I bought Ann a single red-rose on a 1 metre stem from The Red Rose Society. I also bought her some Valentine cards (that I’d sent earlier in the week, but Ann recognised my crappily disguised handwriting) plus two from MoonPig, that had customised covers and insides. Ann bought me a humorous cat book – …
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Learning Network/MoonPig/Case Study
After Thursday’s night’s surprise snow-fall I decided that I wouldn’t travel to London tomorrow for the Learning Network Group meeting. It was a difficult decision as Antoinette was going to be running the session and I was looking forward to it. However, the recent weather conditions made driving a real challenge – even to the …
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The White Stuff
In yesterday’s post entitled, ‘Snow Go’ I may have mistakenly given the impression that the snow was on its way out. At a round 4pm today, the snow returned – a little at first, then it got heavier and heavier. By the time I got to the station to pick-up Ann around 6pm, the whole …
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Snow go!
At last, especially after yesterday’s fiasco, the snow is finally melting. It’s been with us on-and-off since it first arrived a few weeks back. Not that it’s been a sunny day today (just 3-4 degrees C here), it’s mainly because the rain is washing it away. Who cares? I think I passed the ‘ahh, isn’t …
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Trapped in the snow!
I didn’t sleep too well last night and was awake at 3am! Looking out the window, I noticed it had snowed a lot – what a pain in the arse as I’m off to Daventry today. I assumed that the journey was going to be bad so I decided to leave a little earlier than …
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David Tennant’s Video Diary
Found this on YouTube – it’s DT’s video diary (filmed on 14 January 2009) as he enters his final year as ‘The Doctor’. Here he talks briefly about the Easter Doctor Who Special, ‘Planet of the Dead’.
The Benefits of having kids/Chinese by Candlelight/DVD: Edge of Darkness
We’re still covered in snow here, so we decided that at some point we’d have to clear the drive to get the car out for later in the week. Ahh, the benefits of having kids – watching them grow, acting as a 24/7 taxi service for them in their teens, providing financial support with no …
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TV: Sneak Peek – Torchwood, Season 3
Looks like Neil at Digital Spy has got his eye on the ball. On the website they’re showing this clip of the forthcoming new Torchwood (mini) series: ‘Children of the Earth’. Torchwood clip – Children of the Earth (not able to embed the clip) It all looks VERY spooky!
Jo and Janet for Supper – well, Pizzas actually!
The roads and paths round here are really bad. They’re either covered in snow, covered in ice – or worse still, both! Using the car is completely out of the question and there have been a number of examples on the news of people losing control of their vehicle and the car ending up in …
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Camel CDs Resampled
Mouse-over the Album covers for titles and release dates I had a bit of time on my hands so I resampled all my Albums by Camel. I’d quite forgotten how good they were! There was also a practical reason for doing so – ever since I learned that …
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This is snow joke!
Looks like the snow is back with a vengeance!!! When I looked out of the window at 5am, there was just a light dusting …now look at it! It was impossible to get the car off of the drive, so I wasn’t able to get Ann to the Station. Karen measured 5.5 inches next door…but …
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TV: Minder
Five have re-commissioned the iconic series ‘Minder’. This time round it stars Shane Richie (surely everyone’s natural choice for the part) as Archie Daley – nephew of Arthur, and unknown (to me) Lex Shrapnel as the cabbie-turned-minder, Jamie Cartwright. It looks like a lot of the filming has been done around London and there are …
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Divine Intervention?
Just when we thought that the only option for Ann was to take the redundancy package, she was contacted by a colleague who recommended she apply for a specific senior manager position. Let’s see how it turns out…
TV: Being Human
I caught up with ‘Being Human‘ a new series on BBC3 that follows the lives of three flat-mates. The twist? One is a vampire, one is a ghost and one is a werewolf. The series came about after a successful pilot a while ago although, many of the main characters have different actors playing them …
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Test Blog
This is a test blog from the PC in the Den using ‘Windows Live Writer 2009’. Looks like it’s working! I also managed to install it successfully on my NoteBook and NetBook today. I’ll be trying out the new features in the next few days and weeks.
It’s snowing…
The weather could hardly be more of a contrast to our holiday over the last 10 days. It’s been minus 2 degrees C here for most of the day and I don’t remember the last time it snowed so hard and for so long (all day!) Most of the south of England has come to …
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Test Blog
I’ve just upgraded to Windows Live-Writer 2009 and I want to see if it’s all upgraded properly including that ‘bug’ that mis-interprets apostrophes. If this text’s apostrophes look OK, then it’s working!
Gill Washington – RIP
I heard some very sad news today. When we got back from holiday last night there were two messages on my voicemail from Sean, Gill’s partner, asking me to get in touch. I finally managed to call him today and heard that Gill had died of a sudden heart-attack (just over a year ago). I …
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Bookworm!
One of the nice things about going on holiday, is that I get chance to catch-up on my reading. I managed to get through three this time!
Holiday in Oman – Day 5
We left the gorgeous ‘Al Waha’ hotel today. We certainly won’t forget it – it’s been a superb stay – probably one-of-the-best hotels or even the best hotel we’ve ever stayed in. Service, food, facilities have all been first-class! We’re now heading for the Golden Tulip Hotel near the Airport in Muscat. 12.30pm. The taxi …
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Holiday in Oman – Day 4
We got up about 8am and headed for breakfast at about 9.15. Looks like another hot day here in paradise but it’s our last full day here today. After breakfast, we asked for a tour around the rooms in the other two hotels. The other two nearby hotels are ‘Al Bandar’ (slightly posher) and ‘Al …
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Holiday in Oman – Day 3
An early start – we were both up at 7.00am as our tour to the Capital, Muscat goes at 9.00am. Just time then to sample the extensive breakfast menu by the pool! It’s a private tour – just the tour of us and a local with a car – perfect! ‘Ali’ was our guide in …
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Holiday in Oman – Day 2
We slept well and woke at around 8am. Must have been the alcohol. 🙂 After some techy faffing-around with the NetBook and my mobile phone, we were ready for breakfast around 9.30. I couldn’t solve the techy issues – emails out were unreliable – sometimes they go, sometimes they don’t. Unlike Dubai where I couldn’t …
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Holiday in Oman – Day 1
We set the alarm for 5.15am as we’re checking out today and flying to Oman. Neither of us slept very well AGAIN, so consequently, when the alarm did go off, we felt less than 100%!! Obviously, my theory that it was the air-conditioning keeping us awake proved to be false! The check-out process was pretty …
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Holiday in Dubai – Day 4
We both slept a lot better – looks like turning-off the air-conditioning in the room helped! It’s our last full-day in Dubai today. I got up at 8am and Ann followed. Breakfast was less busy than normal and there was a lot of new faces. I guess quite a few had checked out last-night. We …
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Holiday in Dubai – Day 3
Neither of us slept as well as we normally do, although Ann seemed to have had a better night than me. We both eventually woke-up at 8.15 to what looks like it’s going to be a warm day! After breakfast, we took a short taxi-ride to ‘Madinat Jumeirah’. It was a sort of re-created indoor …
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Holiday in Dubai – Day 2: “The Return of the Retailers”
We both slept badly, waking up at 2am. Not sure why! 2am is 10pm UK time and were certainly tired when we went to bed last night. The chance of getting to sleep was further reduced because of the thunderstorm (but no lightning – is that unusual?) We finally got off, waking at 6am and …
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Holiday in Dubai – Day 1
By the time we checked into the Le Meridien at the Mina Seyari Beach Resort in Dubai last night, it was nearly 2am -so we slept well! I didn’t wake until 9am, which is really unusual for me! We went for breakfast at around 10.30 and it was packed – we had to wait for …
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Holiday in Dubai – Day 0
I’m typing this bit on the plane! We left home around 10am. It was chucking it down with rain, and it was cold – a perfect time for a holiday! We had a trouble-free drive over to Birmingham Airport and checked-in. The baggage allowance wasn’t particularly generous and we just scraped in (in fact, we …
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Departmental Restructure
Ann heard today that the company restructure may affect her. Sketchy details at the moment, but not the sort of news we want to hear just before we go on holiday!