That Friday feeling again

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yes - another week's work almost complete. A few hours in the office then home for lunch. Mary and Brian will be there, so we're planning to head down to Aboyne for some golf this afternoon - weather permitting - then meet up at the Potarch Hotel for supper.

Golf at Banchory on Saturday and Sunday - two tournaments that Brian is playing in with me. I'll be ready for a rest on Sunday. I can almost feel my legs - especially my knee - groaning now.

Nothing much to report on the medical front, despite Jo being back at the Doctor's for a follow-up on Wednesday, and me having my annual check-up with the cardiologist last night. They still haven't quite got to the bottom of why Jo has been getting these pains in her chest/ribs, and it's really just more of the same treatment, plus regular monitoring.

Nothing much has changed with my heart either. I still have AF, of course - always will have - it never goes away - but there's been no great change over the last year. The cardiologist says my heart is still strong - it's just the irregular rhythm that presents the risk of stroke, particularly as I get older. They play the statistical game and they reckon that 65 is about the time that I will need to consider changing from my existing daily baby aspirin on to a stronger blood thinner.

Until now, this has usually meant taking Warfarin, but I have an aversion to this after what happened to Mum when she had her fall. They couldn't get the coagulant to work in time to operate. My cardiologist says that by next year I should be able to get my GP to agree to prescribe the new drug they now have to replace Warfarin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dabigatran). It's more expensive, but a number of NHS areas are now prescribing it, so I'm hopeful my GP can be persuaded to do so next year as well.

Warfarin requires regular monitoring of blood and can interfere with other drugs. The new drug doesn't require any monitoring and no reactions with other drugs have yet been recorded. It usually doesn't need a coagulant antidote as it doesn't cause bleeding like Warfarin does - although they do say that if you do bleed, there's currently no antidote to stop it!

In other news, Ross was round last night and he was telling us his flatmate (who has paid his share of the rent) is finally back in Banchory and is planning to move in over the next few days. That'll mean a bit of a change to Ross' lifestyle - he's been on his own in the flat for a couple of months now. He did have a temporary lodger for a few days however - a girl who worked in the Douglas, but had a bad time with her violent boyfriend, who made the local news when the police came to take him away - http://www.deesidepiper.co.uk/news/local-headlines/police-present-at-banchory-square-1-3053870

To finish, it was Barry's 59th birthday yesterday. He's looking forward to getting his bus pass next year! Here's he and Helen earlier on this year:

Has he changed much since they were married back in 1994?:

Fringe weekend then back to work

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

After working from home on Friday morning, we set off to catch the train at Stonehaven at lunchtime, first of all picking up the Kilgours, who were joining us for a weekend's Fringe-ing in Edinburgh.

We had a mini-crisis trying to get in to the apartment we had booked. Entry was by a couple of keys and a password, which I didn't appear to have. All was eventually sorted after a couple of frantic phone calls, so we then headed back up town to check out where our first show was.

Walking up Leith Walk, we came to the big roundabout at Picardy Place and spotted a statue I had never noticed before:

On George St., it was called Johnnie Walker's Guest Night, when the Radio 2 DJ interviewed a well-known celebrity - tonight it was the impressionist John Culshaw - and he was very good at it, although the "interview" lacked a little fluency in places.

We had time for dinner at a Thai restaurant - http://www.phuket-pavilion.co.uk/index.html - and then went for a couple of beers before our late show - Bangalore Rock, which, surprisingly, didn't feature even the slightest flavour of Indian or Eastern influences. Tight band, however.

On Saturday morning, we had brunch at Cafe Marlayne on Leith St., then walked towards the Royal mile to take in some street shows, then picked up an unplanned show, which turned out to be very good - Lead Pencil. When we came out, we spotted another Sherlock connection at the University:

Music next - http://www.johnhunt.org/festival.html. Sort of like Seasick Steve, but it was warm downstairs in the Jazz Cafe.

We made a quick stop at the BrewDog bar in the Cowgate then off to the next show - A Brief History of Beer - this was what we called our "Jesus" moment, recalling a cringeworthy solo show of the same name a few years ago. Some interesting facts, but the fast-paced Star Trek presentation was all wrong - but it was a free show after all.

We found a nice little bistro with an outdoor walled garden and had dinner there before our last show of the day:

Hardeep Singh Kohli was very funny early on when talking about growing up as a Sikh in Glasgow, but when he moved on to the subject matter of his show, which was titled Hardeep is Your Love - even now, I can't get the Bee Gees' damned tune out of my head - he rambled a bit and seemed to lose the thread a little.

On Sunday we had nothing planned. We took breakfast outdoors at a little cafe just off the Royal Mile then just wandered up the temporarily pedestrianised High St. and took in some of the free street shows:

Colin, Jo & Johanne watch the slack wire performer from a vantage point.

We then stumbled across Gladstone's Land (http://www.nts.org.uk/Property/Gladstones-Land/), which gave us an opportunity to use our National Trust membership cards for the first time for a while.

Coffee and scones next at The Hub (http://www.thehub-edinburgh.com/), after which we wandered up to the Castle, where Colin took this photo:

I should explain here that Jo is trying to tell Colin to raise the lens higher to take in the Castle ramparts. I decided I had to take over:

From up here, we could see out across the Firth of Forth to Fife:

The stands for the Tattoo on the Castle Esplanade are pretty permanent-looking fixtures nowadays, unlike my memories of Mum taking me there many years ago, sitting in rickety seats, blasted by the cold wind:

From the highest point of the town, we walked down various flights of stairs to the Grassmarket. It started to rain so we thought we'd best take shelter and watch a show - https://www.facebook.com/theyeariwasgifted. We knew it was a one woman show in a small venue, but perhaps didn't quite realise quite how gay the theme was - and how small the audience would be. We almost doubled the attendance! It was pretty good, however.

We caught the train home and were back in the house by 7:30 pm. Tea, toasted cheese, plus some old episodes of Corrie - nice to be home.

On another note, Jo goes back to the Doctor's this week. She was there last Wednesday to see about the recurring pain she gets in her ribs/chest area. The GP actually gave her 2 hours of her time, testing everything she could. She reckoned there's nothing wrong with Jo's bones and she wanted to also try to eliminate any heart issues, other than Jo's known angina, which is being treated. Jo's now been put on Omiprazole, which is an anti-ulcer drug (I used to use it too) to counteract any indigestion issues confusing the picture. Watch this space.

Continuing on matters of health, I'm back to the cardiologist for my annual check-up this Thursday.

St. Andrews for me tomorrow and we have Mary and Brian coming up for the weekend on Friday, but that's about all for this week, I think.