It’s now that time of year, where the garden is shouting for attention to get it ready for Winter! Luckily, the sun was shining, making the task a little easier. Ann took on the cutting back back/cutting down part, whilst I repainted the side garage …
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Ferry good lunch!
I met up with Alison W – from my Nokia days – at The Granary in Ferry Meadows, Peterborough for lunch today. We’d been there a couple of times before, but today was a slightly surreal experience as the staff were all dressed in strange outfits. Our waitress, was dressed as… well, we weren’t quite …
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OCA Newsletters
I drove down to Peter J’s today. He’d kindly offered to help collate the annual newsletter for The Old Croydonians’ Association. I’d received the pre-addressed envelopes courtesy of Isabel, and Peter had the printed newsletters delivered direct to his home. We made good time with this repetitive task – almost 300 all sealed in envelopes …
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“Ahoy there!”
We drove down the Roger, Jane and Oliver’s last night in preparation for our trip to see the newly restored Cutty Sark at Greenwich today. After breakfast on Saturday, we took the short drive to Harlow Town station and that took us to Stratford Station where we jumped on the DLR to Cutty Sark. The …
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Sky+ HD Box gets more features
As if my Sky+ HD Box couldn’t acquire any more features – it just has (almost!) Those of us with this newer type of Box, will have woken up this morning to find that the (rather confusingly titled) ‘Anytime’ and ‘Anytime+’ labels in the Planner have been retired – and replaced with ‘On Demand’. This …
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The Last Day of Summer?
Cor, what a(nother) scorcher! Surely today, with temperatures hitting 30 degrees, this must have been the last day of the really good weather. A busy and important day ahead. We set off early – around 8.30 – Lee stayed behind as her back was playing-up, and dropped into Neil and Debbie’s first for a catch-up. …
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Nicki joins us
Nicki joined us today for a shopping expedition over to Market Harborough. Weather-wise, it was another scorcher here today – 27 degrees by lunchtime. We parked in the Sainsbury car-park and walked through into the main town centre. Just like Cambridge yesterday, the town was packed. After doing most of the kitchen shops to death …
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Supper with Paul and Sue
It seems today has been all about eating, drinking and catching-up with friends – and tonight was no exception. We drove to see Paul and Sue at their Farm where they’d offered to do all the cooking! Perfect!!! 🙂 Paul’s a bit of a dark horse with cooking. He doesn’t do it that often for …
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Cambridge – Lunch with Sally B
I drove over to Cambridge’s Grand Arcade to meet up with Sally B. We had a number of things to sort out as part of our regular networking/self-improvement get-together. After a quick coffee in Starbuck’s, we dropped into the Apple Store to get Sally’s iPhone configured for sending emails when she’s away from the office. …
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Kilworth House Theatre – The Sound of Music
Ann and I picked up Rosi and Rhiannon about 12.45 and headed off to see the afternoon matinee of The Sound of Music at Kilworth House Theatre. We met Jo, Janet and Carol there too. It was my first experience of this open-air theatre, and first impressions were very good. As for the production, it …
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Doctor Who – Series 7, Episode 1 “Asylum of the Daleks”
The 7th series (or 33rd in ‘old money’) of Doctor Who re-materialised onto TV screens tonight with ‘The Moff’ promising blockbuster type episodes rather than the long story-arcs of previous series. It seems like an age since the series was last on TV, so what do we know about what’s coming up in this series? …
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Holiday – Day 5: Free Day
As it’s a free day today, there was no need for workday-type reveilles at silly-o’clock – so we lied-in until 7.30. The weather has changed. It’s a lot greyer today – not quite fifty shades, but nowhere near as warm as the type of weather we’ve enjoyed so far. By 8.30 we were ready for …
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Holiday – Day 4: Cruise on the Mosel and Wine Tasting
The best way to describe today would be ‘lazy’. In short, we’re going to jump on a boat, sail for a few hours down the Mosel and then spend the next hour or so, getting pissed, sampling the fine wines of the region courtesy of a local vineyard. Finally, we’ll stagger onto a train taking …
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Holiday – Day 3: Exploring Triere
Triere is calling us – so we called a taxi! Peter, our holiday co-ordinator, had enthusiastically suggested that we walk from the hotel to the station, quoting ‘only fifteen minutes’. Given that the taxi took ten when we arrived, his estimation felt a little on the optimistic side – and we had to think of …
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Holiday – Day 2: Exploring Cochem
So, here are in the rather lovely Mosel Region of the Rhineland. We’re staying at the Brixiade Hotel, part of the Moselstern Hotels group. Its sister hotel, The Triton, is just 10 metres away and we have the option to share some of their facilities too. We went to bed last night shattered! it …
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Holiday – Day 1: Travel day to Germany
It’s Sunday, so why are we up at 4am? Well, our holiday to Germany with Lee and Denis by train started badly with us realising a few days ago that there wasn’t a train a train out of Kettering, that would get us to St Pancras International by the required check-in time of 7am. Plan …
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Exotic again
We dropped into The Exotic Dining tonight with Jo and Janet. It’s currently our fave Indian Restaurant for the quality of the food (and the 2-for-1 vouchers help!). We last went there back in July, but it’s felt like we haven’t been there for ages! As always, the service and the food was excellent and …
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Almost a Full House!
Getting the family together is always a logistical challenge – and this weekend we managed to fill the house with most of the Gambles clan. Bev arrived on Friday night around 7.30, and whilst we gossiped, we devoured one of Ann’s cheese-boards (and a rather tasty 2011 Sauvignon Blanc from Mr Sainsbury ‘Coolwater Blue’ from …
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Can you see us?
Just before the BBC transmitted the Olympics Closing Ceremony on Sunday at 9pm, there was a short (two minute) ‘countdown’ programme. Ralph just alerted me to the fact that if you look closely, you can see us gearing-up for the celebration. The programme is currently available on iPlayer and our fifteen (milli)seconds of fame is …
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Olympic Weekend – Sunday
Well this is THE main reason we’re in London – the Olympic Closing Ceremony which starts at 7.30 tonight. 09.30am: The day started well with us heading down to the restaurant to be greeted by about the most positive and energetic person I think I’d ever met (at breakfast anyway !) Dwayne, clearly was …
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Olympic Weekend – Saturday
We caught the 9.56 from Kettering into St Pancras International for our once-in-a-lifetime Olympic weekend. We were lucky enough to secure four tickets for the Closing Ceremony and we’re meeting Ralph and Karen as soon as we arrive . The train arrived on time and as we trundled into St Pancras, we only waited a …
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The Only Way is… Tooway
OK, after years of constantly below-par broadband speeds here, I finally ‘bit the bullet’ and did something about it. For as long as I can remember, it seemed like everyone else (apart from the rest of the neighbours in our immediate area) were getting faster connection speeds than us. When the houses were built 20+ …
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London Calling
I met up with Keith (an ex-committee member from the OCA) for our annual get-together today. We met at London Bridge station (which seems to have changed out of all recognition, since I was last there). With the Olympics going on, the station was heaving, but luckily there was plenty of Olympic Volunteers on hand …
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Fancy a Big Mac?
Some say that Big Macs aren’t good for you, but having spent a couple of hours at Ian’s helping him set up his shiny new 27 inch iMac, I beg to differ! What a super looking piece of kit! I could be tempted!!! 🙂
Coughton Court
We drove to Ian and Ann’s for lunch today. The weather had been a bit mixed but we were lucky enough to eat outside. Alice was there and later, Dermot and Caroline arrived complete with the twins. After lunch, the four of us took the short drive to National Trust’s Coughton Court, about a 10 …
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Dalek anyone?
Series 7 of Doctor Who starts next month here in the UK!
A Mocha, a Matt and an iMac
I met up with Ian today in Solihull (The Touchwood Shopping Centre) – our mission was to consider the various options for his replacement computer. First stop was a coffee to discuss our plans – Macs first and then possibly John Lewis for PCs. Luckily, there was …
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Tech Alert (Part 972)
Yummy! In preparation for satellite broadband that’s being installed next week, I’ve invested in one of these toys – the Devolo dLAN 500 AVTriple Starter Kit, (try saying that quickly!!!) – it’ll allow me to network the internet downstairs to the TV, Sky Box and Blu-ray DVD player – all via the domestic mains socket! …
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How Very ‘English’
Ann, Lee and I went for afternoon tea at The Old Forge in Cranford this afternoon – invited by Janet as part of her birthday celebrations. I can’t believe we’ve not been there before. It was a unique way to celebrate – the sandwiches, cakes and scones were yummy!! Quintessentially ‘English’ and a great way …
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What a Tart!
Denis and Bev came for lunch today. Ann had prepared a full lamb roast and Bev did us proud by baking a variation on a Bakewell Tart with lemon curd instead of jam – the yummiest dessert I’ve had a in a long while. Cheers Bev!! After stuffing ourselves, Lee and I rescued the kitchen, …
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