After our busy morning, we chilled out in the evening to cold-cuts and the Blu-ray DVD: The Wolfman. I’ve had it for quite a while now, but hadn’t had an opportunity to watch it until now. Starring Benicio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins, it tells the story of a nobleman returning to his estate to …
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Ralph and Karen – here for a few days + DVD: Centurion
On a much more joyful note, Ralph and Karen joined this evening. They’re staying for a few days, in part, to discuss some of the details for ‘the event’, now that there’s only 351 days to go! After a tasty meal of home-made shepherds’ pie plus the obligatory quantity of alcohol, we sat down to …
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Mae’s Funeral
It’s not one of the happiest days of our lives, as we travelled up to Lincoln today for the funeral. The Service was at 11.30 followed by the burial, and then we all went back to Denis’ for a bite to eat. Ann had made a wreath from cream and red roses which looked amazing! …
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Mum travels home
Mum travelled home today, courtesy of John, our taxi-driver. A good journey GOING, but almost twice-as-long coming back! Well, at least it wasn’t snowing!
Boxing Day 2010: Darth Vader 13 – Me, 0
It’s very cold outside – another severe frost here registering –6C on the thermometer. We’re going to make the trip ‘dahn sarff’ to visit Ann’s brother and his family. We set off around 10.30 and as Mum wasn’t feeling too well during the journey, we took a little longer to get there, arriving just after …
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Christmas Day 2010
I was up earlier than I thought – around 6am. It’s a white Christmas, but it’s ‘old’ white as there hasn’t been any new stuff for a few days. It’s cold though – the temperature gauge is showing ‘-7C’. We had a a lazy breakfast and prepared for the main event – presents! 10.00am: Pressy …
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TV: Doctor Who 2010 Christmas Special – ‘A Christmas Carol’
For me, a devoted Who-fan, this has been the most eagerly awaited TV programme of the Christmas period. Penned by the new Who Supremo, Steven Moffat, it weaves a parallel tale of the story of Scrooge – just right for Christmas Day! In contrast to last year’s yuletide Tennant-exit storyline, this episode wasn’t hyped to death, …
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♬ “While Shepherds…” ♬
Cor, that was scrummy – a home-made shepherds pie for lunch!!!
A Tasty Bird…
Thanks to John, our driver, who battled through the elements to pick Mum up from Biggin Hill this morning, we’re (mostly) all here. Lee joined us at 11 and Ann’s Dad and step-Sister, Bev, will be with us for Christmas day – perfect, just perfect! All that was left to do was to secure a …
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Snow, Ice and Computers
Bah! the overnight snow forced Ian and I to cancel our techy get-together today. Still, we’ve rebooked it for January – hopefully, the weather will be a bit kinder then!!!
Test Drive: Vauxhall Insignia – Day 2
Day 2 of the 3-day test drive with the Vauxhall Insignia. It was slightly warmer in the morning (only minus 3C!!!) and the roads were a lot better. This gave me an opportunity to push the car a bit harder and take a closer look at the toys. It’s still a bit early to determine …
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Test Drive: Vauxhall Insignia
With a frighteningly cold night (-11C when I got up this morning), it probably wasn’t the best time to have the Vauxhall Insignia for a three-day test drive. By the time the car arrived, it was almost lunchtime, but worth the wait! Even though they couldn’t supply me with my first choice (an ‘Elite Nav’), …
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A Christmassy Sunday
It’s been a great day – and a chrismassy one too! We finished putting up the decorations round the house, popped down to ASDA to top-up the champagne stock (no luck though – they were out of stock!), had carols playing on the iPod all day and generally got the house ready for Christmas day. …
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Christmas TV 2010
I feel Christmas has truly arrived once I can see what’s on the box!!! (oh, and once the tree’s up!) These are the covers for the Radio and TV Times for this year. Hhhmmm, Wallis and Gromit again! 2009 Christmas covers 2008 Christmas covers
RIP – Mae Gambles
Ann’s step-mother, Mae lost her battle against cancer today – Thursday, December 16th, 2010. She had been moved to the Hospice just a week prior, and we’d all been to see her last Saturday.
Ooh err Missus (literally!)
I read this in the Daily Telegraph, so it MUST be true! 🥰😀
Lounge Wizards
We turned into Lounge Lizards Wizards today, and stripped it all out ready for Honor’s decorating skills next Thursday and Friday. I think we were both amazed at how dirty everything had become since we last gave everything a good clean!!!
Visiting Mae at the Hospice
This has been one of the less-cheerful Saturdays of the year as we headed towards Lincoln to visit Mae at the Hospice. When we were advised a few days ago, to visit her ‘sooner rather than later’, we knew it was serious. So, as the Gambles clan – Denis, Roger, Ann and Bev…and me, gathered …
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Pussy Patrol
Image by Steve Palmer (UK) via Flickr Yes, it’s that time again where we attempt to get Biscuit and Bon-Bon into the cat carriers for their journey over to Rushden and their six-weekly ‘wash-and-brush-up’ with Patsy. It’ll be a stressful event, with fur-flying and Elastoplast at the ready, …
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The Cecilian Singers’ Carol Concert 2010
Click on the Programme for a larger version We’ve been going to this concert in Leicester for a few years now and it really gets us in the ‘christmassy mood’. It was being held at the rather splendid Church – St Philip’s, in Evington Road/Evington Lane in Leicester. I left around 5.30 and picked-up Val …
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New and Blue!
The new (blue) carpet was laid yesterday evening in the Dining Room, so we spent an hour-or-so tonight shifting everything back in. I can now see the TV now it’s not obscured by the dining-room table!
Han Job and DiCaprio
Image by Steve Palmer (UK) via Flickr Nick and Celina joined us for the weekend. In spite of the appalling weather and icy driving conditions during the day, by the evening, it was just raining as we drove over to our fave Chinese Restaurant – Han – in Market Harborough. We haven’t seen Nick and …
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Holiday – Day 9: Gibraltar
False alarm – the promised storm didn’t materialise…or was it that I was so tired I slept through it all? Anyway, first stop, is the shop to get my money back on the rope we used to lash ourselves to the mast over-night! 7.00am: We were up early today as for some bizarre reason, the …
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Holiday – Day 8: Cartagena
Well, here we are, it’s 7.45am and we’re just slipping into the port of Cartagena. Until we booked the cruise, I hadn’t heard of it, as part of the itinery of cruise-ports. So, for people like me, here are the headlines – It’s a Mediterranean city and naval station, located in the Region of Murcia, …
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Holiday – Day 7: Barcelona
One of the GREAT things about cruising is that you get to see lots of different countries – and only have to unpack once! The downside (and it doesn’t happen too often) is that you are at the mercy of mother-nature, and in particular, the bad weather at sea when you’re between ports – and …
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Holiday – Day 6: Monte Carlo
“Been there, done that…” – It’s a fine day (better than at home, where we hear that the white stuff has arrived!) but as we’ve been up and around Monte Carlo a number of times on previous cruises, there wasn’t much point in getting off the ship today. Also, Ann didn’t sleep too well, so …
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Holiday – Day 5: Port of Civitavecchia, Italy
The Atrium – Queen Victoria 10.40: The first part of our holiday is over and we’ve left Rome behind. For the final part, we taken the train from Rome to Civitavecchia station. The journey took just over an hour and on arrival, we shared a cab with another couple who were also bound for the …
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Holiday – Day 4: Rome (final day)
It’s our final full-day here. On the plus side that means there’s only another two juices to try out at breakfast! On the down-side , we’ll be sad to leave Rome, because of its people, manic drivers and architecture! So, breakfast beckons, and having drunk (and survived) yesterday’s juice-of-the-day, ‘Tropical’ (aka Domestos Forest-Fresh), it’s time …
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Holiday – Day 3: The Vatican
The highlight today is our visit to the Pope’s condom-inium, the Vatican – we’ve got a timed tour at 10.30, so that gives us plenty of time to look around the local area and walk-off breakfast (just two-steps then!). Talking of breakfast, with some reservation, we gave it a second-chance, hoping that yesterday’s fiasco was …
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Holiday – Day 2: Rome
We both slept deeply – the double-glazing helped and also because there were no cats jumping on-an-off the bed! A quick peek through the curtains revealed that it’s very grey out there, so I think umbrellas will be the fashion accessory of choice together with warm coats. And so, to breakfast. Trip Advisor reviews had …
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