Carole's birthday

It's a very happy birthday today to Carole. She dodges the camera, but was happy to pose on this occasion, sheltering from the rain at the church when Donald got married:

Looks like I'm heading down to Glasgow tomorrow on my own after all. A confusion of times/dates means Jo won't be able to come with me as she's having lunch in Inverurie with Carole and her Mum. Never mind.

Got squash on tonight again - twice in one week!

What a beautiful red sunrise there was this morning as I drove along the top road towards Garlogie. It was gone in just a few minutes - I should have stopped and photographed it.

The villa owner seems to be having some internet connection problems - I only hear from her intermittently - I think we're OK for leaving Aberdeen on 27th March, but I'm not ready to book flights until I'm absolutely sure we've got the villa.

Dan Corbett

I've made Dan famous now - his little ditties of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah can be viewed in 3 parts on You Tube at:


http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=I5r9eszhl3k and
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp_EzTCvzFo
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=SKOtxYhKk9s

and, of course, the original can be found at http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=rf36v0epfmI

The better (best?) version can be found on Jeff Buckley's classic Grace album and there's a version of him singing it on You Tube at http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=AratTMGrHaQ

Short day

Squash was good fun last night and there was still some Xmas pud left when I got home - great! We watched QI - probably our favourite quiz/comedy, then Mock the Week - 2 good belly laugh programmes.

Today was also short - my car had to be picked up at Arnold Clark - I had taken the pool car home yesterday - so I got a lift over with one of the girls who lives at Cove. That left me with plenty of time - to fill the car with diesel, get a haircut, get my driving glasses fixed, set up a new optician's appointment - and still be home before 4pm - Jo was a bit surprised to see me.

Got some meetings in Glasgow on Friday morning so have to head down there on Thursday - not ideal, as I have to head north to Fraserburgh first. Jo took pity on me and has offered to come with me to do some of the driving.

I'm almost at the end of the lengthy audiobook Jazz - a history of jazz in the 20th century. I'm simultaneously trying to finish Stuart Maconie's book Cider with Roadies. Colin gave it to me and I started to read it on my way to Florida. He and I both bought different Maconie books when we went to hear him at Pitlochry early this year - both are signed - I gave mine to Kelly, who's a fan.

I've also had the Pink Floyd biography from Harry for several months - and haven't even opened it yet. Need to read it soon and return it to him.

We've got another headbang coming up in a few weeks and I'm working on the categories now. Of course, we'll start with the usual Obituary spot - Levi Stubbs and Mitch Mitchell featuring this time - then I'm thinking of repeating a few of the features (with videos so far unseen) from our last show:

Blues Legends

Corny Country

Festival Rock

Original and Cover

Then and Now

Followed by some new features:

Family Favourites

Father and Son

Guitar Heroes

Jock Rock

Secret Pleasures

Rock Chicks

Soul of Stax

Bad start to Monday

Felt sore and tired when I got up this morning - couldn't figure out why until Jo said she had a terrible night of dreams - I didn't ask for details - we might hear in her blog later - but this would inevitably have meant a restless night.

It went from bad to worse as I drove up Mount St and the car could barely crawl the hill. I looked down and noticed the warning - "engine management system". I diverted and limped along the south Deeside road and headed straight to Arnold Clark. My car had had its 54,000 mile service while I was in Florida - I thought this would save time, but now it's broken down and I've had to take it back anyway.

I waited for a while and then got the usual response - "need to order parts". So, it's now almost 11:00 am and I've finally arrived at the office, having missed over 3 hours of work. So why am I wasting more time sitting here and writing this blog entry? Frustration, that's why! Anyway, better get on with some work now. No time for a list.

Got the pool car and I'll take this to squash tonight and bring it back tomorrow - but why does nobody put fuel in the pool cars? That's more time I've got to spend doing useless things. Incidentally, Gary, I don't do long lunches - in fact, I seldom leave my desk during the working day - apart from the fact that there's nowhere to go round here, going out for lunch is such a waste of time - I'd far rather just work through and leave the office earlier - yes, I do have the flexibility to do this at least. Maybe Jo would go back to making me a lunch box every day? (Joke!) Long lunches were consigned to the bin back in the '70's when I left Black & White.

That reminds me - Lucy saw Dad's display cabinet in our room on the webcam on Saturday and wanted to know that we had a stock of miniatures in there, just like Mum and Dad always had. I had to confess there were none, but I remembered I had brought up one Black & White miniature with me - so that's now in pride of place you'll be pleased to know, Lucy!

Remember my previous rants about John Anderson, the former Sales Director of Scofish, who brought the company down with his corrupt deals, lies and forgeries? Well, we're still sue-ing him - in fact, I have another meeting with our lawyers tomorrow. I heard this morning that he's just got out of hospital after 10 days with a heart attack. Friend or foe, that news would normally produce some sympathy at least, but I have to admit that my first thought was "is it true?" - or is it just another of the many scams and webs he weaves? Is this shameful of me - or just a typical reaction from bitter experience?

Anyway, Lucy - here's the photo of me in my kilt that you asked for. It's from January, 2001 when Jo and I were at Gleneagles for a Clydesdale Bank ceilidh:

Beautiful Sunday

Another glorious day - golf was fun, even although it was cold - dry and sunny is always good. I had a chance to have a quick chat with Doris in the car park - she finally managed to get Dave to go back to the hospital on Thursday and he's now officially been diagnosed with vascular dementia - it's a relief that the D word is finally in use - perhaps some progress will be made now. They're going back for another scan on Tuesday. Doris also volunteered the information that she thinks Dave can manage golf at Banchory - familiar surroundings with friends he can probably just about cope with - perhaps the occasional day trip away as well - but, by deduction, he won't be able to go on golf holidays with us any more. I'm glad Doris said that and we didn't have to tell her.

Dave has also been stopped from driving - that's another relief - but what a shame - he's 3 weeks younger than me.

A spot of TV watching and snoozing and then darkness falls suddenly - the days are getting really short in NE Scotland. We're catching up with Stephen Fry in America - Wyoming and Idaho so far. Last night we couldn't find anything on TV to watch so I started trawling and stumbled across Father of the Bride - what a great film - Steve Martin is so funny and his films have a nice mixture of bitter/sweet pathos. Who can forget "Fronck" the wedding organiser, played by Martin Short?

Gary's replacement birthday present arrived yesterday - he says he will come and pick it up soon. We Skyped with Lucy yesterday - Cade and Braeden were in good form and you'll have heard about Cade's project from Jo's blog - feel free to add your own bit of "Scottishness" for him. Would some Scottish lists help Cade? People:

John Logie Baird - invented TV

Sean Connery - the first James Bond on film

Andrew Carnegie - of Carnegie Hall fame - steel magnate and philanthropist

Alexander Graham Bell - invented the telephone - "Ma Bell" named after him

John McAdam - modern road construction ("tarmacadam")

Sir Alexander Fleming - penicillin

Charles Macintosh - waterproofing (coats used to called macs or macintoshes)

Tony Blair & Gordon Brown - last 2 Prime Ministers of UK - both born in Scotland

Things we eat:

Mince & tatties

Pies

Haggis

Dumpling

How's that for starters, Cade?

Holiday news

Good news - finally heard back from the villa owner - it's available w/c 27 March 09 - so I'm going ahead to book it now. Once that's done, I'll get on to flights.

Saturday morning slobs

It's Saturday morning. I've had my breakfast - but no paper to read - no TV to watch either - Jo's insisting on her early morning fix of Alibi - today it's two hours (!) of Taggart - and she complained when I didn't get her a coffee this morning - unusually she was up first and I assumed she had got herself one, but I guess I was wrong.

I suppose as I'm usually off to work (or away golfing) Jo's used to having the TV to herself - so I can't really complain. Is this the life of retirement I have facing me? Maybe just as well I can't afford to retire for a while yet - it could be years before my pension funds recover from the crash.

It's a beautiful day - I could have golfed after all, but it's just a habit that I only golf on Sundays in the winter - weather permitting - no doubt it will rain tomorrow.

Hoping just to take things easy today - at least until squash at 5 tonight. I played football last night - it was good fun but really sore on the body. Our usual Friday night session was at the golf club last night - we were the only people there! There were 7 of us present - a few more than usual - it could/should have been 8 - Brian Fitzpatrick made one of his rare appearances but left as soon as the first person (Colin) arrived! Strange - apparently he was there from 7:30 but he knows the rest of us are never there until after 8 - why did he bother coming along?

That was my first pint of real ale for a couple of weeks - in fact my first beer since Chicago airport Monday lunchtime. Adnam's Old Ale isn't a favourite - it's a dark winter brew - but it was nice to drink cask conditioned again. I like a lot of the US beers but it's hard to get them served cask conditioned except in the major cities. Today's short list is my favourite American micros:

1) Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

2) Bridgeport bottle conditioned Pale Ale

3) Samuel Adams Boston Lager

Back to the Broch

Awoke a little earlier this morning - not too bad considering - it seems like the jet lag from one week on the East coast is a lot less than that after 3 weeks on the West Coast - the three hours time difference helps as does the slightly shorter time in the air. Mind you, I'm still constantly dozing in front of the TV - I was trying to catch up with the stuff that had been recorded on Sky + in my absence, but missed half of it!

I haven't had a response from the villa owner yet - hope this isn't more bad news! We need to get sorted soon.

Nothing much else to add other than I forgot to mention that I saw Mamma Mia on the plane on the way home - good fun - light and frivolous - looks just like a stage show filmed, which is what it is after all. Meryl Streep was excellent however and the music is great - uplifting stuff - just the job to help shorten the journey. Pierce Brosnan is truly awful, however - and Julie Walters was fine, albeit playing her usual role.

Today's list - you've been missing them, haven't you? - top pop music shows on TV:

1) Ready, Steady, Go - innovative, ground breaking - set the template and came at a great time, synchronising with the Merseybeat and Thames Valley booms, when British groups re-exported to USA revamped versions of the original music of the American rhythm and blues stars, who, until then, were virtually ignored in their own country.

2) Top of the Pops - it's gone now - deservedly - it was but a shadow of its former self, but, in its early days it was compulsive viewing for the whole nation, allowing parents to further develop their skills in such phrases as "who's that man with the girl's hair?", "turn off that racket" etc etc. In fact, for many years, it was the only way to see popular music on TV - getting on TOTP was a guaranteed way of breaking a new band.

3) Old Grey Whistle Test - often now seen on BBC Four and part of the ongoing nostalgia feast that every generation does - but don't believe everything you may have heard about it. In its day, it was definitely cultish - i.e. it could be pretty obscure and difficult viewing at times. In fact, you could liken OGWT in many ways to Monty Python - at its best, it was wonderful, but at times it was definitely cringe-worthy. Fortunately, we only ever seem to see (and remember) the good bits.

4) Later with Jools Holland - notice how I seem to have skipped a few decades? - I guess that tells you all you need to know about my opinion of music TV in recent years.

Back from USA

I got back to Banchory early yesterday afternoon after a long and stressful trip. I was sharing a villa with Keith Gray and Dave Edwards. Unfortunately, Dave is going downhill and we only discovered as we were about to leave on Monday morning that his passport was missing. We had to rush to the British Consulate in Orlando and get an emergency one issued - we managed just in time and the rest of the journey home was uneventful - although we had fairly long waits at both Chicago and Manchester.

The holiday was great - the resort was terrific and we had a good time, although I didn't quite manage to bring the trophy back again (I was 2nd equal with Syd) - Malcolm won it this year. The weather was great as well - we had clouds which didn't clear on the first two days, but after that, it was ideal. We used most of the on site facilities at the resort, including a nice water park which had a lazy river and a slide, as well as a separate area for the kids. Here I am sunning myself:

It's always nice to be home, however. Jo made mince and tatties for tea - great - and we then vegged out on last week's Corrie before retiring to bed before 9 - that was as long as I could last! I actually slept very well and awoke just after 6 this morning - perfect! Usually disturbed sleep patterns mean I awake about 3 in the morning - but not this time.

Anyway, we now need to get our holiday in Tenerife booked as soon as possible. I note from the various blogs that delaying our departure until Friday 27th March doesn't seem to present any problems for anyone - in fact, it's better for Carole and Gary. This is right in the middle of the Aberdeenshire (but not the Cornish) school holidays, so it's essential we get both the villa and the flights booked soon. Can everyone please confirm they are OK for this and I will try and book asap?

Technology

Blogspot will only accept photos as .jpg files and videos as .avi files. If Gary (for G is he) selected to save as a .jpg file rather than an a .pdf file when he scans it works fine.

Golfing today was glorious and the skywriters were out in force - this is for Jo:

Golf this week

Golf blog being updated daily - http://bsvgolf.blogspot.com/

Saturday night/Sunday

Dinner went very well last night - despite Jo's usual fears - and a couple of mishaps with the oven. Here are Anne, Leslie, Jo, Colin and Johanne deep in conversation:

It's been a fantastic day - golf was delightful this morning. The clubs are packed and all I've got to do now is shave and then close the case and try to get a bit of sleep before my pre-dawn departure tomorrow.

Holiday

There's also this one: http://www.ownersdirect.co.uk/canaries/C1449.htm - but it's only available the week before (13th - 20th March).

Sorry Cade

Hi Cade - sorry I didn't realise you had typed the last blog yourself! Well done - and keep blogging. Your uncles Ross and Gary went to see Aberdeen play football (soccer) yesterday with me - and Aberdeen won 1-0! Which game do you like best - (American) football or soccer?

I liked the Hallowe'en photographs - did you see Luca's?