Lottie

Spare a thought for Jo today - it would have been her Mum's 87th birthday. Here she is in happier times a decade ago at our timeshare in Marbella:

I had a nice time last night at the Lemon Tree - details on my football blog. Going a bit slower today - we both had a late night, so both breakfast and lunch have been hours later than usual. We're getting an Indian take-away tonight and going round to Colin and Johanne's - I've been promising for months to go round and show him how to work his vinyl to digital converter deck, and tonight's the night. I've just been down to Ross' room to dig out my old albums and pick out the ones I want to convert.

Ross' pal, Pete, is over from Italy for the first time for 3 years and he's staying with us tonight. I don't expect we'll see much of them, however, as they're going in to Aberdeen to play cards tonight.

Final scores just coming in - dismal day for the Dons and the Jags.

Sabre rattling works!

Yesterday's blog at least provoked Gary and Lucy to act promptly and update their blogs - pity Jo and Kelly didn't do anything - especially Kelly - we want to see more photos of Oz!

Kelly and Jo were Skypeing when I left to go to work this morning. I just said a grumpy hello to Kelly - why grumpy you ask? - firstly, no hot water for shaving and showering - turned out the pilot light was out. I went down and re-set it, whereupon Jo revealed that yesterday our system "had been making noises" - so why didn't you say something, then?

I was immediately reminded of our conversation last evening when Leslie had phoned to tell us that Anne was out of hospital and I said "that's good - Anne will be able to make it to the girls night out at the T-n-C perhaps then?" No way, said Leslie - Anne will be completely out of action for several weeks. I was a little taken aback at this, as I assumed that her release from hospital with a broken ankle might cause her a bit of discomfort and lack of mobility, but not much more than this. Jo then piped in and confirmed Leslie's diagnosis and elaborated what a poor state Anne was in - so, again, why didn't you say something before then? It's not as if I haven't been around this week - I've been in every night - Sunday, Monday, Tuesday (early home then for swine flu jabs) and Wednesday.

It appears that some people can talk a lot and actually say very little.

Anyway, my grumpy start to the day made me think about another potential Xmas present - an electric shaver - not too dear - and just a back up to use for a quick tidy up, that's all. Of course, a sweater, new camera, a jacket, a car coat, new Sky Caddie, new Powacaddy, new irons and, of course, the Ginger Baker book are still all possibles as well!

Today at work we're dealing with the aftermath of a poor external audit of our Aberdeen factory over the last couple of days. We've been treading a fine line with the customer recently and relationships haven't been as good as they were - particularly since they revealed that they'd had a competitive quote. The risk of losing the UK's largest supermarket as a customer would have major repercussions for our business, so we've got urgent issues to deal with over the next few weeks.

Anyway, more immediately and personally, I've got the Lemon Tree to look forward to tonight. Last week's gig was good, but I wasn't really feeling up for it after the tooth extraction, so I'm looking forward to tonight - I'm planning to use my bus pass for the first time and we've got a meal booked at the Jewel in the Crown - roll on!

Solo blogging

It seems like I am all alone in the world again, so I'll keep this short - no point in wasting time if nobody else is out there.

Not much news - we both had our swine flu jabs - and yes, they are a little tender, but nothing really - although Jo said she was a bit restless last night and the night before I was a little wary of sleeping on my left side.

Last night, we veg'd in front of the telly - a small dose of Corrie, followed by a week's worth of Come Dine With Me - how awful are these people? They definitely put them together for dramatic effect, to ensure there are plenty of personality clashes - and there are. I can't think of many worse ways of spending a week in the company of complete strangers, cooking and eating each other's food, and having them crawl round your house, poking around in your cupboards and wardrobes.

I whiled away much of the time by transferring some of Ross' music database on to my PC. I had been looking for my Nick Drake CD, but couldn't find it. I've just booked for us to go to a concert in Glasgow in January which is a tribute to him - and I wanted to refresh my memories.

Tomorrow, it's back to the Lemon Tree for me - Blockheads this time - seen them before and they were very good - hope they are again. Jo's going out to the Tor-na-Coille with the girls.

This new film about the early life of John Lennon is getting a lot of publicity - looks quite good - evocative of the 50's - might go and see it over the holidays.

I'm up to date with my Sounds of the Sixties recordings, so I started a new Audiobook on the road up to Fraserburgh this morning - Purple Hibiscus. It's about a well to do Nigerian family at the time of the coup - the last one I think. It's started OK, so we'll see if it holds my attention.

Today, it's back to Fraserburgh and dealing with the problems of handling multiple outlet retailers - don't get me started!

Plus ca change

Tuesday morning - in to the office - you would have thought that the heating problem we had yesterday would have been sorted by now - but no, it's freezing again! Off to Homebase to buy 8 small heaters.

Fortunately, this afternoon the problem has been fixed at last.

We're off to get our swine flu jabs in an hour or so - I've been told they hurt your arm for a while, so it better be my left arm then.

One potential adventure I've been thinking about for a while is the West Highland Way. Now being a novice when it comes to hillwalking, and having little available holiday time, I didn't fancy taking a week (or 2) off work just to do it, but when we were over at the McWhinnies on Saturday, John was telling us that his younger son, Ian, had just completed a truncated version of the WHW. They went to Fort William and caught the train down from there to Kinlochleven, then walked back. This can be done in 3 days, and, even if we add a day to go up to the top of Ben Nevis and back, it's still just a long weekend - so next September is now being scheduled for this. Need to get some training in for this - and some gear. Watch this space.

Otherwise nothing to report.

Monday morning - freezing

It was cold this morning - frozen sleet on the windscreen had to be cleared before I could head off to work - and, when I got there, the heating was off, so we're all sitting here trying to work with our coats on!

Well, we had our pheasants yesterday - two was more than enough for the 3 of us. They were pretty good - a pleasant change anyway.

The gig at the Lemon Tree on Friday was pretty good, even although I wasn't really feeling much like going after the extraction. On Saturday morning, my taxi arrived at the ridiculous time of 8:50 am to take me to the corporate hospitality at Pittodrie. By 10 am, I was already in the boardroom and on my second glass of champagne! The meal was good and the football was too - well, the result anyway - the Dons beat Rangers 1-0 - made all the sweeter by a bunch of arrogant Huns sitting behind me.

I got home not long after 4 pm - Jo was out - she had gone to visit Anne in hospital - so I had time for a quick nap before we headed off to the McWhinnies in the evening for a spot of supper. By the end of the evening, I'd had more than enough food and drink in one day.

Got a game of golf on Sunday, albeit a couple of sleety showers nearly put us off. The afternoon and early evening had promised a feast of derby football, but I was pretty bored by it and only watched it intermittently. When Jo got back from visiting Anne again, we had to try and get rid of some of the programmes on the Sky planner - we were down to just 16% spare capacity on our HD box.

That's all, folks.

Moping my way to the weekend

Played squash last night - it was good and I felt fine. We watched the first episodes in the brand new series of Gavin and Stacey and QI and eventually I fell asleep, only to be woken in the early hours by a nagging ache in my jaw. Oh no, not toothache again!

The dentist managed to squeeze me in and did an X-ray of the offending tooth, which showed an abscess building up. I was offered 3 options - antibiotics; attempt to remove and replace filling; or extract - I chose the latter, so here I am, sitting in the office with a mouth full of blood, not really wanting to eat or drink.

I've been given a prescription for antibiotics in case the infection doesn't drain properly and the wound doesn't heal as it should over the weekend. No alcohol either - and tonight I'm going to the Lemon Tree to see the Animals and the Spencer Davis Group - bah!

Francis (Clark) was away shooting the other day down at Fasque and came back with a carload of pheasants, so he's had them plucked and has given me a couple - I've forewarned Jo - let's see what she can come up with!

Wednesday wishes, woes and worries

Actually, the heading is a bit misleading - I don't really have too much to moan about today - but, if you like, I'll have a go. I'm feeling a lot brighter today, thank goodness. I just felt a bit under the weather the last couple of days, but it seems to have cleared. I actually made it along to the gym at lunchtime and did OK.

Tonight we have Luca again for a few hours whilst his parents do their thing(s). Luca would happily have stayed last night, but he had to go to the dentist with Carole this morning, so she picked up the reluctant one from ours about 7:30 pm and took him home to bed.

Jo's not blogging much - too busy sorting out Xmas etc. She bought 2 new clocks for our middle landing from Costco. Why, you ask? There's already one there. Well, one of them is set to Oregon time and the other to Adelaide time - that's why! Perhaps she'll let you all see them on her next blog posting.

I promised a moan - well, here it comes - banks again! They're playing footloose and fancy free with our business' money again. Trying to get them to do same day transfers without any hassle is almost impossible it seems. They seem to be the only businesses that haven't fully adapted to new technology. They're quick enough to debit you when you're trying to pay a supplier, but does that mean that the supplier gets credited just as quickly? Does it heck as like!

Forgot to report that I finished the Whicker's War audiobook the other day. He's a good writer and narrator, with a clever way with words - even although the subject matter isn't what I would normally want to listen to.

It's all gone quiet out there - come on, you lot!

It's Billy Connolly's birthday today - he's 67 - how did that happen? It's also the birthday of ex-Beatle Pete Best and Donald "Duck" Dunn, bassist in Booker T & the MG's - both of them are a year older than the Big Yin.


It's also an incredible 18 years since Freddie Mercury died - where has the time gone?

It was this week a decade ago that I was on business in China - trying to clear up some of the mess that John Anderson had made out there - check my 10 years ago photo in the sidebar.

So, today, I was in Fraserburgh - not feeling too great - and I got a message from Gary asking me if I could pick up Luca from nursery on my way home. Of course, I agreed - but I don't have a child seat in my car. "No problem" says Gary - and he nipped back to Inverurie and dropped it off at the nursery. It was just after 4pm when I got there - and, of course, it was dark. See trying to fit Gary's car seat in my car, single handed, in the dark? Grrr... I managed eventually and, after showing my ID, off Luca and I went in my car driving back to Banchory and Grannie Jo. It was a bit like spending time with my Dad in his latter years - all songs. My entire memory of nursery rhymes was dredged dry long before we got home. Still, it was fun.

Now we're waiting for Gary to come and pick the little one up - and then we can have our TV back - I can't take much more of In the Night Garden and Peppa Pig!

Monday again - last week in November

We're almost in to December now - Thanksgiving in the States this Thursday, then St Andrews Day next Monday. I also just realised how busy my social diary is getting - I don't have a free Friday night until January now! This is my schedule:

• 26th November - KGV project progress meeting
• 27th November - Lemon Tree - Animals/Spencer David Group
• 28th November - Pittodrie - Aberdeen-Rangers corporate hospitality
• 28th November - McWhinnies for dinner
• 1st December - Swine Flu jabs!
• 4th December - Lemon tree again - Blockheads
• 5th December - Firhill (possibly) - Thistle v Dundee
• 9th December - Edinburgh - Scottish Govt offices
• 11th December - St Andrews Bay
• 18th December - Xmas night out at the Milton
• 21st December - Board meeting
• 24th December - Dave Williamson's birthday football match
• 25th December - Xmas!
• 26th December - Anniversary
• 1st January - Ne'erday
• 2nd January - Off to the Kenmore Club, Perthshire for 4 days
• 9th January - Arsenal - Everton (possibly)
• 15th January - Headbang (possibly)
• 30th January - Inverness - battle of the Jags
• 7th February - Murrayfield - Scotland-France
• 22nd February - Marrakech - for a week's golf
• 19th March - USA for 3 weeks

Whew! I'm tired just thinking about it!

Jo and I went to Glasgow on Saturday (by train) and met up with Barry, Helen and Dawn and went down to scatter my Dad's ashes at the cemetery grounds - under a tree, beside where we had scattered my Mum's ashes 7 years ago.

We had soup and sannies back at Foxbar afterwards and then got dropped off at the Buchanan St indoor shopping centre - it was tipping it down by then. I was looking for a jacket and a car jacket, but couldn't find anything - too many "fashion" shops according to Jo - so we just caught a slightly earlier train home. We had a (rubbish) tea/coffee at Queen St and admired the Victorian glasswork:

Jo "did a Carole" and looked the other way when I tried to take a photo:



We got home at a decent time, but there was nothing in the house, so we decided to go out. Jo suggested the golf club, but I thought it was too wet to walk there and back again, so we went to the Tor-na-Coille - my first time there for a while. My last time was about 5 years ago when I had a meeting with she-whose-name-we-don't-mention-but-is-now-believed-to-be-living-in-Laurencekirk, in a vain effort to mediate. The time before that was the time of the fire - 2000?

Anyway, the place looked old and tired, but they are planning to re-decorate - in fact, they've started - and we heard they have a new chef starting - Watson, whose name is the restaurant, is leaving after umpteen years service.

On Sunday, I went to the golf club ready to play, but a very heavy shower put most of us off and we headed home. I wish we'd been more patient as it turned out to be a lovely morning in the end. The consolation was that I was at home when Kelly Skyped - it worked fine on Jo's PC, so it must be wireless network issues that cause the problem on my laptop.

So, apart from footy on Friday night, I haven't had much exercise, so I'm looking forward to squash tonight.

Birthday girl

It's a very happy **st birthday to Carole today - this photo was taken last year at a wedding at Finzean - and, for the non-Scots readers, that's "Fingun" phonetically - it's a small village just past Strachan - "Strawn". Thankfully, neither place is anywhere near Milngavie (Millguy) or Culzean (Cullane) - I think I'll stop there.


On this day in history:

• 1863 - The Gettysburg Address
• 1942 - Calvin Klein born
• 1969 - Pele scores his 1,000th goal
• 1969 - Second Moon landing
• 1979 - Chuck Berry released from prison

and, somewhere in amongst that lot, Carole was born!

Nowt much else to say today - we've got Luca staying tonight - he's just peed his pants and I got a row for it - "you need to watch little kids all the time!" - "I was - he was sitting down and then suddenly stood up dripping - how was I to stop that?".

We've so far escaped the worst of the downpours that the West of Scotland is getting - again - but it's not looking good for the weekend. We've decided not to go to St Andrews tomorrow - we'll save that for another time and just drive down to Glasgow and back on Saturday - hope the roads are OK then.

And here's Kelly's postcard from Oz:

She has obviously forgotten our postal code!

Future diet

Well - after yesterday's visit to the dentist and the warnings I received, it was a soak and suck breakfast this morning - those dried fruits in F & F can be lethal after all! Is this what the future holds? - A soup and soft fruits only diet?

Frustrating day today - firstly, having to deal with bankers - we need them, but when they screw up and it costs our business money, how can I avoid falling out with them? Secondly, getting my Archos DVR back to the way it was before we went to USA in the summer, is proving almost impossible - they are so hard to communicate with - both by phone and e-mail. The unit was sent back with a battery problem just after we came back from holiday, and since then, it's been a nightmare - all I want is for it to be the way it was before, but it's being very awkward - partcularly on audio recordings, which I play in my car.

We Skyped with Lucy last night - on Jo's new account on her (wired) PC (as opposed to my wireless). It certainly didn't seem to have the same sound problems as my laptop, but there was a frustrating delay on the line and Jo reverted to a simple telephone call eventually. So, is the problem our ISP? I decided to experiment this morning and tried to Skype Kelly using my laptop and the work's wireless internet - but she wasn't there!

While I'm on the subject of toys and technology, Jo keeps asking me if I want a new camera for my Christmas? Well, yes - kind of. I would like a new camera, but does it have to be a Christmas present? It's a bit like Jo's request for a mirror for our hall for her Christmas - well, perhaps yes again - but it's not really a suitable Christmas present for her is it?

Talking of which, I'm a little short in the pullover department - and Ginger Baker's new book would probably go down well too. Incidentally, I took delivery of No Mean City last week - it was a book I read as a late teenager, I think - and I recall it scaring me to death then. It's all about the old razor gangs in Glasgow - scary. The book looks tiny, but it's over 300 pages of very small print - looking forward to reading it again 40 years later!

Dentist

Well, I've been to the dentist and she managed to fix my tooth this afternoon. It was one of my "fangs" so I really didn't want to lose it - Jo thought I might have to get a plate! The dentist reassured me however that the next step - if it cracks again, as is likely - is a crown, or possibly an implant.

Yes - it is mostly old age that's causing my teeth to crack up - they get more brittle as we get older - just like bones - and this tooth had had a root treatment done, which apparently makes them even more brittle.

I need to watch what I eat - Fruit and Fibre in the morning is nice, but pretty crunchy, particularly the dried bananas.

What else? Well, Keith and I played racquetball at Kippie last night - first time for a long while. I'd forgotten how long the rallies can go on for - we were both pretty knackered after just 3 games - but it was a nice feeling.

Saturday

Going rather slow today - I was late home after our headbang last night (details on football blog). Jo's not feeling so bright - she thinks she's now coming down with what I've had this week.

So, just chilling out today prior to going to play squash at 4:30 pm. More rain overnight so not sure if we'll manage golf in the morning or not - hope we do.

Next weekend we're heading down to Glasgow to scatter Dad's ashes. I've booked us in to St Andrews Bay on the Friday night, so a bit of a detour on the way down, but at least we don't have to dash down and back on the same day - and I'm sure the bed will be a bit more comfortable than the one at Barry's!

Friday the 13th!

Take care today!

I'm finally starting to feel a bit better - even had a reasonable sleep last night - didn't cough half as much as I have been recently. Now looking forward to our headbang at Dave's tonight - we start with our obituary spot - 12 notables (including MJ) have passed on since our last headbang in February - bet you can't guess many of them - come to think of it, you probably haven't heard of many of them!

We played doubles squash again last night - and we've got a new recruit to our ranks, who came along for the first time last night. He's a bit younger - just reached 55 - and a lot quicker and pretty useful, so the game was a bit more frantic than usual. Hoping to get another game on Saturday as well.

Great to see Kelly's blog up and running - with photos too.

Ross has had a few call-outs this week - he's got 2 jobs today in fact - Torphins in the morning and another one in the afternoon. He was out on Wednesday night as well to do a job, and he's been working a lot with Trish next door to get her computer systems up to date as well. She was obviously well pleased with him because she even came along and handed him a lovely thank you letter - I should have scanned it and posted it.