April showers?

Some of you may remember the song - but the fact of the matter is that we haven't had any showers at all - in fact April's been an exceptionally dry and sunny month in NE Scotland. I played for Banchory Seniors at Edzell yesterday afternoon and it was a fine afternoon, and this morning at Banchory it was beautiful - and I scored a net 64, so I'm a happy camper now.

Hoping to play squash doubles this evening as well - and then watch the Man U - Spurs match.

Ross is away to see the Granite City rally today. The reality of his termination with Bancon was confirmed when we saw his job advertised in yesterday's P & J - how sad. Walter Mitty? What are we to do?

Old Trafford surprise

On the off chance, I decided to text Brian (Hanson) to see if he might be interested in joining us at Old Trafford - and he said yes! Still one ticket left.

Warning - Apprentice comments

Golf was fun last night, but I didn't manage to get the shorts on - it was nice and sunny, but just a bit cool.

When I got home, no Josephine - Ross told me she had taken Luca back to Inverurie about 6 pm. By the time it was approaching 11 pm, I thought I had better phone Carole - no problem, Jo's just left. When she got home, I was in bed with one eye on the Man U match replay and another trying to finish off Ian Rankin's last Rebus novel, Exit Music - not quite there yet - perhaps I'll finish it tonight.

I ate my tea on my own - Ross was on the computer with Thomas - so it was time to watch the Apprentice. Kim had to go - if not this week, then some time soon - but how lucky was the big Geordie? - Pantsman indeed!

A lot of the guys in our business are away next week at the European Seafood show in Brussels - which just happens to coincide with the first leg of the Champions League semi-final at Old Trafford against Arsenal - which means the corporate tickets are available again - probably for the last time - we're giving them up for next season. I'll have to miss my golf, but there you go - and Ross wants to come too - but no Gary again - he can't get time off. Still got 2 spares if anyone wants to join us? Craig/Carole?

Tomorrow it's work in the morning and then a Seniors match in the afternoon at Edzell - hope it stays nice - and dry.

That's it for now - must say I find this easier than Facebook - I guess I'm still coming to terms with how to use the latter, but it seems to me that a daily blog diary is a lot easier. I guess Facebook is for shorter messages - like Twitter, only with additional features.

Footy, footy, footy

What a match last night! Liverpool 4 Arsenal 4 for those of you not in the know. I watched the first half upstairs in bed - I swapped the mini TV we had in our room for the one my Dad used to have. It was on a stand and I was dismantling it to take it down to the garage when I suddenly thought this could be the answer to Jo's complaints about not being able to see the TV when I roll over to sleep and she wants to carry on watching Alibi or Sci-fi.

It's certainly a lot bigger and the picture and sound are much better. The smaller TV had been used in my office for many years, purely on teletext and the data had burned itself on to the screen, so this is a big improvement in bedtime viewing.

Today has started gloriously and I'm looking forward to golf tonight - will it be warm enough for shorts? Watch this space.

Ruby Tuesday

Why the headline? I don't know - I was just trying to think of some way of describing the day of this post. For the younger ones, this was the title of a famous Stones song from the 60's - also covered by Melanie a few years later.

Of course, other days of the week inspired some famous songs - Sunday, Bloody Sunday (U2); Monday, Monday (Mamas & Papas); Wednesday Week (Undertones); Friday on My Mind (Easybeats); and Saturday Night at the Movies (Drifters) - these were all easy to get - in fact, many more sprung to mind - but what about the God of War's day? I couldn't think of a song title with Thursday in it - but, of course, nowadays, Google comes to the rescue - check http://www.philbrodieband.com/muso-8-days-a-week.htm#days

Anyway, today was fairly routine, albeit I attended a short lunchtime course in Aberdeen about the many changes taking place in UK and European employment legislation. I had to park in College St and it's a Pay and Display - and I didn't have enough coins on me. Technology to the rescue again - phone this number on your mobile and pay for your parking that way. Of course, it's all machine driven, using voice recognition - I'm trying to say SV56 NWJ in a noisy car park and the answer comes back "FB56 MWG" - is this correct? - answer no - try again - and again - and eventually I get to speak to a human - 5 and half minutes of premium phone time later, I'm sorted. Just as well I wasn't in a rush - I'll remember to carry more coins next time.

Came home sharp again tonight - had time for a haircut and still was in the house just after 5 pm - caught Jo on the hop a bit - "what are you doing here?" Anyway, compensation was in the form of a cup of tea and slice of yummy banana bread. Tea wasn't much later - a scrummy melange of bacon, fried egg, mushrooms and tomato - Jo's still cooking for 6 - there was tons left over, but no doubt our midnight rambler will scoff up all the leftovers.

Talking about Ross, he still hasn't had his formal letter from Bancon about his termination - pretty poor I think. He got an acknowledgment yesterday of receipt of the application for the one and only job he has been able to apply for so far - times are tough. Kelly said one of her friends was looking for somebody to set up a running web site for her - perhaps he might get some work this way - I do hope so.

Kelly did manage to Skype us last night - although the call quality dropped off the longer we were online - I think it's the Cornish way - broadband? more like slowband - even the phone lines are c..p.

I also managed to locate Gary's Skype account at last - all we need now is for him to use it.

Settling down now for the big Liverpool - Arsenal match tonight - more news tomorrow.

Holiday? Monday

A local holiday in Aberdeen - but where was I? You guessed it - in the office. What a lovely day it was as well - I thought about nipping away early for a few holes - I texted Jo to see if I could encourage her to come out for the first time - but no reply and when I got home, the sun had gone and I had lost the urge anyway. Another time, perhaps.

I've also cancelled my brewing day tomorrow - I phoned Rob and asked if he could change it to next week, but he's too busy then - I sensed he was too busy now as well, so I offered to defer my day until a more suitable time.

What else is on this week? Hopefully golf on Wednesday and I'm playing for the Seniors on Friday afternoon at Edzell. Nothing else planned.

Weekend grinds to a halt

Saturday was still a bit dull, although at least it was dry - the haar had gone a long way inland this time. However, at least playing golf in Banchory was a lot more pleasant than it had been at St Andrews Bay on Friday - the wind off the sea there was cold and bitter and it was really hard work.

We got our reward today, though - it was wall to wall sunshine from the start. Golf in the morning was great and we had been invited to Rob Pollard's house to celebrate his 60th (last Tuesday) - what a lovely afternoon - we sat outside and drank his beer and wine and had a lovely lunch, which we found out later had been provided by the golf club. It was superb. Jo and I walked home and stopped off at the War Memorial for a seat and a photo opportunity:

Here she is striding towards the camera:

Right now, however, she's horizontal on her face in bed - I think perhaps a couple of glasses of wine too many.

Best Luca video ever

I finally got Gary's and Carole's photos this morning and there were a few videos included. I thought this one of Luca on the trampoline in Tenerife was fantastic - in fact, I was surprised that Gary hadn't included it on their blog:

I'll make up the holiday DVD/CD now and ship them out to you all soon.

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.