We haven’t been to the local Odeon for months, so it was good to break the habit today! We saw the afternoon matinee of Jonathan Teplitzky’s production of Churchill. With so many ‘big’ films today being dependent on an over-use of CGI, it was good to actually watch something that relied solely on quality acting …
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Month:June 2017
Laptop Coaching: Recap – ‘Photos’ App
Auto cross-posted from my WordPress Blog: Continuing our recap lessons, today, we re-looked at the Windows 10 ‘Photos’ app. 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 fondness …
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Laptop Coaching: What is Windows 10 (Pt 1)
Auto cross-posted from my WordPress Blog: Today, we ran an introductory session about the features and benefits of ‘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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Doctor Who – Series 10, Episode 11: “World Enough and Time”
Weird title though!Well, that was a good one! With so much going on, it was difficult to keep up – and if the pre-titles scene didn’t have Whovians everywhere reaching for their Twitter account, I don’t know what would have!!This was the penultimate episode for Peter Capaldi in the title role and also Steven Moffat …
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Canada and Alaska – Part 3, Day 5: Bye-bye Vancouver!
Weather permitting, it’s Queen Elizabeth Park (directions HERE) and Vancouver’s Botanical Gardens (directions HERE) before we close the suitcases on Canada for good this time round, and fly home. As things turned out the weather was much better than the forecast above showed – perfect for our last day here! It was a short SkyTrain …
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Canada and Alaska – Part 3, Day 4: Last Full Day in Vancouver
A lazy start to the day – we couldn’t even be bothered to walk downstairs for brekky! An excellent spread! Earl Grey Tea, Coffee, Waffles, Banana Pancakes – all with extra berries (and fat-free too!)…. Maybe!The weather looks a lot better today, so we’re off south to the town of Steveston using a mixture of …
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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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Canada and Alaska – Part 3, Day 2: Return to Vancouver
The weather is not looking so good, so we’ll probably stay fairly local today. On a more positive note, our forced re-location to Vancouver probably means that the roads are now much safer without me in Whistler!Bye-bye Room 1335! After a good night’s sleep thanks to the Fairmount Hotel’s bed (about half the size of …
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Canada and Alaska – Part 3, Day 1: Was Whistler now Vancouver!
Suitcases – check… Passports – check… Mobile phone – check… Laptop – check… Guide Books – checkDriving Licence – err… In spite of planning every stage of this holiday to within an inch of its life, we overlooked packing my Driving Licence. So, after landing at Vancouver International Airport with the plan of picking-up our …
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Doctor Who – Series 10, Episode 10: “The Eaters of Light”
I really enjoyed this episode – the powerful message towards the end about fighting other peoples’ fights! 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 fondness for the …
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24 hours in Anchorage
Well, not quite 24 hours, but almost! I wasn’t expecting to post again until we got to Whistler, but the weather and various locations along the way today made it a great opportunity for some extra photos. We got off the Ship in record time for exiting a Cruise and were soon sitting in the …
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Canada and Alaska – Part 2, Day 7: Hubbard Glacier
This is probably THE event of the Cruise – a visit to the Hubbard Glacier. It’s the largest tidewater glacier on the North American continent – and LARGE is the key feature! 11000 feet above sea level, 6 miles wide and 76 miles in length – that’s a big chunk of ice! According to the …
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Canada and Alaska – Part 2, Day 6: Skagway
Well, here we are, 100 miles north of yesterday’s soggy visit to Juneau, the capital – we’re now in Skagway, home to just 1000 locals. This town sees almost a million visitors a year and became the largest city in Alaska once gold had been discovered in the Yukon back in the 1890s. 7am: History …
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Canada and Alaska – Part 2, Day 5: Alaska’s Capital – Juneau
The short overnight sailing meant we were in Juneau in good time, docking by the time we woke up. Compared to yesterday’s ‘return to the wilderness’, this place is sophisticated – cars, buildings… and people! (and hopefully, no bears!) On the stroke of 7am, the captain announced we’d been ‘cleared’ – and by 7.01, hoards …
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Canada and Alaska – Part 2, Day 4: Icy Strait Point, Alaska
Today the Ship docked at Icy Strait Point. By air, it’s about 50 miles west of the capital, Juneau, 60 miles north of Sitka, with Hoonah the nearest city. This isn’t your normal cruise destination as the landing area is completely man-made where many of the buildings have only been built in the past few …
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Canada and Alaska – Part 2, Day 3: Ketchikan, Alaska
We arrived in Ketchikan, Alaska around 7a.m. – and a cool 10 degrees! There were two other Cruise Ships also moored alongside us – and the town was clearly ready for the expected increase in trade with their shop doors wide open and the vendors offering plenty of words of encouragement to sample their wares! …
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Doctor Who – Series 10, Episode 9: “Empress of Mars”
⭐ ⭐ ⭐ OK, I watched this whilst getting over a rather nasty virus and I was jet-lagged too! 😵💫 All-in-all, I found it at ‘OK’ episode, but nothing special. 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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Canada and Alaska – Part 2, Day 2: Alaska Itinerary
We’re all at sea today, so that gives us plenty of time to get our head around the itinerary for Alaska. Sunday (tomorrow): Ketchikan (bottom right on the map) Monday: Icy Strait Point (not shown, but just left of Juneau) Tuesday: Juneau (Alaska’s capital) Wednesday: Skagway Thursday: At sea – the highlight will be sailing …
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Canada and Alaska – Part 2, Day 1: Heading for Alaska
We checked-out of the Apartment around 11am and booked a taxi to take us to the Cruise terminal. Luckily for us, there was only ONE Cruise Ship in port today – ours!, so our ride was able to drop us off without too much time queuing. In spite of the mandatory fingerprint requirement (of all …
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Canada and Alaska – Part 1, Day 4: Thursday in Vancouver
What a deterioration in the weather compared to all the other days we’ve been here! ‘Chucking it down’ doesn’t begin to describe the amount of rain falling! So, the perfect cue for a ‘Plan B’ of some sort! – somewhere that’s going to put us INSIDE, in the dry, rather than outside! As it’s our …
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Canada and Alaska – Part 1, Day 3: Wednesday in Vancouver
Neither of us slept too well and consequently, we were awake early – drinking tea at 5.30am! On the positive side though, it meant we were one of the first down to breakfast at 7am which meant we got first pick of the pastries! Today’s weather forecast… Scorchio! Given this rather excellent forecast for today …
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Canada and Alaska – Part 1, Day 2: Tuesday in Vancouver
We slept well and by morning, we were fully refreshed and ready to take on the Apartment’s continental breakfast! We arrived just as they were refreshing the stocks of pastries – and I’m pleased to report that they lived up to expectations! After breakfast, our first stop, was a bit of instant retail therapy – …
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Canada and Alaska – Part 1, Day 1: Pre-Cruise, Arrival in Vancouver
Well, this is a big one! There are three parts to our latest adventure and it began with getting the 11.56 out of Kettering – destination Vancouver, Canada! Things didn’t start well! The train was late and after we got to T3 at Heathrow, checked in and boarded the plane, the pilot calmly announced that …
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Doctor Who – Series 10, Episode 8: ‘The Lie of the Land’
Wow! Another great episode – and that’s the truth – although I did feel that the ending was a bit of an anti-climax. Still, at least the leaked images of the ‘regeneration scene’ have now been satisfactorily explained! Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until 2004 – …
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