Holiday news

Good news - finally heard back from the villa owner - it's available w/c 27 March 09 - so I'm going ahead to book it now. Once that's done, I'll get on to flights.

Saturday morning slobs

It's Saturday morning. I've had my breakfast - but no paper to read - no TV to watch either - Jo's insisting on her early morning fix of Alibi - today it's two hours (!) of Taggart - and she complained when I didn't get her a coffee this morning - unusually she was up first and I assumed she had got herself one, but I guess I was wrong.

I suppose as I'm usually off to work (or away golfing) Jo's used to having the TV to herself - so I can't really complain. Is this the life of retirement I have facing me? Maybe just as well I can't afford to retire for a while yet - it could be years before my pension funds recover from the crash.

It's a beautiful day - I could have golfed after all, but it's just a habit that I only golf on Sundays in the winter - weather permitting - no doubt it will rain tomorrow.

Hoping just to take things easy today - at least until squash at 5 tonight. I played football last night - it was good fun but really sore on the body. Our usual Friday night session was at the golf club last night - we were the only people there! There were 7 of us present - a few more than usual - it could/should have been 8 - Brian Fitzpatrick made one of his rare appearances but left as soon as the first person (Colin) arrived! Strange - apparently he was there from 7:30 but he knows the rest of us are never there until after 8 - why did he bother coming along?

That was my first pint of real ale for a couple of weeks - in fact my first beer since Chicago airport Monday lunchtime. Adnam's Old Ale isn't a favourite - it's a dark winter brew - but it was nice to drink cask conditioned again. I like a lot of the US beers but it's hard to get them served cask conditioned except in the major cities. Today's short list is my favourite American micros:

1) Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

2) Bridgeport bottle conditioned Pale Ale

3) Samuel Adams Boston Lager

Back to the Broch

Awoke a little earlier this morning - not too bad considering - it seems like the jet lag from one week on the East coast is a lot less than that after 3 weeks on the West Coast - the three hours time difference helps as does the slightly shorter time in the air. Mind you, I'm still constantly dozing in front of the TV - I was trying to catch up with the stuff that had been recorded on Sky + in my absence, but missed half of it!

I haven't had a response from the villa owner yet - hope this isn't more bad news! We need to get sorted soon.

Nothing much else to add other than I forgot to mention that I saw Mamma Mia on the plane on the way home - good fun - light and frivolous - looks just like a stage show filmed, which is what it is after all. Meryl Streep was excellent however and the music is great - uplifting stuff - just the job to help shorten the journey. Pierce Brosnan is truly awful, however - and Julie Walters was fine, albeit playing her usual role.

Today's list - you've been missing them, haven't you? - top pop music shows on TV:

1) Ready, Steady, Go - innovative, ground breaking - set the template and came at a great time, synchronising with the Merseybeat and Thames Valley booms, when British groups re-exported to USA revamped versions of the original music of the American rhythm and blues stars, who, until then, were virtually ignored in their own country.

2) Top of the Pops - it's gone now - deservedly - it was but a shadow of its former self, but, in its early days it was compulsive viewing for the whole nation, allowing parents to further develop their skills in such phrases as "who's that man with the girl's hair?", "turn off that racket" etc etc. In fact, for many years, it was the only way to see popular music on TV - getting on TOTP was a guaranteed way of breaking a new band.

3) Old Grey Whistle Test - often now seen on BBC Four and part of the ongoing nostalgia feast that every generation does - but don't believe everything you may have heard about it. In its day, it was definitely cultish - i.e. it could be pretty obscure and difficult viewing at times. In fact, you could liken OGWT in many ways to Monty Python - at its best, it was wonderful, but at times it was definitely cringe-worthy. Fortunately, we only ever seem to see (and remember) the good bits.

4) Later with Jools Holland - notice how I seem to have skipped a few decades? - I guess that tells you all you need to know about my opinion of music TV in recent years.

Back from USA

I got back to Banchory early yesterday afternoon after a long and stressful trip. I was sharing a villa with Keith Gray and Dave Edwards. Unfortunately, Dave is going downhill and we only discovered as we were about to leave on Monday morning that his passport was missing. We had to rush to the British Consulate in Orlando and get an emergency one issued - we managed just in time and the rest of the journey home was uneventful - although we had fairly long waits at both Chicago and Manchester.

The holiday was great - the resort was terrific and we had a good time, although I didn't quite manage to bring the trophy back again (I was 2nd equal with Syd) - Malcolm won it this year. The weather was great as well - we had clouds which didn't clear on the first two days, but after that, it was ideal. We used most of the on site facilities at the resort, including a nice water park which had a lazy river and a slide, as well as a separate area for the kids. Here I am sunning myself:

It's always nice to be home, however. Jo made mince and tatties for tea - great - and we then vegged out on last week's Corrie before retiring to bed before 9 - that was as long as I could last! I actually slept very well and awoke just after 6 this morning - perfect! Usually disturbed sleep patterns mean I awake about 3 in the morning - but not this time.

Anyway, we now need to get our holiday in Tenerife booked as soon as possible. I note from the various blogs that delaying our departure until Friday 27th March doesn't seem to present any problems for anyone - in fact, it's better for Carole and Gary. This is right in the middle of the Aberdeenshire (but not the Cornish) school holidays, so it's essential we get both the villa and the flights booked soon. Can everyone please confirm they are OK for this and I will try and book asap?

Technology

Blogspot will only accept photos as .jpg files and videos as .avi files. If Gary (for G is he) selected to save as a .jpg file rather than an a .pdf file when he scans it works fine.

Golfing today was glorious and the skywriters were out in force - this is for Jo:

Golf this week

Golf blog being updated daily - http://bsvgolf.blogspot.com/

Saturday night/Sunday

Dinner went very well last night - despite Jo's usual fears - and a couple of mishaps with the oven. Here are Anne, Leslie, Jo, Colin and Johanne deep in conversation:

It's been a fantastic day - golf was delightful this morning. The clubs are packed and all I've got to do now is shave and then close the case and try to get a bit of sleep before my pre-dawn departure tomorrow.

Holiday

There's also this one: http://www.ownersdirect.co.uk/canaries/C1449.htm - but it's only available the week before (13th - 20th March).

Sorry Cade

Hi Cade - sorry I didn't realise you had typed the last blog yourself! Well done - and keep blogging. Your uncles Ross and Gary went to see Aberdeen play football (soccer) yesterday with me - and Aberdeen won 1-0! Which game do you like best - (American) football or soccer?

I liked the Hallowe'en photographs - did you see Luca's?

4th post Saturday

Going to Tenerife on 20th March was the ideal date for most - especially Lucy - so I'm lnow ooking round for something else on that date. If I couldn't get anything, however, how would 27th March departure be for everyone?

Stephen Fry in America

He's now in Arkansas where we holidayed the year that Lucy first moved to USA. Nice memories.

He's doing every state in the Union - Oregon soon!

Saturday morning vegetation

Check out the football blog (http://bvetsfootballgroup.blogspot.com/) for photos and videos from the Lemon Tree on Thursday and the Legion last night.


I was tinkering with my camera this morning - I've not been happy with it since I bought it - the old one (that Jo now uses) was much better. I tried changing some of the settings and managed to accidentally include my toes:

It's a lovely morning and the turning trees are still lovely to look out at.

When I brought up the display cabinet from Dad's house, I also took his old address book. Jo was looking through it yesterday and came across this page:

The handwriting is a little shaky but it's my Dad's. I think it came from a few years ago when Barry was encouraging him to write - and the day centre also encouraged reminiscence. These are obviously song lyrics that he was trying to remember - a little sad aren't they?

Gary, Ross and I are going to see Aberdeen play today and then tonight, the Kilgours and Masons are coming round for dinner.

Just now, we're telly vegetating - we've done last night's 2 Corrie episodes and now we're watching Stephen Fry in America - it's the Mississippi edition and he's in Clarksdale just now - home of the blues - remember I wrote about it a few weeks ago in my blog?

Much ado about nothing

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5sLRLhwnuGo

Bad news

The villa's not available from 13th to 25th March! Boo-hoo - will need to start again.

Cold morning and one or two slippy roads on the way to the Broch today. There had been a snow flurry round New Deer and a couple of cars had gone straight off the road - the police were there to warn us.

Well done Cade - next thing to do is to learn to type it yourself!

Tonight, it's the Lemon Tree for Seth Lakeman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seth_Lakeman). Yesterday, I managed to download his 2004 LP Kitty Jay, which led to his Mercury Music award nomination as a pioneer of "nu-folk". Don't think I'll have time to get back from Fraserburgh and out again, so it's probably Archibald Simpson's curry night for me after work.