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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!!

Crikey! It's a carpet!!!

I spent the morning alternating between a bit of prep work and clearing up the office - especially the floor! After an hour or so, I could see the carpet - amazing!

We caught up with the gazillion of Lambing Live episodes shown last week on the BBC. Luckily, we had beef for lunch!

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!

Normal Service will be�

On May 1st, Google will will be changing the way they manage my Blogs, and this has an impact on the feeds to Facebook and other social networking sites that �talk� to my blog.

It�s quite a big change, requiring a whole load of tweaks at my end plus the �fun� of transferring six years of blogs without any glitches.

Being a realist, I think it�s fair to say that there may be an interruption to services sometime between now and then!!

What fun!

Cough and splutter!

Now that was weird. We'd had an early night, but at just after 11pm last night, I woke up, coughing, spluttering and unable to get my breath. A few coughing fits later, I was fine, and I went back to sleep.



Strange!

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!

The Cats are 5 today!

It's official, Biscuit IS a lap-cat!!! ..but only under specific conditions:
1. Only if one of us is sitting on the settee, not on a chair, not in the kitchen....just the settee and the front-room 
2. Only if it's on the right hand side.
3. Only if she feels like it

Cats huh!

Bon-Bon meanwhile continues to avoid laps at all costs, and still fights a bit when we pick her up - and runs a mile if we place her on our lap!

Patsy, continues to provide a first-class grooming service and although the cats both put-up a hell-of-a-fight when we put them in the cat-carriers, they soon quieten down. It's a six-weekly ritual now and we think we've got the interval about right.

The cats continue to love the garden and are out there whenever they have an opportunity to whinge at a nearby human!. The weather doesn't seem to be a deterrent and they've even got used to playing in the snow. Biscuit seems to have lost her wanderlust and although she sits on the fence a lot, she goes no further! Bon-Bon doesn't 'do fences', she's got a lot more body-mass to launch - she prefers stay firmly on the ground - definitely a cat with no-aLtitude - arff arff!

They're both still eating both wet and dry food - we're now buying the dry stuff from Zooplus in bulk. A great service and about half the price of the shops. I wish we could do the same for the wet variety. They both still drink the green pond-water in preference to the fresh stuff inside, although since I also put an extra bowl of water outside they tend to make that their first stop whenever we let them out.

Their morning routine continues. As soon as I'm up, Bon-Bon is ahead of me, waiting for me to open the patio-doors. Biscuit still prefers to lie-in, but occasionally joins Bon-Bon but then returns to her corner of our bed as soon as she can. We think Biscuit has swallowed a magnet because when she's inside, she seems to be attached to radiators...as long as they're warm!

The still occasional have a 'mega-chase' round the house - but it's a bit of a rarity now, as they prefer to sleep during their down-time.

They're getting better at responding to their names, but because they're cats, when they want to ignore the humans they will.

The Cat-Tower is where they spend most of their day-time (when they're not sleeping on our bed, or in Biscuit's case, by a radiator!) At night, they still both follow us up to bed. Biscuit is normally there first, and straight up onto the bed. She now regularly expects a bit of a comb-out before settling down on the corner of my side of the bed. Bon-Bon tends to take the other corner, and I'm beginning to think we should have bought a bigger bed..wider anyway!

Bon-Bon still has this habit of tapping plants with her paw - weird!!! - a sort of 'handshake' - and she's still offering her paw when we hold out our hand  - very dog-like.

We tried them in a cattery over Christmas whilst we were away, and although the place did all the right things - I think they both missed the constant human company (and running around on the lawn). On reflection, I think we're going to avoid catteries for that reason in the future.

The cat from opposite, who had a spate of terrorising Bon-Bon, in previous years, doesn't seem to be around anymore - so that's good news for ours!

They've not grown very much in a year, but Bon-Bon's fur (especially during the months of November and December) seems to get thicker and thicker - the result is that during that period, she looks twice the size of Biscuit and needs extra grooming.

So, there we are - another year on, we're all a bit older and maybe a bit wiser too! The cats are great company and are becoming even more affectionate - especially with strangers.

Happy 5th Birthday Biscuit and Bon-Bon!!

Photo shoot

Well, that made a pleasant change from my normal day-job. I was invited to attend the Awards Ceremony of a key client and take the official photographs of the event.

Apart from a small techy-glitch towards the end, it all went very well. I now just have to get the photographs printed & framed and then dropped off to the client.

A great day � nice to see so many people really enjoying themselves in a work environment!

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.

It�s been a bad week here for technology!

First, my NetBook dies and now the four home phones have more-or-less all deteriorated beyond repair.

The replacements turned up today courtesy of John Lewis, and they look pretty good. The best thing about them is that you can program in someone�s number on a single phone and then copy it to all the other phones.

2pm. They�re all up and running, but they�ve got so many features that I do need to read the manual � and that�s very unlike me!

Hey, I just discovered another cool feature. Let�s say �Billy the Bogey-man� is making nuisance calls to you. There is a feature on the phone that bars his number and gives Billy the engaged tone whilst secretly storing his number at your end.

�and another. Set the preferred time and anyone ringing you after that time goes straight to voice-mail � without the phone ringing. Ah-hah, but what about someone ringing you in an emergency? Well, those clever people at Panasonic have thought of that too � you simply enter a list of those entries from your phone book as �exceptions�

�only another 90 pages to read�. :)

New NetBook up and running...

Phew! Well that didn't take long. I've managed to install all the necessary software on my new NetBook and it's all fine! I'm sooooo pleased that everything is now back to normal after 'wobbly Sunday'

Size Matters�

Some of you will just be old enough to remember the original Polaroid camera. Remember how we all marvelled at the fact it could print pictures instantly? For younger readers, this was in pre-digital days and the Polaroid was a true miracle, because the only other way to get your pics developed was to rush down to Boots for �express printing�. At best, you might get them back the next day!

So, welcome to 2010 and my latest gadget, courtesy of Maplins. If you�ve got a mobile phone with Bluetooth and it can take photos - and you�ve got 30 quid to spare, this will be the coolest piece of kit this year.

It�s called a PoGo and it�s about the size of an iPhone (but a bit thicker). You take the photo on your mobile. Hit the button on your phone and it prints out the 3x2 picture in about 60 seconds. The photos have a peelable sticky back too, so you can stick it anywhere (stop titteirng at the back!). It will even run on the rechargeable battery � so it�s truly portable.

Genius!!!!!

Related articles

• Polaroid Cameras Make A Comeback At CES 2010 (huffingtonpost.com)

Test Blog from new NetBook

Hello world!

TV: Being Human (Series 2: Episode 8 of 8)

Well, what to make of series two, now that the final episode aired last night? I had high-hopes of the series, after series 1 just blew me away.

I guess my expectations were raised as soon as the latest series began, two months ago. All-in-all though, I�ve found it all a bit disappointing and uneven; with all-over-the-place storylines and just a tad too much gore (or is that me, be an oldie?), and too many characters who came and went. The acting has been great though!

The scene in last week�s episode in the train where Mitchell, the vampire took revenge on a carriage load of humans brought a whole new meaning to being a blood-donor!

Last night�s episode continued the blood-fest with a shocking scene that would have caught every viewer by surprise � yuk!

The best bit was in the final 15 minutes or so; Annie being banished to the �other side� and the baddies getting their just rewards (I hate stakes..prefer them medium to well-done).

The final scenes of Herrick�s resurrection and Annie being seen on a TV screen on the �other side� with the boys promising to get her back left the viewer hanging - and set the episode up nicely for a third series.

Will I watch the next series, if there is one, you bet!!!!

So, series 3 � are you listening?

• Fewer characters
• Less blood (just a tad)
• Focus more on the three main characters
• Cut the religious undertones
• Stop copying Life on Mars (The TV as a world-separator)

This episode

The Series

You might catch this final episode in BBC iPlayer HERE

My NetBook throws a wobbly!

It�s been a constant companion of mine now for nearly 18 months , but yesterday, it finally had enough of being shoved into dark places, left in training rooms all alone and forced to travel in the luggage area on planes!

At 3pm yesterday it was fine � windowing away nicely, thank-you. By 5pm, this had been replaced by the infamous �BSoD� (Blue Screen of Death) that�s so common with Windoze XP machines. The message on the screen said �Unmountable Boot Volume�, which in English means, the hard disk has failed.

In spite of a lot of pampering, four hours later, it was no better, so I gave it its last rites � and rather like the parrot in Monty Python, it has now �ceased to be�.

So, it�s bye-bye Dell and hello Samsung NC120 (in a few days).

Don�t you just lurrrrrve technology!