Winter

They say it's the start of the "Meteorological" Winter today. I think they mean the Calendar - the weather doesn't conform to dates. It may be the 1st of December and there may, coincidentally, be snow on the ground outside, but we've had every kind of weather at this time of year.

Yes, it's cold out there. The snow arrived a couple of days ago and it's been too cold since for it to disappear - I guess it'll be on the ground for a few days yet.

December also means, of course, that we're on the countdown to you-know-what. After some swithering, I finally took the plunge and bought myself my Xmas present this week - a replacement for my old work laptop, which looked like it was going to collapse completely earlier this year, but, stubbornly, it's been hanging on and seeming to behave itself since. Nonetheless, better to bite the bullet now. I've ordered one of these hybrids - a Microsoft Surface Pro, which has a detachable skinny keyboard and a touchscreen so you can use it like a tablet as well as a laptop. It should arrive next week some time.

On Sunday morning, while Jo was at church, I took a walk up Scolty:

It was nice to get out and get a bit of exercise. In the afternoon, Jo and I took a run in to Aberdeen to look for a couple of presents etc in John Lewis. We were only partially successful there, but we fared a little better when we drove over to Kittybrewster and bought the new chest freezer Jo had been looking out for. Incidentally, anyone want the old tall fridge/freezer that sits in our garage? It's definitely surplus to requirements now - we only tended to use it at Christmas/New Year time when family and friends were around. After all, we've still got a fridge in the kitchen and a fridge/freezer in the utility room and now a chest freezer in the garage, so the extra fridge/freezer would definitely be too much, especially as there's only two of us.

The following day - Monday - I cycled along to the dentist's for my half yearly appoinments, after which I went for a shortish ride. In the evening, Jo and I attended the BDI (Banchory & District Initiative) AGM at the West Church Hub. It wasn't the greatest meeting, although we did learn a little about some of the ambitious plans for the area. The main reason I wanted to go was that I had spotted that there was due to be a presentation about River Dee Radio. As a mere presenter, I have no idea what's going on with the station and I was keen to find out, but it was a complete waste of time. The Chairperson even said, when I arrived - "good, you can do the RDR presentation then, Ian". What?

Tuesday was Luca day of course, but his Dad said we could bring him over to Banchory if we wanted as he was likely to be in the area and could pick Luca up from ours after tea. We decided to take advantage of this offer - it would mean Jo wouldn't have to travel over - I would drive over and pick Luca up, take him to his dentist appointment, and then drive him over to Banchory.

Wednesday was when we found out that Ross' little work "shack/hut" had been burnt out overnight. We managed to have a video message with Ross to find out if he was OK and he seemed sanguine enough about it. Hope it all works out for him OK. He's just sent me these photos which seem to show they're up and running again - in a fashion anyway:

We'll see Ross in just over a week or so when Jo and I travel down for 2 nights - I'm meeting my old school pals again then as well.

Wednesday evening was another live show on River Dee Radio for me.

Wednesday night and Thursday were our snow days. No cycling for sure, but Jo and I had booked tickets to go down to the library for An Afternoon with Karen Campbell, a Scottish writer. It was OK - it passed the time - but we didn't exactly rush out and buy any of her books.

This morning - Friday - it was time for me to drive down to Aboyne Hospital to have the electrocardiograph that my cardiologist asked for. It's basically a detailed ultrasound scan of the heart, measuring all the valves etc - it took about 15 minutes of scanning. They send the measurements off to my GP and also my cardiologist and no doubt I'll hear if there's anything they're concerned about.

What's ahead over the next 7 days? Well, we're off to the Kilgours for dinner tomorrow night and the chest freezer arrives on Tuesday. I'm supposed to be going walking on Wednesday, but that will be weather-dependent of course. On Friday, our new Sky box is being fitted.

So that's the diary up to date again, I think. Hope all's well with everyone.