It was a great drive over to see our friends Nick and Celina today – and to see what progress they’d made with their recently acquire property – and to see their new additions to the family: ‘Salt’ and ‘Pepper’ – two six-week-old black and white kittens. Wow! what a transformation to the house since …
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Category:Days-out
Picnic at Belton House
With enough rations to last us a month, we headed off to Belton House with Chris and Gill for a picnic and a look round. Built for John Brownlow in the 1680s and home to around 300 fallow deer, we’d last been here around 15 years ago – but as usual, I didn’t remember any …
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Return to Canon’s Ashby
It was off to National Trust’s Canon’s Ashby today to meet up with Ian and Ann. With a communal picnic arranged and a pukka parking spot for their motor-home just outside the main car-park, we had all the ingredients of a perfect day! We haven’t been here since (we think) since the early 80s, and …
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Short Break: Beaulieu and Brockenhurst
We slept badly. In an effort to give us a different impression of Winchester, just before midnight, some local drunks had chosen the space under our window to exchange words of wisdom. I can’t recall the details, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a replay of the five-party political debate on TV last night! If …
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Short Break: Gin taster, Win chester!
We headed for Winchester today courtesy of Ann’s friend Nicki – and her gift of a hotel voucher. The route there just happened to take us in the direction of the Bombay Sapphire Distillery at Laverstoke Mill (with its own fascinating history). We set off around 9am and pulled into the car-park at Laverstoke Mill just …
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To Hull and Back
We headed off to Hull today to meet up with our friends, Dennis and Sandra, for a cultural day out! It was an early start – leaving just after 7am – heading for Peterborough Station to pick-up the train to Doncaster and then changing for our final destination. It was a hassle-free journey (although the …
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Lottie Lives!
It was over to my mate Chris A in Northampton today to spend a day with ‘Lottie’. Lottie is Chris’s new acquisition in the shape of a yellow Lotus Elan SE. After a quick blast down to Newport Pagnall and back, it was onto the serious stuff of replacing the driver’s door seal. A hour-or-so …
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Biggles Flies Again
Biggles? More like Giggles! as I took control of a real aeroplane courtesy of last year’s birthday pressy from Ian and Mags – a 45 minute flight over the skies of Northamptonshire! Ian & Ann, Ralph and Karen and my Ann were there to witness my performance as just after 11am, I ‘took the stick’ …
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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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Our Anniversary 2016
The 14th Well, here we are in Amsterdam for our 5th Anniversary (or ‘32nd’ in old money). After driving over to Birmingham Airport, we caught the 10.10 courtesy of Flybe to Schiphol and then jumped on the train for a short journey to Amsterdam Central. There we grabbed a 48 hour tourist ticket and boarded …
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Brekky at Bekky!
After the past few days where it’s been REALLY cold, it was good to wake up to a morning without frost – although it was damp. Perfect weather then for the legendary breakfast at Beckworth’s Emporium with David and Valerie. Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in life, not publishing my first post until …
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Stanford Hall
We drove over to Stanford Hall this afternoon. We’d had an invitation from the Jeweller – Tarratt – who made our wedding rings and they were having a ‘do’ here. And what a posh event it was, judging by the cars in the car-park! We parked up and headed for the Hall. Tarratt had taken …
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My 60th – Birthday 2016
So apparently, this is the ‘big one’ – ‘60’ – but luckily, I’m only 23 on the inside! This year, because of the ‘bigness’ of the event , I’m having quite a few separate celebrations (mainly based around food). They already started on the 21st with Sally and Shirley from Juno L and D treating …
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A Few Gambles
ThursdayJane and Oliver stayed over for a few days – a rare treat! They arrive mid-morning on Thursday and after a belly-busting lunch where Jane brought homemade apple crumble and some homegrown marrows (large enough to be mistaken for Zeppelins!) we all headed off to Wicksteed Park. Zeppelin Alert! Not surprisingly, with the school holidays, …
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House Call – 1
Nicki joined us for the weekend, but with the weather looking pretty unpleasant, we weren’t quite sure what to do with ourselves. So, Ann picked up Lee and they arrived back home around the same time as Nicki. We spent a couple of hours catching-up (and handing over Nicki’s birthday presents) before sitting down to …
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Ask – The Family
A bit of a travel experiment today! We travelled down to my Brother’s by train. We left just before 8.45 and after a short drive to Bedford (dropping-in on Steve and Denise), then grabbing the train at Bedford, and finally, changing at Farringdon. Three hours later, we were at Bromley South – a tad quicker …
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Outdoor Cinema
This was a first for us! Outdoor Cinema – in the UK!! We drove over to Boughton House, just a few miles away for a LunaFlix’s event where they were showing the iconic 1990 flick Pretty Woman. I’d booked the tickets almost nine months ago, having seen Lunaflix’s advert on Facebook – and planned it …
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Sean/Prawn/Bourne
It was off to Sean’s first thing to continue our pruning marathon. One very full wheely-bin and a sack-full and we were all done… until the next time!Before… After… The next stage was to drop into the local dump (oh, the excitement) and get rid of the extra bag full of foliage – but the queue …
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EXCELlent Day
It was off to our good friends Nick and Celina today for lunch and a quick teach-in to boost my Excel skills. It was good to see their place since our last visit. – two-and-a-bit acres plus a horse and a tractor made it more of a tour than a simple visit! It was turning …
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Go Stowe!
We met up with Chris, Gill, Denise and Veronica for a trip to Stowe House. Wow! If you were going to have a place to impress your friends, this would be a pretty good contender! The weather had been very disappointing this week and we were hoping for a bit of sunshine – and as …
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Holdenby Church
After a mega-pruning sessions at Sean’s this morning, we chilled out this afternoon. We took the short drive to Holdenby House – more specifically the Church, for a ‘do’ to raise money for the for the 149 year-old organ. It’s one of the Churches that Ann ‘looks after as part of her voluntary role with …
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Project: Forest Mushroom
It was up to Bev’s new place today to help her with a boring but necessary job – not that we minded! It was to give her fences their first coat of fence paint with the colour of choice: Forest Mushroom. With three of us on it, starting at just before 10 (with a short …
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Passport to Pimlico
Day 1 (Thursday)Dolphin House Serviced Apartments So, here we are at the Dolphin House Serviced Apartments in Pimlico, London, for a short break. It’s an opportunity for us to be tourists for a few days, and take in the sights and sounds of the Capital. Wow! the Apartment provides everything – a spa, a grill …
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Mid-week Break in Worthing
WednesdayWe set off just after 8.30 and decided to go via the A14, the M1 and the M25 via Heathrow (rather than our ‘normal’ A14-M11-M25). Distance-wise there wasn’t much in it, but Google Maps suggested it would probably be quicker – at just under three hours. Well, even though it didn’t seem like it at …
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Matlock for May Day Weekend
SATURDAY After my final Committee Meeting as Chair for The OCA yesterday, it was good to know we had a relaxing long weekend coming up with our great friends, Ralph and Karen in Matlock. We left around 10.30 and had a trouble-free journey (helped by the new bit of the road linking the A14 to …
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A Short Walk Gets Long
The weather was looking dry so we drove over to Pitsford Water – with the aim of a short walk. Our ‘short walk’ turned into a five-mile trek as we headed for Brixworth Country Park and back. The scenery was beautiful and initially, there was quite a bit of sunshine – but it wasn’t to …
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The Canterbury Rails
Wednesday, 23rd: ArrivalIt’s Ann’s birthday on the 25th, so we thought we’d slip away for a few days. The destination of choice this time was Canterbury – and we did it all by train! (me, on a train, what, for ALL of the journey? – some mistake surely!). Actually it was a bit of no-brainer. …
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Tourist Times – London
Occasionally, we leave the ‘wilds’ of Northamptonshire and head for the capital – as Tourists. We’ve always found it’s amazing what you see when you are on foot, especially in a big city like London. Thursday We caught a leisurely 11.26 from Kettering and headed for our home for the next two nights – it’s …
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Essex Girl (and Boy!)
WEDNESDAYWe took a few days off and headed back to where it all began – Essex! Ann has a job interview in the area on Thursday, and we decided to make this pilgrimage to where we’d spent a big chunk of our life working for Mr Sainsbury. The time was the 80s, and it seems …
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John Lewis – Birmingham
Having retail in our DNA meant that a visit to the new John Lewis in Birmingham was too hard to resist. It took us a while to get round to it, but todayo was the day! A short drive to Rugby Station and then onwards to Birmingham New Street courtesy of Virgin Trains – and …
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