End of an era

Aberdeen Football Club were THE team when we moved to the North East. Under Alex Ferguson, they won everything, and Rangers and Celtic were nowhere. Times changed from the 1990's onwards - money took over and since then it's been virtually impossible for the other Scottish teams to compete with the Old Firm.

All of this meant that a whole generation - our Ross included, and, to a lesser extent, Gary - grew up without knowing what it's like for Aberdeen to win anything. Well, yesterday, that finally changed and Ross and I were there when Aberdeen picked up their first trophy for 19 years.

We weren't the only ones there - there was a mass exodus from the North East. I'd never seen so many cars, buses and mini-vans migrating towards Glasgow - it was an incredible sight - a mass of red. Accidents on the way down and the way back didn't help, and our journey was a lot longer than we expected, but at least Ross and I were there when it mattered. Gary would have been too, but he was on call, so elected to watch the match at the local cinema, who had put on a special broadcast for fans who couldn't get a ticket - and there were lots of them.

Ross and I had arranged to meet Barry, Helen and Dawn for a spot of lunch and a beer, but it appeared that Glasgow City Centre wasn't ready for the hordes who were seeking a pre-match drink. All the pubs - apart from one Irish bar - were closed until 12:30 pm, just 2 hours before kick off. What a chance they missed. Didn't anyone in Glasgow realise what was happening? 40,000 thirsty "Sheep" plus another 7,000 or so Inverness followers could have helped the coffers of the Glasgow businesses.

We found a place for lunch - well, a snack really - eventually and I took this photo:

In other news, Jo got an early birthday present from Oz:

Kelly gave me her professional opinion on my recent anxiety dream:

"This is my interpretation of your anxiety dream.... you are concerned about the age at which you retire (obviously having enough money to keep you going), but you are worried that if you leave it too late you will not have enough time to enjoy yourself and do what you want to do. Hence the turning up late bit and not getting to play golf."

Jo and Chris thought, however, that it was related to my knee. Jo because I had expressed a little concern that I had plateau'd with my knee bending exercises, and Chris because I wouldn't be able to do what I used to.

So, continuing on the same theme, I dreamt the other night that I was bathing Kelly and Ross - when they were younger obviously - and they weren't happy about it and Kelly, in particular, took umbrage and I had to virtually drag her to the bath and throw her in. Kelly's reaction was to just sink to the bottom of the bath (it had suddenly got deeper) and lie there, totally submerged, with bubbles coming from her mouth. I think I awoke at this stage. What do we all make of this then?

My first full week of UP stats is out now and here's the summary:

 

 

The dilemma for this week is what to buy Jo for her birthday on Thursday - and where shall we go to celebrate it? Jo doesn't want anything and can't make up her mind where to go for a meal. I suggested she might like a bike, but she's procrastinating on this one. What do you think? Vote on the poll on the side bar of this blog.