Friday/Saturday

We had a fun evening to celebrate Colin's and Jack's 60th birthdays - the team photo was over-exposed by the sun and no amount of software manipulation could fix it unfortunately. A few beers in the Stag and then the Douglas (where we played with their Wii for a while) - the off to the Derbar for a curry.

Felt a bit sore this morning - both in body and head - but still played in the first medal of the season - we had all 4 seasons' weather - bright sunshine, showers, sleet, snow, hail - you name it! Started well - 3,3,3 - but fell away to a mediocre finish. Forecast tomorrow is even worse - could be a day for the Sunday Times and the TV - maybe even some squash.

Ross has been getting very frustrated at the internet service and has been reporting faults galore - hope it gets fixed soon.

Catching up

I've been trying to upgrade the OS on my laptop to Vista but finally gave up and just zapped it and installed Vista from a standing start. You always forget how much hassle it is any time you either get a new PC or change somehting fundamental like Windows or Office. I'm still adding programs and getting things back the way I like them.

Anyway it was the start of our midweek golf on Wednesday and it was a pretty nice day - above is Dick, Dave and I waiting to tee off. It was even nicer on Thursday - 19 degrees - and I was home early and able to sit out on the balcony with Jo once she got back from lunch with her school pals in Aberdeen. Carole had arranged for her car to get serviced in Banchory today (Friday) and also had a hair appointment in Aberdeen in the afternoon, so I said I would take Jo's car to work and Carole could use mine (she's not insured to use Jo's). Lo and behold, Jo then volunteered to clean out her car for me to use - I couldn't believe it, but the evidence above is clear!

Ross hadn't any money when it was our birthdays but he fairly made up for it yesterday - he bought me a new replacement for my old Archos DVR (he's installing it above) and a new flat screen for Jo's PC (also above). Way over the top for birthday gifts, but thanks anyway Ross - hope he uses some of the rest of his salary to spend on himself.

Tonight is the much delayed outdoor veterans football match to celebrate Colin's and Jack's 60th birthdays a few weeks ago. We're having a meal at the Derbar afterwards - should be fun.

Jo back home

Looking a little tense and tired (although I don't know why - she flew business class!), Jo got home in good time and with her bags - thank God she wasn't flying with BA through Terminal 5! She had a good sleep last night and seems to have recovered well from her short trip to the West Coast.

Jo's return

We don't have any curtains or blinds up yet, but as we're moving in to summer, we don't mind the view looking out through the bare windows from our back room to the embankment.

Jo managed to get the upgrade we had requested, using her United miles, so I hope the journey home was a bit more pleasant than it might have been in cattle class.

As I write this, she's waiting at the gate at Heathrow so she's managed to negotiate all the changes in terminals successfully. I'll be heading to the airport in an hour or so to pick her up.

Weekend

It' been a much nicer weekend than any of us would have believed after the weather we experienced for most of the week. I managed 2 rounds of golf in fairly pleasant conditions - at one stage this morning it was very nice indeed.

Bill Miller returned from his winter at his house in the Alps and John Davies was up from Worcestershire for the weekend for a wedding, and they joined us for a beer after golf - it all felt like the start of spring.

Today was also the last day of our Winter Grand Prix Sunday morning golf - and I managed to win it - so that's another trophy for the shelves!

Jo'll be on her way back now - just got an e-mail from United to say that her plane was due to land at SFO at 10:31 am, which is well ahead of schedule so she should have no problem making the connection to LHR.

Ross has done the big tidy-up of his room and toilet in advance of his Mum's return!

Scott 35

And a happy 35th birthday today to Scott!

Friday night/Saturday morning

The rain stopped at lunchtime yesterday and the skies turned to blue - a portent of better things to come? I woke up this morning to more of the same so it looks like the start of the golf season is on after all.

On Friday night we headed down to the Douglas a little earlier than usual as they were holding a pub quiz - you can see the winning team above - we won by a massive amount - we had 63 points and the next best was more than 20 points behind us! Purely for pride and prestige - the prize was just a free round!

Ross had dropped me off and said he was going in to Harris' in Aberdeen for the evening - I told him he could take my car as long as he was coming home at a decent time - he said he would take me up on my offer but when I came home, it was his own car that had gone - so he was obviously planning to stay there overnight - and there's no sign of him this morning.

Ross has got his first pay from Bancon - and he says it was over £2K! - that's the most money he's had for a long while - hope he spends some of it wisely.

Friday morning

A really miserable day - the temperature has risen so it's all rain that is lashing down - if it had been cooler it would have been snow blizzards, which is what they are forecasting for the hills - golf looking very dodgy for tomorrow.

I've been trying to install Windows Vista on my laptop for the last few days but failed so far. I got Ross to help out last night but still we couldn't do the upgrade. We may have to wipe my disk and start with a new install of windows, which means I have to back up all my work, photos, videos etc etc - what a pain!

I watched the first 2 episodes of Damages, the series that Jo left me to watch when she was away - it wasn't bad and I'll take in the other episodes this weekend - if only to create more space on the hard drive. I never mentioned that we had a near calamity with Sky + - Jo had asked us to tape the Colour of Magic (Terry Pratchett) so that she can watch it when she comes back and also put it on to DVD for one of her friends. Ross was watching the first recording in HD on Monday when the box suddenly collapsed and we lost that recording. We still had the second part, but panicked a bit as we didn't think they would show the first part again but fortunately they did last night - albeit on Sky 2 and not in HD - but I'm sure Jo won't mind!

Hey Kelly - wasn't the first episode of the Apprentice good?

Wednesday/Thursday

Got fed up with staying in alone and no football this week so decided to go out for a quick game of squash with Dave, followed by a couple of pints in the Legion where we were joined by Colin and Keith.

Before that, I made the tea for Ross and I - chicken and asparagus pie, peas and potato wedges. Tonight Ross returned the favour and the lasagne was virtually cooked by the time I got home - we had apple pie and ice cream for afters.

Mundane stuff I know, but Jo likes to know what's going on!

Tomorrow night, the Douglas are having a quiz night so we're going along to take part - should be fun.

Tuesday evening

Ross' turn to make tea last night - he was home before me. Naturally, it was pizza - although he did make up a little salad with dressing to make it more interesting and ever so fractionally more healthy - his Mum would be pleased with him!

Still very cold here and the snow in Banchory is not moving - not a good sign for the supposed start of the golf season on Saturday!

Luca

Message just received from Gary:

"Just spoke to Carole. They got out of the hospital an hour ago. Another appointments been made for May (24th I think) where they will do laser treatment on Luca. There’ll be 3 sessions in total (all in separate appointments). They’ll know after the first session whether this type will work on him. If not, they have other types of laser treatment they’ll try. They actually put him under for a few minutes while they do him, and he can’t eat or drink for at least 6 hours beforehand. Glad things are moving forward now, but a little nervous too."

Tuesday morning

This competition is way too easy - I'm miles ahead of Kelly and Lucy!

More snow overnight but not too much - main roads were OK this morning although side roads were slippy.

Carole's away to Livingston today to see the specialist about Luca's skin - it was too short notice for Gary to join her. Hope she gets a better response this time.

Fun and games with Sky last night - finally sorted out now (I think) but our set-up with HD on the main TV and just ordinary Sky (with no Sky +) upstairs on multi-room always seems to lead to misunderstandings and complications.

I was originally planning to go down to Glasgow tomorrow night as I'd been invited to golf at Turnberry (where the Open is being played this year) on Thursday - think I'll give it a miss now!

Spoke to Jo again last night (on the land line) - her mobile is working so I wake up every morning to a goodnight text from her!

Monday afternoon

I came home early to make sure there were no travel problems, but I needn't have worried as the roads were all black again.

I had sent Stan England our snagging list as he had sent his final bill in, and, out of the blue, his joiner arrived late afternoon - glad I was home. He fitted the vents in the windows, the loose knob on the outside rails and also the door lock - it was the correct key, but the door was just fitted a bit too tight. They had also picked up the old radiator from our porch - I've never seen Stan and his men spring in to action so swiftly - they must be short of cash!

Ross was a bit late home from work - but just in time to sit down to the pie beans and chips I had prepared. We have been eating square meals OK Jo - albeit mostly out of supermarket packets - it was individual curries on Saturday and salmon, broccoli and tatties last night. Bacon butties for Saturday lunch and soup and crusty bread yesterday - so we're surviving OK so far.

Ross left his car lights on this morning and when he went to come home at lunchtime, no power! He managed to get some jump leads eventually but missed out on his lunch, so he was very grateful his tea was ready and he wolfed it down.

Perhaps too much detail for the blog, but I thought Jo might want to know how we're coping!

Easter Monday

I awoke this morning to the above scene - and there's apparently more to come. Statistically they say there's more chance of getting snow at Easter (especially when it's as early as this year) than there is at Christmas. Until yesterday, we had gone all the way through the winter without Sunday golf being cancelled even once - the first time ever.

Nice photos, Lucy - and I see your Mum has lost none of her sartorial elegance! The birthday cake video stopped before I saw Jo blow out the candles and the other video is "currently not available - please try later".