At home in the Sun!!!

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Today Saturday must have been the warmest this year.  The sun shone all day.  The spirit (not allowed mercury any more) in the thermometer rose to a startling 25 Celsius.  BBQ time, so a British lamb shoulder onto the Webber in time for Selina and Graham who were coming around for tea.  Even Gran managed to stay up until after 22.00.

 On Friday I had a quick drink over at the local pub to meet up with George to check if I needed to do anything for Monday’s tug of war.  The pub has been busy putting up a conservatory, building a patio and fencing off all the unsightly areas.  The car park has now been covered with fine shingle.  I had a go at Jake about their out-of-date website.

Good news on Friday.  The bank in Scotland wants me back for a couple of weeks work.  So will be catching the flight from Luton early on Tuesday.

 

Day trip to Edinburgh

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Had a quick trip to Edinburgh for the day to do some presales work, selling my body.  Slight detour on the way to Luton, found Dunstable was closed with some gas pipeline work, so had to detour almost back to the zoo.  Weather was bad both in Luton and Edinburgh.

Had some time to spare, so visited the bank and said hello to the iBuy team, and picked up a few items I had left in my desk.  Had a successful meeting with the insurance company and then flew back home.

The National Art Theatre in Princes Street is doing an Andy Warhol Exhibition and had decorated the facade in suitable style.

  Andy Warhol Exhibition

BBQ with the Curds

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Met over at John and Carol’s for a BBQ.  Not very good BBQ weather.  Poured with rain, John tending the lamb shoulders standing under an umberella.

At the BBQ were Ann and Chris, Peter and Janet, Robin and Tessa and Stuart and Pamela. 

As John said after the BBQ.

 Congratulations Gang,… and thank you for coming and brightening what would otherwise have been an otherwise dreary Saturday afternoon/evening   It was great to see you all even if we did end up inside.  Not really a surprise given this year’s track record.

A tour of Newcastle

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Met Mike at the Monument for a walking tour of Newcastle.  Wish I had taken my camera with me, there were some good views of the Tyne and the bridges which would have made some good photographs.

Of course the tour included visits to a number of pubs and the trialing of a few ales. 

A walk across the Millennium bridge to walk through the Sage Centre, which alas was closed.

Friday was the drive back home.  Not a bad drive, except for sections of the A1, where trucks insisted on doing their slow overtaking manoeuvres.  Back home in around 4 hours, only hold up was on the M18 as we join the M1 caused by some road works.

Gateshead and the Tulip Internet connection

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Stayed in on Wednesday.  Had to watch some television, the Tulip hotel Internet connection was down.  I am sure most times I visit that hotel the Internet is down.  So saw an episode of Hero’s followed by Ann Widdecombe on Prostitution.  She totally dismissed the forward thinking approach of New Zealand. A bit of a bigot I am afraid.

Gateshead

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Drove to Gateshead today to work on a Java web application change wanted by a customer of ours.  Journey was not bad other then a section around the M1/M18 junction where I was stopped for 40 minutes.

In the evening met up with Mike and Reiko at their house in Newcastle.  It is very large and still has lots of original Victorian features.  The foot high skirting boards, the moldings and the fireplaces are all in place on the ground floor.

Staying at the Tulip Inn.

Footpath

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Today the gate on the footpath between us and our neighbours was installed.  The neighbours over the weekend also dug a large pond in their garden.

The local pub is part way through installing a conservatory, and building a sitting out area around the back.  They’ve also started landscaping at the front – some good hanging baskets to attract the punters, perhaps.

Norfolk

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The weekend saw Rosemary and I travel to Norwich to stay with Mike and Ann.  Took masses of photographs which will be up the the site soon.  Saturday saw us go to Winterton-on-sea for a walk along the beach and sand dunes in the bright clear sunny weather we are at last having.  The windmills on Scroby sand acting as a futeristic backdrop.

Sunday  was a broadland day at the South Walsham.  Here they have walks through the wood which is cut through by masses of dykes.  Lots of wildlife, very quiet and peaceful.  Took masses of photos of which one or two are reasonable.  There was the opportunity to take a boat trip on two broads, Soth Walsham Inner & Outer ones, which allowed me to take some close-ups of the bird life.  Rosemary will fill in the names of these.

Disaster

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Disaster struck.  After my good meal at the Mai-Thai, I went down with the flu.  No coincidence there,  I was feeling a cold coming on that evening.  I even took a day off when out on site, spending the day in bed at the hotel.  Lovely fruit bowl to see me through the day. Grapes, strawberries, figs, oranges, banana and apples. The other days I worked, but felt really terrible by the end of each day.  The flight back home on Friday was purgatory, despite leaving on time and arriving very early I was longing for it to finish, except for the excruciating pain on my ear drums.

The next week I took off from work.  There was no way I was flying back up to Scotland the way I was feeling.  Which was really a pit as I missed out on my fifth Edinburgh fringe festival.

Edinburgh Festival about to start

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This week is the Jazz Festival, and the most wonderful day in recent history.  Sunshine all day, though a little cold.  The Easyjet flight left almost on time, and now I am pre-checking in on the Internet and the zero security queues at Luton, I get an extra 30 minutes in bed at home.

Lovely meal at the Mai-Thai.

TOM YUM GOONG

Hot and sour soup of prawns flavoured with lemon grass, kaffir lime and chilli

YUM NEUA

Char-grilled sliced sirloin steak dressed with chilli, cucumber, Thai celery, tomato and red onion