Walking on the beaches looking at the .......

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Not for a while yet it seems. Jo and I are having difficulty agreeing a date to do our round world tour next year. Initially, I had proposed Christmas/New Year holidays as that was about the only time I could take so much time off work with a clear conscience as our canning factory shuts then and business is generally a bit quieter. That was quickly nixed, so I came up with Plan B, which was to go round about the time of Jo's 60th in March next year, but Jo thinks this is too early and too soon after Lucy and Kelly come over in October.

Dilemma - when best to go, bearing in mind we're taking in both the northern and southern hemispheres? If we go to Oz in their summer, then that's winter in Oregon - and vice versa. So the natural thing to do is to try to split the difference and travel over autumn down under and spring in USA - or the other way round.

I initially thought March might be best, but Jo has now counter-suggested September. OK - pros and cons:

1) March is sooner - but Jo thinks a bit too soon - however, if we went in September it would virtually be a full year after we last saw Lucy and Kelly.

2) The boys have a full week off school in spring, but don't have a corresponding week off in autumn, so they would be at school if we went in September.

Mmmm - this is beginning to sound a bit like a justification for my own argument. Perhaps I need to try to be more impartial - but how do I achieve that? Should I completely re-think the strategy of one big trip and go back to doing two separate trips - one to Oz and one to USA? One to ponder for a while, I suspect. Perhaps I need to enlist the support of the world wide jury on this one and put up another poll on my blog? What do you think? Maybe I need to put up a poll to vote on whether I should put up a poll?

Back to daily life - played golf in our weekly Summer Quaich last night - and I was the best of the 12 of us out last night. Tonight, Malcolm Grigor has invited me for a rare chance to play at his home course of Aboyne - looking forward to that.

Then, there's the World Cup starting tomorrow, with England due to play USA on Saturday night - not sure if I want to watch that or not.

I've managed to digitise a few of my old vinyl albums now - Graham Parker (Squeezing Out Sparks), Elvis Costello (Trust), Small Faces (1st one), Ry Cooder (Bop till you drop) and Best of Bobby Bland. It's fun listening to them again - and most seem to be recording OK so far - only the Ry Cooder one was plagued with jumps and sticks.