Kingsbarns

Had a great day out at Kingsbarns yesterday, courtesy of HSBC. Great course and fantastic weather - it hadn't looked promising at all as I drove through heavy rain around Forfar/Dundee, but Fife was clear. Here I am with my host Alistair Scott (ex Hun) next to me, and his other 2 guests:

Got back home in decent time to see the 2nd half of the Spain-Russia match. I had just settled down in front of the TV when Jo arrived - earlier than expected from her school show. She, too, settled down with a glass of wine and I thought - whoops - going to have to change channels! Jo insisted I just leave the football on, and she sat through the last half hour with me - Gary wouldn't have stood for it, however - he'd have gone to another room!

Got a lot to do to in the office today, particularly as I wasn't in yesterday and won't be here on Monday/Tuesday either. I've then got to squeeze in another golf tie at 6:15 tonight, before heading home to catch a few hours sleep before getting up for the redeye in the morning. Another golf tie on Sunday evening after I get back from London, then it's off at the crack of dawn again down to Loch Lomond for the big charity event. I got a phone call last night from our host offering me not just accommodation at Cameron House on the Monday evening after the golf, but also on the Sunday evening if I wanted! It transpires that this weekend is the celebrity re-opening of Cameron House and there are events on the Sunday as well as Monday's big bash. I politely declined the Sunday night accommodation but have accepted Monday's. Here's the programme for the weekend:

All clear

Got the all clear from the optician this morning - although she told me I may have to come back if any "floaters" appear in a few weeks time.

Now heading off to Kingsbarns (south of St Andrews) and will be late home - as will Jo - it's the first night of the school show.

The winning habit

I know my mates are becoming thoroughly p....d off with me winning all these golf tournaments - and no doubt you lot are fed up hearing about them as well - but, would you believe it, I won our weekly Quaich competition again last night! That's now all 4 events I've played in over the last week that I've won. I'm resting today - I need to! - but I've been invited to Kingsbarns tomorrow for a big corporate event, and Jas and I have a foursomes match to play on Friday evening.

On Saturday, I'm on the redeye to London to see the ODI v New Zealand at Lord's. Dave and I planned this some time ago and we booked flights to travel down and back together, but Dave's now started a new job down in Reading so he's just going to meet me down there now. What's more, he now has to fly out to Houston on Sunday, so I would have been stuck in London on my own all day - so I've now changed my return flight and will get home early/mid afternoon. Dave was full of apologies and has offered to pay whatever it has cost me, but I used air miles (although I did have to pay the taxes) - and anyway, it now allows me to play my Cox Cup match against young Ross Gray on Sunday evening - this was postponed from last weekend.

After that, it's back down to Glasgow on Monday - I've been invited to another corporate golf day at the new Carrick course at Loch Lomond - it's huge affair with Andy Cameron, Alex Ferguson, Gavin Hastings, dinner, accommodation and entertainment by Eddi Reader. Timing is very convenient as Barry and I have to attend Erskine House on the Tuesday morning to go over the initial assessment of how Dad's settling down there. I've then got another golf tie at Torphins on Tuesday evening. Phew - it's all go!

My left eye seems OK now, although it's still a little sore, so I'll go back to the optician's tomorrow to check up.

Well, I got to my optician yesterday afternoon and had the most thorough eye examination I've ever had. She spotted some damage but thought it should settle down OK. She put some fluid in my left eye to dilate the pupil fully to allow her to have a closer look - it took about 15 minutes, but lasts for 5 or 6 hours, so driving down to Balmoral afterwards wasn't as easy as I had hoped!



The blurred vision in my left eye was measured as 5 levels poorer than my right and I was given the chart below to take home to check regularly to see whether there was any change or not. When I first looked at it through my damaged left eye, the horizontal lines appeared as shadowed. I was told my eyes would either get worse or better in the next couple of days. If no change, then I would have to be referred back to the Eye Clinic and she arranged to see me again on Thursday.

Anyway, I managed to make it down to Balmoral and, despite playing with only one good eye, I won again - three times in a week! The worst problem was the midges - they were worse this year than ever and I took on the appearance of the Elephant Man afterwards! I protected myself as much as I could but nothing could stop the little pests:

We self cater for this event - bread, cheese, cold meats etc in the clubhouse afterwards - and it was midnight before we left, so it was another late night for me.

Today (Tuesday), my vision is much improved and I'm able to work on the computer again, so it looks like I'm on the mend.

More golf tonight at Banchory - rain forecast for later on - hope we just miss it!

Hectic weekend

It was all go this weekend - the highlight being our trip over to Fort William to see Kelly start off her 3 Peaks Challenge. First of all, it was golf for me at St Andrews Bay on Friday afternoon on our Midsummer Outing. It was very dry, dusty and windy - and I played well and won! We had a quick pint in Whey Pat then curry at the Balaka then home not too long after midnight. The sky was light all the way - it seemed there was no darkness that evening.

Jo was out at her school friend's for dinner and was also fairly late, so we were both a bit slow starting off on Saturday morning. The trip over the Lecht and the tiredness overcame Jo and she did not travel well. This was the first stop just after Tomintoul at a pretty spot overlooking the River Avon - not that Jo was appreciating it:


We eventually made it to Fort William in time to have lunch with Kelly al fresco at a sandwich bar in the pedestrianised High St. I tried out my "smile and shoot" feature and Kelly was the first female to make it work:

The start of the run/walk/climb was at the Glen Nevis Visitor Centre and there were hundreds of people there - many also doing the 3 Peaks Challenge, but some just wanting to climb Ben Nevis. Here we are at the start:

The girls had originally said they wanted to start at 6:00 pm but they were all so full of nervous energy that they eventually just had to get going before 5. Here's the 3 of them all set to start off:

What should we do now then? We decided to walk over the bridge and along the river for a bit as it was such a lovely day. We had only got a few hundred yards when, blow me, we spotted a pub! We headed up towards it across a stile:

They had 3 real ales and everyone was sitting outside the Ben Nevis Inn looking up at the mountain. The Inn is behind me here and you can see some of the parked cars - this was another popular starting place:

After a beer, we walked back to the Visitor Centre - this is Jo on the suspension bridge:

We weren't sure when Kelly would manage to get back down - as it happens they made very good time (Kelly will fill in the details in her blog). We checked in to our hotel and eventually wandered round looking for a place to eat. We considered the Crannog, a seafood restaurant on Loch Linnhe but eventually just went back to the Grog and Gruel, where we tried to get in to their upstairs restaurant. There was a waiting list so we sat in the bar and had a beer - then two, then three and still we waited. Eventually we got upstairs but didn't actually get our food until 10:30 pm, by which time Kelly was well down the road towards Challenge 2.

It rained on Sunday. I put on my anorak and walked up to the newsagent to get a Sunday paper for the journey home, as Jo decided she wanted to drive to avoid feeling sick. I pulled my hood up and tightened the elasticated drawstring then let go, only to be pinged full in my left eye by the plastic at the end of the drawstring! I was in agony all the way home and we stopped at the top of the Lecht to get some paracetomol. When we got home, I managed to sleep for a while.

Today the eye is not quite as sore, but I still have blurred vision. I set off for work at the usual time - not sure if I really should have been driving or not with only one good eye - but felt I should pop in to the hospital to get them to look at it. Casualty don't handle eye problems any more - you have to go to an opthamologist/optician to get it checked out first of all, so I drove over to Tesco at Danestone - too early - their optician section doesn't open until 9:00 am. I had a cup of tea and waited, but when 9:00 am came, I found out that the optician wasn't coming in that day! The girl was very helpful and phoned up ASDA at Dyce, but they, too, didn't have an optician in on Monday. I gave up and phoned my own optician in Banchory and I have an appointment with them at 3:05 pm this afternoon.

Can't think of a heading!

As promised, this is me basking in the glory of my win on Tuesday in our Quaich competition:

Wednesday was a slow day - it's the fresh herring season and I took some home, picking up oatmeal, tomatoes and fresh bread on the way home. After tea and a bit of catching up with Sky + recordings, we actually went to be bed at 9:00 pm! Of course, I then awoke at 3:00 am but at least managed to roll over until almost 6:30.

Jo's car is in for MoT etc and she's got a loan from the garage of a little Fiat - she wasn't keen on it as it made what she called an embarrassing noise and she was worried it would let her down. Incidentally, can anyone remember when Jo started to worry so much - in fact, at all? Perhaps in her new life she'll go back to what she calls watching the grass grow?

Malcolm was there yesterday when she put her car in and asked her what she was going to do after retirement? He said he was looking for an admin assistant - I think Jo was flattered a little at being asked, but wasn't sure if it was in jest or not - she merely retorted that she couldn't type!

More golf for me tonight - Deeside League at Aboyne, then tomorrow it's off to St Andrews Bay for our Midsummer Outing.

The week so far

Played the 3rd and final round of the Seniors Club Championship on Monday evening - finally put in a decent performance and actually had the best score on the day (although well off the aggregate).

Got fitted with the heart monitor on Tuesday morning and have now taken it off and am about to return it to Albyn. The cardiologist is off on holiday so I won't hear any more for a couple of weeks anyway. It wasn't too bad to wear - I did a short session at Bannatyne's as he suggested I should, and I played golf last night with it on. Even sleeping was OK - the only real downside is not being able to take a shower.

I also had my best round in our weekly Summer Quaich last night - gross 74 for 40 points - and I won! Photo to follow.

OK, that's enough of golf for now - you can all wake up again - it's safe to read on.

Jo finally got the answer from the Council officials last week re her request for early retirement - they would not recommend it to the councillors as she would have to be replaced and there was therefore no cost saving. We told them to put the request forward anyway - no harm done - if they don't accept it and offer enhanced pension, then we're no worse off - she just resigns anyway. Looking forward to getting my wife back again - can't you see it? - Jo Stewart, domestic goddess!

Monday + Luca video

First of all, a short video of Luca playing with his toys and studiously avoiding the camera yesterday:

I went to my appointment with the cardiologist this morning - a different one this time. I'd expected just a chat, but he decided to do a full ECG, plus stress test (too early for me!) and did a scan of my heart as well, so I felt I got full attention and my money's worth!

I made him aware of my aversion to Warfarin and he thought it probably wouldn't be necessary - yet - although as I got nearer 65, I would probably have to go on it. The stress test showed my heart rate reaching very high levels (240) under maximum pressure - but he said apart from that, my heart seemed to be functioning OK. He did think it might be a good idea for me to give up squash now - but I tried to argue that squash now is not so pressurised - we're all getting older and slower and when we get tired we just play a bad shot and end the rally!

Anyway, he wants me to take on a 24 hour monitor and so I'm going back tomorrow morning to have it fitted. He wanted to see how my heart performed during a normal day, including a spell at the gym. Only problem is you can't shower with it on and sleeping's very difficult as well.

The US Open was great last night - even although I finally fell asleep about 1:30 am, I think. Watched the finish this morning and I'll see the latter stages of the play-off tonight after golf.

Sunday

Been another mixed, fairly cool day. Had a foursomes tie at Torphins - which we lost - then got home before Gary, Carole and her mum arrived for lunch. We had a nice, extended lunch and Lucy Skyped us to wish me Happy Fathers' Day - and we moved the laptop around so that she got to talk to and see everyone.

Luca has inherited his mother's camera shyness - every time you point the lens at him, he looks away:

I did (just) manage to get Jo and Carole to kind of half pose:

Settling down now to watch the US Open - 6 hours of golf in HD on 50 inch plasma - great! Going to be a very late night, but I'm not going in to work until later tomorrow as I have my appointment with the cardiologist at 9:30.

More golf tomorrow night - 3rd round of our Seniors, then golf again on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday before heading off to Fort William to see Kelly, who texted me today to wish me HFD.

Fri/Sat

More golf on Friday - 2nd round of Seniors Club Championship - and I played even worse than I did in the 1st round on Wednesday. Amazingly, I still made the cut and now have to play the final round on Monday - I was looking forward to a break - but no rest for the wicked!

Golf again this morning - weather a bit cooler and showery. Tomorrow (Sunday) we've got Carole's Mum coming over for lunch.

We watched Midnight Express tonight - first time we'd seen it - very good and still pretty harrowing despite being 30 years old now.

Weds/Thurs

Got a bit cooler here now - but still dry thankfully. Had to get a new windscreen put in my car as I was hit by a stone on Monday. Jo's car is in the garage today as well - bearing and exhaust noises (or is she just paranoid?) plus MoT and service - sounds pricey. Ross is running Jo to and from work today.

Played the first round of our Seniors club championship last night (poorly) and caught up with Nigel, who was on a flying visit over here. Tonight it's the Deeside league at Ballater.

Spoke to Kelly yesterday - her 3 Peaks Challenge is next weekend (21st) and she starts off up Ben Nevis at 6:00 pm, so we've booked ourselves in to a hotel in Fort William and will drive over to see her. Of course, whilst she's busy running up (and down) the mountain, we'll be visiting one of Scotland's best pubs - the Grog and Gruel (http://www.grogandgruel.co.uk/) - we'll be thinking of you, pet!

Appointment

Oh - and I've now got my appointment with the cardiologist - a different one this time - Dr. Broadhurst - I see him on Monday morning.

Stressed? Try this!

http://www.therightfoot.net/mystuff/whatever/swf/bubblewrap.swf

If you're really bad, use manic mode!

Quick trip to Glasgow

Having let Dad settle in to Erskine (Flanders House, The Erskine Glasgow Home, 200 Dorchester Avenue, Glasgow G12 0BZ if anyone wants to write to him), I decided it was time to pay him a visit last night. I found him in great form, striding round the corridors and laughing and joking with the staff:


He was initially a little reluctant to actually go in to his room with me, and, perhaps, on reflection, it would have been better if we had stayed out in one of the common areas - but eventually he agreed and we had a little chat and a laugh, then I started to show him some recent photos of the family. After that, I switched his TV on and we settled down to watch a bit of the Holland-Italy match together. He seemed quite content and even displayed some interest in the football - something that he has lost in recent years.

He went to the toilet and when he came back, he wouldn't settle down again and started to put on his big cardigan and talk about going home with me. It wasn't too bad, however - he just got a bit confused and eventually he went back to walking the corridors (with his slippers under his arm!) and I went over to Helen and Barry's for the rest of the night.

This is a short video of his room, which is lovely and airy and very tidy:



I think it's an ideal place for him and I really hope he settles there - check the web site (http://www.erskine.org.uk/) to see what they do for ex-servicemen.

Barry was working late but I had a bit of toasted cheese and some apple pie with Helen until he came home from a school play. I tried out my new trick with the automatic "smile and shoot" feature I'd just discovered with my camera - do you think Barry's trying too hard here?:

Got up sharp this morning and headed off north east, stopping by Airdrie to pop in and see Dawn and Jordon, whose smile certainly made the camera work:

Still haven't got this feature to work with a female yet - but most are camera shy anyway, so I haven't pushed it! Dawn's got a new car:

Meghan got the results from her Masters yesterday - she got a 2:2 - initially she was a little disappointed, but when she saw what some of her friends got, she apparently cheered up a bit and is now looking forward to going ahead with her PhD.

Luca videos

Luca took great delight in using our brush to sweep the slabs at the back:

18 months of intensive coaching from his educated parents and this is what Luca can do now:

Did you notice what happened as Gary put Luca down - seen in the reflection of the window?

Glorious week in Deeside!

Blog's been neglected a little - partly due to the magnificent weather, but also because it's been so busy. The annual CAMRA beer festival is now over - didn't manage to put in as much work as I would have liked and, of course, we didn't have our usual bus in from Banchory on the Friday night - so Jo missed out as well. I worked behind the bar on Thursday evening and Saturday afternoon - I offered to take Jo in then, but she had too much to do and couldn't make it. This was me taking a short break on Saturday afternoon - wearing my Oregon Beer Taster hat!:

We strolled along to the golf club on Saturday evening and sat on the balcony (for the second week in succession) - it was lovely and warm - and Colin and Johanne joined us as we ate alfresco:

Ross came home on Saturday night (or should I say Sunday morning!) - but no car - it transpired that he and his buddies went along to the beer festival on Saturday night for the first time - and enjoyed it so much they had to taxi home.

The reason for me not organising our usual bus to the festival was that the organisers had had to change it from its usual November date to June - and this clashed with an outing to Blairgowrie that I was already committed to. It was another fabulous day there and all the photos are available on my golf blog - http://bsvgolf.blogspot.com/

On Sunday, Gary, Carole and Luca came over for a while - they had been at Crathes taking Luca on the short train run there. I discovered a new feature on my camera - if you smile it automatically takes 3 quick pictures. I didn't believe it at first, but it worked with Gary - then me - but I couldn't get it to work with either Jo or Carole. Jo was trying desperately to grin from ear to ear to make the camera take a photo - and Gary even forced his way in to the frame to try and help her out - to no avail:

We tried with camera-shy Carole but no luck:

Luca's laser spots are clearing up rapidly:


Videos to follow.

Medical

Oh - forgot to add that I received the written report from Albyn from my medical last week and I'm now scanning these reports and keeping them on my PC, with a comparison with previous results. Overall, looked OK - BP rising a bit - 136/83 now with a resting pulse of 85 - higher than I've been used to.

Overall cholesterol a little high, but lower than the last time; PSA OK at just 0.3 - so the only thing to concern me is the continuing Atrial flutter/fibrillation from the ECG results. I spoke to Dr. Morton, who did the medical, yesterday and asked if I could be referred to a different cardiologist this time - Steve Walton did the 3 (failed) cardioversion attempts a couple of years ago, and he does not perform the ablation procedure anyway. I'd like to hear somebody else's opinion anyway - I'm not keen to go back on Warfarin and if there's another route to go, then I'd like to at least consider it.

Sorry if this puts you off your breakfast!

Monday evening

After a game of racquetball with Richard, I went home for tea - Jo had bought some smoked mackerel - produced by our main competitor! - and we both agreed it was pretty c..p - never again - we both had stomach pains.

Anyway, Barry phoned to say Dad was successfully ensconced in Erskine - they had been advised not to go back for a couple of days to allow him to settle in - Barry said he seemed fairly content - time will tell.

The rain is due to arrive later on today (Tuesday) - I'm thankful I'm not golfing today. It's also the start of the set-up for beer festival, which has been switched from its usual November time to June. I'll pop along later and see if there's anything that needs doing.

Back to work

Monday morning and it's back to work. It's Barry and Helen's 14th anniversary today and it was Meghan's 22nd birthday on Saturday.

Today's also the day that Barry and Dawn are going to try to take Dad to Erskine - I wish them well - it won't be easy.

Ross is off work for 2 weeks' holiday and it appears he's already back to owl hours. The old blue Saab is supposed to be taken away this Wednesday - here's hoping!

Just finishing off another Eastenders Omnibus DVD for Lucy - been slipping a bit - this one's 18th May, so there's another couple of Sundays to be done this week some time.

Apart from that, nothing much doing - trying to have a fairly quiet day today.

The weekend so far

I played the second round of the Riverston Cup on Friday - and I had the trophy in my mitts as I stood on the 18th tee - I then sliced one out of bounds and finished with a horrendous 7 - I lost the trophy by just one stroke after this - as the footballers would say - sick as a parrot!

We had beers in the golf club and I then walked home past the War Memorial taking in the wonderful summer evening light - it was about 10:30 when I took this rather blurry photo - but it gives you some idea of how light it was:

On Saturday, I was up and off to golf before anyone else had stirred but when I got back, the house was empty although all the cars were there. I had lunch alone and waited - eventually Jo and Ross appeared - Ross had taken Jo to the supermarket in his new BMW that he had just bought - it had just one previous owner - the Duke of Sutherland!:

We had a surprise visit from Gary and Luca and we went out the back, where Luca was quick to run off and climb up to the highest point:

Back in the house, we placed a Skype webcam call to the Lesinas who were breakfasting. Gary said he would pop in to Tesco and buy a webcam himself - so come on Kelly and Craig - you can do it too!

It was a gorgeous evening and Jo and I walked over to the golf club and had beers on the balcony - Colin joined us but Johanne stayed home as she wasn't feeling so good. We walked home along the 1st and 2nd fairways in the warm evening sun - lovely!