Our garage will be full for a while - Ross has already packed up a few boxes of their belongings.
Other than that, what have we been up to? For me, golf, golf and more golf. I did say I would be trying to catch up with the weeks I missed when we were in USA and I'm doing my best. I didn't play on Saturday - that might have been a day too far - so Jo and I travelled down to Braemar on CAMRA business to see the changes the new owner had made to the Moorfield House Hotel, which overlooks the Royal stand where the famous Braemar Gathering is held at the start of September. They've put in some nice decking there:
On Monday, I had to captain our Seniors team in the match against Kemnay. I was asked to do this and it was hard to refuse, but it's not something I really enjoy. It's just not me, standing up to give welcome speeches - and I don't do jokes, like most seem to do, but I got through it.
On Tuesday, it was Jo's time to get her ears syringed by the nurse. She's been putting olive oil in her ears for the last couple of weeks, then walking round with huge blobs of cotton wool sticking out. It appears her ear passages are now completely clear and clean, but she still hasn't completely recovered her full hearing and there's still whistling going on in her head, so she may have to return to see the doctor again. Her hearing first went bad whilst we were in USA, but some of the symptoms can be traced back to the virus she had before we travelled.
On matters medical, I haven't had a phone call back after my last blood test. Now I don't know whether that's good news and my readings are back to normal, or whether it's because our regular GP is on holiday - or I've missed a call. Should I phone them to check, or just leave it for now? Which reminds me, I have my appointment at our local medical practice tomorrow morning for the annual Cardio Clinic. My private annual visit to my cardiologist is on the 25th of this month.
Managed a cycle yesterday afternoon - nice conditions, but felt a little weary and weak afterwards, so it was lecture time from Jo - "don't push yourself!" she said. My bike is giving me problems again - squealing brakes and difficulty in changing gears. This has happened before and been fixed by our local bike shop, but I had a go at fixing it myself yesterday - but failed miserably, so it'll have to go back in to the bike shop, I'm afraid. I think this has finally convinced me to get myself a new bike - a hybrid, which I can use both off and on-road. I'll keep the existing mountain bike with fat tyres and use it as a spare - or for any strictly off-road adventures. It only cost me £100 and has given me a good few miles already, so I think I've had fair value from it, but it's time for a change.
Might get wet at golf this afternoon - fingers crossed. More golf tomorrow with some old business contacts who I first met at a corporate outing at Castle Stuart a few years ago. We, as a team, won that event (and I won the individual too) and got a freebie back at Castle Stuart, which we played the following year. Then one of our team invited us out to Meldrum House, which was nice. I then offered to invite them back to Banchory - I was supposed to do it last year, then earlier this year, but failed on both occasions, so I'm hoping the weather holds up for their visit tomorrow.
Looking ahead, we're off to Edinburgh - Scotrail strikes permitting - on Monday/Tuesday. Before that, on Saturday there's a CAMRA local committee meeting. I've missed the last few and really should go along this time, but it's in Ellon, which provides some logistical challenges. Need to think about this.
