With Oliver away on a skiing trip in France, it was the perfect weekend for Roger and Jane to spend the weekend with us. In fact, it was the first time they’d been away – just the two of them – for around 11 years! First port of call was Stamford. It was a trouble-free …
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Film: Mortdecai
Nice! We got another of those ‘Two Tickets for a Tenner’ emails form Odeon yesterday. Looks like they’re shareable too! So, we joined David and Valerie at the local Odeon to see Mortdecai. If you love Johnny Depp and/or are possibly old enough to remember Terry Thomas, you will love this film. From its predominantly …
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Steve’s Culinary Tip No. 277
Tip No. 277: “When cleaning the food processor, do NOT try and remove debris from the blade using your thumb…” Today’s tip was sponsored by Elastoplast and Steri-Strips …and brought to you by the colour, red!
Film: Paddington
A gentle surprise in my inbox today, in the shape of an Odeon deal promising 2 Adult tickets for a tenner – result! But what to see, with so much showing at the moment. Jo and Janet invited us to The Theory of Everything (the life of Stephen Hawking), but we fancied something a bit …
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Bye-Bye Bush!
We’ve never been very lucky with Washing Machines! We seem to go through them like others go through, err washing powder!Well, at least the washing now smells ‘outdoor fresh’! Today, we pensioned-off the Bush – donated to us by Lee back in May 2011, when she moved house. The Bush was a washer-dryer combo, but …
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Retyre? – No pressure!!!
I came across something really useful for my car yesterday – and for once, it wasn’t a new car polish!! I wanted to share the good news, as for some of you out there – especially those of you that cover quite a few miles, it’ll bring a big smile to your face! It’ll only …
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Trainers Unite – Saxon Mill
Ian, Mags and I met up at the rather pleasant Saxon Mill restaurant in Warwick tonight. They say that people aren’t eating out anymore, but the place was packed! This was a good sign and the food didn’t disappoint. Duck for Mags, and Venison for Ian and me, meant we all enjoyed a tasty bird, …
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Meals on Wheels
Lincoln Cathedral from Bev’s Lounge Window We drove up to Lincoln to see Bev today. The reason? My ever-so-slight ‘senior moment’ on Christmas Day at Ann’s Dad’s, where I unpacked all the presents and then somehow re-packed Bev’s back in the car – and took them home!! Doh! (Bev couldn’t join us on Christmas Day …
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A Perfect End to Christmas – 2014
It’s our turn to host ‘a little something’ for the neighbours – perfect timing then as we’re coming to the end of the Christmas festivities for another year. We’re going out on a high (or should that be heavy?) with a full-on menu for Paul, Karen, David, Rosi and John and Trish. Tom and Julie …
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New Year’s Eve – 2014
Lucky us! This year, we’ve been invited to two celebrations. The first is at The Kettering Park Hotel to join Jo, Janet and Carol. The second, an even more local affair – Karen and Paul’s, next door! The evening began at the Hotel at 7.30pm with Champagne and Canapés. First impressions were a little concerning …
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Keep Taking the Tablets!
My new(ish) Windows Tablet developed a fault last night, that even I couldn’t solve – the firewall turned itself OFF and no matter what I did, I couldn’t get it to start again. My AV program refused to run properly (so I couldn’t check to see if I had any ‘nasties’!), and what’s more, …
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Doctor Who Christmas Special 2014 – Last Christmas
I always approach the Who Christmas Specials with some trepidation – it’s nearly always a broader audience watching (in this family at least), and the expectation is so high, given the frequency of trailers on TV leading up to the day. In recent years, I’ve taken to recording it, and then watching it on my …
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Christmas 2014
It was our first Christmas without Mum and it did feel a little hollow. Christmas Eve A mild day weather-wise – no frost, no snow, no rain – just mild, although it did turn cold when we went for our afternoon walk around 2pm. The day began early, as I drove to M and S …
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Roulade!
It was good to see Jo and Janet tonight – they helped us with another test-drive of the recently-decorated Dining Room, by attacking a rather ginormous Lasagne followed by an even larger cheese-board. The Pineapple Roulade, courtesy of Mr Asda, was particularly tasty, and I might need to get another, if we are to survive …
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Heaven Stent
Today, Denis went in for his scheduled NHS stop-over that included a two stents and the rather tongue-twisty rotablation procedure. All being well, he’ll be discharged on Christmas Eve, and so we’ll go to his for Christmas Day, having prepared him a full Christmas Lunch wrapped in foil!
Christmas Carol Concert 2014 – The Citadel
Christmas is getting closer! After last night’s excellent Christmas meal courtesy of Trish and John, tonight, we exercised our lungs by attending the Salvation Army’s local Carol Concert at the Citadel (as we do every year). David and Valerie were there, and so were Jo, Janet and Helen. Val managed to reserve us a couple …
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Day Two – 30th Anniversary Holiday (Anniversary Day)
ANCIENT HISTORYWell, today is THE day, when, back on the 14th December 1984, we first got together as a couple. We disguised the fact by separately attending one of my staff’s leaving ‘do’. I say ‘disguised’, but I think most of our friends knew what was really going on – and that was in the …
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Day One – 30th Anniversary Holiday
We were both awake at 7am local time (creatures of habit!), and after peeking through the curtains, it looks as though it’ll be bright and sunny. First stop was somewhere for breakfast. The town was quite deserted and we spotted a McDonald’s, and so, for a hassle-free and predictable experience, we dropped-in. It was all …
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Arrival – 30th Anniversary
It’s super-silly o’clock and we’re off to Birmingham Airport, and onwards to Malta for a long weekend. We flew with Ryanair and managed to secure return tickets for the both us for around £90 – and that included bagging those leg-friendly seats up the front too! At just after 11am local time, following a short …
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Christmas Begins
For me, Christmas begins when the Festive editions of the TV Times and Radio Times are out. Most years, it’s pretty easy to secure both at the same time, but bizarrely, this year, on Saturday, there were plenty of RTs everywhere, but no TVTs. After a bit of shopping around, I tracked down the TV …
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Saturday Night, Sunday Morning
As 7pm approached, and as temperatures plummeted around here, the only thing colder than outside was Ann’s humungous great trifle, liberated from the our fridge in good time. It was our contribution to our annual get-together round at Tom and Julie’s to celebrate Julie’s birthday and our neighbour Paul’s – although Paul and Karen were …
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Tech Alert No. 1379
Twenty months is a long time in the world of technology – especially when it comes to Tablets. Back in February 2014, I spent a King’s Ransom on the (then) all-singing-all-dancing Asus Transformer – a sort of Tablet/Laptop hybrid running on Android. Fast forward to now and this shiny bit of tech is being donated …
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Bicester Act
After last night’s takeaway, we kept the Chinese theme going by heading off first thing to Bicester, with David and Valerie – apparently, Bicester is the third most visited UK location by Chinese tourists, after Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London. I’m not sure if I believe this factoid, but looking at the gazillions …
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Eat-for-a-£1-a-Day (2014) – How did we do?
The Ingredients (minus the Tea-bag!) The Result – Spicy Meatballs & Pasta Bake Well, David and I have just finished our last meal at the end of our seven day: Eat-for-a-£1-a-Day Challenge. Actually, we’re quite pleased with ourselves – we had more-or-less the right amount of food. I say ‘more-or-less’ because we ended up with …
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Chilli with a Chance of Sausage!
The Table Awaits…In what my be considered by some to be an example of poor planning, we hosted a dinner party tonight for Jo, Janet, Valerie and David – whilst David and I were on Day 2 of our Eat-for-£1-a-Day-Challenge! Talk about temptation!!!!! Whilst the girls tucked into Nachos & Dips, followed by my homemade …
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£1-a-Day (2014)
Whilst we are lucky enough to have a very comfy standard of living, many don’t – and with that in mind, David, my neighbour, and I, decided that we would try and live on just £1 a day for food, for the next seven days – starting tomorrow – with the money we’re ‘saving’ going …
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Film: The Imitation Game
I thought it was a really good film, and Lee and Ann felt the same. Possibly the best film of the year for me! A truly impressive performance by Benedict Cumberbatch with a great supporting cast really carried it, and I was glued from start to finish. Before we went in, I was wondering why …
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And the Beet Goes On!
We travelled to Heckington today to see Denis – probably our last visit before we see him again on Christmas Day. We took a slightly different route via the nearby villages to try and locate a suitable nearby Pub for lunch. We decided we wouldn’t go to the Fortescue Arms in Billingborough (our normal haunt …
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Wine, Fine, Dine, Mine!
An unusual evening tonight – but it did include our three favourite subjects: wine, food and chocolate!! Gill and Chris’s daughter, Francesca, is off to Tanzania in the new year for three months (as you do!) to work with some of the poorest communities there. The deal is that in return for her travel and …
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Film: Mr Turner
– for Timothy Spall– for optimism If you’re a fan of Painter, Turner’s life and work, or equally a fan of Timothy Spall, this is a good film to go and see. It’s a bit of both with us, so what’s not to like? You certainly have to give Timothy Spall credit for his …
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