Post holiday update

Today (Friday) is the first day of my semi-retirement, but can I learn to switch off sufficiently? It's very easy to carry on working from home - I must learn to ignore work e-mails. Perhaps I need to re-open a separate private e-mail address?

Anyway, we had a lovely time golfing in the Emirates. Nigel and Andrea's hospitality was wonderful. They have a nice villa with a secluded central courtyard and a small pool. What's more, I won the golf for the week:

Malcolm Grigor, Keith Gray, me and our host Nigel Meany

Courtyard

Pool

Lounge

Parrot in garden

 The world's tallest building is the new Burj Khalifa, which is so high it's occasionally in the clouds on the rare days when the sun's not beating down. The sun usually glistens off it:

and at night, it's lit up:

There's more photos on my golf blog.

Tomorrow, I'm off to Newcastle to see the match with Manchester United - long day on the train - hope it's a good game!

Eve of holiday post

I've packed now. My golf bag weighs 17kgs and my luggage 10 kgs so I should be ok for the 30kgs that Emirates Airlines allow. After some debate, I've reluctantly packed my suit for the VIP seats at the World Cup of Racing on Saturday night - I'm told it's a very fancy do, morning suits and all.

Six consecutive days of golf coming up - that'll be a good test for my new knee. We'll be in buggies most of the time so there's not much walking involved, so I should be OK.

Right now, I feel a bit grotty - hope it goes soon and doesn't spoil the journey or the holiday. Jo's at Inverurie today but she's left me some soup and bread for my tea - I'm sure that will be fine. Tonight there's another meeting about the new Sports Centre at 7pm. Hope it doesn't last too long - would like to see the Manchester derby on TV.

My Up band suddenly failed the other day and needed a soft re-boot, so it missed recording one night's sleep, but here's the weekly summary they send me anyway:

So Gary did the Inverurie half marathon after all - and in a really good time too - well done! Luca, too, had his own race:

Sorry about sideways!

Well, I've now worked my last Friday and my last Monday and when I come back from Dubai next Wednesday, I work on Thursday then have Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday off. Looking forward to it. We managed to get tickets for the Newcastle - Man Utd game on the Saturday so that'll be our annual train trip there and back, and, in fact, our only Premiership match this season. I've also only seen Thistle once, although I have seen Aberdeen a couple of times, but I guess I couldn't expect much having had the knee operation this winter.

Week of mixed activity levels

I was fairly active in the first part of the week, going for short cycles and hitting some balls at the range on both Monday and Tuesday, then going for a slightly longer run on the bike on Wednesday morning with the usual group (details on cycling blog - link on sidebar).

Thursday and Friday were lazy days however - no exercise at all. I didn't have much time yesterday as I was pretty busy all day in Fraserburgh then met up with everyone at Fennel's in Inverurie for Jo's birthday meal. No real excuse today, however - I could easily have gone to the gym mid-afternoon, or gone for a cycle when I got home about 4 pm, but I opted for the power nap instead. Could it be all the rubbish I've eaten today, compounded by one of Jo's scones when I got home? Not that Jo's scones are rubbish of course, but it was probably something I could have done without after gorging myself on sweet stuff at the office. Washing it all down with a couple of pints tonight will help though, won't it?

Talking of the birthday girl, here she was last night:

Ross had driven Jo through to Inverurie and took her home too, but I also had a passenger on the way back. Carole and Gary had bought Jo a cherry tree for her birthday (at Jo's request) and, after a short struggle, we propped it up in the front of my car. Every time I went round a bend, it was like an attack from The Day of the Triffids (for older readers only).

Also present, of course, was young Master Luca, and he was delighted when his Kids' Meal came with chocolate ice cream:

Gary revealed that he has now completely given up running - from the sublime to the ridiculous. Like his mother, he doesn't believe in the middle ground - everything to extreme. The pendulum swings again - it will be interesting to watch what happens to his weight.

Kelly FaceTimed us yesterday morning. Little Ba' Heid was there too of course and I would swear his hair looks reddish - at least on the i-Pad. Kelly assured us it wasn't, but we'll watch carefully.

Our Psychologist daughter had no theory to propound this time about my dream of her drowning in the bath, but Chris believes this was also directly connected to my knee. I'll need to think of a scenario that can't be linked to my knee and tell them I dreamt it.

The weekend starts here and the weather has got decidedly cooler again. My walk up the hill to the Legion tonight will soon warm me up however - and I've got Dubai to look forward to on Wednesday as well. Hopefully warm enough there.

End of an era

Aberdeen Football Club were THE team when we moved to the North East. Under Alex Ferguson, they won everything, and Rangers and Celtic were nowhere. Times changed from the 1990's onwards - money took over and since then it's been virtually impossible for the other Scottish teams to compete with the Old Firm.

All of this meant that a whole generation - our Ross included, and, to a lesser extent, Gary - grew up without knowing what it's like for Aberdeen to win anything. Well, yesterday, that finally changed and Ross and I were there when Aberdeen picked up their first trophy for 19 years.

We weren't the only ones there - there was a mass exodus from the North East. I'd never seen so many cars, buses and mini-vans migrating towards Glasgow - it was an incredible sight - a mass of red. Accidents on the way down and the way back didn't help, and our journey was a lot longer than we expected, but at least Ross and I were there when it mattered. Gary would have been too, but he was on call, so elected to watch the match at the local cinema, who had put on a special broadcast for fans who couldn't get a ticket - and there were lots of them.

Ross and I had arranged to meet Barry, Helen and Dawn for a spot of lunch and a beer, but it appeared that Glasgow City Centre wasn't ready for the hordes who were seeking a pre-match drink. All the pubs - apart from one Irish bar - were closed until 12:30 pm, just 2 hours before kick off. What a chance they missed. Didn't anyone in Glasgow realise what was happening? 40,000 thirsty "Sheep" plus another 7,000 or so Inverness followers could have helped the coffers of the Glasgow businesses.

We found a place for lunch - well, a snack really - eventually and I took this photo:

In other news, Jo got an early birthday present from Oz:

Kelly gave me her professional opinion on my recent anxiety dream:

"This is my interpretation of your anxiety dream.... you are concerned about the age at which you retire (obviously having enough money to keep you going), but you are worried that if you leave it too late you will not have enough time to enjoy yourself and do what you want to do. Hence the turning up late bit and not getting to play golf."

Jo and Chris thought, however, that it was related to my knee. Jo because I had expressed a little concern that I had plateau'd with my knee bending exercises, and Chris because I wouldn't be able to do what I used to.

So, continuing on the same theme, I dreamt the other night that I was bathing Kelly and Ross - when they were younger obviously - and they weren't happy about it and Kelly, in particular, took umbrage and I had to virtually drag her to the bath and throw her in. Kelly's reaction was to just sink to the bottom of the bath (it had suddenly got deeper) and lie there, totally submerged, with bubbles coming from her mouth. I think I awoke at this stage. What do we all make of this then?

My first full week of UP stats is out now and here's the summary:

 

 

The dilemma for this week is what to buy Jo for her birthday on Thursday - and where shall we go to celebrate it? Jo doesn't want anything and can't make up her mind where to go for a meal. I suggested she might like a bike, but she's procrastinating on this one. What do you think? Vote on the poll on the side bar of this blog.

Balmedie

Friday - still dry, although a little cloudy. I decided to take the short drive from our Aberdeen office to Balmedie beach and the large dunes there - just south of the infamous Trump golf course. Balmedie Country Park they call it now.

They've laid out some nice wooden walkways from the car park through the dunes to the beach:

Very nice it was too.

I came home this afternoon and decided it was time to check out my cycle roof rack and see if I could set it up - for the first time for about 20 years - several cars ago. Bad news - one of the 4 corner screws and fixings is missing, so I guess I won't be travelling far with my bike in the near future. I went to practice my golf instead.

Strichen

So, it's Thursday - Management Meeting day in Fraserburgh. I had a bit of a fitful sleep - so my UP bracelet tells me anyway. I woke at 5 am but managed to roll over and get a bit more rest. It was then I started dreaming - and it was one of those anxiety dreams.

I hate being late for anything - I don't want to miss a plane, a tee time, a bus, or whatever. This dream was about golf at Banchory. I arrived an hour early for my 8:45 tee time and hung around the pro shop for a while. The inevitable happened - time passed and before I realised it, my tee time had come. I rushed to the first tee - barefoot, without my shoes - but the tee kept getting further and further away - and the first tee, bizarrely, was a beach. I finally arrived there, but the (lady) starter told me I was too late, and there was no offer of finding me an alternative time. I shrugged my shoulders and walked away. OK, peeps - now analyze that.

Back in the real world, I completed my morning exercises and headed off to Fraserburgh, with some of the Graham Parker CD's I received yesterday for company. The morning went OK and I decided to stroll round to the cafe at the nearby National Lighthouse Museum for a bite of lunch. I then walked back towards our factory partly along the coastal path, which is still officially closed at one end after the subsidence of last year. I had time for a photo, looking north over the start of the Moray Firth:

Mid-afternoon, I decided to head home, but I took a right turn at Strichen and headed towards the sign that pointed to the Stone Circle. Some nice walkways there, beside a stream and along the disused railway line - yes, Fraserburgh, like Banchory, used to be served by British Rail before Dr. Beeching came along in 1963.

Anyway, I parked the car and sat by the stream for a while. A couple of (at least equally) elderly gents passed and had a chat, and then I headed up the slope towards the stone circle:

The whole area is really rustic and peaceful. There was a small circular tower nearby:

The apparent doorway was only about 3 foot high, but I ducked down and entered, to find a tall column in the centre:

There were flies everywhere - I didn't hang around.

I got home eventually and there, waiting for me, was a birthday present from Oz:

Perfect - and it's non-alcoholic! I was going to buy it this year myself.

High pressure continues

Still glorious here - and long may it continue. I love days when the skies are clear and you wake up to a slight frosting on your car and the day just gets warmer and warmer from there.

I went for a short walk round Fraserburgh harbour yesterday at lunchtime, staring up at the huge pelagic trawlers, which are now all tied up after the end of the main mackerel season. Stopped off at Inverurie for tea with Luca and Jo before dashing back to Banchory for an important meeting on the future of the planned new Sports Centre. I decided to dump my car at home - I just had enough time to do that before walking from one end of the village to the other for the meeting at Hill of Banchory. The walk took me just over half an hour, walking as fast as I could.

Of course, one of the reasons I walked to the meeting was that I was falling short of my 10,000 steps per day target. My new Jawbone Up doesn't have much data yet, but here was the first report after a couple of days:

 

 

The history of the planned Sports Centre goes back two decades at least, when the community raised funds for a new pool. The money collected - £100K - has been sitting in a bank account earning peanuts in interest ever since, with little sign of the pool appearing - until now. It appears that we are now finally entering the final stages of a long, drawn-out programme, with final designs now being put together, with a view to having the Centre operational in 2017 - and yes, it's almost certain we will have squash courts in it - but only courtesy of Richard Simcox, who has made a very generous commitment to provide a six figure sum. There still remains a funding gap of c. £350K - £400K, which has to be available within 18 months, but I really believe we will get there this time.

The tragedy for me is that I will not be in a position to get much use from the centre by the time it opens - and a whole generation have missed out.

This morning was a trip to the dentist, so no weekly cycle with the boys. I did leave work early this afternoon, however, with the intention of going for a late afternoon cycle round Banchory. I headed up round Inchmarlo, but didn't get very far and ended up coming back down to the High St and going for a haircut!

A long-awaited parcel arrived from America - the Official Bootleg Box by Graham Parker and the Rumour, for which I was one of the original funders of the project - gaining myself a mention on the album notes:

(right hand page, middle column, 9 down)

That's all for now, folks

Spring is here?

A glorious start to the week - blue skies and we're promised it will get warmer and stay dry. Pity I didn't quite feel up to it - either something I ate or a little bug. I struggled in to work but decided I had to get out at lunchtime and get some fresh air. I went down to Persley Walled Garden - I hadn't been there for years. It's a little oasis of calm amongst the madness that is the nearby infamous Haudagain roundabout, which, incidentally is about to get a whole lot worse as they are due to close Mugiemoss Road, one of my regular rat runs. It's going to be madness round there as everyone tries to get across the Don from north to south and vice versa.

Here's how the garden was looking today:

It was a little sun trap which I enjoyed for a brief 10 minutes before returning to the office. Not another soul to be seen other than a single gardener.

I went to Pittodrie on Saturday to see Aberdeen sneak through to the Scottish Cup semi-final by narrowly beating Dumbarton. Oh - and we finally got our tickets for the League Cup Final, which is next Sunday. 40,000 tickets have been sold to Aberdeen fans, so it should be a great occasion, although heading back up the road after the match could be a bit problematic.

I had another round of golf yesterday as well, so it's all looking good for my trip to Dubai in just over 2 weeks' time.

The media in the UK are very hot on the topic of sugar just now. There have been endless reports about sugar in certain foods, and there have even been calls for a sugar tax! Some of the media, however, manage to interpret the facts differently - or perhaps they just tell lies - or maybe they're stupid? Yes, Daily Mail - it's you I'm talking about. They published a ridiculous headline about real ale a few weeks ago which stated that a pint contained 9 spoonfuls of sugar. Utter rubbish of course and I wrote to CAMRA HQ about it and they, in turn, took it up with the Daily Mail, who eventually published an apology - in small print of course.

Here's the proof, in a quick ready recknoner:

Have a good week. Bye for now.

Forgot to say thank you to my 100,000th reader. Sorry, can't tell who you are, but there wasn't a prize anyway.

Birthday blog

Well, I had a very nice birthday, with lots of gifts and a lovely family meal last night. First gift to arrive was on Wednesday - presumably from the Down Under family, who had told us there was something on the way:

First gift on my actual birthday was my Jawbone Up (https://jawbone.com/up) bracelet from Jo. Need to build up some data before I bore you all with the various stats. I've already learned, however, how sedentary my job is. The bracelet is set to vibrate if it detects 15 minutes of inactivity. It's been buzzing away all day! I'm supposed to do 10,000 steps each day - I'm lucky to do much more than 1,000 unless I actually go to the gym/go cycling/play golf etc. Oh - and I got two Cadbury's Creme Eggs from Jo as well - and it's not even Easter yet.

When I arrived in Fraserburgh on Thursday morning, Francis Clark handed me a bottle of 18 year old Glenlivet from Michael and him. I suddenly realised that this was indeed a special birthday.

I got home later that afternoon to find another gift waiting for me:

Looks intriguing - but what was inside?:

In the evening, we picked up Ross and headed out to the Echt Tandoori to meet up with Carole, Luca and Gary. Ross handed me my gift:

There's a trend developing here. Are they trying to tell me something?

We were all very impressed with Echt Tandoori - nice place, good food and excellent service - they were all very friendly and went out of their way to make sure that Luca, in particular, was looked after. After the bill was paid, they even offered us all a complimentary drink. One of the staff took this photo of us all:

No starters - just poppadums and spices - and no desserts - well, just one:

Gary and Carole were the exceptions who gave me something a little healthier than alcohol (not that I'm complaining!) - some new cycling gear:

Ross drove Jo and I home and we settled down to watch the last of Series 2 of the Sopranos. Just 3 more series of loveable and deadly Tony and his crew to go now.

Today (Friday) it definitely feels like a semi-retirement. When our long-serving Girl Friday Jacquie arrived at the office, she brought with her a cake, which she'd baked for us - at 5 am this morning!:

(sorry, the sun got at that one a bit)

Tonight, it's the usual gathering at the pub - no doubt with a dram or two to finish the evening. Could be a slow start tomorrow, but I'm going to see Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup in the afternoon.

Incidentally, by the time you read this, you could have become the 100,000th reader of this blog!

Short weekend

The weekend past flew by - mostly because Gary and I went to Dingwall on Saturday to see Thistle play Ross County, which meant virtually a full day for me, by the time I drove to Inverurie in the morning and then dropped Gary off there in the evening. I arrived at Rae Circle just in time to see Carole sorting out all her horsey gear, and Luca finishing his supper, complete with new haircut:

It was a lovely day on Saturday - all that was missing was a decent football game. We met up with old footy pal, Rob Dunnachie, for a beer and a bite before the football. Spotting the sign outside the National Hotel, we thought we'd pop in there:

Regrettably, the Cask Ale sign was a relic of the past - no real ale here.

At the match, Gary took a photo of Rob and I:

No, I'm not showing off my ever-growing stomach - just the Jags shirt I got for Christmas.

Sunday was just as nice and I decided that it was, at long last, time for me make my comeback at golf again. I had felt for some time that I was ready but, for a combination of reasons, had delayed it until now. It felt good to be back and my knee was really good - no pain at all. Of course, it was also the first outing for my "puppets" as well:

Jas looks a little bewildered as to why I've got these 2 strange things on the end of my clubs.

February ending - Spring coming?

Yes, it's been lovely this week - makes you think of Spring - but it's still early enough in the year for a few weather shocks yet. What is really encouraging is the longer days. I came home early today and Jo had neighbour Isobel in for her weekly chat, so I decided to jump on the bike and head west a bit.

I didn't get very far when I thought about going to the driving range at Inchmarlo to hit a few balls. I hadn't played since Tenerife in October and although my knee has been feeling good, I haven't been tempted to try it out - until today. I hit a bucket of balls (50) with no reaction at all - an encouraging sign. It's less than 4 weeks until I go to Dubai for a week's golf, so I need to get some more practice in soon.

I have been frustrated, however, in my attempts to get 2 tickets for Ross and I to go and watch Aberdeen in the League Cup Final (Gary's working that day and can't join us). I'll try again tomorrow, however.

This Saturday, Gary and I are travelling through to Dingwall to see Thistle play Ross County in a crunch match which could go a long way to determining who has to go in to the play-offs for relegation - Ross can't make this one.

The rest of this week has been one of dealing with some redundancies we're unfortunately having to make. Throw in a Board meeting and a meeting with our Bank and it's not really been a barrel of laughs.

The really good news, however, came on Tuesday when Jo got the all-clear at hospital. I took her in for her mammogram and subsequent breast examination, but they were very happy that there was nothing sinister there and they didn't need to do a biopsy. The pain she has been getting and the thickening in the tissue has apparently been brought on by nerve irritation between the ribs.

That same day we heard the good news about Julie's pregnancy. That took me by surprise, I must admit. Grannie Dawn? Doesn't sound right.

I managed one of my irregular visits to Bannatyne's yesterday. Not having done anything other than eat and drink for several days, I was badly in need of it. I know cycling is good for my knee rehabilitation, but the exercise bike is no substitute for getting out on a real bike. It's not that I can't do it, but 30 minutes on an exercise bike is so tough mentally. There's no respite - you've just got to keep pedalling and pedalling, going nowhere fast. I did a bit of weights work as well, then a little splash in the pool, steam room and jacuzzi.

Oh - and Kelly FaceTimed us on Tuesday evening when we were in Inverurie. My, Miller is fairly coming on - he looks a big strong boy. It reminded and encouraged me to look again for suitable flights Down Under, but nothing doing yet, I'm afraid.

So I think that's my week so far.

Saturday afternoon in Pitlochry

The cafeteria at the Killiecrankie Visitor Centre was closed so we decided to head a few miles up the road to Blair Castle for coffee. The gates were open but there was a sign saying the castle was closed at this time of year. Naturally we assumed that this meant we could have access to the grounds only, but we were to discover that the restaurant and shop were both open as well, which was very convenient for us.

Tea/coffee and a nibble - I had mincemeat crumble - and very nice it was too. This was what the castle looked like when we arrived:

By the time we'd had our coffee, they were hustling us out of the building and the coaches had gone:

We discovered that they had only opened the castle gates and the restaurant and shop for the coach parties, and that we had just crept in under the radar. By the time we left, the main castle gates were closed again and we had to leave by the tradesmens' exit.

We just had time for Jo to pose on the bridge of the burn:

We didn't have time to do the walk up to Hercules Gardens:

We timed our departure nicely - just in time to drive down to Linn of Tummel to watch the idiots scheduled to bungee jump at 1:30 pm. We'd never seen this crazy act live before so it was interesting to watch. The set-up is very professional and there's been a substantial investment made in the platforms and walkways etc:

I hadn't charged my camera battery and I was starting to get warning messages, but I managed to get this distant shot of the first bungee jumper:

As we left Linn of Tummel, we spotted a sign with some lyrics from a well-known tune on it:

Time now for a beer or two, so we headed off to one of our favourite places - the Moulin Inn, where we managed to see the second half of the Italy - Scotland match. Then it was back to our hotel for an hour or so before heading out again, down the hill to the Auld Smiddy for a quick beer then to the Prince of India for a curry. We left it a bit late and had to scamper along to the theatre again to get in seconds before Neil Oliver took the stage:

On Sunday, we had planned to have a little walk around Dunkeld, but it was very wet so we parked the car quickly and had a quick look at the Dunkeld Ell, the National Trust property in the town square:

So that was our weekend over. We drove home via Perth and stopped at the Glendoick Garden Centre for coffee and a scone and were still home well before 2 pm - in plenty of time for Lucy's weekly FaceTime call later in the afternoon.