Stewart crest

I was looking through our holiday photographs and came across the above shot of our t-shirts hanging out to dry. It reminded me that it was about time I did some research in to the latin motto on the front, which translates as "Courage grows strong at a wound". Wikipedia describes the symbol as "A pelican Argent, winged Or, in her nest feeding her young, Proper." Here's the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_crest_badges_used_by_Scottish_clan_members

What do we all make of that then?

Getting near the weekend

The week seems to be dragging a bit, but at least it's Thursday now - Fraserburgh today and then back to Aberdeen tomorrow, for those of you still interested enough to read my blog postings - seems like you've all given up on updating your own blogs regularly.

Midweek golf started (for me anyway) last night - although I forgot to remind Jo about it beforehand. I watched the Apprentice when I got home - getting hooked already to the new series - surely James can't last?

I've tentatively planned to go to Deeside Brewery (it's their official opening to the public this Saturday) a week on Tuesday (21st) to brew my birthday ale - I'm now thinking about naming it Scolty Ale, which was going to be the name of the very first ale we were going to produce in our own brewery when I first came up with the idea about a decade or so ago - what do you think?

There's a mini beer festival on at the Aberdeen Arms, Tarland this weekend - would quite like to pop in some time, but I'm not quite sure about logistics etc.

No news about a new job for Ross yet - he'll need to get cracking soon. Thankfully, he's debt free at least.

Jo's little car accident is still not resolved - I contacted her insurance company as soon as I realised it hadn't been reported - but they haven't responded yet. I've chased them again today, but I've noticed we don't actually have a cover note from them - although we did pay the premium last December. Mmmm.

Hoping for a game of squash tonight and then back to Bannatyne's tomorrow - I went there on Monday and was horrified to see that my weight is still shooting up. I knew I was heavy but I can't quite understand why it's rising so high and so fast - although I guess the two recent holidays didn't help much!

Is there anybody out there? Let's be hearing from you!

Back to reality

It was back to work yesterday after a weekend of recovering from the holiday. We went to Perth on Saturday afternoon to see the Jags in their big match - they got a 1-1 draw, which wasn't a complete disaster but wasn't really what they needed either.

It was nice to play golf again on Sunday morning, but I was pretty rusty - hope it gets better soon. And then yesterday it was hard to get my enthusiasm going at work, what with all the difficulties we are going through just now. Today was Fraserburgh which is really pretty depressing - we've got the Union to face again next week, but at least the actual number of redundancies is dwindling - a chunk have left already and we've managed to find jobs in Nor-Sea for more than 20 of those who are having to leave IFC, so we're down to almost a handful that we'll have to make redundant - and at least some, if not all, of them will be volunteers.

Worse was to follow when I got home tonight, however - Ross has been laid off by Bancon - he's on "garden leave" now. He's talking of doing his RGIT offshore course and looking for work in the oil business.