Wednesday - half way to the weekend

It's lunchtime Wednesday and I'm heading across town now for a meeting, then on to start browsing new cars - the contract on my Volvo expires next month. Dilemma - same again? - great for all the golf gear - or all change? If I change, I can save myself some tax - but will it suit my lifestyle?



Sun is shining again - and there's a medal at Banchory tonight - great! Tomorrow it's off to the Broch for 3 management meetings in the morning, then I have to head back south for a late afternoon meeting in Glasgow - not the best of logistics, but nothing I can do about it now. I phoned brother Barry last night, looking for a bed tomorrow night - no problem - oh, wait - Barry's going to see Jack Bruce - never mind, I'll have his TV to myself after I've been to visit Dad.

Then on Friday, a rare treat - I've got a long-standing invitation to Gleneagles - not many of these corporate bashes around nowadays, given the global credit crunch etc - forecast looks good as well - bring it on!

Tuesday - 1 down, 4 to go

Jo's been busy with laundry, house cleaning - and the garden - since we came home. We could barely get in to the house on Saturday - the ivy was so overgrown and hanging down over the porch! She's also been at work in the back - this was this morning's view:

Hope you all like the updated archive photos on the blog - some nice memories there.

Ross is heading off to Rome tomorrow! He and his pal Dan, plus Harris and girlfriend, are taking Derek Glass's camper van and driving all the way there and back in less than a week - all to attend Pete's wedding on Saturday! Good luck to them - hope they don't break down!

I played 16 holes at Banchory last night with Keith. Like Sunday, I was again able to don shorts, which makes the re-acclimatisation back to the UK seem bearable. Apart from Saturday morning when we just arrived, the weather's been OK - bright, sunny and reasonably warm - not exactly 110 C, but pleasant - and we can survive without AC here, thankfully. I feel for the Lesinas in Grants Pass - no AC until Thursday at least - whew!

Happy 9th birthday, Cade!

At precisely 20:48 on 3rd August, 2000, baby Cade Stewart Lesina was born in Mercy Medical Hospital, Redding, CA. Happy birthday, Cade - sorry we couldn't stay for the big party this weekend! Here's Cade and his wee brother a couple of weeks ago:

First weekend home

Hey - we're back - and I don't feel too bad. We stayed awake on Saturday - helped by me going to the Legion and finally sampling my birthday ale on cask - then picking up fish suppers on the way home. We were in bed fairly early, but I awoke at 6 on Sunday morning and felt good enough to go and play in the Torphins Open.




Dan Corbett had made the trip up to play at Torphins as well - partly because his daughter was in the process of giving birth (by Caesarian) at ARI on Sunday morning! She had been getting treatment for IBS, when the doctors suddenly decided that, no she didn't have IBS - she was 8 months' pregnant! Dan bought us a little shandy in the Learney to celebrate the birth of his first grandchild:

He subsequently sent me this photo of him and the baby girl (un-named as yet):

Like London buses, he now discovers that one of his other daughters is expecting in January as well! He always thought that he wasn't going to be a grandparent at all - and now, all of a sudden!

Jo went to our new Morrison's and bought some salmon for tea (not wild like we had in Oregon, Scott) and that was Sunday over and done with.

Today the weather is nice and I think I need to get some urgent golf practice in this evening!

Last week in Utah

A few photos from last week. On our first night in Park City, we walked up to the top of Main St and had a meal in the Wasatch brewpub. On the way home, Jo found a new friend:

Friday morning brought a stroll round the town centre, after which we jumped on the ski lift to the top of one of the slopes:

"The hills are alive ..." - the next photo looks like an out-take from the Sound of Music:

On Saturday we drove over the high Uinta mountains and down the other side in to Wyoming. Lots of camp sites on the way. This was our hired car in which we did the journey:

As already reported, we were fortunate enough to come across a street beer festival when we got to the small town of Evanston. Sunday was spent locally in Park City. We jumped on one of the free buses and went up to Silver Lake and did a couple of trail walks.

On Monday morning, we decided to "do" Salt Lake City. This is Utah's State Capitol building:

We also did the Mormon Temple experience - Jo has loads of photos and she will no doubt put them in her blog.

On Tuesday morning, we jumped in the car again and headed south east, through the canyons on a beautiful drive which took us to the city of Provo (Utah's 2nd largest) and on to Utah lake:

On the way back to Park City, we stopped at the beautiful Bridal Veil Falls:

Back at our apartment, we had to start planning for our journey back to Oregon on Thursday, so Jo started to do some washing. No tumble drier in our apartment so we made do:

Our last full day in Utah was an easy one and we strolled around Park City and the pedestrianised Easy St:

We also went to the Olympic Park and posed for photos:

A snap from inside our apartment:

On Wednesday evening, we finally made it to Wahso, the restaurant with the nicest looking balcony on Main St. It's Asian cuisine and the meal was great - Jo was excited about her choice:

Strolling home, we posed at one of the open fires in Easy St. They must be really cosy in the ski-ing season, but were still quite pretty even in the heat of summer:

That was about it. We flew from SLC back to the incredible heat of Oregon, and Lucy met us and took us up to Portland, where we stayed overnight before our return flight home on Friday. We got the opportunity to upgrade to Business Class and snapped it up. It was lovely - although even this doesn't ensure you can immediately switch your sleeping pattern back to European times.

Gary and Luca met us at the airport and took us home - back to 13 C and rain!