The week just past

We had a nice trip down to the Central Belt on Sunday/Monday. We stopped off at Dawn's new flat to have a look around - very nice - and then drove over to Foxbar Drive from where Barry, Helen, Dawn, Jo and I made our way to Scotstounhill train station for the one stop hop to Jordanhill, adjacent to the Three Craws, where lunch for 16 was scheduled:

l-r: Me, Jo, sister Dawn, Helen (hidden behind Dawn), Barry (hidden behind cousin Sheila), cousin Lesley, Aunt Nancy, Kirsty (Lesley's daughter), Cameron (at front - Sheila's son), Lucy (Lesley's daughter), Lauren (Dawn's daughter), Malcolm (Lauren's husband), Kieran (Dawn's son), Mara (Kieran's daughter) and Julie (Kieran's wife)

Afterwards, we all looked on as Aunt Nancy got on to her "bike":

Finally, all set to go:

We stayed at Barry and Helen's on Sunday night. When Dawn moved house she had to get rid of a lot of stuff she had, one of them being my Children's Encyclopaedia collection, which my Mum and Dad bought me when we lived in Corby, Northants back in the 1950's:

Inside - self printed:

I remember typesetting the letters and stamping the books, which have seen better days, with a number of the spines damaged beyond reasonable repair. It was nice to look through them again, but they are definitely outdated and superceded by the modern power of the internet, and Barry is now arranging to dispose of them - to any charity shop that might take them.

On Monday morning, we drove over to Houston and met up with Brian and Mary. Brian and I played a quick 12 holes of golf, then we all had a quick lunch before Jo and I drove over to Edinburgh to pay a quick visit to see Ross. Just as we were leaving, one by one, Sam, Tom and Julie appeared to say hi to us.

Ross met us at the Cumberland Bar, which had a nice sunken beer garden and we had a drink and a bite with him there:

Ross had a scheduled meeting with his boss the following day which turned out pretty well for him as he got a pay rise!

It was a pretty slow crawl out of Edinburgh after that - at least until we got across the bridge - but we got back to Banchory just in time for me to head to the Legion for another live show on River Dee Radio.

It was another 3 consecutive days of golf for me after that - Edzell on Tuesday, Banchory on Wednesday, then Balmoral on Thursday. On Friday, I had a funeral to attend at Dyce - a former work colleague who died suddenly at the age of just 70. I went straight home afterwards - just in time to catch the bus down to Ballater for our scheduled hill-walk.

Just a few days now until we head to the States, so we need to get our packing etc organised. Hoping to get 2 more games of golf in before then - on Monday and Wednesday.

To close, Gary and Luca came over on Saturday evening to deliver my Father's Day gift, and cards - one pre-printed, the other drawn by Luca's fair hand: