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{ Monthly Archives } July 2012

Rocking all over the world

It was very hot and rather muggy yesterday, so I had all the windows open to try to catch a breeze through the house. All through the evening I kept hearing snatches of loud rock music, drowning out the commentary on the Olympics on the TV. I thought that maybe one of my neighbours was […]

Fluffy pancakes

When Chris was alive, he made a big thing of cooking pancakes and maple syrup for our breakfast every Sunday morning. I think it harked back to when we got married in Upstate New York, where pancakes & maple syrup (and/or waffles and maple syrup) loomed large at every breakfast, and our whole wedding party […]

Cancelling English Heritage membership

The year after we got married, Christopher and I went on holiday via York to Hadrian’s Wall, and came back home via the Scottish Borders and the Lake District. We didn’t have a lot of money, as buying and furnishing our flat was taking up all our cash, so my parents very kindly gave us […]

Syndol is back

I still get regular tension headaches which, if left untreated, can turn really nasty. They don’t respond well to plain paracetamol or ibuprofen, but rather laugh off such puny attempts to deal with them. Regular neck and shoulder massages help keep them at bay, and indeed I’ve got one such booked for later this evening. […]

Slow-roast lamb with potato and fennel gratin

When my sister and her boyfriend were here last weekend, and despite the burst water main making life very difficult, I made a big effort for Saturday night dinner, which is traditionally the best meal of the week in my family.   It seemed to go down well – we all had thirds, and J went […]

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Back in March, Malvern Theatres had showing for one week only The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, starring Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Celia Imrie, Bill Nighy (who I think is gorgeous), Tom Wilkinson, and Ronald Pickup. Clearly it was an all-star cast, and it was the first film for ages that I’ve actually wanted to go […]

Some belated birthday presents

It was particularly annoying that the water main burst on Saturday, because I had my sister and her boyfriend visiting for the weekend. They had been to Stratford to see a play for P’s birthday, and were going home via an overnight stop with me. It was my birthday towards the end of May, so […]

Burst water main

I was watching the tennis on the TV on Saturday afternoon when my neighbours popped by to give me a mis-delivered letter. Our house names are similar, and the postcode is the same, so occasionally the postman gets confused, and delivers me some of their post, or vice-versa. Tim asked me if I had any […]

Bogeymen in the loft?

The problem with using mouse poison is that the noise from the creatures gets louder for several days before it all goes quiet. I believe that the poison dehydrates the rodents, which makes them clumsy and hence noisier. So I was pleased that I was away on business immediately after Tim had been here to […]

So glad to be home

I’ve been looking forward to the equipment trials for quite a while. As an engineer, I always enjoy testing my ideas with groups of end-users, as it’s by far the best way to make sure one is on the right track, and developing things that people actually want to use. Plus, I find that trials […]