End of a (blog) era

Well, that's it - I've now given notice to all my sporting colleagues that I'm retiring from writing all my sports blogs and keeping the historical records, photos, databases etc. Some have stopped already and some will stop at the end of this year. I'd given notice a year ago that I would be phasing out of organising all the golf outings this year - still around to help, support and advise, but not taking on any new admin duties.

So no more golf, football, squash or cycling blogs. That "just" leaves me with the Family, Music, Beer and Hill-walking as "live" blogs, with the Chronicles and Pet Hates lying dormant in the background.

My time and attention has turned a little to other interests such as River Dee Radio and CAMRA so I won't exactly be idle.

It's also now time to organise next year's big holidays - first of all Australia, where it's going to be all change with Chris and Kelly having now moved out of their lovely 4 bedroom home in Semaphore to Chris' smaller 2 bedroom unit in O'Halloran Hill, which, of course, means there's no room for us! Boo hoo! It's right across the other end of the city - from the north west down to the south:

The upside is that they're nearer the McLaren Vale wine area. Perhaps somewhere with good train and bus connections to both the city and the south would be good for us?

We'll manage, of course, but it's a very residential area that they're moving to and it's proving difficult to find accommodation nearby - there are no hotels nor B & B's - not even an Air BnB within a 10 minute drive. We're considering a beachside location - possibly a cabin in a caravan park, or even hiring an RV and using that as accommodation and to get us around. Brighton might tick most of the boxes? Not too far from Kelly & Co., on the beach and also on the train line.

Timing has to be decided too. Some of the dates/events we're trying to work round are:

• Sat 13th Jan - Sun 21st Jan - Santos Tour Under
• Friday 26th January - Australia Day
• Fri 26th Jan - Sun 28th Jan - Crush Festival
• Friday 9th February - Chris' birthday
• Fri 16th Feb - Sun 18th Mar - Adelaide Fringe
• Fri 2nd Mar - Sun 4th Mar - Cellar Door Festival
• Sunday 4th March - Adelaide 500
• Tuesday 6th March - My birthday!
• Fri 9th Mar - Mon 12th Mar - WomAdelaide

Now it's obvious that we're not going to manage all of the above. We also have a potential trip to Tasmania to plan. Much to think about - but it helped my thought process to write it all down here.

Then there's USA next year. We'd half considered a possible trip to Hawaii, but we'd need to book it soon before all the Marriott villas are booked. We need to consider when's the best time to travel as well.

Last weekend I was at Boat of Garten and I coped not too badly, but, generally, golf is becoming a bit of a struggle for me. I'll be very interested to see the results of my knee X-ray when I see our Doctor at the end of the month.

This weekend, Brian and Mary are up with us for a couple of days. We got soaked on Friday afternoon when a sudden thunderstorm hit, just when we were at the furthest point from the clubhouse. It was much better this morning when Brian and I played Aboyne. Tonight we're planning to go out for a curry.