Holiday blog 2

MONDAY 13th Jan (cont'd)

I did go out on a bike ride on Monday - Chris' bike was ready to roll so I headed out gingerly through Seaford to the seafront clifftop trails. Drop handlebars, tricky gear changes and brakes plus pedals designed for clip-ons made me feel a bit vulnerable at the start but I think I eventually overcame most of my fears.

It's a lovely ride, meeting the Onkaparinga river mouth just before Port Noarlunga:

From there I cycled back along the park trails:

TUESDAY 14th Jan

We decided to go for a walk - Jo prefers beach walks so we took a car and drove down to Aldinga beach. It was another clear, sunny and hot day and we hoped we might go beyond Aldinga, past Silver Sands beach and out as far as the distant rocks, but I became aware that it was going to be a long way out and then back again and we had left the sun cream in the car accidentally.

We got close but felt it was wise to turn back, take a lunch break at Silver Sands cafe then head to the car. We made it OK but both of us suffered from a bit of sun burn.

Jo and I walked round to the local hotel for a couple of beers before dinner.

WEDNESDAY 15th Jan

We had arranged to meet up with David and Lorene at Strathalbyn, which turned out to be a beautiful little town with a strong Scots connection - including the weather - we went through a couple of fairly heavy showers but they soon subsided.

We had coffee, went for a walk then lunch before heading home:

Naturally, it was St. Andrews church

Kelly had a works dinner in the city in the evening so we took Chris, Miller and Asher round to the "Oldy" for dinner.

THURSDAY 16th Jan

Kelly and Chris both working at home today and the boys are here too - they opted not to go to OSH so we took them out to the library, shops and cafe to pass a couple of hours in the morning.

Incidentally, this is what the living room usually looks like:

It's usually UNO or Monopoly in the evenings.

2025 and Oz

Happy New Year to everyone. The season of excess has now passed. There were 5 of us at home on Christmas Day and the same 5 at Wetherspoon's, Inverurie for Luca's 18th (his choice of venue):

Same again on New Year's Day when Gary brought the cake he had baked:

The snow finally arrived in Banchory just before we left for Australia:

It was just enough for us to make an earlier than planned departure on Monday 6th. Ross drove us over to Stonehaven but we didn't risk the Slug Road, taking the AWPR instead. In the end we arrived in Stonehaven with tons of time to spare before our train to Glasgow was due - sufficent for us to have coffees and scones at a local cafe.

The train journey was fine - timely and quiet - and we jumped in a taxi to take us to Elderslie where we were staying overnight with Brian and Mary.

Tuesday morning and our Emirates courtesy car picked us up for the short journey to Glasgow airport. We spent some time in the Emirates lounge enjoying a nice brunch before boarding our plane. The journey to Dubai is "just" 7.5 hours but we had a tight turn-round of just one hour before our flight to Adelaide departed. We fretted a little but were encouraged by the fact that our plane was parking at a gate very close to our departure gate.

It wasn't quite as simple as we thought, however, as the Connections signs at Dubai directed us downstairs and through an unexpected additional security check. We ran back up the stairs rather than take the busy escalators and boarded our flight. We were a little disappointed when the captain announced that we would be waiting for a bit for other passengers from connecting flights - our rushing had been unnecessary.

The second leg is longer - over 12 hours - but we arrived in Adelaide bang on schedule just before 9 pm local time on Wednesday. We sailed through passport control but our bags - mine especially - seemed to take forever before we were free and greeted by a welcome party of Kelly, Miller and Asher.

By the time we got to Old Noarlunga, unpacked a little and had a cup of tea, it was fast approaching midnight so off we toddled to the "garden room".

Here's a brief summary of our activities since then:

THURSDAY 9th Jan

Day of acclimatisation - fully unpack and hang up clothes etc - but time for a short wander round to the local Long Shot cafe for "spiders" - ice cream floats. After that, we detoured round past the boys' school and hung out for a bit in the field there:

We went for a walk along Moana beach in the evening. Asher heads towards the water:

FRIDAY 10th Jan

2nd recovery day. The boys had friends come over while Jo and I took one of the cars over to Port Noarlunga to see the new coastal walkway that had just opened there. I had thought it went from Port Noarlunga to Christie's Beach but the end bit wasn't finished so it was just a 1 km walk then back again:

Back at Port Noarlunga we decided to walk along the pier. Lots of folk jumping in to the sea and quite a few taking the short swim from the end of the pier to the reef. This is the view back towards the walkway from halfway along the pier:

It was hot again so we drove along to Christie's Beach for a refreshment and to read a chapter or two of our books. We came across the newly relocated Sand Bar, sitting right next to the beach:

SATURDAY 11th Jan

Chris and Kelly headed off to Adelaide to look at materials for their new house. I decided to take a short dip in the pool. As I was drying myself off afterwards I bent down to do my legs, not noticing how close I was to the glass surrounds which I effectively head-butted. I managed to open a gash next to my eyebrow. It was pretty sore and the bleeding took a bit of effort to staunch. Jo patched me up and Asher tried to help, bringing me a glass of iced water and a long bandage which he suggested I tie, bandana-style, round my head.

Chris' brother Matt popped round in the afternoon to catch up with us.

SUNDAY 12th Jan

Chris' Mum and Dad were arriving after lunch but before then Chris was taking Miller and Asher round to the school for some skateboard training so I went along to watch. Asher was first to try and looked like he will get the hang of it soon. Chris took the opportunity for a bit of fun and to demonstrate:

Miller had a slightly reluctant bash too:

The gash next to my eyebrow had closed up nicely overnight:

I had initially thought that I might need a stitch or two but all seems good now - thanks to nurse Jo and her paramedic Asher.

When David and Lorene arrived we drove over to Port Noarlunga for coffees etc at Beck's Bakery. As ever, it was jam-packed - it's a proper little goldmine. Jo and I decided to have ice cream - 2 scoops was way too much as it soon began to turn liquid in the heat.

We've arranged to meet David and Lorene again on Wednesday in the pretty Scottish enclave of Strathalbyn which we had assumed there was a town of that name in Scotland, but apparently not?

MONDAY 13th Jan

The start of the working week and both Chris and Kelly are now off to work. Asher has gone to OSH (daycare equivalent at the school) and we're here with Miller, whose friend is arriving at 12:30 pm

I think I'll check out Chris' and Kelly's bikes and see what needs to be done before I can go riding today or tomorrow.

That's me up to date with the diary now.

Almost there

Typical - 4 days to Christmas and Jo and I have contracted what, so far, are minor ailments - head and chest colds. Mine has persisted for 10 days - more annoying than anything, although it's uncomfortable when sleeping.  Jo has now started with similar symptoms - we wish they would go away - ideally before Xmas but certainly before we head to Oz in just over 2 weeks' time.

Since my last post I've attended our cycling group Xmas lunch and the monthly golfers' beer night. That was then followed by a day trip to Edinburgh for lunch at La Bruschetta (https://labruschetta.co.uk/) with Barry, Helen and Dawn then another lunch at the lovely Fish Shop in Ballater (https://fishshopballater.co.uk/). I forgot to take any photos in Edinburgh, but here's the other ones:

All the meals were excellent - La Bruschetta was randomly chosen, mostly for its convenient location near Haymarket station, but the Fish Shop is locally very well known - and a classy place - it has the same owners as the very upmarket Fife Arms in Braemar, which is a bit of a celebrity haunt.

So it's been a fairly heavy week for me - I need some respite before it all starts again next week.

Today is the Winter Solstice - apparently it's a moment rather than a full day - 9:21 this morning - so, in theory, the days are already getting longer. Not before time too - we currently have just under 7 hours of daylight. It has been relatively mild this week, however - the freezing conditions of the previous week have gone and are not forecast to return for a while, it seems.

21st December was also Dad's birthday - he's a virtual 104 today.

I keep most of my activity stats on the Strava app - cycling, golf and hill-walking. Every year, Strava sends a summary of what has been recorded and this is this year's:

I feel my activity level has substantially dropped off in recent years - especially since the lockdown years and also with my left knee steadily getting worse. I am definitely playing much less golf now and hill-walking has diminished and even cycling has tailed off. However, when I checked back to previous years' Strava stats, the difference is not as much as I thought it would be. Maybe I didn't record everything in previous years?

Jo and I recently treated ourselves to new i-Phones - our old ones were failing. We've both now got i-Phone 15 Plus - not the latest release from Apple (i-Phone 16), but we chose the slightly larger Plus models. Jo also replaced her activity watch - the previous one was failing. I'm in a similar situation - I think I know which one I want but just haven't pressed the button yet.

This morning we had to renew our worldwide travel insurance. Every year we have to pay age-related premiums (over 70's) plus medically related premiums. Unsurprisingly, each year it's getting dearer but given, the long holidays we have and the distances we travel, it's still worth it - and it's essential - but there will come a time when it may be prohibitive - possibly at age 80?

So, with that cheerful thought, I'll sign off. Have a good Christmas everyone - hopefully we'll manage to reach out to a few of you on the day.

December update

Not a lot to report - we had a couple of days in Renfrewshire with Brian, Mary, Julie and the boys. I even managed a rare round of golf when Brian signed me in to his "other" club at West Kilbride and we had a fine take-away curry at Julie's afterwards.

On the way back we detoured to Edinburgh to see Ross, who had recently lost his job so we persuaded him to come home to Banchory with us. We crammed some of his belongings in to the back of the car and the 3 of us headed north. As it was the last day of November we wanted to avoid another month's rent so there was a return visit to Edinburgh early the following morning. This time, to ensure maximum room for the rest of Ross' belongings, only 2 of us could go back. Jo was adamant that the flat needed a full clean before handing the keys back so it was Ross and Jo that made the return trip.

At one time it looked like there were only going to be 3 of us for Christmas this year but it now looks like there's going to be 5 of us - that's a bit more festive. Luca had originally planned to head south over the Xmas holidays to see his cousins but now that he's starting a new job he doesn't have time to go away.

Talking of Luca, he's passed the theory part of his driving test so now it's the practical one. He'll be 18 at the end of this month and will be out on the roads independently early in 2025 hopefully.

Meanwhile, down in Oz, Miller's and Asher's school made a film recently - "Robin and the Sherwood Hoodies". It was professionally done and there was a red carpet event at the local cinema for the launch of the film:

Unfortunately for Kelly, she was in New Zealand on work when this happened.

Next week, we are meeting up with Barry, Helen and Dawn in Edinburgh for lunch. We had originally planned to stay overnight but now that Ross is back here, there's no need. We had booked in to the Tynecastle Hotel at Hearts' football ground as it is very close to Ross' flat but then we heard yesterday there's going to be a match on that evening so that was another reason to cancel our overnight stay and just come back on the train that evening.

To close, another photo of Kendall - pinched from Audrey's FB page:

This brought back memories from nearly 40 years ago of little Ross sitting in a very similar car.

One more bit of news - "fence war" is back on. We had hoped that as our neighbour had now got her fence up, that would be that and we could all move on - but no such luck. Yesterday we received yet another long letter from her - hand delivered and also by recorded delivery. Merry Xmas!

Winter is coming

After a fairly prolonged mild late autumn, the temperature has dropped substantially this morning and we've been told we're now facing a week of frosty mornings and perhaps even some snow. I had to scrape the car windscreen for the first time this morning.

I got over the S & D bug I caught on the plane home from USA but I had my winter vaccinations on Monday this week - flu in the left arm and covid in the right. I got my usual adverse reaction to the latter - for the 7th time in a row. It's happened with Astra Zeneca, Pfizer and Moderna - it doesn't seem to matter which one. It was like a short dose of flu - a couple of days, then tiredness for a couple more. I need to think hard about whether or not I take the spring booster next year.

A major development in the saga of the fence. One morning, a contractors' van appeared in our neighbour's drive and a team of workers set about erecting a fence at the back of her garden - a job that the fencers we used refused to do because they felt the shifting embankment would soon bring it down. This was the scene after day 2:

The job is now complete and her contractors took away the remnants of the old fence. It's all very tidy and secure now but it looks a bit like Fort Knox. We never thought she would ever get round to making her mind up and getting a contractor to do it - but there you go. I think our action in putting our fence in annoyed her so much it jolted her into action.

We guess she must have been arranging everything when we were in USA. Anyway, so far it's all quiet - and we hope it stays that way.

Luca's got a new full-time job - starting next month at Scotbeef in Inverurie as a packer. He's also got an appointment in a couple of weeks for his written driving test. Gary's also changed employer.

I travelled to Glasgow 10 days ago for another reunion with my old school pals. Nice afternoon when I finally got there - despite Scotrail's best efforts to scupper my trip.

We spoke to Kelly on Friday - they've now taken on another rescue dog. It's just over 7 weeks now until we fly Down Under. I haven't heard any more about my knee operation but even if I get a letter tomorrow, it'll be too late. I'll have to go through the pre-med again as the last one has expired now and then there's a wait after that for the op - not to mention the fact that there has to be a 6-8 week gap before flying long haul. Looks like it'll have to be next spring/summer.

We're arranging to meet Barry, Helen and Dawn in Edinburgh for lunch when we go down to see Ross next month. Before that, we're heading to Elderslie to see Brian, Mary, Julie and the boys.

To close, a couple of wildlife photos I took on a recent walk up Scolty and a cycle:

First week back home

Our long journey home started in Oregon on Thursday and we arrived back in Aberdeenshire on Saturday afternoon. Gary picked us up at the airport:

We were pleased to be home at last but the last part of the journey had been a bit tricky - not just the usual jet lag etc, but I had picked up a bug on our travels. Without going in to too much detail, it was coming out of every orifice - I can't recall ever throwing up as much as I did that night.

I spent the next few days in bed and by midweek I was starting to recover. Unfortunately, that was when Jo started to feel worse - she was convinced she had picked up my bug and was going to go through the same symptoms. Thankfully, that turned out not to be the case.

We're both a bit better now - not 100% yet, but getting there. We weren't able to travel to Julie's fund-raising do yesterday in memory of Guy, but we're planning to join Gary and Luca for a light lunch today (Sunday).

Anyway, I'll close with a photo from the Chicago - London BA flight:

Getting ready to head home

It's Wednesday 16th October and, for the first time since we came to USA the weather has suddently turned autumnal. We had some fairly heavy rain overnight and earlier this morning but it seems to be drying up now and the temperature, although well down on the 80's and 90's F that we've seen so far - "just" 70 F (21 C) this afternoon - is still very acceptable for mid-October.

Anyway, we'll be organising our packing today as we're now leaving tomorrow (Thursday) - one day earlier than initially planned. I changed our flights last week, so, instead of flying Medford - Denver - Chicago - London - Aberdeen, leaving here at silly o'clock on Friday morning, we're breaking the journey and are stopping overnight in Chicago tomorrow, leaving Medford on a much more civilised afternoon flight.

Now to the diary:

Wednesday 9th October

Cade duly arrived and attended his eye appointment then helped/watched as Scott bled his car's brakes. He stayed overnight as he had an appointment with the tattooist on Thursday.

A Voters Pamphlet arrived at Delsie Drive:

It's a huge exercise in democracy - over 100 pages outlining details of all the resolutions being discussed at local and national level. Admirable - but the size of it makes me wonder how many people actually read it and respond. There are regular adverts on TV about a couple of the local proposals - introduction of a sales tax in Oregon and a proposal for proportional representation.

Thursday 10th October

Cade returned with his new tattoo (on his back) feeling a little tender. Audrey and Kendall arrived for a few days and in no time there were toys everywhere and Kendall was in her element:

I took a ride to refill one of the growlers.

Friday 11th October

I went out on the bike again, stopping at The Haul to rehydrate with a rare pint of cask ale - it's 95% H2O isn't it?:

Scott was on the BBQ again - ribs for dinner - even Kendall joined in:

Saturday 12th October

The day of Audrey's (slightly premature) birthday party with family and friends arriving in the afternoon, but, first, Scott and I had an early appointment with golf. Scott's friend, Stan, picked us up at 7:15 am and drove us to Stone Ridge golf course. It was a surprisingly cool start to the day but, as usual, it heated up by mid-morning. The wildlife was plentiful - lots of deer and large wild turkeys which both seemed to co-exist quite happily:

Here's Scott and Stan watching playing partner Steve tee off:

We made it back from golf before 2 pm - well before most of the guests arrived. The Oregon Ducks were playing an important (American) football match so many of the males present gathered round the TV while the girls sat at the dining room table:

I managed to get the family 4 generations together for a photo - only Cade was missing:

Sunday 13th October

The big fridge/freezer in the kitchen had come to the end of its life and needed replacement so Scott and Lucy headed off to Medford mid-morning. Kendall was on her nap but when she awoke Audrey drove the rest of us down the I-5 past Medford to Phoenix and the relatively new Phoodery (https://phoodery.com/), a street food type place. Scott and Lucy met us there and we had lunch and beers:

Monday 14th October

Sadly, it was time for Audrey and Kendall to return to Salem but before they headed north, Audrey kindly set up a photo shoot:

(Lucy still wearing her dawn dog walk gear).

Scott took his mother to her hospital appointment and then to lunch with her while Lucy took me and Jo on a Jacksonville area wine tour. First stop was the beautiful Hummingbird Estate (https://www.hummingbirdestate.com/) where we discovered they had a brewery too!:

Next stop was Rellik (https://rellikwinery.com/):

There was some lovely home-made ice cream there and we shared a pint of the Turkish Coffee flavour.

The 3rd and final stop was Dos Mariposas (https://dosmariposasvineyards.com/). We parked the car and walked through the vines to the tasting room:

Tuesday 15th October

Scott's father, Bill, arrived early to pick him up for their annual 2 week hunting trip. They would be on the road for about 9 hours, including stops - still in Oregon. All of a sudden the house was quiet again - no Scott, Audrey or Kendall.

It was Audrey's 25th birthday today - I'm 3 times her age!

Jo chose today's activity - she wanted to go back to the Jacksonville Woodland trails (https://jvwoodlands.org/) that we'd been on last year:

The return trip to Grants Pass took us through the Applegate Valley and past Pennington Farm (https://www.pennington.farm/). We had to stop for a quick bite - pear and apple turnovers and a cookie, plus another takeaway family strawberry and rhubarb pie for dinner - lovely.

That's me up to date again but to close this post here's a few more random photos:

Philly - lovely to look at but sometimes her enthusiasm gets the better of her

From a recent camping trip that Scott and Lucy took. Note new, smaller trailer and Lucy's Jeep

Kendall loves to do this with Lucy

Table Rock - Upper, I think

Hot off the press - we thought we would see Kendall walking before they left on Monday - she was so nearly doing it - but yesterday Lucy sent flowers to Audrey. Kendall loves flowers so Cade tempted her to come and get them - and she did, taking several steps to get there. Another milestone.

Another GP diary update

Friday 4th October

Jo and I decided to take a walk to downtown Grants Pass but first we drove down to Tussing Park, cutting off the more boring part of the journey. We crossed the pedestrian bridge over the Rogue river, stopping first of all for the obligatory photo:

Along the river path then through the suburbs - now time for ice cream. The Soda Fountain did the job.

Saturday 5th October

I decided it was time to get out on the bike again and so I went for another wander round GP, stopping at Riverside park for a quick selfie:

Then it was downtown again - it was Saturday Grower's Market day:

It was a busy day downtown because it was also the annual Art on the Rogue day when streets are cordoned off and artists are invited to use the tarmac as a backdrop for their chalk - and occasionally, paint - work. Scott, Lucy and Jo hadn't seen this so we all went back in the afternoon to walk round the ever-expanding exhibits, after which we drove out to Applegate bridge and had dinner at a beautiful spot on the patio at the Lindsay Lodge, overlooking the river and the steel box bridge:

Sunday 6th October

The day of the annual Wine Walk in aid of breast cancer charities at Del Rio winery. Lucy's pal, Shari, had to pull out so Jo was the super-sub. We dropped them off and Scott and I went for a few holes of golf nearby:

A little surprisingly the girls finished before we did and by the time we got back to Del Rio to pick them up at least one of them was a little squiffy - and chuffed that she'd managed to complete the 3 mile hike round the winery and not (quite) be last!

Monday 7th October

Quiet day. Jo and I went to the 11:30 am showing of the latest Joker movie. When we arrived we thought the cinema must be closed - there were no cars in the car park and little sign of life until we entered the building. We bought our tickets and a Diet Coke to share. Jo had made up a couple of sandwiches for us as the food there is pretty gross, and she had put them in the bottom of her back pack with her jumper on top. Jo must have been feeling a little guilty as she then asked for a small carton of popcorn. Sure enough, one of the staff asked to look in to her bag - company policy she said - but Jo bluffed her way through it and the two of us then skulked in to a completely empty movie theater - the first time either of us had watched a full film at the cinema with nobody else present.

We decided to drive down to Medford after the movie to get a gift for Audrey's birthday next week - and one for little Kendall too.

Tuesday 8th October

Back to Table Rock again but this time Jo and I took on Lower Table Rock, which sits almost adjacent to Upper Table Rock which Barry, Helen and I had hiked. The names are a little confusing - they don't refer to the height of the plateaus, but rather to their location along the Rogue river. Both are just over 2,000 feet above sea level - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_and_Lower_Table_Rock - but the actual height climbed, according to my Strava stats, shows the Lower one had 242 m of climbing while the Upper one had just 228 m. Certainly, the Lower one is a bit harder as there are more straight uphill stretches whilst the Upper one is virtually all gentle zig-zags.

Anyway, with the promise of a visit to Dairy Queen, Jo successfully made it to the top:

We did a drive-through at Dairy Queen and each had a medium "Blizzard" - Jo's being the seasonal Pumpkin Pie flavour. We never learn - they were very nice at the time but we really should have just shared a small one as we suffered a bit afterwards.

Wednesday 9th October

We await the arrival of Cade today - he's coming down to Grants Pass for an eye test etc and while he's here, Scott's going to do some maintenance on his car - bleeding the brakes etc. Cade goes back to work tomorrow and Audrey arrives here for a few days, including a birthday party for her on Saturday, with Scott's family joining too.