We love Kindles – any shape, any size, anywhere! Now Amazon here in the UK has followed the US and launched a new super-duper version (just in time for Christmas!) called the ‘HDX’. Scrummy spec and a good looker too. Have a read HERE.
Indians!
Rabbit! Jo, Janet, Ann and I drove into town to pay a return visit to the rather splendid ‘The Exotic Dining ‘ Indian restaurant. Courtesy of J and J, we discovered this unsung hero of Indian fusion cuisine about two years ago – and we were blown away. The menu is extremely varied, offering standard …
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Brass Monkeys and Grey Dustbins
So, the Winter preparation of the garden continues – but with soooo much to do, and a less-than-enthusiastic team member (me!), it was now time to call in the ‘big-guns’! No sooner had my neighbour, David, returned from his holiday, he was then in the thick-of-it (quite literally) at ours, and adding ten very green …
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Keep taking the Tablets!
Our septuagenarian friend, Lee just bought a new Google Nexus 7 Tablet – all I did was place the order for her online! This is the latest Tablet to join the gazillions of others on the market. What makes this so different is that it’s got a better display and is more powerful than an …
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Too Early to Mention ‘Christmas’?
Yes, quite possibly! Today, we began to get into ‘Christmas-mode’. First task of the day was to review our Christmas card address list. This is always worthwhile, but always takes far longer than I think it’s going to. Every year, I think ‘Oh, there won’t be many address changes’, and every year, I discover there …
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Preparing the Garden
I love a nice looking garden (who doesn’t?) but I HATE the physical preparation side of it with a passion! Give me a non-functioning PC or a web-site to design and I’m happy, but weeding, planting bulbs and pruning is just sooooo un-rewarding for me. Tough luck then, because our garden needs a shed load …
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Beans on Toast – Not!
Ann’s home this week – can you tell? Well, it beats my normal Monday lunch – Beans on toast!
Antique Chair
After a brief visit to Neil’s and then Mum’s, I was then off to the annual reunion & AGM of the OCA, and hopefully my re-election as Chairman. It was a good turnout by recent standards and I wasn’t completely surprised that in spite of contacting every member (all 500+), a month-or-so ago, to ask …
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You wait for ages and then..
…loads come along all at once! I was London-bound today to meet up with my good friend Angela C – and a trip round the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden. On the way down, I was surprised to see Denise M join the train at Bedford and so we spent the rest of the …
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Keep Mum and Curry On!
If you are ever in the vicinity of Westerham in Kent and fancy a curry in very posh surroundings, look no further than the imaginatively titled ShamPan 4, cunningly located in what used to be the rather mediocre Spinning Wheel restaurant. We took Mum there tonight (thinking it was still the ‘old’ Spinning Wheel’). From …
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The School Re-opens
In my capacity as Chairman of the ex-pupils association, ‘The Old Croydonians’, I was invited with many others, to see the official re-opening of the school, now reborn as: The Crescent Primary School. It was a well supported event, with the pupils singing their school song and the head-teacher recounting how the school reinvented itself. …
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2013: Birthday Trip to London
57 on the outside, 19 on the inside! Well, that’s my ‘take’ on things! Ann took the day off and we headed for London. We set off on the 8.59 from Kettering which we caught with minutes to spare because of some congestion on the way there! Phew! On arrival, the main attraction was …
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A Dent in Derngate!
I haven’t been to the Derngate Theatre since November, last year, so it was good to make the return journey for a couple of reasons: First up, they were showing a performance of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy – Live and second, it starred my good friend, Susan Sheridan, who played the part of the …
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Vines Dine – Fine!
Ann had been working in Sheffield for most of the week, so we decided to celebrate the end of her manic week and take the short walk to The Vines. Yes, I know, us WALKING!, hard to believe, but it’s true! Well, that was the plan, until Ann got caught in a really bad traffic-jam …
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Job Done!
I wasn’t anticipating that after the difficulty of removing the cabinet front from the old fridge door a couple of days ago, that attaching it to the new fridge was going to be any easier! However, after some words of guidance from my brother, it all went very smoothly! The fitting kit was a doddle …
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Who Moved My Cheese? (Part 2)
As planned, the replacement fridge arrived today – and after yesterday’s fiasco (in Who Moved My Cheese? – Part 1) attempting to remove the cabinet door (that I needed to keep) from the fridge door (that I didn’t!), I was hoping that installing would be a far more straightforward job than removing! Probably the hardest …
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Who Moved My Cheese? (Part 1)
..but more to the point, who moved my fridge? As all good people-developers know, ‘Who Moved my Cheese? is the title of a very successful book & video by Spencer Johnson. It illustrates how to cope with change. Dealing with change seemed wholly relevant as I ventured into the murky world of ‘DIY’ – specifically, …
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Small is Beautiful!
Out with the white in with the black! You know me – if it’s ‘tech’, “I love it!”. Finally after what the Sky installer estimated was at least a 10-year-old piece of kit, our white ‘Sky160-box’ in the bedroom finally gave up (after slowly ‘losing’ most channels one-by-one over the past few weeks). In spite …
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Queen’s Greatest Hit?
Today, we’re heading for the capital to take a look round Buckingham Palace! It’s our second visit, but a first for Roger, Jane and Oliver. Roger has organised everything – food, taxis and rail tickets. So we just needed to take the short drive to Harlow Town railway station to get us to Liverpool Street. …
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Non-Techies, look away now!
I’m posting this so that others needn’t go through the same steep learning curve as me, trying to sort out (deep breath!) ”Blogger posts’ visibility using a sub-domain, after a change of domain host”. I spent about 5 hours in all, trawling the net and ringing support-techies for the answer. Lucky I’m retired with nothing …
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The Burger and the Politician
Those of a superstitious nature might have felt that today’s lunch was never meant to happen! I’d agreed to meet up with Alison W in Peterborough for our normal twice-yearly get together. We’d met back in February at The Granary and although the lunch there was ‘OK’ we decided that this time we’d try somewhere …
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DVD: Star Trek – Into Darkness
An exciting start with the pre-credit scenes in this second outing for the rebooted Star Trek franchise – and for the seven people in the world who have 3D TVs, there’s even more to enjoy – especially in the first 10 minutes. The major characters all looked and sounded like their ‘originals’, although ‘new’ Kirk’s …
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Sally gets an iPad Mini
I took the train to London today to meet up with Sally B. She’s treated herself to a shiny new iPad Mini – so that was a perfect excuse for me to immerse myself in a fruit-based OS (part of my ‘five-a-day’), catch up with all Sally’s news, and use up my last Pizza Express …
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Oxford/Silver Party
We started the day by driving over to Oxford to meet up with Nicki C. We did the smart thing and took the Park-and-Ride, both arriving there at about the same time. Oxford was fab. The weather turned out to be better than forecast – hot! and we had a great meal in the roof-top …
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Heard the one about an Italian and the Mexican?
David and I slipped into ‘pensioner-mode’ and then into Kettering Prezzo’s for a voucher-sponsored lunch. After a quick look through the menu, we both opted for the Calzone – the ‘lovechild’ of a pizza and a Cornish Pasty! Despite its doubtful heritage, we both opted for the Carne Picante variant, consisting of chicken, meatballs, chillies …
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The (Bank Holiday) Weekend Starts Here…
FridayDenis joined us in the afternoon. He’s staying until Sunday. He’d had a good trip down and was already at ours when I got back from Trish and John’s after sorting out a few bits & pieces with Trish’s phone and tablet. Ann was working from home and after a(nother) frantic week at work, we …
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Hidcote Manor Gardens
We drove over to Ian and Ann’s this afternoon. We had lunch at theirs before taking the short drive to National Trust’s Hidcote Gardens. Apparently, we haven’t been there for around 15+ years, but I don’t recall any of it at all – but it was DEFINITELY worth the visit (even though the weather was …
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The Mexican and a Tablet
After our disastrous visit to the new Turkish restaurant with Paul and Sue back in April, we decided to play it safe and cook it all ourselves this time!Paul and Sue came to ours, and with me in charge of the kitchen (a rare event in itself!), ‘Mexican’ was the menu of choice! Even the …
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Return to Kushboo
We haven’t been to Kushboo since what feels like ages! (it was actually December 2008), but it was the perfect venue for my regular three-monthly meet-up with Mags and Ian. Ann was also back in good time and was able to join us! For a Monday, it was already quite busy when we got …
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Galaxy Minis
I spent a very productive couple of hours today helping Trish and John get their heads round their two shiny new Galaxy S Minis. They’re a great phone, packed full of features and ideal if you want a screen that’s not too large – and don’t fancy an iPhone!