Crikey, what is that yellow circular thing in the sky? With the sun shining, today, we’re off on the 20ish mile drive to Harrogate. Roger did the driving and we were soon there, looking for a place to park. How appropriate, the first we saw was the Jubilee multi-storey!! All parked-up we headed for the …
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Jubilee Holiday: Sunday
A long lie-in punctuated by Oliver invading our bed-space at around 7.30 – time for a sharp exit into the shower!!! The weather for the Jubilee looks atrocious, as it looks like it’s been raining all night. A quick look at the TV news, confirmed that it was just as bad in London too. We …
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Evening at Fountain’s Abbey
One of the benefits of staying at National Trust cottage is that there’s normally extra access rights to the property they’re near. So I took advantage of the opportunity and visited Fountain’s Abbey after hours. The weather wasn’t brilliant, but at least it was dry!
Jubilee Holiday: Saturday
We all slept well. I was up first (what a surprise!), followed a nano-second later by an excited Oliver. The remote controls for the TV/DVD combo had confounded all of us adults last night, but in Oliver’s hands, the problem was solved in seconds and the DVD was entertaining us in no time! Perhaps …
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Jubilee Holiday: Arrival
Here we are within spitting distance of Fountain’s Abbey, and as expected, not a mobile signal in sight! (Yes, Vodafone and O2, I’m looking at YOU!). We’re spending the Jubilee Weekend/Bank Holiday plus most of next week here with Roger, Jane and Oliver taking in the local attractions, including of course, next door: National Trust’s …
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There be Dragons!
Well, maybe! But all I need during our week away (Lee’s house-sitting), is a mobile phone signal! Apparently the properties around Fountain’s Abbey, have ZERO bars, even though it’s one of the most visited of National Trust locations. No phoning, no email, no blogs, no Twitter, and no Facebook! Eeeeekkk! Maybe the thought of ZERO …
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Website Makeover
I spent some time this week giving my personal website a bit of a makeover. Nothing too drastic, but I haven’t touched it since June 2010, and it deserved a bit of a tidy-up. The major changes included: adding links to my LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter accounts removing some crappy graphics enlarging the page …
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Terrific Tapas
It’s a fact: There’s ‘food’, ‘very good food’ and ‘food round at Karen and Paul’s’. Tonight was ’Tapas’ – and a real treat for our taste-buds. Add to that, Rosi’s ‘Toblerone cheesecake’, and dinner-dates don’t get much better! ‘Yummy’ with extra yumminess!!! Combined all of this with drinks on the patio under a perfect blue …
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Wedding Photographs
We dropped into Nigel’s this afternoon to pick up the Wedding photographs. It’s been a long wait, but definitely worth it – thanks Nigel, they’ve brought back some very happy memories of our special day. Friends and Family: Take cover, you know what’ll be the topic of conversation next time we …
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Sunday Lunch: Chris, Gill, Steve, Denise and Lee
It was our turn to host some of the ‘old Sainsbury gang’, so everyone came round for Sunday Lunch. Great conversation and great food all round!!!
DVD Blu-Ray: Sherlock Holmes – A Game of Shadows
Well, this one will be going straight onto that small pile I own, categorised as: “crap”! If you like your films loud and brash – this one is for you. Explosions, hand-to-hand combat, fancy fight moves, guns, violence and chase scenes were all in evidence – a sort of ‘Die Hard with a Deer-Stalker’ (OK, …
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Lunch: Cox’s Yard
I drove over to Stratford-upon-Avon today to meet up with my good friend, Ian McLean. Trying to get into the town centre on a Friday AND park the car, was always going to be a problem, so we walked from Ian’s to Cox’s Yard, and found a watering-hole that overlooked the river. Initially, a good …
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The Palmichael
We had a great time last night at The Palmichael. We can’t believe we’ve been in Kettering this long and haven’t been there before now. Burton Latimer has always had a great selection of eateries, and this one sits ‘right-up-there’ in our book. Fantastic food, good service and although it’s quite pricey – you get …
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DVD: The Iron Lady
David and Val popped round. Together with Lee, and equipped with Val’s Shepherd’s Pie on our laps, followed by Ann’s rice-pudding, we settled down to watch The Iron Lady starring Meryl Streep and Jim Broadbent. A host of other well-known faces appeared in the film too including John Sessions, Richard E Grant and Anthony Head …
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Meal at ‘Exotic Dining’
Well, we tried it out back on 10 March, and this time we had the extra incentive of the infamous ‘2for1’/’4for2’ Card! After a slightly chaotic start where they took our orders and then five minutes later, asked if we wanted poppadums (err, twice!), we were rewarded with what was probably the best Indian food …
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Meal with Ian and Mags
Our three-monthly catch-up saw us frequenting The Swan at Lamport (or is it the Lamport Swan?) tonight. We haven’t been there since the last time we three got together back in December 2008 and I think we’d all forgotten how good the food was. I arrived around the same time as Mags and Ian followed …
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Lunch with Karen and Ralph
We drove up to The Queen’s Head in Belton today for lunch with Karen and Ralph. We haven’t been back there since 2010, and it’s a good ‘halfway-house for us all. It was good to catch-up, as we haven’t seen them since the Wedding! The weather was atrocious, going there and coming back (will it …
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Out and A Grout
A rather satisfying day here. As we waited for Noah and his Ark to turn-up :-), we passed the time by refreshing the bathroom – the major part being the re-grouting of the shower cubicle. Knowing my natural ability with DIY, this was a surprisingly good result!
Bobby Charlton (for Cats)/Frank and Helen’s Do
We dropped the cats off at Patsy’s today for their normal six-weekly wash and brush-up. It was much more of a challenge this time as Bon-Bon’s right-hand side had become completely matted over the past week or two – we think it must have been the damp weather. Amazingly, Patsy and her team – …
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The Joy of Framing
I drove over to Northampton today to pick-up our Wedding sketch of Kelmarsh Hall – it’s now been titled and framed by Joy, and looks really good! – Cheers Joy!!!!
“Supplementary, my Dear Watson…”
Fans of the recent BBC series: Sherlock may want to check-out series 1 on DVD. Tucked away on disc 2, is the series pilot, that was never shown on TV. Entitled, A Study in Pink, it shares the same title as the episode that was broadcast, but only runs for an hour (instead of the …
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Test Blog
Hello world! This is a test blog to try out a new facility that posts my blogs to my ‘wall’ on Facebook automatically. The previous script just posted a LINK to the Blog, so if you’re reading this on Facebook, it’s come from my Blog, so that means the technology is working! PS That reminds …
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The Outlook? Chilli with a chance of Alcohol!
Ann and I dropped into Jo and Janet’s tonight for a rather splendid Chill – accompanied by lashings of alcohol, and then followed by cheese. I haven’t had a chilli since before the start of Lent – and it was very welcome! Yummy! Yummy!
Concrete Evidence
Me – I hate concrete kerbs! – The car’s not too keen on them either!!!!
Lincoln for Lunch/The Ritual of ‘The Garage’
We drove up to Denis’ today for lunch. Bev was sorting out the main course whilst Ann took the raw ingredients for dessert. Neither disappointed and a few hours later we felt a lot heavier and very sleepy! A great meal girls – cheers!! As is traditional this time of year, we take on The …
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DVD: Hugo
We invited David round for Dinner tonight as Valerie is away in the USA. After stuffing ourselves with one of Ann’s humungous home-made Chicken pies (followed later by an equally sized Plum Crumble), we settled down to watch Hugo as our movie for the evening. Directed by Martin Scorsese, we weren’t sure what to expect. …
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The End of Lent (Phew!)
For me, Lent has now ended. Those close to me will know I’ve been steering clear of my 19 fave foodstuffs, since the beginning of Lent – 22nd February. How did I do? Well, for whatever reason, it’s been harder this year to remain on-track, and I did briefly succumb a couple of times – …
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Great Grouting, Shiny Knobs and Sky Anytime+!
A very productive and satisfying day here today! First stop was ASDA for a few shopping essentials and then to Wickes the necessary DiY bits. Next, the big task of the day was to tidy up the grouting in the kitchen – a job we’ve been planning for ages, but we just needed a period …
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Pre-Easter Break: Day 5 (Tuesday)
A beautifully bright morning that seemed to contradict the general weather forecast – lucky for us!!! It’s our penultimate day here at the Cottage, so we’re going to cram in as much as we can into our day. To start with, we’re off to Marlborough. Parking was easy as it was literally in the centre …
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Pre-Easter Break: Day 4 (Monday)
A frosty night here, but it looks as though it might warm up later. We’re off to Cirencester today- it’s only a short drive away and hopefully it doesn’t include any mega-complex roundabouts like yesterday! On the way there, we stopped off at the Barn in Great Coxwell – a 13th century, err Barn that’s …
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