Blogging

Gary - your bluff (if it was) seemed to work - at least with Lucy and Kelly!

More presents!

Another day, another present. Last night, it was the tickets for the Neil Young concert - today, I received a parcel from USA with my Father's Day gift - a "Gramp-li-fy" t-shirt:

Next week, my beer perhaps? Yummy!

Neil Young

Sore and tired today - getting too old to play a round of golf and then stand for 2 hours on the concrete floor at AECC. Neil Young was great however, but, boy was I glad to sit down after the concert!

Jo survived the experience - here she is at the start - looking for the exits - she was freaked out by the crowd!:

I think Jo enjoyed the quieter accoustic spell in the middle of the concert - the longer, louder guitar solos at the start and finish of the concert from the so-called "Godfather of Grunge" left her cringing a bit at times - particularly on the many false endings of his last number, Rockin' in the Free World. Jo thought he had started and finished the concert with the same song, but it was in fact Hey hey, My my that he opened with - although I can see how she could get confused - they're both pretty similar, although written and recorded a decade apart. I had been told what his encore would be, but it was still a bit of a surprise to hear him doing A Day in the Life - although he did a pretty good job on a song that even the Beatles never did live.

(The football and golf blogs have got photos and videos from yesterday.)

Forgot to tell you about a fascinating incident the other day. I came home from work on Tuesday and Amy from number 6 came over to see me. She asked me how long the tree swing had been up in Arbor Court? I'm not sure, I said - 15 years maybe? Well, did I object to the kids playing on the grass or on the swing? - not at all, I said. Finally, she told me - the nutter from number 3 had cut the swing down! Apparently she said that she did not want to be responsible under Health & Safety for one of the kids having an accident!

Amy also revealed that Gayle from number 2 had also had a run-in with our Irish friend, so we're not alone! Armed with the information that everyone else in the street was happy to have the tree swing, Amy went and put it back up again:

Watch this space for future developments!

And Gary - no, it's not acceptable to just stop your blog. I know I have been bleating about others not updating regularly, but if you stop, how else will we know what's happening with you lot? You don't phone - unless you need a babysitter - and you've never Skyped, unlike Lucy.

Sunshine - bring it on!

The day has started with early morning haar in Aberdeen, but this usually means glorious afternoon sunshine in Deeside - roll on my 2:15 pm tee time. After golf, it's back to the haar to see Neil Young at AECC tonight. Jo and I are going along - I've warned her about Neil's extended guitar solos - dentists' drills she calls them - hope she copes OK. It's going to be a long evening, standing - no seats available - but thanks to Kelly and Craig for the tickets.

Another birthday present I've still to collect is my beer from Deeside Brewery, courtesy of Gary and Carole. Must get in touch with Rob - it must be ready to roll out to the pubs.

Jo had a bit of a Homer "Duh" moment in her blog - she asked us to name all the kids in the photo - well, of course, it's Sasha and Karl. How did I know? Click on the photo and all is revealed - Jo named the photo herself! Their parents were Ray and Chris Barrie and they lived a couple of doors along from us in Caldecot Way, Broxbourne.

Weary

Golfed out - that's me. I'm sitting here in my Aberdeen office looking at the glorious day outside and normally I'd be champing at the bit to get out on the golf course, but it's all been a bit much recently and I'm very glad to give it a rest tonight.

I'll tell you how bad it is - I had qualified in the last 32 and played in the 3rd round of the John Marr Trophy (no, I don't know who he is either) last night. I had a pretty average round and it was touch and got whether I made the cut to the last 16 to be played on Thursday evening. For once, I was delighted when I got the e-mail this morning to tell me that I'd finished 19th and didn't have to play on Thursday!

It's just an accumulation and it always happens in June each year. There's more to come - I'm playing my usual Wednesday Quaich game tomorrow (in the afternoon as we're going to see Neil Young at AECC in the evening) and then there's football on Friday, golf at Banchory on Saturday and Sunday mornings, then our annual late night trip to Balmoral on Monday, followed by a tie at Torphins on Tuesday etc etc. Roll on the holiday!

The poll results haven't been matched by action - most said they preferred blogs, but, if you look at them, the number of postings is dropping rapidly. I'm as guilty as anyone - it used to be an average of at least one daily (30 or so a month), but the last 3 months have had only 22, 15 and 10 respectively. Is it the time of year, or are we getting fed up of blogs? Vote now.

What a lovely Father's Day

St Andrews was great on Friday - but windy - see golf blog for photos.



Colin didn't get out of hospital on Friday as we thought he would, but he did eventually manage to persuade them yesterday to let him out "on parole" for the weekend. He has to go back in on Monday to get the results of his 24 hour heart monitor.



Today has been great - shorts weather. Golf was fun this morning and we got to sit out on the balcony afterwards. When I came home, Jo was out in the back garden potting:

I'd had enough sun in the morning so I was quite happy to settle down in front of the TV to take in the Grand Prix, then the Twenty20 final, followed by the 3rd round of the US Open - and Wimbledon starts tomorrow - great!

Gary came over with Luca and Sima - plus some chocolates!

Luca loves spending time with his Gran - I secretly filmed the two of them on the balcony:

Well, that was the Summer Solstice - all downhill from here!