A week and a half....

Well there's been so much going on it FEELS like a week and a half since my last post. Summary:

Monday - morning - to the Claremont Hospital with the Duchess to see her Consultant re her dodgy hip. Lovely bloke explained everything and put her at her ease - well, pretty much - she is still terrified of hospitals and doctors. The op is scheduled for some time in Mid-September, actual date to be confirmed.

Rest of day spent at work, catching up on the previous weeks activity. The plant had been closed for a week but the work continued to flow in.

Tuesday - passed remarkably quickly with no crises or major events. A "head down, get stuck in" sort of day. In the evening, the Duchess had her Monthly Football League Meeting so I configured the new portable hard drive and  backed up the precious photos and docs.

Wednesday - early start. Drive to Manchester Airport to pick up a visitor who had stayed at the airport Hilton overnight. Full day with a plant tour and lunch, then further discussion before I drove him back to Manchester to the Hilton on Deansgate. Now - if you want an interesting experience, consider being on Deansgate, at 5:10 pm, in a car - and then try to drive back to Sheffield! The traffic was horrendous and it was just about 7:15 pm when I got home!

Thursday - got stuck into paperwork but didn't seem make a lot of progress. That's a facet of my job that I've increasingly noticed over the years. I can work my socks off - phone calls, e-mails, keyboard clobbering, travelling etc., but at the end of it, there's no tangible sign of the effort I've put in. Maybe that's why I enjoy gardening. A couple of hours of trimming and hacking and at the end of it, you can see I've made a difference.

Friday - morning, repeat of Thursday largely but the early finish at 1:30 lifted the mood (as always!) After a quick cuppa at home we went to B&Q to pick up a new light fitting. When we moved to Nortoner Towers, we installed 2 new wall lights in the alcoves either side of the fireplace and a central light which all matched of course. A couple of weeks ago, one of the alcove lights failed. A neighbour/mate - Paul - who is a qualified electrician, had a look and declared it "dead." I must admit I thought our chances of getting a match after 12 years were slim but we succeeded!

Saturday - morning - Supermarket run then after lunch, I cut the grass at the back and made a start on the hedges but had to abort that at about 2:45 because we were off to a World Cup BBQ at my niece's house where beer, burgers and bangers were much in evidence. A good "do" although we only stayed until half time in the England v USA game. The mood was more than a little boisterous, shall we say, and I have to admit, if I was a neighbour, I would have been a bit miffed by the noise and (on occasion) the language!

Nothing else to report. I have noticed this blog is getting a little boring. Promise I will try to "spice it up" over the next couple of weeks but you will have gathered by now that I lead a very mundane life!

Right - Archers Omnnibus on Radio 4 soon...... so I gotta go - see - told you it was mundane.

As Promised - Old Moor pictures

On Thursday we went to another RSPB Reserve - this time Old Moor, which is only 30 minutes away.

(One of The Duchess' pictures)

Some shots from the visit are here:

http://nortoner09.jalbum.net/2010%2006%2003%20Old%20Moor%20RSPB

It was a lovely day and we enjoyed a pleasant lunch in the cafe and later had a cuppa and a cake! Tea was from the chippy to complete a good "day off."

Friday - nipped down to work to collect my office keys from my oppo Dean who will be missing on Monday. Then home via ASDA where we did the weekend shop (usually a Saturday morning chore but whilst we were out and about....)

Saturday morning we walked down through Graves Park to the local shopping area at Woodseats where we picked up a couple of things missed from the previous days supermarket visit. The walk was probably a bit ambitious, given the Duchess' dodgy hip and a temperature somewhere in the upper 20's C! Since we both have bus passes - we hopped a bus back to the top of the hill.

Did absolutely nothing for the rest of the day - it was just too hot to go out in the garden and to be honest - I just couldn't be bothered. So I did something I haven't done for ages and simply sat in the armchair watching every ball of the 2nd Test Match - England v Bangladesh.

Back to work in the morning but I'll be late in because the Duchess has a hospital appointment at 9:15 a.m. to meet a consultant about her "hip situation." I'm going with her of course.

So - the blog is up to date - (What a very mundane life I lead!) and since the Archers Omnibus edition is finished - I'm off to do something more constructive.... perhaps!

A busy couple of days.

For the Duchess' birthday treat - we went to Bempton & Filey on Wednesday. It really was a glorious day.

The place was packed - as busy as I've ever seen it - but we enjoyed a long wander around the various viewing points on  the clifftops. There are more pictures of things various here:

http://nortoner09.jalbum.net/2010%2006%2002%20Bempton%20&%20Filey

It was the first time in a long time that we've seen chicks at Bempton - although the total number of birds seemed fewer than on previous visits.

After a good couple of hours, we went back to the car and drove up the coast to Filey for Fish & Chips at Inghams -

An excellent Fish Restaurant and Takeaway recommended by a couple of my "Tweeter" friends.

After eating we sat for a half hour looking out over the sea before taking a good 2.1/2 hours to drive home. An excellent day all round!

Thursday - we decided to go to another RSPB reserve - this time much nearer home at Wath-on-Dearne. The place is called Old Moor and I've mentioned it before. I'm working on an album of pics from this visit and will post ASAP.

In the meantime - hope you enjoy the Bempton/Filey album!

Been Spending Again.....

Me and The Duchess have been out this morning (did I mention I'm on holiday all week? Think I did!) - organising despatch of my daughter-in-laws iPad and then we popped into Meadowhall to get a picture taken for her new driving licence.

After a hot Roast Pork sandwich and a cuppa (nice but expensive - £11.60 for 2 sandwiches, 2 teas and a side order of chips!) we stopped off at the Meadowhall Retail Park where Hobbycraft, Homebase and PC World are located. The Duchess makes all the greetings cards she sends to friends various so Hobbycraft was the main reason for stopping but you can't NOT go in PC World can you? Not when it's right next door?

Anyway - I came out with a portable hard drive - needed to back up my photo and document files. Last count, there were 22,500 pictures on my PC (ncluding scanned slides and films from 30 to 40 years ago) and although I already have an external hard drive - I wanted the extra security of a 2nd back up which I can keep away from the PC.

Another neat piece of kit:

750 Gb of storage on a device not much bigger than my mouse! Fantastic!! (Picture was taken with the new iPhone BTW - not that I'm showing off of course!)

Nothing much else to report since my last post. Monday was spent in the garden, cutting grass and strimming weeds whilst listening to Test Match Special on Radio 4. Hard work but the garden looks a bit better for it.

Today's promised rain has now set in and so I resort to the PC and the blog. I'm sorting out some of  my photo files - particularly the older ones.

Whilst I think of it, something else HAS happened this week....Belper Town FC  announced  several new signings including some very experienced players at our level. Manager Andy Carney has been working hard on a reduced budget to replace about half dozen of last season's squad who have decided to try their luck elsewhere (and in a lot of cases - for more money.)

I was beginning to worry a bit about next season but now I can't wait. Mind you - the Duchess is complaining - she says she only definitely figured out who is who as the season was drawing to a close - now she has to start all over again!
Bempton and Filey tomorrow - and I'm going to set the Duchess up with my old DSLR - the 350D - and my 300mm zoom lens to see what sort of "bird" pictures she can get. I'll report back of course. (Unless her pics are better than mine - there's every chance!)

The Black Tie got another airing this week.....

...at my Auntie Pat's funeral on Thursday. Pat was the youngest of 12 kids, including my mother, and now there are only three left - Ruth, Betsy and Eileen.

Dad was one of nine so, as you can see, I come from a very big family! I have cousins I've never met, including Pat's two kids, essentially because we've never really been a close family. Scary thing is Pat was only 71 - I'm 60 now and 71 suddenly seems so much closer!

Anyway - Friday - I treated myself to an iPhone 3GS, to replace the Blackberry I've been using for 18 months. Frankly - I wasted 18 months! The iPhone is a cracking piece of kit and is way better than the Blackberry....

Magic piece of technology (crap photo tho!)

It's not often that I "drop lucky" but the Orange Store in Meadowhall were doing a "Bank Holiday Weekend" promotion and were offering the 32Gb version at the same price as the 16Gb version. Although - Apple are bringing out a new phone this summer so maybe they are getting rid of stock before the launch.

The Apple Store was absolutely packed. The iPad was launched that day of course and the store was "cordoned off" with dozens of people getting set up instruction and handing over their cash. Report follows later because my daughter-in-law has bought one. It was delivered here Thursday (UK pricing works better than Euro pricing for her) and I'm organising getting it delivered to Rotterdam next week.

Saturday - it rained all day so we didn't stray far - just nipped down to B&Q in search of a new watering can (I know, I know - peeing it down and he looks for a watering can....) and some new cords for the strimmer. As it happened, B&Q had nothing that we wanted so it was a wasted journey.

Saturday evening - the Duchess flicked channels between the Eurovision Song Contest and Britains Got Talent while I hooked the iPhone up to the PC and sync'd my iTunes playlists and Internet shortcuts. It was amazing to watch BBC iPlayer on the phone - stunning.

Next week's plans include a visit to Bempton. It's the Duchess' birthday on  Wednesday so the plan is a day out at Bempton then Filey for fish & chips as her birthday treat.

Right now - listening to the Omnibus edition of the Archers and then, later today, if the garden dries out after yesterday's rain, more grass and hedge cutting (Oh deep joy!)  

And another quiet evening

The Duchess is at the last of the Presentation Nights tonight so I'm on me Jacks again!

The choice on TV is rubbish or more rubbish. The Sports Channels in particular....

Sky Sports 1 - Rugby Union; Sky Sports 2 - Rugby League; Sky Sports 3 - International Pro Judo; Sky Sports 4 - International Pro Surfing.... so.... iTunes and photo-editing again.

I KNOW how to have fun!

It's raining so I can't get out in  the garden (phew!) I will try to stay focused but will probably vegitate in the chair again...

I'll let you know when something interesting happens.....

A quiet evening in...

...cos the Duchess is at a Junior Football League Presentation Night. There's nothing on TV so I have iTunes random tracks on and am playing with my photo collection and Photoshop Elements!

Sunday was a good day. We decided to take off to Horncastle to our holiday destination and pay the balance of our holiday cost. We're off on 3rd July so the balance was due and rather than post it, we took a drive out. I'd worked very hard in the garden on Friday and Saturday so decided I'd earned a "Sunday off".

We then went on to Hagworthingham (see Google Maps) and stopped at "Rachel's Cafe" for a cuppa and a scone. Great cafe, very reasonably priced and real value for money!

Next stop? "I know" sez I "Let's go to the car terrace at Huttoft and just watch the sea for an hour." Now, we always pay at least one visit to Huttoft during our 2-week vacation. It's a quiet spot and basically, there's nothing there. Until Sunday that is.... the place was packed!

Huttoft as we normally see it....

Huttoft on Sunday...

We didn't stay there long - just long enough to have an ice cream!

Then drove up the coast a while before cutting back inland and home via Market Rasen, Gainsborough and Ollerton. Now those of you who know their Geography might think Gainsorough to Ollerton a pointless "loop" but.... there's an excellent fish restaurant at Ollerton - The Big Fish Restaurant funnily enough - and although Haddock and Chips is not a usual "Sunday Tea" - we really enjoyed it!

Back home in time for Britains Got Talent  - worth watching only because every week it proves that Britain HASN'T got Talent!

Monday flew by as Mondays do and today has passed almost as quickly. I spent some time this afternoon photographing the unloading of a new machine at work - not bad shots and something diferent as a subject

I have a whole week off next week - the plant closes every Spring Bank Holiday so plant maintenance work can be completed. The plan at the minute is a visit to Bempton Cliffs (RSPB Reserve) for the Duchess' birthday treat - her birthday is June 2nd. And we'l also try to fit in the Old Moor Reserve at Wath-on-Dearne - another RSPB place. Not as spectacular as Bempton but still a grand day out..... if the weather behaves itself!

Not sure what we'll do with the rest of the week but I'm sure the bloody grass will need cutting again by then.....