Friday

Had a chance to play 5 a sides again tonight - but declined - didn't want to risk my ankle yet. Planning a lunchtime trip to Bannatyne's - it's going be painful going back there after all this time! I asked Jo if she wanted to come in some time today, but she said she didn't know what she was doing and so declined - probably more coffee planned with Anne!

Kelly and Craig are up this weekend and are at a wedding today, so it'll be tomorrow before we see them. Climbing Scolty is on the agenda for some - but probably not me, if I get a game of golf in the morning. The forecast is pretty dreich again - we haven't been very lucky since we came back.

Other than that, it's just a routine Friday - the Legion is tonight's drinking venue.

I chased up CALA's agents again asking for a copy of their revised plans - they didn't reply to my first message. I'm probably on their black list!

Historic Scotland finally found their records on the Tor-na-Coille hotel - an application was made back in 2004/05 - apparently through Aberdeenshire Council - to have the building listed, but was rejected after inspection on the following grounds:

"Although there is a fine Victorian structure at the core, it has been seriously eroded by
large extensions to both East and North, as well as some large out-of-character dormer
additions and a lift shaft which completely destroy the fine roofline, particularly to the
principal elevation.
Also impeding inclusion in the statutory list is the fact that the garden grounds have been
divided and built on, weakening the integrity of the original setting.
The interior details are fine but limited only to 2 ground floor rooms while the rest of the
rooms have been altered for use as hotel accommodation and are generally very plain."

Bang goes another potential avenue of resistance!

The birthday gift we got for Gary - a digital radio system - has apparently broken down already. Hope he can get it sorted out through the warranty.

Useless fact of the day - there are 7 days in a week - 5 working and 2 weekend. (That one was for you, Gary - you still seem reluctant to go to Spain for a full week!)

Spain

For everyone's benefit, but especially Gary - flights to Spain/Tenerife are usually charters, which means a minimum trip of one week - e.g Flyglobespan's winter schedules to Malaga depart and return on Saturdays, whilst Airtours to Tenerife is Friday to Friday. Surely 5 days off work is not too hard to organise?

Sad week - today was the 4th anniversary of Dr. Francis Clark's death - Michael's and Francis' father.

Wednesday/Thursday

Managed to get a round in at Banchory last night - and it was fairly pleasant - dry and reasonably warm. Hurt my ankle again, however - will have to be careful with it.

Now that I'm back to driving up and down the road to the Broch again, I've taken to listening to my downloaded audiobooks again. I finished off Alice Cooper, Golf Monster - not bad - narrated by Alice himself. I'm now on to "Who's Your Caddy?" - an account by a writer from Sports Illustrated of caddying for big names -he tried to get Tiger to agree to let him caddy for him, but failed. So far, I've listened to his accounts of his experiences with Tom Lehman, John Daly, David Duval and Donald Trump - they're hilarious if you're a golf buff. The narrator is excellent - I couldn't stop laughing as I was driving.

Tonight we were originally planning to go to Bannatyne's (first time for over a month for me!) but Jo's got the hairdresser this afternoon and it wouldn't be a good idea to visit the gym or the pool immediately after that.

Tuesday in the Broch

Got back from Fraserburgh at a reasonable time last night and sat down to a lovely stew, potatoes, broccoli and peas that Jo had made. We then settled down to watch a movie - La Vie en Rose - Edith Piaf's life story - I would say it was about the best biopic I've ever seen - possibly even better than Walk the Line. Catch it if you can - it brought Jo out in a fit of the weepies!

Thinking ahead to next year - it's my 60th in March and Kelly's 30th in May. It was hinted when we were in Grants Pass that we should do something special to commemorate this - possibly hire a villa in Spain, big enough for all of us, for a week some time between our two birthdays. What do you think? The Costa or the Canaries is the easiest for us all to get to - there are usually direct flights from Aberdeen and, of course, London - and these would be the best places relatively near at hand to get some fairly guaranteed sunshine. Comments, please!

It's dry in Aberdeen this morning (Wednesday) and we're due to play golf tonight - fingers crossed! Talking about golf, Jo needs to get up to the driving range soon. She's now a fully paid up member of the golf club again, with time on her hands. If the weather had been a bit better, I'd have taken her out for a few holes some evening, but we haven't really had the chance yet. Perhaps Irene Page will give her a call some time and encourage her to get out there?

My Mum

It was 6 years ago today that my Mum died. I still remember the drive down to Glasgow. Barry had phoned in the morning and said we should come down as Mum was going downhill. I made arrangements at work and Jo and I packed and eventually set off about lunchtime. Barry phoned me as we were half way between Dundee and Perth - we were too late. The rest of the journey was a bit of blur. Wish we had set off sooner.

Monday

This posting is my 150th this year - I started this blog back in March, 2007 and have published a total of 261 so far (now 262) - plus another 45 on my golf blog and 12 on the football one! Let there be no doubt about who's winning the blog contest! Lucy has posted 55 so far, and Kelly and Craig exactly 100. Gary, who had the cheek to complain recently about others not posting regularly, has a mere 33 to his name - come on, you can do better!

Haven't set Jo's blog up yet - she's paranoid about doing it now, having conducted lengthy conversations with Mr Conspiracy Theory himself, Ross!

Anyway, yesterday was the start of my first full week back after vacation - it'll probably be a long one! I left the office early to go to the meeting with Jamie Burnett to find out the latest on the planned Hill of Banchory sports centre. It's still some away yet and the exact timing will be influenced by how soon Tesco get planning permission and how quickly Bandswim get the funding in place for the 25 metre pool - remember how the whole town collected for this over a decade ago? Anyway, I'll keep working away in the hope that squash courts will return to Banchory - long after I've given up by the look of it, but hopefully a new generation will get a chance to play a sport that I've had a lot of fun from - and made a lot of friends.

After the meeting, Keith, Richard and I went up to Jamie's court at Crathes - new toilet fitted, but no showers yet! - and played racquetball for the first time for a couple of months. It was great fun and reminded me of what I would be missing if I had simply taken my cardiologist's first advice, rather than "persuading" him that it would be OK to carry on playing with my fellow seniors at our leisurely pace.

As usual, we showered at the golf club and, as I was wearing my new Kaleidoscope (http://www.kaleidoscopepizza.com/) t-shirt, I thought there might be a photo opportunity - they have a collection of photos in their pizza pub in Medford of customers wearing their t-shirts in far-off places - but nowhere as far as Banchory. However, immediately after squash, this was not my finest moment and I think I'll leave it until another time before I send them a photo!:

Sunday

Well, we made it down to Forfar yesterday morning but the portents weren't good - the start was delayed by 35-40 minutes but at least it was dry (and sunny in parts) for most of our round - that was until the heavens opened round about the 14th hole.

The round took so long that I was going to be late for my tie at Torphins, which the committee had told me, rather brusquely, had to be played by Sunday evening. I was a little late, but not too bad and donned the waterproofs again and got my clubs and powacaddy all set up and we started off. It was pretty obvious that my opponent, however, did not like the looks of the gathering storms around us and eventually suggested we should just toss a coin. Secretly, I didn't fancy playing either - I was knackered - but equally didn't want to get knocked out of the Learney Cup (I am the holder after all!) by such random means. Eventually, however, I relented - and I'm happy to say I won the toss! Excellent result with the minimum of pain!

I seem to have been fated with my golf since I came back - I was so looking forward to playing some competitive golf again - especially at Banchory - but we were rained off on Wednesday - and Thursday - and then I had to cancel Saturday. I suppose I did get a full round, albeit rain interrupted, at Forfar yesterday, but Torphins was aborted last night as well, so one out of five is not a very good return, is it?

Anyway, tonight (Monday), we have a meeting with the Laird to discuss the Hill of Banchory sports centre development, which currently has 2 squash courts in the plans. However, we don't have a club any more and the very small band of ageing former members are weary from years of battling, so we don't really have much to offer - definitely not cash - and this could be the problem. We hope Jamie will build the courts on a purely speculative basis and then we can try and drum up the enthusiasm again - but I'm not holding my breath!

There were articles in both the P & J and the Piper last week about CALA's exhibition last week of their revised plans:

Keith White, chairman of Banchory Community Council is quoted as saying that the changes are purely cosmetic. I've written to the agents and asked them to send me a copy of their plans - we'll see if they are willing to do so, or whether this "consultation with the community" exercise was merely them playing games. I've also had some correspondence with Historic Scotland about listing the building - but I think that's a really long shot.

Jo's getting better now but Ross is still off work, awaiting his blood tests.

Well, I turned up for football on Friday - but it was truly awful - the brain was sending the signals out OK but they never reached below the waist - my feet were floundering on their own - it was like Bambi on ice.

I staggered home and had something to eat and had a brief chat with Lucy on the webcam. Then Carole and Luca arrived and once he was ready for bed, I wandered down to the pub and left Jo and Carole with a bottle of wine.

I got up on Saturday morning, looking forward to my first game of golf since we got home, but Jo was ill (S & D), and with Gary heading off to Donald's soon and Carole having a hair appointment in Aberdeen, guess who had to look after Luca and Isis? No golf today then, but I put Luca in the pushchair and got Isis' lead and walked up to Burnett Park, where I let them both off the leash - they had a whale of a time, running around in the empty park.

Luca and I had lunch then Carole got ready and I dressed Luca for the church:


I dropped Carole and Luca off at the church in Torphins and went home for a brief rest - but I dozed off and it was 3:00 pm by the time I awoke - I had to dash off and pick up Carole and Gary and take them to Glentanar for the reception. We made it eventually and here they are:

I took Luca home and fed him then went out for a walk, stopping off at the Douglas for a quick beer. On the way home, we went in to the War Memorial and I let the two of them run off their surplus energy again:

and here, in video:

This morning (Sunday), I'm the only one up and am now heading off to Forfar - sod's law, it's raining again. I'm also due to play a tie at Torphins this afternoon!

Another Thursday posting

I forgot to add that Ross got more bad news today - he got done for speeding on one of his recent trips down to Stirling - standard £60 penalty + 3 points! By the way, the old wrecked Saab has still not been moved from our driveway!

I did a lot of reading on holiday but, as usual, it's ground to a complete halt as soon as I come home. I had thought I might finish Geoff Emerick's book on the journey home but was too tired - it might be next year before it gets read now! - I've still not finished the 2nd Elvis biography I bought in USA about 3 years ago!

Jo's been doing a storming job on the ironing backlog - it was a veritable mountain - she's even ironed all Ross' stuff as well - it'll be the first time for most of it!

B....y weather!

What a disappointment - I was so looking forward to playing golf at Banchory last night but the persistent rain closed the course. What's worse, we had decided to play tonight (Thursday) instead, but the course is still closed - not quite sure why - it was a beautiful day in Fraserburgh, but not so nice in Banchory.

I didn't go to the exhibition at the Tor-na-Coille yesterday - I had a thumping headache and anyway, I had second thoughts about going - I wasn't sure if I could face the potential prospect of Roxanne handing out drinks and canapes to sweeten up the locals - and anyway, the principles haven't changed - apparently they've only made minor mods to the initial plans - the local Community Council have already said that nothing much has changed and they will still oppose the changes.

I've been acting as communicator with the local residents and have received several suggestions, one of which was that the hotel should be a listed building - so I spent some time this evening looking at the criteria on Historic Scotland's website for getting a building listed. They don't get involved if a planning application has been made, but I've asked them if it would be possible in the current position of limbo - I suspect not, but it's worth a try. The building was constructed in 1873 - if it had been just 33 years older, listing would have been almost automatic - if it had been done before last year.

Hopefully I'm getting back to a more regular sleep pattern now - it was 2 am when I awoke on Tuesday, then 3 am yesterday - this morning it was after 5 am - whoop de doop!

Having not done any exercise at all on holiday and I haven't attended the gym for over a month, I've decided to throw myself back in at the deep end and am playing football tomorrow night - I can feel the pain now!

Tonight it's TV squatting - catching up with umpteen episodes of Corrie and then the last major of the season - the PGA.

Still got a hectic schedule coming up over the next few weeks - babysitting this weekend, then Kelly's up next weekend; the Fringe follows after that - we've got tickets for 8 different shows - Boat of Garten, then St Andrews Bay, then Gillian Kilgour's wedding - that's the next 6 weekends taken care of!

Webcams

Incidentally, Gary now has no excuse for not Skypeing us all regularly - despite having promised to buy a webcam several times, he never did it - but I happened upon our old one and gave it to him when he popped in on Monday, so look forward to some webcams from Inverurie!

Hopefully Kelly has also now received hers from Dawn - look forward to Cornish-cam!

End of holiday and return journey

On Friday, Scott surprised me a little by suggesting we could squeeze another game of golf in on Saturday morning before the cousins arrived for Cade's party. Scott must have been encouraged by how well he had played at Grants Pass on Thursday afternoon - quite right too - and he phoned brother in law, Vic and asked him to join us.



We set off pretty early - we were gone by 7:20 am. It was coolish in Grants Pass at that time in the morning - not too unusual - and there was a bit of cloud cover, which we hardly ever see. Heading north, we expected to see the sun weave its usual magic and burn off the cloud cover and bring the temperature up by the time we were to tee off at Myrtle Creek, but, in fact, the further north we headed, the temperature actually dropped - it got down to just 56 degrees F at one stage.



We played the back nine first of all and it was pretty parky for the first couple of holes, but as we neared the turn, the temperature was about perfect for playing golf. The 1st and 2nd holes were then played fairly quickly, but we came across a huge delay at the 3rd hole - see my golf blog for further details.



This was us having a quick beer and bite at the end of our round:

It was still fairly cloudy at Myrtle Creek but we knew it would be hot and sunny again by the time we got back to GP - and it was. Cousins Caitlin and Landen had arrived with their Dad, Neil and, of course Grandma Cindy. The party got under way:

Of course, I had to take the by now traditional end of holiday family photo in front of the house. Cindy missed out as she was asleep, nursing her sore ankle and head, but here's the rest of us:

Braeden (sometimes!) says the sweetest things - as I said goodnight to him and explained that we were leaving in the morning, he coyly said "I'll miss you" - and then rushed back to playing with Cade and his cousins!

Early to bed - didn't sleep well - as usual, half expecting to miss the alarm and sleep in, but we got up OK just after 4 am West Coast time on Sunday morning and Scott and Lucy drove us down to Medford to catch our plane. Always a sad time saying farewell, but as the rest of the Lesinas were arriving on Sunday for part 2 (or is it 3 or even 4!?) of Cade's birthday, that would help keep everyone's minds off our departure. We promised to get on the webcam this coming weekend and catch up again.

The journey from hell began - because we had come through Florida, we had to go back that way, so we faced the huge West-East, North-South, cross-America trip of 3,000 odd miles before we could even board our transatlantic flight. The journey from Medford to Salt Lake City is fairly easy - about an hour and a half - and we boarded our plane from SLC to Orlando on time and seemed all set to depart when the dreaded intercom went and the pilot announced that they had spotted an oil leak and they were having it checked out. Time passed and the plane began to heat up so were advised to go back to the terminal.

We watched and after a while, they decided that parts could not be found and it could not be fixed but they would try and get another plane. This seemed a long shot but they pulled it off and within a couple of hours we were on our way to Orlando - and this time, Jo and I had the best seats in the house - right next to the door with tons of leg room. On the first plane, we weren't even sitting together. Incidentally, the US system of over-booking and asking volunteers to be "bumped" from their flights is one that always causes angst - particularly when you're facing a long journey with several connections. It doesn't seem to happen - at least not noticeably - in Europe. American passengers are not happy with it either - as we discovered whilst we waited.

We made our connection in Orlando in plenty of time. Again we were upstairs in Virgin's Economy Plus class for the flight to Gatwick - and we had exit seats with tons of legroom. Nice flight, nice cabin, good food and good service - but exactly how are you meant to sleep on airline seats - even these slightly larger ones?

On time in London - nice day - and we hopped on the bus to Heathrow - we even managed to grab the seats with the most legroom! We were inside Terminal 5 just after 10:30 am on Monday, with our scheduled flight not due to depart until 2:10 pm. I tried to get us on the earlier Aberdeen flight, but the check-in clerkess was less than helpful and so we just had to sit and wait it out. A spot of lunch and a quick beer kept us going for a while but, by about 1pm, we were wilting badly.

Anyway, we got home on time - and safely - remember this the next time you get told there's a technical problem with your plane and you get annoyed by the delay - always better to be safe than sorry!

We pulled in to Arbor Court about 4:45 pm and spotted Ross' car. I walked in to his room and his face was a picture! I had forgotten that our calendar still had our original return date of this coming Saturday - I hadn't updated it after we changed our schedule and Ross was gobsmacked that we were back so soon. Of course, this meant him scurrying upstairs and cleaning the kitchen with the door barred - we weren't allowed in to see it!

It transpired he'd been off work for a week with a suspected return bout of labyrinthitis. He paid a return visit to the Doctor yesterday (Tuesday) and has been signed off for another week, with more blood tests having been taken.

As Gary indicated in his blog, just as I was pulling the curtains for us to put our heads down for the night on Monday evening, he rang the bell, so our much needed sleep was delayed a bit. Out like a light - until just 2 am - could I get back to sleep after this? - not until 5:30, and then the alarm went off at 6:20 and I was dead to the world - sod's law!

Anyway, I got to the office and surprised myself by putting in a full day's shift. I arranged to meet Ken Page for a beer - he's been back whilst we were away but he returns to Abu Dhabi on Thursday. Keith and Jas joined us and it was nice to catch up again - and have some cask conditioned beer!

I walked home from the golf club along the first and second fairways - taking in the scenery and looking forward to playing Banchory again soon - hopefully tonight (Wednesday), but the forecast is not too good.

Jo borrowed my car whilst I was having a beer and a natter, as both hers and Ross' had flat batteries. That's not all - our bedroom TV is dead and will need replaced - we had to quickly move sets around to get some kind of service in the bedroom and kitchen.

Last night, I slept until 3 am - is that progress? Eventually got up at 5 and fiddled around for a while then just headed to the office. I don't think I'll last the full day - got a splitting headache - and anyway, I want to get to the Tor-na-Coille Hotel to view this exhibition that CALA are now putting on as part of their new consultation process, having now withdrawn their initial application to build 33 flats - the battle is about to start again!

Friday

We were out of the house before 10 am and headed down to the Family Fun Park at Medford. First off was the water bumper boats:


It got very hot when we played mini-golf and Braeden had a few meltdowns but some coke and nachos brought him back to life and he was happy on the mini go-karts:

Back to Grants Pass for a late lunch and then off to football conditionining for Cade. Lucy and Braeden thought they would get some exercise too:

Braeden decided his Mom wasn't pushing him hard enough and donned his backpack and set off himself:

They didn't have enought helmets so Cade didn't get his but he compensated with a team t-shirt:

After that, it was Applebee's for Cade's first birthday dinner:

Up early this morning - I thought I had packed my clubs away for this year, but Scott surprised me yesterday when he suggested that we golf this morning, so he, Vic and I are heading off to Myrtle Creek soon. We'll be back by the time that Cindy, Caitlin and Landen arrive this afternoon.

Thursday

Here's the reason why Lucy was housebound again on Thursday:

I'm happy to report that he seems to have recovered this morning (Friday) and should be OK for his first birthday party - and to go back to football conditioning, which he had to miss the last 2 nights - they're issuing the helmets tonight so he's looking forward to that. He's also been promised a morning at the family fun park in Medford, so we'll be heading off there as soon as everyone is up and has breakfasted. Birthday tea is at Applebee's after football tonight.

After Jo and I did a small shop at Fred Meyer's yesterday, I decided to book some golf in the afternoon at Grants Pass. I was prepared to play on my own, but, luckily, Scott got home from work again at lunchtime (things are pretty quiet at the hospital this week) and was able to join me. We had a fun time and Scott did pretty well, especially considering, apart from one game with Vic earlier this year, he hasn't played since I was here last year. The highlight for Scott was chipping in at the last hole for his par.

Grants Pass is not an overly exclusive or elitist golf club but some of the members like to travel in style:

Here's Scott preparing to tee off at the 18th:

I neglected to mention that Lucy made crème brûlée for afters on Wednesday. This was the Lesinas unique way of brûlée-ing the crème: