Thank you, M & S!
Take away curry was the best we could do for a meal last night - everywhere was fully booked.
Ian R. Stewart Family Blog
Saturday, 14 February 2009
Saturday
A little tired today - it was late when I got home after the headbang - check out http://bvetsfootballgroup.blogspot.com/ for details.
I tried to pull the curtains shut and managed to pull the curtain rail down! Job for later on! Jo didn't stir.
Jo's flowers from M & S have just arrived - she'll maybe feature them on her blog. We're going to see Slum Dog Millionaire this afternoon - Ross was invited but decided not to join us.
I tried to pull the curtains shut and managed to pull the curtain rail down! Job for later on! Jo didn't stir.
Jo's flowers from M & S have just arrived - she'll maybe feature them on her blog. We're going to see Slum Dog Millionaire this afternoon - Ross was invited but decided not to join us.
Friday, 13 February 2009
TGIF
Been a hard, stressful week and I'm glad it's virtually over - I'm home now and looking forward to a couple of beers and a good headbang tonight.
After weeks and weeks of messing about, we finally decided to stick with our existing business bankers, Bank of Scotland - or, more correctly, Lloyds TSB Halifax Bank of Scotland to give it its full moniker! We went to tell their competitors (Clydesdale) the bad news this afternoon and, as we were driving there the news broke about the Bank of Scotland's losses, which were a lot worse than previously reported and set (yet another) new record. Whoops - hope we haven't made a major tactical error!
I'm also catching up on my recording and viewing of the BBC's recent Folk America series - I've got lots still to work my way through. There's some great historic footage and magic moments - ranging from Woody Guthrie in the dust bowl of Oklahoma in the 30's depression, right through to Seasick Steve paying a nostalgic return to his roots in USA.
After weeks and weeks of messing about, we finally decided to stick with our existing business bankers, Bank of Scotland - or, more correctly, Lloyds TSB Halifax Bank of Scotland to give it its full moniker! We went to tell their competitors (Clydesdale) the bad news this afternoon and, as we were driving there the news broke about the Bank of Scotland's losses, which were a lot worse than previously reported and set (yet another) new record. Whoops - hope we haven't made a major tactical error!
I'm also catching up on my recording and viewing of the BBC's recent Folk America series - I've got lots still to work my way through. There's some great historic footage and magic moments - ranging from Woody Guthrie in the dust bowl of Oklahoma in the 30's depression, right through to Seasick Steve paying a nostalgic return to his roots in USA.
Thursday, 12 February 2009
Devolve me
Lucy - did you get any software with your new videocam?
Has anyone else "twittered" yet? - https://twitter.com/home - it seems to be the latest rage and there's been some recent publicity about Jonathan Ross' and Stephen Fry's twitter. I did it last night and I decided to follow the aforementioned celebs to see if anything interesting happened - it didn't - other than the fact that Stephen Fry is now following me!
Twitter is basically online short text messaging - very short and sharp and definitely not thought out like some blogs. Stephen Fry suggested trying this web page - http://www.open.ac.uk/darwin/devolve-me.php. You upload a photo of yourself and watch as you devolve back millions of years!
Has anyone else "twittered" yet? - https://twitter.com/home - it seems to be the latest rage and there's been some recent publicity about Jonathan Ross' and Stephen Fry's twitter. I did it last night and I decided to follow the aforementioned celebs to see if anything interesting happened - it didn't - other than the fact that Stephen Fry is now following me!
Twitter is basically online short text messaging - very short and sharp and definitely not thought out like some blogs. Stephen Fry suggested trying this web page - http://www.open.ac.uk/darwin/devolve-me.php. You upload a photo of yourself and watch as you devolve back millions of years!
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
Nothing to say
Three posts yesterday and nothing to say today. All I can do is add another international photo - this one's from Ross' trip to Japan with WNI in 2005:
Tuesday, 10 February 2009
Another list
Here’s my top 10 ales and some memories and comments as recently reported to CAMRA:
1) Young’s Special. We moved down south in 1974 and my place of work was Devonshire House, which was directly above Green Park tube station. We were on the 5th floor and had magnificent views across Piccadilly to Green Park with Buckingham Palace beyond. At lunchtimes, however, I would head in the opposite direction towards Berkeley Square and in a side street on the north east corner of the square, amongst a number of fine mews properties, lies the Guinea Grill. It had a very fine restaurant to the rear, but the public bar was fairly small and, on a typical summer’s day, the punters would spill out on to the lane with their pints of Young’s Special which would wash down the fabulous “Desperate Dan” steak pies which was my standard lunch fare on perhaps more occasions than I should have.
2) McMullen’s AK Bitter – again another fond memory from our spell down in the South East. We lived in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire and our nearest local was the Bull, which was a McMullen’s pub. Sunday lunchtimes sitting in the pub garden with the kids free to run around and me supping a couple of pints of bitter – magic!
3) Bridgeport bottle conditioned IPA – this is my standard tipple when we go to Oregon each summer to visit our grandchildren. On our first supermarket shopping trip, I head for the beer section to stock up with Bridgeport’s IPA for supping back at our daughter’s home. It’s my favourite bottle conditioned beer and is great in the early evening as the sun goes down and the temperature starts to drop a little, whilst our son-in-law barbeques some of the spoils from his winter hunting season. We’re hoping to return to Bridgeport’s brewery in Portland this summer where we can usually get a couple of their cask conditioned ales on handpump.
4) Betty Stogs – a wonderful Cornish beer from Skinner’s. I guess I grew to love this one initially when our other daughter moved down to Cornwall a couple of years ago, but, strangely, I’ve probably drunk more of it in our golf club at Banchory where it was a very popular and fairly regular feature last summer.
5) Pitchfork – no specific memories – just an excellent ale.
6) Sierra Nevada Pale Ale – another American beer – superb in bottle and pretty good in “draft” – even if it’s keg.
7) Porterhouse Oyster Stout – memories of a trip to Dublin and getting fed up looking for a tasty alternative to G******s, then coming across the Porterhouse brewpub and specifically their Oyster Stout – creamy!
8) Gunner’s Daughter from the Old Cannon brewpub, Bury St Edmunds. Another trip to a wonderful brewpub – we stayed for the weekend and tried all their ales, but this one sticks in the memory. The only slightly sour point of the weekend was when the proprietor cancelled our planned demonstration of brewing on the Monday morning at short notice, leaving us in some doubt whether the beers were actually brewed in the pristine surroundings of the pub or whether this was just a marketing front and the ales were brewed elsewhere.
9) Devanha – had to mention Dixie’s early attempt at establishing a brewery in Aberdeenshire – perhaps ahead of its time, but I still have fond memories of drinking the beer while staying at the Tor-na-Coille hotel in Banchory prior to moving my family up.
10) Really hard to choose a 10th one – there’s so many beers I like that haven’t had a mention so far. Maybe I’ll stay on the nostalgia kick and evoke fond memories of Lorimer’s 80/- drunk in the Marchmont Hotel, Balerno in the late 70’s/early 80’s.
1) Young’s Special. We moved down south in 1974 and my place of work was Devonshire House, which was directly above Green Park tube station. We were on the 5th floor and had magnificent views across Piccadilly to Green Park with Buckingham Palace beyond. At lunchtimes, however, I would head in the opposite direction towards Berkeley Square and in a side street on the north east corner of the square, amongst a number of fine mews properties, lies the Guinea Grill. It had a very fine restaurant to the rear, but the public bar was fairly small and, on a typical summer’s day, the punters would spill out on to the lane with their pints of Young’s Special which would wash down the fabulous “Desperate Dan” steak pies which was my standard lunch fare on perhaps more occasions than I should have.
2) McMullen’s AK Bitter – again another fond memory from our spell down in the South East. We lived in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire and our nearest local was the Bull, which was a McMullen’s pub. Sunday lunchtimes sitting in the pub garden with the kids free to run around and me supping a couple of pints of bitter – magic!
3) Bridgeport bottle conditioned IPA – this is my standard tipple when we go to Oregon each summer to visit our grandchildren. On our first supermarket shopping trip, I head for the beer section to stock up with Bridgeport’s IPA for supping back at our daughter’s home. It’s my favourite bottle conditioned beer and is great in the early evening as the sun goes down and the temperature starts to drop a little, whilst our son-in-law barbeques some of the spoils from his winter hunting season. We’re hoping to return to Bridgeport’s brewery in Portland this summer where we can usually get a couple of their cask conditioned ales on handpump.
4) Betty Stogs – a wonderful Cornish beer from Skinner’s. I guess I grew to love this one initially when our other daughter moved down to Cornwall a couple of years ago, but, strangely, I’ve probably drunk more of it in our golf club at Banchory where it was a very popular and fairly regular feature last summer.
5) Pitchfork – no specific memories – just an excellent ale.
6) Sierra Nevada Pale Ale – another American beer – superb in bottle and pretty good in “draft” – even if it’s keg.
7) Porterhouse Oyster Stout – memories of a trip to Dublin and getting fed up looking for a tasty alternative to G******s, then coming across the Porterhouse brewpub and specifically their Oyster Stout – creamy!
8) Gunner’s Daughter from the Old Cannon brewpub, Bury St Edmunds. Another trip to a wonderful brewpub – we stayed for the weekend and tried all their ales, but this one sticks in the memory. The only slightly sour point of the weekend was when the proprietor cancelled our planned demonstration of brewing on the Monday morning at short notice, leaving us in some doubt whether the beers were actually brewed in the pristine surroundings of the pub or whether this was just a marketing front and the ales were brewed elsewhere.
9) Devanha – had to mention Dixie’s early attempt at establishing a brewery in Aberdeenshire – perhaps ahead of its time, but I still have fond memories of drinking the beer while staying at the Tor-na-Coille hotel in Banchory prior to moving my family up.
10) Really hard to choose a 10th one – there’s so many beers I like that haven’t had a mention so far. Maybe I’ll stay on the nostalgia kick and evoke fond memories of Lorimer’s 80/- drunk in the Marchmont Hotel, Balerno in the late 70’s/early 80’s.
My day in Glasgow
The train arrived in good time and I picked up a cab to take me to the Erskine Glasgow home - I was first there and got a cup of tea and a biscuit for my troubles - one of the staff said I looked like I had travelled a long way - but she was a little surprised when I told her that she was dead right! When Barry arrived she handed us a nice photo they had taken of Dad at Christmas:
He looks a little stressed but he was OK. Note newly blonde - and still limping - Dawn.
The 6 month review went OK - Dad's dementia is obviously getting worse and basically he can't do anything himself now, but he's happy enough and the staff like him and say he's no bother at all. The only potential issue was his weight loss - he was down to 67 kgs - a drop of 3kgs in a month. He doesn't eat much and they will get the dietician to see him.
Dawn also asked them to keep trying to get him to go out for short walks - and we did that ourselves afterwards:
He looks a little stressed but he was OK. Note newly blonde - and still limping - Dawn.
Dawn dropped me off in the city centre and I walked around a bit and spotted the office where I began my training in 1965 - indentured apprenticeship they used to call it - and it really was Dickensian. Note the small round window at the top of the building - that's where I worked before I went to Glasgow University:
It was rather sad to see the entrance was all blocked up - obviously some kind of development is planned:
I had a meeting at HSBC in West Nile St and I passed through Dury Lane and the famous old Horseshoe pub on the way there - and, no I didn't go in!:
That was my very civilised day and I arrived home in the early evening, refreshed and not feeling tired after a long drive.
It was rather sad to see the entrance was all blocked up - obviously some kind of development is planned:
I had a meeting at HSBC in West Nile St and I passed through Dury Lane and the famous old Horseshoe pub on the way there - and, no I didn't go in!:
That was my very civilised day and I arrived home in the early evening, refreshed and not feeling tired after a long drive.
Travel to Glasgow
I'm writing this on the train down to Glasgow for Dad's 6 month assessment at Erskine. It's a beautiful clear, crisp day. Thankfully, the Slug road was fine this morning, so, so far so good. It's a lot stressful than driving.
We had an adventure last night - I'm looking forward to reading Jo's blog today and her account of events - I heard a version last night, but no doubt there will have been other bits she missed out. I had dropped Jo off at Inverurie on my way to Fraserburgh - a particularly nasty day there - not weather wise - there was no snow - but we had to tell the staff at one of the factories (the canning plant) that we would have to move on to a 3 day week starting next week due to a loss of orders in Australia, Scandinavia and the UK - not pleasant at all - I hope we can revert to a full week in a couple of months' time - if we have any staff left by then, that is.
Anyway, back to Jo - we were late leaving Inverurie on the way home - I had scheduled to play doubles that evening and had put our scheduled 5:15 start back to 6:00 pm which, if we left Inverurie at 5, would be plenty time to get Jo home and me up to Findrack in time for squash. Inevitably, we were late and I had no option but to go straight to squash and let Jo take the car home from there. All was OK on the roads until we got past Torphins and turned up the Tor-na-veen road, which was pretty snowy. Jo looked apprehensive and her face turned even more ashen when we turned in to the Findrack estate.
I drove up to the courts OK - I had to drive fairly carefully but the car seemed to handle the snow OK and I thought as long as Jo went gingerly down the hill, she wouldn't have a problem getting back home. Of course, I hadn't reckoned on the conditions worsening a little allied to Jo's legendary lack of a sense of direction.
When we finished playing we drove down the hill of the estate and had to help some poor unfortunate in a little Polo with bald tyres who was stuck trying to get up the hill. He was being helped by a man who was trying to cycle through the foot deep snow and had lost his chain in this foolish act! It was only after all this that we got to a place where I could get a signal on my mobile - and the first thing was a voicemail message from Jo saying she was stuck and was holding up all the traffic - and she didn't know where she was!
Fortunately, I eventually got through to her mobile and discovered that all was now well and she was safely home again!
We had an adventure last night - I'm looking forward to reading Jo's blog today and her account of events - I heard a version last night, but no doubt there will have been other bits she missed out. I had dropped Jo off at Inverurie on my way to Fraserburgh - a particularly nasty day there - not weather wise - there was no snow - but we had to tell the staff at one of the factories (the canning plant) that we would have to move on to a 3 day week starting next week due to a loss of orders in Australia, Scandinavia and the UK - not pleasant at all - I hope we can revert to a full week in a couple of months' time - if we have any staff left by then, that is.
Anyway, back to Jo - we were late leaving Inverurie on the way home - I had scheduled to play doubles that evening and had put our scheduled 5:15 start back to 6:00 pm which, if we left Inverurie at 5, would be plenty time to get Jo home and me up to Findrack in time for squash. Inevitably, we were late and I had no option but to go straight to squash and let Jo take the car home from there. All was OK on the roads until we got past Torphins and turned up the Tor-na-veen road, which was pretty snowy. Jo looked apprehensive and her face turned even more ashen when we turned in to the Findrack estate.
I drove up to the courts OK - I had to drive fairly carefully but the car seemed to handle the snow OK and I thought as long as Jo went gingerly down the hill, she wouldn't have a problem getting back home. Of course, I hadn't reckoned on the conditions worsening a little allied to Jo's legendary lack of a sense of direction.
When we finished playing we drove down the hill of the estate and had to help some poor unfortunate in a little Polo with bald tyres who was stuck trying to get up the hill. He was being helped by a man who was trying to cycle through the foot deep snow and had lost his chain in this foolish act! It was only after all this that we got to a place where I could get a signal on my mobile - and the first thing was a voicemail message from Jo saying she was stuck and was holding up all the traffic - and she didn't know where she was!
Fortunately, I eventually got through to her mobile and discovered that all was now well and she was safely home again!
Sunday, 8 February 2009
Broxbourne
Jo was right - at least on one count - I did manage a game of squash yesterday - but I'm afraid her word blindness/dyslexia/memory loss (delete as appropriate) got the better of her again - Seasick Bill?!!!!!
Squash wasn't without incident - I packed my bag and went out the front door - but no car! Where had it gone? Ross had gone in to Aberdeen earlier on and I had suggested he should take my car which would be better in the snow - and cheaper! He declined on that occasion, but I guess he must have taken it as read that he could take my car any time he wants - which is mostly OK - as long he tells me!
I tried to get a lift up from Keith, but he was taking Richard (who couldn't get his Jag out of the drive because of the snow) in his little 4 wheel drive Audi TT and there really wasn't room for me as well. I then had no option but to take Jo's car - then I remembered that my racquets were in the Volvo so I had to phone Keith back and get him to take a spare racquet for me.
As I climbed up the Glassel hill, the snow on the roads got steadily worse and when I left the main Torphins road to turn up at the Tor-na-veen crossing it was pretty deep and Jo's car started sliding about. Fortunately, there was nothing coming the other way. I turned in to the Findrack estate and tried to climb up the road towards the squash court. I (just) managed up to the first level in front of the main house but couldn't risk any further so I left the car there and walked the rest through the deep snow.
When we came out after squash, there had been more snow (see squash blog - http://deesidesquashracquetballclub.blogspot.com/) and I had to be pushed to get going again.
We watched Charlie Wilson's War on Sky Anytime last night. It stars Tom Hanks as a senator supporting the Mujahideen in their guerilla war in Afghanistan against the Soviets in the 80's. It's written with the full benefit of hindsight and the obvious irony of what's happened in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere since. Not bad. Sky Anytime is now showing virtually all of the Bond Movies - may watch some of them, but I think I'd quite like us to pay a rare visit to the cinema soon - everyone who has seen Slum Dog Millionaire tells me it's great.
Sadly, it looks like all the grass is gone and it's been tarmac'd over.
Squash wasn't without incident - I packed my bag and went out the front door - but no car! Where had it gone? Ross had gone in to Aberdeen earlier on and I had suggested he should take my car which would be better in the snow - and cheaper! He declined on that occasion, but I guess he must have taken it as read that he could take my car any time he wants - which is mostly OK - as long he tells me!
I tried to get a lift up from Keith, but he was taking Richard (who couldn't get his Jag out of the drive because of the snow) in his little 4 wheel drive Audi TT and there really wasn't room for me as well. I then had no option but to take Jo's car - then I remembered that my racquets were in the Volvo so I had to phone Keith back and get him to take a spare racquet for me.
As I climbed up the Glassel hill, the snow on the roads got steadily worse and when I left the main Torphins road to turn up at the Tor-na-veen crossing it was pretty deep and Jo's car started sliding about. Fortunately, there was nothing coming the other way. I turned in to the Findrack estate and tried to climb up the road towards the squash court. I (just) managed up to the first level in front of the main house but couldn't risk any further so I left the car there and walked the rest through the deep snow.
When we came out after squash, there had been more snow (see squash blog - http://deesidesquashracquetballclub.blogspot.com/) and I had to be pushed to get going again.
We watched Charlie Wilson's War on Sky Anytime last night. It stars Tom Hanks as a senator supporting the Mujahideen in their guerilla war in Afghanistan against the Soviets in the 80's. It's written with the full benefit of hindsight and the obvious irony of what's happened in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere since. Not bad. Sky Anytime is now showing virtually all of the Bond Movies - may watch some of them, but I think I'd quite like us to pay a rare visit to the cinema soon - everyone who has seen Slum Dog Millionaire tells me it's great.
A beautiful day today but it looks like it's going to be cold enough for a while to keep the snow on the ground - so definitely no golf! I'm going down to Glasgow on Tuesday - it's Dad's 6 month assessment at Erskine - I may try to book the train.
I'd been encouraged to write a short article for the next edition of the local CAMRA's branch's newsletter, North Sea Ale on the question of my 10 favourite beers. It got me to thinking about where and when, and our move down south in 1974 brought back some happy memories. We often used to visit the Bull in Broxbourne at weekends - particularly if it was sunny. They had a nice garden and Lucy (and eventually Gary) could run around whilst we supped a couple of pints. I looked up McMullen's web site today and there is a recent photo of the pub there:
Sadly, it looks like all the grass is gone and it's been tarmac'd over.
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