Saturday morning

Looking good for this morning's round - hoping for better things this week. Got the CAMRA meeting at the Legion this afternoon then it'll be more Ryder Cup after that.

Malcolm, me and Harry at Old Trafford on Wednesday:


Remember the old cabinet at Ochiltree? I thought it might help our storage problem in the back room, but Jo thinks it's too big:

Back home again

The Man U match was fun - apart from a dodgy taxi driver who took an hour and a half for a 30 minute run - he got lost! Can you imagine anyobody living near Greater Manchester who doesn't know where Old Trafford is? - especially a taxi driver! Square pegs and round holes.

On the way back, I stopped off to see Dad - he was fine, but his dementia is definitely getting worse and he's fast developing an institutional shuffle, as Dawn calls it. She doesn't think he's getting any exercise in terms of walks etc - but it's difficult for the staff if he always says he doesn't want to do it.

I met Barry and Helen at 43 Ochiltree - they're getting the flat ready to move Helen's Mum and Dad in as they're struggling to cope with the stairs at their place. It's pretty sad emptying the house - I took a few things away, but most of the large stuff will have to go to the tip.

Dawn made spag bog for tea and Jordon then played a bit of Stairway to Heaven for me:

He and his pals have cut a mini CD - some Arctic Monkeys - the boys mixed in with the original in parts.

Got home pretty late and tired - driving wasn't easy in the dark with rain lashing down. I only worked the morning in the office today then came home at lunch time to watch some Ryder Cup - going to be an exciting TV weekend, although I do have golf in the mornings, plus CAMRA's annual visit to Banchory tomorrow afternoon.

Gary's obviously developing his Mum's repeated illnesses - he needs to eat more regular meals - can't you just hear Carole saying that? Incidentally, Gary, be careful with your downloaded Useless Facts of the Day - you're in danger of repeating old stereotypes and cliches! Come on, that old one about 60% of Americans not having a passport/never having left their country (sub-continent)! Funny how you never see the same stats about Europeans who have never left their continent? And the Afghanistani one sounds like a bit of Sun reader Muslim put-down! You can do better - give us something interesting or I'll be forced to start putting some "facts" in my blog too!

Champions League

Well, I had originally planned to go down to Glasgow on Wednesday with Jo chumming me, then I had to change it to Thursday and then I changed it slightly again by arranging to meet Dawn in Dundee for lunch on Friday (she's on a course there). Now it's all change yet again - I got the offer of tickets for the Man U v Villareal Champions League match tonight - the tickets were going spare and I only discovered this on Monday as I was leaving the office. I didn't think I would get 3 others to go at such short notice - didn't think Ross or Gary could take time off work, and my football mates are all working too - but after we played squash on Monday, I asked if anyone wanted to go and Malcolm, Richard and Harry all said yes.

So, I'll be leaving the office soon and drive down to Glasgow to meet them - we'll leave one car there and travel down to the match together and, on the way back tomorrow, I'll head in to Glasgow to see Dad, then Barry, then Dawn, whilst they head north.

By the way, a belated happy 26th birthday to Lauren on Sunday. Doesn't she look like a young Dawn in this photo?:

I eschewed watching the football on TV last night and instead, Jo and I watched Factory Girl - the story of Edie Sedgwick (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edie_Sedgwick). A bit like Edith Piaf, hers was a tragic - and very short - life.

The Kings of Leon is on heavy rotation in my car, Kelly - pretty good. Your blog's revelation that you were originally hoping to go to Oz as early as November was a bit of a shock - at least to me. However, I presume that leaves us clear now to start planning for our joint family celebration early next year?

Lucy's football video and photos were good - but it was hard to see if Cade was directly involved in the brief piece of action or not?

Busy weekend

It's been all go this weekend - and it was an early start for me in the office this morning, having seen Kelly off at 5:30 am, as she and Craig set off on the long drive back to Cornwall.

I've also now opened up a 4th blog - for the squash, to add to the football and golf ones I keep. Here's the various addresses - there's some photos and videos there, showing some of what we've been up to this weekend.

http://deesidesquashracquetballclub.blogspot.com/

http://bvetsfootballgroup.blogspot.com/

http://bsvgolf.blogspot.com/

I did manage to get Craig (and Gary) along to the football match on Friday night to celebrate the 50th birthday of one of the regulars (Jeb) - the football site shows the photos. Unfortunately, Jo was ill again on Friday and went to bed early. She did, however, manage along to Gillian Kilgour's wedding on Saturday afternoon (some photos and a video on the football site).

I played golf on Saturday morning, got soaked and rushed home afterwards to get ready for the wedding - but no hot water! I forgot what it's like, having Kelly at home again! Anyway, I eventually manage to get shaved and showered and we popped round to Anne and Leslie's to walk along to the church with them. I propped up the camera on their mantlepiece, but it wasn't quite high enough and it lopped off the top of the male heads!:

Thankfully, I didn't make the same mistake earlier when I asked Kelly and Craig to pose for the camera before they headed off to their pal's wedding at Blairs:

We had a fairly late (for us) night on Saturday and, on Sunday morning, it was more golf for me. It was Medals Finals day at Banchory - I hadn't qualified for a few years and I had forgotten that Class 1 players have to do 36 holes! I haven't done this for years and wasn't sure how I'd cope, but I managed to stagger round OK - but not with a great score. When I got back after the 2nd round, Gary and Carole had arrived for tea and this was the scene in our driveway - notice anything missing? Yes - the old beat-up Saab has finally gone! Gary had just been out for a spin in Ross' Merc.

Carole's beautiful new BMW sat sparkling in the driveway:

Jo had made lasagne for tea - but Luca was in mischevious mood and just played around. When they went home, Kelly and I swapped music files on our laptops - I got the Kings of Leon from her and she got my entire library of music files! She's going to trawl through it and delete what she doesn't want - don't forget to empty the Recycle Bin after you do it, Kelly! She then plans to synchronise the files with her iPod - having now apparently worked out how to use her iPod in the car.

A bit sore and tired this morning but I'm going to try and play squash again tonight. I'm also arranging to go down to Glasgow to see Dad, Barry & Dawn some time this week.