France

A consequence of the fund-raising dinner on behalf of Banchory Sports Village, held at the Marcliffe last year, was a week's holiday at Richard and Gail Simcox's holiday home in Perigord, Dordogne, France last week for eight of us - Archie & Eileen Cook, Malcolm and Susan Grigor, Keith and Annette Gray & Ian and Jo Stewart. Harry and Moira Salter, who were at our table at the Marcliffe and were part of our (eventually) successful auction bid, unfortunately had to cancel on the eve of the trip.

Here's a brief diary and some photos from a lovely week:

Saturday

Stewarts travel to Edinburgh with Grigors. Pint at Wetherspoon's with meal - very busy. Turbo prop plane to Bergerac - pick up hire cars - our Fiat 500 was small but stylish.

Sat Nav helpful but followed Malcolm and Susan from airport, stopping to pick up some liquor. Gail had prepared a magnificent full dinner for us. Richard unwell but house beautiful - any one of 6 remaining rooms would do.

Keith and Annette arrive from their Ryanair flight to Bordeaux an hour or so later and Archie and Eileen half an hour after that. Tons of food washed down with gallons of alcohol then finally to bed in the early hours.

Sunday

Early morning pool cleaning instructions from Richard:

Trip to supermarket in Excideuil then tourist thing at Hautefort, but lunch first at the modest Chez Cathy - 3 course Plat du Jour for €13:

5 of us went on the chateau tour:

There was a classic car display outside, including this Aston Martin:

Another huge Gail dinner in the evening with BBQ prawns by Richard, but, before that we were introduced to neighbour and house minder AnnaLise over drinks. Gail and Richard displayed their "awards" for best patissieres at a local event:

Monday

Richard and Gail leave late morning after which the rest of us drive to Perigeux. Nice lunch in square then walk round city then tourist office followed by mini train tour:

Dinner back at the house and first night without Gail preparing everything, but we could still set a nice table - and we had honed our BBQ skills:

It didn't go quite so smoothly when clearing up after dinner, but it turned out alright in the end, despite Annette's fears:

Tuesday

The plan was to try Velorail at Corgnac but it was too early in season so we did a walking tour of Thiviers instead, trying in vain to follow the map provided by the Tourist Office. This was definitiely the chateau however:

We then drove to gorgeous St Jean de Cole for a two and a half hour lunch followed by a short walk round the medieval village:

The wine stocks were building up now and the cumulative effect was plain to see on some of our group when we watched TV:

Wednesday

Each day was hotter than the previous one and we were now hitting over 30 C, but the Grays and Stewarts walked to Dussac and tried to loop back a different way - failed but got a good 10 km in:

Pool beckoned then we all watched Andy Murray's Qtr Final.

Thursday

Morning market at Excideuil. Keith and Annette cooking tonight. Lazy afternoon snoozing and pooling. Jo suffering. Very little sleep - way too hot upstairs and none of us could figure out how to get the A/C working properly.

Friday

Figured out A/C at last. Intended to be canoeing at Brantome but Jo unwell and Malcolm still hobbling so abandoned. 3 girls went shopping and had a coffee and a cake whilst Archie and Malcolm had lunch in Lanouaille and Keith and I joined them for a beer - under instructions from Jo to get wi-fi for her iPad and Kindle. The plans to have dinner at the Auberge were also binned and we self catered again. Here's where we might have been:

Nobody wanted to miss Andy's semi-final match anyway. Line judge Annette vociferous and racist overtones abounded.

Saturday

The house "pet" pine marten returned to the roof/wall space in our room, so our sleep was a little disturbed again. Pool well used in morning until the rest of Andy's match after which we all headed to our respective airports, lining up for one final team photo before we left:

Great holiday - and for a good cause. Many thanks to Richard and Gail.

Xmas Dinner

It was back to the Tor-na-Coille again last night and, this year, they put us in the function room, scene of many a famous squash club function in the past. There were no bread rolls thrown last night, however, despite the fact that we had exclusive use of the room. With just one long table for the 16 of us, it seemed a little odd, but we made the best of it.

Here's a few photos that were taken:

Banchory Sports Village Fund-raising Dinner

A huge sell-out at the Marcliffe last night and a good turnout of 21 former stalwarts of the Squash Club and partners etc.

Here's our 2 tables:

Doris Edwards, Moira & Harry Salter, Susan & Malcolm Grigor, Annette & Keith Gray, Eileen & (hidden) Archie Cook and Jo Stewart.

Richard Simcox, Linda & Gordon Moir. Theresa & Dick Taylor, Linda Whyman, Hugh Riches, Bill Whyman and (back to camera) Gail Simcox. Jackie Riches elsewhere at time of photo.

Banchory Sports Village

Here's the drawings that were exhibited at the last stakeholders' meeting on 25th March:

Findrack

The electricity bill for the quarter to 17th March has just been received:

After paying this, I will be sitting on surplus funds of £159. We said last quarter that we would review matters at this time to see whether to carry on with Findrack or not. We have enough in hand to pay the electricity for the next quarter, plus roughly half of the following one, which would take us through to about early-mid August. Shall we just carry on for another few months and deplete what's left and make a decision then about what to do about next winter season?

For what it's worth, if I manage to get through the summer golf season with my new knee still in one piece, I will consider trying out doubles again next winter at Findrack, which could add one more to the pool and might mean a few more games for the other doubles players next winter.

Findrack Electricity to December, 2013

Got the bill in today for the quarter to 11th December, 2013:

Although the unit rates have gone up a bit, consumption is down by over one third on the same time last year, so, after paying this from funds, we still have £245 in the kitty, which, unless we have a sudden surge in playing time, should be more than enough to see us through until the end of the next quarter, when we promised to review the situation again.

Xmas Social

We rolled back the years last night and made a return to our spiritual home at the Tor-na-Coille Hotel for our annual Xmas Dinner. It was good to see as many as 26 of us - including 8 former Club Captains - showing up - the largest gathering of the Squash Club since the 25th Anniversary Dinner at Banchory Lodge in 2004.

Here's the table at the start of the evening:

I then passed my camera down the table and the following pictures were the result:

A selfie of Jo and I

Mary & Dan

Theresa & Keith

Frances & Jack

Annette & Dick

Mary Sutherland, Archie Cook & Angela Gray

Gordon, Eileen & Les

Archie & Angela again with Jackie

Rob Sutherland, Anna Meaden & Lynda Moir

Janice Fulford, Ian Dring & Gordon Moir

Anna Meaden & Lynda Moir

John Meaden, Julie Dring & Hugh Riches

Steve & Janice Fulford & Ian Dring

The meal was delightful, but the dining room was very hot, so we moved through to the Residents' Lounge for coffee and mince pies. Here's a few views:

Great fun - and a bit of nostalgia for most of us.