Bad night all round

This morning's sad sight after an overnight visit to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary A & E:

The sequence of events was - bear with me, it's a longish story:

    (1) Open Reach were doing further work at the entrance to Arbor Court earlier this week - hopefully installing full fibre connections. It meant digging up part of the road and installing temporary traffic lights on the main road. As a result, the entrance to Arbor Court was considerably narrowed - just wide enough for a car, but no more.

    (2) Our bins get collected on Wednesday mornings but the lorry couldn't get through the narrow gap. So, on Thursday we all took our bins back from the bottom of our driveways as we figured they wouldn't get emptied now until next week.

    (3) Meanwhile, I'm doing a bit of painting in our front room, where the wood burner was installed. So I've got the big protective sheet on the floor and round the wood burner to prevent any drips landing on it.

    (4) So, Friday night, prior to the critical Scotland - Morocco World Cup match, we're sitting in our back room watching TV when, about 9 pm, our doorbell rings. We look at each other - who could that be? Jo didn't move but I got up and went down to answer the door. It was Katherine, our friendly neighbour at number two. She had phoned the Council to explain the situation re. the entrance to our road and how the bin lorry couldn't get in on Wednesday but now it was all clear again - could they come back? Surprisingly the Council said yes, so Katherine was going round all the neighbours and telling them to put their bins back.

    (5) After I wheeled the bins down to the end of the drive again, I looked up and there was Jo on our balcony. She hadn't wanted to go down and answer the door but she was nosy - and impatient - and wanted to find out what was happening.

    (6) All good so far, but, a few minutes later, Jo wasn't back in her usual seat in the back room but, as I passed the doors to the front room, I thought I could hear a faint groaning sound so I went in to investigate and there was Jo lying flat out on the floor, having tripped herself up on the large protective dust sheet. She was obviously in some pain - I helped her to her feet and noticed a stain on the knee area of her jeans. I took her upstairs to take the jeans off and have a closer look. There was a deep gash on her knee and I suggested it needed stitches. Jo said no - it was alright - it wasn't gushing blood at this stage.

    (7) So, a little reluctantly, with Ross' help, I put various elastoplasts on to hopefully secure the wound and put an elastic stocking on top as extra security. Hopefully that would keep it sound until the morning when we could re-examine and decide whether to head to A & E then or not.

    (8) Jo sat up in bed watching TV and Ross and I went back downstairs to start watching the match (which kicked off at 11 pm our time). Just before half time, Jo had a change of heart - her knee was now oozing blood and it had stained the duvet cover, so Ross offered to take Jo to A & E.

    (9) They must have arrived at ARI about midnight - sat in the waiting room until about 1 am then were eventually seen by a nurse who confirmed that the wound needed stitches - but the bad news was that they were short staffed and the waiting time would be a further 6 hours!

    (10) I was keeping in touch with Jo via WhatsApp and, given the news, we felt I, at least, should try and get a bit of sleep, so at 2 am I headed to bed.

    (11) It was 7 am this morning when Jo and Ross returned - both heading straight to bed.

What a night - and, to boot, Scotland narrowly lost!

On more pleasant subjects, here's a couple of recent photos from Salem, OR:

Kennedy looks a bit surprised

Kendall and Lola having balloon fun

The Hanson clan have been gathering in Toronto for the last couple of weeks for Brian's brother David's son Scott's wedding. Brian, Mary, Julie, Tom, Sam and Leo are now all back in Scotland but it looks like they had a great time there. We love this photo of them all on the staircase:

The happy couple at the top, with proud Mum Sherie next to Mary and Sherie's amazing Dad, Fred, between the two of them. Not hard to spot Brian's brother David either.

To close, Jo and I took a trip to Aberdeen on Thursday to hunt for accessories for our new wood burner. We had coffee at Greyhope Bay in a former container that has been turned in to a delightful coffee shop with super views over Aberdeen Harbour to watch the dolphins cavorting. They even provide binoculars - not that you need them as there were so many putting on a display that you couldn't miss them.

Here's Jo outside the coffee shop:

It's Midsummer this weekend in Scotland - Midwinter down in Oz - and there's a heatwave all over Europe including the south of England, but Scotland has mostly missed out on it, although it appears that things are heating up here for the next little while. It's also peak golf season and our group has loads of outings coming up:

    - Midsummer Outing at Edzell on Monday

    - Balmoral the following Monday

    - Summer Tour at Seahouses, Northumberland 5-7 July

    - St. Andrews 7 August

    - Boat of Garten 16/17 August

    - Aboyne 28 August

and then we're off to USA. It's a daunting schedule but having had to miss out on most of it for the last couple of years I'm keen to give it a go - albeit my new knee is still not 100% - this will be a good test for it.

Lots of other stuff happening over the next couple of months too - a trip to Crail for their festival (28 July), another school reunion (30 July), Headbang (24 July) plus CAMRA meetings and, not to forget,  my next dental surgery on 3rd July. Whew.

Flamin' June

Well, it's June now but you'd hardly know it. Barring a couple of short exceptions, May and June, which are normally better weather months in Scotland, have been very disappointing so far - and there's only another 10 days or so until Midsummer.

We've had the light nights of course - there's only a few hours of darkness at this time of year. On the plus side we've finally had some much-needed rain but it's come in fits and starts - some of the showers have been heavy enough to force drain covers up and cause holes in the road surfaces.

There have also been a few freak, localised hailstorms - play was briefly suspended at the Old Course at St. Andrews, which was completely white for an hour or so - and Luca showed us his photos and videos of similar in Oldmeldrum where he works.

On medical matters, my new knee is still not 100% but I have managed to have 4 or 5 games of golf recently, so that's at least a bit of progress. After a long lay-off, I feel like I'm having to re-learn how to play golf - I seem to have no muscle memory at all.

On the dental front I have to undergo more surgery next month before my new implant can be fully installed - and the temporary tooth has now fallen out twice so I'm back to my "toothless" grin.

My previous blog showed the initial work done on our front room fireplace prior to the installation of the wood burner. Here's how it progressed:

We discovered that our chimney(s) were not centred with the wall so there was a bit of on the day decision making before the work could proceed. The exciting part was when the cherrypicker arrived, taking two of the men up on to our roof:

It's now over to us - a bit of paint required and we have to decide whether to get a new fire-safe fireplace or mantlepiece. Additionally, a heat powered fan, external and fireside log holders, logs, kindling, firelighters, shovel, ash caddy etc etc.

The work was completed in 3 days - 2 days less than they'd allowed for. They finished on the Wednesday - just in time as we had a planned all-day power outage the day after.

The following week saw our golfers' monthly beer night at Ian Dring's:

Two days after that we were out for dinner again with Leslie and Anne Mason - for the first time since the Derbar closed last October. It used to be a regular monthly thing - with 3 couples - but, sadly Johanne's Parkinson's is now keeping her housebound so she and Colin can no longer join us. We went to the Saffron Garden for dinner - different from the Derbar, but acceptable.

Our regular walking group went on our first walk this year - a fairly gentle one up to the former hamlet of Auchtavan which used to be a regular place for the former Queen Mother to visit - although I couldn't exactly picture her walking up the hill - the Royal Landrovers would have been busy then. We had beers afterwards at the Invercauld Mews in nearby Braemar:

I was back at Braemar a week later - golfing this time - coolish but thankfully dry. On the return to Banchory, however, the temperature steadily increased to a sunny 20 C, so Jo, Ross and I popped round to the Tor-na-Coille and had a couple of early evening drinks in their garden:

Walking past the Episcopal church a couple of days later, I was impressed by their colourful garden:

Later this year it's the 10th anniversary of River Dee Radio so we had a planning meeting on Monday to discuss a celebratory event. The following night was a CAMRA branch meeting, held at the delightful New Inn in Aberchirder - known locally as "Foggie" (short for Foggieloan). It's a brewpub with a wide range of ales, 5 of them on at all times. Excellent pies and pizza - and it was traditional music night when musicians from all over descend on the inn.

Logistics were tricky however - Aberchirder is very rural - over an hour north of Banchory with no realistic bus or rail services. How would I get there - and back? I finally came up with a plan which involved Ross driving me over to Inverurie where I would get picked up by a fellow CAMRA member who would act as designated driver that evening and would take me back to Inverurie later on.

Jo made a late decision to join Ross and wait for me at Gary's house. They ended up going out for a meal with Gary and Luca, so all good in the end.

Talking of CAMRA, it's our local branch's 50th anniversary later this year and we're getting a local brewery to produce a commemorative brew for the occasion. I'll be co-ordinating this with Dave at Braemar Brewing.

We're very pleased to see that our newest great grand-daughter Kennedy seems to be faring well. She certainly looks very happy in this photo:

To finish, somebody posted one of our class photos on our old school's Facebook page recently. Can you spot me?:

Mid-May update

Well, it's May but it doesn't feel like it. Normally one of the best months of the year in Scotland, but, although, it's remained pretty dry, the temperature, with a couple of brief exceptions, has been lower than expected. We're told that it's going to change later on this week - I do hope that's right.

The good news from Oregon is that we have a new great-grand-daughter. Kennedy Ann arrived at the weekend. Lucy was there to help Audrey and Cade but we haven't managed to video call yet - just the following photo so far:

Kendall and Cade both look very happy to greet her.

Medical matters - my new knee is still not fully healed but it has improved a little - I've even taken my first (very) tentative steps back on the golf course. I've also stopped going to my twice weekly physiotherapy exercise sessions - I feel I've gone far enough there now. I'm still doing my daily exercise routines at home and I may now consider re-joining the gym.

One of my pals passed me an interesting article from Private Eye magazine about some potential scam about knee replacement parts in the NHS:

The issue is with one particular knee replacement part that was used in the NHS from 2012. My first knee replacement took place in November, 2013 when I was still working so had private health insurance, with the operation done at Albyn Hospital. Hopefully they weren't using the same prothesis as the NHS - and I've not had any issues with that knee anyway in over 12 years.

My second knee replacement last year was done by NHS at Woodend Hospital, but, as the article says, "Many patients haven't got a clue what prothesis they are carrying".

On the dental side, the stitches in my gum have now been removed but it appears my gum-line has further receded and the dental surgeon may have to cut them again. He will review matters next week and, if he feels it necessary, it'll be another month after that before the next procedure. On the plus side, he has put a temporary bridge/tooth in and I now have a full smile again:

That photo was taken on one of the few warmer days we've had - it was so good I decided to cycle along the Deeside Way to and from Aberdeen for my dental appointment - 61 kms in all.

Jo and I had appointments last week for our spring Covid vaccinations. Jo took the jab but I had cancelled the day before. That's the last two appointments I've cancelled after suffering pretty adverse reactions to the previous half-dozen or so. When it comes to the winter top-up I'll have another decision to make then.

My annual eye test went well however - no change to my prescription although she did say that I now failed the distance test for driving (without glasses) - that's a first for me. I wear my spectacles virtually all the time now anyway.

Well done to Lauren for completing the London Marathon - the largest ever.

We were round at our friends Archie & Eileen Cook's for dinner on Friday - and very nice it was too. I think it's the first dinner party we've been to since Covid when socialising came to an abrupt halt - thankfully fairly short-lived.

Kelly was working over in Perth, WA and they decided to make it a short trip for all 4 of them. They were staying in "Freo" - as the Aussies call it - Fremantle to us - not far from the Little Creatures brewery, where this photo was taken:

Back in 2012, before Miller and Asher were born, we were there. One of the few photos I have of all 4 of us on that trip, was taken at the Monk, now sadly no longer in existence:

Miller seems to be having an interesting time at his new school in the Hills. They recently went to visit a robotics factory:

Miller's the only one in shorts (it's autumn there) - he doesn't like wearing "long pants"

This week we are having the (decommissioned) gas fire in our front room replaced by a wood burner. Sadly, we had to lose our nice fireplace surround and mantlepiece. This is what it now looks like mid-Monday morning:

When the workmen took the fireplace surround out they found an old postcard from Lucy, back in 1997, in the early days of moving to USA:

We've had notice from SSEN that they're going to cut our power off all day on Thursday while they do some essential cable work. We need to be well organised - everything fully charged beforehand, dig out the old primus stove for cups of tea and eat out. 

April blog

Hello - it's been over a month since my last post so here goes with trying to remember what happened when.

Starting with a medical update - my new knee still hasn't completely settled down and it's coming up to 9 months now since the operation - very disappointing. My other knee took only 3-4 months but this one is lingering. I'm still attending physio exercises twice weekly and doing daily exercises in-house - ones from local physios and also from the physio I visited in Adelaide, for which I've got a neat app on which I record the exercises I've done. Slight signs of improvement, but, annoyingly, I've alrady missed the first month of the golf season.

My other issue has been the tooth implant that broke in half last year. I'd had the assessments, quotes and scans but just under 2 weeks ago it was time for the long operation to try to remove the piece that was stuck in my gum. It had been there for 14 years so skin and bone had grown around it. I had been asked to book a 3 hour appointment so I knew it wasn't going to be much fun.

A dozen injections helped ease the immediate pain but there was, of course, an aftermath to consider. The work was beyond the skills of my usual dentist and he had referred me to a specialist in Aberdeen, who happens to sponsor Aberdeen Football Club. He cut my gums and peeled them back to get access to the area and he managed to get a screw in to the old post and reverse it out after a lot of pulling and pushing. A new hole had to be made for the new implant post and he then had to bone graft the old area.

After a couple of hours on my back with my mouth open, I was given antibiotics and pain killers and sent on my way. I have to go back there this Thursday to have all the stitches removed. After that, once the gums have fully healed, in a few months' time I'll have a full toothy smile again!

The aftermath involved a lot of swelling and bruising but it seems to have settled down now. This was me 2 days after the op, trying, in vain, to smile:

That was just the start of the bruising coming out - it eventually extended from my eye to my neck.

I wasn't the only Stewart under the knife - Barry had an eye operation to scrape the membrane at the back of the retina:

Barry's pretty much recovered now.

Jo and I have had our annual cardiac reviews (which are far less thorough than they used to be) and all seems OK, apart from Jo having to go back and have her bloods done again next week as her sodium level seemed a bit off.

Jo, Ross and I had a nice evening meal at the Tor-na-Coille on her birthday. It had been a beautiful day so, when Jo was out for coffee with her pal Anne, I decided to go for a walk and test my knee a bit with a (very) slow hike up Scolty Hill:

Two days later, we drove out to Kemnay to have dinner with Gary and Luca at Bennachie Lodge Hotel (https://www.bennachielodge.co.uk) - and very nice it was too.

On the last Saturday of March, our local branch of CAMRA held its AGM at the Legion - and took the opportunity to present the local Club of the Year plaque - again!:

I spotted a Facebook post from the Montessori school in the Adelaide Hills. They were having a Twilight Market and all the pupils were cooking the food for the family visitors. Here's Miller serving and making pizza:

And, even though it was a rear view, I spotted Kelly and Chris, deep in conversation with the local Fire Officer:

And what about Asher? Here he is at home with his artistic presentation of a watermelon drink:

Back in Scotland, the bad weather in the North East early in the year caused postponements of lots of outdoor activities (apart from ski-ing) - including Luca's football matches with Kintore United Amateurs. As a result, they've since been playing catch-up with 2 games most weeks. Here's Luca (in yellow on the left) in a recent match against Theologians:

We drove down to Glasgow a couple of weeks ago as I had arranged 2 separate meet-ups with old pals. The first was one of my regular catch-ups with old school pals from Victoria Drive. At the previous meeting last year, Jo had travelled with me to Glasgow city centre where I got off and she drove on to Elderslie to meet up with Mary. She had a bit of a nightmare then and vowed never to repeat it, so this time, she suggested dropping me off at one of the subway stations on Paisley Road West as she knew her way from there.

I did as I was told and got on the "Clockwork Orange" at Cessnock and made the short journey back from there to the city centre:

Nothing could possibly go wrong for Jo now - I had parked the car on Paisley Road, facing the right direction, switched on the sat nav and handed over the car keys. No more to be said.

Our school reunion went well - only 5 of us this time as we had recently lost one of our number, so we made a toast to our old friend Donnie:

After spending the night at Brian and Mary's, we headed off to Cameron House, Loch Lomond, to meet up with another old friend who I hadn't seen for over 50 years, but, first, we made a pit stop at Barry and Helen's to see how his recovery from his eye op was going.

Roddy MacLeod had done his C.A. education at the same time as me and we used to meet up regularly socially. We were on holiday together with 2 other pals down in Torbay in 1969 at the time of the moon landings, although we all struggled to stay awake after midnight in our little caravan. Roddy (and his wife Carole) were at our wedding in 1972, as were a number of my pals:

That's Roddy with the beard, kneeling beside me bottom right. I'd dug out some old photos to reminisce with him - including this one. Now I'm embarrased to admit that, although I know everyone else, I can't remember one of the group above - top row, 3rd from left. Sadly, Roddy was no help here either.

The following week we were on our travels again - this time to Pitlochry for Dawn's much-belated 70th birthday celebrations. We stayed at the grand old Atholl Palace Hotel (AthollPalace.com):

The five of us walked up to the nearby Moulin Hotel/Inn (https://www.moulinhotel.co.uk/) for lunch, had dinner at our hotel and visited various shops, coffee houses and the Pitlochry Festival Theatre (where Alan Cumming is now Artistic Director) over the 2 days. I remembered just in time to take a team photo before we left:

Meanwhile, what's happening in Oregon? You'll never believe it - they've all taken up fishing! Here's Lucy with her first ever catch all by herself:

The Easter bunny had been:

As you can see, Audrey is now well on her way. We're looking forward to seeing great grand-daughter number two in September.

We've finally committed to having a wood burner in the front room to replace the old gas fire. Installation will take place week commencing 18th May. It's going to be a major change to the appearance of the front room as the existing fire surrounds and mantlepiece will have to go.

This has been a long blog diary catch-up - I'll try to make future ones shorter. I'll close with a photo from our latest monthly golfers' beer night at Ian Dring's man shed:

First post home

It's exactly 3 weeks ago today that we boarded BA 012 from Singapore so I thought it was about time for an update on what's been happening.

Dealing first of all with my new(est) knee, which I feared had regressed after initially progressing well. Whether that was caused by November's regular gym work or, more likely, the lack of any exercise for most of December when I was ill, I'm not sure, but, suffice to say, it was giving me some grief when we were on holiday so Kelly kindly arranged a physio appointment for me (the day before we left Adelaide).

I was encouraged by the thorough work and analysis done by the Aussie physio - he reckoned it was mostly muscle contracture and tightness and he gave me a series of 5 daily exercises, 3 of which required the use of a foam roller, so I quickly ordered one on Amazon and it arrived in Banchory the same day we did.

In parallel with this, I've since been attending twice weekly NHS physio classes in Banchory and Aboyne. I am now showing sight signs of improvement at last, although it's disappointing that I still won't be ready to take up golf again when the season starts in just over a week.

Friday 27th February

Ross met us at ABZ and we were home again mid-morning. We made a token start to the unpacking. Surprisingly, my sleep pattern adjusted almost immediately - that's never happened before - but Jo took a bit more adjusting.

Saturday 28th February

Much unpacking, sorting and cleaning of clothes but I also began to detect that our kitchen sink wasn't draining properly. Ross and me tried everything we knew to clear it but it wouldn't budge with the usual plunger etc treatment. I reverted to Screwfix and their SCRUBB Drain Unblocker. Still no joy.

Sunday 1st March

Further attempts at unblocking kitchen sink - all unsuccessful.

Monday 2nd March

A sad day - one of my old school friends had died (brain tumour) when we were away and it was his funeral in Stirling today. Jo and I drove down, attended the service at the crem. but skipped the purvey as there was a huge crowd there and the family would never manage to get round everyone.

Tuesday 3rd March

A trip to Aberdeen for me to see the dental specialist who would try to fix the implant that broke a few months ago. The difficulty is getting the remains of the implant still in my gum out - but out it must come as it is now showing early signs of infection. Scans and X-rays were taken and my next appointment will be a 3 hour long surgery - a physical and financial big OUCH.

More enjoyable was a quick meet up with some pals at our Tuesday coffee morning, followed in the afternoon by a reasonable cycle, ending up back at our monthly golfers' beer session:

I'd missed quite a few of these sessions recently so it was good to be back.

Wednesday 4th March

Another coffee morning - different group - followed by an online (to Aboyne) physio session.

Thursday 5th March

Despite more and stronger treatments over the last few days, the kitchen sink drain remained stubbornly blocked so it was time to call out the professionals. "No bother" he said - "be out of here in half an hour". Wishful thinking. He was baffled - his electric "snake" was 25 feet long but still it wouldn't clear. He was considering going out to buy a 50 foot snake but, first, I took him downstairs and out to the back garden where he eyed a drain outlet. As soon as he started to release the cap, fluid slowly started appearing - eureka! When the cap came off completely, it was like something out of a horror movie as this "fatberg", which seemed to have a mind of its own, slithered out of the drain under its own steam. I wish I'd taken a video but all I've got was this still photo, which doesn't really do it justice:

Friday 6th March

My 77th birthday - and my car was getting its annual M.o.T. I got one surprise when our troublesome neighbour addressed me as I was about to drive away. We hadn't been on speaking terms for a while but she was very pleasant and politely told me that some of the excess water etc from yesterday's drain clearance had seeped in to a bit of her garden. "Just to let you know" she smiled - but there was a hint of menace when she also mentioned that "we've still to sort out the back". Thanks, I said and drove away.

We paid a short visit to Johanne in nearby Glen o' Dee hospital.

Sat/Sun 7th/8th March

Jo and I got to work on clearing up the residue, post fatberg, making sure no more could seep in to next door. Otherwise, pretty quiet - back to the old routine - Jo online to Mary and me meeting Colin for a couple of beers on Saturday afternoon.

Monday 9th March

I finally got to join the physio class at Banchory

Tuesday 10th March

Coffee morning and an afternoon cycle with Keith.

Wednesday 11th March

Our former footballers group used to meet every Friday night and if it was your birthday etc you had to buy a "rake" of drams for all. Nowadays the Friday night sessions are infrequent but we do now meet every Wednesday morning for coffees, cakes - and egg rolls for some. In my absence, birthdays were now celebrated here instead of Fridays - so it was my round:

Then on to Aboyne for my physio class and, in the evening, in to Aberdeen for the monthly CAMRA branch meeting.

Thursday 12th March

Nothing much to report - Jo went for coffee with Anne and I worked on more shows for River Dee Radio.

Friday 13th March

One of our thrice-yearly "Headbang" evenings at Dave's with others tuning in online from Ross-shire, Berwickshire,  the Midlands and as far away as Christchurch, New Zealand where it was only breakfast-time:

Saturday 14th March

Just the usual.

Sunday 15th March

Mother's Day. Morning is when I go to Morrison's for a few essentials and Jo goes to church. While we're both out, Gary arrives, armed with a stack of presents for his Mum plus some for my birthday. It was a flying visit so I never saw him but he popped in to church for the last few minutes and saw Jo when she came out afterwards.

Mon/Tue 16th/17th March

Usual routine - physio Monday, coffees Tuesday.

Wednesday 18th March

No coffees for me this morning because Jo and I were going to Crossroads, by Lumphanan to see about possibly replacing the gas fire in our front room with a wood burning stove. We know what we would like now but there are a few technicalities to sort out first.

I still made it to my Aboyne physio class.

Thursday 19th March

Yet another brilliantly sunny morning. The weather has been very kind to us since we've been back - not really warm yet but improving and dry and bright - I'll take that. I decided it was time to wash the car.

When we were away, we were very aware of the awful weather that stuck around NE Scotland for a few weeks. After the snow, there were weeks of rain and our neighbour's back garden clearly shows that - it's still mostly under water. One upshot of that, combined with the heavy leaf fall from the trees out front, is that the street drains are completely blocked. I've tried to clear them but it's beyond me, I'm afraid, so I contacted the Council, knowing full well what their answer would likely be - and they confirmed they can't do anything as our road is not adopted.

So I then contacted another Council department to enquire what the procedure is to adopt a private road and got a reply by email this morning. In short, it's difficult and could be expensive - and we would need the other residents to support it. Additionally, even if we did all this and the Council finally agreed, we would get our drains cleared OK but they might want to put street lighting in as well - and I'm not sure we, let alone the other residents, would want this.

Coming up

Jo's birthday tomorrow and she, Ross and me are having dinner at the Tor-na-Coille tomorrow night. On Sunday, we're heading to Kemnay's Bennachie Lodge Hotel  to do likewise with Gary and Luca.

Back in Bridgewater

Thursday 19th February

A wind-down day for us but we took a walk along the railway line to the local shopping centre and had our first coffee at the local cafe there - quaint, but nice. We'd taken our books with us and sat in the nearby park for a while, reading:

Friday 20th February

Our first visit to the Adelaide Fringe this year had been organised by Kelly - a gin cruise along the Torrens. Chris was at a pre-arranged gig so, with Matt sitting with the boys, it was just the 3 of us that drove in to the city to pick up our cruise vessel:

It was a lovely evening - much better than last year's slightly subdued affair but definitely not as riotous as the time, 2 or 3 years ago, when the staff gave up trying to control the audience and the measures and just dumped bottles of gin on the table and walked away!:

After the cruise finished we walked, a little unsteadily, to one of the central venues of the Fringe - The Garden of Unearthly Delights, where Kelly organised some Bao Buns (look it up) to help sober us up:

Saturday 21st February

Big responsibility tonight - Kelly and Chris were going out on the town and staying in a hotel, so we were in sole charge of the boys overnight. As we expected, all went well with the boys who are no trouble at all. Miller, having just returned from a few days away at school camp, was, naturally, a little tired:

Sunday 22nd February

Kelly had a board meeting in the city but Chris came home after a morning's clothes shopping. We had another Fringe show to go to in the evening - The Dark Side of the Moon - Immersive Worlds. It was the same show Jo and I had seen at the Edinburgh Fringe a decade or more ago. Held in a dome with moving images, set to Pink Floyd's classic album, displayed on the roof and around us as we lay on  beanbags on the floor. Some of the videos moved so fast that Jo had to shut her eyes or she would have been sick!

Chris, Jo and I stopped off at brewpub nearby for drinks before the gig:

It was a little disappointing and we were getting hungry - but running out of time. We were right beside Chinatown and Chris knew a place that would do some dumplings for us quickly - so that's where we went - and Kelly showed up, just in time to share a few of them.

Monday 23rd February

Chris had kindly caught the bus to work and left a car for us so that we could meet up with his Mum and Dad again in the pretty rural town of Strathalbyn. I was also on the school runs today - strict schedule - leave the house at 8:15 am - drop Miller off first, then Asher - return to pick up Jo and head to Strathalbyn. We had coffee with David and Lorene, then a wander round the town, followed by a stop at one of the bakeries to partake of Aussie pies:

We parted company just after 2 pm, in good time to pick up Asher at 3:10 pm, followed by Miller at 3:30 pm, then back to Bridgewater.

We were out again just after 6 pm for dinner at the Bridgewater Inn where Matt joined the 6 of us, so it was another Steele farewell after our meal.

Tuesday 24th February

Our last full day in the Adelaide Hills. I was doing the school runs again - Jo stayed behind to pack, launder and make sure we were organised for our early departure tomorrow. We both managed a bit more book-reading in between.

The good news is that the sale of their former house in Old Noarlunga was confirmed today - a big step forward for Chris and Kelly. Now they can concentrate on the new house build.

Wednesday 25th February

We had said our goodbyes to Chris, Miller and Asher the previous evening but we had tearful farewells with Kelly when our Uber arrived to take us to the airport not long after 5 am.

Two flights today - first, Adelaide to Darwin - quick layover then Darwin to Singapore, arriving there about 4 pm local time. We were again staying at Maxwell Reserve, the beautiful, colonial themed hotel we had stayed at on our first stop back in early January. The Club Lounge there is lovely - and our food and drinks complimentary.

Thursday 26th February

We had a full day in Singapore today as our flight to London didn't leave until 11:15 pm in the evening. We wanted to make the most of this little bonus day - we had a late check-out of 4 pm at our hotel - so we headed to the Unesco heritage Botanic Gardens - not by taxi or Grab (their Uber) but using their MRT (underground train service).

We had difficulty at first finding our local MRT station but from there onwards it got really easy. How efficient, clean and tidy the whole city/island/country is - no rubbish to be seen anywhere.

We spent 3 or 4 hours in the Gardens, a good bit of it in the wonderful Orchid centre:

We gave ourselves just enough time for a bit of lunch before heading back to the hotel to shower, change and check out. We had sussed how to use the MRT system now, showing off a little as we used 3 separate interchanges to get us over to Clarke Quay and a return visit to Brewerkz. Jo had missed out on her preferred choice of German sausages on our last visit but not this time:

After we checked out of our room we had the opportunity to partake of some more goodies in the Club Lounge but we were neither greedy nor hungry at this stage so we spent the 3 hours or so reading before our "Grab" arrived to take us to the airport - one of the finest we've ever been to - and certainly the most effiicient.

Another 3 hours in the BA lounge and finally we were on our way to London. Amazingly, I think I managed to sleep for a good few hours after our onboard meal, but Jo wasn't quite as lucky.

Friday 27th February

We arrived in London a little earlier than scheduled and sailed through immigration and security in time to allow us to visit the BA lounge (north) which was, unusually, relatively quiet. Mind you, it was only 5 am.

The flight to Aberdeen also arrived there a little early and Ross was there to take us back to Banchory.

So that is my 2026 Down Under holiday blog diary complete (and I'm still awake). It was a different kind of holiday this year, split effectively in to 8 different parts - Singapore, Darwin, Adelaide, Gold Coast, Adelaide again, Yorke, Adelaide (3) then finally and briefly, Singapore.