Post midsummer

We're now past the Summer Solstice so it's the start of the long, slow slide towards winter but at least the weather's holding up. We're not experiencing the European heatwaves up here in NE Scotland - nor those nearer home in the south of England - but the temperatures are pretty good and, although we've had a bit of rain now it's been far from disruptive.

Of course, it's the complete opposite Down Under - Asher's hair has been left to grow a bit over their winter:

He was donating the family games to his school's games club.

Now, a further update on my planned knee operation. On Monday morning I got a phone call from Woodend Hospital asking if I could come in for another pre-op medical - my 3rd. I wasn't totally surprised as it was now 15 weeks since my previous one and it would be 6 more weeks at least until the earliest date for my op. So I went along on Tuesday morning and whereas my first pre-med last year had taken almost 2 hours, this one was over in 10-15 mins. I got some sympathy from the staff - "you again?". There was no need for me to complete the long questionnaire this time, nor see the surgeon again.

So that was all pretty positive - but then I got an email from the surgeon's secretary to tell me that the theatre list for 4th August had been cancelled. I froze for a second but then read on - I am now potentially booked for 6th August - just 2 days before Scott and Lucy head home. It is, however, still just a potential date - to be confirmed. It seems there are only limited days when my surgeon does robotic knee operations - I hadn't realised when I first saw him that accepting a robotic operation would limit the availability of theatre time - and hospital locations.

Meanwhile, Ross is still waiting for his provisional HGV licence from DMV. He phoned them to check that they had received it ok and was told that 3 + weeks was pretty standard. Stagecoach even contacted him to ask if he was still interested as it has been several weeks since they had received his eye test and medical exam results.

Ross is still baking daily. Here's this morning's batch:

Sgt. Braeden is back in USA and received an award recently:

I'm resting today as I actually managed to get round 3 games of golf this week - more than my normal once a week. It was our Senior Championship so I played in that on Monday and Wednesday and then our group had an outing at Braemar on Thursday - I had to have a buggy for that but otherwise managed ok.

It's just over 4 weeks now until Scott and Lucy arrive in Banchory. They arrive in London 4 weeks today and initially I wondered whether we might go down and meet them there but this is probably impractical now. Scott is looking to play a bit of golf when he's here - perhaps Brian might bring his clubs and join us when he's here?

Gary has changed his plans for his and his pal Donald's 50th birthdays next Saturday - they're now celebrating the following week (12th) so Gary has now booked the Dunecht Sports Bar & Waterton Restaurant (formerly Jaffs, now under new management) for an evening meal there. Look forward to it.