Sweetness and light

OK - I'll try hard not to moan too much tonight - just one quick word about our bank - they had made a mistake - they hadn't undercharged us £40K - it was actually £56K!

And yes, we have lost all of our money in the Flyglobespan collpase - almost £4K. Much more important, however is finding another carrier to take over the Aberdeen - Faro flight - let's hope one appears soon.

Had a nice game of squash tonight, followed by Jo's latest soup/porridge concoction - very nice actually. Getting ready for our night out at the Milton tomorrow night now - 27 of us going.

I was offered 3 corporate tickets to go to the Emirates on Saturday to see Arsenal - Hull. I would have loved to have gone, but, it's a bit near Xmas and, anyway, we're babysitting. We've got our tickets to see Arsenal - Everton on 9th January, so I'm not really missing out.

Still haven't got anything for Jo's Xmas - any suggestions? Oh - and I finally got round to buying myself a new jacket the other day - and it's brown - I don't like brown - what do you wear with it?

More moans

Just heard the news about Flyglobespan going in to administration. I've just paid almost £4K for a group of 13 of us to fly to Portugal on a golf trip next October! What's worse, I used my debit card as they charge you less for this than a credit card, for which I would have been covered!

On top of the Flyglobespan news, I've just booked flights with BA to go to London on a footy weekend on 9th January - will they be on strike then?

Yours disgustedly,

Moaning Minnie

Shall I have another bleat today? I think so. Luca had a bad dream and woke us all in the middle of the night. Then, at 4 am, the cooker timer alarm went off and we were all up again - and guess who couldn't get back to sleep after all this?

Anyway, I'm now a few chapters in to my "blast from the past" book, No Mean City. It was written in the 30's about the hard life in the Gorbals and the razor gangs that abounded then. Leaves you with a slightly queasy feeling - although there's no real bad language or too much graphic detail. I learned what a "hairy" was - it's a phrase no longer used - I guess the modern equivalent in Aberdeen would be "minger". I must have had these horrid graphic images of the derivation when I was a teenager, but it transpires that it's a bit of a class thing - i.e. hairy means they weren't wearing/couldn't afford a hat!

B****y banks!

Well - after nearly 9 months of me complaining and their denial, our Bank finally fessed up today - they had overcharged us interest - just a mere £40K, that's all! True to form they then decided that they had to raise additional charges and increase the margins they were taking, so that they would get virtually it all back again!

I had a little rant at them, but I know full well that what goes around comes around, so there's little point in having a complete fall-out - that's what's so frustrating about it all. Of course, they need to increase their charges because they're having to pay the Goverment a huge premium on the money that baled them out a year ago. Meanwhile, relatively small local businesses who have survived (so far) through the Credit Crunch without any Government intervention or aid are being punished for their failures. Where's the morality in all this?

I've started so I may as well get all my rants off my chest now. We're still having fun and games with our number one customer - our Senior Technical Manager's head has rolled and we're now re-organising internally.

OK - who's next? What about Harvey's? Yes, the sponsor of Coronation St - and supplier of the settees in our back room. My seat is getting ever more uncomfortable and I'm seriously thinking of ditching it after not much more than 18 months' use. The photos don't really show the deterioration - on the left is the photo from exactly a year ago, when their rep came out and declared it was just normal "TV seat". On the right is tonight's photo. Maybe this is the reason for my grumpy mood.

On a brighter note, we are looking after Luca overnight - he seems to enjoy coming here to see his Grannie Jo and he's always on good form.

Tomorrow, it's the dentist for me again - but this time, it's a relatively routine visit to the hygienist - wish me well.

Fife trip

We had a nice little trip down to St Andrews on Friday - eventually! I had agreed to meet Jo at Stracathro and phoned her at 1:30 pm advising her to leave now, hoping she might get there about 2:15 pm. Given the previous track record, I didn't rush leaving Bridge of Don, but I was still down there with plenty of time to spare. I waited - and I waited. Eventually, I felt I had to phone - no answer of course. I tried Ross' phone, as I knew there was a possibility that he would be driving his Mum over Cairn o' Mount - no answer from him either. What had happened to them?

Round about 3:10 pm, the little Almera pulled in to view, with Jo looking slightly stressed in the passenger seat. They had got a little fed up following slow moving traffic over the hill, and Ross had decided to take a left turn at Clatterin' Brig. Where does that take you? To Drumtochty, and, if you take another wrong turn, Auchenblae. It seems that Ross has inherited his mother's legendary (lack of) sense of direction.

After that, the trip down to St Andrews was relatively plain sailing and we got there with time enough to stop off in the town to book a table for dinner at the Doll's House. At the hotel, we had been upgraded to a suite with what would have been a lovely view out to sea, were it not for the fog enveloping Fife. My camera was still in the car, but Jo took several photos of our room and hopefully we'll see them on her blog.

I had booked us in for a massage - what a shock to the system that was! We were both in the same room on adjacent tables this time and I discovered later that we were playing a game of chicken - who would squeal with pain first of all? How could a little slip of a girl inflict so much pain on me? Was it worth it? I think so - although Jo was still complaining about the pain in her shoulders the following day!

There was no shuttle service running to town after 6 pm so we had to order a taxi, and we had a G & T while we waited. Our booking wasn't until 9 pm so we also managed a couple of beers in the Central Bar first of all. Our meal was excellent - I'd go back to the Doll's House again.

On Saturday morning, we weren't quite ready for breakfast, so we nipped down for a quick dip and a read of our books. After breakfast, we noticed the fog was lifting so we set off for Crail and a short walk along the Fife Coastal Trail. This is Crail harbour:

This was the street we walked down to the harbour:

and here's Jo with the sea behind her:

Crail is at the very start of the Firth of Forth and we could see right down to East Lothian and the Bass Rock - although it was still a little misty and the camera wouldn't capture it all. This was the view of the mouth of the harbour from the viewpoint:

We did a loop round the town and came back along Market Gate, where Jo was taking some  photos:

Friday update

Not much to say. Been busy - down in Edinburgh on Wednesday. Went to Govenment Offices and was told that the guy we were due to see was in Peterhead - his Dad was ill. No problem, we said - we're also meeting xxxx - sorry she's off ill today! Bit of a wasted trip really - could have used the day more productively by staying in Aberdeen. We also saw our bankers again - I've been pushing them for months on their charges - I was convinced they were ripping us off, but they kept saying everything was OK on their side. Well, finally we got a confession - still without details - that they had been over-charging us interest!

Finally managed a game of squash doubles last night - after a couple of aborted attempts this week - and had a nice pint of Santa's Swallie in the Learney afterwards. This afternoon, we're heading for our annual - but possibly last - trip down to St Andrews to stay overnight at the Fairmont. We're treating ourselves to a massage as well! Not sure what we're going to do for dinner yet, but Jo's made a special request that we go down to Crail in the morning for a walk along the beach there - as recommended by Anne and her Mum.

Tuesday - less than 2 weeks to the shortest day!

Not much to say really. Played golf on Sunday - had to go to Aboyne as Banchory was closed. Oh - and Jo and I had an Indian take-away at the Kilgours on Saturday night - one of the worst we've ever had from the Derbar, I'm afraid. We both suffered a bit from it.




We were up there to see Colin's new toy - a turntable that digitises your old LP's. Colin hadn't a clue how to work it and I'd been meaning to have a look for some time, and this was the ideal opportunity. It's very simple and we did one of my old faves - Window by Michael Chapman. I left a few more of mine for Colin to do in his spare time - let's see how he gets on! I've got a whole pile of other ones I'd like done as well, but I didn't want to swamp him - and, no Lucy, it doesn't include any of your old Bucks Fizz LP's!




No squash last night - going to try again tonight. Tomorrow it's Edinburgh - the Government and the Bank - wow!

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!