Shortest day

I'm told today is the Winter Solstice - I had always thought it was the 21st, but apparently this year it's the 22nd December. Dad's birthday was the 21st - he would have been 95.

It's nearly a week since my last post, so what have I been up to? Well, we had our Cycling group's annual Xmas lunch last Wednesday at the golf club, after a short cycle in the morning. I couldn't make the usual Thursday morning cycle because we had planned to go and get our Christmas tree then, but I managed to get out for another short run in the afternoon.

We went back to the same supplier as last year, down at Dess. We bought the first tree we saw - amazing. Having done that in record time, we took a slightly circuitous route home which eventually brought us to Torphins, so we popped in to Platform 22 for a coffee, where I noticed they had now started brewing their own beer as well.

Friday was a quiet-ish day until we went for our 3rd Headbang of the year in the evening. The only exercise I got was walking along to the shops to get my paper, passing the workmen who are progressing the construction of the houses on the site of the former filling station:

I picked up the Deeside Piper as well and noticed that my photo featured as the Picture of the Week:

Saturday was tree decoration day. Didn't I do a good job?:

The artificial tree is up in the back room as well:

as are the cards, which Jo put up in new places this year:

Jo was busy preparing for Sunday as well - steak and ale pie was on the menu for the visit of Dawn, Barry & Helen on Sunday. I met the three of them out at Buchanan's for a coffee so they at least got a glimpse of Ross, who was working that day. Gary, Carole and Luca also came for dinner. No photos, I'm afraid.

Yesterday (Monday) I had a Doctor's appointment. I've been getting more dizzy turns than usual and wondered whether the new drug (Rivaroxaban) was causing it. I've been advised to go back on aspirin for a couple of weeks and then revert to Riveroxaban as a final test before deciding whether to try an alternative drug. Going back on to Warfarin is also a possibility, but the regular monitoring of the levels that's required here is not really possible when I'm in Australia for 6 weeks, then the same in USA in June.

Inverurie this afternoon, as usual. It' Luca's last day at school before the break.