Winter's coming!

So, did anyone notice that the night was longer than the day? I thought not. It is autumnal, but it's bright and there's high pressure on the way for the weekend, so it's not all bad.

It wasn't all bad yesterday either as Scotland trounced Japan in the Rugby World Cup - and confounded a few critics in the process. Bring on USA on Sunday.

Golf at Forfar today was excellent, despite me feeling a little stiff from yesterday's cycle. Jo was at the Doctor's this morning and has had blood tests, for which she will get the results next week. Lots of speculation about the cause of the pains and funny feelings in her leg, but let's wait and see.

Tomorrow my pensions/financial adviser arrives, as do Penicuik to repair our front door. Next week's busy too - Seniors golf and season-ending lunch on Monday, my Doctor on Tuesday morning (cardio meds), followed by my first appointment at Fountain Lodge Dental Practice - I've decided to go local after more than 30 years of going to Holburn Dental Care in Aberdeen. As Bob said many years ago, The Times They are a Changin'.

Scottish Gas arrive on Wednesday morning for the service and, on Thursday, our new boiler is being installed. Two days later, Jo and I go for our flu jabs first thing in the morning and we're at the Masons for dinner in the evening.

Enough for now.

Equinox(es)

Yes, it's the autumn equinox today - or the spring (vernal) equinox in the southern hemisphere. As all the doom and gloom merchants in NE Scotland would say - it's all downhill from here. Another 5 + weeks and the clocks will be going back. It's a bit of an oddity that, when that happens, the time difference from Kelly in Adelaide goes up from eight and a half hours to ten and a half hours, as they spring forward when we fall back.

It's also 50 years since I left Victoria Drive Secondary School to start training as a Chartered Accountant in September, 1965. This was the Top 10 in the UK then:

Pos	LW	Title, Artist	Peak Pos	WoC
1	3	MAKE IT EASY ON YOURSELF WALKER BROTHERS PHILIPS	1	6
2	1	(I CAN'T GET NO) SATISFACTION THE ROLLING STONES DECCA	1	5
3	7	TEARS KEN DODD COLUMBIA	3	4
4	2	I GOT YOU BABE SONNY AND CHER ATLANTIC	1	7
5	5	LOOK THROUGH ANY WINDOW THE HOLLIES PARLOPHONE	5	4
6	4	LIKE A ROLLING STONE BOB DYLAN CBS	4	6
7	6	WALK IN THE BLACK FOREST HORST JANKOWSKI MERCURY	3	9
8	10	ZORBA'S DANCE MARCELLO MINERBI DURIUM	6	10
9	18	EVE OF DESTRUCTION BARRY MCGUIRE RCA	9	3
10	9	LAUGH AT ME SONNY ATLANTIC	9	6

So it wasn't all great music in the 60's - viz. Ken Dodd at No. 3 - and, unusually, there are two instrumentals in the Top 10, but Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone increases the credibility factor - a tune I remember well from a weekend in Millport, as earlier reported in my Chronicles. I had just passed my Highers and Mum and Dad didn't buy me the promised record player until Christmas that year, so I never owned any of these records.

 It's also 32 years ago this week that I started work at Clipper Seafoods in Aberdeen. The rest of the family were still in Edinburgh and I used to bring home the bacon (chocolate biscuits actually) on a Friday night.

Bringing things back up to date, today is Scotland's first match in the Rugby World Cup and they face Japan in a game that Scotland were initially expected to win, but, after Japan's deserved win over former World Champions South Africa on Saturday, they have started to make noises about running Scotland off the park. We can only hope that this serves as a clarion call to the Scots to do their stuff.

Tomorrow, it's golf at Forfar and on Friday, the Penicuik men arrive to repair our front door. I also have Alistair Scott, our financial/pensions adviser coming up and we'll have a spot of lunch somewhere. If it's nice we might go for a game of golf as well.

News from the North East

It's been a busy week - a lot of golf - Scotscraig on Monday, Royal Aberdeen Thursday, Aboyne Friday and Banchory today (Sunday). Tuesday was Inverurie as usual to pick up Luca from school and I managed a short cycle on Wednesday.

On Saturday, Gary took part in the Crathes half marathon and I agreed to pick up Luca from his football practice with Colony Park BC. It was a glorious morning and Luca was a little reluctant to leave the playing field. I let him play with his pals for a while then eventually he trudged off, trailing his training kit:

He wasn't so keen on his new football boots - they didn't shoot very well, apparently!

I took Luca back to Banchory to await his Dad finishing his race nearby. We had intended going along to Crathes to watch, but Gary said he didn't feel too good and didn't want Luca to see him distressed, so, in the end, I stayed at home with Luca whilst Jo slipped out to see Gary finish:

At the time of writing this blog, Lucy is taking part in her first ever marathon in Jacksonville, Oregon. Good luck, girl!

Finally, preparatory work has started on the development site where the Tor-na-Coille filling station used to be. Most of the trees have now been felled:

By spring there will be 5 new 2-bedroom, 2-storey houses here.

I've completed another Chronicles episode - 2002 this time. Just a few years left to complete now.

There will be less golf  this week - currently only Thursday at Forfar is scheduled, and next Sunday is our season ending Challenge match when we all play and have a lunch together, with Dick Taylor sponsoring it, just after his 70th birthday.