Play: Midsummer Night’s Dream

We drove over to Stratford-upon-Avon today – to The Bear Pit – to see Second Thoughts‘ penultimate performance of 2020’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It was a perfect excuse to leave a bit earlier to give us time to get some retail therapy in the town! We chose the matinée performance at 2.30pm, …
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Leeds, Feeds and Boats

7.50am: A relatively early start today as we planned to catch the 8.51 Train from Peterborough Rail Station heading for its counterpart in Leeds. We’re catching-up with Dennis & Sandra for one of our semi-regular day-outs together. We’re starting to build up quite a history now, as this will be our seventh get-together, having already …
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Easy PC!

Off to Cambridge today to meet up with Sally B. We’re on a mission to seek out a replacement Laptop to replace ‘Isla‘ (who has enjoyed a great innings since February 2015, but it’s time to retire her!) 👍 First stop was to be John Lewis who had some cracking good deals and where we’d …
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Canada and Alaska – Part 3, Day 3: Return to Vancouver

Well, the weather is certainly better than yesterday, but apparently nowhere near as hot as home – Kettering is up in the the high 20s/low 30s at the moment!!What to do? Fly home early? Maybe not!Actually, as things turned out, neither of us felt ‘100%’ today and we didn’t get much sleep. We therefore decided …
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Retail Therapy in Leeds

A relatively early start for us today as we were bound for Leeds. That meant we were in the car and heading for Peterborough Station just after 7.30 this morning aiming for an 8.50 Virgin East Coast train direct to Leeds. Even though the weather looked challenging (overnight frost accompanied by a wafer-thin layer of …
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It’s Saturday, it’s Stamford!

(Oliver turned 13 today!!!) We set off for Stamford early to do some shopping for the various ornaments and other bits & pieces in readiness for the Lounge makeover in March. Someone was smiling on us, as we had a very productive time and picked up something in virtually every shop we visited! Then it …
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Birthday Weekend 2015 – Corby/Harrogate/York

Saturday Celebrations began with a lie-in until the ridiculously late hour of 7.45!  Then, we headed out for a bit of retail therapy, descending on the rejuvenated Corby assisted by a greasy-spoon breakfast. After a short walk around the shops, we headed home. Tom and Julie had left a pressy for me, and not long …
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Kitchens, Arks and Takeaways!

The Kitchen Makeover – Almost Finished We always knew today was going to be busy! It was the day we set aside for restocking the kitchen cupboards after emptying them last week in preparation for the kitchen makeover. In spite of the hard work by Anglia Interiors’s Grant, their kitchen installer, the job wasn’t quite …
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Full-on Saturday

The Vines, Barton Hall, Kettering Even though we’re smug enough to say that all the Christmas shopping is finished, today was one of those ‘not-a-moment-to-breathe’ days – there just seemed to be hundreds of little jobs that needed sorting. In spite of an early start, we didn’t get back from town until almost lunch-time – …
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Almost a Full House!

Getting the family together is always a logistical challenge – and this weekend we managed to fill the house with most of the Gambles clan. Bev arrived on Friday night around 7.30, and whilst we gossiped, we devoured one of Ann’s cheese-boards (and a rather tasty 2011 Sauvignon Blanc from Mr Sainsbury ‘Coolwater Blue’ from …
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Lunch with Denis and Bev

There’s cool weather, cold weather, freezing weather and TODAY! When Ann, Lee and I left for Lincoln, Ann’s car was saying it was –8C outside – it certainly felt like it and I don’t think I’ve ever felt so cold. As we drove a few miles through Weekley, the gauge plummeted to –11C. That’s right …
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Saturday in London – Ann’s Night at the Opera (Part 2)

After a hearty breakfast in the hotel, we headed off towards the Tube switching into tourist mode (sharpening elbows and deleting ‘excuse me’ from our personal dictionary). Weather-wise, it’s a lovely warm day down here – perfect! First stop was the V and A. We haven’t been there for quite a few years, and it …
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