Balmedie

Friday - still dry, although a little cloudy. I decided to take the short drive from our Aberdeen office to Balmedie beach and the large dunes there - just south of the infamous Trump golf course. Balmedie Country Park they call it now.

They've laid out some nice wooden walkways from the car park through the dunes to the beach:

Very nice it was too.

I came home this afternoon and decided it was time to check out my cycle roof rack and see if I could set it up - for the first time for about 20 years - several cars ago. Bad news - one of the 4 corner screws and fixings is missing, so I guess I won't be travelling far with my bike in the near future. I went to practice my golf instead.

Strichen

So, it's Thursday - Management Meeting day in Fraserburgh. I had a bit of a fitful sleep - so my UP bracelet tells me anyway. I woke at 5 am but managed to roll over and get a bit more rest. It was then I started dreaming - and it was one of those anxiety dreams.

I hate being late for anything - I don't want to miss a plane, a tee time, a bus, or whatever. This dream was about golf at Banchory. I arrived an hour early for my 8:45 tee time and hung around the pro shop for a while. The inevitable happened - time passed and before I realised it, my tee time had come. I rushed to the first tee - barefoot, without my shoes - but the tee kept getting further and further away - and the first tee, bizarrely, was a beach. I finally arrived there, but the (lady) starter told me I was too late, and there was no offer of finding me an alternative time. I shrugged my shoulders and walked away. OK, peeps - now analyze that.

Back in the real world, I completed my morning exercises and headed off to Fraserburgh, with some of the Graham Parker CD's I received yesterday for company. The morning went OK and I decided to stroll round to the cafe at the nearby National Lighthouse Museum for a bite of lunch. I then walked back towards our factory partly along the coastal path, which is still officially closed at one end after the subsidence of last year. I had time for a photo, looking north over the start of the Moray Firth:

Mid-afternoon, I decided to head home, but I took a right turn at Strichen and headed towards the sign that pointed to the Stone Circle. Some nice walkways there, beside a stream and along the disused railway line - yes, Fraserburgh, like Banchory, used to be served by British Rail before Dr. Beeching came along in 1963.

Anyway, I parked the car and sat by the stream for a while. A couple of (at least equally) elderly gents passed and had a chat, and then I headed up the slope towards the stone circle:

The whole area is really rustic and peaceful. There was a small circular tower nearby:

The apparent doorway was only about 3 foot high, but I ducked down and entered, to find a tall column in the centre:

There were flies everywhere - I didn't hang around.

I got home eventually and there, waiting for me, was a birthday present from Oz:

Perfect - and it's non-alcoholic! I was going to buy it this year myself.

High pressure continues

Still glorious here - and long may it continue. I love days when the skies are clear and you wake up to a slight frosting on your car and the day just gets warmer and warmer from there.

I went for a short walk round Fraserburgh harbour yesterday at lunchtime, staring up at the huge pelagic trawlers, which are now all tied up after the end of the main mackerel season. Stopped off at Inverurie for tea with Luca and Jo before dashing back to Banchory for an important meeting on the future of the planned new Sports Centre. I decided to dump my car at home - I just had enough time to do that before walking from one end of the village to the other for the meeting at Hill of Banchory. The walk took me just over half an hour, walking as fast as I could.

Of course, one of the reasons I walked to the meeting was that I was falling short of my 10,000 steps per day target. My new Jawbone Up doesn't have much data yet, but here was the first report after a couple of days:

 

 

The history of the planned Sports Centre goes back two decades at least, when the community raised funds for a new pool. The money collected - £100K - has been sitting in a bank account earning peanuts in interest ever since, with little sign of the pool appearing - until now. It appears that we are now finally entering the final stages of a long, drawn-out programme, with final designs now being put together, with a view to having the Centre operational in 2017 - and yes, it's almost certain we will have squash courts in it - but only courtesy of Richard Simcox, who has made a very generous commitment to provide a six figure sum. There still remains a funding gap of c. £350K - £400K, which has to be available within 18 months, but I really believe we will get there this time.

The tragedy for me is that I will not be in a position to get much use from the centre by the time it opens - and a whole generation have missed out.

This morning was a trip to the dentist, so no weekly cycle with the boys. I did leave work early this afternoon, however, with the intention of going for a late afternoon cycle round Banchory. I headed up round Inchmarlo, but didn't get very far and ended up coming back down to the High St and going for a haircut!

A long-awaited parcel arrived from America - the Official Bootleg Box by Graham Parker and the Rumour, for which I was one of the original funders of the project - gaining myself a mention on the album notes:

(right hand page, middle column, 9 down)

That's all for now, folks

Spring is here?

A glorious start to the week - blue skies and we're promised it will get warmer and stay dry. Pity I didn't quite feel up to it - either something I ate or a little bug. I struggled in to work but decided I had to get out at lunchtime and get some fresh air. I went down to Persley Walled Garden - I hadn't been there for years. It's a little oasis of calm amongst the madness that is the nearby infamous Haudagain roundabout, which, incidentally is about to get a whole lot worse as they are due to close Mugiemoss Road, one of my regular rat runs. It's going to be madness round there as everyone tries to get across the Don from north to south and vice versa.

Here's how the garden was looking today:

It was a little sun trap which I enjoyed for a brief 10 minutes before returning to the office. Not another soul to be seen other than a single gardener.

I went to Pittodrie on Saturday to see Aberdeen sneak through to the Scottish Cup semi-final by narrowly beating Dumbarton. Oh - and we finally got our tickets for the League Cup Final, which is next Sunday. 40,000 tickets have been sold to Aberdeen fans, so it should be a great occasion, although heading back up the road after the match could be a bit problematic.

I had another round of golf yesterday as well, so it's all looking good for my trip to Dubai in just over 2 weeks' time.

The media in the UK are very hot on the topic of sugar just now. There have been endless reports about sugar in certain foods, and there have even been calls for a sugar tax! Some of the media, however, manage to interpret the facts differently - or perhaps they just tell lies - or maybe they're stupid? Yes, Daily Mail - it's you I'm talking about. They published a ridiculous headline about real ale a few weeks ago which stated that a pint contained 9 spoonfuls of sugar. Utter rubbish of course and I wrote to CAMRA HQ about it and they, in turn, took it up with the Daily Mail, who eventually published an apology - in small print of course.

Here's the proof, in a quick ready recknoner:

Have a good week. Bye for now.

Forgot to say thank you to my 100,000th reader. Sorry, can't tell who you are, but there wasn't a prize anyway.