Kelly 40!

It's a slightly belated happy birthday - Aussie time - for Kelly, who is 40 today (Monday). Kelly was born at 44 Caldecot Way, Broxbourne, Herts EN10 6PH (yes I can still remember the postcode!) - the only home birth we/Jo had. Jo has more detailed memories of her being born in our bed upstairs in our little semi and the midwife, towels and hot water, but I'm afraid most of the details are a blur to me.

We don't have many photos of Kelly when she was newly born, but this was her christening party:

It's very sad to see how many of this group are, for one reason or another, no longer in our lives.

I also remember this wet caravan holiday when Kelly was still quite young:

and this one from a camping holiday with the Hansons in France when she was ill with chickenpox:

Coincidentally, just yesterday when Jo and I were driving down to Blair Atholl (more of that later), I wondered out loud whether we should take a trip back to Benodet in Brittany where we spent a couple of camping holidays in the mid-late 70's? Need to mull that one over.

For those not on Facebook, here's Kelly celebrating her birthday on holiday in Bali:

So, what else is new since my last post? Well, Braeden turned 15 on May 8th and immediately sat - and passed - his written driving exam which allows him to drive as long as there is an adult over 21 sitting beside him:

Solid built like his Dad - we noticed the difference in him this year.

Two days after that I travelled down to Perth to meet up with some of my old school chums again. We'd previously met in Edinburgh (twice), Glasgow and Dundee - initially just the 3 of us, but this time 6 of us managed along. Here's the original three:

Next meeting will probably be in Stirling in autumn.

The day after this meeting, I took a drive up to my old stamping ground of Fraserburgh to attend a CAMRA branch meeting. I'd obviously missed a few when we were on our world tour so felt I had to attend this one even although the timing and location were far from ideal. It was a Saturday so there was nobody in the offices at the factories where I used to work, but I drove round there anyway to take a look. I was a little shocked at the entrance where new steel gates and turnstiles had been erected - they are obviously having some security issues. It was a pleasant enough afternoon but it reminded me that I didn't miss the 110 mile return trip.

That Saturday evening we had dinner at Anne and Leslie Mason's new house in Drumoak - very nice. The following morning, I was off to Grantown-on-Spey and Boat of Garten for the first of our twice yearly golf outings there. This was our 67th outing there:

Despite a few relatively younger ones joining in in recent years, the onset of time is all too obvious in the photo above - particularly when comparing with photos from the early years in the mid-80's. At least we're still here however - three of our group have now passed.

Continuing on the ageing theme, here's some of our walking group on the hills round Ballater last Friday:

A little bit younger - but not much.

After a week of beautiful dry, sunny weather, it was a great disappointment to travel down to Edinburgh on Saturday to watch the Scotland - Sri Lanka cricket match only for it to be rained off. We didn't even see one ball bowled.

On Sunday, Jo and I drove over to Blair Atholl to meet up with Barry, Helen and Dawn who were all camping at Blair Castle Caravan Park. We had dinner at the Atholl Arms Hotel, after which we took a team/family photo outside the hotel:

I am getting all too aware of my ageing body which hurts after every activity now it seems. Just this morning (Monday) I drove back down the road again to Blairgowrie to meet our IFA and play golf. As soon as I was home, I was nodding off on my chair. Last week, I applied a couple of coats of treatment to our new shed/summer house - thankfully that little chore, although a little awkward due to its location, didn't also immediately render me horizontal, but that's about the extent of my pain-free activities now.

Continuing on the nostalgia theme, Jo and I both recently joined the Banchory Heritage Facebook group. There's some interesting stuff posted on this group and I've used them to start my campaign to resurrect the flower beds that used to be on the old railway embankment at the corner of Corsee Road. Remember "Bonnie Banchory"? The displays would change from time to time - this one's "Scotland's for Me":

The old railway line that crossed the North Deeside Road closed in 1966 and the bridge over the road was taken down soon after this, but we discovered from the Facebook page that the bridge wasn't quite high enough and they had to lower the road underneath it to let some of the taller vehicles to pass under the bridge. This, however, had the knock-on effect of creating a mini-pond whenever there was heavy rain, viz:

To close, another look back to the past - specifically to our early married life. We didn't have much money and meals were pretty simple and basic, but we always looked forward to a Friday night when our treat would be a Vesta packet curry bought from Grandfare in Glasgow:

We knew how to live.