A weekend without golf

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yes, it's hard to believe, I know, but no golf for me this weekend. It's an enforced absence after 4 consecutive days' golf - more than I can handle nowadays, I'm afraid. We played the PGA course at Gleneagles on Tuesday - next year's Ryder Cup venue - in glorious sunshine. The course is huge - American style, designed for buggies, with long walks from green to tee - and we walked it. I survived - just.

On Wednesday, it was Banchory again. I had thought I might give my knee a rest and skip this one, but old friends John and Jayne Taylor were up in Deeside, on holiday at the Craigendarroch, and were looking for a game at Banchory, so I felt I had to be there. I had a pre-arranged tie to play on Thursday, and Friday was our annual outing to Blairgowrie. My compromise solution was to hire a buggy yesterday - and that worked OK, but I still wouldn't have been able to play today.

The bonus of playing all this golf was that I was able to give my knee brace a good road test - and it looks like it's not really helping. In fact, I took it off for yesterday's afternoon round and it felt a bit easier. I've to go back to the physio on Thursday, but I think I'm going to hand the knee brace back. That means I'll have to try and stagger through the summer, unaided, and have the operation as soon as I return from our golf trip to Tenerife late October.

Today, Jo and I walked up to the village and wandered round the High St., trying to find out what the new Banchory River Festival (http://www.visitbanchory.com/calendar/0/234-Banchory-River-Festival.html) is all about. Is it just a new name for the Banchory St. Ternan's Heritage Fair, or is it a replacement for it, or additional to? Nobody seems to know. Anyway, nothing much was happening - a bit of music and a few stalls in Scott Skinner Square, plus some pavement art on the High St. - and that was about it, it seemed. We did sign up to go to a beer tasting tonight at Deeside Drinks Emporium, however - surprise, surprise!

This morning's Sounds of the 60's on BBC Radio Two had another dedication for us - our third to date. Listen to the intro here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U6S6X79sQk - and to the outro here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIT70_zUqeM

We decided to take advantage of the good weather to have lunch on the lawn at the adjacent Tor-na-Coille Hotel today, but got no further than the driveway up to the hotel when we noticed there was a wedding on the lawn today, so we turned round and went home for bacon butties instead.

Tomorrow, Luca will be with us during the day as his Mum and Dad are heading out for the day.

Knee brace - the story so far ..........

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Well, I tried it for the first time at golf on Wednesday and I wore it again yesterday when we went to the Beer Festival, and again this morning at golf. The verdict so far? Mixed at best. Perhaps I had hoped for instant relief, but it's certainly not that. In fact, if anything, I felt it was a little worse this morning - but that could have been because I was a little tired and stiff after 3 consecutive days working behind the bar at Pittodrie.

I drove back down from Fraserburgh on Thursday and started work at the festival when it opened at 4 pm, and worked through until just after 7 pm. I also went along and did the early shift on Friday from 3pm to 6 pm, but, on both these occasions, I had the car with me, so my tastings were just little sips in the bottom of my glass.

I made up for it yesterday, however. I cancelled golf and Jo and I caught the 11:15 am bus in to Aberdeen, getting off in Union St. and walking from there through the Bon Accord Centre - stopping off for a brief bite in Pret-a-Manger - to Pittodrie. We worked behind the bar from just after 1pm to about 6 pm, when we took a break, found a seat, and had a couple of beers before heading for our bus(es) home.

We got off at the Douglas to pop in to say hello to Ross, who was on a double shift day - daytime at Tease and evening in the Douglas - then picked up fish suppers and headed home.

I've made up DVD's combining the photos we all took on our West Coast walking trip last weekend, and will hand them out to the rest of the guys. They're already talking about next year's trip, but I can't get involved, I know - but I'm starting to feel a bit left out - it's as if some things are coming to an end. Sad face.

Anyway, it's June now and the weather seems to be improving at last - the prospects for this week are quite good, which is quite encouraging as I've got a lot of golf planned - Gleneagles (business) on Tuesday, a tie at Banchory on Thursday and our annual outing to Blairgowrie on Friday. Normally, I would also be playing at Banchory on Wednesday and Saturday, but I suspect this may be a bridge too far - I'll see how I'm coping with my knee. Should I wear the knee brace every day, or experiment with brace on and off to compare and contrast? Dilemma.