Almost December

It's been a month since my last post so time for another update on our activities since then.

29 Oct - Dentist. He told me that were small signs of pus developing where my broken implant is and that I would need to have the broken half removed from my gum within the next year - which has kind of made up my mind about getting a replacement implant - and rid of my rogue-ish pirate look.

1 Nov - the 12th anniversary of my first knee replacement.

3 Nov - attended Wellbeing Gathering in West Church to promote a new initiative for River Dee Radio - Monday Night Live - where we invite representatives from local organisations to come in to the studio to chat about their activities. The last time we did live shows was pre-Covid so it was a real re-education - and pretty scary too.

6 Nov - drive to Glasgow for another catch-up with old school pals. Jo came too as we were staying with Mary and Brian for a couple of nights. This meant she had to drive from Glasgow city centre to Johnstone - with the aid of Sat Nav - but, in an echo of her last visit (with Lucy back in August), she got lost again and it took her about 4 or 5 times as long as it should have, and when she arrived at Mary's she demanded alcohol to calm her down!

7 Nov - I travelled to West Kilbride with Brian and walked round the golf course as he and his pals played a round (my knee's not ready for golf yet). In the evening the Whaley gang arrived and we had a take-away Italian meal:

8 Nov - Aunt Nancy's 100th birthday bash. Her actual birthday had been on Thursday but Saturday was when everyone was invited to her house. Here's the team photo:

Afterwards, Barry, Helen, Dawn, Jo and I went to the Three Craws for a meal and then we drove up the road.

9 Nov - Lucy called and she also sent this nice photo of her and Kendall:

In the evening we travelled over to Westhill to have a meal with Gary and Luca:

10 Nov - My Gym induction. I had been concerned for a few weeks that the rapid progress I made in the first few weeks after my knee op had ceased and perhaps I was even going backwards a bit now? I decided I needed to do some gym work to build up the strength in my legs to support the new knee so I enrolled at the Sports Centre. Why didn't I just use the Unit gym next door? They wanted £50 per month compared to the Sports Centre's £15.

There are signs of activity next door with a surveyor spotted in the back garden with his theodolite. What will the next move be?

12 Nov - our flu jabs. As an over 75 I was also offered the Covid booster. After 7 adverse reactions in a row, I didn't take it in spring, but swithered over whether I should take the winter one. In the end, I declined again.

14 Nov - another gathering of the Headbangers, in-person and remotely

15 Nov - a trip in to Aberdeen for a gig. Anne Mason's brother Tom - the international wine expert - was in a band who were quite niche in the post-punk 80's - they did John Peel sessions. The band decided to re-form decades later and they've recorded a new album and arranged some gigs in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen to promote it. We had a meal in the Noose and Monkey beforehand then descended in to the tiny Cellar to see them perform. I wasn't expecting much but they were pretty good so Restricted Code's new album, Chasing Shadows, is likely to make an appearance on my Xmas gift list - vinyl, of course.

19 Nov - first snows. Not much to begin with but some heavier stuff later and a drop in temperature meant it hung around on the pavements and fields for a few days.

21 Nov - our Friday night crew took the bus to Ballater for some decent ales - something we can only now get in the Legion in Banchory.

23 Nov - I had arranged a visit from Scottish Gas. Some time ago, Jo had re-arranged the "coals" on the gas fire in our front room but couldn't remember how to put them back properly. When she had lit the fire again a couple of days ago, it set off the carbon monoxide alarm. The engineer detected that the real problem was the chimney which was showing signs of debris dropped from above - the bloody seagulls again! As it was a potential hazard, the engineer disabled the fire until we could get the chimney swept - which looks like it'll be next year before we can get somebody to do it. Maybe it's time to replace the gas fire with a wood burner.

25 Nov - I went in to Aberdeen for the monthly CAMRA meeting, courtesy of Ross after my bus didn't turn up.

A few more things to look forward to over the next week or two but I'm sad to report that we still haven't had all our money back from BA after the cancellation last month of some US flights. I've emailed, registered claims and phoned several times, each time being assured that the money was on its way but it never seems to arrive. I'll keep on their case.

To close, a bit of nepotism with Gary's company sponsoring Luca:

Last day of BST

Yes - tonight our clocks go back one hour. Some people say that means an extra hour in bed but I know it won't make any difference to my sleeping pattern, other than the fact that the clock will say 5 am when I awaken instead of 6 am.

Just over 2 weeks since we got back from Spain – and until this weekend, the weather has been very pleasant, but you sense things are changing now.

So, what have we been up to? Well, on Tuesday 14th October, Ross was good enough to drive me up to Aberchirder again to join some of my CAMRA colleagues at the New Inn's monthly music night. There was a lovely warm atmosphere as the singers, poets and musicians all did their turn - and we got a mini-tour of their in-house brewery as well, not to mention a few of their beers.

Two days later my car was in John Clark's in Aberdeen for the annual service - and it was a big one this time plus a full set of 4 new tyres and a repair job on the spring that was broken when we were in Mallaig. I'm glad I took the chance to book a courtesy car - normally, I would just wait there, but, as I suspected, it took all day - and there was a huge bill to pay afterwards as well. Ouch.

This week a group of us went out for a cycle prior to attending our monthly beer night in Ian Dring's "man cave". Numbers were reduced a little this time but we had a fun time and some nice ales:

Jo and I went along to Taylor's and looked at thermal curtains for the back (TV) room. So many decisions to make. We had to enlist the help of AI to give us some rough idea of what it might look like afterwards:

We've made the choices on fabrics, pleats, linings etc and yesterday they were professionally measured and we have our quote now. We hope they will be in before Christmas but it's all dependent on availability of fabric.

I've been busy looking forward to next year's holidays in Australia and America. We've got the majority of the Australian one booked now. It was a bit more involved this time as Chris and Kelly are in the process of moving from Old Noarlunga up to the hills where Miller's and Asher's new schools are so we had to sort ourselves out with accommodation etc. This is what the programme looks like so far:

Wed 7 Jan                                                                ABZ – LHR - SIN

Thu 8 Jan                                                                  Arrive SIN

Thu 8 Jan – Mon 12 Jan (4 nights)                    Maxwell Reserve

Mon 12 Jan                                                              SIN – Darwin

Mon 12 Jan – Thu 15 Jan (3 nights)                 Mercure Darwin Airport Resort

Thu 15 Jan                                                               Darwin – ADL

Thu 15 Jan – Sat 31 Jan (16 nights)                 Bridgewater Cottage

Sat 31 Jan                                                                ADL – Gold Coast

Sat 31 Jan – Sat 7 Feb (7 nights)                      Marriott Surfers Paradise

Sat 7 Feb                                                                  Gold Coast – ADL

Sat 7 Feb – Wed 11 Feb (4 nights)                   The Retreat at Stirling

Wed 11 Feb – Wed 18 Feb (7 nights)              Possible road trip?

Wed 18 Feb – Thu 26 Feb (8 nights)               Accommodation still to be booked

Thu 26 Feb                                                              ADL – SIN – LHR

Fri 27 Feb                                                                 LHR - ABZ

When we first arrive in Adelaide, our accommodation is a 200 year old cottage which was once the local village's police station!:

We then fly up to the Gold Coast (c. 70 kms south of Brisbane) for a week. When we come back to Adelaide, we have 4 nights here - https://www.the-retreat.com.au/stirling-accommodation

After that, we're planning a road trip somewhere. Kelly and Chris are suggesting the Yorke peninsula (we've never been there). Kelly showed us some of the possible attractions there - https://southaustralia.com/itineraries/yorke-peninsula-itinerary

We've also still to decide what to do and where to stay when we come back from our road trip. By then, the Adelaide Fringe will have started so we might take in a couple of shows.

So, with Australia (almost) sorted, I started to look at USA next year and I managed to book flights out on 6th September, 2026, with the help of some Avios points and a BA Companion voucher. It was too early initially to book return flights - you can only do this 355 days in advance - but on Monday (20th) I started to check out the BA site, just in case.

I input return flights on 20th October, 2026 and was amazed that the site gave me options of flights then. That's when I should have smelt a rat. I jumped at it and booked the flights. As usual I sent the confirmation to Jo to add to her calendar. Thankfully, Jo was on her i-Pad at the time and she said "what's this? Flight from San Francisco to London tonight?"

That horrible sinking feeling in my gut - the booking was 20th October, 2025 not 2026! How could I be so stupid? I didn't notice the year had changed. Frantic phone calls to the BA Club where, after an eternity of waiting for someone to answer, a woman with an American accent responded. "No worries - it's well within the cooling off period - I can cancel it and you'll get all your money and your points back" Whew. "I just need to put you on hold for a few seconds".

Several minutes later - "sorry, but I can't do it this way - you'll need to raise a formal claim with BA". Oh no, here we go.

I've spent many hours this week making the claim, following it up and endlessly waiting on the phone for responses. Thankfully, it looks like we're almost there. We've had part of the money back, with promises of the rest to come, and we've had all the points refunded too.

What a dope I was - I can't believe I would make such a simple, and potentially damaging, mistake. I've never done anything like this before. Hopefully, I won't repeat it - I'll be treble checking everything.

Meanwhile, our American famaily have all travelled down to Louisiana to catch up with Braeden - Scott, Lucy, Cade, Audrey and even little Kendall all flew there.

It's now 11 weeks since my knee replacement and I seem to be doing OK, although I have a slight feeling that the rapid improvement in the first few weeks has now plateau'd out. The early weeks' exercises are now too simple. It was good when we were at our resort in Spain, I was able to use the gym there for specific knee strengthening exercises. Perhaps I should join the gym at the Sports Centre to continue with this?

Our (relatively) local brewery - Burnside - has just expanded in to a new building and I got a couple of their first brews from there:

To close, a photo of Asher that I picked up from his school's FB post:

It was Origami Day - and Asher loves that.

Marbella etc (6)

MONDAY 6 Oct (cont'd.)

Despite Jo's lack of mobility she suggested we go out for a short walk in the afternoon so off we toddled, past the relatively new Rafa Nadal Tennis Centre:

and on to the humpy-back boardwalk:

then rewarded by a small bottle of Frappucino:

and later, dinner, beer, wine and bingo in Charlies bar.

TUESDAY 7th October

Yesterday was going to be a down day - books and pool - but today definitely was. Still, we had pre-dinner drinks back at Charlies:

WEDNESDAY 8th October

The day started, as usual, with a hot bath to ease Jo's back. Afterwards she felt able to suggest another walk - this time eastwards towards the boardwalk at Dunas de Artola where we'd been a few times before. We weren't sure we would make it all the way there but in the end we did. We hadn't previously noticed that the beach there is officially a naturist one but somebody with orange paint obviously didn't think it should be allowed:

Then it was boardwalk all the way, past the Monument and on to a beach cafe for lunch - yes, gambas pil-pil again:

We slightly lost our way on the return journey so, at the end of the day, I had clocked up almost 19,000 steps - all in flip-flops/thongs - the highest total yet.

We had booked dinner at El Med, the resort's upmarket restaurant down by the sea, but first we had to finish off the 2 remaining beers in the fridge plus what was left in the gin bottle. When we did finally get to El Med for our 7:30 pm booking we were surprised to see that the Spanish Night, which started at 6:00 pm, was still going strong - the flamenco section hadn't even started.

We setttled down for our meal anyway and took a few pictures as the sun was going down:

I chose my meal badly - whole sea bass but done in the Cadiz way where they slice up the meat and then deep fry it:

Liqueur coffees afterwards - mine was French (Cointreau) and Jo's was Calypso (Tia Maria):

Jo may have been straining to see a bit of the Flamenco dancing - but what a racket it was. Hardly a nice quiet dinner in lovely surroundings.

THURSDAY 9th October

Packed, checked out and Uber'd all the way to airport, where we now sit in the VIP lounge (as they call it). Ross is picking us up at ABZ.

Marbella etc (5)

SUNDAY 5th October

Jo's still struggling with her back and finds most movement painful. That said, once she's up and properly dosed, she can walk a bit. We discussed whether we might try another beach to boardwalk saunter but the uneven surface of the sand wouldn't be good, so I looked at where else we might go that didn't involve a beach and I noticed from Google Maps that one of the very first golf courses our group played on back in 1998 was less than half an hour away and the walk would take us through a bit of parkland on the other side of the main A-7 dual carriageway.

It was, however, our hottest day yet - 32 C (90 F) - and we would be walking in the heat of the day. Nonetheless, we set off and, once over the A-7, we came across some nice bike/walking trails in the woods that would lead us up to Santa Maria Golf Club, bringing back some very fond memories for me of the days when I used to be moderately capable and competitive at golf:

In the clubhouse for some lubrication, looking towards the 18th fairway, I took this photo of Jo and her new sunglasses, acquired at a little supermarket on the way here:

I wandered down to the first tee where I recalled there was a fairly big fear factor in our group back in 1998, but, seeing it now, I wondered why?:

That fairway looks plenty wide enough to me - just don't think about the water all the way up the left!

Heading back through the trails again we got a close-up of the adventure park (https://aventura-amazonia.com/parques-amazonia/marbella-eng) - a bit like Go Ape or Landmark - only a whole lot scarier:

Stopping at the small(ish) supermarket where Jo bought her sunglasses, we picked up a few groceries and headed back - but not before Jo insisted on stopping for her ice cream treat at Kalt Helados:

Another 12,000 steps day.

Dinner back at our apartment was bread and garlic prawns cooked in butter (we didn't have any oil).

MONDAY 6th October

I'm afraid no improvement in Jo's back but at least the pharmacia was open again, so off I trotted to acquire a huge tube of what the Spanish call Voltadol Forte and some extra strength paracetomol (650 mg).

We actually saw some clouds this morning but, although a bit cooler than yesterday, it's still plenty warm. Looks like a book day for us.

Marbella etc (4)

WEDNESDAY 1st October

Our first full day at the resort. We weren't in our usual villa but it was fairly close - adjacent to the reception block and roughly above the Market Place. This was the view from our balcony:

The last time we were here it was a full house - Gary, Luca and Ross came too. This time it's just Jo and me - so much room! We purposely hadn't hired a car this time - we had planned just to have a relaxing break mostly on-site.

Being away from home and having spent 3 nights in a hotel in Malaga I had fallen out of my knee exercise regime so I needed to get back on track quickly and I thought the best way to do that was to use a couple of the machines in the gym - so that was my start to the day, after which I picked up our morning croissants - lovely!

We spent some time at the adult-only outdoor pool but otherwise did very little other than read our books. We had managed to cast my Netflix account to the TV's in the apartment and had started watching the House of Guinness on Tuesday evening so we were on to episode 2 now.

THURSDAY 2nd October

Today we were booked to attend another sales preview - something we had booked the previous year as it seemed like a good deal. It's not something we look forward to but we got through it unscathed.

After lunch we decided to walk to the local mall where there is a decent-sized Carrefour supermarket. We didn't plan to buy a lot - only stuff that we couldn't get, or was substantially cheaper than, the small market at our resort. It's a bit of an up and down walk but it took less than 15 minutes to get there.

Nothing much else today - other than laundry, cooking, reading and eating - then another episode of the House of Guinness.

FRIDAY 3rd October

I didn't go to the gym this morning - my knee was sore and swollen. Jo thinks I overdid the gym work yesterday. However, the croissants had to be got so off I went, cheered on by Jo looking out from the small balcony at the back of our apartment:

Time to stretch our legs a little - a beach walk, heading west in the direction of Marbella town. The sea was very calm and settled and we paddled a little on the way. After an hour or so we were ready for lunch and we came across the beach cafe we had stopped at last year. We enquired about tapas, but no, all they did was "racion" - basically small portions. We chose a mini hamburger and something that was described as aubergines with honey - and this arrived:

Deep fried aubergine chips in honey? Really? There was enough there for 4 of us.

On the way back there are stretches of boardwalk - part of the long-term plan to cover the whole coast:

We alternated between the boardwalk, the beach and, towards the end, pavements through other resorts:

We made it back "home" safely:

Over 16,000 steps again today.

SATURDAY 4th October

Jo had a bad night - her back again, so it's been a slow day. I was back at the gym this morning and this afternoon I decided to walk to the local pharmacy/pharmacia to get a top-up of Voltarel for her. Unfortunately, I got there a few minutes too late - they closed at 2:30 pm and the next nearest is over 12 kms away in Marbella town. I found out that you can't get any medicines - not even paracetomol - unless you go to a proper pharmacy. No disaster for now as Jo has adequate to see through the weekend.

It's Saturday so it's pizza night and I planned to go to on-site Charlie's Bar to get it. I wondered whether they would be showing the Manchester United match but was disappointed to see that Charlie's doesn't open until 6 pm now - I'm sure it used to be 4 pm which was perfect for watching Premiership football on Saturday afternoons.

Marbella etc (3)

TUESDAY 30th September

Breakast then final packing, check out and wait in the foyer for a while. We soon got fed up and wandered over to the bus station where I went up to the ticket desk and showed her my carefully researched screen shot:

"No, no, no" she said - "train to Fuengirola then bus from there". It seems this particular bus service doesn't run any more so off we trotted to the nearest train station where I went up to the desk thinking I could get tickets from there but I was told just to tap my credit card on the machine entry point - which we did - and it got us through in good time to catch the next train to Fuengirola.

3 stops later we were at Malaga airport - who knew there was a train station there? I've been to the Costa del Sol more than 20 times and was never aware of this. Anyway, 40 minutes later we were at the terminus in Fuengirola. Now the trick was getting through the electronic barriers - we tried several but none would accept my credit card. We spoke to one of the staff and he said it's ok - just walk through here - in 2 hours time your card will be charged with the maximum fare. Sounds good - except 4 days later the only charge on my credit card account is the nominal 1c card check.

Anyway we went for coffees and I ordered an Uber to take us to our resort - easy.

At the resort we were a little early but soon were in our apartment and had stocked up with food essentials from the Market Place. The second part of our holiday could now start.

Marbella etc (2)

Saturday morning here and it's getting hotter again. Hope everyone's ok back home after Storm Amy.

I forgot to mention that, before we came to Spain, I made some of our travel arrangements for January/February in the southern hemisphere. We leave Aberdeen on 7th January and fly to Singapore for a few days. We then go to Darwin - again for a few days before heading to Adelaide. After that, final plans are yet to be made. We have booked a week up in the Gold Coast the first week in February but otherwise our plans are fluid until we return to the UK on 26th February - a bit shorter than our usual stay.

Now back to the Marbella diary:

MONDAY 29th September

Our second full day in Malaga. First of all we had to check where the bus station was as we had specific plans to catch what was allegedly the only bus of the day that dropped off at Hotel Don Carlos, adjacent to the Marriott property. Finding the bus station was no problem but figuring out how and where to book wasn't quite as easy. After a while we decided we would just come along early on Tuesday and suss it out then.

I had booked us in to the Picasso Museum at 2 pm - it was fully sold out on Sunday when we'd tried. We had plans to see the Cathedral as well but didn't know whether we'd make it over there in time to do it justice before the 2 pm deadline.

In the end, we made it in plenty time. The vastness and the splendour of these historic churches gives pause for thought that "them and us" is not just a current human failing:

We did the full tour with audio guide and still had time for another tapas lunch just outside the Picasso Museum, watching the long line of ticket holders slowly progressing towards the entrance. One of the tapas choices was black pudding so we just had to try it:

Then it was time to join the Picasso line. I can't pretend I'll ever fully understand his work - surrealism, cubism etc - but there were one or two pieces that caught the eye:

I thought we'd look for a quiet beer after the Museum but had yet more frustrations with Google Maps information about opening and closing times and whether businesses were still going or not. We gave up eventually but then happened upon a (very) small hole in the wall that did nothing but Pastis del Nata - and a coffee if you want. It was doing a roaring trade - and no wonder.

That kept us going for a bit as we headed to one of Malaga's very old what I would call sherry houses - Antigua Casa de Guardia. I made the rookie error of calling the drinks that were poured from large casks behind the bar "sherry" - "no, no, no - ees Malaga wine!":

We had 3 each - Seco, Pajarete & Moscatel no.2 - any more and we might not have found our way back very easily! Quite an experience - the barmen tally your drinks in chalk on the bar and then total them up when you're ready to check out - and if you leave a tip, they ring a bell so all can hear!

We made it back to our modern, high tech hotel which didn't appear to have a proper restaurant but it turned out there was a franchise operating adjacent to where we had breakfast. We were their only customers but we had a lovely meal starting with local bread and olive oil which was so nice you could have drunk it from the bottle. Even our random choice of wine was excellent:

Off to bed - tomorrow we check out and head to our Marriott resort.

Marbella etc

Today (Thursday) is our 3rd day on the Marriott resort, having spent 3 nights previously in the centre of Malaga. Ryanair was bang on time but we had some technical problems with Uber - we understand there was a blip in the internet that evening - so it was almost midnight (Spanish time) when we checked in to our high tech hotel where it's all Bluetooth entry etc.

But before I do the holiday diary I should tell you that I managed to go out on my bike with my pals on a fairly decent ride and I had no issues with my knee. Furthermore, I attended my 6 week physiotherapy check the day before we flew out to Spain and all went well. She said there was now no need to see the surgeon again - just keep up the good work.

The weather in Banchory had been pretty good before we came here - every morning we would sit in bed and look out at what we called the golden light as the sun came up and shone on the trees:

Our last evening in Banchory was a bit bitter-sweet as we attended one of Mohammed's retirement do's. No more Derbar - the end of an era. Let's hope a suitable replacement comes along. We were there with Anne and Leslie again - it used to be 6 of us every month but Johanne is now too poorly to attend:

Back to Spain now:

SUNDAY 28th September

We walked past the port to the tourist centre - cathedral, Picasso museum, Alcazaba fortification etc. To get to the top of the latter it's quite a climb and I wondered whether Jo would make it or not but she was game to try. I pointed out that it was a zig-zag path most of the way which helped.

First was the Roman theatre:

Then the climb - occasional rest was required:

We made it to the top and then headed for lunch - tapas, of course and it had to include sizzling gambas pil-pil:

Thinking a beer might be in order on our way back to the hotel, we searched in vain for somewhere with decent beer that was actually open before evening. Google Maps wasn't much help - a lot of the info seemed to be out of date or just incorrect. We gave up but did eventually stumble upon one on the way back - https://lafabricadecerveza.com/en/

A short(ish) kip at the hotel then out for dinner. Not many places open early enough for us on a Sunday evening but we hit the jackpot with https://tascalaska.es/. Excellent salad followed by paella:

More to follow in due course.