Weds

What a glorious day! - and it was the penultimate night of our Summer Quaich competition shorts were in order - here I am with Ken Black and Dick Taylor.

The property in St Ives is available for both September and October but the rates are dear because they require a minimum of 3 nights (September) and the October stay straddles 2 weeks, one of them the school holidays, so we have to pay for a week for the 4 nights' stay. Still, it's a big place and a good location, so we might just go for it.

Sun/Mon/Tue

Gary and Carole came over mid afternoon on Sunday and stayed for tea - steak pie from Banchory's new butcher - very good. We watched the Dons make a good start against Celtic but then lose it late on.

Luca was great - happy to sit up for long periods now - although judicious use of pillows behind is still advised - see above. Gary and Carole now have their eyes on 3 other properties - one ready to walk in to in Inverurie - Carole loves it but is a little concerned that the garden is a little too small. The other properties are in Insch and Oyne and they'll be visiting all 3 again this week, along with any others that come along.

Jo was back at school on Monday - training day - and she was full of moans again - and more of them today (Tuesday) - but it seems she is perfectly justified - she can't even get the janitor to change a light bulb - "not my job, guv".

I managed a brief trip to the gym yesterday and some squash with Keith last night. We went to the golf club but they were between casks so we decided to make a swift trip round to the Stag to try out their ale - they've just started doing it and it was pretty good - could be on the Friday night rota from now on.

I was in Fraserburgh all day today but left there at the speed of sound to try to get to Bannatyne's before 4:00 pm when my day pass becomes invalid - I made it with one minute to spare! I had a really good workout, doing all my upper body, leg and cardio exercises - it's bound to hurt tomorrow!

Kelly phoned tonight - Craig had spotted another more suitable property near St Ives - it looks good and perhaps Jo and I might stay there in September as a kind of dummy run for the Lesinas visit in October - see http://www.holidaylettings.co.uk/rentals/st-ives/11074

Sunday at home

Sunday morning and it's been raining all night. I got up at the usual time, but felt pretty sure the courses would be closed - I was right - and relieved - think I needed a day's rest as I feel pretty tired and sore from the exertions of the last week.

I suppose I could have gone to Pittodrie to see the Dons play Celtic, but it's on Setanta and I can channel hop to the Manchester derby and the Liverpool-Chelsea match later - all from the comfort of my armchair - a definite no-brainer.

Anyway, Gary phoned this morning and he, Carole and Luca are coming over after house hunting, so at least I won't miss them.

Kelly phoned last night - she has viewed 2 of the potential properties that Lucy & Co can stay in when they come down. She preferred the quieter one, so it's up to Lucy now to see if she thinks it would be OK for the boys.

Review of week

Busy Monday at work - still looking at potential acquisition in Grantown, but had to tell MD today that he wasn't getting everything his own way.

Harry, Richard, Jas and I played doubles in the evening and we were joined by Archie for a beer in the golf club.

Been a bit of a reflective week - it was 5 years to the day that Mum died (Sunday) and 3 years to the day since our former chairman, Dr. Clark, died (Tuesday).

Jo came along to Bannatyne's on Tuesday for a swim (she forgot her trainers so couldn't go the gym) and we had a quick bite there before driving out to meet Gary at the house that he and Carole were making a bid for. It was a bijou cottage in a quiet location and they put in an offer in time for closing at noon on Wednesday, but, despite being the highest offer, they unfortunately didn't get it.

No sooner had Gary and Carole got the bad news (again) about their bid for a house failing than a text came through from Kelly saying that she and Craig had had success with their offer.

I had dinner on Tuesday evening at Maryculter House Hotel with our computer suppliers - nice place and the food was fine.

It was the pre-penultimate night of our season long Summer Quaich competition on Wednesday - the nights are noticeably drawing in now. It was also a club stableford and I played pretty well although I was slightly disappointed in my finish which meant I "only" scored 37 points when I thought 40 was on the cards.

Thursday brought the weekly drive up to Fraserburgh for the management meetings and I also took the opportunity to get my laptop software upgraded to Office 2007 - it's a bit different and takes some getting used to.

Jo came in to Bannatyne's again and this time we both spent some time in the gym and then the pool before going to Shepherd's Rest at Westhill for our tea. The place has expanded a bit since we were last there and it's all table service. They also now have 10 ales on and it was an interesting selection, including an old favourite of ours, McMullen's Country Best, which was our local brew many years ago when we used to live in Hertfordshire.

With the end of the golf season fast approaching, there's lots of outings on the agenda and on Friday afternoon eight of us headed for St Andrews Bay to play the Devlin course. It was a lovely afternoon on a terrific course with superb greens - and what's more, I played really well - particularly on the front nine. I started with a par, then had a birdie and then I hit the par 5 third green in two and just missed my eagle putt. I was one over par gross at the turn (23 points) and although I faded a bit on the back nine, I still won the outing overall, despite the disadvantage of having to pull a trolley as I still didn't have my Powacaddy fixed.

A couple of excellent beers in the Whey Pat, followed by a curry at the Balaka rounded off an excellent day.

Up on Saturday morning for the medal and it was a bit damp, but we managed round, although the magic of the midweek had deserted me a bit and I will now be playing off 12 tomorrow, having gone up 0.1 to 11.5.

I at least had the consolation of playing with my Powacaddy again, but still it wasn't right - one of the wheels was still locked and it was pulling wildly left and struggled to go up hills. I went straight in to see the assistant pro, Stuart after my round and he immediately knew what was wrong and instantly fixed it. It turned out that he hadn't been given a full briefing by David, our pro, on what had to be done. This is the 3rd time it's been in - hopefully it's now OK - I need it for tomorrow as I have 36 holes to play, weather permitting. It's the Claret Jug at Banchory in the morning and then the Rotary charity tournament at Inchmarlo in the afternoon.

Weekend

Got round pretty dry at Torphins yesterday morning - warm and only occasional very light drizzle. Also managed some squash in the evening with Keith, Jas and Harry.

Jo and I watched a film in the evening - a romcom - it was OK.

This morning, it was off to Forfar for the Open - I was driving - picked up Syd and Jas at the golf club then drove up to Dave's. The overnight rain had stopped in our area but when we got within 5 miles of Forfar, the rain started again and it was pretty miserable for the first hour or so - but warm and sunny at the end.

When we dropped Dave off after golf, Doris invited us in for a drink and a tour of their lovely new house and garden - I discovered that, as well as the acre and a half their house is in, Doris owns 50 acres of adjoining fields, which she lets out for grazing.

Doris had indicated that she wanted to talk to me about Dave - she had been concerned at changes in him over the last year or so. She had finally managed to get him to go to a doctor and they are due back again this week. So far nothing conclusive, but Doris thinks that something happened last November - we'll have to wait and see.

Tonight, Jo and I are catching up with old Corries - but the final round of the PGA beckons soon for me!

Saturday morning

As promised, here's Jo and her new hair colouring - she had it up last night, so you can't quite see it all - but you can get the idea.

I survived the 5-a-side match at the Beach last night, although I do feel pretty stiff today. It was good to see the usual crew in the Legion last night and have a chat and a few beers - Colin, Dave, Ian Sharp and John McWhinnie were all there, and Ian McRae managed to make a brief appearance.

I'm heading off to Torphins soon for the medal. Gary is coming through with Luca some time, to allow Carole time and space to prepare for the arrival of her sister and family, here for a few days.

The weather's been fine this week, but not sure what the weekend will bring - we might get lucky this morning, but there's a definite chance of rain tomorrow when we're at Forfar for the Open.

Rest of first week back at work

Been pretty busy catching up again, but I've managed to get some golf in too! Only had one visit to Bannatyne's however - and I've got an assessment booked next Wednesday - expecting bad results!

Enjoyed the sunshine and playing in shorts in our Quaich on Wednesday evening. Won my tie at Torphins on Thursday, so that's me through to the semis now. Jo was out with the girls for dinner at St Tropez - she had her hair coloured in the morning - looks very nice - photo to follow, hopefully.

Met Gary for lunch today (Friday) - Jo was with Carole looking at another house in Pitmedden, although they seem pretty keen on one in Tarves.

Off to play 5-a-sides now - don't know how I'll cope, but looking forward to beer in the Legion later!

More Tuesday

Good news - our bags were finally delivered mid-morning today - only 3 days late!

Had our meeting with the local councillors, BDI and Rod Stone, Aberdeenshire Council official, this morning. Nice noises made, but it seems as if the most immediate and realistic option the squash club have got is with Jamie Burnett's long-awaited Hill of Banchory development, which looks like it will get the go-ahead from ACC next month. Funding will then be the issue.

When we arrived at Heathrow a little bleary eyed on Saturday, Jo took the above two photos of me with my new sets of glasses on - that's the distance ones on the left, and the reading ones on the right.

Back to work

Back to work and I did a full day from 8 till 5, not moving from my desk.

Several phone calls to BA, the last of which told me the first of our bags had arrived at Aberdeen and the second was due later on.

Managed a game of squash at Crathes after work - good to get some exercise and nice to see the lads again.

It's now Tuesday 10:30 am and it appears as if our file is closed with BA, but we still haven't had a call to say our bags are on their way.

Home again

The journey home wasn't too bad, although we were delayed an hour and a half at Medford - something that always seems to happen when flying in to SFO. It did mean that we didn't have the spare time we thought we might have to have a quick snack/late lunch at SFO, so we were ravenous by the time they served the first meal on the flight to London - not ravenous enough, mind you, to forgo a couple of G & T's and London Prides before the meal!

The flight was good and Jo liked the seats by the window. Neither of us slept - we just watched movies all night. Jo was delighted to see Shrek 3, which she hadn't yet had the chance to go and see at the cinema.

We arrived at Heathrow slightly early and made our way through flight connections to BA's holding lounge at Gate 5 for Scottish flights. We had a few hours to kill and we've made a mental note not to go through flight connections if this happens again - it's better just to go out in to the main terminal building - at least there are a number of shops and restaurants to choose from there - the choice is quite limited near Gate 5. Of course we could have gone out again but that would have meant coming back through security again and having done it once through flight connections, we were not of a mind to do this.

Our arrival being early meant we had the galling sight of watching the earlier flight to Aberdeen take off as we waited - we had decided not to ask if they could put us on this, as we (somewhat laughingly as it now turns out) thought that our bags would be checked on to the later flight anyway.

Of course, when we got to Aberdeen, no bags! I'm now writing this on Sunday evening and still no sign of them - I've just phoned and was told they were due to be put on the 4:45 from Heathrow this afternoon - but the girl was a little vague about it. We'll wait and see what tomorrow brings.

Anyway, Ross was on time to pick us up and take us home to Banchory. His car's jacked up in the driveway waiting to have the brakes fitted for its MoT on Tuesday - he thought that Derek Glass was coming back over this morning to do it, but no sign of him.

No food in the house on Saturday either so Jo and I, plus Ross walked along to the Douglas for a bar supper and then home to bed well before 8:00 pm! I thought I would sleep all night, but, no - 1:00 am in the morning and ding! - lights on in my brain and I couldn't get back to sleep. I finally rose about 6:30 - I was just starting to get sleepy again by then, but had a 9:00 am tee time in the Torphins Open.

I had picked up my electric Powacaddy on Saturday from our golf pro - it had been there for the last few weeks for a bit of routine maintenance. The pro went to great lengths to explain every little bit of work he had done on it, but when I actually put it to use this morning, it let me down big time.

Right from the start, it seemed a little odd, but by the time I got to the 7th, it made an enormous noise and refused to budge. I had to push it from there - and that's no easy task when the bag is enormous and jam-packed full and I'm knackered from lack of sleep. I ditched it at the clubhouse and managed to borrow an old pull caddy for the second nine. Didn't seem to affect my golf as I shot a respectable net 65.

Anyway, I'll try the early night routine again tonight and hope I get a bit more sleep prior to returning to work tomorrow.

Last 3 days in Grants Pass

Tuesday was Lucy's last day at work this week, so Jo and I were looking after the boys again. We hadn't walked the dogs on Monday so the first thing we did was take a walk round to the new Redmond park and on to the local shop for slushies for the boys and coffee for Jo and I - mine was English Toffee flavour! We took the drinks back round to the new park benches and sat in the shade for a while - see photo above.

Next trip out was in the car round to Albertson's to get the groceries for lunch and tea. Early afternoon the boys were settled and happy to stay in the house (as usual!) so I nipped out on my own to do some clothes shopping in Gottschalk's - I managed to pick up 4 good shirts and 3 pairs of trousers for work - all for just over £80!

My long-standing curiousity took the better of me on the way home and I stopped off at JD's Sports Bar - I had always wondered what it was like inside. Sure enough, it was a fairly typical American sports bar - large and with TV's all over the place all on different sports channels - definitely a male refuge. However, they did have a large selection of micro beers - 15 in all, so I supped a quick pint of Sierra Nevada's Summer ale.

No sooner had I got back to the house than Cade was looking for batteries for one of his toys, so he and I nipped out again in the car and dropped in to the local jeweller who not only supplied the required batteries, but also fixed my watch for no charge!

I was due to pick up my two new pairs of glasses from two separate opticians in Medford on Wednesday, but when we went to Binyon's they hadn't fitted the distance glasses with the "transitions" lenses. Fortunately, the girl remembered me and agreed that I had asked for these lenses so they agreed to re-do it that day - and also waive the $75 additional charge for these lenses!

We had more success at Lassmann's and my reading glasses were ready and waiting for me so it was on from there to our annual visit to Toys-R-Us to get Cade's birthday presents.

Scott came home from work pretty sharp and he and I headed off to Cave Junction for 9 holes of golf at Illinois Valley GC (formerly Laurel Pines GC). We just managed to get out before the twilight golf competition, which was just as well as it would have taken us hours longer otherwise. The course wasn't in great condition but we had a good time and when we finished, Scott and I headed to the local Wild River brewpub to pick up pizza to go for our tea. It's been a while since the Wild River won any awards, but they're still displaying them - see the banners above Scott's head in the photo above.

I got up sharp on Thursday morning and took Scott to work, leaving Lucy with her car to do any last-minute runabouts for the birthday party. I headed down to Medford, scanning all the channels on Scott's satellite radio system on the way down. Binyon's didn't open until 10:00 am so I drove around looking for potential new golf courses to play next year. The first one I saw looked very nice - Quail Point had previously been dismissed when Syd was over 3 years ago as it was only a 9 hole course and didn't look great on the web. It's located within a gated community and the course looked in magnificent condition but it was Ladies' Day, so a quick 9 holes was out of the question.

I drove on a bit further and found the new Centennial course, which is a cracker - very long off the back tees but with huge wide fairways and massive greens. They managed to squeeze me in with a group of 3 seniors and I had a great time playing with Terry, Dutch and Bruce. Terry gave me his card and said I should call him next year for game there or at Stoneridge on a Wednesday (Seniors day). It helped that I played well - they now believe the myth that all Scotsmen are good golfers! I was round the back nine in 3 over par 39, including a near eagle at one of the par 5's.

I had a beer, picked up my glasses and was back in Grants Pass for lunch. It was another hot one today and the pool was nicely warm, so I was in there once or twice - latterly with the birthday boy. Lucy had made a cake for our party today and had also made another ice cream cake for Cade's official birthday on Friday, when they are heading off with the trailer to Lost Creek to spend the weekend camping with the family.

There was a major crisis with the ice cream cake - somehow, the freezer door fell open and the dogs got in and devoured the cake! Lucy had to rush out and get all the ingredients and do the cake all over again. Not surprisingly, and perhaps deservedly, Ryan was sick on the grass that afternoon!

There was also a bit of a crisis when we went to eat the other cake after Cade had blown out the candles. The theme was sand and sea and Lucy cut slices of the requested sand for Cade and Braeden - all calm so far. She then asked the rest of us whether we wanted sand or sea and at this point Braeden had a complete melt-down - he suddenly realised the cake was going to be consumed and screamed "don't eat the cake" over and over again! He could not be calmed down but eventually he went to his room and all was well again. See pre-meltdown photo above.

We took the traditional end of holiday family photo on the bench at the front of the house - note that the bench has been moved this year from under the front window to the side of the garage.

It's now Friday morning and we're making our final packing arrangements before heading off to Medford for our lunchtime flight to SFO. The end of another great holiday. Still, as Lucy said, it's only another 10 weeks until they come over to the UK in October!

Monday at Hellgate

We had promised ourselves for many years that we would do the Hellgate dinner cruise and Lucy booked us in for Monday. She and Scott had to skip off work a bit early to get there for about 4 pm. The boats that leave Grants Pass and head up to Hellgate Canyon are powerful beasts - 1,100 hp engines pulling about 70 of us along at speeds of 45-50 mph - and they can go much faster, but the water level is so low this year, they have had to throttle back a bit.

Our first soaking didn't take long - just a few minutes up the river and Bo, our driver, slammed on the brakes - Jo demonstrates the result above. After that, there were a few 360 degree turns and general racing round the tight bends of the Rogue river - it was pretty exhilarating. After about an hour, we finally arrived at Hellgate canyon, where many old movies have been shot - John Wayne, Gunsmoke etc. The rocks are high and the river is tight - just enough to get the boats through.

Dinner was on the decking of a huge restaurant run by the organisers up a hill at the side of a bend in the river - pretty spot. The deer are tame here as well and used to tourists - they can even be fed by hand. There were at least 5 boats, so perhaps 350-400 people eating at once. Cade took a couple of photos of Scott, Jo and I and the one above is almost in focus! The service was very slick and organised and it was a full dinner, with starters of olives, nibbles etc, followed by the usual salad, then chicken and ribs with veg and potatoes, and rounded up by berry cobbler again. There was unlimited beer, wine and soft drinks by the pitcher and we were entertained by a singer/guitarist who went through a familier repertoire of old hits - including, surprisingly, some Shadows stuff like Apache - didn't think that stuff was known much here.

It was a short stroll back down the hill to board the boats again and then the fun really began. Our driver and his pal in an adjacent boat started racing each other and creating wakes for the other boat to traverse and give the riders another good soaking or three! They even got so close that the passengers were linking hands across the boats at 35 mph! - doubt if this had been cleared with their insurers!

The trip back was therefore much shorter but pretty exciting and, as the sun was now down behind the hills, each time we got soaked, we stayed pretty cold - Cade and Braeden donned sweaters, which we had brought along for just such an eventuality.

The organisers take photos of each of the boats as they pass under the main bridge at Grants Pass on the way up, and Lucy was the lucky recipient of a free photo.

Sunday

Sunday was a quiet day, with nothing planned. Jo and Lucy got up early to go to mass and we all had blueberry cobbler and cream when they returned - Weightwatchers, here we come!

Scott and I decided to nip down to Dutcher's Creek for 18 holes. It's still not in great condition, but we managed to get round quickly and followed it up with a quick pit stop at the Wild River brewpub, where I tried their seasonal beer, Summer Solstice - very spicy - pity they didn't have any bottled or I would have taken some back for Jo to try.

Jo and Lucy went shopping late afternoon whilst Scott and I had the boys in the pool and hot tub. I also managed to finish off my 3rd book of the holidays - The Innocent Man - John Grisham's first non-fiction - and it was gripping and moving to the end.

Scott barbequed some of the Elk that he had shot last winter and it was really excellent. He also managed somehow to walk in to a door and battered his nose and eye, but you can't quite see this in the photo above.

Friday/Saturday

The start of our 3rd and final week in USA this year. Lucy was off work so we all took a day trip back down to the historic old town of Jacksonville - the first place in the US to be nominated as a historic site of national importance. It's a lovely old town and home of the annual Britt music festival - we had seen Suzanne Vega here a couple of years ago in the lovely outdoor amphitheatre, but our visit this year did not coincide with any artists we were particularly interested in - we had just missed the Four Tops and the Temptations who appeared when we were in Nevada.

We had lunch at the Jacksonville Inn again - and it was lovely. We then took the trolley tour round the town and saw where Dubya stayed on his last election campaign - the Inn is full of photos of famous people who have stayed there or in the separate "honeymoon" cottages where the Bushes were ensconsed.

On Saturday it was another day trip - this time back to Ashland, home of the year round Shakespeare theatre. There was a small market which we browsed before the inevitable lunch back at the Standing Stones brewpub - see above.

We then made the short trip over to Emigrant Lake. We had last been there a few years ago when Kelly was with us. Scott bought unlimited passes for the water slides from 2 pm to 5 pm, but we couldn't believe it when our time had expired - none of us had got anywhere near using our passes to the full.

Of course, Jo just sits out any form of activity and we found a shady spot under a tree where she could read more of her Harry Potter. Lucy brought back a little treat for her - Dibs are little chocolate covered cubes of ice cream - very more-ish.