Thursday/Friday

Jo's still not right - she did go to the Doctor's on Thursday and he's given her penicillin to clear her chest up, so hopefully she's on the mend now.

Gary, Ross and I were at one of Pittodrie's great occasions on Thursday as Aberdeen thumped FC Copenhagen 4-0 to progress through to the knock-out stages of the UEFA Cup. It was a packed house and a great atmosphere - the club had handed out hooters to the fans and it was a non-stop cacophony of noise.

The evening evoked memories of the great European nights of the mid 80's when Aberdeen were rampant, and the draw for the next round on Friday brought back further memories with the news that Aberdeen face Bayern Munich in the next round. Scotland now have 3 teams in Europe after Christmas for the first time since the early 70's.

We've also now arranged to go down to Old Trafford again to see United face Newcastle on January 12th - it will be Gary's and Ross' first taste of live Premiership football.

Starting to fill up next year's diary already - Jo and I are going to stay at the Moulin Inn, just outside Pitlochry (http://www.moulininn.co.uk/) and Colin and Johanne are joining us and we're taking in the Winter Words Festival at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre - we've booked to listen to Stuart Maconie (http://www.pitlochry.org.uk/page13.php?a=other&id=646&month=2008-01-01).

In February we're going down to Cornwall again and then I head off to Cape Town for some golf. Our summer holiday to USA is now fully booked as well - Jo and I even chose our seats on Virgin Atlantic this week - Premium Economy again.

I've also organised our golf Summer Tour for July - the weekend before we go to USA. 10 of us are going to Cornwall so Jo will travel down as well and spend some time with Kelly and Craig.

Lastly, I've just about sorted out our Autumn golf trip - to Florida again in November. Whew - that's about it!

I played football again on Friday and it was Ian McRae's 50th so he got awarded the ceremonial shirt with his name on - see team photo above. We had a dram at the Douglas afterwards - that's the other photo above.

Saturday morning - freezing cold, but crisp and clear. Panic stations start here - we're going shopping today - we don't even have a turkey this year!