Chronicles Part XI - the new Millennium (9)

Here we are - it's 2006 now and here's our direct family line - by birthday this year:

• Me - 57
• Jo - 55
• Lucy - 33
• Gary - 31
• Kelly - 27
• Ross - 23

Not to forget:

• Cade - 6
• Braeden - 2

All the adults are busy working - no more F/T education. At this time, there were no thoughts either of retirement - although it wouldn't be too long before Jo jumped ship. By the end of the year, little baby Luca would join us - but first we had to meet Carole, who was then a Corthorn.

I think it may have been a Friday night that Gary brought Carole round to meet us - I seem to recall coming in from the pub:

We got on well - thankfully! In those days, Carole was living in a small house in Portlethen, which was fine for her - and would have been OK for her and Gary - but with Luca on the way, they would soon have to think about moving to somewhere with a bit more room.

My pension funds were starting to build up again. I'd had a very good final salary scheme in place until the early part of the decade, but the escalating costs of these arrangements put a strain on the business - and was causing the banks a little concern too. The pension scheme was in the name of the most vulnerable part of the group as well - Scofish Ltd., which as alluded to in earlier postings, began to really struggle by the middle of the decade.

A decision had been made to abandon the costly final salary scheme and replace it with a money purchase scheme, with the employer putting in what was, on the face of it, a very generous 27% of salary annually. This high rate was set to compensate partly for agreeing to abolish the final salary scheme. The cost of this would be spread over the rest of the group, so this would also take a bit of the strain off Scofish's finances.

As it happened, early in 2006, Scofish went in to Administration, so the earlier change to the pension arrangements was proved to be the right thing to do. With the benefit of hindsight, however, from a personal point, it would have been better for me to have had the benefits frozen up to the time of the change and start the new arrangements from then onwards, rather than wind the scheme up completely and start again, as happened. That way, I would have had about 20 years of benefits under final salary arrangements "in the bag".

Not that I was contemplating retirement at this stage. Although a lot of my friends had retired - and many of them urged me to as well - I was still enjoying work, where by now I had a tremendous amount of freedom to come and go as I wished. I had always said it was about lifestyle, not just money. I had worked for some pretty large companies earlier in my career - Distillers, ITT & Thorn EMI notably, respectively the largest employers in Scotland, the UK and the World at the time - but the big company corporate life was not for me - I was much happier in the smaller, family owned business where I knew who made the big decisions - plus I had a better chance of influencing them too.

I had roughly figured that, if I worked through to my mid 60's, I would be able to amass a sufficiently large pension pot to be able to retire - although I hadn't reckoned for the worldwide financial collapse in 2008 - that set me back a bit.

I've explained earlier about the collapse of Scofish and how the aftermath chewed up a huge amount of my time in 2006, but, thankfully, the rest of the group was trading well and didn't need as much of my time - plus it could afford the occasional extravagance as well - such as buying corporate seats at Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United. To be fair, it was done with the best possible business intentions - to entertain our major customers. Some kind of hospitality was kind of expected and whilst I'm not exactly a fan of over-the-top entertaining, this was within reasonable limits.

It's a debate I've often had with friends and colleagues - where do you draw the line when it comes to entertaining? Personally, I was always happy to accept the occasional invitation to a golf outing or a football match, but, for me, the dividing line came with anything that involved an overnight stay - I was always on alert whenever this was offered - particularly to my colleagues, one of whom once got an invitation to be flown down to Monaco for the Grand Prix weekend with 4 nights' accommodation at a hugely expensive hotel thrown in, plus premier tickets for the race and practice days - and all of this was from a supplier that we'd hardly ever done business with. Needless to say, I objected to him going - but he couldn't understand why. Events I subsequently uncovered early in 2006 explained his lack of morality to me in full.

Anyway, back to Old Trafford. The premier home matches against the top 4 teams were reserved for the top customers - fair enough. Initially, there was a plan to make the season tickets self-funding by selling the seats to the other matches to business contacts, staff etc. I was fortunate enough to attend both in a business capacity and with some of my pals, who had been trying to figure how to get to some top Premiership matches, so we decided to buy some ourselves. This was my first visit to the Theatre of Dreams in the company of Len Langford, who happened to be the Doc's orthodontist, whose father had played in goal for Manchester United - he was a pal of the late, great Sir Matt Busby, whose statue we are standing in front of:

I got some relief late in March from the Scofish problems with a golf trip to Florida, which had been planned and booked since the previous year. I was determined not to miss this one as, not only were we playing golf, but I'd finally managed to get tickets to go to Augusta for one of the Masters practice days - somewhere I'd always wanted to go.

We finished our golf at Southern Dunes, just south of Orlando, then drove north west to Georgia. The Tuesday was the only day you could take cameras on the course and we got lots of shots of the stars playing and practising - they were very relaxed and enjoyed some banter with the crowds. The place was just as magical as I had hoped it would be - beautifully manicured. Here I am in front of the famous butler cabin where they award the Green Jacket on Sunday night:

The following day - Wednesday - we drove back to Orlando to catch our plane home, arriving back in the UK on Thursday - just in time to watch the first day of the tournament proper on TV. It was great to remember each of the holes, having walked the whole course just 2 days before. Television doesn't really show the huge changes in elevation, but they were now fresh in our minds and we could really appreciate the difficulty of some of the shots.

Even earlier that year than the Florida/Georgia trip, Jo and I had a quick mid-term weekend break in Malaga. It's a city whose airport we'd often landed at, but we'd always bypassed. It was a carnival weekend too. We spent a bit of time going round the Alcazaba fortification:

Leo Whaley was born that year as well - a young brother to Sam & Tom. We travelled down to see them all in May:

Our USA holiday that year started at the new Marriott resort in Las Vegas. It can be scarily hot there - as we found out when we tried to walk a couple of blocks with the boys. The scale of the place always fools you. The hotels are so massive that you think they're much closer than they really are. Poor little Braeden nearly died out there. First law of perspective learned. Here's a happier shot taken inside the Triple 7 brewpub:

Back in Grants Pass, the first task was to pick up Bailey and Ryan:

As usual, we had a lovely time in USA, but, having flown in to Las Vegas with Virgin, we had to get back there for our return flight home. We got to McCarran airport OK, but then the news came back from the UK about the new security regulations following the foiled terrorist plot to detonate liquid explosives on 7 transatlantic planes. Inevitably, there were knock-on delays to all flights to and from the UK. We waited and waited and eventually boarded our plane. When we go to London, the airport was in chaos. Virtually all domestic flights were cancelled - we would have to find some overnight accommodation and try again in the morning.

I acted quickly and managed to get a room at a hotel not too far from the airport. Jo wasn't feeling too well and went straight to bed whilst I had something to eat and drink. The news the following morning was no better - there would be very few domestic flights anywhere. Our only option would be to try the train. That wasn't exactly an easy option either - the crowds were massive. I fought my way on to the train and quickly grabbed 2 seats for Jo and I - we were some of the fortunate ones. There were bodies everywhere - nobody could move up the aisles. It was a hopeless situation for the train staff - they could do nothing but let it be a free-for-all.

Once we had recovered from our holiday and the journey from hell, it wasn't long before we were off to Edinburgh for the Fringe, with the Kilgours and Masons in tow:

That wasn't the end of our short breaks that year. Come October, we headed down to St. Andrews:

In September my company car contract was up and it was time to replace it - with another Volvo:

Ross was going through a succession of cars about this time, including 2 Saabs:

whilst Kelly had a Beetle:

We decided it was time to upgrade the windows in our front room to the same standard as those that had been fitted in our bedroom:

Gigs that year included Billy Bragg, the Blockheads and Roddy Frame.

Just prior to Xmas, we got the opportunity of a break at the Craigendarroch, Ballater. Ross and his pals used it for a few days, as did we, with the Kilgours coming down to join us one night:

Christmas that year was a mere preamble to the main event with little Luca being born on 30th December:

By early 2007, I had started a blog - 12th March, to be precise. It started off as a simple diary of events but then veered off a little until almost a year later when I decided to compartmentalize and opened firstly a football blog, then a golf one, followed by a squash one etc until today when I now have a total of 10 separate blogs. The cessation of this blog with this final post will bring the number back down to "just" nine blogs. Renshaw's Chronicles started on 27th May, 2011 and now stretches to well over 400 pages (including photographs) and 70,000 words.

When I look back - through childhood days in Whiteinch, then Corby, to Johnstone and Knightswood, followed by married life in Chryston, Broxbourne, Balerno and eventually Banchory - I wonder about the apparent early wanderlust followed by over 30 years in the same home. Why didn't we move again? Was it too much bother, or were we too busy to do anything about it?

There were 6 of us when we moved in to Arbor Court in 1983 and this was the largest space we could get for what we could afford at the time (£60,000). A decade or more later when Lucy was on the cusp of moving on, Ross was still at school and obviously getting bigger. Gary, Kelly and Ross all eventually left home too but the boys came back a couple of times, so it was perhaps as well that we never downsized to the little bungalow we've often discussed.

Then the grandchildren came along and the space came in handy again when they come here on holiday etc., so we're still sitting here, just the two of us now in a 4-bedroom, 3-storey house. Will we ever move from here? Next stop might be a care home, but if an opportunity came along to buy a small bungalow, within reasonable walking distance of the town centre and on the level (i.e. not uphill), I'm sure we would take it.

Our home moves in earlier years were dictated to a large extent by employment opportunities - none of it was planned. I guess my Mum and Dad did the same - and now Lucy and Kelly have also moved away from "home" too - although for slightly different reasons - we miss them being around, but we do get nice holidays!

I guess I'm still at heart a Glaswegian, even although I've only lived there for less than a quarter of my life. Half of my life has now been spent in Aberdeenshire and I do still enjoy it here. As the years have gone on, however, both Jo and I have inevitably seen less and less of our siblings and their families - but maybe this will reverse a little now that we're both retired and have a little more time.

So I think that's about it - my life has been pretty well documented now.

Chronicles Part XI - the new Millennium (8)

2005 was a pretty exciting year for Ross. He was working for WeatherNews and they were trying to develop a new smartphone app so they sent him out to their Tokyo office to help advance the project. He was out there for about 6 weeks, I think. He said he felt like Gulliver in the Land of Lilliput whilst he was there! Here's some of his photos from that trip:

That was in January. Just a few months later, Ross was despatched to the London office for a while. It was July, 2005. He faced a regular commute by Tube from his hotel to the office. At 8:49 am on 7th July, 4 Islamic terrorists detonated 3 bombs in quick succession on different Underground routes, one of which would have been Ross'. For once, it was just as well he was late. A 4th bomb was subsequently exploded on a London bus, enhancing the terror factor in the city.

Ross phoned us to tell us he was safe before we had even heard about the attacks. Spooky isn't it? Having been in the World Trade Center just a few weeks before 9/11, Ross had an even closer shave this time on what became known as 7/7.

Back in January, Jo and I returned to the lovely Old Course Hotel for another corporate do:

We often had - and still have - regular dinners with the Masons and Kilgours, but in 2005 one of them coincided with Burns Night. For some reason - presumably strong drink was involved - we all tried to sing one of Rabbie Burns' most well-known songs - My Love is like a Red, Red, Rose:

My spring golf outing in 2005 was to Gran Canaria - a new experience for us. I had a bit of a rough time for a few days. I had fish for dinner one night and a fish bone somehow got stuck in my gum. For love nor money, I couldn't get it out, no matter how many different ways and devices I used. Whenever anything gets stuck in your mouth, it's like a magnet - everything seems to automatically get attracted to it - especially your tongue. Within 24 hours, my tongue started to swell up and after another 24 hours had passed, I was having difficulty breathing, let alone talking.

There was no other option but to try to find a dentist to remove it. We found one not too far away and I sat in the long queue in the waiting room. Language was a bit of a problem but a bit of pigeon English plus some pointing soon resolved the situation. What a relief!

Back in Scotland, Lottie was going downhill rapidly and soon Jo took her leave from work and went down to Paisley to support her sister Mary, who had taken the brunt of the care work to date. Within a few weeks, Lottie passed. Unfortunately, there followed a major fall-out, principally between Margaret and Mary, but with Jo suffering some of the inevitable collateral damage. Regrettably, that fall-out persists to this day and now seems terminal - Margaret has cut off all ties between her immediate family and the rest of the Sowerby/Stewart/Hanson clan. It may be a cliché, but it's oh so true - life is way too short for this, but it seems there's nothing more can be done now to try to build any more bridges.

A happier occasion back on Deeside was when we were invited to Brian & Roseanne Fitzpatrick's wedding. Brian's first wife, Agnes, had been a victim of cancer and suffered a long, painful end. A little while after she passed, Brian hooked up with Roseanne and they eventually married in April, 2005 at St. Columba's and afterwards at the Marcliffe:

Leslie & Anne Mason, with Christina Ling flanked by Jo and I (Ted took the photo)

Also that Spring, I went on a short business trip down to Hook in Hampshire. By this time, I had cut down my business trips a fair bit - no more regular visits to Denmark, Belgium, Orkney etc - and even UK mainland trips were few and far between, so this was a relatively rare time away from home for me.

I was still driving between 25,000 and 30,000 miles a year just visiting our various factories - my regular day job - so I wasn't exactly idle. As a business, we were always on the lookout for acquisition opportunities. Our field of vision was relatively narrow, however - we wanted to continue to focus on areas that had some synergy with our core business in added-value pelagic fish processing. In the middle of the "Noughties" decade, we thought we had found one such example when Scot Trout set about dismantling their business. We had a good look around at their various interests, including Swankie's of Arbroath, but our main interest was in Daniel's Sweet Herring, a company that supplied marinated herring in jars to the retail sector.

Daniel's was based in Grantown-on-Spey, which is about equi-distant from Banchory with Fraserburgh - at least in terms of miles, albeit I would have to travel over the Lecht to get there - not a great idea in the winter months. What an eternal triangle that would have been for me travelling from Banchory to Grantown/Fraserburgh/Aberdeen constantly. In the end, it all came to nought as Scot-Trout pulled the plug on the deal at the last minute - the rest of their group was about to go bust.

There was a spooky aftermath to this when, a few months later, the Managing Director of Daniel's was killed in a road crash on the A9. That would have made things really tricky for us.

Some of the memories for this blog have come from old photographs. For the last 15-16 years they have been digital which has also helped me put more exact dates on some of the events. A couple of photographs from 2005 surprised me however - I was cycling!:

 
Now if I'd just completed this by memory alone, I would not have recalled this. I remember cycling years before that - in the mid-late 80's/early 90's I completed a couple of long runs - through Glen Tilt to Pitlochry and through Glen Feshie to Aviemore - and Ken Page and I often used to head to Glentanar to cycle, but I thought that until I got on my bike last year to recuperate after my knee replacement, that I hadn't been on the bike for 20 years or more.

Gary moved from house to house in the middle of the Noughties and he took on a distressed greyhound, initially called Sailor:

It wasn't long, however, before he changed the poor dog's name to Tyler. I can only imagine his prior embarrassment when out in public calling for his dog - hence the name change.

It was that summer that niece Lauren graduated:

All of this and we haven't even got to our American summer holiday yet. We spent a couple of weeks with the Lesinas in Oregon. Braeden was just 14 months old but we still travelled round the state - to Bend and Crater Lake, amongst others. Lucy was keen to get the boys' younger years professionally recorded so it was back to the photographers in Medford:

We had an early celebration of Cade's 5th birthday. His cousins Landen & Caitlin came over and they played on the water slide and the pool in the back garden. We went to the Britt Festival in Jacksonville and also had dinner at the aptly named Summer Jo's in Grants Pass, but then we were off again - this time to the East Coast, where Jo and I had managed to secure a week at the Custom House building in Boston.

Lots of history in the Boston area - we did the historical tours and visited Plimouth village, Salem and Harvard, went on board the Mayflower, but also some more modern pilgrimages:

We did a lot of walking round the streets of the city and climbed up the 294 steps inside the Bunker Hill Monument. I can still recall Jo's red and sweaty face when we finally got to the top:

We deserved a beer after this - and there are many opportunities in the area.

We weren't long back home in Scotland when we were invited to Malcolm and Eleanor Lodge's 25th Anniversary party at their house near Drumoak.

Dad was by now in to his mid-80's. Living alone of course, in the small flat in Temple that he and Mum had house-swapped with Barry and Helen some years before. It was much easier for him to manage - no stairs other than a couple of steps up to the front door:

The rails helped of course, because by now he was getting quite frail. He still liked to get out for a daily walk if he could, but he fell a couple of times, which worried us all, particularly as one of his favourite walks was along the nearby canal bank. Obstinate as ever, he refused to use a walking stick - that was for old men, he said! Social Services were supplying daily help for him - he grew quite attached to one particular help and whenever somebody else showed up, he was unhappy - particularly if that person was foreign - that was when his intolerant side came out. Dad - and particularly Mum - had always demonstrated tolerance and it was quite a shock to hear some of his comments at this age.

Towards Christmas in 2005, Kelly decided she'd had enough of her shortish hair. Both she and Lucy struggled a bit to grow long, lush locks but Kelly eventually found the solution - hair extensions:

Around about the same time, Jo and I finally managed to decide on a new suite for the front room. The old pink leather one was now past it and needed replaced. We spent many months wandering around various furniture stores all around Scotland, looking for something suitable, until we eventually plumped for this one from Anderson's of Inverurie:

The front room had now been totally transformed - the old low level fireplace and surrounds had long since gone and been replaced, and new diagonal wooden flooring had been put in. New curtains, mirror and (not in view above) a new dining table completed the new look.

When the Christmas holidays arrived, so did the American clan. Yes, the Lesinas were back in town and we had places to go and things to do - Dunnottar Castle, Catterline, Pennan, the Stone Circle at Auquorthies, the Soft Bear Centre at Strachan, Codona's Amusement Park in Aberdeen and the Adventure Playground at Crathes Castle to name but a few. A curry at the Jewel in the Crown was also a must.

I think that was the Christmas that new jammies were received:

Kelly was showing off her Masters certificate too:

whilst the Lesinas showed off their slippers:

Braeden was Christened at St. Columba's:

We had a reception in our house afterwards. Barry, Helen and Dawn came up and managed to get Dad along too:

The year 2005 ended with a big birthday for Dawn - my little Sis was 50!

Chronicles Part XI - the new Millennium (7)

2004 would be a significant milestone year for a number of colleagues and relatives. I myself had my 55th birthday, but there were a number of other more relevant anniversaries:

• Braeden's birth
• Meghan's 18th
• Barry's 50th
• Ross' 21st

Our company chairman, Dr. Francis Clark, had cancer again and died in August. He was 78 years old - I always remember his almost palindromic birth date - 26-6-26. He had never officially retired but had spent increasingly longer spells at his villa in Florida, although, even then, the daily calls would come in - "what's happening?"  he growled. When he was back home in Aberdeen, although he would generally come in to the office most days, once he'd had his news, he was gone.

The "boys" - Francis Jnr and Michael - were now a couple of years either side of 50, and each had his own part of the business he was responsible for, whilst I was the only non-family Director of all of the group companies.

"The Doc's" passing was a significant event for the business - and for me. He was a larger than life character, whose bark was a lot worse than his bite, and he had been a bit of a mentor to me in the business. He had wanted me to work with his boys, neither of whom had had any tertiary education - they had been immersed in the various family businesses from a young age and whilst they knew and understood this, I guess I was useful in providing a more independent, professional eye.

The Doc was hospitalised whilst we were in USA that year and died not long after we got back. The last time I saw him was before we went away. The consequences of his passing were significant for the business. The Bank of Scotland were a little concerned initially that we had lost his industry experience and his status, and they wanted us to appoint a non-executive Director to the board - which we eventually did. The more significant event, however, would occur within 18 months when the Doc's baby - the huge primary processing and trading business, Scofish Ltd - went in to administration.

Scofish had been a troubled child - more especially when the primary processing factory opened in Fraserburgh a decade before, and then 5 years later when the trading arm expanded, bringing John Anderson on board. Difficulties in getting sufficient landings of pelagic fish in Fraserburgh had put pressure on the factory and when this was combined with the deception - and worse - perpetrated by the aforementioned Mr. Anderson, then there was nowhere else to go.

The Clarks were minority shareholders in Scofish, with the majority being held by the Bouris' family, who had invested in the business back in 1984 when the Doc was looking for finance to help buy back Clipper Seafoods from Unigate. Alex Bouris and his family got a very early payback - and how - when the main business was subsequently sold to Geest in 1987.

I believe the Doc might have found some way to salvage Scofish had he still been alive in 2006, primarily as his name was so closely associated with it, but Francis and Michael did not have the same emotional attachment to this part of the business and they were fairly certain anyway that they would not be able to persuade the Bouris family to pump more cash in to it either.

Administration is not an easy thing to go through and it chewed up a huge amount of my time in 2006, dealing with the fallout, but, with the benefit of hindsight, it''s the best thing that ever happened to the business, which could now concentrate on what it did best - added value processing for the retail sector.

But here I go again, getting ahead of myself again. Let's get back to the happier occasions in 2004. Jo and I started the year with a short theatre trip to London in January. We did a tour of the rebuilt Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, but I had to take the chance to go back to where I worked 30 years previously:

Lucy was getting bigger by the month:

and soon, little Braeden was here:

At about this time, we back here in Scotland were celebrating Meghan's 18th birthday at the Hogshead, Glasgow:

Meghan is Dawn's little princess:

but Kelly had aspirations to this title too:

Also in the first half of the year, we decided to make a bit of a splash on the occasion of our Squash Club's 25th Anniversary - even although we were by now in legal battles with our landlords which would ultimately lead to the end of our club and the subsequent demolition of our courts. Nonetheless, we all had a good time at Banchory Lodge Hotel, where I gave a slide show on the history of the club:

We also attended Christina & Ted Ling's daughter's wedding:

Nephew Kieran was playing for Cumbernauld Colts at this time and they had a tie to play in Ellon so I went over there one cold winter's day to watch:

Young Jordon was there too:

It was also the year that Jo changed cars again - something she did reluctantly - this time it was to a Nissan Almera:

Kelly had moved down to Cornwall. Jo missed their regular chats and coffees together, but we did at least have a couple of nice holiday breaks down there. Of more concern was the state of Jo's Mum's health - she started to go downhill badly. Lottie had been a regular visitor to Banchory, especially in the years since Bill's death. One vivid memory I have of her from her latter years was when she came along with us to the Mariner Hotel in Aberdeen one evening for a meal - I think it was after a golf outing. She enjoyed herself that evening - especially when she was "chatted up" by one of the men there! That's old Harry behind her as we leave:

A favourite restaurant of ours in Banchory - and one that's sadly missed nowadays - was St. Tropez:

Our summer trip to USA in 2004 included city visits to New York and Portland plus a week in Arizona as well as time at the Lesinas' home in Oregon. Kelly was with us again. We had been to Arizona before, of course, but this time we wanted to stay a bit longer in beautiful, other-worldly Sedona - the heart of red rock country:

Sedona also has one of the loveliest settings for a brewpub - the Oak Creek Brewery:

It was on this holiday that we went on a guided walk out to the red rocks and viewed the Indian/Native American writings and artwork. It was hot of course - well over 100 F - but we hadn't also factored in the radiator like effect as we got nearer the rocks. Our fit and sturdy daughter collapsed - heat exhaustion and dehydration. We silly Brits had gone out there without carrying any drinking water, but thankfully our tour guide provided some and Kelly soon revived. Lesson learned.

We visited Montezuma's Castle as well, where the local wildlife was up and about:

King snake

Most of our time that week was spent at Desert Ridge, the Marriott timeshare just north of Phoenix - a lovely resort with a lazy river and attached to an upmarket JW Marriott Hotel - we had dinner there one night:

We eventually got to Oregon and met up with the Lesinas, with whom we did a trip to Portland and took a stroll round Washington Park and, naturally, a couple of breweries too - Widmer Brothers and Bridgeport:

You would swear Cade was rushing a seemingly reluctant me off to the pub!

The journey was in a specially hired van:

Lucy wanted to get professional photos done of their newly-enlarged family so we all took a trip to the Rogue Valley Mall in Medford:

It was the first time Jo, Kelly and I had got our hands on little Braeden:

I remember spotting the knowing look in Braeden's eye and saying to Lucy at the time that I thought he was going to be the "boss" of the family. With the benefit of hindsight, this hasn't happened - at least not yet. Braeden seems to have been happy to play a relatively subservient little brother role to Cade - with the occasional rebellion.

A Hellgate trip on the Rogue River and the waterslides at Emigrant Lake were amongst the many daytrips we did, but all too soon it was time to head back to Scotland - and work. Our route took us through New York again and so we had to go back to what was by then Ground Zero:

It was an eerie experience with memories of just 3 years before. Much more pleasant were trips to the waterfront at Battery Park and the Strawberry Fields Memorial in Central Park:

One of the routines we had got used to when we were in Oregon was watching GMA (Good Morning America) on ABC every morning. On the west coast, the transmission (from NYC) is time delayed, but it's live on the east coast. On Fridays there's a live concert and in those days it came from Rockefeller Plaza, so we promised Lucy we would go there and wave at the cameras. This meant a very early rise and a short walk from our hotel. Coffee was required:

It was Boz Scaggs who was appearing that morning - and Lucy said she did see us on TV!

That, however, wasn't the last of my holidays that year. A few of our Friday night footballers had visited Amsterdam 3 years before, but this time, Oktoberfest in Munich was the destination. It's quite an event - huge semi-permanent marquees everywhere. We couldn't get in to them on the first day - a Saturday night - so we ended up having a few beers in some nearby bars. What we hadn't allowed for was the strength of the German beers - we all felt a bit wobbly on Sunday morning, but we were determined to get inside some of the marquees that day, so it was just before noon when we arrived at the main site. This time we got in OK:

Me, Dave Williamson, Colin Kilgour & John McWhinnie all wearing our festival hats.

The surprising thing was that we hopped from hall to hall, drinking litres of beer for almost 12 hours solid and we were all fine the following morning. It seems like the beer they serve in the festival marquees is nowhere near as strong as the real German beer you get in the local pubs - thankfully.

We also felt we had to visit the Olympic Stadium:

We discovered the source of our downfall the previous day:

Also in the autumn of 2004, I arranged the first of our now annual end of season Scotland v. Rest of the World golf matches. The event has been well attended over the years and the meal afterwards, when wives and partners join the golfers, is always an enjoyable social event. Here's some of the Scotland team from that first year:

It was a busy year for gigs at the Lemon Tree as well, with Glenn Tilbrook, the Animals and Roger Chapman all appearing.

Our late autumn golf trip took us to Tenerife for the first time. I had arranged for us to share villas at Las Adelfas, but didn't realise quite how close to the airport it was. It seemed like the landing gear of the planes were almost scraping the roofs of our villas as they approached the runway. The noise was deafening and the flights went on through the night. Everyone was tired and stressed at breakfast the following morning. There were less flights the following three nights but, on Tuesday they were at it again. When some of the villas subsequently had their water supply interrupted, that was the coup de grâce. Definitely not my finest moment as an organiser.

There was also an incident on the first night after dinner. I decided to test the temperature of the water by stepping in to the shallow waters in my flip-flops. Jas Bhagrath decided it would be funny to push me in - I tried to maintain my balance but eventually fell backwards in to the water. Now that would have been funny but for the fact that I was wearing my usual holster arrangement of camera on one hip and Blackberry on the other - not to mention my wallet and passport in other pockets. I was irate and chased after Jas, who I've never seen run faster in his life.

The passport and wallet recovered OK, but the water damage to the camera and Blackberry was terminal. Did I ever get compensated for their replacement? No.