John, our taxi-driver arrived at just after 9.30. We had a reasonably trouble-free journey down to Heathrow and about two-hours later, we were walking into Terminal 3. We’ve booked with Virgin and splashed-out on ‘Premium Economy’. I’m not sure what that gives us over-and-above the economy passengers, but I guess it’s greater leg-room and posher …
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Bat out of Hell… err…Feldkirchen
8.30 local time. For those of you who were disappointed to learn that Michael Schumacher is not returning to the race-scene, I have good news! I can confirm that after extensive facial plastic surgery and an enforced two-stone weight gain, he is now driving a taxi from Feldkirchen to Munich Airport. Overtaking on hairpin bends, …
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The Bauer Hotel, Feldkirchen, Munich – Day 2
I’m pretty impressed with this hotel. After a luke-warm reception when I checked in last night, service levels have exploded into 100% total customer focus! Our allocated staff member – Angela – for my two day event here has been a whirlwind of efficiency and she’s been consistently one step two steps ahead of me …
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Germany calling…
Well, here I am at the Bauer Hotel and Gastof in Munich – a rather sweet little hotel about 20 minutes from the airport. I’m here for three-and-a-bit days for one of my clients. It’s about 21 degrees at home but they seem to be having a mini heat-wave here – phew! it’s 3.45 in …
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Princess Project!
Ann went over to Denise’s today to polish up her MS Project skills.
Paul and Karen’s for a feast…
Paul and Karen invited us round for one of their legendary feasts, so as soon as we got back from the film, we headed straight there. We’d estimated we wouldn’t be there until 9, but the film finished earlier than we thought and we were soon chatting and drinking with Paul, Karen, Tom and Julie. …
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Film: The Time Traveler’s Wife
We drove to the local Odeon to see the just-released film: The Time Traveler’s Wife from Audrey Niffenegger’s book of the same name. I hadn’t read it, but I do recall it being at the top of the best seller’s list back in 2004. I’m not normally attracted to romantic movies, but I was intrigued …
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Biscuit and Bon-Bon get a ‘wash and brush-up’
The cats went in for their six-weekly ‘service’ today by Patsy. It’s always a challenge to get them in the basket to take them there – all claws, teeth and blind panic – they know you know! This time, strangely, they were pretty well-behaved and we got them both in without any personal wounds. They …
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DVD: Iron Man (Blu-Ray)
A (very) rare morning-off today as I’m well-ahead with my work. Time to catch-up with some DVDs. I bought this DVD a while ago and then forgot I’d got it! On inserting the DVD, it immediately accessed the ‘net and downloaded some extra goodies in the guise of a quiz about the film – neat! …
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Fit for a Prince too!
A few weeks ago Ann spent a five-days in London ‘going back to school’ learning about Projects in a controlled environment (zzzzzzzzzzz!) – alias PRINCE2. The Course would ultimately lead to a formal qualification in project management and it’s a great qualification to have when managing any project. From my experience, its an absolute must-have …
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Let’s Dance (Week 7 of 7)
Well, here we are, seven weeks (and three left feet) later, we’ve now had the final dance-class of this series. It all starts again in September, but I’m not sure we’ll be able to commit to it. It’s all been very enjoyable and Bob and Marjorie have been excellent (and patient) tutors – but 9pm …
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HTC ‘Firestone’
What is this new phone that the ‘net is talking about? – it’s supposedly the ‘iPhone killer’ – the ultimate in mobile phones/PDAs. Dubbed the ‘Firestone’ by its makers HTC, there seems to be two images ‘doing the rounds’ but they may of course both be fake! Allegedly, the specs are: Quad-band GSM/EDGE connectivity Dual-band …
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Techy Session with Jane
Jane spent the morning here learning the basics of Dreamweaver together with image management courtesy of the excellent FREE utility, Irfanview.
New web-site
I drove up to Stamford to see Nick and Celina. They’ve bought a holiday cottage in Haworth and need a web-site so they can advertise and let it out. I aim to create most of it this week before I travel to Germany next week.
‘XML Parser’ – Ehh?
Well that was a pleasant surprise! I had a problem with my PDF creator on the main PC – it worked fine on all the other PCs on the network, but not the one I use the most. Every time I tried to create a pdf file, it threw up ‘cannot load options’ error message. Reinstalling …
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TV: Being Human (Series 2)
BBC3’s sleeping giant – Being Human returns for a second series sometime soon. Series 2 promises to be deeper and darker than series 1 whilst retaining its quirky sense of humour. For non-followers of the series, it’s the unlikely story-line of a ghost, a werewolf and a vampire sharing a house in Bristol. Series 1 …
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Tolethorpe Hall – The Tempest
We went to Tolethorpe Hall tonight to see The Tempest and we planned to see Chris and Pete M there too. The weather has been a little unpredictable this week (ahh, the irony…weather…tempest…geddit!?), so rather than risk a picnic, we ate at The George Hotel, Stamford. Janet picked us up at 5.15 and together with …
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Dinner at ‘Thai Gardens’ with Paul and Sue
It was good to catch up with Paul and Sue tonight. Coincidentally, I’d also been doing some work for Sue at a clients today too! We haven’t been to Thai Gardens in Rothwell for ages. In the past, one of the disappointing things was that it was always difficult to get our table on time …
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Let’s Dance (week 6 of 7)
We thought we might have a lot of catching-up to do as we hadn’t attended last week, but it was actually quite a relaxed session. Numbers were down – maybe because of holidays – leaving only around eight of us to fill the floor. We spent most of the evening practising our waltz, which I …
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More than a couple of mugs…
Karen popped round to talk-through the various Mug and other gift options for The Old Croydonians’ Association centenary event in 2011.
PC mystery
I popped over the Paul and Sue’s today to help them sort out a few niggles on their PCs. I guess it was a day of success and failure! New anti-virus installed – check; Uninstallation of un-needed programs – check; installation of Office 2003 – check; a general tidy-up – check. What proved to be …
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Ann’s new job: Day 1
8.08am: Ann starts her new job today and has only got to travel to Northampton (for today, anyway). …it beats getting the 6am train from Kettering to London!!!
Lunch and Roger, Jane and Oliver’s
We drove down to theirs today for a family lunch. Mae and Denis were there but Bev couldn’t be there because she has a big meeting at work tomorrow and a lot of preparation to do. The journey was a good opportunity to try out Ann’s new hire-car that is identical almost to the one …
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Burghley House with Ian and Ann
We had antipasti for lunch and then drove over to Burghley House. The drive there was very pleasant and the weather was gorgeous – 24 degrees. When we got there, the car-park was packed but after a couple of drive-rounds, we secured a space. It was great to return to Burghley – we haven’t been …
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Busy, Busy!
Another busy Saturday, but for all the right reasons!. First, off to car-wash to get the car cleaned, then onto Central Garage to drop Ann’s personalised number plates off; sign the hire-car paperwork; pick-up the hire-car; then back home to tidy-up and do some cooking before Ian and Ann join us for the rest of …
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DVD: Watchmen (Blu-Ray)
Watchmen was a very unusual film. The story is about an alternative USA in 1985 where costumed super-heroes are a normal part of society. Civilisation is on the verge of nuclear war between the US and Russia and Nixon is in his third-term. Someone is killing-off the super-heroes, most recently ‘The Comedian’ and those that …
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Return to ‘The Pheasant’, Keyston
We took a return trip to our favourite restaurant, The Pheasant at Keyston to celebrate Ann’s last day of unemployment before she starts her new job on Monday. At the start of her ‘rest period’ we’d also eaten there. It was already busy when we arrived at 7.20…and it got busier! . After a glass …
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Exam Time – 2
It’s Ann’s final day in London on the Prince 2 course today and having passed her Foundation exam earlier this week, it must be time for another exam! On this occasion, it’s a bit more serious, as it’s the pratictioner part where you have to put it into practice. It’s a three hour affair, the …
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Ann’s new car
Ann ordered her new car today! It should be here in early October.
Kitchen Project
Ben and Brian came round from Rock Revelations to measure-up the kitchen for their version of what it should look like.