First post of 2024

Happy New Year everyone! Although it's not been a great time for us - both Jo and I have been ill. Christmas was OK - Gary and Luca made it over to ours for dinner, overnight and presents (Luca loves retrieving them from under the tree and handing them out - especially his own):

Here's Jo in her new cosy jammies:

Gary and a reluctant Luca did get up and do the Boxing Day Fun Run in the morning:

A couple of days' later, Jo had to go to Elderslie to join Mary and Julie at the ballet, so I drove her down - I couldn't stay because I had a hospital appointment the following morning. We travelled on a day when we really shouldn't have - there was a storm forecast. The journey down was slow-ish - especially as we neared Dunblane, where the roads were flooded. As a result, when we arrived at Brian and Mary's, I just had time for a very quick cup of tea and sandwich and then I was off back up the road again.

All was good until I got to Dundee and the signs were saying the main road north was closed, so I decided to head up one of the coastal roads via Arbroath. No joy - they were both shut too, so it was back to Dundee to join the huge queue who were being detoured by the police round narrow country roads. It took 3 hours to travel 10 miles and even when I did eventually get back near Banchory, the main N. Deeside road was closed. I did finally get home - via a dodgy, flooded S. Deeside road - but the return journey had taken over 7 hours.

My morning hospital appointment turned out to be a waste of time as the consultant still hadn't received copies of my MRI scan from the NHS radiologist team - so I could have spent the night in Elderslie after all. I spent some time wandering round Aberdeen anyway, taking my first walk down to the refurbished Union Terrace Gardens lower level:

I visited the statue erected of locally born former footballer Denis Law - my all-time sporting hero:

Near there, I discovered there was a wall of "Everyday Heroes":

Then the following morning, it was back in the car and down to Elderslie again to pick up Jo. Thankfully the journey passed much more smoothly this time. The only thing we may have picked up was Brian's cold.

The following day, I was, naturally, a little tired but it was the start of me coming down with whatever bug/virus I had picked up. On Hogmanay morning we had to cancel our planned trip out to Drumoak for our usual dinner with the Masons and Kilgours. It was the 3rd year in a row we'd had to cancel - not all our fault.

We advised Gary and Luca not to come over on New Years' Day - and Ross hadn't made it either so our dinner was a bit of a low key and lonely affair:

I spent most of the rest of that week in bed. There was a Headbang on Friday night but I had to run it remotely, instead of enjoing the company - and curries - with the others out at Potarch:

I started to feel a bit more human that weekend - albeit still coughing like mad (still am) - but it was now Jo's turn to suffer the same illness. We were due to be having lunch in Dundee with 2 of my old school pals and their wives this Thursday, but that has now been cancelled too. We're due to go over to Inverurie on Saturday for dinner with Gary and Luca, but that must be a little doubtful now as well.

Oh - and my consultant did eventually manage to set eyes on my MRI scan (but not the report) and phoned to let me know. It showed that the arthritis on the medial (inner) side of my knee was more extensive than had showed up on the initial X-ray. (The lateral and rear parts of the knee are in good order). The question is what to do about it? He dismissed injections and another arthroscopy and came down to the conclusion that I either live with it and just avoid the things I do that cause the pain (golf, hill-walking) or consider a partial knee replacement - either private or NHS. Need to think.

The one great bit of news was that little Kendall got through her heart operations OK and seems to be recovering well. Braeden got home for the holidays and was delighted to meet up with his niece.

Can't wait to head off to Australia next Tuesday.