I met Ian and Mags at Babe Blooz, Market Harborough tonight as part of our normal three-monthly catch-up. Because Ann is still between jobs (but that’ll change on the 10 August), she came along too! – Nice! We hadn’t been there for around 6 years and we were wondering what it would be like as …
Read More
Steve on the Game?
Phew…not quite! Just when I thought I’d have to develop some new skills to supplement our income (and perhaps introduce a comedic element too!) by going ‘on the game’, Ann learned today that she had been successful in getting the job she was interviewed for earlier in the week. That’s good news all round and …
Read More
Look…no brakes!
Today, a real techy-innovation. I’m test-driving the new Volvo XC60 with ‘CitySafe’. It’s an innovative piece of technology that senses a vehicle in front and slows the car down if you don’t! And this is 2009! 👍😉
The Wheatsheaf at Titchmarsh
We decided to act on Steve S’s recommendation and try out The Wheatsheaf at Titchmarsh. We were seated promptly and the restaurant soon filled up. It’s obviously a popular place! We went for starters, mains with a cider each. The food was especially good, although the service was slightly sluggish. All-in-all it’s definitely worth another …
Read More
Let’s (not) Dance (Week 4 of 7)
We didn’t go to the dance-class tonight as I’ve had a really bad headache on-and-off since Sunday night. An early night for me tonight to try and shake it off.
The new ‘Doctor’
Filming is now underway in Cardiff for the fifth series and here is the first photograph of the Doctor (played by Matt Smith) in costume. Also in the pic is his new companion ‘Amy Pond’, played by Karen Gillan. Series 5 starts in 2010. Related stuff Matt Smith in costume as Doctor Who: …
Read More
New Tyres
I took the Mondeo over to Kwik-Fit today to assess the rear tyres. At just under 24000 miles, I knew they were getting close to the legal limit, so it was definitely worth checking them out. As I suspected, they did need replacing. The service was pretty swift and forty-five minutes later, the job was …
Read More
Angela’s 60th Birthday Party
We travelled down to Isleworth today for Angela’s 60th birthday party – yes, I know, her birthday was in February! It’s quite a long drive from home, so we arranged to pick-up Denise and Steve in Bedford who’d also been invited – it would have been daft them doing the journey too as they’re so …
Read More
DVD: Taken (Blu-ray)
We watched Taken with David and Val tonight round at ours tonight. Starring Liam Neeson it was the ‘extended harder cut’ version … (ouch!). Just before we started watching the film, I served my chili-chicken for the main-course and Ann’s served her brioche and butter Apricot pudding about half-way through. The storyline? Neeson’s daughter is …
Read More
Ahoy-there Ship mates…
Just call me Captain Pugwash – yes, it’s Ann and me on a boat! David and Val’s boat to be precise – the good ship Carusa. We nearly didn’t go at all because of the weather – but it started to brighten up and after packing a few provisions, we left around 1pm for Buckden …
Read More
Lunch with Steve S
I drove over to Oundle for lunch with Steve S. We normally catch-up every three months, but for one reason or another, we haven’t seen each other since January. We visited our normal haunt – The Swan Inn just on the outskirts of the town. The service, as always was excellent, and so was the …
Read More
Find the fridge…
..and a freezer…and a cooker! We decided to start the search for all the replacement white-goods for the new kitchen – and just to be awkward, they need to be black! A short drive to Comet at Riverside near Northampton was our first stop. There weren’t many fridges or freezers on show, but Stephen the …
Read More
Walk the Dog…
If we had one! – and we’d never get the cats to move away from their comfy sleeping positions! Yes, we went out for a walk again tonight as it was such a beautiful evening – it’s becoming a habit (that’s twice this week)!!!
The Lost Day
7.00am. What a right pain in the posterior! Just when I was getting ahead and I had nothing pressing to do work-wise, I discovered that for some unknown reason, my NetBook was booting-up and then freezing. Several re-boots later, nothing much had changed, so it was obviously something serious! After a bit of detective work …
Read More
Let’s Dance (Week 3 of 7)
Thankfully it was a lot cooler tonight so that made the activity more a little more enjoyable! So, just call me ‘Matilda’ as tonight we practised our waltz. The good news was that I didn’t pulverise Ann’s feet as much as last week; the bad news, I still haven’t quite perfected the moves. More especially, …
Read More
DVD: The International (Blu-Ray)
We watched The International tonight and it was excellent! It’s also the first DVD we’ve bought that features ‘BD-Live‘ (more about that later). Starring Clive Owen and Naomi Watts, the story centres around a group of internationally corrupt bankers (very topical!) and Clive Owen’s attempt to bring them down. Initially a bit of a slow-burner, …
Read More
Nice Kitchen
We had a look at David and Val’s new kitchen. It’s coming on a treat!
Walkies…
Shock horror, I joined Ann and Jo for walk tonight. I’ll be going to dancing lessons next…oh that’s tomorrow!
Gill’s 50th
We drove over to Gill’s for her 50th lunch buffet and got there about 12.45. About 40-50 people came in total, but we only really knew Steve and Denise. It was a good lunch spread with plenty of variety. We met Gill’s Mum, Joan, who I’d met many years ago- but couldn’t remember where or …
Read More
Oundle Festival: The Bootleg Beatles
Nicki drove up to us in the morning and got to us around 11. The weather was a bit unpredictable, but hey, as Jo said: “what’s the worst that can happen?”. Mum decided to stay at home, because of the threatened bad weather. So, Jo, Janet, Nicki, Ann and I, stocked-up with enough food for …
Read More
TV: Doctor Who trailer – ‘The Waters of Mars’
Here we are then…. ..and I’m sure the title is an anagram featuring the word ‘The Master’ – ooo errr!
TV: Torchwood – ‘Children of Earth’ (Episode 5 – Final episode)
A great final episode to the series. It was full of some truly suspenseful moments as well as some very sad ones – Imagine the moral dilemma – you have to kill a young child to save the World. Difficult choice ehh? Now imagine that the child is your grandson! Surely the hardest decision ever?, …
Read More
Cats in… Mum out…Jo & Janet up
Biscuit and Bon-Bon went in for their six-weekly service with Patsy today. We popped into Waitrose on the way back for a few bits for the picnic tomorrow. We took Mum down to The Star at Geddington for lunch. Once again the portions were massive and none of us could manage dessert nor coffee! The …
Read More
TV: Torchwood – ‘Children of Earth’ (Episode 4)
Oh yes, very good – and the scene inside the aliens’ ‘cubicle’ was particularly spooky! …but it looks like they’ve killed off Ianto (you wouldn’t want to work for Torchwood – 60% of the staff have been killed recently!)
TV: Torchwood – ‘Children of Earth’ (Episode 3)
Mmmm…not quite up to the action-packed style of the previous two episodes – but good special effects.
At last, we bought a camcorder!
After a shed load of research, we settled for the Panasonic HDC-SD200. We tried John Lewis, but they wouldn’t match the internet price we’d found. Another quick search revealed that Photobox had suddenly become the cheapest by a mile! Key Features: Full HD recording Dolby Digital 5.1 sound Records to SD and SDHC cards Smaller …
Read More
Let’s Dance (Week 2 of 7)
Luckily, it was lot cooler this week, but the room was still quite hot. This week, we did a little cha-cha and then Bob attempted to teach us all the waltz. Our initial thinking was that this would be a ‘piece-of-cake’ compared to the cha-cha – how wrong we were – and it was good …
Read More
TV: Torchwood – ‘Children of Earth’ (Episode 2)
Excellent – very watchable – an action-packed episode!
Kitchen Plans v2
That was quick! John Lewis emailed through the revised plans for the kitchen. Nice….!
TV: Torchwood – ‘Children of Earth’
“When every single child on Earth stops, Torchwood is thrown into terror…” Torchwood began on BBC1 last night and made its transition seamlessly to the main channel. Unusually though, the series is being shown over five consecutive nights and there has already been speculation in some newspapers that the cast were very unhappy with the …
Read More