Off to our favourite West-End-Theatre-that’s-not in-the-West-End… Kilworth House Theatre! Well, it is west of Kettering! 😉 Kilworth House Theatre? I must admit, I’d never heard of Kilworth Theatre before we moved to Northamptonshire. Since our discovery, we’ve been coming here pretty much every year to see their latest production. The Theatre is unique in that …
Read More
Film: Oppenheimer (2023)
We dithered about this one – do we see it at the cinema? or wait for its home release? I’m not sure why we put it off (too dark? too depressing?) but I had this nagging doubt that, as brilliant as Director Christopher Nolan is, he has occasionally given us movies that because of their …
Read More
First Visit: The Bell, Alderminster
Yes, it’s that time again! Our three-monthly catch-up, over a Shandy (or three!) with ex-business colleagues (and great friends), Ian and Mags, together with their respective other halves, Ann and Alan. It’s been a while (January?), as Ian was unwell the last time we were due to meet, but we were soon back into the …
Read More
Return to ‘332’
Today, together with my first boss – Ken Barden – we returned to the location of my very first ‘proper’ job: Sainsbury’s, Central Croydon aka ‘Store 332’. The reason? We’d heard that Sainsbury’s HQ had taken the commercial decision to close down the store permanently in a few months’ time 🤔 and we both felt …
Read More
School Reunion 2023
They say ‘every day’s a school day’ – today was literally true! 🤔 Today, I took the rather long journey by car to my old school. Keeping me company, was Roger Hill, one-time Head Boy, and fellow committee colleague from a few years back. What made today different was that this was my first visit …
Read More
Stamford Stroll
We haven’t done this in a while – a wander around the beautiful town of Stamford. The weather forecast wasn’t brilliant, but we aimed to dodge the showers, even if that meant, diving into the shops for cover! 😉. We must get out more though, as we realised that we hadn’t done this for at …
Read More
Film: Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning – Part 1 (2023)
Off to see the 7th instalment of the Mission Impossible franchise. As an extra treat, Jo, Janet and Ann and I drove over to Rushden Lakes to enjoy the superior sound and picture quality. Official Poster Mission Creep? The runtime for this one is a mighty 2 hours 43 minutes. Mission Brief The IMF team …
Read More
Nicki’s Here!
It’s that time again – we’re catching up with Ann’s good friend, Nicki! Unfortunately, it was just Nicki, this time, as Richard had a work event to go to. No matter, the girls had plenty of catching-up to do – and I just kept the teas and coffees flowing, together with some Orange & Cranberry …
Read More
Taste of India
No, not another one of our holiday Posts from the other side of the world! 🙄 Tonight, we returned to Taste of India in Bridge Street, Rothwell. Gosh! The last time we were here was in February 2012 (also with Paul and Sue!) — and before that, way back in 2005! Where does the time …
Read More
London Bound!
Off to London today with David & Valerie to watch the ‘Beating Retreat’ performance or to give its official title: The Household Division Beating Retreat. We’ve never seen this event before and we’re looking forward to ‘a Military Musical Spectacular, on Horse Guards Parade, London‘. This event has evolved over the years and is now …
Read More
The Olde Victoria
Off to our ‘Local’ today to catch up with long-time friends Richard & Pauline. The food and service has always been good in all the (many) years we’ve eaten here – and it was great to be back! 👍👍. Burgers all around today and most of us even squeezed in a Pud too! Thanks for …
Read More
Film: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)
For us, the most anticipated film of the year! 👍👍 >> Running Time: 154 mins << Synopsis Strangely (and widely reported) there doesn’t appear to be an ‘official’ synopsis for this final outing for ‘Indy’. Not sure why not, so here’s my take on it… “Archaeologist Indiana Jones races against time to retrieve a legendary …
Read More
Nutters on Tour 2023 – The Planning
The Northants Nutters (aka, Geoff, Rhonda, Paul, Sue, Ann and yours truly) gathered around ours today to discuss the finer points of our next ‘Nutters’ event. In previous years, we initially restricted ourselves to the UK only centred around the infamous ‘Warner Weekends’… Our first Warner experienceWarner Weekend 2019 – Littlecote House Hotel(March 2019) Our …
Read More
RIP: Pete Murdin
Today, we attended Pete’s Funeral – a long-time friend for us both. Pete hadn’t been well for a while now, in and out of hospital on multiple occasions and because of that, we hadn’t been to see either Pete (or Chris) for a while – we think, pre-Covid was our most recent get-together. The Service, …
Read More
RIP: Peter Juniper
Today, I (and a lot of others) said their final goodbyes to Peter. The service was held at Bluebell Cemetery in Halstead at 11.15 on a gloriously warm day. I met the current Chairman of the OCA, Cortland Fransella, in the car park and we grabbed a cuppa and sat outside reflecting on the man …
Read More
Family Get Together – Hatfield House
Saturday the 17th Time to meet up with our cousins (on Ann’s side) for another of our cultural days out! 👍😀. Afterwards, we’re heading back with Roger, Jane and Oliver for a sleepover. Today we met up at Hatfield House in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Sadly, Chris and Kate couldn’t make it as Kate had injured her …
Read More
Film: The Flash (2023)
🎵🎶 “Flash! Ah-Ahhhh… Saviour of the Universe!” 🎶🎵 (No, not THAT one) 😉 This one! Official Trailers Context This promises to be a rarity – A DC Superhero movie that’s actually quite good! 👏. We’ll see! Certainly, potentially, there’s a lot to like about it based on the various threads online and for those of …
Read More
First Visit: The Chester House Estate
Off for a ‘day out’ (just the two of us) to the Chester House Estate in nearby Irchester, Wellingborough. Bought originally by North Northamptonshire Council in 2004 as Chester Farm. Re-branded and then re-opened in 2016 as Chester House Estate, it opens from 10-4 and is free to get in with free parking too! 😀👍 …
Read More
It’s Official – We’re UltraFast!
Well, maybe not QUITE yet, but the latest ULTRA Fast internet technology is officially on its way! Huzzah! 👏👏👍 At last! After spending the past 35 years or so, being firmly BEHIND the curve with internet-speed technology, we’re going to get the fastest available! The above leaflet arrived through our letterbox yesterday. I thought something …
Read More
Film: Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse (2023)
A paradise for hyphen-lovers and not to be confused with ‘Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse‘ (that we caught up with last week on DVD)! It wasn’t really Ann’s thing, so Jo and I headed to the local Odeon for the 7.20pm showing. Official Trailers There’s a load, but here are the first two! What’s the story? …
Read More
Steve visits the Gym!
Off to the Capital today – one of my less frequent trips into London these days! To think, I used to do this pretty much on a daily basis when I was working!!! 😲. What a difference, 10 years in retirement makes!!! But ME in the GYM??? Surely some mistake! Read on! 😉 The reason …
Read More
Winner, Winner! TV Dinner! – Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse
It was another of our ‘Dinner-on-a-tray-with-a-movie-night! We invited Jo round (Janet’s away in Kos) to watch Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse on DVD. Released in 2018, and with a respectable runtime of just under two hours (1h 56m), it was worth a rewatch as it’s the indirect prequel to: Spider-man – ACROSS the Spider-verse that’s just …
Read More
Kelmarsh 2023
Not content with getting married and having our 10-year anniversary here, as well as a visit last year around this time, we took a drive over to nearby Kelmarsh Hall today. 😀 It was certainly a lovely day for it and the Gardens (where Ann volunteers) were looking amazing! We also took a look around …
Read More
Late May Bank Holiday 2023
Well, the weather certainly is improving! It’s a Bank Holiday too! Surely that’s a mistake!!! 😉😎☀️🌞 Friday (26th) It got off to a good start trotting off to nearby Boughton House for an outdoor showing of Top Gun: Maverick. Saturday (27th) A lazy start to the day but with some last-minute preparation ready for great …
Read More
Film: Top Gun – Maverick (outdoors!)
What a great start to the Bank Holiday!! So good, we’ve already seen this one twice! Surely, this is the best movie in a long, long time! So, this was our THIRD viewing of Top Gun: Maverick having it seen it for the first time last June and then as a TV dinner back in …
Read More
Film: Fast and Furious 10
Off to the local Odeon with Jo and Janet to see the recently released ‘Fast and Furious 10’ ‘Fast X’. 👍😀 When it comes to watching movies, I’ve got a very low bar – I’ll pretty much watch anything (even if it’s only ONCE!). With such a diminutive threshold (and as a self-confessed ex-petrolhead) even …
Read More
The Gang’s all here!
It’s that time of year again! The weather is improving and it’s time to ‘get the Band back together’. In our case, not so much ‘the Band‘, but the Trainers! And those Trainers were the members of my Department from back in the 80s. We’ve kept in touch ever since – and today was the …
Read More
A Mini Adventure
A boys’ day out for me! John C and I took a drive to the Mini production line in Cowley! 👍👍 These days, early departures for me are rare, so leaving ours at the unearthly hour of 7.30am felt like a bit of a stretch. It was going to be worth it though! We arrived …
Read More
The Colour Purple
No, not the 1982 movie, but simply some news about my never-ending quest to acquire some top-end internet speeds here! Boys and their toys ehh???? 👍😀. Since I last whinged about all of this back in February, when I first saw CityFibre in the area, things have moved on. Again, courtesy of CityFibre, it looks …
Read More
Film: Guardians of the Galaxy – Volume 3 (2023)
Yes, it’s that time again! Off to the local Odeon to see Marvel’s latest Blockbuster: ‘Guardians of the Galaxy – Volume 3’ – their 32nd in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)! 32nd? There’s a general feel that Marvel is going through a bit of a ‘fallow’ period at the moment, but in its defence, I …
Read More