Not to be outdone by this year’s John Lewis Christmas Advert, M and S launches theirs – Christmas with love from Mrs Claus…
John Lewis Christmas Advert (2016)
Here we are then, for some, the official start of Christmas with the John Lewis Christmas Ad for 2016 – Buster the Boxer. As usual, Kleenex at the ready! This is the story of a little girl called Bridget who loves to bounce. When her mum and dad buy her a trampoline for Christmas, they …
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Tablet Coaching: New Tuesday Class
Auto cross-posted from my WordPress Blog: Today we started the NEW Tuesday Tablet Class. For the next few months, we’ll be covering everything they’ll need to know to get the most from their Android device. Today though, we spent the time determining their learning priorities. Filed under: Volunteer
Laptop Coaching: New Tuesday Class
Auto cross-posted from my WordPress Blog: Our new Tuesday class started today. We spent the time determining the subject areas the class needs based on their priorities; these will form the basis of the lesson-plans through until August next year. Filed under: Delivery, Salvation Army, Skills Development, TNA, Volunteer
Monday Class Restarts
Auto cross-posted from my WordPress Blog: After a short break due to the refurbishment to the area I use for training (and also my holiday!), we re-started the Monday Laptop Class today. Filed under: Delivery, Salvation Army, Skills Development, Volunteer
Catch-up with Jane and Mick
Cripes, I don’t think I ever eaten out so often as we have this month – and it’s only the 6th! Strangely, this one wasn’t birthday related – just an opportunity to catch-up with our old friends, Jane and Mick, who we haven’t seen for quite a few months. The Pub/Restaurant of choice was the …
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Bonfire Night
Janet and Jo got us tickets for Boughton House and their Bonfire Night event. Brrrrrr! Not so much “Gunpowder, Treason and Plot..” and more “Horlicks, Chapsticks and Ice !!!! But before that, it was a perfect excuse to drop into nearby(ish) The Red Lion in Cranford for a spot of nosebag. Yummy! Starters at The …
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My 60th – Curry Mop-up
My Birthday celebrations continued last night with Paul, Karen, David and Rosi. They couldn’t make the original get-together back in September at The Exotic Dining, so it was the perfect excuse to do it all again, as a ‘mop-up’ exercise, tonight at the same location. The service and food was, as always, superb! and I’d …
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Film: Jack Reacher – Never Go Back
We drove up to Denis’ today. Ann had made him lunch – a rather tasty Lasagne and we stayed until about 2pm. It was an excellent journey there and back – in fact probably the best we’ve ever had in terms of lack-of-traffic – and the sun was shining too (and that’s rare whenever we …
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My 60th – Black-Tie Curry Buffet
…and the celebrations continue (with still quite a few to go!) with a Black-Tie event at ours for a few friends. Nick & Celina, Ralph & Karen and David and Valerie joined us for my Curry Banquet – with Ann doing most of the legwork in the kitchen and me contributing just by making the …
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Australian Cruise: Singapore Stopover – Day 15 and 16
Written: Sunday, 23rd October Day 15 – Saturday So it’s goodbye to Celebrity Solstice and hello to dry land in Singapore. We’re here for two days before we fly home on Sunday. It’s our fifth visit and we love the place! We first came here 30 years ago (or thereabouts) so we thought we’d revisit …
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Australian Cruise: Brisbane – Day 3
Written: Monday, 10th October. Our day began early as we still haven’t got into a regular sleep pattern just yet. This meant we were at the Gym (for the second day running) by 6am. I stuck to my standard 30 minute ‘walk’, whilst Ann did all this and more! Then it was off for a …
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Australian Cruise: Final Two Days On-Board– Day 13 and 14
Written: Friday, 21st October Day 13 –Thursday Somebody must have spiked my iced-water last night! I didn’t wake-up until 7.45! – so much for the Gym at 7 then!!! If we were to get a prime position on Deck this morning, it was a good job we’d ordered breakfast in our room, because by the …
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Australian Cruise: Arrival in Benoa, Bali – Day 12
Written: Wednesday, 19th October We slipped into Benoa, Bali at around 7.30 this morning – we watched the arrival from the treadmill in the Gym! Strangely (and unlike yesterday) the Gym was deserted and we were able to ‘do our thing’ much more easily. Then, as usual, we headed for breakfast in Blu that was …
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Australian Cruise: On Board – Days 10 and 11
Written: Tuesday, 18th October Day 10 – Monday The Sea was like a mill-pond We’re now at sea for two days on our way to Benoa, Bali. We skipped the Gym today, in favour of a quick breakfast in order to gain some time and secure a suitably warm/shady spot on the Deck. Being on …
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Australian Cruise: Darwin – Day 9
Written: Sunday, 16th October Either we’d both been kidnapped and hidden in the glass-blowing ovens overnight – or we’d arrived in Darwin. The lack of glass around us proved it was the latter! Cor! What an absolute scorcher – and it’s only 7am!! So the main challenge today was about how we (or more specifically, …
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Australian Cruise: On Board – Days 7 and 8
Written: Saturday, 15th October Day 7 – Friday We’ve now got two days at sea, arriving in Darwin on Sunday. We’ve got no plans for today apart from seeing the conclusion of the glass-blowing demo that started last night. After breakfast in the Blu Restaurant, it was up onto the Solstice Deck for a comfy …
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Australian Cruise: Airlie Beach, Great Barrier Reef – Day 5
Written: Wednesday, 12th October The big excursion today! The Ship’s blurb said… “Climb aboard a catamaran and sail to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Your destination is a large off-shore platform offering easy-to-operate semi-subs. Choose one and enter a world teeming with colourful fish, exotic creatures and brilliant coral. Afterwards, enjoy lunch on-board and lounge on …
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Australian Cruise: Cairns – Day 6
Written: Thursday, 13th October After a decadent lie-in until 6.30, we hit the Gym for our daily punishment around 7am. Then it was off to the Blu Restaurant for brekky. I might be tempting fate, but with last night’s steak meal and this morning’s offering, that’s two in a row where the food has been …
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Australian Cruise: On Board – Day 2
Written: Sunday, 9th October We’re all at sea today! Although we slept well, we were both awake from the early hours. So what to do? Most normal couples would go back to sleep, but we headed for the Gym at 6am! Wow! It’s probably the largest Gym we’ve ever seen on a Cruise Ship with …
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Australian Cruise: On Board – Day 1
Written: Saturday, 8th October After a substantial breakfast close to our Apartment, we grabbed a taxi to take us to the OPT (Overseas Passenger Terminal). Well, getting the taxi-bit sounded OK in theory, but in reality, it seemed the rest of New South Wales had the same idea, and we were diverted away from our …
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Australian Cruise: On Board – Day 4
Written: Tuesday, October 11thAnother day at sea today as we head in the direction of Airlie Beach and the Great Barrier Reef tomorrow.A perfect opportunity to test-drive the room-service breakfast!Breakfast sorted!
Australian Cruise: Day 3 – Last Day in Sydney
We were up earlier than yesterday – not sure why – so we had breakfast in our room before taking the shortish walk down to Darling Harbour.We planned to catch the Ferry to Parramatta (as every Australian school-kid knows, is west of Sydney and one of their major business districts. It’s also one of the …
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Australian Cruise: Day 2 – Exploring Sydney
After a really good night’s sleep, today we were ready to take on the rest of what Sydney had to offer! But the first job was to seek out breakfast – and we found somewhere very near the David Jones Department Store… Suitably stuffed, and after our daily dose of retail therapy in the rather …
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Australian Cruise: Day 1 – Arrival in Sydney
After the flight out of Birmingham, courtesy of Emirates, stopping off at Dubai and Bangkok, we eventually arrived in Sydney – I think it’s been our longest flight-to-date, at around 23 hours. We’re staying at the Wyndham City Resort Hotel in the Harbour area of the City. We arrived around 11am and that was far …
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My 60th – Birthday 2016
So apparently, this is the ‘big one’ – ‘60’ – but luckily, I’m only 23 on the inside! This year, because of the ‘bigness’ of the event , I’m having quite a few separate celebrations (mainly based around food). They already started on the 21st with Sally and Shirley from Juno L and D treating …
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Bye-Bye Volvo TDC
A bitter-sweet day today as I was invited to the official close-down of one of my ex-clients’ Training Centres. Volvo had been one of my oldest clients – stretching back to 1990/91 – and I continued doing work for them on-and-off right up until 2010. Over the years, they had been one of those rare …
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£1-a-Day (2016) How Did We Do?
Well, that’s it for 2016 where David and I have survived this year’s challenge of living on a £1 a day each, for food and drink, for seven days . We were also joined by Mark (Allan) from the Salvation Army for the majority of our evening meals, having contributed a proportionate 50p-per-visit to our …
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£1-a-Day (2016)
Well, here we go again! David and I are doing our charity ‘thing’ again this year – starting tomorrow – and living on just £1 a day for food and drink until next Sunday. It’s great way for me to lose a bit of weight and also do something for a good cause. This is …
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The George and Eric
The View from the York BarI met up with film director Eric Mival today at The George Hotel in Stamford for a catch-up and a bite to eat. For a relatively small hotel, this was a major achievement, as we’d try to do this two weeks ago – and managed to not find each other! …
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