Another Thursday posting

I forgot to add that Ross got more bad news today - he got done for speeding on one of his recent trips down to Stirling - standard £60 penalty + 3 points! By the way, the old wrecked Saab has still not been moved from our driveway!

I did a lot of reading on holiday but, as usual, it's ground to a complete halt as soon as I come home. I had thought I might finish Geoff Emerick's book on the journey home but was too tired - it might be next year before it gets read now! - I've still not finished the 2nd Elvis biography I bought in USA about 3 years ago!

Jo's been doing a storming job on the ironing backlog - it was a veritable mountain - she's even ironed all Ross' stuff as well - it'll be the first time for most of it!

B....y weather!

What a disappointment - I was so looking forward to playing golf at Banchory last night but the persistent rain closed the course. What's worse, we had decided to play tonight (Thursday) instead, but the course is still closed - not quite sure why - it was a beautiful day in Fraserburgh, but not so nice in Banchory.

I didn't go to the exhibition at the Tor-na-Coille yesterday - I had a thumping headache and anyway, I had second thoughts about going - I wasn't sure if I could face the potential prospect of Roxanne handing out drinks and canapes to sweeten up the locals - and anyway, the principles haven't changed - apparently they've only made minor mods to the initial plans - the local Community Council have already said that nothing much has changed and they will still oppose the changes.

I've been acting as communicator with the local residents and have received several suggestions, one of which was that the hotel should be a listed building - so I spent some time this evening looking at the criteria on Historic Scotland's website for getting a building listed. They don't get involved if a planning application has been made, but I've asked them if it would be possible in the current position of limbo - I suspect not, but it's worth a try. The building was constructed in 1873 - if it had been just 33 years older, listing would have been almost automatic - if it had been done before last year.

Hopefully I'm getting back to a more regular sleep pattern now - it was 2 am when I awoke on Tuesday, then 3 am yesterday - this morning it was after 5 am - whoop de doop!

Having not done any exercise at all on holiday and I haven't attended the gym for over a month, I've decided to throw myself back in at the deep end and am playing football tomorrow night - I can feel the pain now!

Tonight it's TV squatting - catching up with umpteen episodes of Corrie and then the last major of the season - the PGA.

Still got a hectic schedule coming up over the next few weeks - babysitting this weekend, then Kelly's up next weekend; the Fringe follows after that - we've got tickets for 8 different shows - Boat of Garten, then St Andrews Bay, then Gillian Kilgour's wedding - that's the next 6 weekends taken care of!

Webcams

Incidentally, Gary now has no excuse for not Skypeing us all regularly - despite having promised to buy a webcam several times, he never did it - but I happened upon our old one and gave it to him when he popped in on Monday, so look forward to some webcams from Inverurie!

Hopefully Kelly has also now received hers from Dawn - look forward to Cornish-cam!

End of holiday and return journey

On Friday, Scott surprised me a little by suggesting we could squeeze another game of golf in on Saturday morning before the cousins arrived for Cade's party. Scott must have been encouraged by how well he had played at Grants Pass on Thursday afternoon - quite right too - and he phoned brother in law, Vic and asked him to join us.



We set off pretty early - we were gone by 7:20 am. It was coolish in Grants Pass at that time in the morning - not too unusual - and there was a bit of cloud cover, which we hardly ever see. Heading north, we expected to see the sun weave its usual magic and burn off the cloud cover and bring the temperature up by the time we were to tee off at Myrtle Creek, but, in fact, the further north we headed, the temperature actually dropped - it got down to just 56 degrees F at one stage.



We played the back nine first of all and it was pretty parky for the first couple of holes, but as we neared the turn, the temperature was about perfect for playing golf. The 1st and 2nd holes were then played fairly quickly, but we came across a huge delay at the 3rd hole - see my golf blog for further details.



This was us having a quick beer and bite at the end of our round:

It was still fairly cloudy at Myrtle Creek but we knew it would be hot and sunny again by the time we got back to GP - and it was. Cousins Caitlin and Landen had arrived with their Dad, Neil and, of course Grandma Cindy. The party got under way:

Of course, I had to take the by now traditional end of holiday family photo in front of the house. Cindy missed out as she was asleep, nursing her sore ankle and head, but here's the rest of us:

Braeden (sometimes!) says the sweetest things - as I said goodnight to him and explained that we were leaving in the morning, he coyly said "I'll miss you" - and then rushed back to playing with Cade and his cousins!

Early to bed - didn't sleep well - as usual, half expecting to miss the alarm and sleep in, but we got up OK just after 4 am West Coast time on Sunday morning and Scott and Lucy drove us down to Medford to catch our plane. Always a sad time saying farewell, but as the rest of the Lesinas were arriving on Sunday for part 2 (or is it 3 or even 4!?) of Cade's birthday, that would help keep everyone's minds off our departure. We promised to get on the webcam this coming weekend and catch up again.

The journey from hell began - because we had come through Florida, we had to go back that way, so we faced the huge West-East, North-South, cross-America trip of 3,000 odd miles before we could even board our transatlantic flight. The journey from Medford to Salt Lake City is fairly easy - about an hour and a half - and we boarded our plane from SLC to Orlando on time and seemed all set to depart when the dreaded intercom went and the pilot announced that they had spotted an oil leak and they were having it checked out. Time passed and the plane began to heat up so were advised to go back to the terminal.

We watched and after a while, they decided that parts could not be found and it could not be fixed but they would try and get another plane. This seemed a long shot but they pulled it off and within a couple of hours we were on our way to Orlando - and this time, Jo and I had the best seats in the house - right next to the door with tons of leg room. On the first plane, we weren't even sitting together. Incidentally, the US system of over-booking and asking volunteers to be "bumped" from their flights is one that always causes angst - particularly when you're facing a long journey with several connections. It doesn't seem to happen - at least not noticeably - in Europe. American passengers are not happy with it either - as we discovered whilst we waited.

We made our connection in Orlando in plenty of time. Again we were upstairs in Virgin's Economy Plus class for the flight to Gatwick - and we had exit seats with tons of legroom. Nice flight, nice cabin, good food and good service - but exactly how are you meant to sleep on airline seats - even these slightly larger ones?

On time in London - nice day - and we hopped on the bus to Heathrow - we even managed to grab the seats with the most legroom! We were inside Terminal 5 just after 10:30 am on Monday, with our scheduled flight not due to depart until 2:10 pm. I tried to get us on the earlier Aberdeen flight, but the check-in clerkess was less than helpful and so we just had to sit and wait it out. A spot of lunch and a quick beer kept us going for a while but, by about 1pm, we were wilting badly.

Anyway, we got home on time - and safely - remember this the next time you get told there's a technical problem with your plane and you get annoyed by the delay - always better to be safe than sorry!

We pulled in to Arbor Court about 4:45 pm and spotted Ross' car. I walked in to his room and his face was a picture! I had forgotten that our calendar still had our original return date of this coming Saturday - I hadn't updated it after we changed our schedule and Ross was gobsmacked that we were back so soon. Of course, this meant him scurrying upstairs and cleaning the kitchen with the door barred - we weren't allowed in to see it!

It transpired he'd been off work for a week with a suspected return bout of labyrinthitis. He paid a return visit to the Doctor yesterday (Tuesday) and has been signed off for another week, with more blood tests having been taken.

As Gary indicated in his blog, just as I was pulling the curtains for us to put our heads down for the night on Monday evening, he rang the bell, so our much needed sleep was delayed a bit. Out like a light - until just 2 am - could I get back to sleep after this? - not until 5:30, and then the alarm went off at 6:20 and I was dead to the world - sod's law!

Anyway, I got to the office and surprised myself by putting in a full day's shift. I arranged to meet Ken Page for a beer - he's been back whilst we were away but he returns to Abu Dhabi on Thursday. Keith and Jas joined us and it was nice to catch up again - and have some cask conditioned beer!

I walked home from the golf club along the first and second fairways - taking in the scenery and looking forward to playing Banchory again soon - hopefully tonight (Wednesday), but the forecast is not too good.

Jo borrowed my car whilst I was having a beer and a natter, as both hers and Ross' had flat batteries. That's not all - our bedroom TV is dead and will need replaced - we had to quickly move sets around to get some kind of service in the bedroom and kitchen.

Last night, I slept until 3 am - is that progress? Eventually got up at 5 and fiddled around for a while then just headed to the office. I don't think I'll last the full day - got a splitting headache - and anyway, I want to get to the Tor-na-Coille Hotel to view this exhibition that CALA are now putting on as part of their new consultation process, having now withdrawn their initial application to build 33 flats - the battle is about to start again!