Day 9 — Sunday, 10th AugustHavre St Pierre, Quebec Welcome back, loyal reader! 👍👍. After a sea day yesterday, we’re back to our itinerary. Sorry that this one is a bit late – we temporarily lost the internet around 7pm last night. Yesterday, at sea, was spent catching up with my reading, where, in the …
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Category:Friends
Amazing Azamara – Day 8 – At Sea
Day 8 — Saturday, 9th AugustAt Sea Nothing to see here! It’s a ‘Sea Day’ – technically it’s actually a RIVER Day as we’re sailing along the St Lawrence River. Time to catch up with my reading! Tomorrow… We say hello to Havre St Pierre, Quebec Province. Steve PalmerI got into blogging quite late in …
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Amazing Azamara – Day 7 – Saguenay, Quebec
Morning all! Is it Friday, already? 🤔. Welcome to our BIG Holiday of 2025! We’re with our mates, Ralph and Karen, taking in Canada, Greenland and Iceland. Day 7 — Friday, 8th AugustSaguenay, Quebec, Canada It’s silly o’clock (5am!, local time, 10am, UK) and I’m up. Why so early? (especially after last night’s late one). …
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Amazing Azamara – Day 6 – More of Quebec City
Morning all! Happy Thursday! Thanks for following my Blog – I’m enjoying reading your comments. 👍😊. Welcome to our BIG Holiday of 2025! We’re with great mates, Ralph and Karen, taking in Canada, Greenland and Iceland. Day 6 — Thursday, 7th AugustMore of Quebec City Missed a Post? Day 1 – Heading for MontrealDay 2 …
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Amazing Azamara – Day 5 – Quebec City (1st Day)
Welcome to our BIG Holiday of 2025! We’re with our good friends Ralph and Karen, taking in Canada, Greenland and Iceland. Day 5 — Wednesday, 6th AugustQuebec City Missed a previous Post?Day 1 – Onwards to MontrealDay 2 – Montreal – 2nd DayDay 3 – Montreal – 3rd DayDay 4 – Joining the Azamara Quest …
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Amazing Azamara – Day 4 – All Aboard!
Day 4 — Tuesday, 5th AugustAll Aboard the Azamara Quest! Missed a Post? Day 1 – Montréal Bound! Day 2 – Montréal: Day 1 Day 3 – Montréal Day 2 It’s all change today as we say au revoir to Montréal and begin the next chapter of our holiday. We’re with great mates, Ralph and …
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Amazing Azamara – Day 3 – Montreal (2nd Day)
Welcome to our BIG Holiday of 2025! We’re with our great friends, Ralph and Karen, taking in Canada, Greenland and Iceland. Day 3 — Monday, 4th AugustEven More of Montreal! Morning!… or as they say in these parts… ‘Bonjour!’. Yes, we’re in Montreal, Canada, where it helps if you can speak a little French! It’s …
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Amazing Azamara – Day 2 – Montreal (1st Day)
Welcome to our BIG Holiday of 2025! We’re with great mates, Ralph and Karen, taking in Canada, Greenland and Iceland. Day 2 — Sunday, 3rd AugustMontreal (1st Day) Morning all! Happy Sunday! 👍😎☀️ We arrived late evening, yesterday. And so today was about orienting ourselves and soaking up the sights before we join the Cruise …
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Amazing Azamara – Day 1 – Montreal Bound!
Welcome to ‘Day 1’ of our BIG Holiday of 2025 – a 21-day experience! We’re with great mates, Ralph and Karen, taking in Canada, Greenland and Iceland. Day 1 – Saturday, 2nd AugustMontreal Before boarding the good ship Azamara Quest on Tuesday, we’ve got a few days in Montreal to soak up the sights. But …
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Bomber Command – Revisited
Today was a welcome return to ‘Bomber Command’ in Bourne, Lincolnshire. This time, with great mates John & Trish. Its full title is International Bomber Command Centre (the IBCC). July 2019 – Denis’s 90thSeptember 2023 – with Dennis & Sandra It wasn’t our first visit, but it’s such a well-laid-out and comprehensive record of that …
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Kilworth House Theatre – 42nd Street
Luckily, we didn’t need the Sat-Nav to get us to 42nd Street today, as it was a welcome return to Kilworth House Theatre where we’ve been about a gazillion times before! But before the Show, we stopped off at The Wharf Inn in nearby Welford for an early nibble. Last time (and the first time!) …
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Tolethorpe Hall – The Mirror Crack’d
A day of culture today as we headed for Tolethorpe Hall with Jo, Janet and Carol to see the matinée performance of Agatha Christie’s, The Mirror Crack’d. The last time we all there was back in August last year, to see The Recruiting Officer and we’ve built up quite a track record of visits here! …
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First Visit: Rose and Crown, Yardley Hastings
We drove to the Rose & Crown Bistro in Yardley Hastings today to meet up with Chris & Gill and Steve & Denise for Lunch. It was our first visit and came highly recommended (although this was our second attempt as we cancelled on the 24th April, because I was down with a cold and …
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Return to The Countryman, Staverton Village
Today, we caught up with long-time friends Ian & Ann and Alan & Margaret. Our eatery of choice today was a return to The Countryman in Staverton Village. Here we are again at what’s turning out to be one of our favourite ‘out-of-town’ Pubs for eating! We must have been here around half a dozen …
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Nottingham Castle with Dennis and Sandra
Postponed from 2nd April, today was another of our cultural days out with mates, Dennis and Sandra. This time it was Nottingham Castle and then lunch at the famous Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem Pub, nearby! We let the train take the strain and grabbed the 9.28 out of Kettering that got us to Nottingham …
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Return to the Montagu Arms, Barnwell
We haven’t been here for AGES – today, we returned to the Montagu Arms, voted “Best Traditional Pub in Northamptonshire” in 2022. We met up with longtime friends, Mick & Jane (postponed from 4 April!) for a catch-up and a meal. Looks like the last time we all met here was back in 2009, but …
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Film: Mission Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025)
Off to Cineworld in Rushden Lakes with Jo and Janet to see the 6.20pm performance of ‘Mission Impossible – The Final Reckoning’. This is the concluding part to 2023’s blockbuster of a similar name – Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning – Part 1 (later re-titled to Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning). I guess we all …
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Computer Nerds
It’s official! I’m a computer nerd! (who knew?). Actually, probably most people!!! 😉👍 Why so? I drove over to meet Chris today in Northampton, and we took the short drive to the National Museum of Computing in Bletchley, having been there with Ann as part of our Valentine’s Break earlier this year – how’s that …
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Party, Party! (Literally)
How popular are we? Well, I don’t know about that, but today, we had the unusual situation where we were invited to two events pretty much at the same time! Both included great food and great friends – and the weather looked promising too! 👍😎 Party 1 Beginning at the very sociable time of 1.30pm, …
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Boys’ Day Out
D’you know, I’ve never been as busy as I’ve been lately – and I’m retired! So, today, was a special treat! I took the short drive over to techy-mate Chris and we motored on to Gtechnic’s HQ in Upper Heyford, The reason? A half-day ‘hands-on’ Car Detailing Workshop organised by Alex, one of their experienced …
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Return to the Tollemache Arms
Tonight was a welcome return to The Tollemache Arms. The last time I was here was in June 2019, and since then, it’s had a makeover through a crowdfunding campaign where they smashed their target of raising 30k by amassing 33k in just 4 days! We picked up Bev & Jules for 7pm and headed …
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Every Doggett’s Has Its Day!
Today was an opportunity to meet up with some of the Old Croydonians Association Committee from my days as their Chair (2010 until 2016). It was one of those increasingly rare occasions when I took the train to London from Kettering to St Pancras International (I don’t get out much these days!). Roger met me …
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Pig and Waffle
Pig and Waffle? No, not the opening paragraph on my LinkedIn profile, but the name of one of our many nearby eateries! The Pig and Waffle is in Grafton Underwood, and only a 15-minute drive away. We booked a lunchtime table with long-time friends and neighbours Paul & Karen on what was the hottest day …
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Winner, Winner! TV Dinner! – Paddington in Peru
It’s another of our ‘Winner Winner, TV Dinner’ Nights. Jo & Janet joined us for 2024’s ‘Paddington in Peru‘. On the ‘Dinner, Dinner’ front, a rare evening off (pretty much) for Ann as J&J supplied the Mains and the Dessert – all we needed to do was prepare the veg and the custard!! 😀 When …
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The Olde Victoria
Today, a welcome return to the Olde Victoria – our local – to meet up for lunch with long-time friends, Richard & Pauline. The last time we four got together was June last year (also at the Olde Vic!), and it was good to catch up. For the first time EVER (20+ years!) we couldn’t …
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Film: Black Bag (2025)
This afternoon we joined Jo & Janet on a trip to the Corby’s Savoy Cinema (our new ‘go-to’ picture house) to see the new film: Black Bag for its early evening performance. It was only our third visit here since our local Odeon closed down – and it’s been worth the extra miles, in every …
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The Countryman, Staverton
Today, we caught up with long-time friends Ian & Ann and Alan & Margaret. Our eatery of choice today? The Countryman in Staverton Village. Last time we were here was in November, 2022 with Ian & Ann, celebrating their Golden Wedding. After a slightly mystifying route to the Pub (Sat Nav took us the LONG …
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Winner, Winner! TV Dinner! – Avatar, The Way of Water
We haven’t done one of these for a while – it’s another of our ‘Winner Winner, TV Dinner’ Nights. Jo & Janet joined us and with Ann on cooking duties and me in charge of the DVD remote control tonight – on the menu was a fish dish, a couple of puds and 2022’s ‘Avatar …
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Return to the Wheatsheaf
We met up with Mick & Jane at The Wheatsheaf in Titchmarsh for Lunch today. We were last here (again, with Mick & Jane) in April 2022 and it was good to be back. This used to be our go-to Pub/Restaurant when we first moved here (we must have visited close on 50 times!), but …
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Movie Night: Grease
We got together with John & Trish round at ours for our first Movie Night of 2025. Our Film of choice was the iconic Grease, from 1978. Ann laid on some food too! We even squeezed in a Cheeseboard!! It was great to see Grease again. I think we knew all the tunes and all …
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