Here we are at 52 years young. Just like last year, I’m celebrating my Birthday at home, as I’ve scheduled not to work today. We’re out this evening to Han, our favourite Chinese restaurant in Market Harborough. An excellent meal and superb service – and they were very busy too! I received a GREAT range …
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Manchester
I travelled up to Manchester today for work with a client tomorrow. I met up with Dave B who was on his way to a friend in Leicester. We had a good lunch in Pizza Express and then sat outside Café Nero in Piccadilly Gardens and put the world-to-rights! What a great time. Weather was …
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Car in for Warranty work
The car went into Ford’s today to see if they can solve the problem with the front parking sensors. They only seem to work if ‘reverse’ is engaged followed by ‘drive’ – Not much use if you’re heading for an obstacle in a forward direction! Having heard from Ford today, it seems like it’s supposed …
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Major new BBC Series – ‘Merlin’
A major new series – Merlin – started last night on BBC1. Because we had friends with us, we watched it on Sunday. We enjoyed the first episode very much – Far better than BBC’s ‘Robin Hood’. A good story-line and good special effects (by ‘The Mill’ – who also do them for Doctor Who). …
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Surprise Visit
Ian and Ann had spent the night in Peterborough and popped in on their way back to Stratford-upon-Avon. We had coffee outside as the weather was so good. It was good to catch-up, as we haven’t seen them for a while.
Roy and Sue here for Dinner
Well, Plan A was to have Roy and Sue stay-over for the weekend, but it looks as if events have overtaken them this week and they have to get back for Sunday to deal with their horse. Still, it was good to see them and they stayed until about 10.30. We started to clear up …
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New James Bond Theme
Alicia Keys and Jack White have recorded the theme tune for the next James Bond film, ‘Quantum of Solace’. I normally like the Bond themes…but not this one…no-way…ever…ever. I actually think it’s the worst song I’ve ever heard!! I’ve listened to it twice now. The first time was yesterday, where I thought: “hmmm, maybe it’ll …
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Eric Woolfson Album downloads
I discovered that (at last!) Eric Woolfson has made a couple of his Albums available for download as mp3s. This Album is of the Theatre Production. The world premiere of GAMBLER took place in October 1996 in Monchengladbach, Germany where it ran for 18 months. In 1999 the leading Asian Theatre Production company Seensee premiered …
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Evening Walk
We re-started our short evening-walks tonight. We were only out for around 25 minutes – but we felt good to have got back into the habit!
Day 8: Holiday in France
We travel back today. Weather is a cool and breezy 15°C. After checking-out, we jumped in the C4 and headed in the direction of Toulouse Airport but stopped off at ‘Castelnaudry’ a few junctions up on the motorway. A bustling town with an impressive war memorial. We had a quick walk-round and then stopped for …
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Day 7: Holiday in France
We were up at around 8 and had brekky about 9 (as normal!). It’s much colder today and windier. Initially the temperature was 16°C – brrrr! We went exploring in the car again. Initially we headed for ‘Trèbe’ – another ‘one-horse-town’ (where the horse was away on holiday!). What we did notice was, that it’s …
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Day 6: Holiday in France
We were up at 7.45 having both slept really well. The weather forecast today is for a high of 29 degrees – lovely! After breakfast, we drove to ‘St Hilaire’. There is an Abbey there which is worth a look. It was an impressive place and well preserved. Although it’s now 24 degrees, there’s some …
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Day 5: Holiday in France
Ann had the best night’s sleep of the holiday whilst I had a restless night As a result, we didn’t get up until 8.15. The hotel’s theme of ‘no-lights’ continued into the breakfast area – maybe it was built in the ‘dark-ages’ (arf-arf!). Talk about ‘romantic’, I think I’ll take a torch tomorrow!! 🙂 After …
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Day 4: Holiday in France
We were up at 8 and in breakfast by 9. We were especially hungry as we’d not had any food since yesterday lunchtime and restaurant was closed last night! We’re leaving this morning for our next venue – ‘Chateau de Cavanac’ in er, Cavanac. So, we said our good-byes and ‘fired up the Picasso’. We …
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Day 3: Holiday in France
We were up sharp at 8 today. Looking outside, suggests it’s going to be a hot day – excellent! We’re off to ‘Montauban’ today. It’s a large town, around 50km south-east of base. We got there around 10.15, had a look round the Cathedral and then some shops. Then time for a coffee in the …
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Day 2: Holiday in France
We both slept well judging by the fact we didn’t wake-up until 8am. The weather forecast is for a hot day, so we plan to take the train to Toulouse after breakfast. Well, after taking a drive to the nearest Stations, we discovered that the Sunday service was pretty infrequent, so we decided to drive …
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Day 1: Holiday with Karen and Ralph (not!)
We left the UK where it was pouring with rain (much like it’s done for most of the week!). Probably the biggest disappointment was realising that there had been some confusion between Ralph and Karen and us – they thought we were travelling NEXT weekend! So, embarrassment all round and no way to reschedule it …
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Torchwood – on the Radio
As part of Radio 4’s ‘Big-Bang’ day (on the 10th September), there is a special episode of Torchwood being broadcast for 45 minutes at 2.15. We’ll be on holiday, but I’m going to set up SkyPlus to record it. There more information here
Jo and Janet round for an ‘Indian Evening’
Jo and Janet came round for a Sainsbury ready-meal Indian evening. It was a real feast. For afters, we porked-out on a variety of Sainsbury’s ice-creams! Too much curry, too much ice-cream and too much wine. Perfect!!! Wow! We were all stuffed.
YouTube working on my PDA/Mobile phone
Hooray!! Finally, after a lot of faffing around (and getting nowhere), I got YouTube to work on my PDA. This involved: …and all from those very helpful people at the XDA-Developers’ web-site.
TV: Lost in Austen
I wasn’t expecting much from this Drama Premiere on ITV1, but I was pleasantly surprised! I’m glad I recorded it on SkyPlus last night! It seemed to combine a credible time-travel story whilst retaining the look-and-feel of a authentic period-piece. It also blended genuine character warmth with occasional touches of humour. I loved ‘Amanda’s’ ring-tone …
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Back trouble
Well, I thought my back was getting better, but after struggling to pick up Bon-Bon on Saturday, my back-ache returned. Coincidentally (or not) the pain returned the day after I ran out of tablets. Boy, is this a nuisance or what? So I took myself off to the Doctor’s today to get some more dicloflex …
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Ruby in the Smoke
We watched ‘Ruby in the Smoke’ (shown earlier in the week on UKTV Gold). We missed it first time round – it was shown around Christmas time a few years back we think. An excellent production – Starred Billie Piper and Julie Walters as a baddie!! BBC Press Release Released: 2006 Go to IMDb page …
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Paul and Karen’s for Dinner
Paul and Karen invited us round for dinner tonight. We haven’t done this for ages – no reason, just that everyone’s been busy and just not around. We weren’t quite sure who else was going to be there – as it turned out it was EXCELLENT! Ann created a couple of desserts – Chocolate Cheesecake …
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Cats in for a Brushing
We took the Biscuit and Bon-Bon in for their normal ‘service’ today. It’s been three-months since we last took them, but their coats seem to be in pretty good condition considering the fact they’ve been in the garden a lot and got wet quite a few times. According to conventional wisdom ‘Persian Cat + Rain …
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Mondeo in for Warranty work
I took the car into Ford’s yesterday for some warranty work They managed to sort out the lights problem – I think! The parking sensors are still playing up (rebooked for late September) and the ticking noise is definitely the sat-nav DVD initialising but what Ford don’t know is whether the ticking is louder than …
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Live-Writer – Trying out You-Tube embed function
Doctor Who Season 4 mid-season trailer.
OCA Magazine almost finished
I put the finishing touches to the School Magazine today, in preparation for meeting Prontaprint on Monday
Test Blog – Picasa plug-in
This is a test blog using the ‘Picasa plug-in’ of Windows Live-Writer and it seems to work just fine! The plug-in allows you to grab an image from your Picasa Web-Albums and add it to your blog. There are lots of adjustments such whether it links to a larger version (via Picasa or just to …
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Test Blog
Repeat after me “I must not p*** about with the template for my blog!” Having tried to add an icon for easily adding social-bookmarking sites, I completely screwed up the blog-layout — it took me the rest of the afternoon and some of the evening to put everything right!!! Arghhhh!