Category: News

Good week – some nice warm days with a goodly amount of sunshine and (relatively) blue skies interspersed with a bit of drizzle and grey. What’s not been quite so good, perhaps, is the painfully slow progress I’ve made this week on sorting through and throwing out the seventeen years of accumulated rubbish I’ve managed to store in my study somehow. A few other distractions this week but I must get down to it someday soon – I doubt any potential purchasers of 23 Banbury Road will want my antique collection of old CDs and documentation dating from 1997 onwards! Why do we keep all this stuff? Continue reading “13 July 2014”

Two significant events this week – the successful conclusion of this year’s Bicester Schools’ Film Festival on Thursday and the announcement of an outstanding opportunity to purchase a large, airy and spacious, very comfortable property in south Northamptonshire – 23 Banbury Road is going on the market! Continue reading “6 July 2014”

We’ve had a grand spell of good weather and we’ve enjoyed a couple of “fun” events this week – what more could anyone want? The weather has been very pleasant – warm and sunny with a touch of breeze to keep it from feeling too hot – we even had Annabelle’s paddling pool out once for a quick splash about. Somehow, Grandpa ended up drenched by the time we had to scamper inside again to get dry and warm. Continue reading “29 June 2014”

It’s been a good week! The weather has been half-decent and we’ve enjoyed a few outings in the sunshine – a visit to Oxford including the Ashmolean, the covered market and a punt down (and back up) the Cherwell in the sunshine – what more could anyone want? Continue reading “22 June 2014”

What a pleasant week we’ve had. The weather has been tolerable and we just about recovered from our Berlin exertions when our next brace of visitors arrived – sister Sallie and her husband Rod are here for a week on their way to Switzerland. Continue reading “15 June 2014”

Penelope and I are just back from a great few days in Berlin with our good friends Sue & Stuart Kelly-Brown and Dave & Sue Walton. It’s a trip which was a long time in the planning but wonderfully executed and we had a grand time. I really enjoyed Berlin. Regrettably though, our flight home was delayed and we finally staggered into bed at about 3.30 on Friday night/Saturday morning so there has been insufficient time to put together a coherent account – you’ll have to wait for a bit more detail until next time but I will “throw up” a few of the least bad photos which you can find here for your amusement and/or disappointment. In the meantime . . . Continue reading “8 June 2014”

Well, if that was the summer it didn’t last very long! This week’s weather has been not very nice – wet, grey and miserable!

We had a pleasant day on Wednesday, in spite of the ceaseless and persistent rain. It wasn’t exactly a case of the rain sheeting down all day, as such, but merely an endless and miserable drizzle. Penny’s good friend Vicky had invited Ms Playchute, J and Elisa along for a sprint around the highlights of Stratford on Avon, lunch and then a visit to a neighbouring National Trust Property. For some reason, she also invited me so off we went on a damp, grey, morning to introduce Elisa to all the cultural highlights Stratford had to offer. I was somewhat confused, however, to discover that the cultural highlights the girls seemed most interested in seemed to be located in the various charity shops we passed while enroute to the birthplace, the river, the church, etc. Continue reading “1 June 2014”

Well, it wasn’t completely downhill – we had a glorious weekend last week and the early part of the week ranged from good to very good. Monday was glorious; Wednesday was outstanding but things took a downturn on Thursday with overcast skies and showers followed by more persistent rain just as dog-walking time approached. Friday was damp and yesterday was sodden. Hey ho. Continue reading “25 May 2014”

Phew! What a scorcher! Yesterday was forecast to be the hottest day of the year so far and we were advised to

Fire up the barbecue and slap on the sun cream.

The temperatures were forecast to be as high as 24^o Celsius (a sweltering 75^o F)!!

Reassuringly, it was good to know that

the balmy weather will not last long.

I do hope it’s not completely downhill from here!

The end of the week was very nice indeed, from about Wednesday onwards – lots of sunshine peeking out from behind the clouds, pleasantly warm temperatures with a gentle breeze. Continue reading “18 May 2014”

I had my first bike ride of the season last week which turned out to be quite a performance. The day dawned clear and bright with just a bit too much breeze for my liking on a bike ride but what the heck, I thought – let’s go for it. Continue reading “11 May 2014”