Wednesday morning

Not looking too good for golf tonight - this was the view from the pro shop this morning:

Tuesday

Nothing much to report - Aberdeen won last night to make the top 6 and Ross and I just watched a great Liverpool - Arsenal match (4-2).

Golf tomorrow night then off to Glasgow on Thursday night to see Dad. Got an invite to play Turnberry on Friday afternoon and on Saturday we're off to Woodend Barn to see Karine Polwart (http://www.karinepolwart.com/). Then on Sunday it's back down to Glasgow again to see if Thistle can pull off another major shock and beat Rangers to make it all the way to the Cup semi-final.

It's already 2 days past the Vernal Equinox and just 72 days until the Summer Solstice!

Got a new audiobook - a Jack London collection - White Fang and Call of the Wild. I remembered my Mum recommending the latter to me when I was in my mid-teens and I really enjoyed it - not sure how I'll take it now and whether it has stood the test of time for me.

Monday

Back to work for Jo today - she's going to ask about early retirement instead of simple resignation.

Ross drove over to Auchenblae yesterday to get spares for his Saab - but he's going to have to go back again on Tuesday when he's at Stonehaven anyway.

Aberdeen v Falkirk tonight for a place in the top 6 - think I'll watch it on Setanta rather than go to Pittodrie!

Dad's had another fall and been in hospital again. Dawn showed up on Saturday and there was nobody in the house and no message had been sent - but she phoned the hospital and sure enough there he was. He's not safe at home on his own and we need to get him in to Erskine - we've been waiting months for a Social Worker to be appointed to his case and finally we've got one - hope we can move ahead now - and that there's still a place for him there.

Friday/Saturday

We had a fun evening to celebrate Colin's and Jack's 60th birthdays - the team photo was over-exposed by the sun and no amount of software manipulation could fix it unfortunately. A few beers in the Stag and then the Douglas (where we played with their Wii for a while) - the off to the Derbar for a curry.

Felt a bit sore this morning - both in body and head - but still played in the first medal of the season - we had all 4 seasons' weather - bright sunshine, showers, sleet, snow, hail - you name it! Started well - 3,3,3 - but fell away to a mediocre finish. Forecast tomorrow is even worse - could be a day for the Sunday Times and the TV - maybe even some squash.

Ross has been getting very frustrated at the internet service and has been reporting faults galore - hope it gets fixed soon.

Catching up

I've been trying to upgrade the OS on my laptop to Vista but finally gave up and just zapped it and installed Vista from a standing start. You always forget how much hassle it is any time you either get a new PC or change somehting fundamental like Windows or Office. I'm still adding programs and getting things back the way I like them.

Anyway it was the start of our midweek golf on Wednesday and it was a pretty nice day - above is Dick, Dave and I waiting to tee off. It was even nicer on Thursday - 19 degrees - and I was home early and able to sit out on the balcony with Jo once she got back from lunch with her school pals in Aberdeen. Carole had arranged for her car to get serviced in Banchory today (Friday) and also had a hair appointment in Aberdeen in the afternoon, so I said I would take Jo's car to work and Carole could use mine (she's not insured to use Jo's). Lo and behold, Jo then volunteered to clean out her car for me to use - I couldn't believe it, but the evidence above is clear!

Ross hadn't any money when it was our birthdays but he fairly made up for it yesterday - he bought me a new replacement for my old Archos DVR (he's installing it above) and a new flat screen for Jo's PC (also above). Way over the top for birthday gifts, but thanks anyway Ross - hope he uses some of the rest of his salary to spend on himself.

Tonight is the much delayed outdoor veterans football match to celebrate Colin's and Jack's 60th birthdays a few weeks ago. We're having a meal at the Derbar afterwards - should be fun.

Jo back home

Looking a little tense and tired (although I don't know why - she flew business class!), Jo got home in good time and with her bags - thank God she wasn't flying with BA through Terminal 5! She had a good sleep last night and seems to have recovered well from her short trip to the West Coast.

Jo's return

We don't have any curtains or blinds up yet, but as we're moving in to summer, we don't mind the view looking out through the bare windows from our back room to the embankment.

Jo managed to get the upgrade we had requested, using her United miles, so I hope the journey home was a bit more pleasant than it might have been in cattle class.

As I write this, she's waiting at the gate at Heathrow so she's managed to negotiate all the changes in terminals successfully. I'll be heading to the airport in an hour or so to pick her up.

Weekend

It' been a much nicer weekend than any of us would have believed after the weather we experienced for most of the week. I managed 2 rounds of golf in fairly pleasant conditions - at one stage this morning it was very nice indeed.

Bill Miller returned from his winter at his house in the Alps and John Davies was up from Worcestershire for the weekend for a wedding, and they joined us for a beer after golf - it all felt like the start of spring.

Today was also the last day of our Winter Grand Prix Sunday morning golf - and I managed to win it - so that's another trophy for the shelves!

Jo'll be on her way back now - just got an e-mail from United to say that her plane was due to land at SFO at 10:31 am, which is well ahead of schedule so she should have no problem making the connection to LHR.

Ross has done the big tidy-up of his room and toilet in advance of his Mum's return!

Scott 35

And a happy 35th birthday today to Scott!

Friday night/Saturday morning

The rain stopped at lunchtime yesterday and the skies turned to blue - a portent of better things to come? I woke up this morning to more of the same so it looks like the start of the golf season is on after all.

On Friday night we headed down to the Douglas a little earlier than usual as they were holding a pub quiz - you can see the winning team above - we won by a massive amount - we had 63 points and the next best was more than 20 points behind us! Purely for pride and prestige - the prize was just a free round!

Ross had dropped me off and said he was going in to Harris' in Aberdeen for the evening - I told him he could take my car as long as he was coming home at a decent time - he said he would take me up on my offer but when I came home, it was his own car that had gone - so he was obviously planning to stay there overnight - and there's no sign of him this morning.

Ross has got his first pay from Bancon - and he says it was over £2K! - that's the most money he's had for a long while - hope he spends some of it wisely.

Friday morning

A really miserable day - the temperature has risen so it's all rain that is lashing down - if it had been cooler it would have been snow blizzards, which is what they are forecasting for the hills - golf looking very dodgy for tomorrow.

I've been trying to install Windows Vista on my laptop for the last few days but failed so far. I got Ross to help out last night but still we couldn't do the upgrade. We may have to wipe my disk and start with a new install of windows, which means I have to back up all my work, photos, videos etc etc - what a pain!

I watched the first 2 episodes of Damages, the series that Jo left me to watch when she was away - it wasn't bad and I'll take in the other episodes this weekend - if only to create more space on the hard drive. I never mentioned that we had a near calamity with Sky + - Jo had asked us to tape the Colour of Magic (Terry Pratchett) so that she can watch it when she comes back and also put it on to DVD for one of her friends. Ross was watching the first recording in HD on Monday when the box suddenly collapsed and we lost that recording. We still had the second part, but panicked a bit as we didn't think they would show the first part again but fortunately they did last night - albeit on Sky 2 and not in HD - but I'm sure Jo won't mind!

Hey Kelly - wasn't the first episode of the Apprentice good?

Wednesday/Thursday

Got fed up with staying in alone and no football this week so decided to go out for a quick game of squash with Dave, followed by a couple of pints in the Legion where we were joined by Colin and Keith.

Before that, I made the tea for Ross and I - chicken and asparagus pie, peas and potato wedges. Tonight Ross returned the favour and the lasagne was virtually cooked by the time I got home - we had apple pie and ice cream for afters.

Mundane stuff I know, but Jo likes to know what's going on!

Tomorrow night, the Douglas are having a quiz night so we're going along to take part - should be fun.

Tuesday evening

Ross' turn to make tea last night - he was home before me. Naturally, it was pizza - although he did make up a little salad with dressing to make it more interesting and ever so fractionally more healthy - his Mum would be pleased with him!

Still very cold here and the snow in Banchory is not moving - not a good sign for the supposed start of the golf season on Saturday!

Luca

Message just received from Gary:

"Just spoke to Carole. They got out of the hospital an hour ago. Another appointments been made for May (24th I think) where they will do laser treatment on Luca. There’ll be 3 sessions in total (all in separate appointments). They’ll know after the first session whether this type will work on him. If not, they have other types of laser treatment they’ll try. They actually put him under for a few minutes while they do him, and he can’t eat or drink for at least 6 hours beforehand. Glad things are moving forward now, but a little nervous too."