Holiday preps

Our brief overnight in Perth worked out well, even though the weather wasn't especially kind to us for our planned walk. Jo and I met up with Barry, Helen and Dawn in Blairgowrie, The intended meeting place was busy and all open tables were reserved so we moved to another cafe, where, again, it was very busy but we managed to get the last available table.

It was pretty damp outside but we decided to at least drive out to the start of the walk and assess the situation then. Barry managed to find the start OK but I had problems with my Sat Nav - both on my car and on my phone. Jo and I ended up at the other side of Drimmie Wood and it took us another 20+ minutes to get back to where Barry, Helen and Dawn were patiently waiting.

It was still raining but not too heavily and anyway, Jo and I felt the least we could do was agree to go on the walk, which was partly circular. I was a little concerned about my calf muscle which was still swollen and causing pain but I thought I could always head back if I struggled.

The initial part of the walk was on good, wide trails through the forest but we had to circumnavigate quite a few fallen trees which had still not been cleared from the trails, despite the fact that Storm Arwen had been almost a year and a half ago.

In the end, I completed the full walk but struggled with my leg, particularly on the latter half and held Barry and Helen back a fair bit. Here's some of the photos from the walk:

After driving back to Perth then checking in to our hotel, we made plans to meet up again in the adjacent pub for dinner. We got a nice 6-seater booth and the meal was good, enhanced by 2 free bottles of wine!

An informal self-service breakfast in the morning:

Then Jo and I headed back to Banchory with Barry, Helen and Dawn driving up to Dunkeld for another walk. Very enjoyable and one we must repeat some time soon.

Meanwhile, I'm still struggling with my calf muscle and it's less than a week until we're due to fly to Portland, Oregon. I've had to pull out of our regular Wednesday afternoon golf the last 2 weeks and I'm trying to rest with my leg up as much as possible. I'm applying Ibuprofen gel regularly and and wearing the compression sock I got after my knee replacement almost 10 years ago. I would dearly love the swelling to go down before our transatlantic flight.

Incidentally, there's a planned strike of security staff at Heathrow next week which seems as if it might affect our plans - let's hope not. We have about 4 hours layover in Terminal 5 - will that be enough?

Oddly, although I get pain when walking, cycling seems to be OK. I cycled back to Potarch to collect our car on Saturday morning, having left it at Dave's after Friday night's headbang, and I also made the short cycle up to the Legion on Monday (on my analogue bike) for the presentation of the local CAMRA Club of the Year.

Tonight is our monthly curry night with the Kilgours and the Masons and then tomorrow I'm off to Dunblane to meet up with some of my old school pals. Saturday is Luca's last football match this season and I'm hoping to pop along to watch a bit of it. It's coronation day and the media will, as usual, be going overboard with their coverage of the pomp and ceremony, the implicit assumption being that everyone is a monarchist and loves it all.

Gary and Luca are hoping to come over before we head to USA - probably on Sunday. By the time we get back, they'll be in their new house!