Anyway, we took the opportunity to catch up with both Gary and family and Ross this weekend. It's the first time we've seen them in the flesh for 4 months. Gary, Carole and Luca came to Banchory for a spot of alfresco lunch yesterday (Saturday) - and to deliver my Father's Day present:
Luca has definitely grown since we last saw him - although he's not quite looking down on Jo yet. The other big change is in his voice, which has dropped several octaves. His appetite hasn't changed at all - he scooped up the leftovers and took them home after lunch.
We had arranged to see Ross mid-afternoon so we then headed off to Aberdeen. We grabbed a coffee at a local shop and sat out in Ross' back yard and had a natter:
Lizzie has been staying with Ross during the lockdown but she had gone to Perth with her parents yesterday afternoon, so we didn't get a chance to see her.
Ross' employers are struggling apparently and he doubts whether there will be a job for him once the cafe is allowed to re-open again, so he and Lizzie may have to look to the supermarkets for work as soon as they come off the official furlough scheme.
Kelly FaceTimed yesterday morning and Lucy usually calls on Sunday afternoon/evening so we'll have managed to make contact with all four this weekend. We're also still holding our weekly Zoom call with Barry, Helen and Dawn on Thursday nights - which usually signals the breaking of our alcohol fast. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays are usually when we have G & T, beer or wine but we avoid it where possible from Sunday to Wednesday - although I have to confess I had a CAMRA meeting last Wednesday and it would have been rude of me not to have a beer then, wouldn't it? Oh - and, of course, as it's Father's Day today and I've been inundated with beer, I guess I'd better sample some of these:
I've got a fully functioning phone again, thank goodness. After weeks of trying to get Vodafone to repair my water-damaged one, they finally sent me a repair bag and I immediately popped my phone in it and returned it to them. They responded very quickly and just sent me a brand new replacement iPhone - at no cost to me. OK - it's only an iPhone 6 but mine was 6 years old and now I've got a brand new one, so I'm quite happy.
Our local Household Waste Recycling Centre reopened a couple of weeks ago, so I managed to get rid of the garden refuse that had built up. We've got another appointment tomorrow (Monday) when we're planning to finally get rid of the old fridge/freezer that's been in our garage for many years. After that, Anne and Leslie's old barbeque, which we have been storing since they moved to Drumoak, will hopefully go soon and we can then begin to clear any other unwanted items taking up space in the garage.
We've still done nothing about our USA flight and accommodation bookings in September. At this point, it looks highly unlikely that we'll be able to make the trip, but we haven't completely given up yet - we're just playing a wait and see game.
