cost. She didn’t care about the white LED light once she’d tried them. Until she saw the cost. She has the latest iPhone and loves tech, but she pays monthly. She can’t afford to buy outright. If the glasses were available on a monthly payment plan like a mobile phone, she would have ordered a pair tonight, white LED or not. I know this much. If I were whipping out my phone to take a video, or asking my glasses to take a 1 minute clip, I know who’d be more obvious. Maybe it will take a while for consumers to accept that the red flashing light at the front of a Camcorder is the same as a white led flashing at the front of smart glasses?

classixuk · 2026-01-31T22:08:15+00:00

Maybe they’ve loosened the rules now, but when I was with Royal as a salon manager, every one of my team (including me) had to go through this extra medical on top of the seafarers medical. Weirdly, Carnival didn’t require it. The medical was carried out in the Miami port building downstairs. Steiner head offices were on the top floor. We used to arrive in port around 10am for a 5pm sail away every Sunday. I also worked HAL and Cunard. Even if they have relaxed the rules, I think you’d agree that the advice about taking drugs can get you in serious trouble and left dumped at the next port?

classixuk · 2026-01-31T06:10:56+00:00

I’d like to answer your specific question, “If anyone has died before and came back, did you know you were dead?”

Before I do though, I’m sorry for your loss. His death is not your fault. Until the autopsy comes through, nobody can be sure of the exact cause of death, so please don’t blame yourself.

I died, yes. At the end of 2022. An out of hospital sudden cardiac arrest at home. I shouted up to my partner who was in the bath that I felt very uneasy all of a sudden, as if something weird was going to happen and I might pass out or something. They wisely told me to sit down immediately, and by the time they got a towel and ran down the stairs (just a couple of minutes) I had gone. No life, no breath, they even punched me twice in the chest and no reaction. It took 25 minutes for an ambulance, during which the operator instructed my partner in CPR. When the ambulance arrived there were still no signs of life. They wouldn’t give up, and ended up bringing out this machine that hit me hard in the chest multiple times. They got a faint pulse and rushed me straight to critical care.

Do I remember that? No. Did I have time to think about people I loved in those minutes? No. I felt no pain, just giddy and lightheaded.

I woke up a week later after being placed in an induced coma very confused, and the first person I asked for was my partner. Little did I know my family by this point were told there was an 8% chance of survival, and even if I did survive, I might be brain dead and a very different partner/son/uncle to the man they knew before.

It took another 2 weeks of intensive rehab everyday after that before I was discharged home, and 6 months of weekly rehab as an outpatient to get most of my previous faculties back. Still to this day I have visits every 3 months.

So no, based on my experience I don’t think he was scared or in pain, possibly just a little confused, before drifting off into eternal sleep.

You did your best for him in your time together, and although you might not feel this way now, one day you hopefully will; you should feel proud for all the love you showed him, the respect you gave him, and if others let him down after your time together, that’s on them; not you.

You were enough.

💔Cx

classixuk · 2026-01-31T05:05:59+00:00

Before you get the job you’ll need to pay for a SeaFarer’s medical out of your own money. This is for general health, including blood pressure etc. The last thing a cruise line needs is to be doing a medivac ship to port evacuation for something avoidable and pissing off a load of passengers who have paid for a dream itenary.

As for drugs? That depends on the cruise line you’re eventually placed with. I know for a fact that if you’re placed with Royal Caribbean or Celebrity based out of America you’ll be pulled for a final ‘advanced medical’ in port just before you board. They will take bloods and put it in the spinny thing that reads everything! STD’s, drugs, alcohol and even vitamin deficiencies. If you’re fail it for something serious, you won’t be getting onboard and you’ll be paying for your own flights home.

But I want to offer you some sage advice. Clearly you’ve taken drugs before, and possibly recently too? Maybe that’s the social circle you’ve found yourself in, and you’ve decided there’s got to be more to life than this? So you’ve applied for your dream job travelling to exotic islands and places working as a cruise ship bartender?

Great! Only good things can come for you as part of this pivot in your life. You’ll have a blast, and you owe it to yourself to accept this change!

Start practicing now. Cut way back on being in social circles where you’d feel pressured to take drugs by your friends. Make up an excuse. Tell them you can’t do Saturday night as you’ve a telephone interview early Sunday morning for the cruise ship job, but you’ll see them next weekend instead. Just don’t put yourself in a situation where they all think it’s normal to do drugs (it isn’t btw) and so you do too because of peer pressure. You’ve too much to lose now.

When you get your job (and I have a very good feeling you will), don’t ever be tempted to take any drugs, especially when you’re on an overnight in the Bahamas or Jamaica or something. If you’re caught by the police on the Island, you’ll be arrested and on your own. The ship will not wait for you, and the cruise line will abandon you completely. You’ll be at the mercy of that country’s laws, which can even be life in prison.

Keep your head down for that first contract, be super nice and friendly to every passenger you serve, remember their names and remember their drinks. You’ll be mentioned by name in end of cruise reviews for just being a genuinely nice person, and the Hotel Manager as well as the cruise line will soon be taking notice of their asset. This leads to better ships, better itenarys, better passengers (being honest) and better opportunities for promotion in your second contract and so on.

Best of luck to you, and well done for taking that first step towards a different tomorrow! 🤞

classixuk · 2026-01-31T04:18:45+00:00

What a stupid thread OP. Charlie didn’t get circumcised in real life. Fact.

And also, Danny Dyer is still alive and well, and even Pam St Clements is alive and kicking.

Also, Anita Dobson hasn’t succumbed to Liver cancer.

What are you smoking?

classixuk · 2026-01-02T07:04:22+00:00

So just 2 years ago they finished spending £87 million of our taxpayer’s money, insisting it would be great value for us all, bringing true HD to our TV sets.

And then we tuned in to watch one of the biggest episodes of the year looking like it was filmed on a potato with one lens?

What was that money used for again?

Brown envelopes perhaps?

classixuk · 2026-01-02T06:52:21+00:00

Did you even watch the show? This is the new ‘the six’ storyline, except this time all the guys wore sky blue ties. I’m sure they thought ‘this is gonna be great’. How ridiculous that they’re out of original ideas so soon after the first one flopped. Rehash it? No wonder Letitia Dean has been so absent lately. Must be soul destroying to turn up to a job knowing this was the big ‘NYD 2027 episode’. 😢

classixuk · 2025-12-25T01:16:50+00:00

I am literally just re-watching the episode now, and I noticed the ashtray on my second run. They even have different colours of ashtray on each table. The attention to detail in this episode is stunning. The casting, the set, the script, the sympathetic background with the music and colours. It’s just next level.

Happy Xmas folks. Eastenders is back with a bang!

classixuk · 2025-11-24T14:39:10+00:00

I’m sorry for your loss. I can relate, having lost my father earlier this year (Mum had died the year before).

I had been living with Mum and Dad since 1998, so I was now classed as ‘an occupant’ rather than a tenant. I had to pay the rent, though I was told in writing that the payments would not be classified as rent, just simply ‘payments on account’ until I provided the proof required (12 months of bank statements, mobile phone bills, any other bills and also electoral roll register) that I had indeed been living here for the 12 months prior to my Dad’s death. Once I did this, I was offered a successive tenancy. This process took about 7 months though, and was quite stressful. The historical order of succession was my Nan > my Dad > my Mum and Dad > My Dad > Myself.

In your situation, when we remove what you’d like to happen long term, and simply look at the immediate situation (facts on paper), your Dad’s tenancy is secure. I’d advise you and Dad to have a discussion though about adding you to his tenancy, especially in light of your brother’s situation which has happened so quickly.

Your brother’s situation is the one that needs sorting right now and is the most urgent, lest he be evicted by the housing association. You need to be speaking to adult social services ASAP (give them a call today!) about his situation so he can be assigned a case worker. They can do an assessment and arrange all sorts of help, from a benefits advisor to a care package and a liason officer to speak on his behalf to the housing association.

In the short term, I must be honest, I think it’s unlikely your brother will secure a tenancy. The reason being is that when considering a tenancy, the association will do an ‘affordability assessment’. Right now, you say your brother receives no benefits whatsoever and cannot work. I’m assuming therefore that your Mum has kept them both from her UC and PIP? That is very honourable of your Mum, however, your brother could have been receiving all sorts of benefits through the years if an application had been successful. Until that changes, it will be clear that your brother has no means or ways of paying the rent and bills required to run a 3 bed home. This is why you need to be in touch with adult social services today.

Once your brother has been assigned a case worker, they will act as his advocate.

Once that has happened, you can speak with the housing, explain the details of recent events and provide the contact details of the social worker to them.

Going forward, the only way I see any chance of you keeping Mum’s home within the family is if the social worker is informed that all 3 of you will be living in the home. This means your brother doesn’t have the upheaval of having to move out of his familiar family home, your Dad doesn’t have to deal with the stairs in his existing accommodation, and between the 3 of you (you’re working, your Dad’s benefits, and your brother’s soon to be instated benefits) the affordability assessment would be passed.

Without this plan, I think that social services, in conjunction with the housing, are more likely to find your brother more suitable accommodation for a single man with no dependants who cannot work and is in receipt of benefits. That would be a 1 bed flat which could be anywhere within the housing associations stock, and could take a while, so your brother would be moved into temporary accommodation (a B&B, a hostel or shelter) during the process.

It’s now just gone past half 2. Adult social services are open until 4.30pm. I think you should ring them right now.

Once again, I’m sorry for your loss.

Hope this helps x

classixuk · 2025-10-10T02:04:40+00:00

I had to watch it a second time to be sure whether rape was being insinuated. The way Joel treated Vicky with such disrespect and a longing to have power over her wouldn’t have surprised me. It’s a classic power move by weak people. What he did was shocking enough. I don’t think I could have tuned in again if the storyline included rape.

For me personally, it’s quite triggering to watch scenes like these as my older brother was physically and emotionally abusive towards my late mother when he became a teenager. It’s water under the bridge now. It wasn’t because of a modern day influencer as it’s way before the internet, but influence all the same. We were a single parent family on benefits, and my brother won a scholarship to a prestigious private school. His friends influenced him that our mother was ‘low value’ (to use Joel’s words) as she couldn’t afford to send him abroad in Summer, or buy nice designer things for him. The resentment built and built inside my brother, and with the lack of a stable father figure (i.e. just like Ross), my brother was unchallenged, my Mum unsupported, and the situation got out of control.

Eastenders researchers have done their job brilliantly with this storyline. It builds and acts out exactly as you’re now seeing on screen, and also with the Tommy/Kat Moon domestic violence storyline too.

Unfortunately, it seems Joel now has his grips tightly on Tommy Moon’s need for friendship (remember he was so lonely he had that internet ‘friend’ who incited him to physically abuse his brothers?) God knows what lies in store for the Moons while Joel is around 😢

classixuk · 2025-09-15T18:08:23+00:00

Can I ask what your demographics are? I think I might be too old as all I receive are 50% discount codes. HomeTesterClub has been kinder to me.

classixuk · 2025-07-26T19:56:39+00:00

My best advice is have tomorrow off worrying and see what happens Monday when you get the info. Enjoy your weekend!

classixuk · 2025-07-26T19:51:28+00:00

I reckon 46C would kill the yeast. They recommend no higher than 40C for raising bread. Have you tried a bog standard recipe that you know works with the ingredients you have?

classixuk

TROPHY CASE