From
http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/
My last family blog posting was over 2 weeks ago and was just after we had returned from the Ramsdens Cup Final, which Thistle lost. Despair has since turned to joy as Thistle won the First Division Championship on Saturday and will be playing in the SPL next season for the first time for quite a few years. I listened to the match on internet radio on my phone in Turkey, getting ever more excited as full-time approached with Thistle 2-0 ahead. However, 7pm local time (5pm BST) came and went and still they were playing. It was then that I discovered that there was a substantial time buffer on the transmission, so a quick switch to text results told me we had won. Joy!
So how was my golf week in Turkey? Great. The all-inclusive deal works really well and the resort (
http://www.corneliaresort.com/diamond/diamondeng.html) we have been at for the last 3 years is truly 5 star. Very much a "bling" feel to it, which I guess is not everyone's cup of tea, but it was excellent for us. The locals say it is Turkish money behind it, but it feels very much like something a few Russian oligarchs would do.
The hotel and grounds are massive - almost Vegas style - and there's everything you could want there. Of course, golf is the primary reason for the resort being there, but it also attracts a lot of conventions and there were some families there as well. Most days we teed off early in the morning and went back to the hotel for lunch by the pool, then it was swimming, spa, bridge or squash for most of us - plus a snooze of course - I usually had mine in the bath, which was pretty deep. We've all reached the age where getting in and out of baths is starting to get pretty tricky - particularly when they're deep and slippy. The roll-over on to the knees technique was the most favoured in our group - yes, we do discuss such things over dinner!
We had a free day on Saturday as our flight wasn't until late at night, so it was a leisurely day. We played petanque, had a beer, sat in the sun, read our books, played 10-pin bowling, squash, bridge and then showered and changed before heading for the airport. We got to Glasgow about 2 am on Sunday morning local time and, after customs and baggage - mine was almost last out - finally drove north east, trying hard to stay awake. It brought back memories of a few years ago when we came back from New York after our holiday chez Lesinas. We were flying Continental that year out of Glasgow, which meant an overnight flight, against the clock, and then a long drive up the road. I was OK until just outside Strachan, when I finally must have momentarily shut my eyes and the car started to veer off the road. Fortunately, by this time Jo and Kelly were awake and they screamed out simultaneously, which instantly alerted me and I managed to bring the car quickly under control - but it was pretty scary. It wasn't quite as bad this time and we were back in Banchory not long after dawn at 5:30 am.
I didn't want to waken Jo at that ungodly hour, so I unpacked and watched a bit of TV, before finally giving in to my tiredness at 7 am and heading for bed for a couple of hours. I stayed awake most of the rest of the day, but there were a few nodding donkeys along the way.
Anyone interested in the details of the golf - and the photos - can read all about it on my golf blog, but, in short, I was pipped at the post by the grand old man of our group, Syd, who will be 74 next week - and he still has the lowest handicap of all of us, and manages to beat us all regularly - amazing! Syd even had a hole in one on holiday. The drinks were on him, of course - easy to do on an all-inclusive deal! Here's one previously unpublished photo of Peter Street, Ken Page and I taken on the last night:
Back to work on Monday - Aberdeen office, then Fraserburgh yesterday, stopping off for tea in Inverurie with Jo, Carole and Luca. Today's Aberdeen again and hopefully Wednesday golf again this evening.
Tomorrow is my appointment with the knee surgeon. Jo's coming with me. I still don't know what to do. Sometimes I'm OK, but then other times I'm completely debilitated and in a lot of pain. The irony is I'm planning to play squash tomorrow evening after seeing the specialist!
To close, a recent article in one of the trade papers featured some of our factories:
Anyway, enough for now.
