I joined Val and David at The Cecilian Singers‘ Christmas Carol Concert in Leicester tonight. This is becoming a regular thing (we went last year and the year before that) and it’s a brilliant way to get us all in the mood for Christmas. Val and I travelled there in my car because Ann was …
Read More
Ann’s still not well
It’s very unusual for Ann to be ill – apart from the odd cold. This all started Saturday with a sore throat…then swollen glands. She saw the Doctor yesterday who confirmed that ‘there’s a lot of it about’. It seems she has some form of viral tonsillitis. Overnight, all those symptoms seem to have disappeared, …
Read More
Christmas starts here…/Oliver Postgate/Spooks – Final Episode, Series 7
Christmas has started officially here. How do I know? I’ve just bought the Christmas edition of the Radio Times from WH Smith’s. Strangely there wasn’t a copy of the TV Times available at the same time – but I managed to pick that up at Tesco’s. We’ve also started to wrap the Christmas pressys too! …
Read More
Meal with ‘The 5ive’
I travelled down to London to meet up with Angela, Antoinette, Philip and June at ‘The Grand’ restaurant in St Pancras Station today. It’s the first time I’d been there. before meeting the gang, I met-up with Philip to set-up his net-book for him. A nice piece of kit…I’m very tempted. Free wi-fi at St …
Read More
Trouble comes in 3s!!
Today’s the day when the cats get a haircut and a bath. Take cover! 🙂 They’re well overdue for both and I reckon it’ll be difficult for the Pussy Parlour to get rid of all their knots (without shaving them)given that it’s been so long since their previous visit in August. This is the longest …
Read More
Paul and Julie’s Birthday Bash
It’s that time of year again when we celebrate Paul and Julie’s Birthday’s. Ann wasn’t feeling too well, so I went on my own. Karen, Paul, Debbie, Stefan, Bobby, John, Trish, Tom and Julie – the usual crew all turned-out. It kicked off at Karen’s for drinks around 7.30, then we planned to take a …
Read More
LNG Meeting in London
I travelled down to London with Denise for the last LNG Meeting of 2008. Denise ran a session on Project Management whilst Luke and Philip talked us through a rather good management profiling tool from The Good Boss Company. The venue was Sam’s office just off Piccadilly Circus. The meeting finished around 2.30 which gave …
Read More
Chinese with Jo and Janet
We felt like celebrating! No reason really, but it’s pay-day, the car’s sorted, Janet’s on the mend and I had a good meeting at my favourite client’s! So we picked-up Jo and Janet and went off to Han, – we reckon it’s the best Chinese restaurant in Market Harborough, Northamptonshire, err… anywhere! They were packed-out …
Read More
First digital download from Amazon.co.uk
In years to come, this will all be very common-place. However, today I’m feeling rather smug having made my FIRST digital download from Amazon. ‘Stairway to Heaven (Remastered 2007)’ by Led Zeppelin; ‘Run’ by Leona Lewis and ‘Chasing Cars’ by Snow Patrol.
Mondeo sorted!!
Excellent news! The side-skirt (that was on back-order) arrived and guys were able to finish the car today! They’ve done an excellent job
A good meal in Staverton
John M and I went to The CountryMan in Staverton village for lunch. The place was deserted when we got there, but soon filled up. The food was excellent. John had the Steak and Guinness pie and I had the chicken smothered in cheese and bacon. I’m not sure of the health-value especially with the …
Read More
MP3s on Amazon.co.uk
I just discovered that Amazon is now selling DRM-free tracks and albums in MP3 format cheaper than iTunes! There’s also a nifty download-utility that ‘talks-to’ iTunes and automatically copies it to the iTunes Library – brilliant!
More for the Mondeo!
Paul rang from Central Garage to alert me to the fact that the front tyres were in need of replacement and the rears weren’t far behind! The car was also due for its annual service. So, it looks like the car won’t be ready for Thursday…but I will get it back on Friday! 🙂
Mondeo in for repair…
I took the car to Central Garage in Irthlingborough to get a quotation for the repairs after Saturday’s adventure. Looks like it’ll need a fill-and-re-spray to the front panel, a replacement side skirt and a refurbed alloy. Total bill will be in the region of £600! They think it’ll take a day, maybe two, to …
Read More
Visit Nick and Celina/Val’s Birthday meal
We took a drive over to Stamford on Saturday, to see our good friends Nick and Celina. We met at The Crown in Stamford for lunch and then did a bit of shopping. We decided to move my car from the pay-and-display because it was a maximum three-hour-stay. That was BIG mistake. Nick suggested we …
Read More
Meal with David and Val
We decided last time that on this occasion, we’d slum-it and have a take-away. We decided on Chinese and David did all the fetching and carrying. We’d agreed to watch ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ on DVD as part of the get-together. We all enjoyed the film – it held our attention throughout and Matt Damon took …
Read More
Holiday to India – No!!!
After a cancellation by the first tour company and the us cancelling the second because of an issue over prices, you would begin to think that someone was telling us something about Brits in India. Then, we heard on the news of all the trouble in Mumbai -so this time WE decided to cancel it!!!
Bon-Bon’s OK!
I took Bon-Bon to the Vet this morning after yesterday’s incident. The did a quick ‘shave-and-trim’ job around her private parts and she’s now a very happy pussy! At least they didn’t have to sedate her. Phew!!! I think I was more stressed-out than Bon-Bon
No more Woolies
A sad day today as Woolworth’s calls in the Administrators. It feels like they’ve been around forever – 99 years is a long time in retail! The same happened at MFI too! Crazy times!!!
Poor Bon-Bon
What a stressful day! Bon-Bon has got a terrible stomach upset and as a result has managed soil the whole of her rear-end and back legs. All attempts to try and clean her up failed miserably as it’s a two-person job and Bon-Bon turns ultra aggressive when we get near her rear-end (I think I …
Read More
Visit Jane in Hospital
We visited Jane in Lister Hospital today near Letchworth. Considering she had had a 9-hour operation a few days ago involving removing a breast and then opening up her stomach to remove fat from there in order to rebuild her missing breast – she was in great spirits!!! Jane’s hoping to be home by Thursday …
Read More
India – Here We (don’t) Go Again!
Just when we thought we’d got the holiday sorted, TrailFinders rang us and said that the price had gone up – another 240 quid!! We decided, to cancel it because we felt like we were being shafted – not by TrailFinders, but by the travel company they were buying it through. So it’s back to …
Read More
Ann’s new camera
That was a bargain! I ordered a refurbed Panasonic Lumix TZ3 from Amazon over the weekend and it turned up today. It’s an excellent piece of tech with an astounding 10x optical (yes, optical) zoom. There is no other camera that can touch it currently for this feature – apart from others in the Lumix …
Read More
That Interweb Thing…
A major step forward today mating my PDA with my Dell laptop. I don’t know why I don’t think of it before when I’ve been working away from home – but I discovered the ‘Internet sharing’ option on my PDA. This means when I’m working in a hotel or somewhere where there is no FREE …
Read More
Visit Denis and Mae for Lunch/Lottery Win
We’re off to Lincoln today to catch-up with Denis and Mae. The day started cold but then the snow came, albeit not much, but the forecast looks worse. As I write this it’s still -1 degrees outside but we now have freezing rain as well – lovely (not!) The weather started to clear up and …
Read More
Visit Gill and Chris for Dinner
We visited Gill and Chris tonight for a meal. Denise and Steve were there too – we haven’t got together as a group since November last year when we hosted a Mexican evening. As always, Chris did the cooking. We enjoyed Beef Bourguignon with a wide selection of vegetables that included brussels (yuk!!) followed by …
Read More
Paint Job
Not really my thing this, but it was a job that needed doing. The gardeners replaced the trellis on Monday – now it just needed painting. Luckily, we had some black paint in stock and about a zillion paintbrushes to choose from. I chose the biggest, working on the theory that it would cover more …
Read More
Jane – Big operation
Jane was admitted today – a major operation (12 hours) to remove one of her breasts – as a precautionary measure. Brave girl!!!
Janet – Post-op
We popped down to see Janet. She had been re-admitted to hospital earlier this week, because the bolts holding her titanium rod in place in her leg had snapped – that certainly explains why she was in so much pain after the operation the first-time-around. She was in great spirits and let’s hope the job’s …
Read More
Holiday to India – sorted!
After the hassle of the original tour company cancelling the holiday, Ann spent a few evenings looking into alternatives. We wanted to keep the itinerary as close as we could to the original as well as flying with Virgin rather than anyone else. So, we got in touch with Trailfinders and let them sort it …
Read More