We met up with David and Val today and drove to Bedford station to catch the train for London – nothing wrong with Kettering station, just a lot cheaper from Bedford!!! We’re making a day of it, including a matinee performance of ‘Yes Prime Minister’ at 2.30 at The Gielgud Theatre and then a bite …
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DVD: Shutter Island
It’s another ‘fish-chips-mushy peas-and-a-film-night’ here tonight. Jo, Janet and Lee popped round (it was Lee’s birthday too!) and the consensus for which film to watch was Shutter Island starring Leo Di Caprio and directed by Martin Scorsese. Actually, the choice was pretty easy, as it was the only ones in my new batch that was …
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Lunch with Steve S
It’s that time again, and it was my turn to drive over to Steve’s to catch-up with bits and pieces in his life. We last saw each other not-so-long-ago in August, and with both of us being so busy, we’ve done well to squeeze another get-together in before Christmas! We took the short walk from …
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Cats in
Image by Steve Palmer (UK) via Flickr Yes, it’s that time again – time to dig out the protective eye-wear, arm-wear, gooley-wear, and virtually every other ‘wear’, as we attempt to get the cats – Biscuit and Bon-Bon – into their cat carriers for their regular trip to the ‘pussy-parlour’ for their wash and brush-up. …
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Boiler in the Bag
Thanks our good friend Tom who recommended Scott, we’ve been able to replace our ageing boiler with a nice shiny new one. It’s infinitely more efficient and should pay for itself with about four years. As part of the upgrade, we’ve got a new digital seven-day timer that will allow us to set a different …
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Boys and their Toys (Part 283)
When we visited Ralph and Karen last week, we were mighty impressed with their new PC monitor. It looked enormous and the screen clarity was just… amazing! I couldn’t resist! and today, courtesy of eBuyer, mine arrived – the Samsung SyncMaster P2450H – and all for less than 180 notes. It was easy to set …
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Honor amongst Decorators
Honor popped round tonight to give us a quote for ‘freshening-up’ the dining-room and lounge. Ideally, it’ll all be done whilst we’re away on holiday when Lee cat-sits for us. Nice!
The Butler didn’t do it!
We’re off to join Karen and Ralph for the weekend in Matlock, then tonight, we’re going to Hardwick Hall to solve one of their murder mysteries.We left about 9am and got to theirs just after 11 – a good journey! We had a lazy lunch of Indian nibbles and then whilst the girls went off …
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The Shuckburgh Arms, Stoke Doyle – yum yum!
We’d all had very busy weeks, so it was great to be able to meet-up with D and V for a meal. This time, we chose The Shuckburgh Arms in Stoke Doyle near Oundle. David had had it recommended to him, so we thought we’d give it a try. On arrival, we noticed it was …
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Laptop sorted!
Trish popped round with her (very nice) laptop. I managed to sort out her Facebook access problems, delete a phantom account, sort out her email address and generally have a tidy-up. All-in-all, it went very well. I loves compooooters! 😁
Another busy Sunday!
Remember when Sunday was the day of rest? No, me neither! More’s the pity! 🙁 Ann spent most of the day in the garden trying to rescue us from the ever-invasive weeds and then planting out bulbs for the Spring. Meanwhile, I was in the office trying to get ahead for the week because I’m …
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TV: ‘The Event’ (Channel 4). What the..?
If you liked TV series such as: ‘X Files’ and more recently, enjoyed ‘Lost’, (before they padded out the series too much and spoiled it with such a c*** ending), then take a look at Channel 4’s new series, ‘The Event’ (which started last night – 9pm). A passenger plane that disappears just as it’s …
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Wine or Chocolate?
Which is nicer: Wine or chocolate? Can’t decide? How about a wine bottle MADE of chocolate? – Perfect, just perfect!!! Thanks girls!!!!
DVD: Centurion (Blu-ray)
Ahh, a good day, but a busy one. I had a speedy journey back (from the school), and arrived home around 5.30. The girls had bought me a chocolate bottle of wine with ‘Mr Chairman’ piped on it – excellent! We then sat down to a good meal of steak and chips with a glass …
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Me – as a piece of furniture!
As if writing the yearly school magazine and designing/maintaining the ex-pupil website wasn’t enough, the attendees at today’s AGM have voted me in as the new chairman of The Old Croydonians’ Association – ‘ The OCA’. So that’s THREE jobs now! On the plus-side, the role is a challenging and exciting one, and gives me …
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Pie + Wine = Perfection!
Nicki joined for tonight and plans to stay for most of Saturday. Although primarily, the mission tomorrow is to shop, I wanted to to have a quiet word with her about my plans so far, for Ann’s surprise birthday ‘do’ next year. Nicki’s going to making the cake – that’s brilliant, she’s so talented! Lee …
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Test
Just a test
Cinema: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
I’ve just learned that The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is coming to the big screen on December 9 – just in time for Christmas. That’s excellent news, as I thought the first two big-screen adaptations were simply brilliant!! Written in 1950, by C S Lewis, and published in 1952, Lucy and Edmund Pevensie together …
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That Syncing Feeling
Most of us have more than one PC these days – you’ve probably got one at home, and the other is your laptop or netbook. On each of those PCs you are probably using email at different times for different things. I’m the same, and the major frustration for me, is that some emails that …
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A Decisive Day
The day started with a quick trip to [ssshhhh!] to start the ball rolling for Ann’s surprise 50th Birthday celebration next year. Then it was off a local Letting Agent in Kettering with Lee to attempt to avert a domestic disaster! It would appear that the previous tenant had been a bit naughty, fallen behind …
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Cats
We popped down to Jo and Janet’s to give Jo her birthday present. We couldn’t help noticing how much their ‘kittens’, Wilf and Oscar have grown!
Chichester for the day
Morning reader! After last night’s lack-lustre meal in the hotel’s restaurant, we were hoping for an improvement at breakfast. It wasn’t to be! Ann opted for poached eggs and bacon, whilst I went for the Full-English. Mine wasn’t bad, but Ann’s bacon meant we didn’t need a trip to the shoe-repairers! Still, at least we …
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Long Weekend: Bognor Regis (Friday)
We drove down to the south coast today to meet-up with Sharon and Ian – and to make a long(ish) weekend of it. We’re home Sunday afternoon and we’re going to drop-in and see Mum on the way back. The weather steadily improved on the way down and we arrived at The World’s End pub …
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TV: The Apprentice
The sixth series of The Apprentice started tonight. Any similarities between the contestants appearing on the show and real human beings is entirely coincidental! With each series, the contestants’ behaviour seems to be more extreme and their ever-increasing sized egos almost needs a house of its own to stay in!!! Now, I know it’s good …
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Christmas Cards – The Sequel
I’ve been like a man possessed here today. I’ve finished writing all the business cards (around 150), AND, I’ve begun to write the personal ones too (I found some non-business designs in the loft from last year). The only thing that’s stopped me being a real sad-s**, and finishing those off as well, is that …
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Christmas Cards
Well, if Tesco’s are selling their Christmas stuff already, surely it’s OK to start writing my Christmas cards isn’t it? I reckon just like last year, we’ve got around 250-300 to write, so maybe it’s good to try and get ahead. In fact, thinking about it, I think I’m slightly later this year getting started!!! …
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Business Blog
For a while now, my business blog has been sitting happily on a WordPress, domain (WordPress provide our free blogging facilities). However, for visitors, it must have seemed a bit strange to suddenly be whisked away from the main SPA Ltd site, to a page hosted elsewhere. I’ve therefore been thinking about how, technologically speaking, …
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Tech Alert: Facebook App for Windows Mobile
If you’re a fan of Facebook and you have the official ‘app’ from Windows Marketplace on your smart-phone, you will no doubt be cursing the fact, that recently it’s developed a fault and stopped automatically updating changes to your friends’ status. The work-around has been to log-out of the app and then log-in again. Hardly …
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RIP: Norman Wisdom
Star of stage and screen, the comedy legend that is Sir Norman Wisdom, died today, aged 95. Famous for playing the underdog, and someone who made falling-over, an art-form, I remember him best for the 1953 film Trouble in Store, (which I think, earned him a BAFTA). In the film, he first uttered the line: …
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I Feel Like Chicken Tonight!
Well, this afternoon actually. Ann and Lee sorted out a superb roast-chicken-with-all-the-trimmings lunch today. There was just enough for around 5000 people, but between us, we made short work of it all!! There’s only one thing left now, to complete the perfect Sunday afternoon, and that’s… zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!