Hitting the half century

OK its the 9th of March

2008-03-09T20:10:00.003Z

I did say initially that I was not very good at keeping a diary. Nearly 2 months has elapsed since my last entry. So what major events have happened in that time? Well here goes:

Friday 1 Feb the new kitchen arrives at my flat at Slateford Road and the joiner begins fitting it.

Monday 11 Feb the painter and decorator start work on my property at Slateford Road.

Friday 15 Feb the joiner completes their work schedule.

Monday 25 feb the blinds people complete their work.

Friday 29 Feb: Norbert, our power of attorney in Warsaw confirms that Phil and myself now own a pad in Eastern Europe.

Saturday 1 March - I have just recived an email that we now own a property in Berlin. I WOULD LIKE TO POINT OUT THAT THE WARSAW DEAL TOOK NEARLY 2 YEARS TO COMPLETE AND THE BERLIN DEAL TOOK 9 MONTHS TO COMPLETE.

Wednesday 27 Feb the carpet fitters arrive and complete what they had to do.

Friday 7 March the painters and decorators complete there work.

Sunday 9 March - I ache all over after spending the day back on the tools adding the finishing touches. Now I remember why I left the tools!!

7 Jan - the Slateford Road renovation begins

2008-01-14T20:08:00.000Z

Well, at long last the bathroom water damage insurance claim at my flat in Slateford Road has finally started to give me some payback. Its taken nearly 4 months from the initial "Help!" phone call to my insurance company, to the workmen starting today.

The renovation work is supposed to take 2 weeks. We'll see.

Its now 20 Jan and the work is progressing, but a week behind schedule due to the plaster taking longer to dry out than expected. I can live with that.

Warriston Crematorium

2008-01-09T20:54:00.000Z

4 Jan 1982 was a fateful day as it was the day my Dad died. Twenty six years ago and it just seems like yesterday. He has now been dead for longer than I knew him alive. That feels strange.

Twenty six years and today was only the third time I've managed to visit the Rememberance book and walk thru the gardens at the crematorium. I am not sure if 3 visits in 26 years makes me look callous or not. It probably does.

So lets go back to 22 Dec 2007

2008-01-07T20:59:00.000Z

AM of 22 Dec 2007 - I dont really get excited about going on holiday, but I have to admit to looking forward to 2-weeks in the sun in Tenerife. Liz and myself flew out to Tenerife from Glasgow. The resort we had arranged to stay at was in the Golf Del Sur. As I was about to discover, resort is the wrong description for this dump as the best way to describe it is as a number of isolated restuarants and bars. There was a small wind-swept central area - not overlooking the sea - where each restaurant and bar was owned by non-Scottish British people and everywhere you went you could enjoy a hearty all day breakfast. Even the odd Spanish restuarant you could find had succumbed to providing a hearty all day breakfast as their speciality.

So the scene is set: sun, sea and all day breakfasts. Add into the mix a building site view from our apartment and a cockroach infestation in our apartment and you can see the holiday spiralling downhill fast on day 2 as we moved apartments.

Day 3 - Christmas Day - we wandered round the dump and took a chance on a Spanish Restuarant for Christmas dinner. Wrong move: rubber band calimares and semi raw swordfish. I complained to the waiter and he said it was Japanese style.

Day 4 - in an attempt to get out of the rut we went to Los Christianos. A 40-50 Euro round trip taxi fare. We found a half decent restuarant which proceeded to then charge us 27 Euros for an 18 Euro bottle of wine. Another complaint and again no satisfaction.

Day 5 - "Liz, if this does not improve, I want to go home". We then proceeded to sit down in an eatery located in the downmarket end of the dump. It is hard to believe that the dump had a downmarket end. Another argument with another waiter over the standard of cleanliness - look closely at how dirty the bottle is! Enough was enough. We wandered up the road, found an internet connection and booked a flight home for the next day. £60 single each and cheap at the price.

Day 6 - Escape from all day breakfasts with a flight back to sanity.

INTRODUCTION

2008-01-06T19:48:00.000Z

I'm 50 in April of this year. All through my life I have not been one for diaries, however, I thought that I would record major events in my 50th year of life in this blog on my ayton-online web site.

OK, there is a bit of writers licence cause the blog starts on 22 Dec 2007 and ends on 23 April 2009 - thats approximately 1 year 4 months - but hey, its my blog.