Christmas Eve

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

So here I am, back in the office again this morning. Two management meetings over earlier than planned - ordinarily I would have gone home now and then taken a lift back in with some of the guys coming in from Banchory for the traditional Xmas Eve football match for Dave Williamson's birthday.

However, there's a problem - we should have got our turkey yesterday, but it wasn't ready at Kelly's of Cults, so Francis Clark said he would pick it up and bring it in this morning - but he forgot! I offered to go to his house to pick it up now but he says he's going to do it and then bring it back here. The only problem is it's almost 11:30 am already and I've told him I'm leaving here at 1 pm - will he make it in time, or will I have to put in place Plan C? Watch this space.

It's almost Christmas with Kelly in Oz and it's 3 weeks today that we head off there - BA and the snow permitting, that is. Looking forward to it. But first we've got Xmas (3 of us) and Boxing Day (6 of us) meals to get through. If the turkey doesn't arrive, it could be just stuffing and chipolatas - could be worse!

Today's the big travel home for Christmas day throughout the UK - reminds me of many years of doing the same thing. First of all, back in the 50's coming up from Corby to Glasgow with Mum, Dad, Barry & Dawn. Then it was our turn in the 70's coming back up from Broxbourne. In the early 80's it was a bit easier - just a short hop through from Balerno, but Banchory was just a bit further, but, by this time, it was mostly Christmases at home.

The big change over the years has been the quality of the roads - and the quality and reliability of the cars we've been travelling in. My Dad's old Ford Anglia (FNV 347 - see photo below) was not as bad as our first car after Jo and I got married - an old Fiat 850 - it needed a new engine not long after we bought it and I didn't have the cash at the time so had to borrow £200 from Jo's Dad. One problem solved, but another soon loomed with holes in the floor appearing. Nightmare - but it did manage the return journey from Hertfordshire once at least. It was like the Flintstones car.

The photo shows Mum with Dawn on her knee, and me with the skinny legs and Mum's knitted Shetland sweater on, with Barry and his usual surly face for the camera - that's another thing that's improved with time!

Have a good Christmas and no doubt we'll talk/Skype over the holidays some time.

The return of the list!

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Gary and I were both delighted when Lucy asked for suggestions for music for her I-pod - a good excuse to make another list! As it happens, I've acquired very little genuinely new music this year - I've spent a fair bit of time digitising some of my old vinyl collection, and I've also transferred some of Ross' library to my memory sticks for listening in the car - courtesy of the neat little home network we now have here, whereby Jo, Ross and I can share each other's files via a home network.

I've only acquired a total of 6 new albums - and 2 of them were oldies anyway - Crosby, Stills & Nash's Greatest Hits and The Crane Wife from the Decemberists. The other four I would rank as follows:

1. Edwyn Collins - Losing Sleep
2. Phosphorescent - Here's to Taking it Easy
3. Laura Marling - Alas, I Cannot Swim
4. Black Francis - Nonstoperotik

I do now, however, have 300 or so albums on my memory sticks to keep me endlessly entertained as I drive around the North East.

Winter Solstice

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Hello again. It's the Winter solstice today and, in theory, it's all downhill from here to Midsummer - at least in terms of hours of daylight anyway - I rather suspect we've got a few more months of bad weather to put up with before then.

The radio this morning also advised us that there was a full Lunar eclipse and it was highly visible in the clear blue skies in the North East of Scotland. Sure enough, as I drove to work and looked up towards the Hill of Fare, it was almost completely gone:

At roughly 240,000 miles away, it's a bit difficult to represent with a small digital camera the same image as the eye could see, but I hope you get the idea anyway. The dark side of the moon was still visible to the naked eye so it was quite a sight.

It also would have been my Dad's 90th birthday today - and Jo's Mum would have been 88 a couple of weeks ago - but they've both gone now, I'm afraid. I remember them meeting for the first time - it must have been about the time that Jo and I got engaged (Guy Fawkes night, 1971 - Lottie thought I was trying to make a point by choosing the date of an alleged Papist plot!). I had told my prospective in-laws that my folks didn't drink much (and they didn't generally) but the time they met, my Dad was matching Lottie whisky for whisky - she was most impressed, but I'm not sure my Mum was!

Things are pretty quiet at work - our canning plant closed down last Thursday for 2 weeks for its festive holiday/maintenance, and you get the general feeling that all businesses are winding down for the holiday. Our other 2 factories have to keep producing every day, however - Tesco are open 363 days p.a. and we have to produce and deliver chilled mackerel and herring to them every one of those days. It's been a bit of a nightmare recently with all the snow - you can imagine the logistical problems of distribution from Fraserburgh all over the UK.

The business problems of the weather pale in to insignificance, however, when you hear about some of the recent personal stories - particularly those that have been stranded at Heathrow and Gatwick airports for the last few days. It's just over 3 weeks until we're due to depart on our trip to Oz - hope we get a bit luckier.

Got a busy day tomorrow at work but after that it should be fairly easy. Getting our smoked salmon and prawns tomorrow, and our turkey on Thursday. Jo bought our tree last week - dwarf variety, it seems - perhaps she'll show it on her blog?

Hoping to play squash again tomorrow - played again last night and, so far, the new knees have stood up pretty well. They'll get a real test on Friday, however - it's our annual football outing when those of us that have retired come out to play to celebrate Dave Williamson's birthday.

Barry and Helen retire this week - do I envy them? Not really - I'll be interested to see what they do from here and how they get on, but I'm sure they'll be fine.

That's all for now, folks.