Of course, I was away last weekend for a few days hill-walking and that doesn't help. Our trip to the West Coast began last Thursday and we got back Monday tea-time. (Check http://bvhill-walkers.blogspot.co.uk/). You'll be pleased to know also that the walls are now finished - and they haven't fallen down yet. The front driveway still needs some work - I've flushed out some of the moss from the worst part nearest to our porch, but it now needs sand brushed in. I've got the sand and will try and do this before we head off to France for a week on Saturday.
We had a visitor on the embankment at the back of our house on Monday:
This little deer stayed there for almost an hour, munching away at the greenery.
My BMW needed some work done on it - brake fluid, stop/start mechanism and rear wiper - and I initially thought that I would try and get this done locally, rather than take it in to John Clark's in Aberdeen and be charged an arm and a leg for it, but I relented and eventually booked it in for last Tuesday. I suspected that the work may take more than an hour or two - more than I would be prepared to wait for - so I decided to put my bike in the back of the car and I arranged a meeting in the city to go over the plans for the Sponsored Golf Tournament at Banchory (yesterday) and thought I would cycle over from Tullos to Albyn and await a call from the mechanics. If the car was ready, I would go back to Tullos, but, if not, I would just cycle out along the Deeside Way from Aberdeen to Banchory and pick up the car the following day.
The inevitable happened, but it was a nice day and I quite enjoyed the cycle home on Tuesday morning - even although the 38 kms uphill ride in to the wind wasn't perhaps the best thing to do after a weekend of walking. I've cycled and walked quite a lot of the Deeside Way now, but I hadn't done the stretch from Aberdeen to Drumoak before. It's a good track, now tarmac'd and some of the old stations are still signed there - Duthie Park, Ruthrieston, Cults, Culter etc. I did make just one rest stop en route:
I got back home in time for a quick bite of lunch and then Jo and I headed to Inverurie for our usual Tuesday pick-up of Luca from school. Gary was actually off work that day - ill. He was in bed sleeping when we got back to his house and he was still sleeping when we left over 4 hours later. Carole said he was just exhausted.
The good news is that both Gary and Luca now have their passports, so it's now just a question of them completing their airline API and their ESTA applications. What do you make of Luca's expression on this (pixellated) photo?:
He'd obviously been told not to smile.
Wednesday afternoon was golf and Thursday morning was cycling, whilst on Friday, when Jo went swimming, I jumped in the car and headed up Deeside to distribute CAMRA's quarterly newsletter to the pubs in Torphins, Tarland, Braemar, Ballater, Aboyne and Feughside. It's the last one before the annual beer festival at Pittodrie, which unfortunately coincides with our trip to France.
Today (Saturday), I took part in, and helped organise, the Sponsored Golf Tournament at Banchory. It was a lovely day - and nice to play in shorts again. There was a meal afterwards, but Jo wan't up to coming along and joining me. She's not been feeling great recently - still coughing, tiredness and tightness in her chest - so much so that she's arranged an appointment with the Doctor on Tuesday.
