Ian R Stewart

Tradesmen!

2012-01-25T13:53:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

What can I say? No sooner had Jo left for Inverurie yesterday afternoon than the loft insulation workmen started to do that thing that it seems tradesmen all round the world have perfected - the long, slow intake of breath as they consider how they can sting the poor mug punter for a bit more.

The insulation in our loft is of differing thicknesses, as explained to us by Carillion's surveyor when he priced the job a couple of weeks ago. Strangely enough, the thinner it is, and the more insulation you need to bring the thickness up to modern standards, then the cheaper it is, as the Government part finance the scheme, giving the most help to those lofts that require it the most.

Well, the workmen yesterday disagreed with their own surveyor and said they could not possibly put in the thickness that the surveyor had quoted us for - not unless, of course, we were willing to pay £100 or so more! Bloody typical - the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing.

I proclaimed our innocence in all this - we hadn't measured the loft, nor decided on the existing thickness of the insulation - but we had signed a contract with Carillion for a certain amount of insulation at an agreed price and I think they should honour that contract.

Anyway, the workmen left and I've now put in my formal complaint and we await their response.

So, tonight is the golf club's AGM - and that will formally signal the end of my one year spell on the Committee. I've got mixed feelings - I don't feel I did much during my time, nor did I feel I had a real job to do anyway, but I didn't feel I could change matters from within either, and, given the amount of time we're going to be away from home this year, I wasn't going to be able to contribute more in 2012.

Hope to get a game of squash tomorrow - haven't had any exercise at all since last week. I should really be at Bannatyne's just now, but I keep finding additional things to do - like this blog - it seems like I'm dodging the gym. Should I give up my membership? I don't think I've even been there once a month since I had my knee ops 15 months or so ago.

That's it for today - I'll just add the quick photo that I took with my Blackberry this morning and put on Facebook - me with my new PTFC mug in the office:

It always looks slightly weird when you hold the camera and take a photo of yourself!

Blood test

2012-01-24T12:51:00.001Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Working from home today because I had to go see the nurse at noon for a blood test, following my visit to the Doctor yesterday. He wants to eliminate the possibility of a particular bacteria - Helicobacter Pylori it's called (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicobacter_pylori). Seems that half the world's population have it. Should get the results in a couple of days. Assuming negative, then it's the specialist and endoscopy for me.

Got a call last night that the loft insulation men are arriving this afternoon, so it's just as well I'm at home, or Jo would have had to forgo her trip to Inverurie to see Liz, Carole and poor little sick Luca this afternoon. By coincidence our new loft ladder arrived yesterday - just in time. The instructions for fitting look pretty complicated, so it could be that we just use it as a simple ladder for a while and don't bother screwing it in to the loft.

Oh - and I went to the Royal Mail sorting office to pick up a couple of small parcels they tried to deliver last week. One was a book for my holidays - The Art of Fielding, a debut novel by Chad Harbach (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/9012593/The-Art-of-Fielding-by-Chad-Harbach-review.html) that was featured as Radio Two's Book of the Week not long ago - so I thought I'd take it to Oz with me. The other parcel contained the bits to fix our leaking shower - all we need to do now is get Ross' pal, Dan to fit them. He's still waiting for our order for new ceramic ware for our downstairs loo - Jo can't quite find what she wants yet.

That's about all for now - back to my work now.

Another hectic weekend

2012-01-23T20:45:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Busy week at work was followed by a pretty hectic weekend as well. We were down at Firhill partaking of the corporate hospitality on Saturday (check http://bvetsfootballgroup.blogspot.com/ for photos etc) and then on Sunday, it was Luca's (slightly belated) birthday party at Hoodles (http://www.hoodles.co.uk). It was all go with Luca's group of 19-20 kids plus other parties going on in the adjacent rooms and buildings - it's quite a set-up.

Luca was as high as a kite but was able to run off some of the surplus energy safely on the padded floors and walls of the kids' gym. He was really pleased to see his pal from nursery, Michael:

Could be love?

Luca blew out the candles on his cake - check http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X0v3LIxzb4&list=UUBDeleoM99bWx2-P6rMydgA&index=1&feature=plcp

Carole asked me to take a photo of the cake:

So that was the weekend - now for the medical reports. Jo was back at the cardiologist last Thursday and she went through another ECG stress test, which she passed with flying colours. This means the pains she has been getting are not cardio, but probably just pure stress.

As for me, I was back at the doctor's today. My 6 week course of stomach pills has come to an end, but they don't appear to have completely resolved the problem, so I've now to get a blood test tomorrow to eliminate the possibility of a bacteria (which could be treated with antibiotics). I'm also being referred to the specialist with a view to having another endoscopy. The young doctor alarmed me a little when he said he didn't think it was the Big C! It hadn't even occurred to me until he said the word!

Blast from the past

2012-01-13T13:43:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Anyone recognise this face?:

It's Austin Donohoe! Who he? - Lucy's godfather. I hadn't quite reached this stage in Renshaw's Chronicles, but Austin trained beside me at Fraser, Martin & Co and was at our wedding - and we at his. I stumbled across his name almost by accident today. Austin has had kidney problems almost all his life and is actively involved in various Kidney charities and hospices and he provided a foreword to a book about kidney failure (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kidney-Failure-Explained-Everything-Wanted/dp/1872362907/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1326459277&sr=1-1).

I then Googled his name and came up with his speech at the National Kidney Federation Conference in 2003 - http://www.kidney.org.uk/conf03/donohoe_a.html

This also reminded me that I must try and do at least one more episode in Renshaw's Chronicles before we go to Oz (5 weeks today!).

Not a lot else to say on this particular blog today, other than the fact that Jo and Ross will be busy at home today - we've got Scottish Gas returning to fit the new downstairs radiator, and they'll almost be bumping in to Taylor's of Banchory's men coming to fit the new blinds in the downstairs office/music/computer/work room.

Ross has got a rare IT job on this afternoon - a former customer - but he's been back and forward to Elgin the last couple of nights after work, picking up and returning his pal Richard. When he was away last night, one of his other pals, Dan, was in looking at our downstairs loo with a view to replacing the WC, shower etc as a "homer". Whilst he was there, Jo got him to look at the cistern in our en suite, and also our leaking shower. For the last few weeks, every time we flush our WC, it's like the whole plumbing system is going to explode - an incredible racket, guaranteed to waken even the heaviest of sleepers. It happened once before a few years ago and it's just a valve next to the ballcock that needs replacing - hopefully today as well.

Aberfoyle

2012-01-11T13:46:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

We had a nice, albeit brief, trip to the Forth Valley last weekend, staying at Macdonald Forest Hills (http://www.macdonaldhotels.co.uk/our-hotels/macdonald-forest-hills-hotel-spa/?gclid=CKqbrq34x60CFYEmtAod8A8Biw) in the heart of the Trossachs - but where exactly is that, some of you may ask? Check this map:

Ignore the red trail lines - we were staying at the Hotel marked in the bottom left, on the shores of Loch Ard.

It was a beautiful day in the North East when we set out on Saturday morning - not a cloud in the sky, and warm enough for us to go over Cairn o' Mount without fear of it being closed with ice. From Perth west and south, however, there was a noticeable change - there was obvious evidence of widescale flooding, and damaged and fallen trees from last week's wind storms. The narrow road from the village of Aberfoyle alongside Loch Ard to our resort looked like it had been - or was about to be - closed. The loch seemed very high and choppy and looking like it was above the level of the road.

We left our car at the resort and Barry and Helen - and little Harriet in her cage at the back of their car - drove us over the Duke's Pass to Kilmahog, just outside Callander, to the Lade Inn, a well-known little brewpub. Jo sat in the back of Barry's Merc and suffered a bit on the windy road - she had to sit outside for 10 minutes before she was ready to come in for lunch. Dawn was already there, waiting for us at a nice corner table that Barry had reserved. That corner spot was cold and drafty and we moved twice as other tables nearer the open fire became vacant. We managed to get just one team photo, in which Dawn is, unfortunately, looking the other way:

We all popped in to the adjacent Scottish Real Ale shop where Harriet had to be carefully controlled:

By the time we got back from lunch - going the slightly flatter alternative route, with Jo sitting in the front of Barry's car - and checked in and unpacked, there was only time for a quick snooze and a swim/steam room/jacuzzi visit before dinner. We were located in the Ben Lomond timeshare apartments, which looked like it was the first block built and it was adjacent to the hotel, where we had decided to dine, so it was just a short stroll for us. The dining room was very nice and so was the food - particularly the steaks.

The forecast for Sunday had been reasonably promising but when we woke up we were disappointed to see how overcast and misty it was. Nonetheless, we headed out in the car, initially exploring westwards, but then we drove back in to Aberfoyle to buy the papers and have a coffee, taking in the well laid out and interesting Tourist Office as well.

With the weather so dreich - intermittent drizzle and poorish visibility - we ended up doing 3 very short walks - round the nature trail that follows the path of the Forth in Aberfoyle; then back over the Duke's Pass to find a suitable forest walk, where I took this photo of Jo, toiling up a slight hill:

Our last mini-walk came on the short waterfall trail at the David Marshall Lodge (http://www.forestry.gov.uk/website/recreation.nsf/LUWebDocsByKey/ScotlandStirlingQueenElizabethForestParkAchrayForestDavidMarshallLodgeVisitorCentre). This marks the start of Queen Elizabeth Forest Park, which is one of the places Dawn used to take Mum on day trips in her later years. The Lodge itself - and cafeteria - was shut but we managed a couple of photos on the trails:

The view from the top of the trail at the front of the Lodge was very nice, even on this dreich day:

We had lunch in the Forth Inn in Aberfoyle - Jo didn't fancy it much at first, but a bunch of walkers arrived and helped drown out the noise of the football on TV in the adjacent bar and this certainly helped improve the atmosphere where we were sitting.

Back to our apartment and another little snooze, then a walk round the resort grounds followed by another quick swim and soon it's time for dinner - doesn't time fly? We went back to the same hotel restaurant - it was nice and it was very convenient. I had brought the latest DVD from LoveFilm of The Killing TV series that we'd missed first time around, and, over the weekend we took in 3 of the last 4 episodes, leaving the final chapter until we got home.

Sod's law, Monday was the best day of the weekend and we had to head home. Although the exchange was for a full week, we never intended to spend more than a few days there. Ideally, if check-in had been on Friday, that would have suited us better. We could still have been there if I was fully retired, but work has to come first for now.

The outlook from our balcony over the resort gardens towards Loch Ard was a bit more photographable on Monday:

The hotel's dining room is the curved building on the left.

On the way home, Jo wanted to have a proper look at Callander so we made a slight detour there, but parking was tricky and we couldn't find a nice-looking coffee shop so we ended up driving out to Kilmahog again and went to the Woollen Mill for a scone instead. Just along the road is the Lade Inn, where we had lunch on Saturday and there was a nice snowy, hilly backdrop from this angle:

After that, we made good time on the drive home and I was able to detour past Banchory to drop Jo off and grab a spot of lunch before heading to the office for a short afternoon's work. In the evening we settled down for the final episode of The Killing, so, after 20 episodes, we now know who did it! There was one little loose end that could have done with more explanation, however, and I think Jo was a little miffed that this wasn't properly tidied up like they do in the Poirot and Agatha Christie's Miss Marple TV crime series that she loves!

Back to work

2012-01-04T13:51:00.001Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

It's back to work today, but it's still fairly quiet here so I'll head home early again.

I've watched the news video of Kelly's dramatic rescue umpteen times today (http://au.news.yahoo.com/video/national/watch/27757738/) and each time I see her wobbly little chin, I want to burst into tears. She so nearly did that herself. Wish we could be there now, but I suppose it's only another 6 weeks or so until we see her in the flesh again.

Before that, we've got Aberfoyle this weekend - lunch with Dawn and Barry at the Lade Inn (http://www.theladeinn.com/) on Saturday then back home on Monday - just in time for the Gas Man to fit our hall radiator. Only a couple of weeks until Gary, Ross and I go to Firhill to sample the Corporate Hospitality at the Dundee match - hope the weather stays fair.

We've now got up to Episode 16 of The Killing - just 4 to go now - exciting stuff!

And another milestone has been passed - we've had over 16,000 viewings of this blog now - wow!

So much to write about!

2012-01-02T18:24:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

So much has happened since my last posting that I could fill a few pages, but I think it's best to start with the most recent. We had just had breakfast this morning and I was casually trawling Facebook and my eyes bulged as I read Kelly's posting about her near-death experience in the waters off South Australia. We managed to get her on Skype and she seems fine - thanks goodness she's always been a good swimmer and is so strong and fit now - otherwise she would never have survived two and a half hours in the ocean.

As most now know, Chris headed off for shore and got there after an hour and a half swim and summonsed the rescue boat. Kelly was in the water for over two and a half hours with Chris' Dad and uncle - ages 65 and 73 respectively, with the uncle being a very poor swimmer, and only one lifejacket between the three of them. Kelly thought they were going to lose Chris' uncle - he mentally gave up fairly quickly, saying he couldn't keep going as the three of them tried to swim to shore, making absolutely no headway in the heavy seas. Chris' uncle lost consciousness and has been kept in hospital, but they think he will recover OK.

Kelly didn't know what to fear most - the threat of sharks, who are known to frequent these waters - the heavy seas that were crashing round about them - or Chris' uncle not surviving. Chris' Dad survived OK, but was treated for hypothermia, but Kelly was fine - she heated up again just sitting in the sun! South Australia has been having a heatwave, with temperatures of 40 degrees C.

Kelly said they were on Channel 7 News - Chris spoke to the camera, but Kelly could only offer a trembling lip - she couldn't actually utter any words! I haven't been able to find this clip on the web yet, but I did find a brief news report in one of the local papers - http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/four-rescued-from-capsized-boat-near-granite-island-victor-harbor/story-e6frea83-1226234956192. Perhaps there will be more available tomorrow.

I'm shaking just thinking about it as I write this.

Then, of course, we had Luca's 5th birthday party on Friday. Jo and I went over to have lunch with Carole and Luca, with Gary joining us later after getting home early from work. Here's Luca looking very pleased with himself, in anticipation of his chocolate birthday cake:

Here's a short video of him blowing out the candles, then rushing to the door as the bell rings and yet another present arrives - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1LwMbDNX_E&list=UUBDeleoM99bWx2-P6rMydgA&index=1&feature=plcp

The next day was Hogmanay and there was a late change of plan. We had originally planned to have dinner at Ann & Leslie Mason's, just round the corner in Birch Grove - it was their turn to host, but there were complications with Ann's mother which resulted in her asking if we wouldn't mind hosting dinner. Ann would still do all the cooking and just bring it round to ours. No problem we said - all we had to do now was clean the house and set the table.

Jo followed me round as I dusted and hoovered, making corrections as I put ornaments back in place. She was practising her own particular brand of feng-shui in our front room, and this is how it looked before our guests arrived:

The evening went well and we were able to step out on the balcony after the bells to watch the Tor-na-Coille Hotel's Firework show from the golf course - there's a short clip of it here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oUQDrjDrRA&list=UUBDeleoM99bWx2-P6rMydgA&index=2&feature=plcp

Ne'erday was a bit of a write-off - we were too tired to move, although Jo did cook her traditional steak pie. Today was better - a lovely day - crisp and bright, so, after assuring ourselves that Kelly was OK, we headed off to Stonehaven for a short walk to try to get rid of our lethargy and blow away the cobwebs. I had spotted the walk in one of the books that Jo had bought some time ago - this was our route:

We started off in Market Square and walked down to the beach, where we came across this model boat:

Along past the harbour, then up the hill to the clifftops overlooking the town:

By the time we got round to Dunnottar Castle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunnottar_Castle - where parts of Hamlet, starring Mel Gibson and Glenn Close, were shot) it was pretty blowy, as you can tell from this photo:

The castle was closed, of course:

Our route was a circular one that took us through Dunnottar Woods, where we came across what they called the Shell House:

Nothing to do with the oil company of that name - much simpler than that as can be seen from the inside:

We finished our walk back down in the harbour, where we went to the Marine Hotel for a swift pint (me) and coffee (Jo).

Boxing Day/Anniversary

2011-12-26T11:16:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

We had a lovely Christmas - especially opening the presents. Luca was in charge, handing out the gifts, getting ever more excited with each one that was for him. There were a couple of strange ones, however - one of Jo's presents for Gary was a Science Kit:

Note the top right corner - ages 5 and up. I suppose Gary is more than 5, but what was Jo thinking of?

Worse was to follow with Gary's next present - from Dawn and John - it was a Joke Box. Yes, fake dog turds, nails through fingers and the Pièce de résistance, at least as far as Luca was concerned, was the ring that squirted water - we all got a good soaking.

Ross bought Luca a Monster Truck:

and we got him a Pirate Ship jigsaw - here he is reading the instructions:

Jo helped him complete it:

When it came to opening our present from Dawn and John, there was a slightly embarrassing moment when we spotted the tag that was on the bag it came in:

It's good to re-cycle, but always remove last year's tags before you use the bags again! Dawn, of course, is far too young for Senior Moments, but as I was hanging up our Xmas cards this year, by coincidence, two in a row of the same card appeared and seemed to come from the same source:

Luca wasn't quite sure about a hat he got for a present, but his mother immediately took to it:

Carole also posed with the teeth from the Joke Bag:

Then the team photo - with Ross holding Yoda:

and it's our 39th Anniversary today - and, for the first time ever, Jo remembered and bought me a card!

Xmas Eve disaster averted

2011-12-24T12:13:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

The aftermath of the gas men working here for 2 days was that there was a pile of rubbish sitting outside our house, including 2 spent radiators. They'd neatly bagged the rubbish and told us - again - that a team would be along to take it all away - but, as usual, they never showed, so we had little option but to take it all to the tip ourselves.

After all, the front of our house looks like a big enough tip without adding more to it - we've had the planks on our porch missing since early this year, waiting for the builders to come back and fix the leak on our balcony, after which they were supposed to replace the harling, which is coming away from the building after the Virginia Creepers did their worst. Then there's the old Mercedes sitting at the front door, rusting away - we were assured again that it would be moving "in the next couple of days", but we're still waiting.

So this morning I put the back seats in my car down and started to load the radiators. It was only as I was lifting the second one that I realised they hadn't been fully emptied - there was black gunge seeping out - in my car and on the driveway. I rushed back in to the house calling Jo for help - but I never thought about my feet. My shoe soles were carrying the black gunge in to the house - help!

Eventually we managed to drain the radiators and block up the holes sufficiently to allow me to drive them to the tip, whilst Jo was left mopping up the mess. All's well that ends well, but it could have been a real disaster. Even the inside of my car seems not to have suffered too much.

So we're sitting here waiting for the turkey to defrost. You would have thought that almost 3 days would have been enough, but apparently not, so I'll need to nip to the Cook Shop and try to pick up a food thermometer/probe. Jo may have to wait until tomorrow to cook the bird.

I was back at the Doctor's on Thursday, getting my 6 month check-up on the damaged skin on my nose. He said it was mostly OK - no sign of anything happening apart from one tiny bit at the top of the mark. He offered to zap it there and then - and he did, but it means I'll be featuring a red spot on my nose in my Xmas photos - see if you can "spot" it.

Whew!

2011-12-23T09:27:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Well - what a 2 days it's been - I'm glad I was at work as our house was torn apart by the Gas board as they attempted to fix the saga of the leaking radiators. They ended up stripping and draining the entire system, cleaning out all the gunge and it appears we now have a fully functioning central heating system again - just in time for Christmas.

There was one final potential crisis averted as well. Just as the men were tidying up and preparing to leave, Ross was heading for his shower prior to going on his work's night out. He decided the main shower upstairs wouldn't be ready as the heating had been off most of the day when the men were working on the system, so he thought he'd use the downstairs electric shower. It seemed to be working again after shorting out a few months ago. Ross got in to the shower, then - bang! All the power went - no TV, no cooker - nothing except the lighting circuit was left on.

I initially thought it was something Jo had done as she was fiddling with tree lights for our second (mini, artificial) tree in the back room. Then my mind turned to the work that the gas men had been doing, but all was revealed shortly. We managed to get it up and running again eventually, thank goodness, but we definitely need to get an electrician out to fix this weak spot in our electrical system.

I was out at the Golf Club Committee and Staff Christmas dinner at the Tor-na-Coille last night. Very nice it was too - 19 of us there, but the staff were vastly outnumbered by the Committee. We made a £10 contribution to the food and drink, but that seems paltry - I felt a little guilty at using Golf Club funds for this, but I suppose it's the one perk that the volunteers on the Committee get.

Hopefully a fairly short day today - and some squash this afternoon. Tomorrow is our annual oldies football match which also celebrates Dave Williamson's birthday. It'll be a bit like outdoor Subbuteo - at least on my part. Not sure how my knees will stand up to it - I'll take it easy.

Enjoy the festivities everyone.

Crisis approaching

2011-12-21T15:22:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Why a crisis? Well, I still haven't got a 2nd present for Jo. Should I panic? Probably.

I did get our other (joint) present yesterday - a replacement TV for our bedroom - very nice it is too - it's a Samsung 32" Smart TV. Why "Smart"? Well, it's got wireless and there's a number of Android style Apps on it, including BBC i-Player, Facebook etc. There's also an inbuilt Freeview HD box, but we can't use that yet, because the aerial cable they supplied is so short! We also now need to get another Sky HD box to properly use the HD facilities of the new set.

Ross had a frustrating time at the Doctor's yesterday. He nipped out from work for his 2pm appointment but had to wait an hour before Dr. Platt appeared - but even then it wasn't for him - it was the previous patient! Ross had to go back to work so this appointment will have to be re-arranged for another time.

It's the shortest day of the year - and it shows - it's barely been light today. It also would have been Dad's 91st birthday.

Christmas week

2011-12-19T15:43:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Last week was - unusually for me - a pretty full and busy time at work, including 2 consecutive day trips to Fraserburgh. I had thought that travel might be a bit tricky as I go cross country along some of the lesser used roads, but we're fortunate in not really having had any proper snow yet, and although it's been cold and we've had to scrape the cars in the morning, I haven't encountered any of the horrendous black ice we experienced last year - not yet anyway.

I got a couple of games of squash, but didn't golf yesterday - nobody was very keen after our night out on Saturday (see golf blog for photos). It was, in fact, a day of vegetation - or, as Sky Sports called it, Super Sunday - 3 big matches on TV from noon to 6 pm. What with all that, plus recorded Match of the Day, and the Sunday Times too, I didn't move much from my chair. Jo was out for dinner with her pals last night at the Tor-na-Coille so we didn't see much of each other yesterday.

We had a brief trip out on Saturday morning to drop off some salmon and then select a Christmas tree at the garden centre. £50 it was - although they did deliver it. I should think so too at that price. A little controversially, the tree was not erected in its usual place:

Still to be decorated of course.

Now that Kelly's moved house, we've also had to change our plans a little for our upcoming trip to Adelaide. We had originally booked our first week in Semaphore, which is a bit nearer where Kelly used to stay in North Adelaide, but now that she's moved, I've re-arranged and we're going back to the same apartments in Glenelg that we were in this year - only this time with a sea view.

Been trying to sort out our Sky TV subscription as well - been having problems with our multi-room connection ever since Ross did some re-wiring of our telephone system a few months ago. I didn't realise at the time what the full implications might be, but as Sky can't get a callback signal from the second box in our bedroom, their system immediately defaults to an assumption that the box could have moved - to a second home, for instance - and they now charge another £34.50 per month for it. Ross thinks he has a solution but it means moving so much stuff in our garage to access the connections. Meantime, we've had to put some temporary cabling from our bedroom to our back room - Jo was horrified when she saw it running across the floor and then drooping off the lights last night!

Still haven't picked a replacement TV for our bedroom either - there's so many choices - Freeview HD, internet TV, 3-D etc etc. I was also thinking about DAB radio as well. I currently record a lot of radio programmes on the Sky box, then transfer them to my Archos, then to my PC, then convert them to audio, then put them on my memory stick to listen to in my car - quite a process. So I thought that if I had a DAB radio and I could record directly on to a memory stick, that would save a lot of hassle - but it appears that none of the DAB radios on the market do that. Many of them record, but they all seem to do it to an SD card, rather than a memory stick - why?

So, turkey ordered - all set now, except for the fact that, apart from her big present which we got at the Apple Store, I don't have anything else for Jo yet. Mmmm - thinking cap on.

And just to prove that we're always thinking about our children:

Last photo was taken yesterday morning from the War Memorial looking towards Arbor Court, on my way back from buying the Sunday Times. It was a beautiful, bright, crisp morning and it shows the miserable dusting of snow we had overnight - the first this winter:

2011-12-13T20:09:00.001Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Well, we had a nice time on Sunday when Dawn and Kieran (Jordon was a late cancellation) came up for the afternoon. Luca was still here, of course - I had taken him to his football practice on Sunday morning and his Mum came over early afternoon to have lunch with us and take him home later on.

This was the only photo I took that afternoon:

Kieran's new semi-mohawk was actually done by his Mum!

Dawn also gave us our pre-invite invites to Lauren and Malcolm's wedding:

I managed another game of squash last night. We'd had the Gas Board out again yesterday as we've got more problems with our central heating system - it's never been right since they tried - and initially failed - to do a "Powerflush" a year ago. They have now agreed to try again next week - but then, overnight, we had another radiator leak so they're now coming this Friday - although they did send a man out tonight to turn the offending radiator off properly. Jo's now got a hotline to their main man locally - she seems to have elicited some sympathy from them, judging by the response we've had so far.

So that's been my week so far. Fraserburgh the next 2 days for me - hope the high winds don't bring down any trees on my route.

Another week flashes by

2011-12-10T16:11:00.001Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Another week of my life has flashed by - what have I done? A bit of golf on Sunday, a couple of games of squash and a lot of work. I also saw another solar panel supplier on Thursday - still not sure whether to do this or not - the payback still seems reasonable despite the Government halving the incentive - you have to have the system installed by tomorrow to still qualify for the higher rates. Our house is south facing and the roof pitch is good, but, despite being 3 storeys high, the tall trees between us and the main road may reduce the amount of power we can generate.

This morning, Jo and I went to the Apple store in Aberdeen and bought her Xmas present - and sat through the introductory course on the i-Pad. We were there for a couple of hours, then we went out to pick up Luca - and we left Inverurie just in time to see Carole's new car being delivered. Luca was posing outside the house as we waited for the car:

and finally, it arrived:

On the way back to Banchory, we detoured past Costco to check out the TV's - the one we had in our bedroom (Dad's old one) packed up a couple of weeks ago, so we're treating ourselves to a new ones for Christmas. I also took the time to check out the glasses - I've still not replaced my broken reading glasses and have been surviving using an old pair found lying in a drawer, that used to belong to one of the kids. I spotted these ones - what do you think?:

Driving back to Banchory, Luca went quiet - we thought he was getting sleepy, but it turned out he was feeling sick - and he threw up. He's absolutely fine now, however - playing with his Lego.

Ross is working tomorrow (Sunday) and Jo is going to church. Gary normally takes Luca to football practice on Sunday morning, but he's on call this weekend and they've got a big job on and he'll be working, so I'm going to skip golf and take Luca to football.

Dawn, Kieran and Jordon are coming up tomorrow afternoon - that'll be nice.

We made it!

2011-12-02T11:00:00.001Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Hooray - I can post again - this blog just made it past another milestone - over 15,000 viewings! I think it may actually have been me that triggered the threshold when I logged on this morning. Why do so many people apparently read this? Heaven knows - there must be a lot of people out there with a lot of time on their hands - a bit like me today.

Well, what have I been up to in the last week? We had a lovely meal at the Kilgours last Saturday. Johanne made her own curries - nice starters too - home made bhajees, pakoras and samosas. Colin made a good job of the cheesecake afterwards as well. We decided - in conjunction with the Masons - to walk home, rather than wait for a taxi. After all, it's downhill, then flat, all the way and there was only a light drizzle - or so we thought. We had barely got 50 yards down Rosehill Crescent when the rain and wind hit us. We got well and truly soaked.

Just a few short hours later, after a short sleep, the wind and rain had completely gone and I crossed the road for my usual Sunday morning golf, followed by a nice pot of tea, drambuie and then, when I got home, my usual half scone from the Milton that Jo kept for me from her post-church coffee with the girls.

I was due to go to the Clydesdale Bank's SPL roadshow on Monday night, but I came home mid-afternoon and couldn't be bothered to drive all the way back in to Aberdeen again. I'd been to one of these (hosted by Chick Young) earlier this year and imagined that the format would be similar - the usual suspects - Aberdeen Manager Craig Brown trying to explain away his team's poor start to the season, and a couple of other footballing personalities - and I use the term loosely - wittering on about the Old Firm, to the background of SPL goals projected on to the big screen.

I was at a Scottish Enterprise seminar on Tuesday morning and then, back at the office, it all started kicking off. Orders have been slow recently and the various Factory Managers were concerned about manning levels and what they were all going to do. I had to hastily call them to a meeting the following day and we reluctantly had to decide to close down one of our night shifts and cut back another shift.

The staff were given the bad news yesterday and the statutory consultation period formally starts on Monday, but then, this morning, some good news. One of our competitors let down one of the major supermarkets and they have switched their order to us, so, if we're lucky, we may not have as many to pay off after all. It's an ill wind.

My Graze Box orders started again this week. I had decided to cancel them a couple of months ago, but, when you try and do that online, they always come up with an offer. Instead of cancelling, I could suspend for a couple of months, so I did and now it's re-started. Here's this week's offer:

The BBQ pistachios were excellent

Do you, like me, get umpteen e-mail offers each day - including one from Groupon (www.groupon.co.uk)? Normally, these just get sent to my junk e-mail folder, but I was alerted to one offer for the Potarch Hotel and I decided to try it just to see if it worked as well as their advert suggests. I phoned up on Monday and booked a table for two for Wednesday and Jo and I made the short trip there early in the evening.

The Potarch Hotel (http://www.potarchhotel.co.uk/) sits in a lovely spot, just over the bridge that takes you up to Shooting Greens and the South Deeside Road.The bridge itself is a much photographed tourist hot spot:

Nowadays, however, you have to watch out for the looney young locals "tombstoning" from the bridge in summer.

Anyway, back to our meal. The offer was dinner for two and a glass of wine each for £19 in total - a discount of 64% they said. It turned out to be exactly what it says on the tin - no restrictions, or fine print. Jo and I had a very nice meal - and a bargain.

I had been to the nurse just before this to get my bloods done again - a regular feature - and I was back at the Practice again 24 hours later to see a Doctor about the stomach problems I've had for the last 5-6 weeks. The only one I could get an appointment with was Dr. Rigby, who I'd never dealt with before. You know how the old saying goes about how young the policemen are getting? Well, this Doctor looked young enough to be my grandson! He was very pleasant however and I'm now on more drugs - one a day in the morning - forgotten what it's called - for the next 6 weeks or so. If no improvement, then its another endoscopy (http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/endoscopy/Pages/Introduction.aspx) for me. When I told him I was scheduled to come back again tomorrow for my flu jab (they missed me off their list this year), he immediately offered to give me it there and then, to save me coming back again - very nice of him.

Coincidentally, Jo was at the Doctor's again yesterday morning. She's been getting pains in her chest and under her arm, so, given her previous history, I finally managed to nag her in to going back to get it checked out. So she's now been referred back to Stonehaven for another ECG.

None of this stopped us both from going out again in the evening. The local specialist drinks shop - Deeside Drinks Emporium - was having a wine tasting, so along we trotted. It was fun, but the measures they poured and the quantity of wines they gave us to try out (12), meant we were both a little tipsy at the end. We did manage to watch Episode 8 of the original Danish version of The Killing when we got home, however. I thought it was building up to a climax and that this might even be the last episode, but I've just checked http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00y4z22 and I notice the series actually ran for 20 episodes - help! Jo has seen the American version of it and knows the story and the ending and it's an almighty job to get her to shut up about it. She starts talking about it and doesn't mean to tell me the story, but she doesn't seem to realise that the more she talks, the more I can deduce. We've nearly come to blows several times.

So, just a quiet weekend at home for us. I had originally planned to go to Firhill tomorrow to partake of the corporate hospitality at the Livingston match, but Colin had to change his plans so we have now re-scheduled it for the Dundee match on 21st January - hope it doesn't snow! Ross and Gary are coming along too - as part of their Christmas present.

Almost 15,000!

2011-11-25T13:36:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

It doesn't seem that long ago that the number of readings of this blog was approaching 10,000 - well now, it's almost 15,000 - and that doesn't include most of the immediate family who mostly receive the blog postings by e-mail and don't actually look at the blog itself.

Who are my readers? Well, according to the Blogspot stats, they come from all over:

By country, they are:

United Kingdom

5,620

United States

4,937

Australia

653

Germany

419

Netherlands

350

Russia

238

Canada

221

France

144

Vietnam

115

South Korea

113

I could guess most of the American and Australian readers, but Vietnam and South Korea? Isn't the internet an amazing thing?

I've been suffering from an upset stomach for over a month now. I've got a horrible taste in the roof of my mouth and it won't go away, so I've finally made an appointment to go and see a GP - next Thursday is the earliest I could get for a non-urgent appointment. I've also got my bloods to get checked with the nurse - that's on Wednesday - and I'm still trying to get a check-up with the GP who has been monitoring the skin blemish on my nose - the earliest currently available is 20th December - I'll keep phoning to try and get something a bit sooner.

Despite all this, I'm hoping to get another game of squash this afternoon - and some golf on Sunday, if the weather behaves. The temperature has certainly got a bit more seasonal today and I believe there may be snow at last on the Highland hills, but it's certainly been a lot milder than this time last year.

Going to try and book our flights to USA soon as well - can't leave it too much later.

Tomorrow night, we're out for dinner at the Kilgours - should be fun - hope my stomach behaves.

Tuesday at home

2011-11-22T17:59:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

I decided to stay at home and work today as I had a report to write and I thought there was little point in me wasting an hour and a half driving to and from the office - particularly as most of the Managers - and my co-Directors - are away today.

I'm still working on the report, but was getting bored so I thought I'd do a quick blog posting. Since last week, I've been to see Dave and Doris in their new flat at Tor-na-Dee - very nice - and we were all at Crombie Park, Culter on Saturday to witness what was very nearly a cup upset, with Thistle just managing a draw with lowly local Junior team, Culter FC. Fun day out, however - Ross drove us in his new car - with the top down to start with! Five miles later, we insisted he stopped and put the top back up. Perhaps if he had driven a bit slower?

Luca was staying with us overnight on Saturday as his Dad took his Mum out for her birthday. Gary dropped Luca off at ours before the Thistle match - complete with football. Jo was delighted - not. All those interested in football then disappeared and poor Jo was left holding the baby. "Come on, Grannie - let's play football outside!" - Help!

On Sunday morning, Ross took Luca back to Culter to meet his Dad for Luca's football practice. Again, the top came down on his car and Jo put the car seat in the back:

No reports have yet been received from Inverurie as to whether Luca survived the journey with the top down or not!

Golf on Sunday was played in beautiful conditions and squash last night was pretty good too.

We've now watched the first four episodes of the Danish original version of The Killing on DVD, with the next episodes due to arrive soon. Pretty good - catch it if you can - that is, if you didn't see it first time round on TV.

Dawn's been in touch and hopes to pay us a visit before Xmas - look forward to it.

That's me up to date again.

Lonely blogger returns

2011-11-17T14:18:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

I seem to be keeping Google's Blogspot website going single handed just now. We had a nice time at the Wine Fair in Edinburgh on Saturday - easy journey there and back on East Coast Rail - and you get better fed than Scotrail. £24 return is all it cost - first class and with food and drinks included - amazing.

We got our photo taken at the Fair with Anne's brother, Tom Cannavan, one of the Wine Gang, and presenter on STV:

Jo, Anne Mason, Tom Cannavan, Leslie Mason and me

Tom with the rest of the Wine Gang

Golf on Sunday, then squash on Monday - and hopefully tomorrow night too - but I've definitely been feeling under the weather this week - lethargic, twitchy and upset stomach - hope it goes away soon. Perhaps it's my drugs - aspirin in particular. The following article from last week's Times was brought to my attention:

(Click to enlarge)

This new drug was mentioned to me by my cardiologist the last time I saw him - I wonder if I should ask to try it?

We had a golf club committee meeting on Monday evening, before which we presented the Laird with Honorary Life Membership of the club. Only one more monthly meeting then I'm off the committee - whoopee!

The last couple of nights I've watched both parts of the George Harrison movie (made by Martin Scorcese) that was shown on BBC2 last weekend - pretty good, I thought - but Jo was very quickly bored by it all.

I've now got my hands on our tickets for Thistle's Scottish Cup tie on Saturday at little local Junior club, Culter FC. We could almost walk there along the Deeside Way - it's probably only about 10 miles - the nearest Thistle have ever been to us. On paper, it should be a walkover, but the cup's a funny thing and you never know what can happen. It'll be fun to be at a ground with no stands - just a small barrier to hold the crowd back.

This afternoon, I'm going to be leaving Fraserburgh soon and head down to see Dave and Doris Edwards. Dave's dementia is getting worse and poor Doris is just out of hospital after a knee operation - I think she's desperately lonely. Later on, we've got a guy coming to the house to look at the possibility of putting solar panels in - naturally I'm sceptical, but I'll listen anyway.

That's my diary up to date now.

Back to work again

2011-11-08T22:16:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Well, I had a great time in Tenerife last week - the weather was fantastic, getting up to 30 C. It's an ugly island, but we go to lovely places - nice golf courses and restaurants - and we stay in a nice hotel, so we don't really see many of the scars on the landscape. My golf wasn't too good, however - that's what comes of taking a month off playing before we went - I was rusty. My golf blog and Facebook have got plenty of photos from the week.

I got back on Friday night - just in time for Jo and I to go and enjoy Saturday afternoon at the Stonehaven beer festival. Thursday and Friday were the busy nights, but there were still 23 ales left when we arrived, so it wasn't too bad. We came home and went down to the Fireworks display - the first time we'd been there for many years - since the kids were small, in fact. The bonfire was a bit bigger than we remembered it - enormous in fact. We didn't stay for the fireworks - we thought we'd beat the crowds and get something to eat. Tease had opened specially for the occasion, so went along there for a bowl of soup and some chocolate cake.

Sunday and Monday were beautiful clear, crisp autumnal Scottish days - nice to come home to. Played golf on Sunday morning.

But now it's back to reality - Aberdeen office yesterday and Fraserburgh today - but we did manage a game of squash doubles last night. We all still felt a bit lethargic after our week's golf, but it probably did us good to get some decent exercise in.

I stopped off at Inverurie on my way back from Fraserburgh today to have tea with Luca and Jo - fish fingers, of course.

Another busy weekend coming up - Headbang on Friday night, then off to Edinburgh on Saturday morning for "Wine Gang Edinburgh Wine Fair" - http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=271720232851962

Monday, Monday

2011-10-25T08:26:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Bit of a grey day at work today. I'm still dealing with a staff issue that exploded last week. Seems to be a bit quieter just now, so I'll let sleeping dogs lie for a day or two. I don't often lose my cool at work but I was pretty close to the edge last week. Say no more for now.

The weekend was nice - I even managed 2 games of golf in very pleasant conditions for the time of year - my first golf for a month - just in time for our trip to Tenerife this Friday. One of the guys (Ian McRae) broke his collar bone in 4 places so won't be able to play golf - but he's coming along for the holiday anyway.

Got a lot to do before then - including tomorrow morning when I'm running another one of my "Finance for Non-Financial Managers" courses in Fraserburgh. Always difficult to assess what level to pitch these at - not knowing how much prior knowledge the participants have.

The 2 desks Jo bought from M & S (going cheap - shop soiled) arrived and are currently in the garage awaiting the paint job that Jo and Ross are going to do on the downstairs room.

Luca's back at school so Jo's going over there again tomorrow - I'll go over for tea on my way back from Fraserburgh. Ross has another shift at Tease.

Nothing much else to add for now.

2011-10-21T15:30:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Hello again. Ross came home for a couple of days' trial on Wednesday and returned to hospital this morning and got his discharge OK. Right now, he and Jo are in B & Q buying paint for the downstairs room, which is being turned in to a playroom/workshop, with Ross sleeping upstairs in what Jo calls "the yellow room". The new floor covering has yet to be agreed on - Ross suggested wood or carpet tiles, but this didn't meet with his Mum's approval, and I think she's set on getting a new carpet down - it is, after all, the oldest carpet in the house, dating back to Lucy's days down there.

Some of you may know that I almost got my wish of part owning the local brewery, which was up for sale, but I've been thwarted by a rival local consortium it seems. Never mind - as long as it survives, that's the main thing.

I got surprised last week with a call from a Tony Lang from Australia. He was the guy quoted in the letter in my last blog posting. As he spoke about some of the incidents mentioned in Renshaw's Chronicles, it began to come back to me - he was our Scout Leader when I went on my first Scout summer camp to Arran half a century ago. Tony told me he had photos of that trip and also other ones, like Arundel, that I went on. He's hoping to digitise these and send them to me somehow - can't wait.

If you didn't view it on Facebook, here's the link to the old Deeside Railway that closed under the 1963 Beeching cuts in 1966 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wj14gyYDLEY#!. Where would we be living now if the line hadn't closed?

R.i.P. Dad

2011-10-11T09:00:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Hard to believe it was 2 years ago today that Dad passed - he would have been approaching 91 by now.

Received an unusual letter last week:

Unfortunately, I don't know - or can't remember - Tony Lang - nor Bill McKinnon for that matter. I wrote back, but I think he's got the wrong person - Tony Lang is over 7 years older than me - he can't have known me at school.

Although our weekend in the Lake District was truncated, at least we got to see Mary and Brian on Friday night - we went out for a curry with them:

Not a terribly good one of Mary

but a better one of Brian

We had a nice walk round both Keswick and Bowness on Windermere on Saturday, taking in a bit of Derwent Water and Windermere. We then decided to drive back to Whitbarrow Village via Ullswater, and came across the famous old Kirkstyle Pass Inn, where we stopped for a half:

Kelly Skyped yesterday - complete with blond hair and pink streaks!

I'm in the office this morning, but I'm meeting up with Ross and Jo - and Gary - at http://www.nhsgrampian.org/nhsgrampian/gra_display_hospital.jsp?p_applic=CCC&pContentID=407&p_service=Content.show& at noon.

York weekend

2011-10-05T17:47:00.001+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Well, we certainly got the timing right, heading south to the scorching temperatures in York whilst a wet weather front invaded most of Scotland and broke our brief Indian summer.

The train journey down was uneventful, apart from a group of 4 "girls" (30 +) giggling louder and louder as their wine consumption increased. It even prompted our nearest travelling companion - a 28 year old girl - to comment, saying that, although she was still young - inferring obviously that we were not - she thought they were a bit out of order.

Normally we would have used Club 55 and our Senior Rail passes to travel first class, but it wasn't available at the times we wanted, so we were in one of the main coaches from Stonehaven to Edinburgh. The connection to York was a lot better - we were in the quiet coach there.

Our hotel was just a short stroll from the station and just outside the city wall. We went for a walk to orientate ourselves - but stopped for a few refreshments on the way. Before we knew it, time was marching on and, suddenly, all the restaurants were filling up and we couldn't get in anywhere we fancied. We ended up walking back almost to where we had set off and we managed to find an Indian restaurant - http://www.saffrondesi.com/ - that could take us. They made a feature of the way they served naan bread:

We had a plan of campaign for Saturday morning - we would make sure we were amongst the first to arrive at the Jorvik Centre (http://www.jorvik-viking-centre.co.uk/) - one of the top tourist attractions in York. We spent a while there - they even have a Disney-style ride - then we walked on, looking for a nice outdoor tea room to enjoy the warm sun. We found the Early Grey Tea Rooms in Shambles, and it had a lovely garden to the rear:

Everyone was out and about enjoying the unexpected October heatwave - there were even a few buskers who'd wheeled out their upright piano's in to the street to entertain us:

Next stop was the must-do Minster. We joined a group and the guide made it more interesting than I imagined it was possible to do - but an hour and a half in there was enough - let's get out in the sun again - so we walked across town to the York Brewery - we knew there was a tour there at 3:30 pm and we didn't want to miss it. When I say "tour", there's not really any walking involved - it's little more than a microbrewery, so it's really a more of a talk on the brewing process - plus a couple of pints of course!

From there we walked down to the park and the riverside - the Ouse we think, not the Foss, which is the other main river that runs through the city. We sat on the riverbank and read our books and people-watched for a while. After that, we took a short stroll along the city wall back to our hotel to shower and change prior to going out for dinner.

Again, we had no masterplan for the evening - other than to make sure we didn't leave it as late as the previous night. We got lucky this time and found the Waterfront - a nice Steak and Seafood restaurant on King's Staith on the river Ouse:

Apart from a short walk and another beer, that was it for Saturday.

Sunday morning was a little cloudier and cooler than it had been on Friday and Saturday, but it was still fine enough for our planned circuit of the city walls. Our first stop on the circular tour was at Cliffords Tower (http://www.cliffordstower.com/), adjacent to York Castle:

We entered and paid our admission money - it seems nothing is free in York - and climbed to the top of the tower, listening to the podcast and taking in the views, whilst carefully minding our step on the narrow walkway. Normally you grow out of childhood fears, but both Jo and I are feeling the effects of vertigo more and more as we get older. Check this short video, by way of example - note Jo hanging on to the rail:

We continued our walk - there were bits of the wall missing and it meant walking along the road/pavement:

The scene looks tranquil, but what you can't see is the adjacent dual carriageway, with traffic roaring by!

We eventually got nearer York Minster again and there were some nice views of it from the wall walk:

It was nearing lunchtime and there was yet another nice walled garden pub, backing on to the city wall, so we stopped off for a beer, before heading for our train home:

The return journey was fine for us, even although we had to bus from Berwick to Edinburgh and then had a bit of a scrum to get seats on the Edinburgh - Stonehaven train, as they had grossly underestimated the numbers likely to catch it - it was absolutely mobbed.

Thankfully, my car - which was parked in an identical location to the previous weekend when a woman had reversed into it, was untouched this time.

Lovely weekend.

Catch up

2011-09-28T09:40:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

This must be the longest ever period between blog postings - two weeks! I have updated all my other blogs, however, so it's not as if I have been ignoring Blogspot.

What have I been up to in that time? Well - the other blogs will tell you in detail, so I'm not going over any of the hill-walking, golf or ale adventures etc., but the last couple of weekends have been pretty hectic - particularly the weekend in the Lake District. Funnily enough, Jo and I are going back there next weekend - 8th/9th. I had booked a week's timeshare for Gary, Carole and Luca for the first week of the school October holidays. They are heading down to England to see Carole's family in Lincoln and Gary had asked if I could get them some accommodation "anywhere in Englandshire" that week.

Well, I managed to book a week at http://www.seasonsholidays.com/whitbarrowvillage/index.html - not exactly handy for Lincoln, but certainly a bit closer than Inverurie. Gary and Carole are now going to stay in a hotel in Lincoln on Saturday/Sunday and then move in to the Lake District on Monday, so that meant there are 2 nights free there. As it happens, Jo's going down to see Mary next Wednesday, and was planning to come back on Saturday, so I thought I could drive down there on Friday, stay with Mary and Brian, then the two of us could go off to the resort for a couple of days and come back up the road on Monday morning, before Gary, Carole and Luca arrive.

Before that, however, Jo and I are off to York for 2 nights this Friday - and the weather forecast looks great.

That's about it for now - will promise not to take so long before my next posting.

Hello again

2011-09-14T19:14:00.002+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Well here I am, on the eve of my trip south to the Lake District for our walking weekend, exactly a year after our little WHW adventure, and still I don't know how I'm getting there or back. I had originally planned to drive down tomorrow afternoon and take Colin Kilgour with me - and I would then have company and we could also share the driving. The others - Dave Williamson, Ken Black and Ian Sharp - have all made their arrangements and none of them are really convenient - although I could conceivably still go down with Dave and Ken, and then come back by train (and bus).

Colin's wife, Johanne, is back in hospital today - hopefully temporarily - having the implant that controls the drugs that control her Parkinson's moved again. It's unlikely that Colin will be able to join us now, so Plan B for me will be to catch the train (and bus) there and back - but I have to wait until Colin actually says he can't come - which he hasn't yet.

What else has happened in the last week? A bit of golf - Friday at Aboyne, Sunday at Banchory, yesterday at Gleneagles - the latter was the windiest conditions I've ever played in - it was unplayable at times, but it was a corporate invite and it would have been rude to quit. We managed round in the end, but it was a struggle - hope it's not as bad when we're walking this weekend - although the forecast is pretty poor.

Saturday afternoon was the first visit for a few years of the Aberdeen, Grampian & Northern Isles CAMRA branch to Banchory for their monthly meeting. A couple of pints during the two and a half hour meeting, followed by one at the Burnett, then another at the Douglas, then off we - and they - toddled. See Ian's Ale Adventures blog for photos etc.

That's about it. Next blog to be updated will most likely be the Hill-walking one.

Cheers,

Ian

Ross' cake

2011-09-07T19:59:00.003+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Forgot to show the cake that Jo baked:

No - we haven't eaten half of it - it's one cake doubled up!

Ross 28!

2011-09-07T18:13:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yes - hard to believe, but Ross is 28 today. He was born in Edinburgh just after Fischer Ultrasound closed their factory in Edinburgh. Strange to think we were offered a move over to Denver, but it didn't feel right at the time and so we then moved up to Aberdeen instead. I wonder if I had taken the job and we had moved over, whether Lucy and Kelly would have remained a bit closer geographically?

What else has been happening this last week or so? Well, midweek golf is now officially over - the last night of our 23 week long midweek Quaich tournament was last Wednesday - and I won it this year - for the first time since 1995 - the oldest ever winner of the Quaich.

We also held the Terry Edmonds' Memorial at Aboyne on Friday - it's over 10 years since Terry died. The weekend that followed was our biannual trip to Boat of Garten, so the golf season is definitely winding down.

Next weekend 5 of us are going on a walking trip to the Lake District - exactly a year after our WHW weekend - and last night I made a provisional booking for the weekend in York that Jo and I have always talked about. It's at the very end of this month - hopefully before the weather turns too bad.

That's about all for now - the rest is fairly routine, although the local CAMRA branch is holding its meeting in Banchory on Saturday afternoon, so I guess I'll toddle along to that.

Sad start to the week

2011-08-29T15:08:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yes - it was Syd's wife's funeral this morning. Good turnout from friends from Banchory and Torphins. Syd did everything himself. He said Barbara was a very private person and they had discussed funeral arrangements before. Barbara didn't want anybody she didn't know involved in the arrangements, so there was no minister - Syd himself gave the eulogy and pressed all the buttons to put on the music, draw back the curtains etc - there was no staff to be seen anywhere.

Their 3 sons travelled in from their homes in London, Spain and Switzerland, and each did a little speech about their mother. Different.

So I've just about recovered my sleep pattern now - and I managed to get a couple of games of golf at the weekend too, but it's really noticeable how dark the evenings are becoming. In fact, this Wednesday is the last of our midweek golf this year - how sad. I guess we came back from holiday a little later this year. It's Boat of Garten this weekend - Syd, as the winner in May, was supposed to be organising, but he asked me to take over a few weeks ago, so I'm doing it all now.

Almost a month of eating and drinking in USA hasn't done wonders for my fitness - I've struggled on the latter parts of the rounds of golf I've played since I came back - and it's only a couple of weeks now until our walking trip to the Lake District. I do hope the climbs there aren't as steep as some of those on the West Highland Way that we did at this time last year. It's over a month since the last of our preparation/training walks - and that was a fairly sedate one up Glentanar - so I'm not really in shape for 3-4 days of hard walking.

We missed the Edinburgh Fringe this year as well - pity.

It's probably about time to start looking at flights to USA next year as well. Of course, we've got a few trips before then - notably Oz, and also Macdonald Forest Hills in January - but we've also promised ourselves trips to Bath and York some time - need to plan those in soon.

So that's about it now. I'll finish with last week's Graze Box:

Not sure how long I'll carry on with them - was a bit of a novelty.

Etc

2011-08-25T11:41:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Well, it was 4:30 am before I woke this morning - it's progressing by half an hour each day - but I had to stay awake until 11:30 pm to be able to do this. It's a slow process re-adjusting the body clock - after almost a month of an 8 hour time difference, you get very used to West Coast USA time. You would think therefore that I should now be fast asleep, as it's just after midnight at Lucy's, but it seems to have the opposite effect to what you expect. And I've got a cold.

Played golf last night at Banchory - first time walking 18 holes since mid July - but I don't feel too sore today. Going to try squash doubles after work today - need the exercise badly. Gary and Luca are coming to Fraserburgh at lunchtime today - Luca's only at school mornings this week and Gary's taking the afternoons off to look after him. Apparently, Luca's got a fish obsession just now so he wants to see round one of our factories!

Ross has got a new part-time job at one of the local coffee shops - Tease - it'll supplement his income from his business, which has been slow recently, and he's going to get some training to be a Barista apparently!

To finish for today, here's the video of Jo operating the automatic roof - you'll note the cameraman this time didn't leave any fingers, scarves or purses showing!:

Top down, top up

2011-08-23T11:39:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Back at my desk this morning - first time in long trousers and a tie for almost a month. We managed to stay awake until 9 pm last night, but I was awake again at 3:30 am this morning - jet-lag and the time difference do funny things to you. I've been in the office for several hours already - but don't think I'll still be here at 5 pm tonight!

The day has started on a very sad note - not only did we hear about the deaths of famous songwriters Jerry Leiber (Hound Dog etc) and Nick Ashford (half of Ashford & Simpson), but, much more close to home, my pal Syd's wife Barbara died yesterday. She'd been in hospital in a coma after they discovered an inoperable brain tumour a few weeks ago. They'd been married for over 50 years.

Moving on, here's one of the "missing" videos of the convertible:

End of hols

2011-08-21T23:04:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

I'm sitting here at LAX in the BA lounge, waiting for our return flight to the UK. Very nice here - and, of course, everything's free.

We went back to the Rusty Pelican last night for dinner - we had gone there almost 18 months ago for Jo's birthday - and it was very nice. I did remember to take an end-of-term team photo outside our apartment last night before we went out:

Dinner on Saturday was a whole lot better experience than Friday night, when we'd walked all round Corona del Mar looking for a restaurant that would take the 6 of us - the best we could get was a 75 minute wait - it was all a bit much for poor wee Braeden, who fell asleep and had to be carried back to the car by his Dad.

Braeden has been a little bit under the weather all week - nothing bad, just not his usual boisterous self. Cade, on the other hand, has been on a high - especially when he's out in the waves, as we were again yesterday at Huntington Beach - aka Surf City USA.

This morning, the Lesinas were up and gone by 3:45 am. We tried to have a lie in, but didn't really succeed. We had a leisurely morning, packing, then taking a slow drive up to LAX on the Pacific Coast Highway. We stopped for coffee at Joe's Crab Shack at a marina at the south end of Long Beach. There I demonstrated the roof coming up on our convertible:

As you'll notice, it was filmed by Jo - note accidental artistic addition.

Whoops - flight has now been called - upload speed slow in lounge - will have to do later - sorry!

Surfing USA

2011-08-19T16:54:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Our room has a giant bath - Braeden made good use of it the other day:

We had dinner at the Steelhead brewpub in Irvine on Monday:

Yesterday on the beach:

Now for the videos:

From Grants Pass to Newport Coast

2011-08-19T15:04:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Well, it's been a few days since I've managed to find the time to update my blog. Things are a bit more hectic down here in Southern California - although the resort is as lovely as we all remember it.

Of course, prior to that, Jo and I had spent all day Saturday in Medford after the Lesinas dropped us off at our hotel. We shopped a bit, drank a bit, ate a bit, walked a fair deal and managed a quick swim in the pool. Lunch was again at our favourite pizza pub, Kaleidoscope and we sat in the outdoors area, with the misters working full blast to keep us all cool - you can see them in this photo:

Our flight to LA was early Sunday morning, but it was just a short stroll from our hotel to the terminal building and everything went well and we got to LAX in good time. We tried to find Lost/Found Property - we call it the former, the Americans the latter - and I suspect their terminology is technically more correct - but failed. Jo had managed to leave her coat in the airport terminal when we were there 2 weeks ago. This is the replacement coat for the one she did the identical thing with in Australia earlier this year! It seems this coat is fated to be lost forever.

Our hire car is a Sebring convertible - and it has a wonderful action to get the hood down - just press a button and it all happens - magical! We drove down the Pacific Coast Highway with the top down and the wind blowing our hair - well, Jo's anyway! We arrived at our resort early and the Lesinas pulled up an hour or so later, having broken the back of the journey on Saturday.

On Monday morning, Scott, Cade and I went to have 9 holes of golf at the lovely little course at Aliso Creek - it's cut in a canyon and there's trouble all round - including rattlesnakes! Cade hit a career best drive off the first tee - much better than Scott and I.

Monday afternoon was down to the beach - and everyone got in to the ocean. Cade and Braeden had skim boards, but they seemed to bore of them fairly quickly. Here's the Lesinas:

A lovely day - and Tuesday was better, but it was an early-ish start for the short drive to the original Disneyland resort. There are 2 theme parks there - Magic Kingdom and California Adventure - we did them both in a mammoth day. Cade and Braeden enjoyed the zip slide in the latter, as evidenced by this short video:

Naturally, Wednesday was a quieter day, but it was back to golf and beach again on Thursday - more photos and videos to follow.

GP update

2011-08-12T18:46:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

So what have we done since Monday? Wish I could remember - that's why I take photographs - otherwise I really wouldn't have a clue at times. It seems easier to remember 40 + years ago than 4 days ago.

I think Tuesday was just another day of rest - we didn't go anywhere. I arranged golf at Grants Pass on Wednesday afternoon - played with a Glaswegian from Vancouver and his son. He left Scotland when he was 8 and has only been back once - mind you, his family came from Castlemilk and the Gorbals and the shock of going there put him off returning! He flattered me somewhat when we were swapping tales of injuries - his back, my knees - and moaning about the effect it was having on our golf. I added that age wasn't helping and he said to me - "we're about the same age, aren't we? I'll be 50 next birthday". Treasure that one, Ian!

Jo and I drove down to Medford in the morning and did some shopping - Harry and David's (http://www.harryanddavid.com/gifts/store/home___) had to be done after all! In the evening, when the Lesinas went off to football conditioning, Jo and I took Holly for a walk round the local park - well, mostly Jo, actually:

I stayed at Delsie Drive on Thursday and looked after the boys as Jo and Lucy went for a long walk, then a bit of shopping. Scott was home early and we ate before the boys went to football. Afterwards, Scott lit the fire at the back of the garden and we had toasted marshmallows and 'Smores (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%27more) - lovely!:

I'd seen some tins of locally brewed beer in Harry and David's and thought Scott might like them:

Fearless Scottish Ale!

Scott's off work today (Friday) and we'd originally planned to take Cade golfing again - after Scott had the car oil changed. He thought it would take an hour or so and left the house at 7 am, but it's almost 11 am now and he's still not back, so he's obviously had some problems. Perhaps we won't have time for golf after all.

We're going to watch the boys train tonight and tomorrow the Lesinas head off on the long drive to Southern California. They'll drop us off in Medford and we'll spend the day and night there then fly off on Sunday morning and meet them at Newport Coast.

Spooky or what?

2011-08-09T16:33:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Most of you will have seen the family photo I posted on Facebook last week, but what I didn't say was that my camera took two shots at the same time - I was encouraged to post the other one to the blog:

Should Scott and I be worried about our ghostly apparitions here?

Weekend travels

2011-08-09T02:59:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

To see what we were up to this weekend, probably best to check two of my other blogs first of all - http://banchoryheadbangers.blogspot.com/ and http://iansaleadventures.blogspot.com/.

Scott was off work today and so we took a short trip down to Ashland and visited the usual places, including a walk through Lithia park and a paddle in the creek there:

On the way home, we slowed down to let a group of bikers from Washington overtake us:

More Grants Pass musings

2011-08-06T03:51:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Well, blow me - it's Friday night already and that's a week of our holiday gone. Scott, Lucy and the boys are at football training/conditioning every midweek night just now, so Jo and I are sitting here updating our respective blogs.

Tomorrow we head north to Eugene/Springfield for the Blues and Brews festival - http://www.wvbbf.org/ - we're staying overnight, so should be fun.

Lucy's been on holiday the last couple of days and from now until we travel back, but Scott still has to work - apart from this coming Monday, when we may golf again. He, Vic and I took part in a Scramble competition - just 9 holes - on Tuesday evening at Applegate. It was fun, but we were rubbish.

I tried Scott's bike the other day and, this morning, there were a few early morning clouds, so I thought I'd take the chance to head out again before the sun broke through properly and it got too hot. I rode downtown and went round a few book shops, then headed back through the parks, across the river:

While I was downtown, I came across this place:

Look closely!

There was also this:

Going back in time, yesterday was a lazy day at the Lesina ranch, which afforded me time to finish the latest John Grisham (The Confession) - it only took me just over 2 days. I've always liked his style, but, after a while, it becomes a little predictable. I hadn't read one of his books for a couple of years, so I thought I would try again, but perhaps it was a mistake. I'm now on to Gerald Seymour's The Dealer and the Dead.

Wednesday was, of course, Cade's 11th birthday proper and, with Jo and I in charge of proceedings, we headed south to the Family Fun Center in Medford. There were a few twists and turns but we got there in the end. Blink of an eye and $100 was gone - amazing! The go-karts were fun - Cade on his own, now that he's tall enough, and me with Braeden. I managed to lose my phone on the first ride - temporary panic, but soon resolved.

We all got thoroughly soaked on the Bumper Boats so I lay out on the grass and let the sun work its magic. We had arranged to meet Scott and Lucy in Applebee's for the birthday tea - and it was very nice. Good surroundings and we all sat at a high, circular table with footrests - lovely. As ever, the staff sang and clapped a birthday celebration as they presented Cade with cake:

So that's me up to date now. There have been a few minor changes at Delsie Drive since we were last here, not least of which is the lovely job Scott and his Dad and pal did on re-painting the entire outside of the house. One or two minor changes at the back as well - watch this video on the blog:

Grants Pass happenings

2011-08-02T01:57:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

The day after the pre birthday party was fairly quiet. Jo and Lucy went to church early on Sunday morning and then we just hung around until late afternoon, when we headed down to Medford for a little bit of birthday shopping, followed by dinner at Kaleidoscope - our favourite pizza pub.

It was back to work this morning for Scott and Lucy, so we were on babysitting duties. We had a little bit of shopping to get as well, but the boys always complain when we have to drag them round in the car, so I said I would do the shopping - and soon - because I wanted to get a little bit of exercise and a quick cycle up to Albertston's before the heat of the day seemed like a good idea.

Scott's bike seemed ready, but when I made it to the shop, I realised it wasn't necessarily the best plan to leave the bike outside without a padlock. I darted round the store and was relieved to find the bike still there when I got out - both from the point of view of it not being nicked, but, more importantly to me at the time, the fact that I didn't have to walk all the way back with all the shopping on my back!

We had lunch and chilled out until the pool beckoned:

I finished my book - Keith Richards' Life - and will now leave it here for Kelly to read when she comes over to see Scott and Lucy next year.

This report comes to you courtesy of my new lightweight laptop and Lucy's new wireless signal, which has much better upload speeds than we get back in Banchory - are you listening, Ross?

Today is the day the painter arrives at Arbor Court - hope Ross helped him out OK - Davie is in his 70's now and it's a long haul down from Fraserburgh every day for him. Ross is also dog-sitting for the next 2 weeks, so he's going to be a full-time carer! (Hopefully some work too!)

USA travel

2011-07-31T17:47:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Our journey to Oregon was pretty uneventful - although it took a little longer than usual as we had decided to overnight in LA, as the timing of the flights to Medford would have meant a pretty late arrival on Thursday.

The Hilton at LAX was nice and we had a short dip in the pool and some sun-bathing before dinner. We walked along to the adjacent Marriott as their dining room was a bit more attractive than the Hilton's. Jo and I shared a shrimp starter then had salads to follow. It was now 7pm - or 3am in our body clock times - and it was a struggle to stay awake. We had promised ourselves that we would try and adjust to USA time quickly, but failed. As a result, I was up at midnight, then 2am, 3am and finally got up at 4am.

Plenty of time therefore to go through the formalities at the airport and we were on our way to Medford, via Portland. We had lunch and beer in Gustav's in the delightful surroundings of Portland airport, which is bright and open, unlike many airports.

Scott, Lucy and the boys all came down to meet us at Medford and we drove back to Grants Pass for supper. The boys had football conditioning which gave Jo and I time to unpack and organise ourselves in the trailer. Here's Braeden in his torn top:

On Saturday morning Scott had organised golf for himself, Cade and I at Applegate. Here's Cade on the range:

Note the new Nike golf set he got for his 11th birthday (which is next Wednesday). Cade was pretty good - he hit some nice shots.

In the afternoon, Scott's Mum and Dad, plus Karen's sister, and Scott's sister and her husband and kids all came over for a family party and BBQ - a lovely afternoon.

10th Anniversary!

2011-07-25T13:22:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yes - believe it or not, it's Scott and Lucy's 10th Anniversary today - here they were releasing the butterflies at Patrick Creek in 2001:

Have a good one - see you later in the week.

Loch Lomond etc - part II

2011-07-20T11:37:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

and so to the second part of our weekend - and this time we were a bit more organised - we had a plan! We took the short drive north up the west side of Loch Lomond and parked at Tarbet, then waited for the 11:30 cruise across the loch to Inversnaid. This was a recommended route for walkers, called the West Highland Way Rambler II, which involved what they said was a 7.5 mile walk south to Rowardennan, where we would get picked up again and sail back to Tarbet. Here's Jo on arrival at Inversnaid:

Just a mile along the road we stopped at a little beach - Jo had to brush her hair - and we got invaded by midges!:

Further along, after a bit of a climb, there was a nice viewpoint:

We were a little surprised to come across these 3 wild mountain goats:

Time for lunch - and we found a lovely outlook, which even had a bench:

At the end of the walk, there's a strange modern sculpture:

Nice walk - and it stayed dry. All the stats etc on my hill-walking blog (http://bvhill-walkers.blogspot.com/).

On Monday, we took the short drive over to Helensburgh, where we thought we would use our National Trust passes and visit one of their properties - The Hill House - designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh - but it didn't open until 1:30 pm, so we just had a quick stroll round their gardens:

Apart from the big houses on the hill, Helensburgh didn't look all that impressive to us, for an area that is renowned as key commuter territory for the Glasgow professionals, so we left and drove up past Rhu and Faslane - and the peace camp there - up the eastern shore of Loch Long and back to Arrochar again. We had hoped to find a nice tearoom somewhere, but there was nothing to be seen. We stopped in Arrochar and probably should have gone back to the Village Inn, but we thought we should try somewhere else for tea and coffee, and we spotted Ben Arthur's Bothy, which had an outdoor, shoreside area for drinks etc. It was pretty grotty, but we sat there and admired the views of the Cobbler opposite:

Wrong angle to see it properly, I'm afraid.

Here's another panorama shot of the area:

Then it was back to Cameron House to have lunch with Barry and Helen, after which Jo and I used the superb spa once again:

So that was it.

Loch Lomond etc

2011-07-19T18:05:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

I'm back in my office today, but, if we hadn't been going to USA next Thursday, we could easily have stayed at the Carrick Club a bit longer than the 3 nights we enjoyed this weekend. Thankfully, Barry and Helen have now taken up residence there so our week hasn't gone to waste - hope they're enjoying the spa and the scenery as much as we did. It's certainly one of the nicest resorts we've ever stayed at.

Gary and Luca made good use of it on Saturday night too - and Carole would have loved it - if only she'd known beforehand what was on offer!

Our weekend started off with a very nice lunch break at the Drovers Inn, Memus. It's a bit off the main road, just before you get to Forfar, but it's well worth the trip - especially if the weather's nice, as it was on Friday afternoon. They have a lovely big, grassy garden where the kids can run around to their hearts' content. Jo was reading her book when I got back from the loo:

As we were well inland at this point, sat nav directed us cross country through Blairgowrie etc to Perth. It's a lot slower, but it appears we missed a major log-jam on the Dundee - Perth road, so it probably eased our journey a bit.

Our apartment was in the Mansion House at the Carrick and it had a huge living area, and it overlooked the 16th (I think) green of the Carrick course, which is already looking a lot more mature than when I played there a few years ago, not long after it opened:

On Saturday morning, we drove over to the east side of the loch, up the narrow loch-side road until it stops at Rowardennan, where we got out the car and noticed the start of one of the trails up Ben Lomond. We hadn't planned anything, so weren't organised - no drinks, no food - but decided to start walking up the hill anyway. We took some detours, and then I remembered to switch on my GPS tracker, after almost an hour of walking. Eventually we got to about 800 feet, where Jo said "no more!", so we headed back down for some lunch. It got a little damp on the way down and Jo's neatly coiffured look took a bit of a beating:

We drove back to Drymen and had lunch in the Clachan Inn - very nice. Our first visit to the spa at the Carrick was later that afternoon, just before Barry, Helen, Dawn and Jordan came to pick us up and take us up to Arrochar for dinner at the Village Inn.

Gary and Luca were in Glasgow watching Partick Thistle beat Celtic in a friendly match, and we'd pre-arranged that they would join us for dinner. The look on Luca's face when he walked in to the restaurant and saw us, was, as the Mastercard advert says, priceless. His Dad hadn't told him he was meeting us there.

After eating, Luca and I crossed the road and went down the steps to the beach, which was covered in mussel beds. Luca just wanted to throw them back in to the sea "to give them a little drink"!:

Luca and Gary stayed with us on Saturday night and drove home in the morning - and that was the end of the first part of our weekend adventure.

The graft results

2011-07-13T13:36:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

OK - only 3 of you voted on my blog poll - but it was unanimous - you don't think I should go for the skin graft. I was thinking the same myself, but I'll wait for another week until I see the dental surgeon again before deciding for sure.

Our weekend at Slaley Hall was great (details on golf blog) and I'm looking forward to this weekend at the Carrick at Loch Lomond. Barry phoned last night and he's arranged for us all to go out for dinner on Saturday to http://www.villageinnarrochar.co.uk/.

This week's Graze Box is:

Oh - and well done - there's well over 10,000 viewings of my blog now!

Not much else to say just now - too busy keeping my other blogs going!

Smile!

2011-07-08T10:20:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

So yesterday afternoon I went along to the dental surgeon and he fitted my implant. I played golf last night, then went home, and this morning I've been chairing a few management meetings at work, but has anybody noticed or commented? - No! Here's the new smile:

As you can see, the amount of ironware you can now see depends on how much I smile. there is a gap above the tooth and below the new gum line. I go back to see him in 2 weeks and he tells me that, if I'm concerned at this, then he can arrange a skin graft from my palate to my gum to cover this up. At this stage, I'm not sure about whether I should do this or not. What do you think? Answer the poll on the blog please.

and the winner is ........

2011-07-06T11:29:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

...... Kelly! What was the competition? World's shortest blogger, of course. Kelly's done exactly one blog per month since we came back from Australia - and they're not exactly tomes either!

This week's Graze Box is:

I didn't see Gary on his birthday, but Jo caught up with him in Inverurie after she returned Luca and Gary got back from his football - but I did get a piece of his very lemony birthday cake - it was scrumptious. I especially enjoyed the half of it I left over for this morning, as I didn't have any breakfast today due to the fact that it was my annual medical screening at Albyn. I'll get the full report in due course, but it seemed to go well - both the doctor and the nurses made encouraging noises.

We've almost hit magic number of 10,000 viewings of this blog - just 50 to go - keep it up!

Supposed to be golfing tonight, but, although it's OK just now, it's forecast to be raining this afternoon, so might have to carry over to tomorrow. More concerned about this weekend when it's our annual Summer Tour to Slaley Hall - hope it's dry then. I got in to trouble about this last night as I think I had forgotten to remind Jo I'm away - whoops - and sorry!

The following weekend we're at the Carrick at Loch Lomond, then we've got a weekend at home (which includes seeing Laura Marling (http://www.lauramarling.com/) at Woodend Barn), then it's off to USA the following week!

My work plans were disrupted today - I had planned to go to Fraserburgh as we had invited a couple of our bankers up to see round the place, but first thing this morning, Tesco showed up for one of their unannounced technical audits, so we had to cancel everything else.

Gary 36!

2011-07-05T11:22:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

It's a very happy 36th birthday today to our Gary. this one of him was taken in our back garden in Broxbourne about 35 years ago:

Note the smile - we didn't get many of them from him in those days!

Not too much else to add, other than to say I've been enjoying the excellent weather and taking the opportunity to get out and golf in shorts again. Yesterday it was St. Andrews and it was glorious.

They say bad luck comes in threes. Well, you heard about my chair and how it's broken? That was the first. Yesterday, I broke my reading glasses - one of the lenses has snapped away from the frame. That was the second. Then I got home last night and was told that my Archos (my mini DVR) had "fried". That was number three. No more please.

Graze Box

2011-06-30T14:01:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

This week's Graze Box contains:

The question now is, am I snacking on these instead of munching on crisps and biscuits, or as well as?

Weekend with Luca & Yoda

2011-06-28T14:48:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

The gruesome twosome were delivered over to us as a package on Thursday as Gary and Carole headed off for a long weekend in London. Poor Yoda really is a feartie and regularly seemed to empty her bladder in different places at unpredictable times - no major disasters but you do have to watch her - she's so timid.

Luca, on the other hand, is, as Gary has said several times, much more confident and capable of manipulating any situation with anyone. Of course, he gets spoiled rotten when he comes over to ours - not of my doing, I hasten to add.

I didn't see Luca much on Friday as I was at work in the morning, golf at Ballater in the afternoon, and out at one of our thrice yearly "Headbangs" in the evening. I cancelled my golf on Saturday, however, and we took Luca and Yoda down to Milton of Crathes as we had heard that the Deeside Railway Preservation Society were running train rides along the first mile of track they are restoring.

We arrived early for the 12:30 ride, so we bought our tickets then wandered down a bit of the adjacent Deeside Way, allowing both Luca and Yoda the opportunity to let off some steam. It's an old diesel locomotive they run, pushing carriages that used to take the Royal Family out towards their summer holiday home at Balmoral. They do have a steam engine as well, but only crank that up on high days and holidays when they know that visitor numbers are likely to be greater.

Having started walking westwards towards Banchory, we spotted the train returning to the station:

Hey Luca - we need to run back to the station in case we miss our train! So, back we headed:

We made it in plenty of time:

Our traditional thick cardboard tickets showed we were entitled to a seat in "3rd Class", but, as the only passengers on the train, we sat where the h**l we liked - and that was the Royal compartment at the front of the 1st Class section:

Apparently, my seat (next to Jo's) was where the Queen Mother always used to sit. The "inspector" came round and punched holes in our tickets - very quaint. He opened the driver's compartment at the front of the train and offered to let Luca sit in there - but he refused. He preferred to stay a bit further back.

When the journey was over we were allowed to go up in to the real driver's cabin, which was at the back of the train. The main purpose being to lift Luca up so he could pull the cord and blow the train's whistle - we did it, but I'm not really sure Luca knew what was going on - he didn't seem to correlate his pulling the cord with the sound of the whistle.

Back home later on, some gardening had to be done - Luca was the snail-remover-in chief:

On Sunday afternoon, we went to Malcolm Lodge's surprise 60th birthday BBQ. Jo drove there and spent a bit of time at the start making sure Luca was settled OK:

I think we were last over there at Malcolm's 50th, not long after they bought the property, and it's come on a lot since then - they've worked hard at it - here's the longer shot of Jo and Luca in the lower part of their garden:

Gary picked up Luca on his return yesterday (Monday) but he'll be back with us again briefly this afternoon for his usual Tuesday afternoon/early evening.

I finish with a tale of woe - my favourite - and very expensive - chair, is broken. It felt a bit odd on Sunday and today it appears as if the main right hand supporting bolt has sheared:

It's been reported and we now await their inspector's visit - but I'll miss my chair for a while it seems.

Midsummer madness

2011-06-22T15:55:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yes, it may have been the Summer Solstice yesterday, but it was a wet one, and the rain carried on this morning, so they've decided to close the golf course, so no golf for me tonight - going to play squash instead. Of course, it's sod's law, it's stopped raining, but perhaps the course needs a bit of time to absorb the moisture anyway.

So, here I am, blogging again. I think we provoked Kelly in to action and her photo of the Koala bear in Adelaide city centre was interesting, but the narrative was - well, less than massive, let's say. Apparently the poor wee lamb has done something to her neck and she's getting a constant migraine now - hope you get it fixed soon, Kelly!

What else is new? Well, I've been preparing for our headbang on Friday night - there's going to be 9 of us there this time, squeezed in to Dave's front room.

I got my first ever (trial) box from Graze (http://www.graze.com/) today. Not bad, although whether I'll keep it up or not, we'll see. Must leave some for Jo to try when I get home - oh, and it's the Apprentice tonight - the UK version that is, with "SirAlan" Sugar - not the original American Trumpster, who was in Aberdeen again yesterday, touting the new course he's building and putting it forward for a future Ryder Cup and an Open.

We've got Luca for a few nights - and Yoda - as Gary and Carole go away for the weekend. We've all received our written instructions - seems like Ross has been singled out to handle Yoda. We'll take Luca with us to Malcolm Lodge's surprise 60th birthday party on Sunday.

So that's it for now.

Friday thoughts

2011-06-17T11:50:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Been hectic sports-wise this week, what with walking on Sunday, golf at Inchmarlo on Monday and again at Banchory on Wednesday, then some squash last night, and, with any luck, golf at Glenisla this afternoon. The forecast's not too good, but the day has started off very nicely and we may get lucky.

Spare a thought for poor Syd - his wife has got an inoperable brain tumour. It suddenly came to light last week and there's nothing they can do. She's been transferred from Aberdeen to Aboyne hospital and Syd's hoping she'll get home today, but it'll be a full time carer job for him - he may even need help eventually. In Syd's words, "it won't be months". Syd's 72 and Barbara is a couple of years younger - still plenty young enough, and active. You just never know, do you?

So tomorrow is the next stage in my tooth implant. He's asked me to book a long appointment, but he told me last time he wouldn't need to do any more cutting - hopefully it's just the final impressions.

That's about it for now. I've been planning the next instalment of Renshaw's Chronicles (http://renshawschronicles.blogspot.com/) and have been scanning a few old photos for the next episode to cover our period down in Corby, Northants - bet you can't wait!

Tuesday 14th June

2011-06-14T13:51:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Half way through June and approaching the longest day and the weather's up and down like a yo-yo - one day lovely and another a bit dreich. I have to say, however, that I seem to have been fairly lucky so far - the weather hasn't really interfered with anything I've tried to do - yet!

We had a lovely outing at Blairgowrie on Friday, despite forecasts of potential heavy showers. I started to come down with a bit of head cold, however, and, typically, my voice gave out - this seems to happen at least once a year. I awoke on Saturday not feeling the brightest and decided to give golf a miss. It was the right call, as not only did we have Luca with us that day anyway, but Carole came over for lunch and the afternoon - plus it p****d down virtually all day.

We watched Soul Men at night - Samuel L. Jackson in a kind of soul version of the Blues Brothers - it was OK - there was enough humour and music in it to keep us interested - and awake.

On Sunday, the weather was lovely again as we completed the 11 mile stretch along the Deeside Way from Aboyne to Ballater - check out the details on my Hill-walking site - http://bvhill-walkers.blogspot.com/.

Yesterday, I managed a round of golf at Inchmarlo, courtesy of Nigel Meany who was on a brief visit over here from Dubai. He's job hunting just now and was at an interview in Norway on Friday and popped over here for a few days.

So that's what I've been up to - what about Jo? She seldom blogs nowadays and when she does, it's with the same photos that I've recently published on my blog! Jo was swimming again yesterday, but complained to me last night that she had to curtail her exercise, having "only" done 34 lengths, instead of the scheduled 40. What with swimming twice a week plus regular walking, I reckon Jo's fitter now than she ever was - and it's keeping her a free member of Weight Watchers as she's still well within her target that she set when she first agreed to chum her pal Ann along.

It's only 4 weeks now until we take our short break at the Carrick at Loch Lomond - http://www.cameronhouse.co.uk/cameron-house/lodges/the-carrick.html. It's a full week we've got booked but we can only stay Friday to Monday as I have to return to work. We hope to catch up with Barry/Dawn/Mary some time that weekend - and we also hope that somebody will be able to use the extra days from Monday until the Friday check-out - Barry and Helen might be interested, but will wait to see what the weather's like.

After we get back from Loch Lomond, it's just over a week until we head off to USA. It seems they've been having unsettled weather this year as well, but I'm sure it'll be fine by then - and their definition of "unsettled" is a little different from our island climate!

That was the summer, that was!

2011-06-07T19:23:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yes - it was truly glorious on Thursday and Friday - everywhere by all accounts. It was still hot in the South East when I flew back from Terminal 5 late Saturday morning. We'd got a bit of a scorching at Lord's on Friday - our seats were out in the open, and whilst I'd slapped on the sun cream and kept my floppy hat on (as instructed by my doctors), my arms and legs got a little red.

It was a nice, short break - some cricket, some nice beers and a couple of great gigs - full details on my other blogs. As soon as I landed back in Aberdeen, I headed straight to my dentist's for the latest stage in my implant procedure. It was fairly straightforward this time - the surgeon removed a screw and put in what he called - I think - an abutment. Wikipedia describes it as "the part of an implant that acts as a connection between the implant and the crown". Check it out in this grisly close-up:

Not a pretty sight. I go back again on 18th June and he will create the final impressions then. I wonder if my implant will be in place by the time we go to USA late July? Don't want to scare the grandchildren too much - although Cade's braces may scare me!

I had the house to myself on Saturday night - Jo was down at the Town Hall listening to Banchory Singers with her pals. She said she thought I wasn't coming back until Sunday!

Golf on Sunday morning, afternoon with the Sunday Times and the TV, then we watched Gainsbourg - A Heroic Life - a biopic of Serge Gainsbourg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serge_Gainsbourg). It was in French with English subtitles and naturally included scenes with some of his famous amours - Juliette Greco, Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin to name but three. It was a little artistic and a tad too long for our liking.

Back to work yesterday, but escaped early to play my tie in the next round of the singles at Banchory. Today, I've been at Pittodrie on a course. I picked a casual shirt from my wardrobe this morning, but it was only later that I realised it wasn't mine - it was Ross's - thought it felt a bit big.

I arrived home to a slightly tired and mopey Luca, and I gave him my name badge from the course to wear on the way home - that was about the extent of our communications before Jo took him back to Inverurie. Still, he's back with us on Friday/Saturday.

I've got the long drive to Fraserburgh to face tomorrow and Thursday, but I'm away at Blairgowrie golfing on Friday, so can't complain. Got to cram it in now - it's only 2 weeks until the longest day! I've got my memory stick set up for the drives to the Broch - I've been recording Sounds of the Sixties every Saturday for a number of years and I save it for one of the drives north the following week. I'm also now recording Sounds of the 20th Century, which is broadcast on Radio 2 on Thursday nights, and this entertains me on one of the other days I have to travel. It's a programme of music and news clips, without commentary, from each of the last 50 years of the 20th century - one show for each year. I think it's 1959 I'll be listening to tomorrow.

So that's this blog up to date now - must rush - got other blogs to do!

Flaming June!

2011-06-01T13:40:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Not so far, it's not - but the weather forecast for Banchory for the next couple of days is wall to wall sunshine and 23 C - and where am I going to be? - down in London! Ah well, hope it's as least as warm there and I can enjoy Friday's 2nd Test Match against Sri Lanka in the sun - although I don't expect we'll see anything as exciting as the finish to the 1st Test Match in Cardiff on Monday.

I played my first Seniors match of the season for Banchory at Deeside yesterday afternoon - and very nice it was too, despite us getting duffed. More golf tonight, then an early morning drive up to Fraserburgh in the morning before heading back to the airport for the plane down to London.

I bought a couple of cheap holiday books on Sunday - on offer in John Menzies - but I've really been enjoying reading Keith Richards' autobiography, Life. It's quite a big tome but I've been making no effort to race through it - in fact, I'm savouring reading only short excerpts at night to try and make it last a while. It's written just as if Keef was talking to you - fun reading.

Talking about holidays, would you believe we've already got something fixed up for USA 2012? We got confirmation this morning of an exchange week next July at Stoneridge Resort, Idaho - http://www.stoneridgeresort.com/. It's in Blanchard, which is northern Idaho, and it's 627 miles from Scott and Lucy's - a little less than they travelled last year (and this year) down to Newport Coast, CA. Nearest airport is Spokane, Washington. This is a map of North West USA, with "A" marking Blanchard:

Incidentally, check out my Headbangers blog (http://banchoryheadbangers.blogspot.com/) for a rare sighting of an old school-mate of mine appearing on Top of the Pops in 1976!

You may have noticed on my blog that it's now been viewed 9,200 times - keep logging on and we'll get to 10,000 soon!

Lastly, spare a thought for poor Johanne Kilgour, who had to retire from teaching many years ago when she contracted Parkinson's - one of the youngest ever to do so. She and Colin went to Bruges for a holiday, but Johanne had a nasty fall on the first full day there and they had to return home, with her looking heavily battered and bruised. Externally, she appears to be looking a bit better, but she's still got internal injuries and now she's building up fluid in her feet/ankles. Poor girl doesn't have her troubles to seek.

Last posting in May

2011-05-31T10:08:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yes - tomorrow's June - can you believe it? Where's the year going? Only 3 weeks until the longest day - then it's all downhill from there!

You may have read from my other blogs or on Facebook about the incident we had on the golf course at the weekend - that was unwelcome and I hope there's going to be no more of it. The youth of Banchory have always traditionally spent weekends and evenings in the summer down by the river, getting up to the usual teenage high jinks - it's almost a rite of passage. Sometimes it's spilled over a little from the area down by the Dee bridge, but this is the first time we've seen anything this far up - in the middle section of the course.

Next week is CAMRA's big annual event - the Beer Festival at Pittodrie - and I spent a bit of time last night distributing the latest quarterly newsletter round Deeside (and Fraserburgh). The Festival was originally due to be held this week, but Aberdeen Football Club took a late booking for a Rod Stewart concert and so the organisers of the festival had to hastily make arrangements to put the festival back a week - not an easy task, given that it takes the best of a year to organise the event.

This change of date has rather messed up my plans for attending the festival - it used to clash with a regular annual golf outing we went on to Blairgowrie, but I managed to persuade the organiser of the golf outing to put his event back a week this year so that it didn't clash with the beer festival - and he agreed. All was well until Rod the Mod's concert changed matters - I can't pull out of the golf outing now, having got the date changed just to suit me, but it means I won't be able to go along with our usual crowd to the festival on the Friday night. I'm planning to work behind the bar on Thursday and Saturday - perhaps I'll manage to take some time off to allow myself a few beers?

When I found out about the changes in dates, I also then arranged my annual trip to Lord's for the cricket - and it's this Thursday that I'm going down - ash clouds permitting, of course. I'm taking in a Nils Lofgren gig at Cadogan Hall on Thursday evening and then on Friday night, Donovan is performing Sunshine Superman (and his greatest hits) at the Royal Albert Hall, backed by the London Symphony Orchestra - something to look forward to. I fly back on Saturday morning - too late for golf, but I've got my next appointment on Saturday afternoon with the Dental Surgeon who's trying to put the smile back on my face by filling the huge gap in my grin.

So that's about it from me. If you're viewing this from the blog itself, you'll notice that I've removed some of the archive photos from the sidebar of my blog, so I thought I would just add one old photo to the main body of this posting. It's from a year ago when we went to Edinburgh to see Les Miserables (again) and briefly met up with our old friends the Elgies, who are now back in Middlesborough, but happened to be in Edinburgh the same weekend as us:

Leslie Mason, Colin Kilgour, Colin Elgie and yours truly.

Lucy 38!!!

2011-05-27T08:53:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yes - no hiding place - this time next year, Lucy will be entering her 40th year! Happy birthday, girl! Here's an old one of her when we lived in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire. We had 2 fabulous summers in a row - 1975 and 1976, but I suspect this one was taken in 1977 or 1978 as Gary was a little boy then. Our neighbours were Ray and Chris Barrie from a couple of doors along and their children, Sasha and Karl, were similar ages to our two:

Good - Blogspot allowed me to upload this, so perhaps I haven't reached my limit after all.

Have a good one, Lucy - see you in August.

Thursday update

2011-05-26T14:37:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

I just tried to update the sidebar archive photos on my blog and was told by Google that I couldn't do it as I had exceeded my photo upload limit! - but I was deleting one and replacing it? Bah!

Watched The Apprentice last night after golf - I enjoy the analysis of what went wrong (or right) with the task - it's part of what I do at work, so I find it interesting - and the characters are generally so odious - I guess that's why I always look forward to it.

So far this week, I've played squash once, golf once and been to the gym once. Tonight it's squash again - twice in one week - unusual for this time of year. My body will be sore tomorrow.

Forgot to say we watched Wall Street - Money Never Sleeps last Saturday. I had thought I might enjoy it, but Ross merely pulled a face when I told him what the DVD was, so our expectations were immediately lowered - and he was right! Much better - although gloomier and tragic - was the previous Saturday's viewing - Telstar - the Joe Meek (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Meek) story.

So, I've now booked our accommodation in Australia and Singapore next year - we're there during the Adelaide Festival (http://www.adelaidefestival.com.au/), which should be fun. We've also finally decided on a date for our golf trip back to Turkey next year - I think! It's been a long drawn-out battle trying to get 7-8-9 guys to agree a mutually acceptable date, but I think we're almost there. Of course, I narrowed the options a bit by taking an extended break Down Under - and a little later than we did this year.

This Saturday it's the Champions League final. I had initially proposed bringing a few friends round to watch it but was told, in no uncertain terms, not to bother, but to go to the pub instead - so that's what I'll be doing!

Next week I'm off to London for my annual cricket trip to Lord's, and also to take in a couple of concerts - Nils Lofgren and then Donovan - the latter at the Royal Albert Hall again.

My pal, Gary Grant, has just recorded a slightly politically charged single and it's available on You Tube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0IfIum_B0w. Ross will probably enjoy the sentiments!

Lazy Sunday afternoon

2011-05-22T13:24:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yes - it feels like the famous Small Faces 1967 track - remember "cor blimey Mrs Jones, how's your Bert's lumbago?" - as I while away the hours alone at home. Ross is asleep and Jo's at church/coffee and there's no golf today. I should have been up Lochnagar but had to pull out at the last moment as I didn't feel too great and my knees are acting up a bit again. I was concerned that I might hold the other guys back so I pulled out.

As a consolation, I did go a walk up Scolty - it was nice and quiet early in the morning, and I enjoyed the peace. Here's a panoramic view I took from the top:

Kelly 32!

2011-05-20T10:36:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yes - I've outed her - our little "Thunder from Down Under" - is 32 today. Kelly knows how to celebrate - she won't need any advice from us - it's evening in Oz now and no doubt she's hitting the town again.

It's 10 years since Kelly graduated from the University of Aberdeen. Here we were on a side street somewhere near Marischal College after the graduation ceremony (hosted by Kirsty Wark):

Just a few weeks later and we were all off to USA for Scott and Lucy's wedding. Here's the girls at Patrick Creek, where the ceremony was held:

Think they're related at all? We travelled a bit that year - New York, then Florida, Denver, San Francisco, Crescent City, Patrick Creek and Redding. We had to do the cable car thing in Frisco:

Going back to the Millennium year, I found a photo of Kelly at Beverly Garland's Holiday Inn in L.A.:

That's what she'll be doing in Adelaide tonight! Have a good one, pet - wish we were with you!

Mid-May update

2011-05-18T14:46:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

I thought I'd better bring my blog diary up to date again - it's been 12 days now - not easy to remember everything that's happened in that time - if I don't do this frequently, I've got no chance!

My last post told about the builders arriving to cut a hole in the wood roof to our porch. Have they been back since? What do you think? Will it ever get fixed?

I went for my latest blood test and saw the Doctor on Friday to get the results - the good news is that I can now come off the iron pills - thank goodness for that! I had another visit to the Medical Centre the same day to see the Doctor who has been looking at and treating the skin blemish on my nose. It certainly looks better since he froze off the crusty brown skin, but he tells me I've got 2 things going on there. I wish I'd asked him to write the names down - they were unpronounceable. Basically, one of them has the possibility of turning cancerous if I'm not careful, but the other one is just a kind of warty thing that's randomly attached itself to the original growth. Factor 50 for me, he says, especially in USA and Oz.

Let's think - what else goes wrong with your body as you get older? Well, nose hairs for one. Billy Connolly does a wonderful skit on the whole ageing process and his take is far better than I could ever manage, but, thankfully, I don't appear to have got the ear hairs he talks about yet. Nose hairs are a pest however - I've taken to just pulling them out - it used to be painful at first, but I'm getting used to it. Sometimes they're dark, sometimes white - occasionally 50:50 - weird.

We had the first of our bi-annual (not biennial) trips to Boat of Garten last weekend - great fun and very lucky with the weather, as you can see from my golf blog.

It was another golf club Committee meeting on Monday - I'm starting to get the hang of things now, and how it all works. I still think there's too many round the table and there's a lot of hot air, and division of responsibilities is pretty woolly too, but it's getting a bit easier. I've had my first official complaint as House Convenor - let's hope I can resolve matters amicably.

When I was at Boat of Garten, Gary was fulfilling a life-long ambition - and probably one of mine and my Dad's - of playing on the hallowed turf/mud of Firhill. Carole and Luca went down to watch as well. For those that haven't seen it, here's Gary in action in one of his matches in the tournament:

Did he chop the guy in red down after this? Gary denies it!

Luca got his face painted when he was there - and then got his photo taken with Simon Donnelly and Paul Cairney (whoever they may be, you might well be asking?):

This Sunday, weather permitting, we're planning to walk up Lochnagar - my first Munro - if I make it! We tried last year, but visibility was so poor there was no point in going on - and I was struggling anyway with my cardio system - let's hope for better things this time.

And, as you probably gathered from Kelly's blog, we're trying to get the internal flights and accommodation sorted out for our trip to Oz next year, which I'm hoping to follow up with a return golf trip to Turkey - if we can agree a suitable date.

At work yesterday, I received an unusual call from a man representing Tekno Model Trucks (http://www.tekno.nl/). They wanted our permission to feature one of our old trucks in their Historic Range and are going to be sending me a contract for us to sign, allowing them to make 150 replicas (1:50 scale). As it happens, I have a photo of said truck in my room:

Takes all sorts, doesn't it?

Nag, nag, nag

2011-05-06T13:10:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yes - I've been nagged to do another blog posting, and, as I haven't updated the family one this month (although my other blogs have been), I thought I had better do something now. With 7 separate blogs running, I don't intend to update them all on a daily basis - usually only when there's something to report - and I don't have much to add just now really.

Since my last posting (last Monday 25th April), this is what I've been up to in the evenings:

Monday - New Members' night at the Golf Club
Tuesday - Joe Brown at the Music Hall (check http://banchoryheadbangers.blogspot.com/)
Wednesday - golf
Thursday - nowt
Friday - pub
Saturday - John McDonald's 60th party at the Legion
Sunday - nowt, bar Sunday Times and TV
Monday - nowt again
Tuesday - golf at Fraserburgh, followed by supper at the Redgarth Inn, Oldmeldrum
Wednesday - golf
Thursday - nowt

So that's almost 2 weeks in my exciting life - that and work. I did pop in to Inverurie yesterday on my way home from Fraserburgh, to drop off some fish. Carole was in, hoping to catch some shut-eye before her all-nighter counting votes from yesterday's election. I didn't stay too long - just long enough for a cup of tea and a Hob-nob, and for Yoda to completely cover my dark blue sleeveless sweater in a thick layer of her white coat - will it ever come off?

The election results were stunning for the SNP - well, for Alex Salmond, really - but fear not, good folk in foreign parts, this doesn't mean independence for Scotland quite yet - it was more a smack in the eye for a Labour party, complacent in their traditional role as the party of Scotland, and for their smug leader, Iain Gray, who, I suspect, won't be in that position too much longer.

Going back to last Saturday, John McDonald's 60th birthday party was quite a do. There were 150 guests at the Legion and the theme was Black & White. There were loads of guests dressed in classic gangster gear, plus some Arab dress, but the best outfit of the evening was surely the woman who came along in full Beetlejuice regalia, including so much make-up that we couldn't make out who she was! Our table was very conservatively attired, however.

It's 10 years since John was seriously ill in hospital with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphona. I remember visiting him in his isolation ward in the hospital and having to get dressed up like a spaceman to enter his little bubble. John's only alive today because of the success of the stem cell transfer he got from his brother, so the evening was a fund-raising event for the Anchor Unit cancer charity.

One thing we have learned from the experience last Saturday was never to give John McDonald a microphone! He did go on a bit. One of his surprises was the arrival of their son, Simon, from Sydney - John hadn't expected it at all - he was gobsmacked. Here's John, Leigh, Lorraine and Simon:

At our table:

Dan Corbett and Andy and Margaret Gore

Jack Simpson, Colin Kilgour and Dave Williamson

Jo and Frances Simpson

Apologies for the bad timing of the photo, Jo - I should add that it was about the only glass you had all night!

If you're thinking there's a disproportionate number of men at our table, then let me explain. Johanne wasn't well enough to come, so Colin came on his own, whilst Jayne had a prior engagement, leaving Dave to attend solo as well. Dan has been on his own for a while now.

So this weekend's the first of our trips to Boat of Garten this year. It's sod's law that the long, dry, sunny spell has finally broken and we've got a little bit of rain now. So far, it seems quite light - like summer rain - let's hope it doesn't get any worse for Sunday/Monday.

Gary's got his big day at Firhill this weekend as well. How his Grandad would have loved to have played on the hallowed ~~turf~~/earth like Gary is going to. Check out http://www.ptfc.co.uk/downloads/firhill_cup_2011_teams.pdf - scroll down and check the Garthland team (black tops).

And it's Braeden's 7th birthday on Sunday - can you believe it?

This morning I was a bit later leaving as I had another blood sample to be taken at the Nurse's, so I was still at home about 7:45 am when I heard this drilling and banging. I thought it was next door, but Jo told me it was Bob the Builder (aka Deeside Construction/Destruction) who she had called in to hopefully sort out, for once and all, the mystery of the leak from our balcony down to the wooden roof to our porch. They removed some of the timbers then disappeared within 10 minutes - who knows what, if anything, happens next.

That's me pretty much up to date now.

Easter

2011-04-25T14:59:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yes, I'm blogging in the office again, but why not? There's little else doing today. First thing this morning, I tried to do 2 things - firstly, buy and sell some currencies online, and secondly, make an enquiry on the Companies House web site. Guess what? I couldn't do either of them. I thought that part of the attraction of doing things online is that you can a) work remotely, and b) work out of hours - but both the Clydesdale Bank's FX site and Companies House were offline because it's Easter!

And while I'm moaning, since when did Easter Sunday become Easter Day? That's what all the media people call it now. Was this change based on religious advice or does it just sound more trendy?

Anyway, we had a nice Easter (Sun)day. After I returned from our walk up Bennachie (see hill-walking blog for photos), Gary, Carole and Luca came over and we had an excellent, albeit high in cholesterol, feast. Luca brought his pre-school pack over with him - it contains a few puzzles etc, and he set about completing one of them immediately. He raced through it, then smiled up at us - amn't I a smart guy, the face said:

Jo and Carole at the table:

Ross looks a bit morose here, but sleep deprivation was the real cause:

Meanwhile Gary kept Luca entertained:

Luca made it through to his treat - chocolate ice cream - yummy:

Plans for the rest of the week? Well tonight there's a New Members evening at the golf club, and being on the Committee now, I feel I should show willing and go along. Tomorrow we're going to see Joe Brown at the Music Hall - I told Gary yesterday and he said who? Sam Brown's Dad, I responded. What?!!!!, he said. Read and learn - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Brown_(singer)#Singles. He's 70 this year - same age as Dylan, and he's an MBE now as well.

Wednesday is golf night and that's about it. Have a good one.

Good - it's Friday

2011-04-22T14:10:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Perhaps it should be God Friday? I know we're having trouble getting enough workers for our weekend shifts today, tomorrow and Sunday (customer orders and consumer demand mean we have to produce every day bar 2 - Xmas & New Year) - particularly from our foreign workforce - Poles, Lithuanians etc. So don't complain to me if there's not enough mackerel in your local Tesco/Morrison's/Costco/Waitrose this weekend.

The great spring weather continues - and still no sign of rain. No doubt we'll complain when it does arrive, however. I hope I haven't now put a curse on the weekend's outdoor pursuits - golf tomorrow and hillwalking on Sunday. We've got Gary, Carole and Luca coming round on Sunday afternoon for Easter dinner - Luca will be in his element - that boy is seriously addicted to chocolate - must have been my Dad's sweet tooth passed down.

Last night, I put in the request for our summer 2012 holiday in USA. Lucy and I had spoken about Idaho and Scott has just been over there - it's the eastern adjacent state to Oregon - and he said it was worth a visit. Idaho stretches the length of Oregon and Washington state combined, having its southern border with Nevada and its northern one with Canada. To the east lies Montana and Wyoming, including some of Yellowstone National Park (Yogi Bear and Boo-Boo country!).

The problem is where to go? American states are like countries and travel can take a lot longer than you expect. Probably the most famous town in Idaho is the capital, Boise, but the exchange holiday resorts are usually more rural. Anyway, I've just requested them all for the time being - at least until Scott and Lucy tell me otherwise. Here they are - there's just 10 of them:

OK - so where are they all? Well, McCall is north, bordering the southern end of Payette Lake, and Hope is further north east of McCall on the north eastern shore of Lake Pend Oreille. Island Park is near the border with both Montana and Wyoming.

Blanchard is north, near the Washington state border, and Harrison is south of Blanchard, and also towards the Washington border. Ketchum and Sun Valley are fairly close together, in the middle of the state, parallel with Oregon.

Of course, like me, you all knew this already? No research was required - honest, injun.

We also received confirmation yesterday for a request that I put in recently for a time-share week that was about to expire in October this year. Interval International phoned me to tell me that a week at the Carrick at Cameron House, Loch Lomond (http://www.intervalworld.com/web/cs?a=1503&resortCode=CAK&parentResortCode=CAK) had unexpectedly come up in July and did I want it? I said yes of course - better to use it rather than lose it, I thought. It's from Friday 15th July for a full week. It's just 2 weeks before we head off to USA, so I won't be able to use it for the full week - we'll probably spend Friday/Saturday/Sunday nights there, but I'll have to get back to work after that. It's a 2 bedroom job anyway, so there's room if anybody else would like to use and/or share it? Gary has already said he can't make it then.

I think I've prattled on long enough now. To finish, yet another picture of Jo tending the back garden:

Oh - and finally a word to Ross and his pals to thank them for stomping round our house, slamming doors all over the place from about 2 am this morning - I so wanted to be wakened from my deep sleep at that time.

Before I was so rudely interrupted .....

2011-04-18T14:00:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

This morning's posting finished rather abruptly when my car was ready a bit quicker than I had thought it might be. I was about to publish another rather sad photograph of the Tor-na-Coille filling station, which has now boarded up its shop and its pumps:

Looks more like Beirut rather than Banchory, don't you think?

Killing time

2011-04-18T09:09:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

So, it's Monday morning and here I am, sitting at John Clark BMW, waiting for a new fog lamp to be fitted to my car. I hadn't even noticed it was broken until it was pointed out to me when it was in for service last week - no idea how it happened.

So I thought I would update my blog again. It's been another good week weather-wise - especially yesterday when it was really warm. When I came home from golf, Jo was out the back sunning and reading again:

I didn't join her - a brief spell on the balcony at the front was enough for me - I'd been out in the sun on the golf course all morning, so I'd had enough by then.

We got all our USA flights confirmed and paid at the weekend, and I decided to hire a car at LAX this time rather than face the horrors again of a 3 hour shuttle bus ride from the airport to and from our accommodation at Newport Coast. A convertible as well - can't you just see me driving along in the California sunshine with my hair blowing in the wind? If only.

Our first hill-walk of the year is planned for next Sunday morning, so no golf for me next week. We're planning to do one of the many walks up/round Bennachie. Hope my knees and my cardio system stand up to it all OK.

We watched Invictus on Saturday night - Clint Eastwood directed the film about South Africa winning the Rugby World Cup back in the 90's, not long after Nelson Mandela was released from Robben Island. It was OK - a number of the scenes were shot in Cape Town as well as Johannesburg. There were a few from the Ferryman's brewpub on the Waterfront at Cape Town - I remember it well from our trip there in 2008:

My car's ready now - must go. Bye.

End of working week posting

2011-04-15T14:13:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

It's Friday and it's been a bit of a strange week at work - a lot of people taking the school holidays - it's felt like limbo-land. Should be more normal next week, although the downside is that the traffic will be heavy again.

I've taken the opportunity to get a few holiday things sorted out. We know which flights we want to take to USA now - we'll book them tomorrow - and we've now booked our flights to Australia next year. Not Business Class this time - neither of us celebrating a big birthday next year - but World Traveller Plus at least gives us a bit more room than Economy. We used the BA Miles we had accumulated, plus the Companion Voucher we got as a result of taking on the Amex card. We had to pay the taxes of course, but it's still a pretty good deal.

I then started to organise our internal flights and accommodation in Australia - we fly in to Sydney but have a week in Perth plus time with Kelly - but I was stopped in midstream with the surprise news that there's a chance that Kelly might not be in Adelaide next year! She might be moving across the country - nothing definite, but we'll hang fire just now until we see what's happening.

We will be away from 17th February until 13th March, 2012 and in USA from 28th July to 22nd August, 2011. In Australia our week in Perth will be spend at www.accorvacationclub.com.au and in Southern California we have a week at http://www.marriott.co.uk/hotels/travel/laxnc-marriotts-newport-coast-villas/

We'll just miss Scott and Lucy's 10th wedding anniversary, but we remember the occasion well - a sweltering day at Patrick Creek:

Well, I finished my second Jo Nesbo thriller last night - the 5th in the Harry Hole series - http://jonesbo.com/#/books/devil. Pretty good - a cross between Ian Rankin's Rebus (http://www.ianrankin.net/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=12) and Stiegg Larsson (http://www.stieglarsson.com/).

Forecast looks good - hope to get some more golf in this weekend.

Another week, another blog posting

2011-04-11T09:10:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

and what a nice week it's been - especially the weekend - shorts weather again. We had dinner at the Masons on Saturday night - and it was lovely - but struggled a bit on Sunday. Just not used to late night eating any more - always a struggle to digest and sleep afterwards.

Then, last night it was wall to wall Masters - what a great event it was too.

Lucy Skyped us on Friday, just before her 10 mile run on Saturday - well done, girl! Jo was out in the back weeding when Lucy called:

That didn't stop Jo having a chat with Lucy, however - we now know our wireless network extends to at least the embankment - as long as the laptop has sufficient battery power!

Jo was back out there yesterday - as was I - but this time it was far more relaxing as she gets in to her latest murder mystery:

I think she's reading all these novels to try to research how to complete the perfect crime. If I suddenly go missing, or die mysteriously, you know who the first suspect should be!

So now, I'm trying to book our flights to USA this summer - and also to Oz next year. It's not easy trying to unravel all the options. We've both got lots of BA Miles, and we've also got a Companion Voucher which entitles one of us to a free flight anywhere as long as the other booking is made using the BA Miles. However, it's impossible to get summer flights to USA using BA Miles - all those offers are gone now - but we might be able to get them to Oz next year, although this would mean travelling all that way cattle class. The offers are complicated and restrictive and you have to do them online - it would be nice to be able to talk to somebody who could explain all the options in simple terms.

So, another week at work - and it looks like the weather is set to change - pity - we were just getting used to it. Have a good one y'all.

Forgive me father ...

2011-04-04T17:39:00.000+01:00

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

It's been 2 weeks since I updated this blog - but I have been away - and I have updated most of my other blogs several times, so I haven't been idle.

Settled back in the old routine now - good beer - "proper" golf - i.e. walking in the cold, wind and rain! To be fair, the weekend wasn't bad - especially yesterday - and I only got wet briefly on Saturday morning - the sun came out and we had a glorious afternoon as soon as I was off the golf course - sod's law.

The journey back from Turkey was not great - departing after 2 am and arriving in horrendous weather in Glasgow at 5:30 am, having suffered the horrors of a Thomas Cook charter flight. I really don't know how they get away with cramming so many rows in. I'm not a giant, but I could barely get my knees in - there was no chance of stretching legs, let alone sleeping. The roads were exceptionally wet for most of the journey up and it was a job keeping concentration - and staying awake.

So, I now need to get on with booking our next flights to USA in August - and to Australia in February. We've got accommodation just outside Perth for a week, so it'll be nice to see WA this time.

Got another golf club committee meeting tonight. The jury's still out on whether I'll last or not - I spent 25 years dodging going on to the committee and was a little reluctant to accept this time - I only did so because the Captain asked me for a favour, to avoid somebody else getting on - but it's a cumbersome beast and I'm not sure it's my cup of tea - time will tell. I'm probably too used to running things my way - at work and our own little Squash Veterans' Groups - this democracy thing is not all it's cracked up to be. Call me Gaddafi if you like, but a little bit of canvassing, followed by some autocratic decision making, works better in my book.

That's all for now, folks!

Spring has sprung!

2011-03-21T13:33:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

The Vernal Equinox has indeed brought the onset of spring - it's 17 C in Aberdeen today - and probably warmer inland - and the rest of the week is supposed to stay this way too. Sod's law I head off to Turkey on a golf holiday on Wednesday morning - the forecast there looks reasonable, however - not very hot, but sunny at least.

So it was the big birthday weekend for Jo - what did we get up to? First of all, dinner on Saturday night was at the Marcliffe at Pitfodels (http://www.marcliffe.com/), Aberdeen's premier hotel. Jo wanted me to take a photo of the desserts - hers was a variety of rhubarb dishes:

The sun shone again on Sunday, and Jo went out for an early morning walk - I think she was in contemplative mode - some people climb mountains when they hit significant round figure birthdays, but a walk round Banchory in the early morning sunshine was enough for Jo. When she got back, prior to the arrival of our taxi taking us to Buchanan's Bistro (http://www.buchananfood.com/barn.html) at Woodend Barn (http://www.woodendbarn.co.uk/) for lunch, Jo looked out the back and decided some weeding was required, so out came the step ladders:

then down she came:

We were joined at lunch by the Masons and Kilgours - here's Jo, Anne, and Johanne (sounds like a made-up pop group, doesn't it?), aka The Golden Girls, at lunch:

We finished lunch a little hurriedly and rushed through to get good seats to see Jimmie Macgregor (http://www.jimmiemacgregor.co.uk/) who's doing a little mini-tour to celebrate his 80th birthday. He's still got all his marbles and can still sing and play guitar pretty well. He could have talked all day - he only covered about 15 years of his career from the mid 50's to the late 60's - but after 2 hours or so, he probably needed a wee lie down somewhere. The girls really liked his stories, many of which brought back fond memories of their childhood, so they insisted on getting photographed with him afterwards:

Then it was back to Anne and Leslie's, where champagne and a cake were waiting for us all:

Of course, when we got home, we discovered that Gary had been round and had left a big chocolate cake that he had baked - plus an enormous box of Thornton's chocolates - so we gorged ourselves on them. Wonder why we felt a bit queasy this morning?

Comfortably Numb

2011-03-17T14:14:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yes, I'm still feeling sorry for myself - been trying to fight off this cold/cough/congestion for over a week now, but it's very reluctant to shift. I've found it really hard to sleep as every time I lie down, I start coughing. Jo told me on Monday my cough "wasn't very productive" - by this, I assume she meant not enough phlegm? (note to self - check derivation of phlegmatic - how could it possibly be connected to phlegm?)

Wandering off at a tangent, Wikipedia describes phlegmatic as one of the 4 temperaments - "Phlegmatics tend to be self-content and kind. They can be very accepting and affectionate. They may be very receptive and shy and often prefer stability to uncertainty and change. They are very consistent, relaxed, rational, curious, and observant, making them good administrators. However they can also be very passive-aggressive."

Do you know what the other 3 temperaments are? No, neither did I, but apparently they are sanguine, choleric and melancholic - check them out.

Getting back to my blogging diary, I hope I'm on the mend - I'd certainly like to be fully fit for our golf holiday in Turkey next week. I haven't been able to take any exercise this week, but I thought it might be a good idea to nip down to Bannatyne's yesterday and spend some time in the steam room, to see if that would help ease my congestion. I certainly felt a bit better at the time, but whether it lasts or not, I'm not sure.

Back home, I dosed myself with more Lemsip before bed, and Jo dug out some jars of Vick for my chest and an inhaler to ease my nasal passages. I certainly did seem to sleep a little better - although I was still up just after 5 am again.

I realise now I'm becoming more like Dad every day - hopefully I'm not quite at the dementia stage yet, but I'm now taking so many pills and medicines, it's very easy to lose the plot - have I had that one or not? Just ask Jo - she understands. I always used to hate popping pills - I didn't like the idea of pumping unnecessary chemicals in to my body - but, as you get holder and start off on the medical treadmill, so the number of prescriptions increases. Take a look at my current daily dosage:

Aspirin
Beta blocker - 10 mg (1 @ 7.5 + 1 @ 2.5)
Cod liver oil (voluntary)
Effervescent Vitamin C (voluntary)
Iron pill (temporary, hopefully) - 3 times per day
Statin
Lemsip (temporary)
Vick (temporary)
Vick inhaler (temporary)

Then there's the cream I've got to take to accelerate the rate of healing on my gum so that my eye tooth implant can be finished off in June. The crunch time comes when they have to start supplying my pills in daily time slot capsules - Monday breakfast, Monday lunchtime, Monday bedtime, Tuesday breakfast etc - just like poor Dad had to. Then I'll know I've lost it completely - or will I?

Anyway, back to yesterday - I was a little later home than normal as I met the guys for a beer and to check with those that are heading off to Turkey that they were all organised OK. Guess where we met? - Scott Skinner's! Haven't been there regularly for years, as the ale has been so poor, but I sampled it recently and it was OK, so I thought I would try again last night - and it was alright, so I think it's now officially back on the rota again. Mind you, my taste buds probably aren't at their best just now!

When I did get home, Jo and I watched the first instalment of Treme, the New Orleans based drama on Sky Atlantic. Unfortunately, I noticed that episode 3 failed to record so I guess we're going to have to miss one.

Nothing stays the same - the Tor-na-Coille garage closed its doors on Monday morning - the entrances are all taped up now, like a police crime scene. It will be interesting to see what they do with the site. Coincidentally, the following article appeared yesterday in the local P & J:

Is this as innocent an application as it seems - or is it the thin end of the wedge? Do I object or not? I haven't checked the web site yet, but I bet they're building them where they demolished the squash courts - if so, there could be an emotional objection!

It was a new day yesterday - but it's an old day now

2011-03-14T13:39:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

........ as Ian Anderson wrote for Jethro Tull's "Stand Up" in 1969. It had been beginning to feel a bit spring-like until a fresh bout of snow arrived on Saturday, and now it's all wet and miserable - and my head and chest are all congested, so I don't really have a spring in my step at the start of a new week, despite sitting around the house and doing absolutely nothing all weekend. My last blood test wasn't good and the Doctor put me on iron pills as I was a bit anaemic, but they don't seem to be having much positive effect yet - other than on my excretions (was that too much detail for you?) - and I still look and feel a bit "peely wally".

We did have a good headbang at Dave's on Friday night however (see headbangers blog for details) - but so many videos to view and so little time to watch them. We get through a little over 60 clips in an evening and have these get-togethers twice a year usually - but I've now got an ever-increasing library of over 1,600 titles to view - when will we ever get to see them all?

The rest of the weekend was spent goggle-eyed - the Saturday lunchtime match was the Dons' lucky escape in Paisley, and the tea-time match was Man U's cup victory over Arsenal. We watched the old "In Bruges" film on Saturday night - pretty good - a dark, gangster movie set in the lovely Belgian city.

I got a good chance to work my way through most of the Sunday Times yesterday before watching Scotland's latest valiant defeat at Twickenham. We then caught up with the latest episode of Boardwalk Empire - Martin Scorcese's series about prohibition USA on Sky Atlantic (the UK home of HBO). Beautifully filmed - very stylish. We still haven't got round to watching any of Treme, which is another series we're taping - it's set in New Orleans and has some of the cast of The Wire in it.

So that was last week - what does this week hold? Well, Jo's 60th next Sunday of course - we're going to the Marcliffe on Saturday night, then Woodend Barn on Sunday - but what should I buy her? I still don't know.

I didn't get a chance of golf yesterday and won't next Sunday either, so my next game is going to have to be in Turkey a week on Thursday. Boy, I'm going to be rusty - just one game since November.

That's about all I've got for the diary today. Hope you're all well.

Close shave

2011-03-09T15:37:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

I had a lovely birthday on a glorious day on Sunday - and it was nice that Liz came along too before she had to head back down to Lincoln again. Since then, it's been back to the old routine - that was until I had a bit of excitement last night driving home from Fraserburgh.

I'm not sure if it was the car in front of me, or the one coming the other way - in either event it was a big 4 wheel drive job. One of them sparked up a big stone which hurtled towards my windscreen. You don't often get a chance to see them - it's usually so quick that the first thing you notice is the loud crack on the screen - but, on this occasion, I saw it coming towards me, like a speeding bullet - and heading straight for my temple - straight between the eyes. What a start it gave me - and what a relief - thank God for today's safety standards in laminated windscreens.

I remember when we lived in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, many of our near neighbours played for Tottenham Hotspur, whose training ground was just down the road in Cheshunt. Cyril Knowles (left back) was driving along the A10 dual carriageway with his son in the front seat and a similar incident occurred - but he wasn't so lucky - the stone went straight through the windscreen and caught his son in the middle of the forehead and killed him outright. I've always been a bit wary ever since.

Lucy sent over some goodies - and also the following advert from her local paper:

That's about all for now - off to the dentist's again - just checking on my gums for the implant. Last thought for the day - which terrorist organisation does this man work for?

Not quite 62

2011-03-05T16:41:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

It's been a very lazy Saturday - I've hardly moved from my chair all day. Jo dashed in to Costco this morning to get supplies for my birthday lunch tomorrow - did I want to come along? No thanks - Saturdays are nicer when I don't have to jump in a car.

I've been trying to get a game of squash doubles all week, but failed miserably - still it meant that I did actually go to Bannatyne's 3 days in a row - Wednesday, Thursday and Friday - that's something of a record, I think - is it an indication that my increased dosage of beta-blockers is helping? Perhaps. Coincidentally, I saw my cardiologist again on Thursday - routine check-up - and he said I could up the dosage again if I wanted? I said I would try it for a month and see how I got on. It's still only 10 mg - by comparison, Jo's on 25 mg.

Nothing much else to report - it was Helen's birthday yesterday - how old? Well, that would be telling - let's just say she's looking forward to enjoying some discounted rail travel soon! I bet she and Barry are enjoying their retirement. Talking about which, the subject of my age and me potentially phasing out of the business was discussed last week, but there was little or no reaction - until yesterday that is, when I was suddenly given an unexpected (and most welcome) bonus. I guess that means no change then? Still at least it will help pay for our recent big luxury holiday in the southern hemisphere.

Jo's slaving away in the kitchen - preparing for my birthday lunch tomorrow. I said keep it simple - prawns and bread in a buffet is plenty for me - but there's obviously going to be a few extras. Jo's big birthday is just 2 weeks away now - I've booked a table at the Marcliffe on the Saturday night for the two of us - but what should I buy her? I can't just leave it at one dinner and business class upgrades on our holiday. Ideas please.

Sporting weekend

2011-02-28T16:21:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

I was so looking forward to be being back to a British/Scottish sporting weekend - but then I started to feel a bit rough on Friday, and, since then, I've been plagued with a chest and head cold. Every time this happens, my voice goes and it becomes hard to converse - especially in crowded pubs. It spoiled my enjoyment a bit, but at least I did manage along to both Pittodrie on Saturday and Murrayfield yesterday.

Colin and I even squeezed in a very rare visit to a CAMRA branch meeting after the football. This one was held in the Blue Lamp - what a dull, depressing place that is - and it was also the annual confirmation of the votes for our area's GBG entries, plus voting for the various pubs of the year - Islands, Country and City categories. Quite interesting - and afterwards we popped down to the Moorings for a beer before we caught the bus home.

Aberdeen's 0-0 draw with Hearts was a whole lot better than Scotland's efforts yesterday. Don't be fooled by the closeness of the scoreline - 18-21 in Ireland's favour - we weren't really at the races.

We left for Edinburgh quite early on Sunday morning - so early, in fact, that, despite doing a little detour to pick up Keith Gray, who was staying at Dalgety Bay, we were safely parked up and in to the centre of Edinburgh well before opening time! Two cups of tea and a "Teuchter Roll" were consumed before they started serving ale. The place was heaving with frustrated rugby fans well before the "first orders" bell rang - now that's a novelty. Edinburgh need to get this sorted out - at least for rugby match days.

Our seats at Murrayfield were high up in the West Stand and we had magnificent views, not only of the play, but also the wonderful Edinburgh skyline:

We managed home in good time, and Jo took pity on me and poured me, not one, but two, consecutive glasses of hot toddy for my cold! We finished watching the last couple of episodes of the 80's Tutti Frutti series - a nice bit of nostalgia starring Robbie Coltrane and Emma Thompson.

And, of course, this was Oscars weekend. Glad to see that The King's Speech did well, and not surprised that Natalie Portman won Best Actress in the Black Swan. Those were the two movies we saw with Kelly in Melbourne - how cool is that?

To wear or not to wear?

2011-02-22T12:41:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

I haven't been wearing my temporary tooth - I found it too uncomfortable and difficult to speak properly with it in. Like a demented Johnathan Ross, I've been lisping away like mad any time I've worn the tooth and guard. I thought I could get away with not wearing it at all over the next 4 months, but last night I was at a social function (more of that later) and, for the first time, I was very conscious of the gap in my teeth and the ugly mess round my gums. I ended up trying to avoid grinning - or at least not with my mouth open - or turning my head so that the right side of my face didn't show.

So, I put the tooth in this morning on the drive to work, just to try and get used to it. I still took it out before I got in to the office - it's a bit of a job to prise it off, and I end up with saliva tumbling out of my mouth as I do it - most embarrassing. Even with it in, saliva occasionally squirts out of the top when I try to speak. What am I to do?

As I said, I was out last night - I was invited to the SPL Roadshow (that's football for the non-believers out there) by the Clydesdale Bank, who sponsor the Premier League in Scotland. Chick Young (heh-heh) was the compere and the guests were Billy Dodds, Craig Burley and Craig Brown. It was pretty good - and well attended - about 150 present. Chick Young was complaining about impressionist Johnathan Watson's portrayal of him, and the fact that he can't go anywhere in Scotland now without somebody mimic-ing him. He says people complain when he "doesn't sound like he should"!

I had session at Bannatyne's before I went out - I am starting to find it a bit easier to do a bit more exercise again, now that my dosage of beta blockers has been increased to 7.5mg.

What else is new? Well, we've booked our Lake District walk in September. Ambleside - Langdale - Borrowdale - Keswick is the rough route. Hope we get lucky with the weather. Same group as last year's WHW walk, except John McWhinnie's not coming and Jack Simpson is doubtful as he's got 2 trips to Oz this year to see their daughter, so there could just be 5 of us going this time.

Jo and I have booked another short winter break for January next year. Instead of Aviemore, this time, we're off to Macdonald Forest Hills Hotel and Resort in Aberfoyle (http://www.macdonaldhotels.co.uk/foresthills/). I was trying to use up some of our surplus time-share weeks, so we've actually got a full week booked here - not sure if we'll use all of it or just a long weekend - if I was fully retired, it would be a full week, but more likely it'll be a shorter break for us. There could well be some surplus days available - anyone fancy? Gary/Barry/Dawn?

Talking of time-shares, we haven't managed to get an extra week in Idaho or Oregon yet to fit in with our confirmed week back in Newport Coast. We may have to abort this and just go ahead and book our flights to the West Coast soon.

That's about all for now.

Anyone seen any fellow bloggers recently?

2011-02-19T12:54:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

In the space of time when I must have posted 20 or more blogs, only Jo has been blogging. What's happened to the rest of you?

Toothy

2011-02-17T13:41:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

The lowlight of the week so far was undoubtedly my trip to Pittodrie on Tuesday evening - only my 2nd this season. Malcolm Grigor had a spare ticket - and, well, it's rude to say no, isn't it?

I managed another trip to Bannatyne's yesterday - just before I went back to see my oral surgeon. He hadn't been able to fit my temporary tooth last week due to the pain in my mouth, but, despite the fact that there's still some swelling in the gums, I was able to wear it for a while last night:

It'll be 4 months before the bone is ready for the implant to be finished, but I'm not sure how much I will wear the temporary tooth - it's cumbersome and difficult to speak properly with it in. The surgeon says I'll soon get used to it, but I don't know whether I'll get that far or not. Right now, I'm walking round with it in its pack in my pocket:

Tonight is my first meeting on the committee of the golf club - hope it doesn't go on too long!

I've updated the archive photos on the sidebar of my blog - hope you like them!

Monday morning - a week's work to be done!

2011-02-14T14:01:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

I feel my first full week back is going to be a long one, but at least our sleep patterns seem to be more or less back to normal now. We did the right thing turning down the invitation to the Black Tie Ceilidh at the Old Course Hotel, St. Andrews on Saturday night, much though we both love the location. It gave us a chance to have a "normal" weekend at home again - it had been a while since we'd done this - first there was the Christmas weekend, then New Year, then the next weekend we went off to Aviemore, and after that it was Hong Kong, Adelaide, Melbourne and Singapore, so we owed ourselves this one.

Gary, Carole and Luca came over for lunch yesterday - that was nice. Luca and I played football with the beachball we got at the Tour Down Under, sponsored by Santos. After a while, however, he decided it was time to watch cartoons, so up to our bedroom and he snuggled under our duvet and watched TV there:

As they were leaving, we gave Luca his shark t-shirt we bought for him in Oz:

What else has been happening? Well, we watched another of the LoveFilm DVD's this weekend - American Gangster, starring Denzil Washington and Russell Crowe. It was pretty good - in parts anyway. It took a bit of time to get going and it ran on for a while, but it wasn't bad. We started to watch it on Saturday night, but I fell asleep after about half an hour, so it was take 2 on Sunday night before we saw it all.

Good news on the golfing front - Thomas Cook finally agreed to take our clubs to Turkey after all. They had earlier told us they had sold out of their allocated space for clubs on our flight, so that's a relief.

A few of us are also considering doing a bit of hill-walking again this year, culminating in a weekend in the Lake district in September - the same time as we did the WHW last year. That'll allow me to book in for my next knee operation!

I've also got the surveys for the 2012 edition of the Good Beer Guide still to do - maybe I can persuade somebody to be my chauffeur this week!

We booked tickets to go and listen to 80 year old Jimmie Macgregor at Woodend Barn on 20th March - the day of Jo's 60th. It's described on the web site as:

Jimmie Macgregor, 80 years young talks about his life, stories, songs and interviews.

The format is simple. Jimmie traces back to his art school days and the beginnings of the folk music boom - London, Skiffle, Jazz, TV, Radio, The Albert and Festival Halls. Concerts here and abroad, Songs and more songs, Encounters with the famous - Tarzan, John Wayne and even Jimmy Shand! And of course, tons of jokes.

A relaxed and light-hearted show, visuals and music intersperse to create a truly special afternoon!

Marathon Man

2011-02-10T15:23:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

No, it's not the long distance race, nor the chocolate bar I'm referring to in the title, but the film. Yes, I had visions of Laurence Olivier flashing through my head last night as I went through two hours of hell at the Dentist. For those of you of nervous disposition, look away now - but I feel compelled to get this down in writing to remind myself of what actually happened.

I arrived in good time, just before 7 pm in the evening - but, realistically this is probably the middle of the night in my body clock time, so I was pretty tired, which probably didn't help matters. Normally, extraction of a tooth involves a bit of pushing and pulling for a few minutes, with a few nasty cracks thrown in for good measure, but this particular extraction took over half an hour! When it was eventually out, I asked him what the problem had been and he said he had tried to be very careful with the extraction and had done it on a "socket preservation" basis. He threw in the fact that dentists in London charge £700 to patients to extract teeth by this method, rather than the normal way!

He wanted to maintain as much good bone integrity as possible, particularly given that my CT scans had clearly shown the abscess had already eaten a hole in the bone in my gums. After the tooth came out he went back in to the cavity with his tools and pulled out what looked like a little red globule - this was the "Eureka" moment for him. This, he said, was the abscess that was eating away at my bone.

Mentally, at this stage I was thinking - phew, that's the nasty stuff out of the way at last. How little did I know. The next stage lasted almost an hour and involved a variety of increasingly larger gauge tools that poked, drilled, hammered and crunched at my gums. I had received a couple of anaesthetic jabs prior to the extraction, but, by now, they were wearing off and the constant hammering away was getting pretty painful. Twice I had to ask for additional anaesthetic, although I was trying to grin and bear it as much as possible.

He finally got the size and shape of the hole he wanted and inserted the main anchor for my implant. We went downstairs to X-ray it, to check it was in properly, and it was at this point I noticed how long it was - almost up to my nasal cavity.

My gums, which had been cut and peeled back for the insertion of the anchor, now had to be stitched up by hand - this was, however, probably the least painful part of the operation. A quick tidy-up and then the crown of the tooth and its protective, holding shield were due to be placed on my gums. He took one look at me however, and, seeing my distress, half suggested we should leave this for now - would I mind having an ugly gap in my teeth for a week? I was barely in a fit state to make a rational decision, but I thought it best to take the hint and leave it for now - I don't think I fancied anything else touching my sore and tender gums and jaw just then anyway.

They were preparing to send me on my way and he then handed me an array of things to take - a week's course of penicillin, regular antiseptic mouthwashes and some heavy duty pain killers. The latter (co-codamol) has to be taken every 6 hours, but he suggested that I also needed to take ibuprofen half way between doses of co-codamol. I guess he realised by now how much pain I was going to be in when the anaesthetics fully wore off.

My usual dentist - not the Oral surgeon who had put the implant in - then appeared, and she could see I was a little distressed. She offered to arrange for a cab to take me home - she said I could leave my car in their car park at the back of the Practice. I decided it was best to just drive home however - I had thought of calling Jo and/or Ross to come and get me, but the thought of waiting another half hour in that hell-hole just put me off.

I got home safely - but to a silent house - nobody awake to welcome or comfort me. Oh well, off to bed then, let's see how long I can sleep. The answer was about 4 hours before the pain became so much I had to get up and take some more pain killers. This seemed to do the trick and I got another 3 hours sleep in before getting up for the day.

I wondered about whether to go to work or not - particularly as it had to be Fraserburgh today - but I decided I had been away too long and should make every effort to get there. So here I am, blogging away in the Broch. So now you want to see the photographs, don't you? Which one do you prefer - outside at the car as I left to go to work, or at lunchtime in my office?

I seem to have been through hell medically in the last few years - I used to think of myself as very fortunate - healthy and fit, seldom seeing a medic - but look at me now - it's just one thing after another - and it's expensive too!

There - that's better - I've got it out of my system now!

One interesting visitor to our canning plant in Fraserburgh was a guy from a film company. Apparently they're planning to make a film that includes scenes in a fish canning plant, and he wanted to look over ours, as they're considering building a replica at Pinewood Studios for the filming. We understand Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter may be involved, so Michael spent some time with the guy trying to persuade him to film it on location when our factory closes for the summer shutdown. Wouldn't that be something - Johnny Depp in the Broch!

Last one for today is the memento Kelly got from our Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb - a different view from the one I've got:

What time is it?

2011-02-09T12:01:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Monday, I felt fine when we arrived home, although we did go to bed pretty early - before 8 pm! Tuesday morning, I was up at 4 am and went in to the office early, but stayed awake OK and even managed a game of squash after work. Bed before 10 pm, but then awake again at 3 am today - rolled over until 5 am then eventually got up.

It's going to be a long day - and sod's law, my dental appointment was put back from the original time of 3 pm to 7 pm tonight - just what I needed! Yes, today's the day when my eye tooth implant treatment starts. The tooth gets extracted tonight, the hole gets cleaned up, bone growing material fed in, and the implant fitted - sounds great, doesn't it?

Yesterday, I discovered a problem about our golf trip to Turkey in 6 weeks - the airline won't take our golf clubs! Apparently, they have a limit on the numbers of clubs they carry and they're already sold out. I'm trying to work on an alternative solution - hire or courier.

Sorry to hear that Ross and Katherine split up when we were away, but pleased to see Ross trying out a slightly healthier diet - fruit even! Now, if only he would give up smoking as well!

That's about all my news for now.

Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb

2011-02-07T19:06:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

We're home now and, so far, we don't feel too bad, considering we've just got off an overnight fourteen and a half hour flight from Singapore to London, followed by the connection to Aberdeen. It'll be interesting to see how we cope tonight and what our sleeping patterns are like.

Anyway, I did a quick and nasty scan of the official photos and certificate we got for completing the Harbour Bridge Climb on Thursday:

Our group at the top, with Kelly and I on the far right.

The bloke on the far left was brave - he got down on one knee at the top and proposed to his girlfriend (blonde on left) and thankfully, she said yes! Like everything else, the ring had to be attached securely (and discreetly) to the jumper suit to avoid it blowing away or falling in to the harbour.

The official certificate.

Final day in Singapore

2011-02-06T11:29:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Jo and I are sitting here at the hotel bar (Diet Cokes if you don't mind!) waiting for our limo to take us to the airport for our mammoth flight home. I've got a wireless connection so I thought I'd pass the time by doing a quick blog.

We had a lot of time today - we were both up early and so, after breakfast, we toddled off to Clarke Quay again and took a water taxi up the river a bit. We got off at Raffles landing where Jo posed in front of his statue:

We walked the streets of the city on the Heritage trail and eventually came to some shops, one of which had some decoration celebrating the Year of the Rabbit (it's Chinese/Lunar New Year this weekend):

From there we spotted the greenery of Fort Canning park and went back there again and took this photo in front of a carved wall:

Some of the leaves made good sunshades:

Lunch was at yet another microbrewery we came upon and then we went back to the hotel, where I went for a dip and Jo read her book:

That's about it then - just one hour to go until our car arrives. Been a great holiday - hopefully see you all soon.

Melbourne, Sydney and on to Singapore

2011-02-05T10:47:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

So much has been happening it's hard to remember where I left off on my holiday diary. We travelled through from Adelaide on Tiger Airways to Melbourne and spent a few days there, taking in the tennis final. Great atmosphere - especially in Federation Square where vast crowds were watching the huge video screen.

They've got some smart riverside restaurants in Melbourne and we dined there a couple of times. We found a microbrewery (of course) and also a nice pub specialising in all the Victorian microbrewers' ales. We went to Old Melbourne Gaol, where they did a re-enactment with a lady sergeant growling at us.

Our journey back to Sydney wasn't quite as smooth - we were 3 hours' late, but it didn't really matter. Kelly talked me in to overcoming my fears - and my bad joints and cardio system - and do the Harbour Bridge Climb with her. I'm glad I did it - it was great, despite me feeling like a bit of a leper at the start when I was pulled aside by the medics - they ask you to fill in a questionnaire and 2 of them were about having had operations in the last 6 months, plus any cardio issues. I managed to persuade them I was OK, and the climb was fairly comfortable.

We also had to visit Bondi Beach:

Well, you've got to, haven't you? (Incidentally, I was kneeling - hence no neck!).

This time around we were staying at Darling Harbour - and very nice it is too. Our final lunch with Kelly before we went our separate ways was in our hotel bar:

We shared a taxi to the airport - Kelly was flying domestic with Tiger again - or so she thought - and we were boarding at the International terminal. I must say the Qantas Business lounge was again very nice, as was the new Airbus 380 that we flew to Singapore - massive it is, and very new and smooth.

Today we spent the morning walking along the riverside, across Clarke Quay to Fort Canning Park, where there were many things to see and do - and it was a lovely walk through what seemed like a tropical rainforest in places. We went to the Battle Box, where the final scenes of British occupation/rule in WW II were played out prior to surrender to the invading Japanese forces. Moving - and a touch spooky.

There were a number of old public warning posters in the bunker:

After a few hours in the park we were in desperate need of a drink, and, would you believe it, we found another microbrewery in Clarke Quay, where we had an excellent lunch and some nice beers:

This afternoon was spent at the large outdoor pool and shortly we're heading off to Raffles Hotel.

Last few days in Adelaide

2011-01-28T00:25:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

I only have a decent internet connection on my laptop for an hour or two more before my week long deal runs out, so I've been busy updating blogs and FB this morning. It's another glorious day and it's still not too hot - "bonkers hot" as Kelly calls it - although they are forecasting 40 degrees C on Sunday, by which time we'll be in Melbourne which is a little cooler anyway.

It was Australia Day on Wednesday and Kelly bought us tickets to go and see Barossa Under the Stars - Sting and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. We thought we'd make a day of it and headed off in the morning towards the Barossa Valley and came to the following small town:

That's pronounced Gre-nock, with the accent on the 2nd syllable.

The local brewery was closed for the national holiday, but we sampled their ales in the Greenock Creek Tavern:

Lovely spot it was too. Jo had burnt her legs the day before, hence the unusual attire for this photo:

We moved on from there to Whistler's Winery where they were holding an Australia Day party. We didn't stay for long, but just enough time for a glass of wine and quick look at their kangaroos - I was going to show you the video but problems uploading it.

Next stop was Maggie Beers' Farm shop:

Never seen Jo in a jockey cap before - especially not one that says "Warnie" and advertises McDonald's!

The concert was good - more of that on my headbang blog, but it was a late night for Kelly as she had to drive us home and then drive all the way back to her place.

Thursday Jo and I walked down to Brighton and had a nice day there and on the beach, then Kelly joined us for dinner in the evening. Here are the girls in our aparthotel waiting for the lift:

Dinner at the Flying Knife was good - and that's about it for now. Got some packing to do then we meet Kelly for dinner at the Asian Markets tonight.

More adventures in Adelaide

2011-01-25T00:46:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

On Saturday Kelly drove us up to the Adleaide Hills and we had lunch at the excellent Bierhaus in Lobenthal, after which we tried a couple of wineries, walked round the very Germanic and pretty town called Hahndorf and then also visited Grumpy's Brewhaus in Verdun (all reported in my Ale Blog).

On Sunday, it was the final day of the Tour Down Under and we took the tram in to the city centre to meet up with Kelly and watch it. First of all we went a walk along Rundle Mall and came across this:

At the start of the race, Kelly joined us:

We walked the course and had a nice day.

Kelly was back at work on Monday so Jo and I decided to walk up to Henley Beach. It turned out to be a bit further away than we thought but we got there in the end and had a lovely lunch. We spotted these on the way there - one of them is real:

On the way back, we took our shoes off and paddled home:

Back at the apartment, we changed and then caught the tram and train to North Adelaide where Kelly was putting a couple of hours' work in at her gym. Here she is behind reception with her pal and soon to be landlady, Meghan (that's Meegan, not like our Meghan):

Here's the girls leaving the gym:

At Jo's insistence, Kelly took us round the rest of her local haunts. First, the house that she, Brad and Meghan are about to move into:

Swish eh? Compare and contrast with her current abode:

Garden needs some tending. Finally her original house - the one she looked after whilst Travis was out of the country:

This house was in a very nice part of town - Mawson Lakes - a bit like a holiday resort we thought.

Kelly took us to her work as well - in a rougher part of town:

Here's Kelly's little car too:

So that's me up to date. Jo and I got a bit burned yesterday so we're not rushing out this morning.

Sydney on to Adelaide

2011-01-22T00:53:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Walking home on Wednesday night, we passed some traditional Aussie houses - a bit New Orleans-like we thought:

Thursday morning was spent in the Botanical Gardens. This wasn't an exhibit - we just spotted it out in the park - beaut isn't it?:

We went to Hyde Park Barracks where a lot of the original convicts ended up - great exhibition - we could have spent more time there but we had a plane to catch. Here's a modern mock-up of their sleeping arrangements:

Eventually, it was Adelaide and Kelly was there to greet us and take us to our apartment in the gym buggy:

Kelly's cycle run (part of the Tour Down Under) started at 6 am, so we gave that a miss and just chilled out on Friday on the beach in front of our apartment block:

The final photo had to be shown. We both had on our Qantas jammies this morning as we stepped out on our balcony:

From HK to Oz

2011-01-19T05:48:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

We did the official coach tour on Saturday (including the steep tram up to the top of Victoria Peak) and our own thing on Sunday, which included a visit to Times Square, Happy Valley Racecourse, then an unscheduled couple of tram rides which were broken by a fascinating walk through a street market. The second tram ride was in the wrong direction however and we had to get off and take a taxi back to our hotel - a theme that was to be repeated.

Saturday's trip included a stop at a temple:

Dinner on Saturday was at a Szechuan restaurant we just happened to stumble upon, but Sunday was at the rooftop 188 restaurant at our hotel - fabulous and what stunning views from the 41st floor:

On Monday we decided to walk to the ferry across to Kowloon where we walked the Avenue of Stars - Jackie Chan was one of the 2 names of film stars we knew:

Great views across the water to Hong Kong Island:

The journey back was fun - we got on the wrong ferry! This meant we had to walk an extra couple of miles back to our hotel - we were both hot and sweaty by the time we got back.

Our overnight flight with Qantas was good - flat beds again - breakfast came before we were ready - we wanted to sleep on! It was an early morning arrival in Sydney and it was no surprise that our rooms at the Marriott at Circular Quay weren't ready. We used the early arrivals lounge for a while then eventually got our room. After washing and changing, we walked down to the waterfront to view the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House and who should we bum into but Richard and Gail Simcox, who had flown in yesterday! We had a couple of beers with them at the nearby Paragon Hotel:

Then we tried to walk our beers off and went towards the Opera House and came back through Hyde Park:

Tomorrow Kelly meets us in Adelaide - as Lauren would say, whoo whoo!

Hong Kong

2011-01-15T10:34:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

First posting from our long trip - just waiting for Jo to get ready to go out and grab something to eat and drink. Good journey out - wish we could afford to travel Club Class every time:

Our seats went horizontal, so we could actually sleep for a change. As a result, I only watched one movie - and it's one I've seen before - and we've got the DVD! The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo of course.

Service was great and our little pod was very cosy as you can see. When I awoke in the morning, I had a bit of a bloodshot eye however:

We got picked up by limo and taken to our hotel - the 5 star Harbour Grand (http://www.harbourgrand.com/hongkong/luxury-hotel-,default-en.html). Here's the view from our room - a little misty as you can see:

All set

2011-01-13T20:52:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

It's been a busy week since we came back from Aviemore, but I think I've got most things done and can leave with a fairly clear conscience tomorrow.

Mixed news on the medical front recently. The skin damage on my nose has improved - the top layer was successfully frozen off and it certainly looks a bit more normal now. There is still some underlying (benign) damage however and I have to make sure I wear a fairly high factor sun cream. I have to go back and have it checked again in 3 months.

My blood tests last week were OK - my liver count was back down again, so I didn't have to see the doctor this week and don't have to have the tests again for another 2 months.

Now comes the bad news - it was back to the dental surgeon yesterday to look at the CT scan that was done last week. There is a hole in the bone of my gum that is a bit bigger than they thought, so, not only do I need to have a tooth implant, I've got to have some bone regeneration material added. Bio-Oss/Bio-Gide are the materials in question - the former is bovine in origin and the latter from pigs. The whole process lasts 6 months before the implant can be left to stand alone - and, of course, it's costing even more now!

Better news on the holiday front - we've got one of the time shares I requested - and it's back to Newport Coast, south of LA again - where we were last March. We enjoyed the resort and are looking forward to going back again. Check it out - http://www.marriottvacationclub.com/vacation-resorts/marriott-newport-coast/overview.shtml We're heading there week commencing 14th August.

That's about it - Hong Kong here we come!

Aviemore and Moulin, by Pitlochry

2011-01-09T19:54:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

We're home again after escaping the snow blizzards of Aviemore this morning - but we had a nice weekend. Our drive through on Friday was OK, but I had to drive gingerly , particularly through Donside on our way to the Lecht. The steepest parts of the road - from the Allargue Arms up the hill at Corgarff, and up the hill at Bridge of Brown - were by far the easiest parts - it seems the ploughs had made special efforts to make sure vehicles could get up to the slopes OK.

We settled in our apartment down by the Spey and then walked up to the centre at Dalfaber for a beer to help us decide where to eat. There was nobody in the restaurant and we were initially a little reluctant to be guinea pigs, but eventually we relented and took our seats beside the central fire for our steaks. We even posed for a photograph after our meal:

We went back to our apartment and watched Shutter Island on DVD - what's that all about?

It snowed on Saturday morning, but we knew we had to get out and stretch our legs and by the time we were ready to go the snow had relented - but who would go out with a woman wearing a hat like this?:

Our walk was circular - along the river, across the golf course and back up through the Dalfaber estate to the town centre and then down to the Old Bridge Inn for lunch. Back to the apartment in the afternoon, read, sleep, G & T and then out again on the long walk back to town. We opted for Spice of India - pretty good - and we posed for a photo at reception as we left:

(Neither Santa nor the sax were real - thought I should tell you that).

On Sunday morning it snowed again - heavily for an hour or so - and we began to doubt if we could get out of Aviemore at all. We did eventually make the drive south, and once we were over the Drumochter Pass, it was fairly plain sailing on the way to meet Barry, Helen and Dawn at the Moulin Inn, near Pitlochry. Here's the team photograph at our favourite pub, with Dawn hogging the fire:

By the time we had eaten, the skies were now blue and I took this photo of Jo, taking a photo of me:

and that was our weekend - now to get ready for HK & Oz.

Sick and tired, you've been hanging on me

2011-01-04T18:39:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

No - that's not how I feel - it's a song called January by Pilot from 1975. I don't think they were talking about the month, however - but it is known as a depressing month - holidays over, bills coming in, bad weather, family arguments etc etc. We hope that's not going to be the case for us - or you - escaping to the sun Down Under should help us as well.

Drove to Fraserburgh today - our canning plant opened again after its Xmas shutdown. As some of you may have noticed on my Facebook page, I made some forlorn attempts to get a snap of the Solar Eclipse at dawn today. I failed, but here's how I tried:

Never mind - worth a go.

Spent much of today clearing up - filing etc - and getting ready for a busy week next week before we head off, but I did have time to do a bit of planning for some other outings this year - golf and hill-walking. After last year's WHW adventure, we're considering the Lake District this time - but that'll be much later this year.

Kelly did Skype us yesterday, but the internet connection was so bad, we gave up eventually. Still, it was nice to see she was still alive and was recovering from her various parties. She always was the party girl, our Kelly. Wonder how she'll cope looking after twa old fogeys for a couple of weeks?

I think I'll sign off now - tea is almost ready. The news is on, but it all seems so depressing - especially all the talk of cut-backs and the VAT increase. Some people, it seems, want to talk us in to recession again.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T11:31:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

The New Year is only a few hours old but here's my first blog posting of 2011 already. We had a nice dinner last night - Jo cooked a lovely meal and everyone enjoyed it - but the house is a bit of a wreck with dirty dishes and glasses everywhere and we don't have the energy to clear them yet - so I'm whiling away time, blogging, Facebooking, texting and catching up with TV programmes recorded last night (Corrie, Only an Excuse).

Looks like the Aberdeen match will be on this afternoon so I'll be heading off to Pittodrie in a couple of hours - that might wake me up - or maybe not!

This is Jo looking a bit more relaxed - the meal is over now and she can take it easy:

and this is the rest of us - with Maura just out of shot on the right:

Hope you had a good time too.

Luca is 4!

2010-12-31T14:50:00.000Z

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

The video of the Happy Birthday song is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVJX9RckPxM

Carole was delighted with her Xmas present - a personalised cover for her i-phone:

but the main business was the blowing out of the candles:

and, of course, the cake had to be Ben 10:

Lovely day - nice lunch, Carole.

So I headed off from there to the squash court and then home. When I got there, Jo was already laying the table for tonight's dinner party:

The tree is starting to look a little dried up in the corner:

I didn't bother going in to the office today - had a bit of a long lie and I thought it best to be around in case I'm required to do any last minute running about for the dinner tonight, but, so far, all I've done is take some bottles and paper down to the recycling centre and do a bit of dusting. I kind of feel I'm cramping Jo's style - I'll just keep my head down.

Tomorrow, I've got my 3rd invite in a row to Pittodrie. The last 2 were postponed because of the weather - will I get lucky a 3rd time?

Have a good Hogmanay everyone - hope to talk to you some time soon.