We slept-in (ish!). I was up at 7 and Ann followed shortly afterwards. Time for a shower. The bathroom had been stocked with high quality toiletries, so it was a an opportunity to indulge ourselves fill our suitcases indulge ourselves! We got down the breakfast around 9 – and the place was already busy. A …
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Long Weekend Away – Day 1: Green Bough Hotel, Chester
We left home around 10am and had a pretty good journey to Chester. By 12.35 we were parking in the Green Bough hotel and Ralph and Karen arrived not long after. We’re here until Sunday and aim to take in the sights, sounds and of course, the shops! First impressions were superb. We were given …
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Lumix G2 – First photos
This is hardly scientific – I just wanted to ‘bang-off’ a few shots without too much consideration for settings, lighting, subject etc. The interesting part for me was that all the interior shots didn’t require the flash to be used. I’m very satisfied with these, but I’ll get a chance to try some more considered …
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Smile please..!
Way back on July 20 2005, I made a big decision to trade-in my existing camera for the then new and exciting DSLR, Canon 20D. At that time, this Canon model was pretty much the top-of-the-tree as far as semi-pro DSLRs were concerned. How times (and technology) move on! Here we are almost five years …
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Little things
After yesterday’s technological fiasco, things are more-or-less back to normal with the PCs – Phew! The rest of the day turned out to be much more enjoyable – full of ‘little things’ getting sorted:
“I luv Compooters…I hates compooters”
Well, I was looking forward to my new router turning up today.It was destined to replace the ageing one that’s become increasingly unreliable over the past few months – dropping connection to the ‘net without warning. Having done my research, I settled for the Netgear dgn3500 Router Modem. A shiny beast with lots of flashing …
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Financial Future
Ann and I met with Chris, our financial advisor today as part of our annual review. We can both see the end of our working lives more clearly now and I’ll be the first to retire (well, that’s the plan!) in or around 2013, when I’ll close the business down. Failing that, it’ll be 2015, …
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Bed Build
Ahh, you know me with DIY assembly tasks – absolutely hopeless! – maybe it’s because I’m just no good at reading instructions that have been translated into English from Chinese!! So, with a screwdriver, a hammer and a phrase-book in hand, Ann and I attempted to assemble a new bed for the single-bedroom. Actually, it …
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Two go Shopping
Ann and Lee have gone to London shopping, leaving me to fend for myself. Is that the smell of melting plastic??? If they’re not back by Wednesday, I’m going to call the Bank! :))
Annual Reunion
I drove down to the School today. An extra busy event as, I’m chairing the sub-committee for the Old Croydonians’ 2011 celebrations AND attending the reunion as well. It was a good ‘do’. It was a swelteringly hot day and the decision to change to a different room (that has air-conditioning) was a wise-one especially …
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Shake
I took Lee up to Woodland Hospital, for her appointment with the specialist. After a thorough set of tests, he can’t yet determine whether Lee’s shaking is caused by the early stages of Parkinson’s or it’s just, as he called it, ‘a tremor’. We’re assuming the latter, and Lee starts on a course of medication …
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Susan’s web-site updated
Caught up with Susan today and updated her web-site www.susansheridan.com
Project Canvas
The BBC Trust has given Project Canvas the green light. It’s a proposed partnership between Arqiva, the BBC, BT, C4, Five, ITV and Talk Talk to build an open internet-connected TV platform – that means easier access (in the future) to internet related stuff straight to your TV – such as iPlayer and other VOD (video on demand) …
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TV: Doctor Who – Series 5: Series Finale
I just watched it on Sky+, as we were out yesterday. Entitled ‘The Big Bang’, what a fantastic final episode! Steven Moffat, the head script-writer, who penned this final episode, didn’t disappoint. I reckon he ticked all the boxes for all the fans – and that’s a challenge in itself! Matt Smith next returns as …
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Lee’s back home
Ann dropped Lee back to hers tonight. She seems to have recovered fully from her ‘wobbly’ spell. But I will be taking her to see a Consultant on Thursday evening.
Embarrassing or what..?
Our national soccer side continued its lack-lustre performance by being thrashed by Germany. That means we’re now OUT of the World Cup Yeesh! 4-1 – it’s just embarrassing!!!
“Ooh Arr, avast there, me hearties!”
With eye-patch and peg-leg firmly in place we joined David and Val on their new boat Osprey One today. It was a perfect day for it, plenty of sun and a pub-lunch destination in mind! Lee was able to join us too as her final piece of furniture arrived slightly earlier than expected and we …
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DVD: Alice in Wonderland
Jo and Janet popped round. We tucked into a curry from Mazza’s and then watched the DVD: ‘Alice in Wonderland’ directed by Tim Burton. It had mixed reviews after the cinema release, so we were looking forward to see how good it was (or not!). Well, I thought it was just brilliant – great acting, …
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Stick (Wrong end of…)
It’s a well-known fact that if I had a brain I’d be dangerous! Hence last night’s confusion. Because the England match was on in the afternoon, Rosi, (whose turn it was to host the BBQ), recorded it, and I thought we were all sitting down to watch it together around 6.30. For that reason, I’d …
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Nice Lunch
We drove over to Kilworth House for lunch. It was a really nice place and the food was good too! Add to that the beautiful views from the terrace and a bit of sunshine, it was more or less perfect!!
Day with Ian and Ann
We drove over to beautiful Stratford-upon-Avon today to spend the day with Ian and Ann. We arrived around 12 and had a light lunch before heading off for the National Trust property – Upton House. Wow! What a gorgeous place – can’t think how Ann and I haven’t been there before. The terraced gardens especially, …
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Eng-er-land
We went round to Paul and Karen’s for a pizza feast and to watch the England v Algeria game. All the gang were there – brilliant!! Pity about the soccer though….0-0!!! A crap result and we played like crap too! Luckily the company and food made up for it!
Hello Polo
I picked up Lee after work and we headed over to High St Cars in Burton Latimer to pick-up her latest ‘wheels’ – a 2005 VW Polo 1.4 automatic. She’s named it ‘Clyde’!
Mum travels back
Mum travelled back home today, having been here for about a week. It felt longer!
BBQ at Tom and Julie’s
Today was the first England match of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa – and what better way to spend it than over at T and J’s with one of their legendary BBQs. The weather could have been a bit warmer, but at least it wasn’t raining. All the usual crowd were there, plus …
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Lee’s surprise purchase
I took Lee out for a drive this afternoon to help her pick her choice for her next car. After getting Ann’s car washed, we tried the dealer immediately next-door to the car wash. The vehicles on offer were certainly in her price range and we narrowed it down to possibly a Renault. We then …
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Personal Website re-launched
A bit of a quiet week here business-wise, so it was a good opportunity to finish off the re-design of my personal website. Actually, I’d been tinkering with it all week but for some reason, I’d not being particularly productive with it all. So, with grim determination, resulting in some significant re-design along the way, …
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Lunch with Sally B (Not!)
Image by Steve Palmer (UK) via Flickr I was due to meet Sally B at Brown’s in Cambridge today for our three-monthly catch-up. But things didn’t quite work out. Lee (who’d rung to say she wasn’t feeling too well) had invited Mum down for lunch (as I was going to be out), and I agreed …
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Site Update
I’m still updating my personal web-site. It’s an excuse for a tidy-up, dump some irrelevant stuff, and then introduce new things. Trouble is, it’s taking ages to sort-out – and I’m not sure why!
Bye-Bye Plasma – you were my first!
I sold our original 42 inch Plasma TV today. To be honest, I’m surprised it went so quickly – I only punted it around a few people, and it was snapped up in just a few days by Ian, a colleague of Nick, our Accountant – I bought it for 899 and it was sold …
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