Monday

This posting is my 150th this year - I started this blog back in March, 2007 and have published a total of 261 so far (now 262) - plus another 45 on my golf blog and 12 on the football one! Let there be no doubt about who's winning the blog contest! Lucy has posted 55 so far, and Kelly and Craig exactly 100. Gary, who had the cheek to complain recently about others not posting regularly, has a mere 33 to his name - come on, you can do better!

Haven't set Jo's blog up yet - she's paranoid about doing it now, having conducted lengthy conversations with Mr Conspiracy Theory himself, Ross!

Anyway, yesterday was the start of my first full week back after vacation - it'll probably be a long one! I left the office early to go to the meeting with Jamie Burnett to find out the latest on the planned Hill of Banchory sports centre. It's still some away yet and the exact timing will be influenced by how soon Tesco get planning permission and how quickly Bandswim get the funding in place for the 25 metre pool - remember how the whole town collected for this over a decade ago? Anyway, I'll keep working away in the hope that squash courts will return to Banchory - long after I've given up by the look of it, but hopefully a new generation will get a chance to play a sport that I've had a lot of fun from - and made a lot of friends.

After the meeting, Keith, Richard and I went up to Jamie's court at Crathes - new toilet fitted, but no showers yet! - and played racquetball for the first time for a couple of months. It was great fun and reminded me of what I would be missing if I had simply taken my cardiologist's first advice, rather than "persuading" him that it would be OK to carry on playing with my fellow seniors at our leisurely pace.

As usual, we showered at the golf club and, as I was wearing my new Kaleidoscope (http://www.kaleidoscopepizza.com/) t-shirt, I thought there might be a photo opportunity - they have a collection of photos in their pizza pub in Medford of customers wearing their t-shirts in far-off places - but nowhere as far as Banchory. However, immediately after squash, this was not my finest moment and I think I'll leave it until another time before I send them a photo!: