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, …
Read More
Category:Shopping
Charging towards Uppingham!
It was a welcome return to one of our favourite towns today – Uppingham. Being a Friday, it’s Market Day too, so there was even more to enjoy! Last time were here was back in February 2018 – and that was Market Day too! …and me being me, it wouldn’t be a normal day without …
Read More
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 …
Read More
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 …
Read More
A Day in Teigh
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 …
Read More
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 …
Read More
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 …
Read More
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 …
Read More
Return to The Nut Tree
David and Valerie picked us up and it was off to Bicester Shopping Village for a look round. We arrived just after 10 and as expected, it was really busy – although luckily, we got a parking space straightaway. We went our separate ways and agreed to meet up for about 12.30. There were plenty …
Read More
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 …
Read More
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 …
Read More
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 …
Read More
Downtown with Newton
What a lovely day! The sun is, at last, shining for more than a few hours – so it was time to make the most of it! With the dust blown off the picnic cutlery (and the XKR!), we assembled the essentials and headed off in the direction of NT’s Woolsthorpe Manor.Woolsthorpe Manor As every …
Read More
Sun, Seagulls and Castanets
Ahhh, a rather late start of us two – 7.30am – and it was off to Eastbourne (to check out a Hotel) then Worthing (for a birthday party) and then finally to our overnight stay in Arundel (a return to the aptly named Comfort Inn). This was possibly our longest trip so far in the …
Read More
Mega-Social
‘The Weekend…’ as they say, ‘starts here!’ This weekend was one of the busiest ‘socials’ for, us for a long while (ohh, the stress!). So, not a great time, to be trying to stick to my Lent regime – but I managed it! FridayThe weekend started early on Friday night, where we met up with …
Read More
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 …
Read More
Table Where?
Fabric Display at John Lewis MK – is it me, or do they look slightly creepy?It was a rather disappointing day today. We set off for MK in search of ideas for a replacement dining-room table and also to pick-up some ideas for colours for the planned refresh of the dining-room. First stop was the …
Read More
Lazy Day
A lazy (ish) day today! – which is very unusual for us, even though it is a Saturday! I took Ann’s car to Richards in for its ‘A’ Service – it only took just over the hour, but they did spot a balding back tyre and front brakes that will need replacing in a few …
Read More
Beckworth Emporium
You would have thought that having lived in these parts for so long, we would know every good place to shop and eat – not so! Friends had mentioned Beckworth Emporium in the past, and although we’d mentally added it to our ‘places-to-go-when-there’s-not-much-else-to-do’, we had never actually been there – and it’s only a short …
Read More
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 – …
Read More
Market Harborough
Nicki stayed overnight and with a complete change in the weather compared to yesterday (today – hot & sunny, yesterday – rain, rain and more rain!), we decided to head over to Market Harborough to look for some more bits and pieces for the office/bedroom conversion. Result! We managed to find some suitable glasses, two …
Read More
Judging, Pussy and the Plasmas
Judging, Pussy and the Plasmas – no, not a Cowell-esque moment for a feline rock-band with a preference for protons, but a snappy title for today’s activities! The day began with me dropping Ann at Kettering Station so she could re-visit John Lewis in Leicester and make a judgement on bedroom furniture, carpets and wallpaper …
Read More
Downtown Fabby
Lee, Ann and I took a trip up to the fab Downtown department store today to meet Denis for lunch and to purchase some more bits and pieces for the Office-Bedroom conversion. Having bought the bed a few weeks ago, we now needed to buy a mattress for our room and then cycle the existing …
Read More
Lighter in Leicester
Today was a day for losing weight – weight in my wallet! We picked Lee up at 8.15 and sped over to Highcross in Leicester for a shopping spree. We planned to browse, but that didn’t last long. Thirty minutes in and we’d acquired a bed (for the home-office transformation), and the most complex (and …
Read More
Leicester – A Ring, A Pig and a Cutlery Set!
It’s Saturday, and nothing that a DoDO likes more after a hard week’s washing, ironing, car valeting and IT Support than a quiet sit-down with the papers. Forget that then! – it was off to Leicester for a mega-shop – and when I say ‘mega’, Ann’s leading the charge today, so it’ll be a biggy! …
Read More
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 …
Read More
Derby Day
Nicki joined Lee, Ann and I today and we took the 10.30 train to Derby. Weather started off pretty bad – rain, rain and more rain – but then cleared-up to leave a bright sunny day. We arrived into Derby station (after a quick change at Leicester) around an hour later. The shopping area was …
Read More
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 …
Read More
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 …
Read More
Steve vs The Cottage Pie
We drove up to Denis’ today, placing some flowers on Mae’s grave along the way. Bev had created a legendary-sized Cottage Pie – not for the faint-hearted nor the short-of-stomach, it was a veritable feast and I won’t need to eat until August!!!!! She followed it up (for Denis and me, at least) with a …
Read More