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!
First Black American President
Barack Obama was sworn in today – their first black American President.
Nuts!
The car went in to have the locking-wheel nuts replaced. Strangely, they had completely rusted during the last few months. They’ve been replaced with some shinier new ones of a slightly different design! – nice! Rob also touched-in the two ‘nicks’ I had on the front alloys – cheers Rob!!
Tony Hart dies…
Former children’s TV presenter Tony Hart has died at the age of 83. He’s probably best remembered for hosting art shows like Vision On, Take Hart and Hart Beat In September last year, he told a magazine that he was no longer able to draw after suffering two strokes. He officially retired in 2001. Speaking …
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Family Meal – Cancelled
When we got home from our meal last night there was a message on the answerphone. Mae’s cold had turned into Bronchitis and she was cancelling the family meal. We were due to drive to theirs today. Plan B is that Roger, Jane and Oliver are going to drop into us for coffee later today. …
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Mazza’s with Jo and Janet
We met up with Jo and Janet and headed off to Mazza’s. We haven’t been there since May 2008 – we’ve missed their excellent curries! When we arrived around 7.30, the place was moderately busy. By 8.30 the place was heaving! If there is a recession on, then someone forgot to tell the good folk …
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New Groomer for the Cats
7.00am. Well, today is the day when we take Biscuit and Bon-Bon over to Rushden Persian Rescue to meet Patsy who is going to attempt to groom them. From the conversation I had with her and our various emails, she sounds like a real cat lover – and Persians in particular! I really hope …
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Meal with Mick and Jane
We met up with Mike/Mick and Jane at The Montagu Arms in Barnwell. We haven’t seen them since June last year and it was good to catch-up. The food was, as always, excellent and the portion sizes enormous. The service was good too. Jane and Mick were a little late arriving as they had to …
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Patrick McGoohan dies….
I was sad to learn that Patrick McGoohan died today aged 80. As a kid, I was fascinated by Danger-Man and fascinated and confused in equal measure when watching The Prisoner! (Mum and Dad hated it!!!) In later years, he starred with Mel Gibson in Braveheart and with Peter Falk in Columbo It’s a real …
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New front tyres @ 14000 miles
Well, that was a bit of a surprise. The Mondeo needed two new tyres on the front. After only 14000 miles! They’re ‘Continentals’ and they’re apparently quite ‘soft’. The new ones are ‘Dunlop’ and it’ll be interesting to see how long they last! The rear pair, I’m told, will be good for another 10000 miles. …
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Cholesterol results
I rang the surgery to get the results of my cholesterol check. Good news!! The figure was 3.1 which is the lowest it’s ever been! ..and definitely on the right side of ‘5’ -the magic number. Maybe the fact that I was on loads of other medication at the time of the blood-test for my …
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Met Steve Sillett for Lunch
Steve popped over and we went for lunch at Hobson’s Choice in Kettering. We had a lot of catching-up to do as we hadn’t seen each other for quite a few months. Steve’s gardening business is doing well although his consultancy business, (like mine), is a little quiet.
Film: Defiance
We went to see ‘Defiance’ starring Daniel Craig with Jo and Janet. He stars as one of three brothers escaping from Nazi-occupied Poland who join a group of Russian freedom-fighters. It was a good film – very gritty. Daniel Craig was about as far away from the glamorous image of James Bond as you could …
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Meal for 6 in Worthing
We travelled down to Worthing today late morning on Saturday. The reason? Back in October, we went to a Charity-do for Foster Carers, something that Sharon’s involved with. Our table won the ‘we-come-round-to-yours-and-cook-a-full-meal’ prize. As it turned out, it was Sharon who was offering the prize and so we booked a night’s stop-over at Edwardian …
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David and Val’s for Goulash
We popped round to David and Val’s tonight. Val had made Goulash whilst Ann made a bread-and-butter pudding. Scrummy! We both reckoned that was the BEST Goulash we’ve ever tasted!!! We watched the ‘Manchurian Candidate’ (Denzel Washington) on DVD – a great film.
Interview with the new Doctor
Extended interview with Matt Smith – the 11th Doctor!
Test Two
Just a second test to see if apostrophes are being uploaded correctly s’s’s’s’s
Test Blog
I just installed LiveWriter, version 14.0.3913.522. If this blog isn‘t showing strange characters where the apostrophes should be then it‘s working!
Firing on all four…
Well, not quite – I still got the mother-of-all-coughs – but I certainly feel a whole lot better today. I even managed to catch-up with most of the work I’d been too ill to look at last week! The biggest difference is that I feel much more energetic and that period of lethargy has now …
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Rare Mike Oldfield footage
As part of the ‘Prog Rock’ season on BBC4, they showed a rare 30 minute live studio session of Mike Oldfield performing Tubular Bells in 1974. I’ve never seen this footage before – excellent stuff!!
Feeling better/Annual Health Check
I woke up this morning feeling much better. I’d had a good night’s sleep and although the cough remains, I’m feel less lethargic and the wild extremes of temperature that I was experiencing, seem to have disappeared. Ironically, today is my annual health-check and I’m also going to see the Doc about trying to get …
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Snow/Feeling Crap
I woke up today to find: