After a hearty breakfast in the hotel, we headed off towards the Tube switching into tourist mode (sharpening elbows and deleting ‘excuse me’ from our personal dictionary). Weather-wise, it’s a lovely warm day down here – perfect! First stop was the V and A. We haven’t been there for quite a few years, and it …
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The Long Weekend starts here…
We took the 1.30 out of Kettering and got into St Pancras just after 2.30. The weekend has started well as we checked into the St Pancras Grand Hotel (and blagged a free upgrade!). We’re in room 425 with a view of the British Library from our window – nice! We decided to jump on …
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MPG
Ever since the Insignia got it’s software upgrade, the MPG has got better. Is that a coincidence?
Wot, no girls…
Ralph’s here to carry on with the Wet Room construction whilst Ann and her friend Nicki have gone to Ragdale Hall for a few days.
Babies and Ronseal! – Ed Byrne at The Castle
We drove over to The Castle in Wellingborough with David and Val and met up with Jo and Janet there. We haven’t seen Ed Byrne since the Edinburgh Fringe in August 2008 – he was great then, and he was great tonight. I’ll never forget (and I don’t think the audience will ether) his story …
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It’s almost Christmas! :)
Now that the business Christmas cards have arrived, we can put those with the personal ones and next week, continue the writing marathon. It all seems a bit rushed this year with the wedding coming up as well. So, the sooner we get …
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Christmas Cards
We started on the Christmas cards today! Compared to last year, we’re a tad late!!!
Fish and Chips
Paul, Karen, Tom and Julie came round tonight for a fish-and-chip supper. It was good to catch up with them – it feels like we haven’t got together for ages. We had a great time – the food and conversation was brilliant – amazing how something as simple and fish-and-chips can go down so well. …
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Nice Nokia
Ann’s WORK phone looked like something out from the dark-ages that had also been run over by a steam-roller. In a previous life it appeared to have spent most of its day throwing itself against a brick wall, judging by the amount of dents and scrapes on it. Add to that, it …
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Thank Crunchie it’s Sunday
10.30am. Ouch! Ann and Lee had a crunch in Ann’s Fiesta at the roundabout joining Windmill Avenue and Deeble Road. They were both shaken and Lee was ambulanced off to Kettering Hospital for an x-ray. After a thorough check-up, luckily there were no serious after effects, and we were all back home around 2pm. Pity …
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Satisfying Saturday
It’s one of those weekends where a lot of good things happened on the same day. The day started well with possibly the hottest day of the year so far. Papers were saying we were hotter than Barbados! Maybe… it was only 26 degrees here! The cats went in for their regular wash-and-blow-dry and whilst …
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Happy Birthday – to me!
We’re at home for my birthday this year. That wasn’t the plan – see yesterday’s blog! Cards Ann (obviously!) Angela Antoinette Bev Carol David and Val Carey H Denis Ian H and Sharon Ian McL and Ann Lee Mum Nick and Celina Margaret and Alan Neil, Debbie, Alfie and Frankie Paul and Karen Paul, Sue …
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Birthday Weekend – Aborted!
SATURDAY Well, the weekend started very well – a sunny day, and we’re almost in October. David, Val, Lee, Ann and I are all ready for a bit of a celebration with David and my birthday within a day of each other. Everything was planned, and all we needed to do was to enjoy what …
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Lunch with Denise
I dropped the car off at Forest Gate just before 8 to have the tyre sensor looked at again, and they kindly gave me a lift to the station. I took the train down to London, quickly followed by the short tube journey across to Holborn. Denise is now more-or-less full-time in London with her …
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The Wet-Room
Well, the Wet-Room is in its final stages now. Ralph is in the process of tiling it all (after a slight blip due to some serious colour variation on the tiles we originally bought), and it’s all going very well.
Weekend with Roy, Susan and Lauren
We drove over to Roy, Susan’s and Lauren’s in Ramsey today and got there about 2.30. We kicked off with a nice cuppa and spent the afternoon chatting about this and that – putting the world right, as you do. Lauren was ‘super-chef’ for the day beginning with some delicious blueberry muffins – they were …
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Nick, Celina and Hannah here for Lunch
Nick, Celina and Hannah joined us for lunch. That meant ‘full-house’ here as we already has Lee, Ralph and Karen staying! Time to locate the ‘large-table-top’ that we had made a few years back (for Christmas time) that allowed us to get EIGHT of us around our dinner table (that’s really only designed for four …
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Vauxhall Ampera/Jane Eyre/Colombiana/Last Night of the Proms
Ralph, Karen, Lee, Ann and I took the 9.30 out of Kettering today and headed for London. For Karen, Lee and Ann, the mission was to seek out some suitable material for THE wedding dress. For Ralph and I, we concentrated on much more important things like Vauxhall’s soon-to-be-launched Ampera – their first extended range …
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Weekend with Roger, Jane and Oliver – Sunday
As planned, we had a lazy morning. After breakfast, we caught up with the newspapers and I helped Roger understand the extra functions of his new Panasonic LCD TV and Humax Fox T2 box. After a rather full-on roast chicken lunch we did very little afterwards – apart from nearly fall asleep! It’s been a …
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Weekend with Roger, Jane and Oliver – Saturday
We left ours around 10.30 and arrived at theirs just after 12. After a light lunch of sandwiches and soft drinks, we set off for Hatfield House. It’s one we’ve never actually been to, and it was definitely worth the short drive. The place is massive, and unusually, these days, in private hands. We had …
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Dinner with Ian and Mags
We went all French tonight and ate at Le Bistrot Pierre on the edge of the River just over the bridge in Stratford-upon-Avon. The service was a little sluggish but that was more than made up for by the quality of the conversation and the mouth-watering food. Delicious!
Trip to Lyveden New Bield
On the spur of the moment (unusual for us!), we decided to risk the iffy weather and take the short drive, about 25 minutes away, to the NT property – Lyveden New Bield (a bit of a mouthful!). Apparently, we went there around 10 years ago – but I don’t remember it at all! The …
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TV: Doctor Who series returns
Whilst I have the greatest respect for Steven Moffat as the writer for last night’s opening episode episode (he did write ‘Blink’, my favourite of all time), ‘Let’s Kills Hitler’, left me confused and slightly annoyed. Let’s start with the title. I think there should be a rule that says you can’t name an episode …
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Planet of the Ape(thorpe)
Nicki joined us today and after the girls popped to the bra shop (it’s not really my thing), we headed off to Apethorpe Hall, a newly opened (and currently being restored) property about half an hour away located at the ‘back-of-beyond’ in the village of (spookily) Apethorpe! On arrival, there were already about half a …
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Wet, Wet, Wet – Floor down
The Wet Room project continues. The floor is down – yay! Thanks Ralph!!!!! Quality job!!!
Meal with Ian H
I drove over to the Premier Inn at Ferry Meadows in Peterborough tonight, and met up with Ian H, who’s this way on business. We caught up with this-and-that in the Beefeater next door and (surprisingly) managed to resist their new policy of ‘bottomless chips’!
Wet, Wet, Wet/Cats Away
Ralph’s here again this week working on the Wet-Room. We’re now at the ‘pretty’ stage with hopefully the floor tiles being laid this week, and time permitting, starting on the wall tiles too. The rather fancy tap we’ve ordered should have arrived at the Plumbers as well, so it’ll be interesting to see how that …
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Cats in – Sunglasses out!
Today was the day we took the cats it for their normal six-monthly ‘service’ – we postponed it from yesterday, because we were busy with wedding stuff and Patsy needed to drive to Bournemouth to rescue some abandoned cats – all 17 of them! David and Val popped round for lunch. We had Italian cheese …
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Meal with Paul and Sue – The Old Bakehouse
We met up with Paul and Sue tonight at The Old Bakehouse in Rothwell, for a regular get-together. Last time we went there, it was with David and Val in May 2009 – since then they’ve added an extra part to the restaurant out the back and the whole area looked fantastic – they’ve even …
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Lunch with Denise – Not Quite!
I popped over to Bedford today, to catch-up with Denise M. August seems to be the month for lunching – I could quite get used to this and it certainly beats working!!! It’s all part of my improved (hopefully) try-and-keep-more-in-touch-with-friends routine. I haven’t seen Denise since Gill’s party and our get together at The Black …
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