Travel to Glasgow

I'm writing this on the train down to Glasgow for Dad's 6 month assessment at Erskine. It's a beautiful clear, crisp day. Thankfully, the Slug road was fine this morning, so, so far so good. It's a lot stressful than driving.



We had an adventure last night - I'm looking forward to reading Jo's blog today and her account of events - I heard a version last night, but no doubt there will have been other bits she missed out. I had dropped Jo off at Inverurie on my way to Fraserburgh - a particularly nasty day there - not weather wise - there was no snow - but we had to tell the staff at one of the factories (the canning plant) that we would have to move on to a 3 day week starting next week due to a loss of orders in Australia, Scandinavia and the UK - not pleasant at all - I hope we can revert to a full week in a couple of months' time - if we have any staff left by then, that is.



Anyway, back to Jo - we were late leaving Inverurie on the way home - I had scheduled to play doubles that evening and had put our scheduled 5:15 start back to 6:00 pm which, if we left Inverurie at 5, would be plenty time to get Jo home and me up to Findrack in time for squash. Inevitably, we were late and I had no option but to go straight to squash and let Jo take the car home from there. All was OK on the roads until we got past Torphins and turned up the Tor-na-veen road, which was pretty snowy. Jo looked apprehensive and her face turned even more ashen when we turned in to the Findrack estate.



I drove up to the courts OK - I had to drive fairly carefully but the car seemed to handle the snow OK and I thought as long as Jo went gingerly down the hill, she wouldn't have a problem getting back home. Of course, I hadn't reckoned on the conditions worsening a little allied to Jo's legendary lack of a sense of direction.



When we finished playing we drove down the hill of the estate and had to help some poor unfortunate in a little Polo with bald tyres who was stuck trying to get up the hill. He was being helped by a man who was trying to cycle through the foot deep snow and had lost his chain in this foolish act! It was only after all this that we got to a place where I could get a signal on my mobile - and the first thing was a voicemail message from Jo saying she was stuck and was holding up all the traffic - and she didn't know where she was!



Fortunately, I eventually got through to her mobile and discovered that all was now well and she was safely home again!

Broxbourne

Jo was right - at least on one count - I did manage a game of squash yesterday - but I'm afraid her word blindness/dyslexia/memory loss (delete as appropriate) got the better of her again - Seasick Bill?!!!!!



Squash wasn't without incident - I packed my bag and went out the front door - but no car! Where had it gone? Ross had gone in to Aberdeen earlier on and I had suggested he should take my car which would be better in the snow - and cheaper! He declined on that occasion, but I guess he must have taken it as read that he could take my car any time he wants - which is mostly OK - as long he tells me!



I tried to get a lift up from Keith, but he was taking Richard (who couldn't get his Jag out of the drive because of the snow) in his little 4 wheel drive Audi TT and there really wasn't room for me as well. I then had no option but to take Jo's car - then I remembered that my racquets were in the Volvo so I had to phone Keith back and get him to take a spare racquet for me.



As I climbed up the Glassel hill, the snow on the roads got steadily worse and when I left the main Torphins road to turn up at the Tor-na-veen crossing it was pretty deep and Jo's car started sliding about. Fortunately, there was nothing coming the other way. I turned in to the Findrack estate and tried to climb up the road towards the squash court. I (just) managed up to the first level in front of the main house but couldn't risk any further so I left the car there and walked the rest through the deep snow.



When we came out after squash, there had been more snow (see squash blog - http://deesidesquashracquetballclub.blogspot.com/) and I had to be pushed to get going again.

We watched Charlie Wilson's War on Sky Anytime last night. It stars Tom Hanks as a senator supporting the Mujahideen in their guerilla war in Afghanistan against the Soviets in the 80's. It's written with the full benefit of hindsight and the obvious irony of what's happened in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere since. Not bad. Sky Anytime is now showing virtually all of the Bond Movies - may watch some of them, but I think I'd quite like us to pay a rare visit to the cinema soon - everyone who has seen Slum Dog Millionaire tells me it's great.

A beautiful day today but it looks like it's going to be cold enough for a while to keep the snow on the ground - so definitely no golf! I'm going down to Glasgow on Tuesday - it's Dad's 6 month assessment at Erskine - I may try to book the train.

I'd been encouraged to write a short article for the next edition of the local CAMRA's branch's newsletter, North Sea Ale on the question of my 10 favourite beers. It got me to thinking about where and when, and our move down south in 1974 brought back some happy memories. We often used to visit the Bull in Broxbourne at weekends - particularly if it was sunny. They had a nice garden and Lucy (and eventually Gary) could run around whilst we supped a couple of pints. I looked up McMullen's web site today and there is a recent photo of the pub there:

Sadly, it looks like all the grass is gone and it's been tarmac'd over.

Snowy Saturday

When the snow came down in Aberdeen yesterday afternoon, it seems every man and his dog decided to panic and rush home - including me. The upshot was chaos - Bridge of Don instantly became a car park. I left before 3 pm and it took me over one hour to travel the 400 yards from my office down the hill to the McDonald's corner. I was going to drop out of the football but I was getting nowhere anyway so just decided to try to get to the Beach and hopefully the traffic would have moved by the time we had finished - this plan eventually worked, although not all of the players made it in time, so it was a bit disjointed.

We got back to Banchory - which showed little signs of weather disruption - safely and I had a few beers at the Douglas after tea, whilst Jo caught up with her X-Files. This morning, however, we have snow - I've got 2 tickets for the Scottish Cup match against East Fife, but I'm not sure whether or not I want to go - will take a rain check.

As nobody wants to take part in my photo quizzes, I've decided to give the answers up front. This is Kelly and I at the Performing Arts Center (sic) at Branson, Missouri in 2002:

Kelly must have wondered what hit her that year - not only was she on holiday with her parents at the age of 23, but she - and we - discovered that being in your 50's actually makes you one of the younger generation in Branson - where it seems many Americans go to spend their final years whilst being entertained by former stars of their era giving it one last hurrah at the many shows in town.

We went to see the Platters - or at least one of the many touring franchises bearing that name - and a dreadful Neil Diamond impersonator (Eric Monet). Here we are just before the Platters show:

The theaters (sic) were full of vets - not Vietnam or Korea but from a greater vintage - many wearing their medals, and each show was preceded by the national anthem when everybody stood up, saluted and sang along. We also stood - we felt we had no option - but saluting and singing? - we didn't know the words anyway. We felt like traitors or spies - it seemed every eye was on us. Weird feeling, but remember this was our first US holiday since 9/11 and all the nationalistic tendencies were coming out - although I have a feeling that Branson is caught in a bit of a time bubble and is always like that.

Quiz answers

Jo and I were pictured outside Ronda bullring in Southern Spain in 1999.

Troublesome travel

What a waste of a morning! Headed off for Fraserburgh at 7 am this morning - travel OK until I got nearer Kintore/Inverurie and encountered a virtual white-out. I decided it wasn't wise to carry on my journey so I stopped off at Gary and Carole's. Gary was heading off in his 4 wheel drive to Dyce, but an hour later he'd only got as far as Kintore (3 miles away) - the dual carriageway ahead was gridlocked - cars couldn't get up either side of Tyrebagger hill. Gary headed home and another hour later he made it.

Just after 11 am, the snow relented a little and I decided to try the roads again. Should I try to get back to Banchory, or should I try to get to Fraserburgh (where there was no snow)? I drove gingerly to Oldmeldrum then on towards Methlick and then started to think twice - by the time I would get to Fraserburgh (if at all) I would have to turn back again. Finding somewhere to turn the car round was tricky but I finally managed it and got home at lunchtime. Deeside was fine - the roads were black - but the lunchtime TV news showed the problems around Inverurie and north of there.

Anyway, no sign of Jo here - she had a hairdresser's appointment this morning but it's after pm now and she's still not back. Ross was here however - asleep in his bed, still fully dressed! Just home for a lunchtime nap, he said! Chancer!

Rake-ish glasses

Perhaps the following photo demonstrates the extreme angle of my driving glasses now - the optician told me it's normal to have about a 5% angle but mine are now more like 35%!

Tuesday - home early

Left work early - had enough - long board meeting. I drove back to Banchory to see the optician about my driving glasses - one of the lenses had popped out (again). He fixed it no problem but asked me if I had sat on the glasses? It was only then that I noticed that the lenses were sitting at quite an acute angle when you put the glasses on. I checked and I could still see OK and we decided it was best not to tamper with the frames for the time being.

I had a look at new frames when I was there - I've got a slight adjustment to my prescription and I thought I might try varifocals again. They checked my records and it was 1991 when I bought the last pair. Apparently, technology has moved on quite a bit, so perhaps time to try again. The only problem is which frames? Eyewise has a very uninspiring collection - perhaps I should try the new optician we now have in Banchory? May need some help here.

I also had time to nip in for a quick haircut - number 3 all over, in case you were wondering.

Chilli for tea, then Jo and I nipped out to the Potarch and the Feughside to do a couple of quick pub surveys. Reluctantly, we nipped in to Scott Skinner's when we got back to Banchory, hoping against hope that the beer was OK this time - how wrong can you be? I almost feel like reporting them to Trading Standards or Health and Safety - gross!

Still no snow - looks like we are going to miss it this time.

Today's archive photo is from which country - and when? Bit of a clue in the photo:

Quiz answers

It was Washington Park in Portland that we were in - and it's the Looney Tunes (Bugs Bunny etc) cartoons that end with "That's all folks!"

Portland state of mind

With occasional snow flurries outside my office window, forgive me if my thoughts today turn towards summer holidays, so, with apologies to Billy Joel for corrupting his song title above, I'm looking forward to going back to Portland again this summer.

5 years ago, we visited the Bridgeport brewery, home of my favourite bottle conditioned IPA - Jo liked the live hops growing everywhere - although Cade was a little disinterested:

The news today is full of the snow storms that are affecting the southern part of the country - London and the South East commuter area seems to have come to a virtual halt. We're OK here - the roads are clear and they're absolutely no sign of snow on the ground in Aberdeen - but it could be coming our way tonight.

I managed to watch a bit of the golf from Scottsdale, Arizona last night - perfect weather and great courses in what is, I think, my favourite American state (from those I've been to so far).

You'll all be pleased to know that Ross (or should that be R***, given his likening for conspiracy theories?) made it back home safely yesterday - as did my car! They seemed to have a good time and the weather was kind to them on their drive. He could be going from the sublime to the ridiculous as this Saturday Aberdeen are at home to East Fife in the cup!

Today is Candlemas - I knew it as a traditional Scottish quarter day when ground rents were due under the old feudal system. It's also the half way point between the Winter Solstice and the Vernal Equinox, but the internet has a variety of other stories, and historical and religious significances, including the following beauty:

February 2 is "Candlemas" in many churches and is the day for observing the ritual purification of Mary forty days after the birth of Jesus as well as the presentation of Jesus in the Temple in Jerusalem (see Luke 2:21-40). The day has pagan roots and was a Christian adaptation of the older practices for this midwinter festivity from which we get our "Groundhog Day." Since the presentation was also the purification of Mary (40 days after childbirth), the church developed ritual practices known as the "Churching of Women" (see additional notes at bottom of page) or "Thanksgiving of Women after Childbirth." The following is an explanation:

Seven days after Christmas, January 1, is the feast of our Lord's circumcision

Thirty three days after that, February 2 is the feast of his being offered in the Temple, the purification of the Virgin Mary. So Candlemass is fourty days after the birth of Jesus.

Oakbank school

Check the letters page in yesterday's P & J - http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1055720

Kelly's and Craig's old workplace is still providing controversy!

Weekend before the storms

Not only have we booked our flights, but I've also now booked the hotels in Portland. We were last there in 2004 - note how small the boys were:

Today's quiz is what is the name of the park we were in?

They're forecasting heavy snow in the UK for tonight, but most of it seems to be south of here, so we might escape. Right now, it does seem like the calm before the storm. Conditions have been fair and pretty mild for the time of year - golf this morning was fine - it was good to walk on soft grass again after all the hard frosts and ice that has been lingering for a while.

Well, Ross made it the Man U match OK - he phoned me from the corporate hospitality lounge. They made it in nice time after I managed to persuade him that leaving here at 9:00 am was not really sensible, especially given that he had to go in to Aberdeen to pick up Liam and Thomas, then detour via Penicuik to pick up Harris. My rant for today is about people (like Ross) planning a trip like this and not building in any slack for things going wrong - as they inevitably do. Anyway, for once, he listened and adjusted his departure time to 7:30 am. Let's hope they get back safely as well!

Played football Friday, squash last night and golf this morning - and then I nipped out to Dave Williamson's to do a technical check for our next headbang in 2 weeks' time - he's got a new toy that he tells me converts digital sound output back in to analogue which should apparently further improve the overall sound quality. Dave's sound system is already pretty good, so this will be an interesting experiment.

Footy this afternoon is the big Liverpool - Chelsea match - both teams will be feeling the pressure after Man U managed another win last night to move 5 points ahead.

That's all for now, folks! (2nd quiz question - where did you see this phrase?)

Thursday update

Here's an archive photo from 2001 - both Cade and Braeden will know where this is - I can still hear the screams in my dreams - "Momma - get them to stop it!" - and no, that wasn't Kelly and Ross who said that:

Jo and I did the first of our pub surveys on Tuesday night - Ballater, Tarland and finishing up at the Boat Inn, Aboyne where we had our supper. We had originally planned to do Feughside and Potarch tonight (and eat out again) but, last night, Jo was later home than Ross and I and we couldn't find anything to eat. Ross was starving so he went out for fish suppers. When Jo did arrive home she told us it was spag bog for tea and it was out on the balcony - no wonder we couldn't find it! So that's what we're having tonight.

Last night I nipped out to the golf club's AGM - thankfully brief, so I got to bed at a decent hour. I was up and gone before 6:30 this morning and virtually first in to our office in Fraserburgh. The tedium of the long drive was lifted by Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour - this week it was the number one - Elvis' One Night was played and Bob, in his own imitable style, prefaced it with an explanation of the term Bowdlerisation - basically sanitizing art, including old blues songs and replacing them with lyrics more acceptable to the record buying public - especially in USA in the 50's - check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowdlerisation

That's your lesson for today.

Gary had to pull out of the Manchester trip and Carole (and her father) couldn't make it either, but Ross has stepped in to the breach and is taking 3 of his pals to Old Trafford on Saturday to see the Everton match. He's taking my car - oh my God, what have I done?

Holidays

A piece of advice - it won't be stinking hot in Tenerife in March - especially not at the top of Mount Tiede where Kelly plans to start the cycling expedition. Take some wet weather gear with you - a top at least - plus something a bit warmer than a t-shirt.

I've finally booked our flights to USA this summer. We're going with KLM for the first time for a few years - partly because they now have a direct flight to Portland and we're going to arrive there on the final day of Scott and Cade's football summer camp. Lucy and Braeden were going to drive up there to meet them anyway so we can spend a couple of days up there and travel back with them, as they'll have 2 cars there anyway.

We're going to Salt Lake City for the last week of our stay in USA - Lucy and the boys might join us, but it may depend on the availability of air miles for them. We're flying that leg with Delta - it's a direct flight from Medford so it's fairly easy. We fly back in to Medford a week later and the following day have to travel back to Amsterdam from Portland - we haven't quite figured how best to get to Portland yet.

The downside is that we are back to flying cattle class - the last couple of years we have upgraded to either BA's or Virgin's middle class of cabin - between economy and business class, but KLM's next level up on these flights was three and a half times more expensive than their economy cabin - I couldn't justify this, but Jo's obviously not too happy about it.

Played squash last night and had a lovely roast for tea afterwards. Jo and I watched 2 episodes of Corrie and one of My Name is Earl - does anyone else watch this? The characters are interesting, to say the least.

Tonight, Jo is going to join me on a trip up Deeside to complete some of CAMRA's annual pub surveys for entries in next year's Good Beer Guide. I'm afraid I've left it until the last minute again and it's going to be a rush to get everything completed in time. We might even have tea out at one of the establishments - perhaps the Boat Inn, Aboyne?

Today's photo is from 2001 - Cade should recognise this well known landmark near Crescent City - slightly surreal or what?:

Tamla Motown

I've spent so much time updating my football blog with all the photos and videos of our wonderful trip to Lancashire that I haven't had time to update my own blog - until now. I've got the time now because I awoke this morning and looked out to see that the weather forecasters had got it right - it was wet and foul - a huge contrast to yesterday's glorious sunshine and clear skies.



Jo and I had taken the short stroll back from Anne and Leslie's about 1 am this morning and the stars were twinkling beautifully so I thought there was a good chance I would get some golf today - but it wasn't to be. Maybe just as well - we had a lovely meal last night but it's getting harder to fully appreciate the food when eating late at night - we always feel stuffed. It's an age thing I guess, but we enjoy the company and we'll carry on doing it - after all, it's not that often!



So when we got up today we both felt a little tired - and, frankly, I was quite happy to have a day at home and miss golf. I'd even decided that I wasn't going to get dressed, but just slob around today - until I found out we had no milk, so I had to get dressed to go out for that and the Sunday Times.



Anyway, I've been catching up with paperwork this morning - not work - just bills etc - whilst watching the golf from Qatar - it's just finished, so now it's FA Cup football - there's Cardiff - Arsenal now, then Liverpool - Everton later - Colin might come round to watch that one - particularly as our wives are going out for a church supper talk early this evening.



The door bell just rang - it was John from number one offering to take our Christmas tree to the tip - he'd asked me a week ago and I'd told Jo about it when I was away, but when Ross and I went to look for the tree, it was gone. Jo's just returned from church and I asked her about it and she said she gave it to John a few days ago. Strange - and then a penny dropped - she thinks she actually gave it to Andy at number 6!



The latest edition of Mojo arrived yesterday - they call it the March edition - in January! I'm just finishing off the February one which heavily featured the 50th anniversary of Tamla Motown - no doubt everyone's seen and heard about all the radio and TV shows to celebrate the occasion. Tamla was so strong in the 60's, but less so after that. It was the sound of young, mostly black, Detroit and went on to influence music all around the world.



Mojo's main feature was Tamla's top 100 records and I really enjoyed reading all the stories. I'm sure there are some of my favourites that didn't feature in the their top 100, but there were so many records, it's hard to remember them all. The most regularly featured artistes in Mojo were:

Marvin Gaye (13 nominations)

Stevie Wonder (11)

Temptations (9)

Miracles (8)

Four Tops (5)

Supremes (5)

Martha & the Vandellas' Dancing in the Street was voted number one in Mojo, but it's never been a favourite of mine - perhaps I'm still cringing at Mick Jagger and David Bowie's duet for Live Aid back in 1985? The Supremes were OK, but they, too, never quite hit the right nerve centres with me - although Where Did Our Love Go? was pretty decent.



There were lots of others who only featured once or twice but made classic records - even the Jackson 5 started here - remember I Want You Back and ABC? Tamla was a huge influence on the British groups who eventually dominated the world's pop music. The Beatles early albums featured several Tamla tracks and for this reason alone, I would include some of these tracks in my personal top 10, which, if I also had to pick one each from Mojo's most popular artistes above would make my top 12 look like (in no particular order):

Marvelettes - Please Mr. Postman

Contours - Do You Love Me?

Mary Wells - My Guy

Isley Brothers - This Old Heart of Mine (weeps for you)

Barrett Strong - Money

Edwin Starr - War

Jr Walker & the All-stars - Roadrunner

Smokey Robinson & the Miracles - Tracks of My Tears

Marvin Gaye - I Heard It Through the Grapevine

Stevie Wonder - Living for the City

Temptations - My Girl

Four Tops - I Can't Help Myself

Strangely, other than the time Kelly, Jo and I went to see Gladys Knight in Las Vegas, I've never seen a Motown star live. On that same trip in 2000, we enjoyed a couple of evenings in the Paris hotel, listening to the house band, who were excellent and featured a guy who used to play with the Temptations. One of his former band members was in the audience and he was eventually encouraged on to the stage and they performed a wonderful version of My Girl, complete with the all the dance actions.

This also brought to mind another evening when we popped in to the Barbary Coast hotel and listened to the house band (Backstreet) there. The lead singer was called Storm and he serenaded Jo and eventually persuaded her to be his back-up vocalist on Marvin Gaye's What's Goin' On?: