Excellent! Just how a series finale should be! – action, humour, sadness, death, old faces, new faces, familiar faces, hidden faces, old mysteries resolved, new mysteries begun. Phew! what a ride!!!! Bit of a bleak ending though – get the Kleenex ready!
Short Fat Hairy Legs!
As part of their UK tour, we saw ‘Eric and Little Ern’ at The Royal Theatre in Northampton. Almost a full-house – and what a performance! The physical, visual and aural similarities to this iconic comedy duo were amazing – almost bordering on creepy. They had the all the mannerisms, the ad-libs and the rapport …
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John Lewis Christmas Advert (2014)
For many, this will signal the start of Christmas – the John Lewis Christmas TV Ad. This year, the star is Monty the Penguin, and like last year’s, comprehensively stirs up the emotions ! Kleenex at the ready then… #MontyThePenguin
Car Roots
The rather odd-looking XJR – not sure about the colour either! That’s more like it! – a rather sexy looking XFRSNeil stayed over last night, as today, we’re heading for the spiritual home of many Jaguars – Castle Bromwich, home the XE, the XJ and of course my fave, the XK. The Spitfire and Lancaster …
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Doctor Who Series 8, Episode 11: Dark Water
So, here we are – the penultimate episode of Peter Capaldi’s first foray as ‘The Doctor’. This episode, entitled ‘Dark Water’ was a two-parter and brought back the Cybermen to a contemporary London. Being a two-parter, the pace of the story was a lot slower, but typically for a Steven Moffat script, it was tight, …
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Weekend with Ralph and Karen
We set of for Matlock quite early for a Saturday – 7.30am. Hopefully that would give us a good journey and get us there for 9.30. We’re staying over until Sunday when we have to get back for the Plumber! (I seem to have single-headedly destroyed the flushing mechanism in the wet-room loo!) We had …
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Doctor Who – Series 8, Episode 10: In the Forest of the Night
A very unusual episode this one – think of the main ‘Who Premise’ (saving the Earth from invading monsters) …and turn it on its head! – and although it did feel like an episode aimed at CBBC rather than mainstream BBC One, there was a certainly a lot going on for kids and adults alike! …
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Holiday – Germany (Day 8) – Final Day
It’s our final day of our holiday in Germany today. We’re travelling to Lübeck – another old town, as well as the home to some massive marzipan manufacture! The weather is the worst we’ve had so far – absolutely chucking it down, and VERY cold too – with the forecast for the rest of the …
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Holiday – Germany (Day 7)
Today’s adventure takes us to the ancient (and we do mean ancient, it was first mentioned in 994 AD!) town of Stade. We’re not sure what to expect, but it looked very nice in the photographs. After another quick breakfast with what seemed like the rest of Germany in the Holiday Inn Express, we took …
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Holiday – Germany (Day 6)
We both enjoyed a good night’s sleep at our new home for the next three days – The Holiday Inn Express, Hamburg. Breakfast was continental or continental – and that suited us fine – although the traffic-light system posted in the lifts for regulating the flow to-and-from breakfast, seemed to have imploded, as it seemed …
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Holiday – Germany (Day 5)
Today, we said goodbye to Berlin and took the train to our next destination – Hamburg. It was the perfect day to leave as the weather was truly atrocious – rain, rain and more rain. If we stayed in Berlin, I’m not sure how we would have spent the day! Getting soaked I reckon!!!! The …
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Holiday – Germany (Day 4)
It’s our last full day here today, before we take the two-hour train journey tomorrow, to Hamburg. The weather forecast is cloudy but at least dry, and we’ve got a few cultural places to visit, so we’ll probably spend most of the day inside. As the day turned out, the weather held, and we did …
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Doctor Who – Series 8, Episode 9: Flatline
Another one of those very creepy episodes, on par with ‘Listen’, earlier in the series. Once again, some fine acting from all concerned, with the twist that Clara and The Doctor swapped roles. But was it any good? Well, I enjoyed it, although I suspect that the internet will probably be buzzing more about the …
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Holiday – Germany (Day 3)
Today’s Blog is brought to you by the colour grey and dark grey! The weather forecast says: cloudy this morning and rain this afternoon – and with that in mind, we decided to explore Berlin on the inside wherever possible. As soon as ventured outside, it looked like it was about to p*** it down …
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Holiday – Germany (Day 2)
Yay! A great night’s sleep. No doubt helped by yesterday’s combo of German wine and what seemed like a very long and exhausting journey getting here! One thing we immediately noticed about our rented city-apartment is how very quiet it is round here. OK, it may be because it’s a Sunday, but there’s not a …
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Holiday – Germany (Day 1)
We were up with the birdies to ensure we got a good run to Birmingham Airport – leaving the house at 5.30am. Weather was atrocious (so, a good week to be leaving the UK), but being a Saturday, at least the roads were fairly quiet. We checked-in at Brum without any problem, but as boarding …
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Lunch with Alison W
Time for my twice-yearly catchup with Alison W, so I drove over to Peterborough heading for the Fox and Hounds. Last time I was there back in September 2013, it was a real challenge actually getting to the Pub itself, because of some very complex roadworks and poor diversion signage (well, that’s my excuse anyway!). …
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Always a Trainer
A very pleasant morning over at Gill’s today, discussing good web design and SEO tactics. Nice bacon sarnies too!
Messing about in Boats
I just got back from Buckden Marina, after helping David with the process of ‘winterising’ Osprey One. A nice day weather-wise and I even got watch a chemical toilet being emptied!
Doctor Who – Series 8, Episode 8: Mummy on the Orient Express
I’m just not getting into this series at all – and that surprises me! This was a good story, with some great performances, including fan-boy, Frank Skinner, who, acted his socks off, and was believable throughout – and would maybe make a good future companion! I’m not sure what it is, I just feel something …
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“To Infinity and Beyond…”
After last month’s aborted installation of my broadband upgrade from BT, due to “a routing issue”, today is the day when Tynan Close gets its first superfast broadband customer, – that’s me! Finally, after most of us round here suffering for what feels like forever, with crappy internet speeds (1.5 Mb/s on a good day), …
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Doctor Who – Series 8, Episode 7: Kill the Moon
Grand in concept, and publicised and a pivotal episode for the Doctor and Clara, this episode promised much. Science and Fiction – what’s not to like!? Actually, all it gave me was a headache, trying to figure out wtf was going on (I must pay more attention in future!). Some of the special effects were …
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The Derngate – Michael Palin
Fresh from the ‘jolly’ in Birmingham this weekend, tonight we drove over to The Derngate in the evening, to see ‘Travelling to Work’ with Michael Palin. By a spooky coincidence, our friend Sue was there with her son Ben. The evening was pretty good – part one covered his travels as seen through the many …
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5ive Go To… Birmingham
So, here we are again – it’s that time of year, when a few of us Trainers get together for a long weekend of drink, food, drink, drink and culture. We started this now regular event, two years ago in Stratford-upon-Avon, and last year, we visited Bath. It’s the ‘usual suspects’ of Philip P, Antoinette …
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Dining Room
Out with the ‘Old’ Hot on the heels of the Kitchen makeover, is the Dining Room. The final addition – the furniture – was delivered today, and I can now say, we are free from any more makeovers (for at least a month or so!!) …and in with the New
Doctor Who – Series 8, Episode 6: The Caretaker
Hmmmmm, a bit too ‘earth-bound’ for my tastes, although I did find it a strangely interesting storyline – and I loved the word-play between the lead characters. My only wish is that it doesn’t get too ‘soapy’ – The Danny/Clara storyline is already feeling a bit like EastEnders – in a BAD way!
Birthday 2014 – Steve Serenaded/Men with Pikes/High Points/Low Points/Swans on the Bed/Pigeon Paranoia/East v West/Wow Factor 11
As the title suggests, this year’s birthday celebrations have been especially memorable. Loyal reader, read on… Even before the celebrations began today, I had a rather unexpected birthday-call the previous evening. The phone rang, and I didn’t recognise the number that came up, nor the voice at the other end. The mystery voice immediately sprang …
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Here but not HERE!
Ahh, that’s where it is. Fibre Broadband might be there, but it’s not HERE, if you get my drift. This is the latest piece of tech to have been installed just up the road from us, to finally make Fibre Broadband a reality – but I reckon it’s VIRTUAL reality. Apparently, we’ve almost got it, …
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A Flaw in our Kitchen Plans
OK, do I get ‘pun’ of the year’? At last, the kitchen makeover is almost complete. The floor was completed yesterday and all we’re waiting for now, is the splashback behind the hob, and the swishy red window-sills.
Doctor Who – Series 8, Episode 5: Time Heist
Some great acting, superb special effects and a unique ‘stand-alone’ episode that didn’t rely on a story-arc as part of the narrative. So, why did it just NOT do it for me? Apart from the last five minutes or so, where all is revealed, it all just felt a bit bland! – I can’t see …
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