- 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:
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| 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:
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:
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 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:
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| You would swear Cade was rushing a seemingly reluctant me off to the pub! |
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:
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| Me, Dave Williamson, Colin Kilgour & John McWhinnie all wearing our festival hats. |
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 grรขce. 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.
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