Hooray - I can post again - this blog just made it past another milestone - over 15,000 viewings! I think it may actually have been me that triggered the threshold when I logged on this morning. Why do so many people apparently read this? Heaven knows - there must be a lot of people out there with a lot of time on their hands - a bit like me today.
Well, what have I been up to in the last week? We had a lovely meal at the Kilgours last Saturday. Johanne made her own curries - nice starters too - home made bhajees, pakoras and samosas. Colin made a good job of the cheesecake afterwards as well. We decided - in conjunction with the Masons - to walk home, rather than wait for a taxi. After all, it's downhill, then flat, all the way and there was only a light drizzle - or so we thought. We had barely got 50 yards down Rosehill Crescent when the rain and wind hit us. We got well and truly soaked.
Just a few short hours later, after a short sleep, the wind and rain had completely gone and I crossed the road for my usual Sunday morning golf, followed by a nice pot of tea, drambuie and then, when I got home, my usual half scone from the Milton that Jo kept for me from her post-church coffee with the girls.
I was due to go to the Clydesdale Bank's SPL roadshow on Monday night, but I came home mid-afternoon and couldn't be bothered to drive all the way back in to Aberdeen again. I'd been to one of these (hosted by Chick Young) earlier this year and imagined that the format would be similar - the usual suspects - Aberdeen Manager Craig Brown trying to explain away his team's poor start to the season, and a couple of other footballing personalities - and I use the term loosely - wittering on about the Old Firm, to the background of SPL goals projected on to the big screen.
I was at a Scottish Enterprise seminar on Tuesday morning and then, back at the office, it all started kicking off. Orders have been slow recently and the various Factory Managers were concerned about manning levels and what they were all going to do. I had to hastily call them to a meeting the following day and we reluctantly had to decide to close down one of our night shifts and cut back another shift.
The staff were given the bad news yesterday and the statutory consultation period formally starts on Monday, but then, this morning, some good news. One of our competitors let down one of the major supermarkets and they have switched their order to us, so, if we're lucky, we may not have as many to pay off after all. It's an ill wind.
My Graze Box orders started again this week. I had decided to cancel them a couple of months ago, but, when you try and do that online, they always come up with an offer. Instead of cancelling, I could suspend for a couple of months, so I did and now it's re-started. Here's this week's offer:
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| The BBQ pistachios were excellent |
Do you, like me, get umpteen e-mail offers each day - including one from Groupon (www.groupon.co.uk)? Normally, these just get sent to my junk e-mail folder, but I was alerted to one offer for the Potarch Hotel and I decided to try it just to see if it worked as well as their advert suggests. I phoned up on Monday and booked a table for two for Wednesday and Jo and I made the short trip there early in the evening.
The Potarch Hotel (http://www.potarchhotel.co.uk/) sits in a lovely spot, just over the bridge that takes you up to Shooting Greens and the South Deeside Road.The bridge itself is a much photographed tourist hot spot:
Nowadays, however, you have to watch out for the looney young locals "tombstoning" from the bridge in summer.
Anyway, back to our meal. The offer was dinner for two and a glass of wine each for £19 in total - a discount of 64% they said. It turned out to be exactly what it says on the tin - no restrictions, or fine print. Jo and I had a very nice meal - and a bargain.
I had been to the nurse just before this to get my bloods done again - a regular feature - and I was back at the Practice again 24 hours later to see a Doctor about the stomach problems I've had for the last 5-6 weeks. The only one I could get an appointment with was Dr. Rigby, who I'd never dealt with before. You know how the old saying goes about how young the policemen are getting? Well, this Doctor looked young enough to be my grandson! He was very pleasant however and I'm now on more drugs - one a day in the morning - forgotten what it's called - for the next 6 weeks or so. If no improvement, then its another endoscopy (http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/endoscopy/Pages/Introduction.aspx) for me. When I told him I was scheduled to come back again tomorrow for my flu jab (they missed me off their list this year), he immediately offered to give me it there and then, to save me coming back again - very nice of him.
Coincidentally, Jo was at the Doctor's again yesterday morning. She's been getting pains in her chest and under her arm, so, given her previous history, I finally managed to nag her in to going back to get it checked out. So she's now been referred back to Stonehaven for another ECG.
None of this stopped us both from going out again in the evening. The local specialist drinks shop - Deeside Drinks Emporium - was having a wine tasting, so along we trotted. It was fun, but the measures they poured and the quantity of wines they gave us to try out (12), meant we were both a little tipsy at the end. We did manage to watch Episode 8 of the original Danish version of The Killing when we got home, however. I thought it was building up to a climax and that this might even be the last episode, but I've just checked http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00y4z22 and I notice the series actually ran for 20 episodes - help! Jo has seen the American version of it and knows the story and the ending and it's an almighty job to get her to shut up about it. She starts talking about it and doesn't mean to tell me the story, but she doesn't seem to realise that the more she talks, the more I can deduce. We've nearly come to blows several times.
So, just a quiet weekend at home for us. I had originally planned to go to Firhill tomorrow to partake of the corporate hospitality at the Livingston match, but Colin had to change his plans so we have now re-scheduled it for the Dundee match on 21st January - hope it doesn't snow! Ross and Gary are coming along too - as part of their Christmas present.
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