Thursday afternoon/Friday morning

I have to be very careful with the titles to my daily blog - Jo got all confused last night when she read yesterday's posting, which was titled Wednesday. It was, of course, written on Thursday but was about what happened the day before (as well as plans for the rest of the day). "Why didn't you tell me last night what Luca was like?" was the remark that greeted me when I got home late from golf in beautiful Tarland - I had only just been to see Luca and Gary that afternoon!

Anyway, this what he looked like the day after his laser surgery - he was playing very happily with Gary when I walked up the path and knocked on the front window. He's fine and the bruising that Gary talked about had gone and been replaced by large red spots - a little unsightly but not at all painful apparently:

He was in good form and really enjoyed playing with his new indoor slide - the only problem is that he hasn't learned yet how to get up the two steps himself and has to be lifted on and off - incessantly! When Gary eventually stopped, exhausted, Luca started to sob - a sound I haven't heard too often from him:

Incidentally, Gary told me he's going to the doctor next week to get prescribed with pills to stop smoking! He's tried everything else he reckons and they've all failed.

Talking about health, my medical on Tuesday was a little bit farcical when it came to the handheld machine they use to assess body fat %. The result came out at almost 30% - I said it can't be, so she did it again - with the same result! When I was then taken through to see the doctor, she spotted that I had apparently "shrunk" by 3cms since my last visit there - yes, the nurse had measured my height incorrectly and this affects the calculation! Another measurement followed and this time it came out at almost 27% - I still felt this was wrong, but decided just to leave it.

Yesterday, I decided to check my previous medical records, plus the assessments I get at Bannatyne's, who do the measurement using electrodes fitted to ankle and wrist. Four separate assessments at Bannatyne's, the most recent being just last month, consistently came out between 23% and 24%. Indeed Albyn's previous medical report came out at 23.3%. Something wrong here, I think.

Wednesday midweek

Just missed Carole on the phone yesterday but spoke to Gary - and I've arranged to go out to Inverurie this afternoon on my way back from Fraserburgh - he's off work babysitting Luca.

Golf last night - a little damp, but not too bad - the rain from the south finally arrived and thankfully has passed through again overnight. Shot a net 69 in the 1st round proper of the Riverston Cup and I'm in the lead - can't wait until the 2nd and final round tomorrow (Friday).

Got home and spoke to Barry and then Dawn. Looks like they are going to try to take him to Erskine on Monday. I thought long and hard about whether I should be there too, but then remembered what it was like the last time we were all there - Dad could sense something was going on, but he wasn't sure what - and he ended up going in to his shell and went to bed and wouldn't get up again.

Barry and Dawn agree and so they will try themselves on Monday - it all depends if it's a good day or a bad day for Dad. Dawn made an interesting comment last night about Dad going in to Erskine - she agreed it was better for his safety, but would he be happy? She said he seems quite content just now - the dementia is getting worse and he just sits and laughs rather than chats now. So what's right? Is the priority now his safety or his happiness? Wish I knew the answer.

After Inverurie this afternoon, I'm heading to Tarland for a Deeside league match - lovely place and I'm looking forward to playing there again.

Tuesday/Wednesday

Haven't had a chance to speak to Gary or Carole yet, but Jo got a brief text from Gary last evening to say that Luca was a bit bruised and subdued after the anaesthetic and the procedure - hope he's OK - we'll find out more tonight.

I went for my company medical this morning - it's supposed to be annual but it's almost 2 years since I was there. I'll get the full report in due course, but Dr. Morton has already advised me that it would be a good idea to see the cardiologist again as it's been over 3 years now. She's not an expert, but she knows my heart rhythm is still irregular - she's not sure if it's flutter or atrial fibrillation - she'll leave that to the cardiologist - but she is strongly suggesting the use of warfarin again. I told her about my Mum's bad experience with this and how I really wanted to avoid this if possible. The last time I saw Steve Walton after the failed cardioversion attempts, he wasn't recommending that I undergo the same ablation procedure as Tony Blair had - he wasn't happy to recommend it at that stage, but things have moved on and that might be a possibility for me now. We'll see - I'm not ruling anything out at this stage.

Monday

Another beautiful day here although the downside is that I had to rush out and get hayfever medication - I couldn't make up my mind if I had a head cold or it was just allergies. Everything's growing so quickly (at last) and there's lots of pollens around - the ivy on our house has really started to sprout:

You'll note that Ross' old beat-up Saab convertible is still rusting away in our drive - hoped it would have been gone by now but I guess I'll have to be patient - again!

We spoke to Lucy last night for a couple of hours on Skype using the webcams - the quality of image was pretty good and there was no jarring or juddering nor delay - her lips were synched with her voice. It was Memorial Day weekend in the States and it's a big national holiday that typically signifies the start of summer. The boys were their usual boisterous selves - I threatened to cut back our stay in USA a bit more if they were going to be like that all the time we were there! Anyway - Kelly and Craig and Gary and Carole - not to mention Barry & Helen and Dawn & John - now all need to download Skype (free) and open an account (also free) so that we can all share webcams. This was a snapshot I took last night as Lucy was adjusting her settings:

Anyway, happy 35th birthday to Lucy today - no old embarrassing photos from her childhood - I'll save those for another day - just one of my favourite photos from our 2000 trip to USA:

Midweek to weekend - Luca arrives

Starting with Saturday when Gary rang our doorbell before 8:00 am - Carole was away on a hen party weekend and Gary had dropped her at the station then headed straight for Banchory. I think Gary only came over for a rest - he put Luca down to sleep for over 2 hours then when Luca awoke, Gary fell asleep on the couch for another 2 hours!

Luca's lunch consisted of Jo's soup, which as everyone knows, can be a little salty - I like it, but it's not to everyone's taste - and each time he was fed a spoonful, he pulled a face - that was until I switched the camera on when he suddenly stopped doing it:

I escaped to golf for a few hours - had another good round and got my handicap cut yet again - and, what's more, we had Betty Stogs ale from Skinner's in Cornwall on in the golf club again - the weather was nice enough to sit and sup it on the balcony again.

We had good fun watching the Champions League final on Wednesday in our house - hope Jo didn't mind the noise too much as Gary, Colin, Dave and I enjoyed a few beers in front of the plasma screen. Gary (Grant)'s only complaint was that I'd forgotten to get the crisps in to soak up the beer - he had to make do with Ryvita and oatcakes!

Thursday was a charity golf outing at Cruden Bay (won another prize for nearest the pin!) and Friday afternoon was a tie at Torphins. This time of year is crazy for golf with all the ties etc - but it only lasts a couple of weeks each year so I shouldn't complain about my sore knees and hips - just get on with it - after all it's only 4 weeks now until the Summer Solstice - and then it's all downhill!

Finished my audiobook of Philip Roth's American Pastoral - more observational than dramatic - but it evoked vivid images from post war America through the '50's, 60's and 70's mostly - eras that made profound impressions on us growing up. I was lucky enough to miss out (just) on conscription but Britain - and indeed Europe - suffered for a long while after the war with food shortages and rationing etc., whilst America moved in to an era of prosperity that we could only dream of. We could only watch and wonder at American films, music and TV - the so called Western (mostly cowboys and "Indians") movies were by far the most popular and the images of the American West were particularly dramatic and it was great to visit places like Arizona in recent years and see the red rock images and scenery that we had watched in the '50's and '60's.

My long hours in the car up and down to Fraserburgh are lightened by music and audiobooks on my mp3 player and one of my weekly treats is to listen to Sounds of the Sixties which I record from Radio Two every Saturday morning (when I'm out golfing). Recently I've also been recording Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour (Thursday nights at 11) - and this, too, is very evocative of things we heard about and grew up with from USA. Recent themes have been train songs (including childhood nuggets like Casey Jones) - going through songs from the American states and cities - from Chatanooga to Missouri. Last week, the theme was Tennessee - Memphis, Nashville etc.

I guess I had forgotten what a huge influence America had on us as we were growing up - it wasn't until the Beatles and Stones came along in '63, '64 that the trend was reversed and Britain actually was able for the first time to export music back to the States - much of it hugely derivative at first, but ultimately more creative. Barring a few exceptions, we've never had quite the same success with our film industry as we did with music.

Ah well, Sunday evening - it's been a lovely day - I actually had lunch out in the back for the first time this year. I've been trying to upload this video of Luca for a few hours now - I blame Ross and his online games, but he says it's the fault of our ISP. Hope I manage to get it done before I go to bed tonight - but if you see the text only, don't be surprised - I'll try again with the video from work tomorrow.

Kelly's birthday

It's a very happy 29th birthday to our Kelly, who's still training like mad for the 3 Fells hill climbs - run Forrest, run! Lucy's right about her changing hairstyles - here's one from 2000 with her pal Sophie and Ross lurking in the background:


Kelly's primary class in Banchory - even then, she had to be different:

and, in close-up:

More recently, with the hair extensions in 2005:

New camera Craig? Why? What happened to the old one? We had Betty Stogs on draught at the golf club last weekend - but only for one day - it was so popular that the cask was finished in 24 hours! Looking forward to our next trip down in July - how's the research going for the Trevose area?

Got so much golf to play this week, I'm feeling tired at the prospect - it's the busiest time of the year. I'm taking a night off golf tomorrow and have invited a few pals round to watch the Champions League final on our big plasma screen.

End of the week

We went over to Gary and Carole's on Thursday to meet Carole's Dad (Mike) and stepmum (Val) and have a bite to eat. We had a nice time with them and Luca was as good as gold as usual - he enjoyed the breadsticks:

Granda Mike plays with Luca:

Luca and I played "peek-a-boo":

Apart from that, it's just been golf, golf, golf - although I did manage to finally get the back cleared of leaves today - with a little help from Ross. Incidentally, he's sold both his Saab's - the blue wreck will finally be out of our driveway in the next week or so, and the brown one is going in September - to a guy in Somerset - to whom he has to deliver it!

An invitation to a wedding was popped through our letterbox this afternoon - from Mr. & Mrs. Hepburn for the wedding of Peter and Theresa - cue much scratching of heads - eventually I sussed it must be Peter Fitzpatrick - and Gary confirmed this - we're away in USA then anyway.

Wednesday

Sun still shining but a bit cooler - don't think it'll be shorts on the golf course tonight.

It's a happy 37th birthday to Craig today - he's on his way back to Cornwall now after a brief trip back to Peterhead in very unfortunate circumstances. Here he is with his "mother-in-law" back in February in the Miner's Arms, Mithian:

Tuesday back at the office

Back to reality - even though the sun shone again, I couldn't really take another afternoon off and so I settled down to a full day behind the desk. The first problem was an employment issue with an engineer who is, frankly, taking the p..s. Of course, as caring sharing employers (and to keep on the right side of the law) we have to go through a bit of a ridiculous charade now. We know he's skiving and trying to extract money for nothing - not just from his stereotype but also from all the witness statements we have had to take. Good start to the day - OK, rant over.

I did manage to get a session in at Bannatyne's - I've only been there twice this month, what with being ill and then golfing non-stop - still not sure about Power Plate, but will persist for a while.

We're going over to Inverurie on Thursday to meet Carole's father and step-mum, who are up for a week.

Weekend sunshine

It's been another great weekend. Golf on Saturday was followed by dinner in the golf club in the evening and then on Sunday it was off across the mountains for our bi-annual trip to Boat of Garten. Sunday was a bit misty but the sun really shone today - this is Gary, Les, Dick and I on the first tee at Boat of Garten this morning - me complete with safari hat from South Africa!

It was a lovely 21 degrees when we left there to come home - but the temperature in Banchory was at least 6 degrees cooler due to the haar spreading inland a bit. It was another year of significant change at Boat of Garten - we only played one round today, compared with the two that we have played for the last 25 years - another sign of ageing!

It was a great weekend - there's few better places to be when the weather's like this.

More Luca

I was just in time to feed Luca his tea last night and here he is finishing off with a cup of water:


I showed Jo some of the photos I had taken and she reckoned I should crop and frame this one:


Barry phoned yesterday - Dad had his assessment from Erskine Glasgow and they have a place for him, but they confirmed the Social Worker's opionion that Dad will have to go on the ground floor, which is for dementia patients, many of whom also have issues like incontinence. We had originally thought that they might put him on the middle floor initially but apparently he's now past this stage.

Barry also told me he's going in to hospital next week - on Monday for an ultrasound scan and on Thursday for a probe - he's having problems with his bladder. Hope it goes OK - but I can tell he's a bit concerned.

Jo still can't look forward to her retirement whilst she still has work to do for school. I received the following joke today which I could relate to - perhaps it's not funny if you're a bit younger?:

"Working people frequently ask retired people what they do to make their days interesting.Well, for example, the other day my wife and I went into town and went into a shop. We were only in there for about 5 minutes. When we came out, there was a "parking ambassador" writing out a parking ticket. We went up to him and said, 'Come on man, how about giving a senior citizen a break?' He ignored us and continued writing the ticket. I called him a Nazi turd. He glared at me and started writing another ticket for having worn tyres.So my wife called him a Sh *thead . He finished the second ticket and put it on the windscreen with the first. Then he started writing a third ticket. This went on for about 20 minutes. The more we abused him, the more tickets he wrote.Personally, we didn't care. We came into town by bus.We try to have a little fun each day now that we're retired. It's important at our age"

Friday

It was another brilliant day and we had entered a team in the Fishermen's Mission golf outing at Inverallochy - a course I had never played. There was a bit of a sea breeze there however which was just enough to persuade me to leave the shorts in the car. Glorious sands and turquoise seas were all around:

On the way back home, I phoned to see if Carole was at home and popped in for a cup of tea and to watch Luca perform his new tricks. His walking action is a hoot to watch - almost a goose step:

Porch

This is the result of the white paint on the porch ceiling - what do you think?

Spring at last!

The brilliant weather this week has brought a smile to everyone's faces - and, at last, I think I'm shaking off the final last traces of the bug I picked up a couple of weekends ago. Regained just enough energy back to look forward to last night's golf again - and it was a glorious evening in Banchory - the first time I've worn my shorts on the golf course this season:

Gary, Dave and I are down by the Dee at the 12th tee.

The painter is still at our house - it's amazing how much he has done - we didn't realise there was so much work required until he started! Jo suggested he should also do the masonry walls on the porch and it's certainly brightened things up there now. We then had a dilemma about what to do about the pine ceiling there, which had been heavily stained by water from the balcony. We thought at first a dark wood varnish would do the trick but Jo thought it would darken the whole porch so suggested a light paint instead. He's put on a white-ish colour so far and I thought it looked OK last night - although I haven't seen it in daylight yet.

Jo's out tongight for dinner with one of her school pals - Sheila - so it's pizza for Ross and I. Ross got his brown Saab bumped last week and the side panels are badly damaged. The guy has offered to pay but Ross is unsure what he is going to do with this car anyway so we'll have to wait and see.

I still haven't seen Luca walking, nor have I even seen the videos Gary has been promising to put on his blog, but Carole at least texted me the following photo of him standing unaided:

And it's a very happy 4th birthday to Braeden today - sorry we can't be there, but we're looking forward to seeing them all in Florida in just 9 weeks. The last time I saw him was when they were over in October - he fell asleep one night in the living room:

Dad

Barry sent me the following e-mail and You Tube clip link:

Click on the u-tube link at the bottom of the page to view a video clip of dads favourite song.
Barry

HOW ARE THINGS IN GLOCCA MORRAFrom Finian's Rainbow(Words by E.Y. Harburg / Music by Burton Lane)I hear a bird, Londonderry bird,It well may be he's bringing me a cheering word.I hear a breeze, a River Shanon breeze,It well may be it's followed me across the seas.Then tell me please:How are things in Glocca Morra?Is that little brook still leaping there?Does it still run down to Donny cove?Through Killybegs, Kilkerry and Kildare?How are things in Glocca Mora?Is that willow tree still weeping there?Does that lassie with the twinklin' eyeCome smilin' by and does she walk away,Sad and dreamy there not to see me there?So I ask each weepin' willow and each brook along the way,And each lass that comes a-sighin" Too ra layHow are things in Glocca Morra this fine day?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhnNQ6XXUKI

Conspiracy theory?

Ross is one of the world's great conspiracy theorists and so it was quite appropriate that, when we were all sitting watching the evening news on Thursday's TV, there was a brief article about the London bombers - remember Ross was working in London then and reckons he was on either the exact tube train or the same one immediately before the bombing.

The clip is shown below and if you watch to the end you will see somebody uncannily like Ross walking along the platform clutching something under his left arm.

Second half of the week

A quick 40 winks on Wednesday afternoon made me feel a bit better and ready for the evening's golf, and after a welcome full night's sleep it was then up to Fraserburgh the following morning. I hot-footed through the management meetings there and also in Aberdeen in the afternoon, allowing just enough time to get to Bannatyne's for a short session, which included 3 of the Powerplate exercises I had been given - like Kelly, I'm still not sure about the effectiveness of this machine, but I'll keep going for a little while.

Back to Fraserburgh again on Friday for our next update meeting with the Union, which seemed to go reasonably well, given that we weren't telling them anything they wanted to hear. They have asked us to hold follow-up staff departmental meetings which we're arranging for Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning - so much for a quiet Bank Holiday for me!

Rushed down to Banchory where Jas and I had a tie to play against the Thomsons - Stephen and Derek - both of whom Lucy will remember from school. Thankfully we beat them fairly easily and I was in good time to grab a bite before the golf club quiz night started (Jo was babysitting Luca in Inverurie). For a change, we didn't win the quiz but came in a creditable 3rd equal out of more than 30 teams.

The weather was again fair on Saturday and I enjoyed my morning round of golf (got my handicap cut again!) and also watching Man Utd beat West Ham at lunchtime, in the company of Colin and Dave.

Jo, Anne and Johanne went shopping for a mother of the bride outfit for Johanne and so Colin, Leslie and I met them at La Tasca, the Tapas restaurant for a meal prior to seeing Jethro Tull's 40th anniversary tour at the Music Hall. I started to feel a bit funny again and my voice went completely befoer we got home.

Undaunted, I got up on Sunday morning and played in lovely weather again at Torphins, but I still didn't feel right so I've been back in bed on Sunday afternoon. I guess I hadn't quite given myself enough time to recover from the previous weekend's virus - and it's been a pretty hectic week. I'll try and take it a bit easier this week - but it's looking busy again!