Katrina and Sally for lunch

Well, not literally :)

I drove over the Cambridge today to meet up with Katrina and Sally. I haven�t seen Katrina for, I think, around 5 years, and it was great to catch-up. It�s fair to say that K has a lot going on in her life at the moment (I�m not going to spell-out the details here) � but she looked absolutely fabulous! and is well-settled in her new place in Cambridge.

Sally was in good spirits too and announced she�s in training for �a pink marathon� in May.

We walked down the road to K�s local: The Cambridge Blue � a 2 minute walk � very unassuming from the outside, but really welcoming on the inside and very cosy. The food was good too � it�s the only Pub I�ve been to where spaghetti hoops on toast is an option on the menu. Hey, they�ve even got a web-cam pointing at the bar.

The time flew and before we knew it, it was time to head home � I got back about 3ish.

See you soon girls!!

Catch up with Karen and Ralph

We'd forgotten that it was Mothering Sunday coming up (well, we hadn't actually, we did send flowers to the Mums!), but we couldn't get a seat in a pub or restaurant anywhere half-way between R+K's in Matlock and us for Sunday. So, we decided to simply bring the date forward and meet-up tonight.

Ralph found us a great pub/restaurant/hotel in Belton called The Queen's Head, and what a treat it was!

A brilliant menu, an extensive selection of wines plus very, very attentive (and happy) staff too!

Although the portions weren't particularly large, what they lacked in size they made up for in flavour - except Ann's mushroom lasagne which turned out to be just mushrooms in a cheesey sauce...hmmm disappointing, that one!

We caught up with all R and K's news - the best bit was that they've finally sold their main house in Princes Risborough - so Matlock beckons 24/7!

With the main course out of the way, the girls chose to avoid desserts, but Ralph and I dived in - Ralph went for the creme brulee (without the bee pollen - see yesterday's blog) and I chose 'the old faithful', Sticky Toffee Pudding - delicious!

It was great to catch-up as we haven't seen them since our holiday in Barbados. After exchanging hard disks and PC magazines/software, we left around 9.30 and got home around an hour later.

Meal with David and Val

It's that time again and we're off for a meal with David and Val. This time, we're going to try out the Collyweston Slater in err, Collyweston.

The table was booked for 8pm, so we left around 7.30 to give us a none-too-hurried journey there.

On arrival, the bar area was already very busy and the restaurant was half-full. Service was a bit slow, but after ordering our drinks we were shown to our table.

The menu had some attractive items on it, but all-in-all it was a bit limited and David had trouble finding a starter to his liking. Some of the main courses consisted of unusual combinations such as Beef with Cottage Pie (that's not beef IN the Cottage Pie, but beef ALONGSIDE the Pie - weird!). After a bit of a wait, our orders were taken and the food eventually arrived - the food was delicious, (the beef and the cottage pie were the best I'd ever tasted) but boy, were the portions small!! Presentation-wise, it all looked beautiful.

Size and unusualness continued into the desserts and we were intrigued by the first item on the menu: 'Tonka bean creme brulee with bee pollen and cola sherbert' - poncy or what! :) I had plum crumble!!! I think that perhaps illustrates the difference between those from Kettering and those from Collyweston - OK yah!

So, all-in-all, it was an OK atmosphere with great tasting food, although the menu in places, was too fussy for us Ketteringites. The place was well supported but it felt a little under-staffed with just one person at the bar and one serving in the restaurant. The prices were a bit expensive in our experience (even though the food was good).

It would be good to return there and try out some of the other stuff on the menu, but it's not at the top of our list.

We had a good journey back, but because of the longer distance than normal, we didn't get back until after 10.30 - we're straight to bed!

Lunch with Steve S

I popped over to Oundle to meet up with Steve. We'd previously met just before Christmas, when, amongst other things, Steve was making plans for being father-of-the-bride for his daughter, Kelly, on Easter Saturday. I've lent him some books on speeches!

We walked to The Ship, as normal, and as part of my giving-it-up-for-Lent thingy, I avoided the chips for lunch - I had the chilli instead - and avoided the side-order of cheese too!

There were roadworks on the A605 on the journey over there, resulting in 2-3 miles of tailbacks each way. I didn't want to risk whether they'd still be there on the way home, so I came via the back roads - and it seemed to take less time!

DVD: Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982)

Took the afternoon off as I seem to be well ahead with my work. Lee and I watched Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982). An unusual title with an even more unusual cast: Steve Martin, Rachel Ward, Alan Ladd, James Cagney, Barbara Stanwyck, Humphrey Bogart, Ray Milland, Kirk Douglas, Ava Gardner and James Cagney - virtually every 40s/50s movie icon there ever was!

Forget the storyline, just enjoy Steve Martin at this best, together with some clever special effects that allowed Steve to share the screen with most of the above artistes.

A guilty pleasure!

Flat Hunting

We took a drive down into town today to revisit an apartment in 'The Woodyard' off Wellington Street in Kettering

Well, initial impressions were favourable. It's a two-bedroom apartment, pretty close to town with its own parking space. Although the place was a bit grubby and the colour scheme was pretty depressing, we think it's a good choice for Lee.

Looks like it has Virgin Cable already 'plumbed-in' too!

Lee is going to be talking to the letting agent tomorrow with a whole list of questions.

Lee and Ann go Flat hunting

After dropping the cats back, Lee and Ann went flat-hunting in Kettering.

The reality is, we think, that Humberto will never come out of the care-home.


So, our suggestion is that Lee will move out of Cromer once she has found somewhere suitable round here.

Julie's Rules

Popped round to Julie and Tom's to try and deal with a problem Julie was having with all her emails automatically going into the deleted bin!

It turned out that a 'rogue' rule was to blame.
Technology is wonderful isn't it???

Chris, Gill, Steve and Denise � Get together

I was out all day in London. Meanwhile, Ann and Lee performed miracles in the kitchen.

The gang arrived just after 7 and as a result, we stuffed ourselves silly on all the home-made grub that had been prepared.

Scrummy!!!

PC Fix

Popped over to Paul and Sue�s to attempt to fix Sue�s PC. For no reason at all, it had started to pop-up warning messages about viruses and spyware attacking her machine. No matter what they tried, they couldn�t get the message to stop appearing.

What was interesting was, that it wasn�t their normal AV program that was giving the messages. Hhhhmmm� I suspect a Trojan of some kind.

After running various tests and downloading a tool that was supposed to fix-it � it didn�t make any difference! But I was lucky enough to find some instructions on the �net on how to remove it manually.

Success! It�s now working fine.

Ely Ely Oh!

The three of us (Ann, Nicki and I) took a drive to Ely today. I haven't been there for a gazillion years.

Parking was pretty straightforward � a dedicated car-park for the Cathedral, our first stop. As we walked from the car, we suddenly realised how cold it was � but worse was to come!!

After a fairly thorough look around the Cathedral (marvellous!) and taking a load of photographs, we decided to head into town � a BIG mistake - as it got colder and colder and then it started to SNOW. Not the gentle stuff, but big flakes of the white stuff�more and more and more. We got soaked, and decided to postpone any further exploration and head straight back to the car!

Phew! - time for lunch then, so we headed for the 3 Horseshoes at Madingley. We had not been there before and what a treat it turned out to be! It was very busy, but they managed to get us a table in the pub bit. The menu turned out to be 'rustic Italian' (whatever that is!)�all we knew, was, it was brilliant! and we're definitely be going back there again.

We got home around 4, after treating Ann's car to its first visit to the hand car-wash in Finedon � a shiny motor now!!!

Time to put our feet-up, read the papers and watch a DVD. Today, we decided to go for 'Inglorious Basterds' starring Brad Pitt and directed by Quentin Tarantino. A curious film set in WWII and with its tongue firmly in its cheek! Some very, very violent scenes though and a bit strange!

Nicki here for the weekend

Nicki joined us tonight � she's been on holiday this week and staying 'til late Saturday night and then driving home. I'd quite forgotten that we hadn't 'done' Christmas pressies with her (as we didn't see her over the Christmas period) and it felt really strange doing this in February!

She also bought us some lovely silver anniversary gifts � silver napkin rings and a beautiful cat-couple ornament.

With all the pressies sorted, Jo and Janet arrived - just in time to see the chicken pie that Ann and Lee had created come out of the oven � I think it was about the size of Corby!! Guess what I'll be eating next week!!!!

The food was fab, especially the pie � I think it even surpassed previous creations in terms of flavour! (Ahh, our secret ingredient). We ate and ate, but the pie still blocked out the light coming through the window in the dining room!! We managed to squeeze round it it, into the kitchen, and served up lemon meringue pie, ice-cream and another culinary masterpiece: Nicki's home-made American brownies (a slightly different recipe this this time � more chocolatey and chewy in the middle). Fantastic food�and most of us felt guilt-free as we're giving up all the comfort food for Lent next week.

We all collapsed into the lounge and I put on the DVD 'Heat' starring Robert de Niro, Al Pacino, Val Kilmer and John Voight. For some reason, I thought this was a new film, but about three-quarters of the way through, after commenting how young all the stars looked, we all realised it was about 25 years old!! Doh!!!! It was a bit slow to get going, but if you like 'slow-burners' and want to see possibly the longest gun-battle scene ever, it's worth a look.

Midnight: We're all very tired and totally porked-out. Time for bed. Trip to Ely tomorrow.

Stamford/Avatar (almost!)/Mazza's

Stamford
We took a drive over to Stamford for a few bits of shopping. Boy was it cold!!! We managed to get everything we were looking for, and Lee even picked-up a couple of 'Frank Spencer' style hats. Nice :) Lee also bought us some silver ornamental cats.



We were back by 2pm, with the plan being to catch-up with Jo and Janet at the Odeon and see Avatar in 3D. No such luck, even after all this time, there were only a few seats left � and they were right down the front � it's obviously a popular film!!!

Plan B then. Down to J and J's for 7.30 to try out Mazza's delivery service. Lee joined us, although she opted to make herself some sandwiches to bring with her. As expected, the curries were superb!!!

We stayed until around 10, then took the short walk up the hill, home. Bed by 10.15! Dirty stop-outs!!! :)

Chish and Fips!

A busy, but ultimately enjoyable day. It didn't start off that way though! For no reason, at about 11am, we lost all connections to the internet for about an hour, just at the point where all the stuff I'd been working on in the morning needed a connection to complete the job. Strangely, email was OK, but any 'net access just didn't work. Then, as quickly as it disappeared, it all started working again! Phew!!

The afternoon was better�much better! I popped round to Tom and Julie's at around 4 for a chat and a coffee. Then, it was back home to get the fish and chips ready for supper with David and Val. Val brought the desserts � yummy!!!

I've become a fan of 'mushy peas'..wonder if there's is a FaceBook page for that!!

Let Them eat Cake�.

I seem to have spent the whole week eating! One of the benefits (or curses, if you're dieting) is that with Lee staying with us, I get a lunch-time meal too. Well, I managed to avoid that today because I drove down to South Mimms to meet-up with Simon H for a business catch-up and I managed to get away with just sandwiches and a couple of coffees! Phew!

On arriving home at about 3, Lee greeted me with tea, biscuits and cake � wonderful!!! I will end up being the size of a house, if I don't work out how to manage all this wonderful (and regular) food!!! Not a bad problem to have though!!


And if that wasn't enough, tonight, we're off to our fave Chinese Restaurant in Market Harborough � Han, with Janet and Jo for a blow-out meal.

Mr Porker lives!!!

Busy�Busy!

Image by Steve Palmer (UK) via Flickr

Yes, it's another one of those Saturdays where it's all go-go-go!!

First off, me over to Peterborough for a hair-cut, then back to pick up the 5 ton of holiday dry cleaning!

Ann and Lee then headed over to Waitrose, shopping complete with the cats who are going in for their six-weekly wash and brush-up in Rushden with Patsy. 

Then, it was time for them to pick up Ann's new car, at last (Pics to follow later). Nice motor!!!

The girls then went over to Morrison's for MORE shopping!!!

A brief rest for me, reading the papers and then I was off to pick the cats up � and then,  just when I was about 2 minutes away, Ann rang to say that the girls had called and needed another hour to finish the cats off. On arriving just after 4pm, it looked like the cats had been a bit awkward. Biscuit was growling ad showing plenty of cattitude - Greta had a cut to prove it - and Bob-Bon (because she was very matted when we dropped her off) had a few bald patches. Still, at least they're tangle free now � nice job girls!!!

Phew! - feet-up for the rest of the evening now!

Meal with David and Val

If it's the weekend, it must be The Wheatsheaf at Titchmarsh! :)

�well, it feels like it, as we were there last Saturday too! This time, it's our regular monthly meal out with David and Val and I reckon if they don't change the menu soon, we're in danger of having tried everything on it :)

Surprisingly, the service was a bit a slow tonight and they didn't seem to be that busy � when the food did arrive though, the quality more than made up for the wait!! David had lamb, Val had the blade of beef, Ann had salmon and I tried the fish-pie. Val and I also had a dessert too � Eton Mess (Val), baked Choc Cheesecake (me).

DVD: Star Trek

I'd been to see it at the cinema in May last year. Lee's a fan, and hadn't seen it, so with Ann away tonight (who's not a fan!), it was the perfect opportunity to see it in all its blu-ray glory.

Having watched it again, I'd say it was a very watchable film � even if you're NOT a trek fan, the storyline was well structured and the re-imagined characters of Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scottie, were well-realised. The likeness and mannerisms of Spock and 'Bones' to their 60s counterparts was really impressive.

As expected these days, the special effects were outstanding. The 'NCC 1701' looked even more realistic than in previous Trek movies. Director JJ Abrams did a great job with this film, injecting new life into the tired franchise of previous Trek movies.

Get it here from Amazon, with a free digital copy for your iPod!