Autumn Almanac

Here we go - events of the last 2 weeks:

• Friday 28/9 - Returned (one day early) from Carrbridge
• Saturday 29/9 - Brian and Mary arrive - golf in the afternoon, then curry in the evening with Gary and Luca:

• Sunday 30/9 - Golf in the morning (Scotland v RoW) is delayed due to early morning frost, so we shortened our round to 12 holes and made it back in to the clubhouse for lunch - and to watch the final day of the Ryder Cup
• Monday 1/10 - took car in to Arnold Clark early morning for its first service - not the greatest experience as it was freezing in their reception and the job ran late and they didn't even have time to clean my car.
• Tuesday 2/10 - Luca day - we should have both been off to Inverurie, but Gary had a works thing on at night, so I drove over and picked Luca up and brought him back to Banchory.
• Wednesday 3/10 - another early start to get Luca in to school in time, then back on the bike again for an afternoon "Booze Cruise".
• Thursday 4/10 - Golf at Scotscraig.
• Friday 5/10 - Bus to Braemar and 7 of our walking group had a glorious afternoon's walk in the sun, followed by a few fine beers in the Moorfield House Hotel before catching the bus home and an earlier than nornal Friday night.
• Saturday 6/10 - Jo and I catch the bus in to Aberdeen for an afternoon's tasting training by CAMRA in Carriages and Krakatoa - very educational and good fun. Back in plenty of time to go for another curry in the Derbar with the Masons and Kilgours.
• Sunday 7/10 - definitely a quiet day with the Sunday Times and TV football.
• Monday 8/10 - another quiet one, catching up with admin.
• Tuesday 9/10 - Luca day again - this time in Inverurie.
• Wednesday 10/10 - another afternoon on the bike in glorious warm sunshine. Another live show on River Dee Radio in the evening.
• Thursday 11/10 - Alistair Scott, our IFA, arrives for our 6 monthly review of our pension etc. funds. Weather is a complete contrast to yesterday so hopes for an afternoon's round of golf are quickly dashed and we settled for a short lunch in the Tor-na-Coille instead.

So that was the last couple of weeks - what's coming up next? School holidays for a start, so I'll be picking Luca up on Monday morning and bringing him back to Banchory, returning him to football training in Kemnay on Wednesday evening - then repeat the following week.

We've also got our gas service on Monday and then the fitter arrives on Wednesday to erect and install our "summer house" in the back garden - its parts are currently lying in the garage. It had started as an idea to have a small shed to store garden tools, fertilisers etc, but then it grew wings.

On Saturday 27/10, I'm meeting up with some of my old school pals again - this time, we're going to meet in Glasgow and go to see Thistle playing Ayr United.

Looking further ahead, having booked (and mostly paid for) our grand round the world trip next year, encompassing my 70th birthday and visits to Kelly and Lucy, I've now also booked a week at Marriott Marbella for Gary, Luca and Ross next October.

That's about it, I think.