Blogs

Let's have a competition - see who makes the most posts to their blogs - I've already got 7 to mine this month, not including the 2 other occasional blogs I run for the golf (http://bsvgolf.blogspot.com/) and football (http://bvetsfootballgroup.blogspot.com/). Lucy and Kelly a long way behind! Must set one up for Jo - she's going to have plenty of time on her hands soon when she retires.

Played football last night - felt like a really old man - stiff and tired - even more so than usual - hope it's better tomorrow.

Up in Fraserburgh today but I'm meeting up with Ken Page at the Legion for a couple of beers after work - he's on one of his brief trips back from the Gulf.

Change of venue for tomorrow night's headbang - Gary was "double-booked" - don't know if this is code for Mel not wanting us in her beautiful new house/castle - but anyway, it's back to Chapel House, Potarch, chez Williamsons once more. Prompt start straight from football because Dave and Jayne have an early start on Saturday morning so it's carriages at 11:45 for us. Take-aways from the new Coriander are being arranged to be picked up on the way through Banchory.

The start of the week

I went down to Glasgow yesterday and met the lawyer re potential Guardianship. Met Dawn afterwards and took Dad out of the Gatehouse and off to Erskine Glasgow. The poor soul was mightily confused - he could not remember Dawn and Barry mentioning this to him before and was initially reluctant. When he got there he wasn't quite as negative but when he got home again, he was asking us where he was staying that night - was it at home or that other place?

I hope he can be persuaded to go there for his own safety and that we don't have to do anything legally. Dawn and Barry will continue to work on him.

Kelly - we're staying at Trevose (http://www.trevose-gc.co.uk/) and also playing at St Enodoc (http://www.st-enodoc.co.uk/) in July. Check out the local areas!

The P & J had another article about the Tor-na-Coille development and it appears that one or two of the public bodies are also now opposing the application for change of use:

The second application for 3 houses in the lower part of the car park has now been submitted and separate "representations"/objections are required for this before 24th March.

Ross

I tried hard but Ross would not pose in his shirt and tie when he came home from work tonight - but I did manage to snap this as he turned away:

Weekend past

A couple of photos from Cape Town first - both taken by Syd. The one on the right was taken at the fish restaurant at Hout Bay. I wanted a glass of red wine - just the house wine would do - and they produced this fish-shaped bottle. I should have known better - the wine was as crass as the bottle!

The photo on the left was taken outside the Groot Constantia winery - and, for the record, I was not at all tipsy!

Ross was feeling better and went back to work on Friday - he has to wear a collar and tie (my old ones) - must get a photo of him! - as soon as he's home, he's out of his work clothes and on with the dressing gown - just like Jo!

I think I finally sorted out our surround sound on Saturday, but there was a no-show again from the Blacksmith on Friday, so we're still in a bit of a state of limbo with the house.

Gary was on a stag do with his mates in Sunderland this weekend, but Carole's mum came up and they drove over to Banchory to have a belated "Mother's Day" lunch at the Milton with Jo. By the time they got through with nattering and noshing, I had gone down to the pub to watch the Scotland-England Calcutta Cup match, so I never even saw Luca!

Played golf in fine conditions at Banchory yesterday - it felt like spring was coming - the competition sheets are up at the golf club so it's not long to go now until the start of the season. It was Jack's 60th birthday yesterday so he bought us all Drambuie's after golf and Frances came down with a cake and candles and we all had a piece. Had a second bite later on after playing squash doubles when Jack came to the Legion and did the honours again!

It's going to be a busy week again - I was planning to go down and stay with Dawn tonight before heading off to Edinburgh for a breakfast meeting, then back to Glasgow to see the lawyer about Dad, before taking him out to Erskine House with Dawn, to see if we can persuade him to move. However, the weather warnings are pretty severe and I may just skip the breakfast meeeting in Edinburgh and leave it until the morning before I drive down.

We've also got our first headbang of 2008 planned for this Friday - at Gary's fancy new pad near Inchmarlo.

Birthday

Thank you all for your best wishes. Cade and Braeden tried to talk to me on the phone but I was driving in the car from Fraserburgh when Lucy called and it was very difficult for any of us to understand each other on such a poor line.

Gary came round after work and gave me a bundle of presents from he and Carole. Amongst his usual boyish humour gifts (silly games etc), there were actually a couple of things I can use - such as a CD. Jo didn't invite me out for tea but went to all the trouble of heating up pizza! (She also bought some cake and bakewell tarts and I was quite happy to stay in and feast on them). Jo also gave me a box of 8 "Rat Pack" CD's - and then told me she thought we would enjoy listening to them! - Gary and I just laughed.

Ross didn't go back to work yesterday - even though I thought he was well enough and he had indicated he would be. Hope he managed along this morning OK.

We got the sound system fitted up again although I'm not sure we've wired it properly yet for the surround sound.

Stan's blacksmith is supposed to be back today.

Jo's out with the teachers tonight so it's fend for yourself time for supper - I'll go to the pub anyway after football and buy the lads a dram for my birthday.

First week back - so far

Just to prove Table Mountain isn't always covered in low cloud, I managed to get the photo above - taken on a perfectly clear day on Saturday from the V & A waterfront. Incidentally, there's a prize for letting Jo know who the Alfred (not Albert) of the Victoria & A is?

Monday was a bit of a blur, having gone straight to the office from the redeye from Heathrow. Of course, there was a mountain of work to be done and even when I got home, our house isn't exactly somewhere to relax in just now - in fact, it's in a bit of a state of chaos, with boxes everywhere - can't wait to get everything back to normal.

We've stalled the return of our painter until the better weather when he can do the outside window frames. We'll pick the colour from the charts so that he can do the inside kitchen window and door frames again - for the 3rd time - having got it wrong twice already!

We've got the big TV back in the room and Jo tried her best to put a few things in place to make it feel more homely but it's going to be difficult until Stan's men finish off the stairs etc.

Ross has now got the same bug that Jo had last week - he was supposed to go to the Stonehaven office on Tuesday but couldn't make it in. I had to phone his boss this morning to let him know he couldn't be in today either.

I haven't been feeling too great either - don't know if it's the after-effects of the trip or whether I'm coming down with something as well. Went to the gym at lunchtime today to see whether a bit of gentle exercise would perk me up a bit - didn't really work, but we'll see.

Planning to go down to Glasgow on Tuesday - Dawn and I will try and take Dad to Erskine House and I'll also try to see the lawyer re Guardianship etc.

Cape Town and home

Well, I'm finally home but my golf clubs aren't - not yet at least. We had a great time although the journey home was a bit fraught, involving an unscheduled night in London.

Sorry I haven't managed to keep the blog going every day - been too busy. We played golf 6 times and also had an overnight at a safari park so it wasn't always possible to keep the admin up to date.

The photo on the left is of me at Aquila Game Reserve - a two hour drive inland from Cape Town.

On Friday, we had a bit of time early in the morning, so Malcolm and I decided to climb up the kopje at the back of our villa. The photo shows me rather nervously standing right at the peak.

Tuesday

It was raining today - not an uncommon feature in Cape Town where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans collide. Table Mountain is often covered in cloud and we're half way up there in Constantia. We went down to Boulder Beach after the golf at Clovelly to see the penguins - see photo of Richard and I.

Cape Town

Been pretty busy so not had much time to post new stuff, but we went to beautiful Houts Bay last night for a meal and today it was golf at Steenberg wine estate.

When we went for our sail on Saturday we all had to buy hats to protect us from the sun - see photo of Syd and I.

Cape Town

Horrible night on the plane -couldn't sleep but had a great day on Saturday despite this. We walked round the Victoria and Alfred waterfront and went on a brief sail. Villa is great and we're looking forward to our first day's golf today.

Cape Town

Tour of our villa as we arrived on Saturday morning.

Cornwall

Luca videos

Update

Apologies to all - been too busy this last week to update my blog. A lot has happened and we've been away and I'm now packed to head off to SA in the morning. Will try to add some video and photos before I go - got some nice ones of Luca when I babysat last Thursday - and, of course lots from last weekend in Cornwall - may just publish photos and video without further comment.

Went to Tunnels last night to see Ian Hunter - new venue for us and that's another old artiste ticked off before he (or I) pops his clogs!