More gloomy weather

The horrendous weather from the Central Belt was forecast to move in to the North East this morning. In Fraserburgh, it's been a fine morning and I started to get a bit hopeful, but I can see the front approaching as I write this at lunchtime, so it looks as if golf is off again tonight.

Anyway, we've got a brief meeting concerning squash at 4:30, then we're off to play doubles at Crathes - better than nothing!

Nothing much else to report - although we got a bit of a surprise from Ross last night. Just when we thought we were finally getting close to getting rid of at least one car, we've suddenly got another! Apparently, his BMW needs some work done so he had to get yet another Saab to get him to and from work! The old wrecked convertible is apparently moving tonight - although I'm not holding my breath!

Wet August!

Heavy overnight rain has again closed our golf course, so it's looking a bit dodgy for tomorrow night. Forecast is to get better - hopefully Edinburgh will be OK this weekend - and next week too - I've got a ton of golf coming on again! I've got the weekend off of course, but then I have a tie to play at Torphins on Monday and on Wednesday, it's the last night of our Summer Quaich competition - after that, it's already too dark to get a full round in after work - the long slippery slide in to winter starts here! Next weekend, we've got the Terry Edmonds Memorial Trophy at Aboyne on the Friday - it'll be 7 years this coming Christmas since he died - then it's our Boat of Garten weekend.

Without wishing to bore you all further with more golf tales, an amusing item arrived through the post yesterday:

At first, I was inclined to dismiss it as I thought it was just another scam asking for money under false pretences. However, I had second thoughts and donned my reading glasses - I didn't recognise the vehicle nor its registration - and why did it come from Worcester? Being in 2 languages also threw me for a bit and then I twigged it - the date of the offence was 28th February when we were in South Africa!

No idea who was driving that day - it could have been any one of Malcolm, Harry, Syd or I. The fine is a whopping 100 rands - about £7! I thought I had better try and pay it as I want to go back there some time - possibly next year. The problem is how? I tried to register for their Easy Pay system on the internet, but it doesn't accept foreign credit cards!

Luca was as good as gold last night - he went down without a whimper and, apart from a slight stirring early this morning, he slept through the night and was just coming round as I headed off to work this morning. Gary enjoyed the Dark Knight and reckons Heath Ledger is a shoe-in for the Oscar.

Tired Monday

Having seen Kelly and Craig off early in the morning, we were glad to be having a quiet evening. I didn't arrange my usual Monday squash and we just vegetated. Other than speaking to Kelly on the phone - they got home by 5:00 pm - time enough for a "cheeky wee surf" - and booking the train down to Edinburgh on Friday, we didn't do anything other than a bit of Corrie watching.

I'm getting near the end of my Geoff Emerick book and my next audiobook will be Steve Martin's - I cut a few CD's of this for Kelly and Craig to listen to on their journey south yesterday - she said it sounded pretty cool.

Tonight we have Luca staying over. Gary and Carole are going to see the Dark Knight and Carole has some things to do tomorrow so Jo had arranged to babysit then anyway. Other than that and golf on Thursday evening (weather permitting - the course is closed again today!), there's nothing much until our hectic weekend at the Fringe coming up. Here's our schedule:

Friday 22 Aug
16:30 – Clive James in Conversation
18:00 – News Revue
20:35 – Bessie Smith – A Tribute to the Empress of the Blues
23:00 – Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band

Saturday 23 Aug
10:00 – Foodies at the Festival with top Scottish Chefs
17:00 – Kidnapped: When Kilts were banned
19:30 – Old Town Literary Pub Crawl

Sunday 24 Aug
12:00 – Soweto Gospel Choir in Concert

and Gary - no, I can't think who is the biggest band of the noughties - but then again, I'm probably the wrong person to ask. Kelly and I happen to like the Raconteurs, but they're still a bit of a side project for JW. Like her or not, however, I'm afraid Amy Winehouse is probably one of the biggest acts (not a band as such)!

Mid August weekend

The weekend wasn't too bad - dry at least and sometimes pretty warm and occasionally sunny - but I was hoping we might have had a bit of settled sunny weather by now. It seems the summer is fading fast - let's hope for an Indian one!

Gary brought Luca over on Saturday afternoon and he was in pretty good form - at least before they took him up Scolty!:

Having golfed in the morning, I dipped out of the plan to go up the hill in the afternoon, but Kelly, Jo and Gary tried to take Luca up - unsuccessfully! He apparently had a bit of a meltdown and when he came back, he refused food and then started throwing up!

Kelly and her new hairstyle were hogging the power points in the house:

We decided to have a take away curry from the Coriander for tea - Kelly co-ordinated the order and she and I popped in to the golf club for a beer on the balcony before picking the order up. The sun had gone down by then but that didn't stop Jo wheeling Luca round in the buggy to join us for a swift one:

After golfing at Torphins on Sunday morning, I got home to see Craig for the first time this weekend - he had just returned from his mate's stag night in Aviemore. He was pretty knackered after driving from Cornwall on Thursday, wedding Friday, then driving across the mountains for the stag do on Saturday. He tried manfully to watch a bit of TV:

Jo made another lovely stew and rhubarb crumble for tea - that's another thing Craig doesn't eat - rhubarb! What does the man survive on? Obviously the sea and surf is enough to keep him going. Carole, Luca, Gary, Jo, Ross and I all wolfed the crumble up - just like old times! Now here's the real debate - custard - hot or cold? It has to be hot - poured on top of ice cream - ye cannae whack it!

Kelly's bombshell news about the potential move to Australia was met with dropped jaws. She at least didn't preface it with "I've got some news for you" - she felt this may have been misinterpreted!

Perhaps the planned week in Spain may have to be re-thought?

We settled down to watch an old movie in the evening - Escape from Alcatraz, with Clint Eastwood - it had stood the test of time not too badly - and we all managed to stay awake through it!

Early rise this morning to see Kelly and Craig off - they were up and gone by 6:00 am, but they're back in a few weeks' time for another wedding.