This week with Luca

Well, Luca's week with his grandparents ends today. We survived - and so did he. We think he enjoyed himself - were we more lenient than his parents? I don't know, but I'm pretty sure we weren't tougher.

Last night's tea was Luca's favourite - a "picnic" - indoors. Sandwiches, prawns and mango on a stick (?), Doritos, smoothie, grapes and a Fruit Corner, all laid out on a large tablecloth on the carpet in our back (TV) room. He was a happy camper.

Three times this week I've had him down at the practice facility at the golf club to hit a few balls. He seems happy enough to do it, but, as always with Luca, there's a price to pay - we have to go to Tease afterwards for him to have another hot chocolate with marshmallows, washing down a brownie. Yesterday, Jo joined us, but she said it was even less fun having coffee with Luca than it is with me. As soon as he was finished, it was time for us to go, whereas Jo wanted to relax and take her time over her coffee.

Of course, any time we go down to the village, we have to pass Corsee Road and Luca loves to climb up the embankment there:

On Tuesday, all three of us went for a walk in the woods in the afternoon. The route back took us through the former Inchmarlo golf course, now sadly overgrown:

On Wednesday afternoon, Jo and Luca took the bus in to Aberdeen while I played golf. They saw the latest Ghostbusters - this was the 3rd time Luca had seen it!

We FaceTimed with Kelly yesterday. Miller was all go as usual whilst little Asher was calm and happy. Can't wait to see him - nor can Lucy, who's considering going to Adelaide over the Christmas holidays. If she does, we'll dovetail/overlap with her.

Gary is coming to pick up Luca after work today. No more early morning Play Station in Arbor Court!

Out-negotiated by a 9 year old!

When Luca was heading to bed last night, I had a word with him about when he was going to get up in the morning (to play on his PS). The following conversation ensued:

• Luca - "Between 6 and 7"
• Me - "OK - "let's say 6:30"
• Luca - "No - let's split the difference - 6:15"
• Me - "I already did split the difference!"

Too smart for me!

In the end, he got up promptly at 6 am anyway.

Monday morning update

Well, we've FaceTimed with both Kelly and Lucy now. Nice to see everyone's faces again - particularly little Asher.

It's Scott and Lucy's 15th wedding anniversary today. We still remember the stifling heat of Patrick's Creek back in 2001. We thought we were going to melt - and some of the butterflies did!

Started to look at flights for next year - nothing much coming up yet, but we should probably resolve the timing of our Australian trip first. I think this time, we'll probably do a bit more travelling Down Under - perhaps to Uluru and maybe Brisbane.

I made it to my golf on Friday - although it was a bit of a rush, coming straight from my latest blood test, which was running a bit late. As a result, I arrived on the tee with my arm still oozing blood. I had to go in to the pro shop and ask for a couple of plasters to stem the flow. It was a beautiful afternoon for golf - as was Friday at Edzell. Saturday at Banchory was also nice and hot, but my golf certainly wasn't.

Gary came over with Luca first thing on Sunday morning. He then headed off for a training run, in preparation for the Fort William marathon next Sunday, whilst Jo had church duties to perform, so Luca and I headed down to the golf course - via his favourite little hill at Corsee Road, of course - to practice his golf. One he'd had enough, we went back up the High St - I bought my paper and then he persuaded me to go in to Tease. He loves the hot chocolate with marshmallows there - and the chocolate cake:

Luca's here for a week, so Gary brought his bike and his Play Station over, as well as his golf clubs, so I set up our TV for him. His Dad told him he couldn't have any more PS on Sunday as he'd already been on it at home, and once a day is more than enough, but Luca must have been excited about using it on our big TV, as he woke at 3, 4 and 5 am this morning to check the time. When I finally got up just before 7 am, he was already downstairs playing away. He had been careful, however - the door to the TV room was shut and the volume was turned way down, so as not to waken us. Too late!

Nice start to the day, so I'm off for a short cycle soon. Rain forecast to arrive at lunchtime.