Week of mixed activity levels

I was fairly active in the first part of the week, going for short cycles and hitting some balls at the range on both Monday and Tuesday, then going for a slightly longer run on the bike on Wednesday morning with the usual group (details on cycling blog - link on sidebar).

Thursday and Friday were lazy days however - no exercise at all. I didn't have much time yesterday as I was pretty busy all day in Fraserburgh then met up with everyone at Fennel's in Inverurie for Jo's birthday meal. No real excuse today, however - I could easily have gone to the gym mid-afternoon, or gone for a cycle when I got home about 4 pm, but I opted for the power nap instead. Could it be all the rubbish I've eaten today, compounded by one of Jo's scones when I got home? Not that Jo's scones are rubbish of course, but it was probably something I could have done without after gorging myself on sweet stuff at the office. Washing it all down with a couple of pints tonight will help though, won't it?

Talking of the birthday girl, here she was last night:

Ross had driven Jo through to Inverurie and took her home too, but I also had a passenger on the way back. Carole and Gary had bought Jo a cherry tree for her birthday (at Jo's request) and, after a short struggle, we propped it up in the front of my car. Every time I went round a bend, it was like an attack from The Day of the Triffids (for older readers only).

Also present, of course, was young Master Luca, and he was delighted when his Kids' Meal came with chocolate ice cream:

Gary revealed that he has now completely given up running - from the sublime to the ridiculous. Like his mother, he doesn't believe in the middle ground - everything to extreme. The pendulum swings again - it will be interesting to watch what happens to his weight.

Kelly FaceTimed us yesterday morning. Little Ba' Heid was there too of course and I would swear his hair looks reddish - at least on the i-Pad. Kelly assured us it wasn't, but we'll watch carefully.

Our Psychologist daughter had no theory to propound this time about my dream of her drowning in the bath, but Chris believes this was also directly connected to my knee. I'll need to think of a scenario that can't be linked to my knee and tell them I dreamt it.

The weekend starts here and the weather has got decidedly cooler again. My walk up the hill to the Legion tonight will soon warm me up however - and I've got Dubai to look forward to on Wednesday as well. Hopefully warm enough there.

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.