Strange to realise that it's December on Monday and still there's no real sign of winter. It's dark, of course - the days are getting noticeably shorter - but it's still way too mild for NE Scotland at this time of year.
We sit here at a latitude of 57° N - two degrees further north than Moscow. Chris and Kelly, by comparison, are just 34° S and Scott and Lucy are 42° N - quite a difference.
I try to keep politics out of these blogs, but today Scotland finally got some additional powers promised by the main Westminster parties on the eve of the referendum. As ever, it was a compromise, but it's significant that all the parties agreed. Does that mean that really none of them are happy with the deal? It's St. Andrews Day on Sunday - did this help expedite matters? Now the hard work starts to recalculate how this affects the existing block grant under the Barnett Formula, which has devised as long ago as 1978.
Enough of that.
Today was spent in my Aberdeen office, mostly clearing out desk drawers and filing cabinets. I've filled a few bin-liners and brought some more stuff home. I'm getting used to doing little else now.
The Banchory Festive Lights get officially switched on at 6 pm tonight, but it's such a dank, dreich day that I don't expect they'll get many folk out to watch - certainly not us. Jo's just returned with her car, which was in for service, but she got a bit of a soaking walking up there to pick it up.
Ian R. Stewart Family Blog
Thursday 27 November 2014
Wednesday 26 November 2014
The Countdown Begins
Realistically, because of when Xmas falls this year and the canning factory shuts down, I have probably just about 10 full days or so of work before retirement. Today I began to seriously clear out some of the cupboards and files of personal stuff that have been kept in my Fraserburgh office for decades. A couple of bin bags were filled and the shredding machine got overheated a couple of times.
I've brought some of the essential files home - but there's more to follow. Jo's worried that we might have to buy another filing cabinet to hold everything, but I'm hoping the existing shelves in our office downstairs (formerly Ross' room) will be adequate.
Got some flight booking to do - France first of all, then Denver - Medford return next June/July. Gary and Luca also have to get back to LA from Medford. So, should I be looking at flights tonight or the Champions League?
I've brought some of the essential files home - but there's more to follow. Jo's worried that we might have to buy another filing cabinet to hold everything, but I'm hoping the existing shelves in our office downstairs (formerly Ross' room) will be adequate.
Got some flight booking to do - France first of all, then Denver - Medford return next June/July. Gary and Luca also have to get back to LA from Medford. So, should I be looking at flights tonight or the Champions League?
Tuesday 25 November 2014
Full retirement beckons!
Well, the deed is done. After the Board meeting this morning, we discussed my future and agreed that Christmas would be a good time to make the change and give my successor a free run from there. So, just 4 weeks' work left for me now.
My replacement, Ross Rennie, has asked that I come back and look over their budgets when I return from Australia at the end of February and I've agreed to do this (on a day rate basis), but I don't expect to be called back to do much work after that.
The end of an era - over 31 years with the Clarks.
Yesterday was my eye test and I've finally got a slightly stronger prescription for my distance lenses. My vision has hardly changed for a number of years - my reading prescription is the same, but I felt I was ready for a slight change when it came to driving, in particular.
I still had time for a relatively short cycle in the afternoon - short in miles, that is - but plenty of climbing, so it wasn't all that easy. Still, for every uphill, there's a downhill. Two consecutive days of 13 mile runs - a good start to the week. I had been bemoaning the fact that my exercise - walking steps - had dropped off dramatically since we moved in to autumn - partly due to little golf being played now.
My Up stats tell me I averaged nearly 17,000 steps per day for the week I was in Istanbul then golfing in Antalya and my overall average since the beginning of March is still just short of my targeted 10,000 steps per day, but it's down to just 7,000 recently and last week, I hit a new all-time low of 4,400 steps. In terms of miles per week, this takes me down from a peak of 50 miles to under 18 miles last week. Must try harder.
My sleep "goal" is to average 8 hours per night, but so far, I'm only at 7.5. My nights with the longest sleep are, not unsurprisingly, usually at my long weekends. I wonder if this will go up post-retirement?
My replacement, Ross Rennie, has asked that I come back and look over their budgets when I return from Australia at the end of February and I've agreed to do this (on a day rate basis), but I don't expect to be called back to do much work after that.
The end of an era - over 31 years with the Clarks.
Yesterday was my eye test and I've finally got a slightly stronger prescription for my distance lenses. My vision has hardly changed for a number of years - my reading prescription is the same, but I felt I was ready for a slight change when it came to driving, in particular.
I still had time for a relatively short cycle in the afternoon - short in miles, that is - but plenty of climbing, so it wasn't all that easy. Still, for every uphill, there's a downhill. Two consecutive days of 13 mile runs - a good start to the week. I had been bemoaning the fact that my exercise - walking steps - had dropped off dramatically since we moved in to autumn - partly due to little golf being played now.
My Up stats tell me I averaged nearly 17,000 steps per day for the week I was in Istanbul then golfing in Antalya and my overall average since the beginning of March is still just short of my targeted 10,000 steps per day, but it's down to just 7,000 recently and last week, I hit a new all-time low of 4,400 steps. In terms of miles per week, this takes me down from a peak of 50 miles to under 18 miles last week. Must try harder.
My sleep "goal" is to average 8 hours per night, but so far, I'm only at 7.5. My nights with the longest sleep are, not unsurprisingly, usually at my long weekends. I wonder if this will go up post-retirement?
Sunday 23 November 2014
Sunday soundings
It's been a day of TV sport so far, starting off with Match of the Day, then the final round of the end of the European Tour golf season in Dubai, Thistle v Aberdeen, a brief interlude to watch Lewis Hamilton on the podium in Abu Dhabi, having won the Formula One Drivers' Championship, then back to football again - Crystal Palace v Liverpool, now Hull v Spurs.
Whew - haven't had time to read my Sunday Times yet.
I did squeeze in a cycle this morning as well. Well, it was too nice to spend the whole day watching TV. I've made up for that aberration since, however.
Gary and Luca paid a surprise visit this afternoon - partly to show off the new car Gary bought when they were down in Lincolnshire last week:
Very nice - but not sure about the Go Faster stripes and the blitz of headlamps.
Gary goes for his further tests on Wednesday - let's hope he gets the same all-clear as I did.
Yesterday was CAMRA's local AGM, and, as Membership Secretary, I had a duty to attend. It was actually quite an interesting meeting, with a few thought-provoking points raised, including a request that we contact our local breweries to ask if any of them are considering becoming Fairtrade breweries or at least producing an out of the ordinary beer that can be labelled such. Of course, standard beers using local barley, hops etc are, by definition, Fairtrade, but it's the more exotic ones that perhaps use ingredients like ginger, coffee etc that would need to be carefully certified. Apparently there are but 2 breweries in the UK that currently carry Fairtrade certification, one of which is http://www.freeminerbrewery.com/.
I was talking to Jim Strachan at the meeting. He was out in KL for a few years and he was the one that told me about the brewpub there. He's not long back from Oregon and was telling me about a great place he discovered in the Willamette Valley, near Oakridge - http://www.brewersunion.com/pub/. He was also in Northern California near Shasta and recommended http://www.dunsmuirbreweryworks.com/. That's two possible trips for us next year.
Jo took the opportunity to start off the Christmas shopping and drive me in to the CAMRA meeting - and back.
So what does the coming week bring? Tomorrow morning, it's the Optician's for me for my annual routine eye test. If the weather's OK, I hope to get another cycle ride in after this.
Back to work on Tuesday and it's our monthly Board meeting. Then, on Friday, we're off to Edinburgh for the Wine Gang's Christmas Fare.
Whew - haven't had time to read my Sunday Times yet.
I did squeeze in a cycle this morning as well. Well, it was too nice to spend the whole day watching TV. I've made up for that aberration since, however.
Gary and Luca paid a surprise visit this afternoon - partly to show off the new car Gary bought when they were down in Lincolnshire last week:
Very nice - but not sure about the Go Faster stripes and the blitz of headlamps.
Gary goes for his further tests on Wednesday - let's hope he gets the same all-clear as I did.
Yesterday was CAMRA's local AGM, and, as Membership Secretary, I had a duty to attend. It was actually quite an interesting meeting, with a few thought-provoking points raised, including a request that we contact our local breweries to ask if any of them are considering becoming Fairtrade breweries or at least producing an out of the ordinary beer that can be labelled such. Of course, standard beers using local barley, hops etc are, by definition, Fairtrade, but it's the more exotic ones that perhaps use ingredients like ginger, coffee etc that would need to be carefully certified. Apparently there are but 2 breweries in the UK that currently carry Fairtrade certification, one of which is http://www.freeminerbrewery.com/.
I was talking to Jim Strachan at the meeting. He was out in KL for a few years and he was the one that told me about the brewpub there. He's not long back from Oregon and was telling me about a great place he discovered in the Willamette Valley, near Oakridge - http://www.brewersunion.com/pub/. He was also in Northern California near Shasta and recommended http://www.dunsmuirbreweryworks.com/. That's two possible trips for us next year.
Jo took the opportunity to start off the Christmas shopping and drive me in to the CAMRA meeting - and back.
So what does the coming week bring? Tomorrow morning, it's the Optician's for me for my annual routine eye test. If the weather's OK, I hope to get another cycle ride in after this.
Back to work on Tuesday and it's our monthly Board meeting. Then, on Friday, we're off to Edinburgh for the Wine Gang's Christmas Fare.
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