From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/
Not much to report today other than to ask you to go to my blog page and cast your votes in my polls - not that it's likely to make much difference to the final outcome, but I'd be interested in what others think.
It was a beautiful evening at Aboyne last night and it was nice to play a friendly fourball with Dan, Dick and Malcolm. Hope we get a decent weekend - have a good one.
Ian R. Stewart Family Blog
Friday 11 June 2010
Thursday 10 June 2010
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.
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.
Wednesday 9 June 2010
If you're going to ... .........
From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/
We'll certainly be going to the West Coast again next year, but it looks like we've got Oz to fit in as well. I'm not sure I fancy two big journeys in the same year, so it may be we have to combine our trips and do a round the world tour instead. How will I find the time off work? Don't know - but I'm thinking about it.
I've been in touch with a couple of operators and got some preliminary ideas for a possible schedule:
1. Aberdeen-London- Singapore (or Hong Kong)
2. Singapore-Oz
3. Oz-Hawaii (or Fiji)
4. Hawaii-LA
5. LA-Medford
Then back again! What do you think? Could this be a plan? We'd need to think about what to do in Oz - would like to see Melbourne and Sydney as well as Adelaide. It's been suggested we could do the drive along the coast from Adelaide to Melbourne, then fly to Sydney - or we could it in reverse and fly in to Sydney and work our way round from there. We would also need to consider how much stopover time to spend in Singapore (or Hong Kong) and Hawaii (or Fiji).
Now when? Early part of the year again? Get the tail end of summer in Oz and then on to Southern California, followed by the Oregon spring rain again? It's Jo's 60th birthday on 20th March and the week that follows happens to be the Oregon school holidays - same as this year.
I've written all of this down to help myself think my way through it all - it's far from a done deal yet, but at least putting my early thoughts down in writing has helped me to think a bit more about the logistics. Any other inputs welcome of course.
That's enough about 2011 plans - there's still lots to do in 2010 yet, including the first of 3 trips to London this year in a few weeks' time. That's going to be a busy weekend - I had originally planned just my usual short annual overnight trip down to Lord's to see the England - Australia ODI, but Dave Williamson was lucky enough to get 2 tickets for Wimbledon on the Thursday, 2 days before Lord's, so he asked me. We've subsequently managed to fit in a couple of gigs as well - we got tickets to go and see Crosby Stills & Nash at the Royal Albert Hall on the Saturday night, and discovered at the weekend that Laura Marling is heading up the bill at the second annual Serpentine Sessions (http://www.serpentinesessions.com/home/) on the Thursday evening, so we're going to that as well now. If the weather holds fair, it could be a trip down to Henley with the toffs on the Friday to see the Regatta, so it's going to be all go!
I'll barely have recovered from that weekend before I head off to Slaley Hall the following weekend for our annual Summer Tour golf trip.
Then, there's our weekend at the Fringe - it's on from 6th to 30th August, but I'm back in London for the England - Pakistan Test match on 21st August, so it'll either have to be the first, second or last weekends that we go to Edinburgh.
And, of course, the 3rd trip to London comes in November when we go to see Jools Holland at the Royal Albert Hall.
More immediately, I've got my annual medical next Monday - I'll need to ask them to look at my knees and possibly get a referral. I'd long ago accepted the pain and distortion in my right knee, which was badly damaged at football training back in 1970 - just before I met Jo - but now my left knee has been playing up for the last few weeks - I need to have at least one leg that I can rely on - particularly if I'm going to manage to complete (a bit of) the West Highland Way in September.
We'll certainly be going to the West Coast again next year, but it looks like we've got Oz to fit in as well. I'm not sure I fancy two big journeys in the same year, so it may be we have to combine our trips and do a round the world tour instead. How will I find the time off work? Don't know - but I'm thinking about it.
I've been in touch with a couple of operators and got some preliminary ideas for a possible schedule:
1. Aberdeen-London- Singapore (or Hong Kong)
2. Singapore-Oz
3. Oz-Hawaii (or Fiji)
4. Hawaii-LA
5. LA-Medford
Then back again! What do you think? Could this be a plan? We'd need to think about what to do in Oz - would like to see Melbourne and Sydney as well as Adelaide. It's been suggested we could do the drive along the coast from Adelaide to Melbourne, then fly to Sydney - or we could it in reverse and fly in to Sydney and work our way round from there. We would also need to consider how much stopover time to spend in Singapore (or Hong Kong) and Hawaii (or Fiji).
Now when? Early part of the year again? Get the tail end of summer in Oz and then on to Southern California, followed by the Oregon spring rain again? It's Jo's 60th birthday on 20th March and the week that follows happens to be the Oregon school holidays - same as this year.
I've written all of this down to help myself think my way through it all - it's far from a done deal yet, but at least putting my early thoughts down in writing has helped me to think a bit more about the logistics. Any other inputs welcome of course.
That's enough about 2011 plans - there's still lots to do in 2010 yet, including the first of 3 trips to London this year in a few weeks' time. That's going to be a busy weekend - I had originally planned just my usual short annual overnight trip down to Lord's to see the England - Australia ODI, but Dave Williamson was lucky enough to get 2 tickets for Wimbledon on the Thursday, 2 days before Lord's, so he asked me. We've subsequently managed to fit in a couple of gigs as well - we got tickets to go and see Crosby Stills & Nash at the Royal Albert Hall on the Saturday night, and discovered at the weekend that Laura Marling is heading up the bill at the second annual Serpentine Sessions (http://www.serpentinesessions.com/home/) on the Thursday evening, so we're going to that as well now. If the weather holds fair, it could be a trip down to Henley with the toffs on the Friday to see the Regatta, so it's going to be all go!
I'll barely have recovered from that weekend before I head off to Slaley Hall the following weekend for our annual Summer Tour golf trip.
Then, there's our weekend at the Fringe - it's on from 6th to 30th August, but I'm back in London for the England - Pakistan Test match on 21st August, so it'll either have to be the first, second or last weekends that we go to Edinburgh.
And, of course, the 3rd trip to London comes in November when we go to see Jools Holland at the Royal Albert Hall.
More immediately, I've got my annual medical next Monday - I'll need to ask them to look at my knees and possibly get a referral. I'd long ago accepted the pain and distortion in my right knee, which was badly damaged at football training back in 1970 - just before I met Jo - but now my left knee has been playing up for the last few weeks - I need to have at least one leg that I can rely on - particularly if I'm going to manage to complete (a bit of) the West Highland Way in September.
Sunday 6 June 2010
It's been a hard day's .....
From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/
I got in to the office early enough on Friday and had a busy morning, but got through a lot, which allowed me to leave at lunchtime with a clear conscience. It was the usual weather whenever there's high pressure in the North East - the coast retaining some cloud/haar cover, but glorious weather inland. Jo and I walked along to catch the 2:35 bus back in to the city. We waited outside the Burnett - I crossed the road to get some cash while Jo took in the rays:
There was no more than a dozen or so passengers the whole way in to Aberdeen, and only two of them - Jo being one - were actual cash customers - the rest of us were Seniors using our free bus passes, with one Student as well!
We had a good time and were home at a respectable hour - more photos on http://iansaleadventures.blogspot.com/.
Saturday was another fabulous day in Deeside, and after golf in the morning, I went back to the festival to do a couple of hours' work behind the bar - and Jo came too, to get her first experience of serving punters with ale. She was a little apprehensive, but it wasn't too busy and she soon got in to her stride. Here she is in full schoolteacher mode lecturing some poor innocent customer:
In the absence of anything decent on TV last night, we went back to series 3 of the Wire on DVD - not quite as good yet as the first two series, but still interesting.
Today wasn't as nice - overcast, but calm and mild and I managed another round of golf this morning whilst Jo did her usual Sunday church/coffee thing with the girls.
Jo's been doing some work in the back garden:
Incidentally, I finished the 3rd book in the Millenium trilogy - excellent reading - all of them - highly recommended.
So, it's back to work in the morning - and the dental hygienist to face!
I got in to the office early enough on Friday and had a busy morning, but got through a lot, which allowed me to leave at lunchtime with a clear conscience. It was the usual weather whenever there's high pressure in the North East - the coast retaining some cloud/haar cover, but glorious weather inland. Jo and I walked along to catch the 2:35 bus back in to the city. We waited outside the Burnett - I crossed the road to get some cash while Jo took in the rays:
There was no more than a dozen or so passengers the whole way in to Aberdeen, and only two of them - Jo being one - were actual cash customers - the rest of us were Seniors using our free bus passes, with one Student as well!
We had a good time and were home at a respectable hour - more photos on http://iansaleadventures.blogspot.com/.
Saturday was another fabulous day in Deeside, and after golf in the morning, I went back to the festival to do a couple of hours' work behind the bar - and Jo came too, to get her first experience of serving punters with ale. She was a little apprehensive, but it wasn't too busy and she soon got in to her stride. Here she is in full schoolteacher mode lecturing some poor innocent customer:
In the absence of anything decent on TV last night, we went back to series 3 of the Wire on DVD - not quite as good yet as the first two series, but still interesting.
Today wasn't as nice - overcast, but calm and mild and I managed another round of golf this morning whilst Jo did her usual Sunday church/coffee thing with the girls.
Jo's been doing some work in the back garden:
Incidentally, I finished the 3rd book in the Millenium trilogy - excellent reading - all of them - highly recommended.
So, it's back to work in the morning - and the dental hygienist to face!
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