Quiet house

Scots comedian Kevin Bridges often refers to "empties" in his stories - that's what our house feels like now that all our relatives have gone home. The last to leave were Scott and Lucy. Early on Friday morning - 4:20 am to be precise - Ross drove them to the airport:

Now they're going through the usual pain of jetlag. They had a busy 2 weeks in the UK - London first, where they met up with Lauren and Malcolm:

Then they arrived in Banchory and it was Brian and Mary for a couple of days plus Lucy's "bestie" Lorna popping in occasionally - they went to Craigievar Castle for a photo opportunity to show little Kendall the "Princess Castle":

Next was Dawn and Julie - for this Lucy and Jo had to travel down to the Central Belt - they took our car while Scott and I headed off to St Andrews for golf. Here's the team photos they took:

Obviously nobody in Houston was technically proficient enough to set up a camera timer and get all 8 of them into the photo - they had to get Lucy to do one and then Jo the next one!

Jo and Lucy drove back to Banchory on Saturday where they were met by a car-less Gary who joined us on the short drive up Deeside to the Aboyne Highland Games.

On Sunday, it was Barry and Helen's turn to arrive. Bacon butties for lunch then Barry, Scott and I grabbed our bikes and headed west to the Deeside Activity Park. Scott's a big, strong lad who's a generation younger than Barry and me but he's not used to off-road riding - especially in a lightweight analogue bike - nor was he kitted out in suitable undergarments for a rough-ish 40 kms ride. No problem for me or Barry, appropriately kitted out on our pedal-assist e-bikes, but, by the time we got to DAC Scott was ready to dial 111. Thankfully, we'd arranged to meet Ross, Jo, Lucy and Helen there and they came to Scott's rescue for the return journey:

Barry and Helen were resident at the Tor-na-Coille and they treated all of us (incuding Luca after his shift finished) to dinner there that evening.

Happily, the weather had generally been fine for the 2 weeks that our Americans were over here, but it appeared that this was about to change - Storm Floris was on the way. We did get a bit of rain and it was pretty windy, but nothing like as bad as had been forecast. As a result, Barry and I decided to do another bike ride - heading east, taking in 2 castles.

Scott, who by now, had got the golf bug - virtually every day he'd either been at the driving range at Inchmarlo or playing 9 holes there - had a caddy this morning - Lucy:

After we had all finished our morning activites, we met up at Drum Garden Centre for coffee and cakes/scones.

Before Barry and Helen went back to Glasgow, we had to take another team photo:

No Gary (at work) nor Luca, but, jumping forward to Saturday, Luca played his first full game for Kintore since his series of metatarsal injuries which started 18 months ago:

That's him in yellow on the ball. His team, which finished  bottom of the league in his absence, won this match against Banff 4-3 with Luca providing a few assists.

Wednesday was the day I'd been waiting for, for over 2 years - my left knee replacement. Ross drove Jo and me over to Woodend Hospital and then the admin and the waiting started. It was fully four and a half hours before I was actually in theatre.

I'd been advised to take music and headphones with me. As soon as the anaesthetist had done her work - spinal, so I would be conscious during the operation - I put the music on and inserted my earbuds. I knew they would also administer "mild sedation", but, blow me, I only heard one track and the next I knew they were waking me up again.

I was told the operation (robotic) went well but all I could see was a hugely inflated knee, swathed in bandages. Of course, I was given some heavy opioids which probably helped me sleep a bit that night. I had been told that morning operations get home the same day but afternoon ones require an overnight stay. However. on Thursday morning, the staff - particularly the physios - started back-tracking a bit and told me it could be Friday before I got home.

Scott and Lucy were booked on the redeye on Friday morning so I was keen to get out to see them before they left, so I started agitating a bit. I was put through the mill by one physio but thankfully I passed his tests with flying colours so they now had no reason to keep me in another night.

Scott and Lucy had a pretty hectic fortnight but they got round to see everyone they had planned for - with one exception. Kelly had video called just before they arrived and asked me to try to find a convenient time to call when as many as possible were there - I did try but it proved to be too difficult, only partly due to the time difference.

Friday was quiet in Banchory but I had a long-planned Headbang to attend that evening - remotely. It actually went quite well - and I didn't fall asleep!