Tenerife

Flights from Exeter leave on Tuesdays and Fridays - £207 and £251 respectively with Thomas Cook/Airtours.

Friday in Lumphanan

Ross and I went out to look at the property he had seen on ASPC. It's a very small house - technically 2 bedrooms but you wouldn't really want to share - better if one of the bedrooms could have its double bed removed and converted in to a study/computer room.

It's very tidy, though - all the gear is brand new - apparently a woman bought it for her son to live in but he then moved in with his girlfriend! This would be the first rental. The lounge is tiny and shares space with the kitchen, which is the highlight of the house:

Aberdein Considine are going to manage the property, so if anything goes wrong, you just contact them - the downside is that there will be inspections of the property! Also, strictly no smoking or dogs - is this enough to put Ross off? - don't know - he says he wants to stop smoking anyway. Watch this space for further developments - short video tour to follow in next few days.

What else is new? Well, Carole and Luca have just arrived - no Gary yet - they're staying over and then we leave from here in the morning to drive down to Old Trafford. Jo's babysitting and she's not too worried about Luca but Isis is causing some concern - particularly when she has to go to church on Sunday. Still, I did it once before and coped so I'm sure Jo will manage somehow.

Today's list - favourite Corrie characters, past and present - Jack and Vera of course; Reg and Maureen; Roy and Hayley - well Roy anyway; Raquel - they're the ones that come to mind. Tomorrow it might be least favourites - most probably led by whiner Gail.

Thursday evening

Spoke to Ross about his plans to move out - he asked me to go with him to look at the flat in Lumphanan - he's made an appointment for tomorrow afternoon. He actually took a trip up there this afternoon but couldn't find it! I'll get Tom-Tom out tomorrow!

Ross has done his sums OK and feels he could manage - but it would be tight on his own - better if he could share with somebody - or find a smaller place.

Played footy last night so I'm sore today - but I'll get over it!

Checked flights to Tenerife on http://www.flyglobespan.com/ and they're coming in at about £220 per head, including taxes. Flights are on a Friday - and my birthday happens to also fall on a Friday. I was hoping to go there fairly near my birthday if that was OK with everyone? I'll need some sunshine by then!

What about logistics for Kelly/Craig - where would they fly from and to? What about Scott and Lucy - would they come to Aberdeen first of all then just travel down and back with us?

Nothing much else happening - although I did receive our plane tickets for our flights to Florida - just over 2 weeks to go - and we're there during election week!

Gary mentioned Ross' haircuts - here's one from 1999, when he was in Israel with the school:

and here's his Mum from the same year - still sporting the dark look:

I could reveal more - perhaps later - anyone want to buy me off before I publish any more?

A list for today? Houses I've lived in:

? Dumbarton Road, Whiteinch, Glasgow - 1949-1952

19 Landseer Court, Corby - 1952-1959

Cochrane Castle, Johnstone, Renfrewshire - 1959-1960

46 Foxbar Drive, Glasgow - 1960-1972

1 Barcaldine Avenue, Chryston, Lanarkshire - 1972-1974

44 Caldecot Way, Broxbourne, Hertfordshire - 1974-1979

7 Cherry Tree Loan, Balerno, Midlothian - 1979-1983

4 Arbor Court, Banchory, Aberdeenshire - 1983-present

Can't decide what tomorrow's list will be - phone numbers or postal codes of all these houses - which would you like? Vote now!

Wednesday (again!)

Ross dropped a bombshell to Jo yesterday - he wants to move out. What's not to like about free board and lodgings, meals cooked for you and all your cleaning, washing and ironing done for you? - a lot it seems - I haven't spoken to him about it yet - he was too busy gaming last night - but we're going to Manchester this weekend so I'll get a chance to talk to him (or more probably, listen to him!) properly then.

Ross has seen a 2 bedroom place out in Lumphanan going for about £525 per month. It would take about 20-25 minutes to get to work in summer, but longer in winter - and no going home for lunch. If he were to share it - with possibly Thomas - he could maybe manage, but it'll be tight on his own. Council tax, fuel and food alone would probably more than double his outgoings - and then there's his road tax and car insurance, plus the cost of replacing the car when it eventually dies - maybe next year? Doesn't leave much for the "toys" he likes to keep buying.

Jo was a bit down at the prospect - I think she was quite enjoying looking after him again - and the two of them always did enjoy a natter. She's also still a bit concerned after her visit to the doctor on Monday and the follow-ups she's now got to do. Her chest and back pains are becoming more prevalent - but hopefully it's auto-suggestion only.

I went back to Bannatyne's yesterday - my first visit for a while - in fact, I was there twice just after we came back from vacation, but hadn't been back since then - until yesterday. I went through the usual routine, but cut down the time/effort or weights to make sure I could cope OK. I don't feel too bad today so it must have helped. Now, it's indoor footy again tonight - that'll hurt a lot more!

I sat down to catch up with part 2 of the History of the Guitar last night - I missed part 1. I found it a fascinating history lesson - Jo sat through it as well and had the good grace not to comment until the very end when the sight of Hendrix playing Wild Thing was just too much for her and she went off on one - you know, the usual rant about dentist's drills etc.

Most of the documentary was historical - it opened with the apocryphal story about Robert Johnson going to the Crossroads and selling his soul to the devil in exchange for becoming a great blues artist. Kelly will remember Cream's more recent version of the old song - "I went down to the crossroads, fell down to my knees....". The film showed where this allegedly happened - at Clarksdale, Mississippi - they sell t-shirts to the tourist nowadays, but Wikipedia casts doubt on whether the junction here of Highways 49 and 61 is correct, or whether it should have been at Rosedale at the junction of Highways 1 & 8.

The film went on to talk about the Mojo triangle of music - New Orleans/Memphis/Nashville. This struck a chord with me - it's definitely on my wish list to hire a winnebago and tour round the music hot-spots of the Deep South, and then perhaps up to Chicago and head west along Route 66. We went to Memphis when Lucy was first moved over - but it was only for a day, and Beale St isn't the same in daylight.

What about a list? Actors? De Niro, of course - brilliant - and funny when he wants to be. Meet the Fokkers might make it in to my top 20 films. Hoffman as well - apart from the Graduate and Midnight Cowboy, Rain Man was terrific. And then there's Newman - Butch and Sundance in particular.

Quick blog response

To Jo - it was Ross and I who screwed the TV together - it was a health hazard, just sitting there balancing on the stand. I then plugged it in and put the aerial in as well - but no picture - is that aerial point dead?

To Gary - good video of Luca - but could you please add more light to them? The black background on your blog doesn't help, of course.

To Lucy (and Scott) - come on, update your blog!

To Jo again - nice to see photos added - you can separate them and centre them, if you like - and you can also intersperse them with text. Videos next?

To Kelly - did you manage to get your work laptop connected to your home network?

To everyone - I did some trawling last night and spotted a couple of potential villas in Tenerife - http://www.holidaylettings.co.uk/rentals/los-cristianos/42792 and http://www.holidaylettings.co.uk/rentals/costa-adeje-golf/48931. What do you think?

Lastly, I agree with Gary that Crash was good - maybe not top 10, but OK. I also agree Schindler's List, worthy though it was, was pretty dull viewing. Of course, the Indiana Jones series was good fun as well - and I also always enjoyed the Sound of Music, believe it or not. We all enjoyed Grease for a while until Lucy sickened us all with the album!

Another week starts .....

Our emergency meeting with the Bank in Dundee went OK this morning. Nothing was actually agreed but more time has been bought, which may allow us to consider changing banks. Frankly, virtually all the banks are a mess just now and all their employees are looking over their shoulders, primarily concerned about their own careers - naturally.

I've been offered the tickets for Old Trafford again this Saturday and so I've asked Gary and Ross to join me - plus Carole! Just waiting for Gary to phone Jo to ask her to babysit Luca.

I received our team shirts for our golf trip to Florida - just 3 weeks today! Here's what they looked like in the catalogue (citrus and black):

and here's what the real thing looks like - it's a rather grainy photo and I don't know if you can see the difference - but it's almost green - I'm going to get pelters from the boys!

Jo finally went to see the Doctor today - she was concerned about pains in her chest and memories of her Dad flooding back didn't help. The GP said she seemed OK but is sending her for tests, including bloods and a stress ECG.

Skyped Lucy last night and spoke to Kelly on the phone tonight (technical advice!) - everyone seems to be up for the 60/30 holiday next year, so I guess I need to get cracking now!

Jo and I watched Parenthood again last night - what a hoot! I think it's one of the funniest films ever - I couldn't stop laughing out loud. Which leads me neatly on to today's list - best films ever? Parenthood obviously - and also Father of the Bride - both Steve Martins - but I guess they probably appeal more to people of our vintage who've been through it all. The Graduate, yes and probably most of the Godfather trilogy, but beyond that, I'm struggling to remember significant films other than more recent ones like the Edith Piaf and Johnny Cash biopics and The Counterfeiters. Needs more thought obviously.

Sunday at home

Oh dear, Jo - "tawdies" and "whiskey" - I think not. We certainly don't have any of the Irish spirit in our house and hopefully Craig and Kelly also have only Scotch whisky in theirs - and maybe they might enjoy their toddies - but who said I was pedantic?



Last night, Jo, Ross and I watched a great movie - The Counterfeiters - a German film with subtitles about the "privileged" Jews kept in a concentration camp to make forged notes. It's a true story and it was the Nazis attempt to undermine the UK economy by printing millions of Sterling notes - they almost succeeded, but fortunately, they didn't manage to repeat the exercise with the US dollars. Doesn't sound scintillating, but catch it if you can - it was absorbing.



Another pleasant autumn day here - and I enjoyed my golf at Torphins this morning - check the golf blog (http://bsvgolf.blogspot.com/) for a photo.



I found the cable for the old camera so it's over to Jo now to colour her blog and enlighten us all with the things she does and places she goes.

Lovely smell coming from the kitchen just now - Jo's busy in there - she's going out for a walk with Anne in half an hour.

I'm off to Dundee in the morning - I've called for an urgent face to face meeting with our bankers after a call I received from them on Thursday. Our contact at the Bank of Scotland is under huge pressure from his bosses to immediately increase the rates they charge us by 50%. The crisis in the world financial sector is huge and wide ranging.

I neglected to add a list to yesterday's blog posting - so, back to music again. I'd previously mentioned the list of almost 100 favourite individual tracks (not albums) that I made up a few years ago - it consisted of 60 separate artistes:

Animals
Beach Boys
Beatles
Bob Dylan
Buddy Holly & the Crickets
Canned Heat
Clash
Cream
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Dandy Warhols
Eddie Cochran
Elvis Costello
Eric Burdon & the Animals
Faces
Fleetwood Mac
Four Tops
Free
Graham Parker & The Rumour
Jack Bruce
Jam
James Taylor
Jethro Tull
Jimi Hendrix Experience
Joe Cocker
Joe Jackson
John Lennon
Judy Clay & William Bell
Kingsmen
Kinks
Led Zeppelin
Lou Reed
Love
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Nashville Teens
Neil Young
Nils Lofgren
Nirvana
Oasis
Otis Redding
Python Lee Jackson
Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Rod Stewart
Rolling Stones
Roxy Music
Sam & Dave
Sex Pistols
Showstoppers
Sly and the Family Stone
Small Faces
Specials
Squeeze
Stevie Wonder
Talking Heads
Temptations
Them
Tony Joe White
Undertones
Warren Zevon
Who
Zombies

Mostly familiar names - but perhaps a few you may not have heard of. Noticeable absence of Radiohead - not quite sure why.

Headbangers

The weather has been lovely and it got up to 18.5 C in Banchory on Friday. Today was also nice, but I was too tired to enjoy my golf properly this morning having been late home from last night's headbang at Dave's - photo on football blog: http://bvetsfootballgroup.blogspot.com/

This afternoon, Colin, Dave and Malcolm came round to watch the Scotland match - another disappointing result - 0-0. Tonight it's a take-away from the Coriander.

I still have to look out the old cable to allow Jo to add the photos she took with the old camera to her blog - look out for exciting times ahead in Jo's world.

Thursday in the Broch

Must have had too much sleep on Tuesday night as I was awake at 4:30 this morning and eventually got up and came to Fraserburgh for our management meetings. Certainly feeling a lot better now - I even cancelled football last night to make sure - I now feel ready for some exercise again - squash tonight, I think.



I'm dropping off some glasses at the local Brewdog brewery (http://www.brewdog.com/) today - first time I've been there - they seem to be fairly successful, but haven't won too many friends in the process, it seems.



I got an invitation to go and see the Man U v Celtic Champions League match yesterday - indirectly from MUFC's sponsors, AIG. Should be good - just waiting for details of travel etc now.



Nothing else happening so straight on to today's list - as promised, famous (to me) football moments. My Dad was always a football fanatic - primarily Partick Thistle, but he also appreciated and supported Scotland and Scottish football teams against European opposition. His eldest brother Willie was a die-hard Bluenose (Rangers), but Dad had no time for any of the bigotry that went with the Rangers-Celtic scene in Glasgow. He had much more empathy with his other elder brother, Alex, who ran away from home at an early age and joined the Gordon Highlanders - he felt that was where he belonged - and, of course, he supported Aberdeen as well. Indeed, when we moved to Banchory in 1983, I used to get tickets for Alex (who had recently returned from years in USA) and go to the matches with him - although he would never stay with us - he always booked a hotel room in Aberdeen. In those days, Aberdeen were arguably the best team in Europe for a while under Fergie's tutelage.

Sorry - slight digression - writing the above made me think about another retirement project I've been storing away for years - the creation of a full family tree. A few years ago, Scott's cousin, Mark, was trying to make one up and asked for my help with Lucy's side - I had to stall him at the time and have never managed to complete the task since. I have been sitting on the following papers prepared by my Mum and Dad many years ago - I think it was for one of Kelly's school projects:

As you can see, a little less than complete. I started to prepare a full one using modern technology a few years ago, but it's a big task - one day!

Anyway, back to football moments. When I was just 3, we moved to Corby, Northants and a long way from Dad's beloved Jags. Nonetheless, from an early age, he started taking me to the local football grounds - Corby Town, Kettering, Northampton and Peterborough - mostly non-league clubs then. We also occasionally went to see Leicester at Filbert St - Dad sat me on the cinder track directly in front of him. I remember seeing the famous Spurs team about 1959/1960 there.

When we came back to Scotland, we usually went to see the Jags, but occasionally during the first 6 months we were back, and before we moved to Foxbar Drive, we would go and support our local team, Johnstone Burgh - a Junior side who occasionally could attract as many as 10,000 fans for big games.

Enough of the pre-amble - what about the list? Well, there's lots and lots of games I remember - some live, some just on TV, but the ones that come immediately to mind, in striclty chronological order are:

1) c. 1963 - PTFC v Dundee, who were riding high as Scottish champions and went on to reach the European Cup semi-final. The Jags stuffed them 3-0 - what a day it was.

2) 1967 - Celtic beating Inter Milan in the European Cup Final, with a team consisting solely of players born within 30 miles of Glasgow - a feat never to be repeated.

3) 23rd October 1971 - an all-time high - Thistle, newly promoted and with a very young team, hammer the mighty Celtic 4-1 in the League Cup Final.

4) 1977 - having been to Wembley and seen Scotland beat England in an infamous match (remember the pitch invasion?), Scotland went on to beat Czechoslovakia at Hampden in a vital World Cup qualifier, with Joe Jordan scoring a famous headed winner. There then followed the match at Anfield against Wales, with a hotly disputed penalty kick helping Scotland to a 2-0 victory. From there it was on to Argentina in 1978, but, at that point, I draw a veil over the proceedings!

5) Although Argentina was a huge disappointment, nobody can forget the elation around the whole British Isles as Archie Gemmill scored that wonderful goal against Holland to put us 3-1 up and "in dreamland".

6) If I had left Fischer and joined Clipper a couple of months earlier in 1983, it wouldn't just have been on TV that I could celebrate Aberdeen's wonderful European Cup Winners Cup victory over Real Madrid - I could have been there in person - Dr. Clark chartered a plane for all of his management to go to Gothenburg!

7) 1999 - MUFC finally reach their second ever European Cup final. I played golf late afternoon but had to drive to Inverness afterwards. I got to my hotel and looked for a big screen somewhere but couldn't find one, so I dashed to my room and caught the last half hour, including those last 2 amazing minutes when Solksjaer and Sheringham pulled off the miracle.

8) Scotland met England in the Euro qualifiers (was it 1999 or 2003?). I had watched the first match at a pub in Beijing - Scotland lost 2-0. I flew home the day after, got tickets for the Wednesday 2nd leg at Wembley and booked flights for Ross, Gary and I. We had a great time and Scotland won 1-0 and came so close to knocking England out. We never saw much of the match, however, as we were in the midst of the Tartan Army, who were singing and dancing all the time!

Jordon 13

Happy 13th birthday to Jordon today:

I almost went home from the Broch at lunchtime yesterday as I was feeling so poorly, but I had a lot of work to do and I seemed to get a bit of a second wind so I carried on. Of course, when I got home, only Ross was there - Jo had gone out for another walk with the girls - keep it up! Locking her out of the house wasn't a good idea, however.

I went to bed at 8:00 pm last night - I obviously needed the sleep and feel a little better this morning - fingers crossed.

I'm sure the suspense is killing you so, to put you out of your misery, here's the full agenda for Friday's headbang:

1. Obituary - as described yesterday

2. Then and Now - original footage from 40 years ago and the same bands playing the same songs now - this slot features Cream and Pentangle this time

3. Original and Cover - original versions of songs and their later covers by other artists - featuring Shout (Isley Bros/Lulu), My Generation (Who/Oasis), I Heard it Through the Grapevine (Marvin Gaye/Antonio Forcione) and Gimme Shelter (Stones/Patti Smith)

4. Blues Legends - 2 grainy old black and white clips of Big Joe Williams performing Baby Please Don't Go and Howlin' Wolf doing Smokestack Lightning from 1963 and 1964 respectively.

5. Corny Country - Marty Robbins - El Paso

6. Embarrassing Performances - Chuck Berry performing Memphis Tennessee with John Lennon and Yoko wailing away - from the Mike Douglas Show in 1972

7. Festival Rock - Hendrix at Isle of Wight in 1970 and 2 more recent ones from Interpol and Muse

8. Superstar Gatherings - from the charity Crossroads concert in 2005, Eric Clapton, BB King, Jimmy Vaughan and Buddy Guy playing together

9. Through the Decades - the main part of the show - 41 videos from the last 6 decades - 12 from the 00's, 2 from the 90's, 6 from the 80's, 12 from the 70's, 6 from the 60's and 3 from the 50's.

Hopefully we'll have time to play a few DVD's as well - and some old favourites, including the emotive Johnny Cash video of Hurt.

Tomorrow's list? I'm thinking maybe favourite football performances - still working on which ones to include - don't lose sleep trying to double guess me!

More blues - and it's Tuesday

Drove to the Broch this morning - it's cold, damp and miserable here - just how I feel. I think I must be harbouring a bug - it's not quite hit me yet, but I feel down.

Apart from the drive up and back, don't intend to do anything other than stagnate today. Got some preparation to do for the board meeting tomorrow, but that's all for now. Also preparing for our headbang on Friday - Dave sent me a few more links for me to convert for easy viewing. His taste is a bit more esoteric than the rest of us - sometimes travelling in his car with him can be a little taxing as he blasts us with some new German Neo-funk or other obtuse musical category. Dave has made a request that we include some modern music and don't make our headbang purely an oldies nostalgia trip. Well, as host, I guess we have to pander to some of his whims!

Our show always starts with an Obituary section, to commemorate those famous musical names who have passed on since our last headbang. If you can't think of any, here's who's on this agenda:

Rick Wright - Pink Floyd

Isaac Hayes

Norman Whitfield, Temptations producer and song-writer, whose credits included "I heard it through the grapevine" and "Papa was a rolling stone" amongst many others.

Jeff Healey - blind blues artist

Danny Federici from Bruce Springsteen's E-Street Band

Humphrey Lyttleton - famous old British trad jazz man, who turned his hand to radio comedy in later years, as host of "I'm sorry I haven't a clue" - check out full details of his wonderful life at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humphrey_Lyttelton

We also have a clip of the Dave Clark 5 - Mike Smith, lead singer and keyboard player died just as we were about to hold the last headbang, but we couldn't get a video clip in time.

That'll do for today's list - tomorrow might be the rest of the agenda for Friday.

Monday blues

We keep getting glimpses of an Indian Summer, but yesterday's fine weather has again turned to today's cold and damp. Allied to which, the continuing financial woes throughout the world only add to the gloomy feeling. They always say your should look to the long term when investing - particularly for pensions - but it's a bit harder when you're knocking on 60 and beginning to plan for retirement and seeing your investments crashing in value. This will be greeted by scorn by our offspring who are still at the borrower stage of life, but there does come a point in time when the mortgage is paid and you begin to save a few shekels to enjoy your later years. If you're lucky, your investments will be at a high when you need them most - and not at the lows we're experiencing now. How much further will it go? Who knows?

Nothing much else to say today - hopefully some squash tonight.

Today's list was prompted by listening to Sounds of the Sixties on headphones. Brian Matthews introduces a Beatles A-Z each week and it got to Paperback Writer - a Paul McCartney song (with a great John Lennon B-side, Rain). Listening to Paul's bass playing on headphones for the first time was amazing. You often hear Noel Gallagher of Oasis going on about how great Paul's bass lines were, but I'd never really appreciated them until now - I was always a John fan - I thought Paul tended towards tweeness at times. I guess they were a great bitter/sweet, sugar/spice combination.

Anyway, it got me to thinking about bass players. My favourite is still Jack Bruce, sadly overshadowed (in some people's eyes) by Eric Clapton in Cream. Jack was the singer and songwriter but still EC was God to most. Next would be Ronnie "Plonk" Lane of the Small Faces - probably my second favourite band of all time. Again he was overshadowed by his song-writing partner, Steve Marriott, who handled most of the lead singing plus guitar.

Is there a theme here - is it the underdog I like? Is that why I support Partick Thistle and Aberdeen? Answers on a postcard, please.

Well, last night's dinner party went very well - or so I thought. Jo wasn't so sure however - she's beating herself up about serving up cold vegetables and chicken. Yes, they could have been a bit hotter but it was only fractional, but her self esteem is low this this morning - she even thought her individual pavlovas - which were delicious - were too large. Here's the assembled throng:


It was a late night and it's going to be a slow day, but the sun's shining and I'm not playing golf till this afternoon. Gary and Carole will probably be over for dinner later on. Gary and I were at the football on Saturday afternoon - the Dons lost again - 5 in a row - but it was definitely a case of we wuz robbed.

When I went to see Dad on Tuesday I took him in to the garden. He wouldn't wear his coat at first, but only lasted a few minutes before going back inside:


Today's (very short) list is favourite photos. I always loved the one of Lucy and Gary sitting on the front window ledge at Caldecot Way back in mid 70's. More recently, the one of me flanked by Jo, Lucy and Kelly sitting on Lucy's settee was particularly good I thought. I can't think offhand of the others - I'll need to refresh my memory by going through the old photos again - oh, and that's another retirement project - to digitise the photo library.

Jo's clear-out has uncovered some old photos and she regularly changes the pictures in the frames on display in the house. Talking of which, Jo now has the old Fuji camera and will be using it to add some photos and videos to her blog.

The weather outside looks fabulous and I must get myself ready soon. I'm just catching up on some old Sky + Jools Holland to see if there's any music there that I should add to our video show for this Friday's headbang.

Make your pick

Which look do you prefer? Sarah Stewart?:

or Jo Palin?: