We’re only four weeks away from Ann leaving and (UNhelpfully) HR are being less than co-operative – just when it matters! Having spent most of my working life in-and-around HR functions, they sometimes just don’t ‘get-it’ – they simply forget who their customers are. In this specific instance, it’s their inaction, indifferent behaviour and their …
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Catch-up with Ian and Mags
I drove over to Coventry tonight to meet up with Ian and Mags – it’s our normal get together/catch-up – the last time we all saw each other socially was at our Christmas ‘do’ on December 15th last year. We went to Aqua Food and Mood in Coventry. It’s a Lebanese Restaurant (that also does …
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TV: Doctor Who Special – ‘The Waters of Mars’
Coming in November 2009! This will be the second of the ‘Specials’ starring David Tennant. Let’s hope it’s better than the recent lack-lustre Easter Special – Planet of the Dead…
Easter with Karen and Ralph – Monday
I got up around 7ish after Karen delivered us a cup of tea – I’ll miss that when I get home! 🙂 Ralph was already up preparing a breakfast of their bacon and our homemade loaf – a perfect combination! The sandwiches were superb!! After a couple of cuppas, we got packed and said our …
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Easter with Karen and Ralph – Sunday
I didn’t sleep too well – I think it’s called a ‘hang-over’! In turn that meant Ann didn’t either, so I expect a slightly less-than-cheery Ann this morning when she gets up! 🙂 Good news! Ann was fine. We exchanged Easter presents – I bought Ann a chrome case for her personal business cards and …
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Easter with Ralph and Karen – Saturday
We slept well and woke up about 6. A little later Karen brought us both a very welcome cup of tea each! The weather outside looks a bit grey and unsettled – but maybe it’ll brighten up later. We had a a light breakfast of cereal, yoghurt and fruit and then, just after 10 we …
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TV: Doctor Who – Easter Special: ‘Planet of the Dead’
This was the first episode to be shot in HD and started off with a Mission Impossible type jewel heist with the thief (Michelle Ryan as Lady de Souza )dropping from the ceiling on wires and stealing a precious jewel. This looked like a promising beginning. As she escaped, an iconic No. 200 red bus …
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Easter with Ralph and Karen – Friday
We set off just after noon. and arrived at Rockside around 2.15. It wasn’t a bad journey, but we did run into some road-works on the M1 an hour or so into the journey and Matlock high street was totally congested! Weather-wise, it was slightly overcast and a bit misty The sat-nav in the car …
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TV: The Bill
Nice to see my old school on the TV tonight. It was used as an integral part of a complex storyline involving drug-smoking-and-dealing; an arsonist; two scrapping pupils, (one of whom stabbed ‘Smiffy’); and a far-too-liberal head of year – a lot different to my days there when the most serious offence was jumping the …
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TV: Ashes to Ashes – Date of Series 2 confirmed
I hear via Digital Spy that series 2 will start on Tuesday 21st April on BBC1!
Cor!! What a Scorcher!
Well, maybe not a scorcher – but certainly a very nice day… 19 degrees C or thereabouts. We spent all morning and a little of the afternoon in the garden; I even got around to mowing the lawn for the first time this season. The cats loved it too. It’s probably the longest they’ve been …
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Ian and Ann’s for Dinner
We travelled over to Ian and Ann’s for a social get-together. We don’t see them often enough, and it was good to catch-up with all their news. Ian was the chef for the evening and we enjoyed home-made potato and leek soup, chicken casserole and lemon cheesecake to finish. Super scrummy! Caroline and Dermot popped …
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It’s Hammock Time (with apologies to MC Hammer)
Today we dismantled the hammock – it’s been with us since 2006 and now it’s heading for the local dump! It hadn’t really stood up to the weather – it full of rust and the materials definitely weren’t weather-proof. I remember it took two of us about an hour to assemble it – and it …
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Roy, Susan and Janine joined us for Supper…
Roy and Susan and Janine joined us for supper primarily for the five-of-us to plan in some detail, how we’re going to take photos of Roy when he runs in the London Marathon on 26 April. Ann made two pizzas – one vegetarian and one spicy-meat – all accompanied with salad and washed down with …
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Boiler sorted!/Boiler not sorted
Richard arrived from British Gas and fixed our boiler problem – it was the printed circuit board that was shorting-out. Perfect timing actually, as it was cold overnight, and we were starting to lose all our hot-water too. Update: 4.30. Switched the central-heating back on and guess what? – the boiler’s not working!!! British Gas …
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TV: Ashes to Ashes – Series 2
Caught the trailer for series 2 for ‘Ashes to Ashes‘ on BBC just after The Apprentice finished. Looks good! Great music (Spandau Ballet) and they’ve changed DI Alex Drake‘s hairstyle (for the better, in my view). Extensive Wiki entry HERE
TV: Doctor Who Teaser – Easter Special
I nearly missed it – the first ‘teaser’ for the Easter Special. It was shown just before 9pm. For casual watchers of the series, you will have been impressed with the CGI used to show the damage to the red bus. Except, it is actually REAL damage, apparently caused by the bus being dropped from …
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Ann’s away
That’s unusual, Ann is away tonight (in Leicester helping to run a careers event – how ironic!!!) So, that gave me chance to fix her PC that had overheated last week. To make matters worse, on my initial attempt to fix it and whilst trying to clean the fan assembly near the processor, I managed …
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Boiler Problems?
It might be my imagination, but I think the central-heating is playing-up. I put it on when I got back from my meeting – two hours later, the radiators were only luke warm. I’ve booked British Gas to sort it out. Update: Yes, definitely a problem – the boiler keeps firing-up and then after ten …
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The gardening begins…
With the clocks changing last night and the lighter evenings beginning to appear, it was time to devote some energy to the back garden. …so I washed the car, whilst Ann did all the hard work!!! Well, that’s not quite true, I did rake the lawn to remove all the debris left behind by the …
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Rosi’s Get-Together for Ann’s Birthday
It was really great of Rosi to offer to host a get-together to celebrate Ann’s Birthday. We don’t need much of an excuse to meet-up with the neighbours – so this was just perfect!! We took Karen and Paul with us for the short drive and we arrived there about 7.45. All the gang was …
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Up to Downtown
We drove over to Peterborough first to pick up Ann’s new jacket from John Lewis and also for me to get a haircut. We then headed for Downtown for a spot of shopping and to meet Denis and Mae for lunch. The lunch area was packed-out but luckily Mae managed to find a table for …
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Last of the Red Hot Lovers
We drove over to Stratford to see Second Thoughts production of ‘The Last of the Red Hot Lovers’. I picked Ann up from the station at just after 6 and we got there at just after 7. Ann was hungry, so picked up some chips. Yum-yum! – then I remembered that I was supposed to …
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Ann’s Birthday
I can’t remember the last time I WASN’T around for Ann’s Birthday – in fact, it’s never happened before. I’m not sure how I ended up scheduling myself to work today! Still, Nicki has been with us for the past two days and they’ve had great fun doing ‘girly-stuff’ in my absence. Pressy-wise, I bought …
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Ann’s new phone
We realised that with Ann’s redundancy looming she’d have to give her company mobile back – a rather antiquated Nokia. A perfect excuse then to look for a replacement! Slim, attractive, easy-on-the-eye and brimming with technology – but enough about me 🙂 – what about the new phone? We settled for the ‘Nokia Classic 60 …
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Lee and Bertie’s for the weekend
I got up at 7.45 and Ann followed shortly afterwards. We had tea/coffee in the guest suite. I ate lightly at breakfast – brioche and jams, whilst Ann showered. After breakfast, we watched ‘Shadow Run‘ -on DVD – the one we started to watch last night. Starring Sir Michael Caine it tells the story of …
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Lee and Bertie’s for the weekend
We left early – at 7am – and that guaranteed we would have a good journey. It was actually a GREAT journey, hardly any traffic, no hold-ups and a beautiful morning to be behind the wheel. We filled us with juice at the local Total station and whilst doing so, a guy delivering newspapers to …
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Meal with David and Val
We went back to Edwards Restaurant tonight with David and Val for our regular monthly meal. For the past few, we’ve been eating-in together, so it was nice to see Edwards again as the food is always superb – especially the chips (which I’ve given up for Lent!) We left a little earlier than normal …
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TV: Being Human
Good news for fans of this series – Being Human. Not only has the BBC commissioned a second, but there’s a ‘special’ on BBC3 on 28 March. Digital Spy reports that it’ll contain interviews with the stars and the Director and Writer, Toby Whithouse, followed by a re-run of the first three episodes. Based on …
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Alan Parsons – The Album Cover that Never Was
For all fans of the music of Alan Parsons, the forthcoming Album by his ex-music partner, Eric Woolfson, entitled ‘The Project that Never Was’, is eagerly awaited. Spookily, a related item on Steve Martin’s The Avenue Online web-site talks of album covers that also never saw the light of day. Steve collaborated …
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