Empty Nest

It's the 12th day today but we - mostly Jo - started taking stuff down yesterday. Our neighbour at No.1 - John - had offered again to take away our tree in his trailer, so we had to strip the tree pretty quickly yesterday afternoon.

We had time of course - all of our visitors have now gone - and all got home safely. In fact, the Lesinas were back in Oregon before I even went for a beer on Friday evening. Scott tells me they were all tucked up in bed by 7:30 pm local time - and didn't awaken until 4:00 am on Saturday morning - pretty good, I think.

The adjustment for Kelly and Chris - and Miller - will be more difficult, I suspect, but at least they can now shed some layers!

On Friday morning, I drove them down to Glentanar, a beautiful hunting lodge on an estate just outside Aboyne. It's a very popular wedding venue, but I'm afraid it didn't quite match up to the grandeur of Drumtochty Castle. Here's a couple of views however:

On Saturday, we all walked along to the village and popped in to the Burnett Arms for lunch, stopping off at Tease on the way home to say bye to Ross, who was working. We also stopped at Arbor Court to pose for a photo:

Soon it was time to head to the airport, where Gary and Luca were waiting for us. We said our farewells then followed them as they queued for security, staring at them through the glass panels:

All gone now, but we had dinner at Anne & Leslie Mason's to go to as a sweetener and that helped take our minds off the relative loneliness/peace (delete whichever appropriate).

On Sunday morning, I made a slight detour across the golf course on my way to pick up my paper. There was only Syd and Jack from our regular group playing, so I walked a couple of holes with them. I even had a small hit with one of Syd's clubs and a ball - and it didn't feel too bad. Encouraging with the golf season just 12 weeks away now.

Today (Monday) it was back to work for me - after over 9 weeks off. I didn't rush in - I did all my usual exercises etc and it was almost 10 am by the time I got in to the office. I didn't stay long either - I was out by 2:30 pm, but I headed off to Bannatyne's on the way home. They have some cycling machines there where the seat is adjusted horizontally rather than the usual vertical mode, and the adjustment is smaller, allowing me to start at a comfortable level and slowly move the seat in, to test and push my knee bend a bit more. 15 minutes of that was enough for me at this stage - then it was off for a brief stint in the pool followed by the steam room. Not a bad day all round.

When I got home, I realised this was probably the longest time Jo and I had spent apart since October!