Yes - exactly 10 weeks ago today I was in Albyn having my leg hacked to bits, with chunks of metal and plastic inserted in place of the missing pieces of bone. I can almost look back fondly on it now, but it wasn't all that long ago I was in despair. Time is, literally, the healer.
That's my first week's work over. Today was the busiest day of the week - I was in before 9 am and didn't leave until after 3:30 pm. Six and a half hours - that's pretty much a full day.
I've been to Bannatyne's a couple of times this week, but I was a bit late leaving the office this afternoon, so I came straight home and jumped on the exercise bike. I've started again to digitise my old vinyl and it's all set up downstairs, so my time on the bike was exactly the time it took to record the first side of Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run - about 18 minutes.
I saw evidence of somebody else having used the exercise bike today. I don't think Jo's too keen however - she finds it very uncomfortable.
It's the time of year for the CAMRA pub surveys again so we went to the Branch meeting at the Bobbin Mill last night. Jo offered to drive, but I think she may regret it a little, as she found the whole experience fairly dull.
It's 7pm in the evening here, so it'll be 5:30 am in Adelaide just now. I imagine Kelly and Chris are up by now, and doing their final packing prior to their move to Semaphore. Exciting times.
Ian R. Stewart Family Blog
Friday 10 January 2014
Tuesday 7 January 2014
Helen
Whew! Finally found a Helen song to go with the Dawn and Carole ones! - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qnRvJZfh1c
Tuesday tales
I'm keeping up my (almost) daily blogs - so far anyway. As yesterday, I got to work today about 10 am again, after all the usual morning administrations. We were up at 6:30 am but it took until 9:00 am before I was ready to face the world. I suppose we could do it all a bit quicker, but I'm still surprised how long it takes.
Today, Jo's off to Inverurie to do her usual Tuesday Luca duties, so I'll be home alone for a little while this evening. Although I'm driving OK again, I'm still trying to avoid any long or unnecessary journeys, and a trip through to Inverurie would have involved me in 3 car journeys today rather than 2. I've even re-scheduled our Management Meeting this week to Aberdeen on Friday to save me having to drive through to Fraserburgh.
We spoke to Kelly on FaceTime last night - she and Miller looked fine after their marathon journey, but it'll still take them a while to adjust properly - and they've got to get organised for their house move to Semaphore next week. They'll only be a few hundred yards from the beaches - should be nice, although they might initially miss some of the facilities currently on their doorstep in Norwood. For those that don't know Adelaide, here's where they're moving from (B) and where they're going (A) - it's about 20kms in total:
Now we've got to think about our next trip Down Under - will it be over the Christmas/New Year holidays again, or will it be before or after that? Some of it may depend on the availability of "free" flights using our BA/Avios Miles and Companion Voucher. We would certainly have a stop-off as well - either on the way there or the way back - perhaps Thailand this time? Marriott have a couple of nice looking places there - in Bangkok itself and in Phuket.
First of all, however, we have to finalise our USA holiday arrangements - particularly the return stop-over in New York. Which hotel should we choose - the JW Marriott (Essex House) overlooking Central Park?:
or the Marriott Marquis in Times Square?:
To close today, I happened to be listening to my recording of Sounds of the 60's in the car on my way to work this morning - you know the one with the holiday period dedication to the "3 main girls" in my life? Of course, 3 tracks was the maximum allowed in Brian Matthew's 3-in-a-row spot, and although he did pass on my apologies to all other members of the family not mentioned, perhaps the other 2 girl relatives - sister Dawn and Daughter-in-Law Carole - will settle for these tracks as a kind of compensation for apparently being overlooked:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke4j3tz2YX8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgEc0hzTH7I (sorry no "e", Carole!)
Today, Jo's off to Inverurie to do her usual Tuesday Luca duties, so I'll be home alone for a little while this evening. Although I'm driving OK again, I'm still trying to avoid any long or unnecessary journeys, and a trip through to Inverurie would have involved me in 3 car journeys today rather than 2. I've even re-scheduled our Management Meeting this week to Aberdeen on Friday to save me having to drive through to Fraserburgh.
We spoke to Kelly on FaceTime last night - she and Miller looked fine after their marathon journey, but it'll still take them a while to adjust properly - and they've got to get organised for their house move to Semaphore next week. They'll only be a few hundred yards from the beaches - should be nice, although they might initially miss some of the facilities currently on their doorstep in Norwood. For those that don't know Adelaide, here's where they're moving from (B) and where they're going (A) - it's about 20kms in total:
Now we've got to think about our next trip Down Under - will it be over the Christmas/New Year holidays again, or will it be before or after that? Some of it may depend on the availability of "free" flights using our BA/Avios Miles and Companion Voucher. We would certainly have a stop-off as well - either on the way there or the way back - perhaps Thailand this time? Marriott have a couple of nice looking places there - in Bangkok itself and in Phuket.
First of all, however, we have to finalise our USA holiday arrangements - particularly the return stop-over in New York. Which hotel should we choose - the JW Marriott (Essex House) overlooking Central Park?:
or the Marriott Marquis in Times Square?:
To close today, I happened to be listening to my recording of Sounds of the 60's in the car on my way to work this morning - you know the one with the holiday period dedication to the "3 main girls" in my life? Of course, 3 tracks was the maximum allowed in Brian Matthew's 3-in-a-row spot, and although he did pass on my apologies to all other members of the family not mentioned, perhaps the other 2 girl relatives - sister Dawn and Daughter-in-Law Carole - will settle for these tracks as a kind of compensation for apparently being overlooked:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke4j3tz2YX8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgEc0hzTH7I (sorry no "e", Carole!)
Monday 6 January 2014
Empty Nest
It's the 12th day today but we - mostly Jo - started taking stuff down yesterday. Our neighbour at No.1 - John - had offered again to take away our tree in his trailer, so we had to strip the tree pretty quickly yesterday afternoon.
We had time of course - all of our visitors have now gone - and all got home safely. In fact, the Lesinas were back in Oregon before I even went for a beer on Friday evening. Scott tells me they were all tucked up in bed by 7:30 pm local time - and didn't awaken until 4:00 am on Saturday morning - pretty good, I think.
The adjustment for Kelly and Chris - and Miller - will be more difficult, I suspect, but at least they can now shed some layers!
On Friday morning, I drove them down to Glentanar, a beautiful hunting lodge on an estate just outside Aboyne. It's a very popular wedding venue, but I'm afraid it didn't quite match up to the grandeur of Drumtochty Castle. Here's a couple of views however:
On Saturday, we all walked along to the village and popped in to the Burnett Arms for lunch, stopping off at Tease on the way home to say bye to Ross, who was working. We also stopped at Arbor Court to pose for a photo:
Soon it was time to head to the airport, where Gary and Luca were waiting for us. We said our farewells then followed them as they queued for security, staring at them through the glass panels:
All gone now, but we had dinner at Anne & Leslie Mason's to go to as a sweetener and that helped take our minds off the relative loneliness/peace (delete whichever appropriate).
On Sunday morning, I made a slight detour across the golf course on my way to pick up my paper. There was only Syd and Jack from our regular group playing, so I walked a couple of holes with them. I even had a small hit with one of Syd's clubs and a ball - and it didn't feel too bad. Encouraging with the golf season just 12 weeks away now.
Today (Monday) it was back to work for me - after over 9 weeks off. I didn't rush in - I did all my usual exercises etc and it was almost 10 am by the time I got in to the office. I didn't stay long either - I was out by 2:30 pm, but I headed off to Bannatyne's on the way home. They have some cycling machines there where the seat is adjusted horizontally rather than the usual vertical mode, and the adjustment is smaller, allowing me to start at a comfortable level and slowly move the seat in, to test and push my knee bend a bit more. 15 minutes of that was enough for me at this stage - then it was off for a brief stint in the pool followed by the steam room. Not a bad day all round.
When I got home, I realised this was probably the longest time Jo and I had spent apart since October!
We had time of course - all of our visitors have now gone - and all got home safely. In fact, the Lesinas were back in Oregon before I even went for a beer on Friday evening. Scott tells me they were all tucked up in bed by 7:30 pm local time - and didn't awaken until 4:00 am on Saturday morning - pretty good, I think.
The adjustment for Kelly and Chris - and Miller - will be more difficult, I suspect, but at least they can now shed some layers!
On Friday morning, I drove them down to Glentanar, a beautiful hunting lodge on an estate just outside Aboyne. It's a very popular wedding venue, but I'm afraid it didn't quite match up to the grandeur of Drumtochty Castle. Here's a couple of views however:
On Saturday, we all walked along to the village and popped in to the Burnett Arms for lunch, stopping off at Tease on the way home to say bye to Ross, who was working. We also stopped at Arbor Court to pose for a photo:
Soon it was time to head to the airport, where Gary and Luca were waiting for us. We said our farewells then followed them as they queued for security, staring at them through the glass panels:
All gone now, but we had dinner at Anne & Leslie Mason's to go to as a sweetener and that helped take our minds off the relative loneliness/peace (delete whichever appropriate).
On Sunday morning, I made a slight detour across the golf course on my way to pick up my paper. There was only Syd and Jack from our regular group playing, so I walked a couple of holes with them. I even had a small hit with one of Syd's clubs and a ball - and it didn't feel too bad. Encouraging with the golf season just 12 weeks away now.
Today (Monday) it was back to work for me - after over 9 weeks off. I didn't rush in - I did all my usual exercises etc and it was almost 10 am by the time I got in to the office. I didn't stay long either - I was out by 2:30 pm, but I headed off to Bannatyne's on the way home. They have some cycling machines there where the seat is adjusted horizontally rather than the usual vertical mode, and the adjustment is smaller, allowing me to start at a comfortable level and slowly move the seat in, to test and push my knee bend a bit more. 15 minutes of that was enough for me at this stage - then it was off for a brief stint in the pool followed by the steam room. Not a bad day all round.
When I got home, I realised this was probably the longest time Jo and I had spent apart since October!
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