A busy New Year’s Eve! First up, we joined Jo, Janet and Carol at the local Odeon for the 3.15 performance of the movie: The Greatest Showman starring a clean-shaven Hugh Jackman (free from his Wolverine alter-ego). The movie is based on P. T. Barnum‘s creation of the the Barnum & Bailey Circus. Initially, I …
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Month:December 2017
That Lyveden Look!
Post Christmas, it’s always good to blow away the cobwebs and begin to get back into the routine of ‘keeping active’. With that in mind, Chris and Gill popped round and we headed off to National Trust’s Lyveden. We haven’t been there since August 2011! and blow away the cobwebs it certainly did! In fact, …
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Christmas 2017
Christmas EveIt’s Christmas and we’ve got a busy (and very enjoyable) schedule. As normal, for us, it’s all about the ‘Four Fs of Christmas’ – Family, Friends, Food and Films! We set off for Denis’ just before 10am. Lee remained at ours (she’s not been so good travelling these days), and we arrived just after …
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Doctor Who Christmas Special 2017 – Twice Upon a Time
Well, here we go again – it’s Christmas and it’s the Doctor Who Special. However, this year, on the ‘scale of special’ ranging from 0 to 5 (If you’re a Who fan), this one is likely to end up ranking around 7 (probably at about the same time as the internet catches fire at 6.30, …
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Pre-Christmas Nibbles
We spent the morning tidying-up the house in preparation for our Christmas visitors. This year, we have Lee staying with us until after the Christmas period, up to Denis’ for our Christmas Eve meal with him and Bev. Then it’s just us three for Christmas Day with Roger, Jane and Oliver joining us for Boxing …
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Technology Classes: Restarting in 2018
Auto cross-posted from my WordPress Blog: Well, that’s it for 2017! I’ve finished my final Class for this year. Classes resume on 2nd January with the ‘Tuesday Laptop’ group. Merry Christmas and a happy new year to all my pupils past and present! Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my …
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Film: Star Wars: The Last Jedi
This is spoiler-free, so if you’ve not seen it yet, you can safely read this, and go with unbiased eyes. Jo managed to bag some tickets for Star Wars: The Last Jedi tonight at the local Odeon. Much has been written about this episode (and no doubt, much WILL be written once it’s left the …
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Tablet Coaching: Certification
Auto cross-posted from my WordPress Blog: Today, the Tuesday Tablet Class completed their Programme. After 45 hours of Coaching with me, Pat, Yvonne, Don and Helen received their Certificates. Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology …
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Laptop Coaching: 1-to-1s/Q and As
Auto cross-posted from my WordPress Blog: In our last lesson before Christmas, today, we carried out some 1-to-1 sessions and also held a ‘Q and A’ for general laptop queries. Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of …
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Laptop Coaching: Certification
Auto cross-posted from my WordPress Blog: Today, the Monday Class completed their Programme with me. After 50+ hours of coaching, today was the day Pam, Hazel, Brenda, Norman and Walter received their Certificates. Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My …
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Anniversary 2017 – Spain (Day 6) – Around Málaga by Bus (Last Day)
Today is our last full day here as we’re flying home tomorrow. If the weather forecast is reliable, we plan to make it ‘a local day’ and see as much as we can, on our doorstep, here in Málaga. We decided that the most effective way to do it was using the hop-on/hop-off open-top Bus …
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Anniversary 2017 – Spain (Day 5) – The Alhambra – Granada
Ouch! It’s not a great day weather-wise, but I’m sure we’ll make the most of it! Brollies are packed!! Oh, and gloves – after yesterday’s temperatures! Today, we’re off to Granada by local bus (90 minutes) to The Alhambra – it’s the most visited tourist attraction in Spain, so we just had to do it! …
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Anniversary 2017 – Spain (Day 4) Our Anniversary – Córdoba
Non-Scorchio! Today is our 6th Wedding Anniversary – and 33 years to the day since we first met! We always do something special on this day, and being in Spain was no exception. We said goodbye to Seville and headed for Córdoba by train. We’ll finish our day by heading to Málaga and our final …
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Anniversary 2017 – Spain (Day 3): The Train in Spain – Cádiz
Today’s adventure was visiting Cádiz by Train. We’re scheduled on the 9.47 from Seville that gets us to our destination by 11.26 – all for the measly sum of £24 each return (not bad for the distance travelled!). It’s our last day here today, before we head back to Málaga and our second hotel… for …
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Anniversary 2017 – Spain (Day 2) – Shutters, Sausages and Seville
Today, it’s more of the same – taking in the local sights and sounds of Seville. Last night, having discovered the benefits of the electric window shutters in our room (they cut out all the light and sound), this morning we discovered the DISADVANTAGES. As we woke in complete darkness, a casual glance at my …
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Anniversary 2017 – Spain (Day 1)
Not surprisingly, after yesterday’s adventure, we slept well. If anything, it was too warm here even with the AC on ‘min’ (never satisfied, that’s us!). Sleepy Seville A lazy breakfast in the Hotel just after 9 was the first order of the day. It was a good restaurant with a wide variety of brekky items …
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Anniversary 2017 – Spain (Arrival)
Today turned into a very long day. At one point, we weren’t even certain that we were going to make it at all to Seville to celebrate our anniversary later this week – and that’s no exaggeration!! In the afternoon, due to the poor weather and the lack of anything happening at the airport, we …
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Christmas Dinner at John and Trish’s
Continuing our party-every-Saturday-night-until-Christmas-with-the-neighbours, tonight was Christmas Dinner at John and Trish’s. Exactly a year since last year’s, we knew we were in a for a culinary festive treat with Trish’s traditional Christmas Meal. It was also an opportunity to show-off John and Trish’s shiny new kitchen makeover! Helping us to do the menu justice were …
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Christmas TV (2017)
196 pages/£3.50 (+50p) We’ve all got different prompts for when Christmas celebrations officially begin – is it when the Supermarkets start putting out their Christmas lines?, the first Christmas lunch?, the BBC Christmas ident being seen for the very first time? or when the Sales start being advertised on TV? For me, it’s when the …
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Parkway’s Final Cut
Today, was the end of an era for me. The Hairdressers, that for over 30 years, has kept me well-groomed, has decided to close its doors – so today was the ‘final cut’. And it was a good job I left early for my 9.30 appointment as when I got to the ‘main drag’ in …
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Tablet Coaching: Essential Routines
Auto cross-posted from my WordPress Blog: Today, in our penultimate lesson for this Group, we spent time determining the essential routines needed to keep your Tablet in tip-top condition. Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology …
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Laptop Coaching: “Into the Clouds”
Auto cross-posted from my WordPress Blog: Today, we spent time discussing the concept of ‘cloud-based’ file storage using Windows 10. Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – well into my 40s! My lifelong love of technology and communication (in all its forms), together with a …
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Christmas get-together at Tom and Julie’s
Here we are then, another in the continuing (and very enjoyable) neighbours’ pre-Christmas Dinners. So far, we’ve hosted at ours, dined at Rosi & David’s and we have Trish and John’s to look forward to next week! Tom was good enough to act as Chauffeur, and we were whisked from ours to theirs together with …
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Côte Tales
Tonight was the annual Christmas get-together of ‘The 5ive’ – the group of us ex-self-employed Trainers who all worked together on a massive BA project back in 1999! We’ve managed to keep up these get-togethers for over 15 years now – and we haven’t changed a bit! We weren’t up to full strength tonight in …
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