Farewell Fraserburgh

After 30 years of travelling up and down to work in Fraserburgh, I attended my last 3 Management Meetings there this morning. As The Proclaimers might have said Fraserburgh no more, Memsie no more, Strichen no more .......

Tomorrow, it's Aberdeen - and same again on Tuesday - and then it's over.

Tomorrow I'm picking up our smoked salmon for Christmas. I had hoped to get the injection in my knee as well, but there's been a blip with BUPA, my private health insurer, and my surgeon is trying to clear this up - if he can't, then I have 2 options - either go for the operation, which BUPA would pay for, or just pay Albyn's fees myself.

The countdown continues.

3 days to go!

Another day out of the way - just tomorrow, Thursday and next Tuesday to go now. Today was my final Board Meeting and it also confirmed my formal resignation as a Director of the various Group Companies.

It was also agreed that I could keep my company car - it's just about to trip over the 100,000 mile mark, but it's running well - hope it continues to do so for a while yet.

That's all the news now from limbo-land.

Weekend news

I made it along to our Cyclists' Group lunch at the golf club on Thursday, but I'm glad I had to work and go to Albyn Hospital in the morning - I certainly wouldn't have cycled, although 8 of our group did, and half of them had a tumble on the black ice.

Our journey down to Gleneagles on Friday was smooth enough, although we didn't risk Cairn o' Mount, having heard the stories of the 20 motorists who got stuck near the top on Thursday and had to be rescued. Black ice was the danger - we still haven't had any snow here in Banchory, although the Angus hills were white as was most of Perthshire.

Golf at Gleneagles was out of the question. Our host, Keith Gray, had booked a tee time on the PGA Centenary course, where they had recently played the Ryder Cup, but there was so much snow there, that the courses were closed all week. Plan B was for Keith and I to go for a cycle round the estate, using the two mountain bikes each lodge had, but that was out of the question too.

Despite the weather interventions, we had a really nice time. We arrived about noon and Annette had prepared a lunch of soup and sannies for us, after which we all headed off for the superb leisure complex. The main pool was amazingly quiet, as was the separate Adults section, where Jo was delighted to be able to get 20 lengths in.

The main pool has an outdoor section, which is pretty cool - literally, overhead anyway. We followed that with a beer in the main hotel bar, where we spotted Bill Beaumont, ex England rugby captain - and a former team captain on Question of Sport. There was lots of stuff going on in the hotel, including a Jersey Boys theme night.

Keith and Annette's son, Ross, was also staying in the (3-bedroom) villa with his wife Susie. They had dinner in the Dormy House and who should be at the next table, but former First Minister, Alex Salmond.

We had dinner in the relatively casual Deseo restaurant, where we were able to pick our steaks and seafood from the butchers' and fishmongers' slabs.

On Saturday morning, after breakfast, Jo and I took a wander round the estate. It was a nice, but cold, morning and it also gave me a chance to ensure I had got rid of the last of the alcohol from last night. With Scotland's new drink-driving restrictions now in place, you can't be too careful.

Our walk took in the Dormy House, where there was still loads of memorabilia etc from the Ryder Cup, including this display cabinet, with signatures of the players:

The hotel too is still bedecked with Ryder Cup stuff, including the famous fish tank full of yellow and blue fish only - the European colours:

Here's Jo and I outside the hotel:

There was a Craft Fair in the hotel and there we bought our weekend meals - fish pie for Saturday and Scallops for Sunday. Driving home, we went through Auchterarder, which must have the longest High St. in Scotland. Cairn o' Mount was well gritted and it was safe for us to go over the top.

I met Colin for our usual early Saturday evening beer and footy. On the way there, I thought St. Columba's Church was nicely lit and stood out - a little spooky perhaps:

It thawed overnight so I decided to go for a cycle on Sunday morning, and also do a pub survey at the Learney Arms, Torphins. I got a text from Jo when I got there, telling me I'd locked her out of the house - again! I hot-footed it back, taking the main roads - something I normally avoid - but when I got home, Jo wasn't there. Perhaps she went to Tease, or to Ross', or perhaps Anne's? None of these were correct - she'd walked to Morrison's to place our order for Xmas turkey.

Come 5 pm, I suggested we should go for a walk round Banchory and do the local pub surveys. We started at the furthest point - Scott Skinner's - and worked back from there to the Legion, Burnett and, finally, the Douglas. Job done - now just the database to update - and, of course, the rest of Deeside to do as well.

Monday morning has started nice and bright, but the temperature has dropped again and the black ice is back. Hope it doesn't disrupt this afternoon's cycle too much.

Tomorrow is my final Board meeting, when I officially tender my resignation as a Director of the various companies. Just 4 days work left for me now.

Thursday things

I got a return phone call from Albyn Orthopaedics yesterday, following my chaser to them after I had seen our GP on Tuesday. They apologised - apparently they had somehow overlooked the results of my scan, so they immediately offered me a consultation with Mr. Bidwell this morning - and that's where I've just been.

I have a tear on my cartilage to the rear of my left knee. He also said that the gap between my bones was a bit narrower, although it's not ready for drastic surgery yet. There were two possible solutions - keyhole surgery to fix the cartilage (day patient, but general anaesthetic), or, more short-term, try an injection. I opted for the latter, which should happen next week. The type of injection is:

Need to read up on this now.

Everything grinding to a halt at work - I've emptied all the cupboards and drawers and passed my keys on now. Our in-house Quarterly Newsletter has now been issued as well, with the following extract on the front page:

No going back now.

Still counting down

Another working day out of the way - each one is proving to be more dull than the last. It's hard to concentrate fully when I'm contributing so little. It's the way it should be, of course - and the way I planned it - so I can't complain really, but I now can't wait for it to end.

It's actually a bit of a baptism of fire for my replacement, Ross, as we're in the middle of changing banks just now and, inevitably, there are wrinkles. It's all supposed to happen this week but it's looking very tight now.

Beyond that, not much to report today. Jo had a nice time with her friends on Sunday evening but she's now suffering with a sore back again. I think a hot water bottle for Xmas would be an appropriate gift.

Despite the black ice yesterday, I did get out for an afternoon cycle, but I'm not sure what was creaking most - me or my old bike. I must start looking for a new one - virtually all of my pals now have lighter framed, larger wheeled bikes with many more gears than mine. Some have bought former hire bikes from the shop at Ballater (http://www.cyclehighlands.com/) and I might pop in here when doing some of the CAMRA pub surveys before we head Down Under.

Talking about CAMRA, there's another committee meeting in Aberdeen tomorrow night, but the weather forecast is so awful, I don't think I'll be attending.

To close, my Doctor's appointment tonight was a waste of time. When I phoned the receptionist the other day, she told me there was some correspondence in from Albyn Orthopaedics, but it turned out to be a routine letter, not the results of my MRI scan. Unfortunate, but the receptionist wasn't to know - they aren't allowed to see the details of medical correspondence. I'll just have to wait a bit longer.

Saturday/Sunday

Gary did bring Luca over yesterday for an overnight stay with us, whilst he considered whether to do the Beach 10K or not this morning.

When Jo was at church this morning, Luca and I eventually got dressed and walked along to get my paper, passing Luca's favourite spot - the mound at the corner of Corsee Road, which he loves to climb up on:

On the way up

At the top

Getting down is a bit trickier - and Luca is pretty cautious as he edges his way down.

We met Jo in the High St. and went for tea/coffee/hot chocolate with marshmallows at Tease. Guess who had what?

In the mornings, especially on the days I'm not working, Jo and I have tea/coffee in bed, watching the world - or mostly the trees - through our bedroom windows. I'm still waiting for my first sighting of the red squirrel who was a daily feature last year when I was recuperating from my knee op. Jo says she's seen the squirrel once this year - and he/she now apparently has a mate.

The low morning sun often creates interesting and unusual colour patterns on the trees and there was a moment yesterday morning when Jo exclaimed "look at that!" - so I tried to capture the moment:

It didn't quite come out the way that we saw it.

So that's Sunday almost over now. Gary arrived and took Luca home and then Jo went out to the Tor-na-Coille again - this time with her friends - so I'm home alone, listening to some Spotify.

Planning to go cycling tomorrow then it's back to work again on Tuesday.

Fridiary

It's still only 4 pm, but here's Friday's diary entry. Jo seems a lot better and is now looking forward to dinner tonight - albeit she's still unsure about whether to have any wine. If I was a betting man, however ......

Jo and her pals didn't go swimming this afternoon but they still took a trip over to Westhill to do a Costco shop - after we'd walked down to the village and had a bite of lunch in the Burnett. I decided to go out for a short cycle this afternoon before the sun went down - the light starts to go about 3:30 pm at this time of year.

I was surprised I hadn't had the results of my MRI scan yet and my attempts to contact my knee surgeon had been fruitless so far, so, when I received a letter from our GP's practice today, asking me to call to make an appointment for their cardio clinic, I thought I would take the chance to check whether they had received the results of my scan - and it appears they had, so I'm going to see them on Monday. It seems a pretty convoluted way to do things - now I'm probably going to have to be referred back to the knee surgeon by my GP - seems like a lot of wasted time.

Incidentally, I couldn't get in to the cardio clinic - apparently the next one is 15th January and we're gone by then.

There's also a little uncertainty about Luca coming over tomorrow as well. Gary is contemplating entering a race on Sunday morning - his first since his collapse at Dinnet - but it's his office night out tonight and if he wakes with a hangover tomorrow, he may think twice about entering.

Normality (almost) returns

Jo spent yesterday in bed, but she's up and about again today - still not eating much, but definitely a good deal better. Hope she gets her full appetite back tomorrow - we've got our Xmas Dinner at the Tor-na-Coille Hotel.

Then we've got Luca staying on Saturday night.

Next Friday/Saturday, we've been invited to stay with Keith and Annette Gray, who have a week's timeshare at Gleneagles:

This week we booked our flights down to France - the first time we've been on holiday in that country since our kids were just kids. We're staying at Richard Simcox's 7 bedroom villa in the Dordogne with 4 other couples - the Cooks, the Grays, the Salters & the Grigors - in June. The villa is in a place called Dussac and there were 3 possible airports we could fly to - Limoges (an hour north), Bordeaux (two hours west) and Bergerac (90 mins south). We chose the latter, partly because of the better flying times. Here's the area:

Some of you may remember our holidays in the Vendee, which is not too far from La Rochelle, which you can see in the top left above. This was in pre-Ross days:

The week after France, we're off to USA - flying in to Denver and staying there 2 nights at:

After that, we head west to the ski resort of Breckenridge for a week:

Then it's over to Oregon, then down to southern California, back up to Oregon, then off home again at the end of July. I think we'll do a bit of travelling in USA this time - Yosemite and Death Valley are still on my wish list, so we'll see if we can squeeze these in some time.

August and September are back in Scotland then we're off to our original timeshare in Marbella in October.

Of course, before all of this, we've got our Australian trip in January/February. It'll be our first time at Kelly and Chris' place in Semaphore, which is not far from the beach:

We've got a week booked at a timeshare at a golf resort just outside Normanville, south of Adelaide:

Hectic schedule, eh? How am I going to fit my golf holidays round that?

I'm really winding down at work now - emptying desks, filing cabinets etc. It feels a bit like moving home. I'm hoping my slow, gradual withdrawal after 31 years with the Clark family and in my 50th year since I left school, will help me adjust easily to life in retirement.

S & D strikes

Jo went round to see how Ross was on Sunday. He had recovered enough that at least he was no longer excreting from both ends, but his washing machine had broken down so Jo gathered his stuff and brought it home.

On Monday, Jo took the newly washed stuff back to Ross. That must have been when she picked up the bug, because not long after going to bed last night, it was her turn to hit the loo - the first of several visits.

Naturally, we had to cancel Jo's weekly trip to Inverurie today to pick up Luca from school, and I also decided it was best to cancel my planned trip to Edinburgh - I didn't fancy having the bug hit me when I was 100 miles from home. As it happens, I seem to have been OK so far - a little fragile, but intact at least.

Ross came round this afternoon to see how we were - and to deliver some of his home-made soup to us (I had the leek and potato for tea tonight) - and he told us his flatmate now had the nasty little bug as well.

Please - no more.

Edinburgh

We took the train from Stonehaven for our trip to the Wine Gang's annual Xmas Fair in Edinburgh. We missed the event last year as I was recuperating from my knee op, but we'd been a couple of times before with Anne & Leslie Mason. This year, Colin & Johanne Kilgour were due to join us but had cancelled when Colin got his appointment for a new hip. Sod's law, his operation was subsequently cancelled after he'd unpicked all their bookings.

The train was packed in both directions. Not surprising when it was only 3 carriages. This seems to happen frequently. Why? Packed carriages also meant no trolley service and no hot drinks either, even if you could fight your way to the buffet car.

Our accommodation was at Jury's Hotel, not far from Waverley and the Scotsman building. Edinburgh is already in full-on Xmas party mode. There were functions in our hotel and Princes St. Gardens and St. Andrews Square are both packed with Xmas stalls and entertainment, with ice skating, carousels and a large ferris wheel - all looking very Christmas-ey, especially in the dark:

View from Waverley across Princes St. Gardens, with the Scott Monument in dark in the middle of the festivities.

Balmoral Hotel

Sweeping the water off the ice in the mild temperatures

Looking from Princes St. Gardens towards the Mound

We climbed the steps up Fleshmarket Close - the title of one of Ian Rankin's Rebus novels - intending to have a beer in the Halfway House, but it was pretty mobbed, so we moved next door to Jinglin' Geordie's, which I had thought was named after a historic character, but inside there's a large framed photo of the late, great George Best when he was there, looking the worst for wear, in his late playing days with Hibs. It transpired that I was right - he is a historical character, and the pub is not, after all, named after George Best - check http://www.jinglingeordie.co.uk/

We taxi'd down to the Stockbridge Tap for another beer. Jo and Anne took one of the neat little window seats:

We then walked from there to Anne & Leslie's favourite restaurant, the Loon Fung. Dinner was excellent again. Jo was fascinated by the bamboo above our heads:

To get back to our hotel, it was all uphill from Canonmills, but we broke our journey with a swift pit stop at the Cask & Barrel. Before we knew it, midnight had come and gone, so it was going to be a late start in the morning.

We had arranged to meet the Masons at the Assembly Halls at 12:30 pm, so we had plenty time to wander round before finding somewhere for a bit of brunch. We looked in to St. Andrews Square first of all, to see the old-fashioned Helter-Skelter and watch the ice skaters - thankfully, the circular rink there had been properly frozen, unlike the one in Princes St. Gardens the previous evening:

There's a small Valvona & Crolla (http://www.valvonacrolla.co.uk/) outlet at one of the rear (Rose St.) entrances to the famous Jenner's store and we had croissants, haggis roll & mince pies with our tea/coffee there.

The next trick was to find our way in to Jenner's properly, and from there down to the Toy Dept in the basement. What a maze of a place it is - the stairs, lifts and escalators in all corners of the building each only go part of the way - there's none of them can take you all the way to the top and down to the bottom, so you have to wander through the store's narrow passages to get to the next way up or down. It's completely crazy.

No matter - we made it to the Wine Fair in good time and had a nice afternoon there, taking in two Masterclasses - Penfolds' Australian Reds and Pol Roger's Champagnes. We had 9 separate wines to taste at the former, including one that sells for £150 per bottle and several £50 per bottle ones. Penfolds' origins at the Magill Estate lie in the heart of Adelaide, a city that has grown up round about it. Might be worth a visit to the Cellar Door and/or Restaurant there when we're visiting Kelly and Chris - less than 6 weeks' away now.

We had a brief mid-afternoon coffee break at Jamie's Italian restaurant downstairs:

You can tell we've had a few wines by now, can't you? Some of the Aussie ones we'd tried, with an adjacent one from Oregon too:

Jo's favourite Penfolds wine was just about the most expensive:

We also had six-figure champagne tastings. Pol Roger was Winston Churchill's tipple of choice and they now have a range named after him:

Supper had been booked in the Gallery at the Guildford Arms, overlooking the lounge bar - and very nice it was too, even if they had run out of the lamb's kidneys I had ordered.

Lazy Sunday is almost over. Jo went round to see Ross after church as he had texted us to say he had really bad S & D on Saturday night. He thinks he's on the mend now, thank goodness - not a pleasant experience, as I remember only too well from our recent golf trip to Turkey, where 5 or 6 of us came down with it.

Midwinter not far away

Strange to realise that it's December on Monday and still there's no real sign of winter. It's dark, of course - the days are getting noticeably shorter - but it's still way too mild for NE Scotland at this time of year.

We sit here at a latitude of 57° N - two degrees further north than Moscow. Chris and Kelly, by comparison, are just 34° S and Scott and Lucy are 42° N - quite a difference.

I try to keep politics out of these blogs, but today Scotland finally got some additional powers promised by the main Westminster parties on the eve of the referendum. As ever, it was a compromise, but it's significant that all the parties agreed. Does that mean that really none of them are happy with the deal? It's St. Andrews Day on Sunday - did this help expedite matters? Now the hard work starts to recalculate how this affects the existing block grant under the Barnett Formula, which has devised as long ago as 1978.

Enough of that.

Today was spent in my Aberdeen office, mostly clearing out desk drawers and filing cabinets. I've filled a few bin-liners and brought some more stuff home. I'm getting used to doing little else now.

The Banchory Festive Lights get officially switched on at 6 pm tonight, but it's such a dank, dreich day that I don't expect they'll get many folk out to watch - certainly not us. Jo's just returned with her car, which was in for service, but she got a bit of a soaking walking up there to pick it up.

The Countdown Begins

Realistically, because of when Xmas falls this year and the canning factory shuts down, I have probably just about 10 full days or so of work before retirement. Today I began to seriously clear out some of the cupboards and files of personal stuff that have been kept in my Fraserburgh office for decades. A couple of bin bags were filled and the shredding machine got overheated a couple of times.

I've brought some of the essential files home - but there's more to follow. Jo's worried that we might have to buy another filing cabinet to hold everything, but I'm hoping the existing shelves in our office downstairs (formerly Ross' room) will be adequate.

Got some flight booking to do - France first of all, then Denver - Medford return next June/July. Gary and Luca also have to get back to LA from Medford. So, should I be looking at flights tonight or the Champions League?

Full retirement beckons!

Well, the deed is done. After the Board meeting this morning, we discussed my future and agreed that Christmas would be a good time to make the change and give my successor a free run from there. So, just 4 weeks' work left for me now.

My replacement, Ross Rennie, has asked that I come back and look over their budgets when I return from Australia at the end of February and I've agreed to do this (on a day rate basis), but I don't expect to be called back to do much work after that.

The end of an era - over 31 years with the Clarks.

Yesterday was my eye test and I've finally got a slightly stronger prescription for my distance lenses. My vision has hardly changed for a number of years - my reading prescription is the same, but I felt I was ready for a slight change when it came to driving, in particular.

I still had time for a relatively short cycle in the afternoon - short in miles, that is - but plenty of climbing, so it wasn't all that easy. Still, for every uphill, there's a downhill. Two consecutive days of 13 mile runs - a good start to the week. I had been bemoaning the fact that my exercise - walking steps - had dropped off dramatically since we moved in to autumn - partly due to little golf being played now.

My Up stats tell me I averaged nearly 17,000 steps per day for the week I was in Istanbul then golfing in Antalya and my overall average since the beginning of March is still just short of my targeted 10,000 steps per day, but it's down to just 7,000 recently and last week, I hit a new all-time low of 4,400 steps. In terms of miles per week, this takes me down from a peak of 50 miles to under 18 miles last week. Must try harder.

My sleep "goal" is to average 8 hours per night, but so far, I'm only at 7.5. My nights with the longest sleep are, not unsurprisingly, usually at my long weekends. I wonder if this will go up post-retirement?

Sunday soundings

It's been a day of TV sport so far, starting off with Match of the Day, then the final round of the end of the European Tour golf season in Dubai, Thistle v Aberdeen, a brief interlude to watch Lewis Hamilton on the podium in Abu Dhabi, having won the Formula One Drivers' Championship, then back to football again - Crystal Palace v Liverpool, now Hull v Spurs.

Whew - haven't had time to read my Sunday Times yet.

I did squeeze in a cycle this morning as well. Well, it was too nice to spend the whole day watching TV. I've made up for that aberration since, however.

Gary and Luca paid a surprise visit this afternoon - partly to show off the new car Gary bought when they were down in Lincolnshire last week:

Very nice - but not sure about the Go Faster stripes and the blitz of headlamps.

Gary goes for his further tests on Wednesday - let's hope he gets the same all-clear as I did.

Yesterday was CAMRA's local AGM, and, as Membership Secretary, I had a duty to attend. It was actually quite an interesting meeting, with a few thought-provoking points raised, including a request that we contact our local breweries to ask if any of them are considering becoming Fairtrade breweries or at least producing an out of the ordinary beer that can be labelled such. Of course, standard beers using local barley, hops etc are, by definition, Fairtrade, but it's the more exotic ones that perhaps use ingredients like ginger, coffee etc that would need to be carefully certified. Apparently there are but 2 breweries in the UK that currently carry Fairtrade certification, one of which is http://www.freeminerbrewery.com/.

I was talking to Jim Strachan at the meeting. He was out in KL for a few years and he was the one that told me about the brewpub there. He's not long back from Oregon and was telling me about a great place he discovered in the Willamette Valley, near Oakridge - http://www.brewersunion.com/pub/. He was also in Northern California near Shasta and recommended http://www.dunsmuirbreweryworks.com/. That's two possible trips for us next year.

Jo took the opportunity to start off the Christmas shopping and drive me in to the CAMRA meeting - and back.

So what does the coming week bring? Tomorrow morning, it's the Optician's for me for my annual routine eye test. If the weather's OK, I hope to get another cycle ride in after this.

Back to work on Tuesday and it's our monthly Board meeting. Then, on Friday, we're off to Edinburgh for the Wine Gang's Christmas Fare.