Back home

All went well on the return journey from Tenerife and I got home in good time - Jo had made soup and apple crumble - great! Nice to be back home again - especially nice to get back in to my own bed. I never understand why European hotels supply those long thin pillows - bolsters Jo called them, but they're not as hard as this suggests, although they do give you a crick in the neck.

I slept well although my mind awoke not long after 5, but my body didn't want to move, so I lay there until about 7:45. It's going to be a quiet one today - no specific plans during the day, but I may nip out for a pint of real ale and watch the first half of the Man Utd match about 5:30 - but I've got to be back sharp as we're going to Banchory Lodge for dinner - Jo has bought us tickets for a special Fish Night dinner there - should be good.

I also received a CD of hit songs from 1949 - the year I was born - not that I would have remembered any of them then, but there's quite a few interesting ones that I'm looking forward to hearing on my car CD on the way to work on Monday - Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, Django Reinhardt, Charlie Parker, Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Shore etc.

Did you know that NATO was formed in 1949 and that clothes rationing in Britain ended then? Southern Ireland became a republic and Mao Tse-tung was elected chairman of the People's Republic of China in that year. Siam was renamed Thailand and George Orwell's nightmare vision of the future, 1984, was published - strange to think that we're now a quarter of a century past that date.

I'm looking forward to returning to Tenerife with everyone in a few weeks - the climate is great - nice temperatures - never too hot - it's an island after all, and it does get some weather passing through. The north of the island attracts a lot of cloud and wind - especially around Mount Tiede, which still has fresh snow on it - but the south is usually pretty sunny, although less attractive and some of the holiday developments are pretty grotesque. Our villa sits up high and we look across towards the island of La Gomera. I took this picture but it was a bit too bright and you can't quite see the sea and the island properly - although you can see the road work going on below the villa:

Lucy and the boys sent me this short birthday greeting:

Yesterday's P & J had more news of the controversy surrounding Kelly's and Craig's former place of work - Oakbank school - check http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1109409

This week's Deeside Piper also contains another rant from Roxanne - this time she's hitting out at the councillors for the apparent omission of Banchory and Aboyne from some of the Scottish Government's advertising of Scotland's Homecoming year - is she bitter or what?