Thursday's news

Good news about Jo (see her blog) - although I sense she's not entirely relaxed about the situation yet.

We've had the Union in again today - we gave them an update on the job losses at IFC. A total of 65 jobs have gone, but, with natural wastage and the fact that we've been able to find a number of jobs in sister company Nor-Sea (23), then the only major impact is on the part-time evening shift which stops tonight. Many of these are second incomes and/or migrant labour, so hopefully the impact on the local economy will be minimised. Painful, but, frankly, it could have been worse - hopefully we'll now be able to move forward again.

It was week 3 of our regular Wednesday Summer Quaich golf competition last night (although only my 2nd week) and it doubled up as a Medal competition. You'll all be delighted to know that I scored level par again and my handicap didn't go up nor down - pretty good start to the season. I was playing with Ian Dring, who's just returned to Banchory after 3 years in Kuala Lumpur - he (and we) thought that was him back for good, but, lo and behold, his employers (Baker Hughes) have had another global re-organisation and he's now been moved to Algeria, in charge of North Africa - so that's another one of our group gone now.

Jo has been giving you glimpses of her holiday photos but don't forget that I'm putting together a CD/DVD of all of our photos - I'm just waiting to get Gary and Carole's and then I can send them out.

I've got more golf to look forward to tomorrow afternoon - Keith, Malcolm and I have got a freebie at St Andrews Bay - I complained about the state of the course when we played there last year and I got a nice letter back from the General Manager offering us a free fourball - but it had to be played before the end of April.

The Apprentice was good again last night - we watched it after the Man U match (what a goal from Ronaldo!) - did AMS get his decision wrong? It was certainly a major and fundamental error on the costings, but was team leader Paula really to blame? What about Ben's and Yasmina's part in their team's downfall? And how lucky was Noorul to be the leader of the winning team? If you've no idea what I'm banging on about, check http://www.bbc.co.uk/apprentice/ to see this year's candidates and their biographies - and, of course, if you're in the UK, you can watch it again on the BBC i-player. Who's gonna be next to go?

I heard a feature on the radio this morning about music played at funerals and how the traditional hymns etc are now getting less popular and being replaced by the deceased's favourite popular music. As usual, somebody had done a survey and it appears that Frank Sinatra's My Way was the most popular. Here's the top 10:

TOP 10 POP SONGS AT FUNERALS
1 My Way - Frank Sinatra/Shirley Bassey
2 Wind Beneath My Wings - Bette Midler/Celine Dion
3 Time To Say Goodbye - Sarah Brightman/Andrea Bocelli
4 Angels - Robbie Williams
5 Over The Rainbow - Eva Cassidy
6 You Raise Me Up - Westlife/Boyzone/Josh Grobin
7 My Heart Will Go On - Celine Dion
8 I Will Always Love You - Whitney Houston
9 You'll Never Walk Alone - Gerry and the Pacemakers
10 Unforgettable - Nat King Cole

Personally, I rather took a liking to the thinking behind some of the others that were mentioned - like AC/DC's Highway to Hell! It did make me think, however, about what I would like to be played at my funeral (note no cremation - no burning, please!). I guess my favourite record of all time is probably still Otis Redding's version of Try a Little Tenderness, although this, unlike many of the above, has no real relevance to the funeral situation. Tin Soldier by the Small Faces? - not really - what about Up the Junction by Squeeze? - now at least the title has some relevance!

Of course, depending on how long I last, it may well be Led Zeppelin's Dazed and Confused by then!

It looks like I'll be brewing my birthday beer next Tuesday - Scolty Ale it is, I think. Which reminds me that I never posted the photo of the afternoon that Scott and I went down to Deeside Activity Park - here he is posing beside one of the old tanks there:

Next time the Lesinas are over, this would be a great place for the boys to go and play.

Short days - I like them

I was at work on Easter Monday but it was so quiet and the weather was so sunny, I was never going to manage a full 8 hours in the office. Keith was first to crack - he called me and said did I fancy a few holes of golf instead of squash this evening? "Of course - when can you be there?" 4-ish he said, and so it was - Malcolm joined us - we were only 3 in number anyway as Richard is on hols and this is Harry's month on (in Equatorial Guinea), so doubles would have been out of the question.

When I think about it, a number of friends and former squash, golf and football partners have either moved away or are working overseas now. I guess it's because of the very international nature of the oil industry and the opportunities it provides. Dave Williamson retired financially from BP last year after over 34 years service but immediately found a job with BG, based in Reading but with the project in Brazil, so we only see him now every other weekend at most. Ken Page has been working out in Abu Dhabi for over a decade now and Nigel Meany has been away for years - initially in Kuala Lumpur, but now Dubai.

Harry Salter is month on, month off in E.G. but he, like the 3 others mentioned above, at least maintains a house in Banchory and we see them all fairly frequently when they come back. Others, like John Taylor, Bob Cooper, George Cox and John Davies moved back down south when they retired - although we see the latter 3 at least once a year on our Summer Tour golf trip (Harrogate this year). In fact, John Taylor - probably the most gregarious of all of them - is the only one that keeps no regular contact with the rest of the group. He and Jane now live near King's Lynn in Norfolk but seem to want to keep themselves to themsleves.

Then, there's the retirees - Les Gray is spending more and more of the year at his house in Vilamoura and returning to these shores for briefer and briefer periods. Bill Miller now spends the winter months at their house in the French Alps, ski-ing his life away. Even when he comes back here for the summer, he still takes a summer trip back down to France for a couple of weeks and then follows that with trips to USA - his daughter lives on the East Coast and his son on the West Coast. Incidentally, Bill is also the only pensioner I know, who, almost 17 years after his retirement from BP, still manages to buy a top of the range, brand new, BMW every 2 years. Mind you he was in charge of H.R. - and, in those days, 80 was the magic number in BP - if you were 50 years old and had 30 years' service, you automatically got offered the whole package - lucky sods!

There's lots of others who've retired - Syd Freeman will shortly be celebrating his 70th birthday, 10 years after his retirement (also from BP); Rob Pollard - whose 60th party we are going to on Sunday; Jas Bhagrath - although this was partially forced on him by his heart problems and the new hip he needed; Archie Cook, who still keeps himself busy with his son's housebuilding business in Edinburgh and frequent trips to L.A. to visit their daughter and grandchildren (one and a half of them); Dave Edwards - regrettably forced on him by the onset of vascular dementia - and he just turned 60 a couple of weeks ago; Peter Street; and Keith Gray, who is counting down the days until retirement in a couple of weeks' time.

And then there's Richard Simcox - not retired, but not exactly grafting either. He's been on the brink of selling his business a few times, but he's still got it, albeit some of the management now also have shares. Richard's typical day is rise at 9:30, get to office by 10:30 - 11:00 am, lunch, then back home to watch the racing on TV - and that's when he's not on on one of his many trips and holidays.

Do I sound jealous about all these people? Perhaps a little, but I can't really complain about my lot - I enjoy my job, have a lot of freedom, but, financially, it would be nice if the markets recovered and my pension investments at least regained their former value - you can't even get any kind of a return now if you put your money in safer vehicles like bank accounts, so what are you supposed to do? Financial freedom, if you can get it, is good for the mind and soul. Financial worries, which everyone has when they're younger, can drag you down pretty quickly.

Anyway, enough of all that. I had another short day today - a meeting with Norwegians at Francis' house at 10:30 am was followed by lunch at the Old Mill - mince and skirlie - then back home just after 3:00 pm. Nobody at home, so, after answering a few e-mails, I just caught up with some of my Sky + recordings and downloaded some music and a couple of audiobooks. I haven't really been listening to the books on my travels and have quite a few building up now, so I decided to terminate my subscription, but only after I used up the last of my entitlements by downloading John Grisham's The Partner and Charles Dickens' Great Expectations.

The music I downloaded was Gomez - A New Tide. Anyone want a copy?

That's enough for now - hope you like the new archive photos on the blog. Looking forward to watching the footy on TV tonight - and then tomorrow, it's Fraserburgh in the morning, followed by golf in the evening.

The weekend

It's been lovely so far - check out the golf blog for photos (http://bsvgolf.blogspot.com/).

The Dons won on Saturday but the Jags lost, so it's 1st Division football again next season for them. The Dons are in the top six, however and have a chance of getting a European place again next season - although I won't be watching them as often - we've cancelled the company season tickets (and the Man Utd ones) due to the cutbacks we're having to make.

The Masters has been great viewing and I'm looking forward to the final round tonight - but only after we have dinner - great smells coming from the kitchen now.

Happy Easter everyone!

Stewart crest

I was looking through our holiday photographs and came across the above shot of our t-shirts hanging out to dry. It reminded me that it was about time I did some research in to the latin motto on the front, which translates as "Courage grows strong at a wound". Wikipedia describes the symbol as "A pelican Argent, winged Or, in her nest feeding her young, Proper." Here's the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_crest_badges_used_by_Scottish_clan_members

What do we all make of that then?

Getting near the weekend

The week seems to be dragging a bit, but at least it's Thursday now - Fraserburgh today and then back to Aberdeen tomorrow, for those of you still interested enough to read my blog postings - seems like you've all given up on updating your own blogs regularly.

Midweek golf started (for me anyway) last night - although I forgot to remind Jo about it beforehand. I watched the Apprentice when I got home - getting hooked already to the new series - surely James can't last?

I've tentatively planned to go to Deeside Brewery (it's their official opening to the public this Saturday) a week on Tuesday (21st) to brew my birthday ale - I'm now thinking about naming it Scolty Ale, which was going to be the name of the very first ale we were going to produce in our own brewery when I first came up with the idea about a decade or so ago - what do you think?

There's a mini beer festival on at the Aberdeen Arms, Tarland this weekend - would quite like to pop in some time, but I'm not quite sure about logistics etc.

No news about a new job for Ross yet - he'll need to get cracking soon. Thankfully, he's debt free at least.

Jo's little car accident is still not resolved - I contacted her insurance company as soon as I realised it hadn't been reported - but they haven't responded yet. I've chased them again today, but I've noticed we don't actually have a cover note from them - although we did pay the premium last December. Mmmm.

Hoping for a game of squash tonight and then back to Bannatyne's tomorrow - I went there on Monday and was horrified to see that my weight is still shooting up. I knew I was heavy but I can't quite understand why it's rising so high and so fast - although I guess the two recent holidays didn't help much!

Is there anybody out there? Let's be hearing from you!

Back to reality

It was back to work yesterday after a weekend of recovering from the holiday. We went to Perth on Saturday afternoon to see the Jags in their big match - they got a 1-1 draw, which wasn't a complete disaster but wasn't really what they needed either.

It was nice to play golf again on Sunday morning, but I was pretty rusty - hope it gets better soon. And then yesterday it was hard to get my enthusiasm going at work, what with all the difficulties we are going through just now. Today was Fraserburgh which is really pretty depressing - we've got the Union to face again next week, but at least the actual number of redundancies is dwindling - a chunk have left already and we've managed to find jobs in Nor-Sea for more than 20 of those who are having to leave IFC, so we're down to almost a handful that we'll have to make redundant - and at least some, if not all, of them will be volunteers.

Worse was to follow when I got home tonight, however - Ross has been laid off by Bancon - he's on "garden leave" now. He's talking of doing his RGIT offshore course and looking for work in the oil business.

Trampoline

Cade and Braeden's other favourite pastime was using the trampoline at the villa:

Last few days in Tenerife

The sun shone gloriously on Wednesday morning so we decided that it would be a good time to take the team photo in the t-shirts Kelly and Craig had got made for us:


We went down to Fanabe beach and had some lunch - Ross was complaining that the sun was burning his hair parting so I loaned him my hat:


Craig and Cade were first in the sea and the others looked on:

Hot and thirsty work the beach, so we had to have ice creams afterwards:

In the evening, Jo and I went out for dinner - we had huge G & T's (Bombay Sapphire of course) at Hotel Jardin Tropical, where I had stayed on my recent golf trip, then walked up the hill to El Molino Blanco for dinner:

Thursday was beautiful as well so we headed back to Fanabe beach. It was pretty hot so Jo and I decided to take a stroll along the rocks:

Gary and Ross decided to have a game of table tennis when we got back to the villa:

Scott and Craig fired up a cracking BBQ:

whilst Cade and Braeden reverted to their favourite pastime:

Earlier in the week, Lucy and Cade had fun from pool to hot tub:

Tenerife update

What have we done since we went to Santa Cruz on Saturday? Well, on Sunday, we celebrated Scott's 36th birthday - Lucy and Scott went out for the day and walked between Fanabe and La Caleta and had lunch whilst the rest of us hung around the villa and some of us shopped. Scott got to work on the barbeque in the evening and we brought out his cake:

The hot tub was busy after dinner:

On Monday we went to Los Gigantes and went out to see the dolphins (too late for the whales). This was me on the way back:

On Tuesday, Scott, Craig, Ross and I went to play the little par 3 course at Los Palos whilst the others went to the Jungle Park:

Today (Wednesday) has started well and we could be on our way to either the beach or a water park.

Tenerife 1

The journey over was easy enough - although Gary was still deeply stressed at take-off and landing - particularly when we bounced a couple of times on the tarmac at Tenerife. Here he is in one of the more relaxed moments in flight:


Kelly and Craig met us at the airport and we picked up our hire cars and drove to the villa, which is magnificent. The keg of draft Beck's by the pool was soon getting big licks.

Dinner was really a late lunch on Friday - pizzas and wine. Saturday was a little drizzly and so we decided it might be a good idea to take the drive up north to the capital Santa Cruz. We eventually found a car park, which turned out to be the football stadium's main parking. We then strolled down the hill towards the Ramblas pedestrianised shopping district. This was us at the top of the hill in front of the town hall:

We had lunch at a pavement cafe and then walked further down the street towards the port. Here's a nice one of Gary, Carole and Luca:

Dinner was barbeque, courtesy of Scott - excellent it was too. We had thought that our TV had Setanta but that proved to be false and so a swift decision was made to drive down to Las Americas and find a bar that had the Scotland match on - although why we bothered, I'm still not sure.

Today (Sunday) is Scott's 36th birthday, so he and Lucy have gone off for lunch - I'm picking them up in a few hours. The rest of us are just chilling today.

Lucy's photos

I managed to copy photos (but not videos) from Lucy's videocam last night. Here's a couple she took - firstly when Jo cut her cake on Sunday:





Then when they went to see my Dad on Monday:

Technology/communications

Blogs have gone quiet recently - is everyone going off the idea? I know Lucy uses Facebook - is that an alternative, or it an addition, to the blog? I've tried Facebook, Bebo etc but don't quite get them - they don't really suit me. I've even tried Twitter, but couldn't really be bothered with that either.

One new piece of technology I am experimenting with is Spotify - like I-Tunes, but you don't download, you just listen - like a musical library. Not bad so far.

Carless Monday

Scott and Lucy were taking my car down to Glasgow to visit the relatives, so I naturally assumed that I would be taking Jo's car to work - I should have known better. Jo wanted her car - why? - "shopping" she said. OK - that means you have to drive me to work and back? "OK". Well, how tense was the journey? Jo doesn't know the roads and was on edge with all the traffic. We got there in the end, but I think we were both glad when the journey was over.

I brought home a pool car, so she didn't have to pick me up yesterday - but she's going to have to do it today. I think she would have preferred driving to Fraserburgh and picking me up - she asked me if I was working there today - nope - Aberdeen. I got asked the address of where I work this morning and we've agreed she will pick me up at 4:30 pm - fingers crossed.

I played squash doubles last night, but we were late starting because Keith was delayed at work when it was reported that a fire had broken out on the rig he's responsible for. Thankfully, it was quelled quickly so he was able to make up our four, but we were much later than planned.

When I got home, it was Ross' turn to get stressed out by his Mum - guess she was having a bad day? They were at Jo's computer and she was trying to download photos and videos from her new camera. She had installed the software that came with the camera - something that is guaranteed to irritate our in-house IT nerd. He immediately, and huffily, removed it and showed Jo how to read and transfer the files from the camera.

Lesinas days 1 & 2

They all survived well yesterday - Scott and Lucy had an afternoon nap but the boys kept going. They seemed quite at home - Cade remembered the plastic soldiers and soon he had them all over the stairs again. We walked them along to the shops at tea time and Scott and I went in to the Douglas for a quick beer with Colin, Keith and Malcolm - we watched the Wales - Ireland match.

Everyone slept well and got up at a reasonable time this morning. Scott joined me for golf - we played with Syd, and Scott did very well - particularly when you consider that he hadn't played since last summer. Here he is playing his approach to the 14th:

Scott and I had bacon and egg butties at the golf club and then we drove over to Inverurie to join everyone else - Gary was making Mother's Day lunch for the girls.

So tomorrow, I'm in Jo's car and Scott, Lucy and the boys head down to Glasgow in my Volvo.