It’s our last day here in this most beautiful part of France and whilst Steve and Helen are concentrating on getting ready for their new guests for the coming week, that leaves us to do some more exploring of the surrounding area. We’re off to Villefranche-du-Perigord and then onto the Castle at Bonaguil. Even though …
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Holiday – Domaine de Peyrecaty, Belves, France (Day 3)
It was another very warm night that included a short visit by the resident mossie in the early hours attempting to interrupt our alcohol-infused sleeping pattern. It’s amazing how useful a folded map can be when the need arises! SPLAT! and back to sleep! We re-awoke around 7am, and after switching on the Tablet, learned …
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Holiday – Domaine de Peyrecaty, Belves, France (Day 2)
What a warm night! – even with all the windows open, and because there was no breeze, it just stayed sweaty! It’s only 8am (ish) and just look at the temperature below. As the Sun rose, surprisingly, it actually got a bit cooler, but we could hear thunder in the background. The updated forecast for …
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Holiday – Domaine de Peyrecaty, Belves, France (Day 1)
After getting up at ‘silly-o’clock’, we jumped in the car and headed for East Midland’s Airport, and our flight at 7am to Bergerac Airport, courtesy of Ryanair. On arrival, the airport was heaving – much busier than I remember it back in my working days! In turn, and this added to the pressure at Security. …
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Tynan Close joins the 21st Century (but not today!)
The Mighty ‘BT Home Hub 5’Ancient HistoryEver since we moved here, one of things that made the area unique (apart from the Spinney, the quietness of the area and the great neighbours) was the appalling broadband speed. In the days of dial-up we had a really sloooow connection, and over the years that followed, as …
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Doctor Who – Series 8, Episode 4: Listen
That’s more like it! We start to see more of the Doctor’s character, in an episode that pivots around fear and loneliness.Scare Factor 10/10 Creepy Factor 10/10 Story Arc Value 10/10 Dark Doctor Score 10/10 Equally as good as the episode entitled: ‘Blink’ back in 2007 (also penned by Steven Moffat) – where it had …
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Doctor Who – Series 8, Episode 3 – Robot of Sherwood
Our manic weekend, meant I didn’t get to watch this live – I just caught up! I tried my hardest to avoid reading anything about this episode, as I didn’t want to pre-judge it – and that mostly succeeded. In truth, I don’t normally like comedic Doctor Who episodes , and accidentally reading some headlines …
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Sister! Horse is the Word!!
Our busiest weekend of the year so far – in a good way! FRIDAYFirst stop was our return visit to the hidden gem of outdoor theatrical productions – Kilworth House Theatre Group in err, Kilworth – and their production of Sister Act. Jo, Janet, Carol, Nick and Celina joined us for an evening of superb …
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Pussy Galore
After our cats, Biscuit and Bon-Bon, went over to Patsy’s yesterday, for their regular ‘wash ‘n’ brush-up’, it was now time to show another cat some attention! The XKR needed a little TLC at Marshalls Jaguar, Peterborough – nothing major, mainly blown bulbs and four-wheel tracking – and they were good enough to pick it …
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Fibre is here! (almost!)
The history of living-where-we-live in terms of Broadband speed is one of continuous frustration! Where it seems everywhere else is getting speeds greater than this locality through their telephone connection (residents round here seem to get – at best – about 1-1.5 Mbits/second), nothing seems to have improved much over the years. Regular phone calls …
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Doctor Who – Into the Dalek
So, here we are: Series 8, Episode 2 and I think, in a way, I was looking forward to watching this episode more than the series opener last week. It can’t be easy being the script-writer, having to introduce a new character, AND provide a credible storyline too. For me, I felt last week’s was …
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Jaguar
It’s fair to say, (and easy to spot) that we, the Palmers, love our Jaguars. We’ve both owned s-types, and today, Neil took delivery of his latest – a rather good-looking XF-S Portfolio. It’s a stunner with it’s ‘black pack’ option – and him being the more sensible one in the family, one that’s a …
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A Splashage to India
We met up with our good friends Paul and Sue and headed to our fave Indian Restaurant – The Exotic Dining, in town. Since Mazza’s closed earlier this year, this is now our restaurant of choice when ‘going Indian’. It was their first visit, so we hoped it would go well. As always, the food …
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Doctor Who – New Series
What an impossible job for Doctor Who head honcho and chief script-writer, Steven Moffat – launching a new series AND a new face for the Doctor (Peter Capaldi). Interestingly, the hype on TV leading up to last night’s episode was relatively sparse (thank goodness!) in the shape of just a few short clips on TV …
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Family Weekend – August Bank Holiday 2014
Roger, Jane and Oliver joined us for the Bank Holiday weekend followed by Nicki C. I’d also picked up Lee earlier in the day, and David and Valerie joined us for the evening meal – so it was a proper ‘full-house’. It was also the first week where we ‘test drove’ the new (almost finished) …
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Sports, Soccer and Sausages!
Bev’s New Business Venture I took the XKR up to Lincoln to meet up with Bev and help her with a photo-shoot for her new Sports Massage business based at Lincoln City FC. I managed to take a variety of shots for Bev – some wide angle and some for Instagram, but all suitable for …
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Sleepy Swinford gets a Bang!
A lads’ lunch today! I picked up Geoff B (a colleague from my Sainsbury days) in Irthlingborough and we headed off towards the sleepy village of Swinford – and The Chequers Pub. I haven’t seen Geoff for almost a gazillion years, and the drive to the Pub gave us chance to catch-up with each other’s …
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Fish and Sips
My First Proper Car c1975 – more of my cars HERE We headed for Chris and Gill’s tonight for a get-together of culinary excellence . And to complete the family, Francesca and Abigail were there too! – we haven’t seen all four of them since last August when we last visited. Denise and Steve were …
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Kitchens, Arks and Takeaways!
The Kitchen Makeover – Almost Finished We always knew today was going to be busy! It was the day we set aside for restocking the kitchen cupboards after emptying them last week in preparation for the kitchen makeover. In spite of the hard work by Anglia Interiors’s Grant, their kitchen installer, the job wasn’t quite …
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Let the Chaos Begin!
Sooooo last century! And so, this week sees the start of ‘kitchen chaos’ as it gets a well-deserved makeover. Stage 1 includes smashing the s*** out of all the tiling, together with the removal of two doors (to the dining room and utility room), to create an altogether more cleaner, more modern look. On Wednesday, …
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Rampant Rabbit
This’ll give kids nightmares for years!!! The highlight of this weekend was the double-birthday celebration for David and Rhiannon (Father and Daughter – 60 and 21 respectively!) in the shape of their joint Party in Burton Latimer. The music and food was fab – the surprise was the mystery appearance of a ‘Rabbit’ who went …
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Feast with Friends!
We had a great afternoon round at Rosi’s. She laid on a comprehensive Greek feast (for 14!) and together with the hot weather, it was a perfect afternoon! I hardly ever say: “I couldn’t eat another thing”, but guess what? Thanks Rosi!!!!
Fortescue Family!
It was off to The Fortescue Arms in Billingborough today, to meet up with Denis and Bev. We didn’t need much of an excuse, but as it happened it was to celebrate Denis’ birthday earlier in the week. Feeding Time! Phew! What a scorcher! Boy, was it hot!! We sat outside (a first for us …
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Boats, Blow-outs and Biryanis
It was off to Buckden Marina today with David and Val for a day-out on the boat – Osprey One! The weather looked a bit rubbish, but as the day wore on, it got warmer and warmer! All Aboard Osprey One We took the hour-and-a-half punt up to Godmanchester and had lunch on-board before taking …
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Sentimental Journey
I travelled down to London today, to the rather splendid looking Grosvenor Hotel to meet Connie R, one of Mum’s long-standing friends. Mum had left her a Ring in her Will that just happened to sport Connie’s birthstone! Interestingly, Connie was pretty sure that although they’d known each other for nearly 50 years, Connie’s had …
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Table Mountain
After last week’s disappointing mission to locate and purchase a replacement dining room table and chairs, as well as look for ideas for the kitchen makeover – today could only be described as ‘mission accomplished’. We drove up to Downtown near Grantham, for a look round their furniture department, and discovered they had mountains of …
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The Perfect Equation!?
Phew! The perfect equation!? David + Me + 29 x 90 litre bags of Bark Chippings = Weed-free front garden and a happy Wife! Cheers for your help David!
Wonderful Wheatsheaf
We picked up Lee and headed for The Wheatsheaf at Titchmarsh for Sunday Lunch. We haven’t been back here for a while, but the food and service was as good as we remember it. Since our last visit, as you can see, they’ve been treating the Yorkshire Puddings with Steroids! Having conquered the batter, we …
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Table Where?
Fabric Display at John Lewis MK – is it me, or do they look slightly creepy?It was a rather disappointing day today. We set off for MK in search of ideas for a replacement dining-room table and also to pick-up some ideas for colours for the planned refresh of the dining-room. First stop was the …
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Boys and their (Blue) Toys!
OK, here, as promised, are the first shots of my new toy – the rather splendid Jaguar XKR. It took my brother and I quite a while to locate the right model as there are plenty of grey ones (boring!!) or black ones (slightly less boring) out there – but we both felt that blue, …
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