.. ... .......... when the weather is high

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Stinking hot in the office this morning - most unpleasant - and to think I was complaining yesterday about Aberdeen city still having the haar and being cool - not so today! Need to get an AC unit for my office.

So - the big decision this afternoon - will I dog off early and go home to watch England in the World Cup, or will I just pretend it's not happening?

We had Luca as usual yesterday afternoon, but my first sight of him when I came in was him storming off up the stairs in the huff! He'd apparently wanted to pour his drink in front of the TV and Granny wouldn't let him. He soon came round, however.

Now answer me this - what is it in mangoes that stains your fingers and won't come off? Is it natural or are there some additives? I had just one sliver yesterday and my fingers are still all orange and I can't get it off.

Golf tonight - shorts on - but hope the high pressure doesn't trigger off any thunder or rain storms. Wonder if we'll see Jo on the golf course this year? I'll try and go out with her again - perhaps tomorrow and/or Sunday? It may depend, of course, on whether or not Ross' pal finally comes along and removes the Jag from our driveway and gives us access to our garage again - we've been looking forward to clearing it out for the last couple of years, but can't really get near it. We've had yet another promise that it's moving today - but we're not holding our breaths. We're going to have to invoke Plan B soon and try to wheel it down our driveway and over to the D.I.S.C. car park.

I don't care if Monday's blue, ........ ....

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

What a fabulous start to the day in Deeside, but, as usual, Aberdeen has the haar. It'll burn off - but when? Could be making an early exit today.

I hate losing things - and I've misplaced one of my music memory sticks for the car - how infuriating. I've tried everywhere but no luck so far - I can tell it's gonna bug me for a while.

The rooms for the wedding are now booked:

Hotel:

• Room 1 – Four Poster: Bride and Groom (Fri and Sat nights for bride)
• Room 2 – Standard Double: Brian and Mary Hanson
• Room 3 – Superior Double: Ian and Jo Stewart (Friday and Saturday)
• Room 7 – Standard Double: Barry and Helen Stewart
• Room 8 – Superior Double: Dawn and John Campbell

Stables:

• Double Upstairs: Mr and Mrs Armstrong + 2 x z beds (Fri and Sat)
• Double Upstairs: Kelly and Ross Stewart
• Double Upstairs: Scott and Lucy Lesina + 2 x z beds
• Double Downstairs: Lauren Hughes and partner
• Double Downstairs: Meghan and Jordon Hughes
• Double Downstairs: Kieran Hughes and Partner

We're staying 2 nights - it'll give more room at our house for Kelly and Lucy and family - but we've been unable to get a room at the hotel on Friday night for Brian and Mary so I've booked them in at the Redgarth instead.

Hope these arrangements are OK with everyone?

But there ain't no cure for the .......... .....

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Summertime blues? Not really, but I was a bit down last week - not quite sure why - perhaps a wee bug. I was certainly below par (figuratively, not literally unfortunately) on Wednesday at golf - quite my worst performance for many years. We had a beautiful day for our Midsummer's outing yesterday at Edzell, however, and that lifted my spirits a bit - especially as I played a lot better. So, do my moods simply reflect my golf performances - or is it the other way round?

Been busy updating my other blogs - golf, hill-walking etc - check them out - so haven't had much time to update this one(this blog has the links to the others on the dashboard).

It was a few minutes after 3pm when I picked up Luca last Tuesday so they'd already started their mid-afternoon snack when I got there - it was a lovely day and they were all sitting outside:



Of course, as soon as I got home, it was over to Granny Jo, who took him out in to the street in the little tricycle that Amy from No. 6 had loaned to us - but Jo had to do some explaining to their kids as to why Luca was using their toy - I was going to show yout the video but I've had problems uploading it, so it'll have to wait for now.

Apart from all that, had a nice Father's Day at Gary and Carole's yesterday - curry and trifle - not together, but very nice all the same.

Hot town, ...... .. ... ....

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

It certainly doesn't seem like Summer in the City today - at least not in my office - it's Baltic! I've even had to open up the box of the new heater I got and never used last winter. Apparently it's due to get warmer this week and the rest of the country seems to be getting a bit of it already.

Never mind - as long as it's OK for golf tomorrow night at Banchory and Friday afternoon at Edzell - our Midsummer Outing.

Been looking back at all the things I wanted to do over the last year - sporting events, places to visit etc. I've managed quite a few but failed to get to a number of events and I now realise that I was a mite ambitious in my initial plans. I've now even cancelled one of my future planned trips - to London in August to see the England - Pakistan Test at the Oval. The consolation is that we have now been invited to a BBQ that afternoon. I'd also originally put on my wish list the Scotland - England (cricket) match in Edinburgh this Saturday, but that's definitely a no-no now. I'll need to be a bit more cautious next year.

The other major planning I'm working on is the Fringe - we got the programme last week and I'm wading my way through it now to decide what and who we'd like to go and see - and when. It's heavy going - perhaps I should just stick a pin in?

I've also finally got back in touch with Meldrum House re rooms for relatives. No doubt it will change a fair bit between now and October but I thought it would be good to get some names against rooms at the hotel in case they were thinking of releasing some of them.

My GP phoned me back last night so he's arranging to have me referred to the cardiologist - Dr. Paul Broadhurst - at the Albyn again. I decided not to mention that I also want him to refer me to a knee specialist - I'll save that for later.

Just as I finish this, the sun's finally coming out - great. Off to pick up Luca from nursery in a couple of hours.

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Here's a very short clip of Jo slug-throwing the other night - I pressed the off button too soon - the longer version would have been funnier:



(has to be viewed from blog)

I'd ordered some goods from Craghoppers and they arrived today. What do you think of the top and trousers?:



The trousers are two-part - there's a zip at the knee to convert them in to shorts - and they're permanently insect repellent apparently. Here's the fleece as well:



Do you think I should remove the tags now?

......, ...... can't trust that day

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Back to work today - eventually. It was my annual Health Screen at Albyn first thing this morning so I had to fast overnight. They're very nice however - they do all your bloods first of all and then offer you breakfast before you do the rest of the medical. Fruit 'n Fibre, tea and toast - most welcome.

The nurse does the initial tests then you see the doctor, and they both commented that I had lost a bit of weight since last year (only a kilo) - was I dieting? The answer was, of course, not consciously - but, as Jo's on a diet, then I guess we all are to a greater or lesser extent - why, even Ross commented last night that he's losing weight!

The medical seemed to go OK, but I'll get the full report in a couple of weeks. I did mention that my Atrial Fibrillation seems to be starting to interfere in my life a bit more than it used to, so the doctor immediately said I should go and see the cardiologist again - and get some drugs to sort it! I have to do this through my GP however, so I've put in a call to ask him to refer me.

Still not sorted out what we're going to do for our holidays next year - there's been so many different suggestions now that I'm starting to think that perhaps we should go back to stage 1 and not bother trying to do Oz and USA in one round the world tour, but, instead visit Kelly and Lucy separately in their respective summers. Needs more thought.

So, I've been back to the gym today - first time for a while. I was passing on my way to the office after my medical and thought, why not? Only a short session then some lunch. Will try and go back tomorrow if I can - before I have to pick up Luca - Jo's car's in for its MoT.

So what delights are in store this week? The World Cup, of course - we watched a game down the pub on Friday night and Jo surprised me by sitting through the England - USA match with me on Saturday night. I've drawn Germany and Chile in the office sweep, which is a lot better than the miserable draw Gary and Carole gave me in their family sweep - Australia, who were trounced by Germany last night. Incidentally, don't understand why all 32 teams weren't included in Gary's draw - there's plenty of aunties, uncles and cousins around to make up the numbers.

England's next game is this Friday, so it'll be straight back to the pub after golf at Edzell - our Midsummer Outing - yes, it's that time of year already - next week the days get shorter!

We were originally planning to try and walk up Lochnagar on Sunday as our next training exercise, but there've been some cancellations so we've shortened this month's walk and we're now doing the route from Glen Muick to Crathie, so no golf again for me this coming Sunday morning.

Kelly tried to Skype us on Saturday morning, but her internet connection out in the wilds wasn't good enough to give decent reception, which was a shame.

I'll finish today's blog with a photo just to brighten it up a bit. Last Tuesday, Michael and I took our long-time secretary in Fraserburgh, Frances Trail, out to lunch to celebrate her 70th birthday. She only works a few hours a week now, but she's still bright and sprightly. We went to the Tufted Duck, St Combs, which has been smartened up a lot since I first stayed there back in 1985 when the Clarks had just bought MacFish in Fraserburgh and we used to stay there overnight in the early days.



That's Frances, obviously, sitting between Michael and I, with her husband Jimmy rear left and Dorothy McRobbie, Office Manager and Pauline Reid flanking young Zachary Clark.

Thursday goes too slow, I've got ...... .. .. ....

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Not much to report today other than to ask you to go to my blog page and cast your votes in my polls - not that it's likely to make much difference to the final outcome, but I'd be interested in what others think.

It was a beautiful evening at Aboyne last night and it was nice to play a friendly fourball with Dan, Dick and Malcolm. Hope we get a decent weekend - have a good one.

Walking on the beaches looking at the .......

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Not for a while yet it seems. Jo and I are having difficulty agreeing a date to do our round world tour next year. Initially, I had proposed Christmas/New Year holidays as that was about the only time I could take so much time off work with a clear conscience as our canning factory shuts then and business is generally a bit quieter. That was quickly nixed, so I came up with Plan B, which was to go round about the time of Jo's 60th in March next year, but Jo thinks this is too early and too soon after Lucy and Kelly come over in October.

Dilemma - when best to go, bearing in mind we're taking in both the northern and southern hemispheres? If we go to Oz in their summer, then that's winter in Oregon - and vice versa. So the natural thing to do is to try to split the difference and travel over autumn down under and spring in USA - or the other way round.

I initially thought March might be best, but Jo has now counter-suggested September. OK - pros and cons:

1) March is sooner - but Jo thinks a bit too soon - however, if we went in September it would virtually be a full year after we last saw Lucy and Kelly.

2) The boys have a full week off school in spring, but don't have a corresponding week off in autumn, so they would be at school if we went in September.

Mmmm - this is beginning to sound a bit like a justification for my own argument. Perhaps I need to try to be more impartial - but how do I achieve that? Should I completely re-think the strategy of one big trip and go back to doing two separate trips - one to Oz and one to USA? One to ponder for a while, I suspect. Perhaps I need to enlist the support of the world wide jury on this one and put up another poll on my blog? What do you think? Maybe I need to put up a poll to vote on whether I should put up a poll?

Back to daily life - played golf in our weekly Summer Quaich last night - and I was the best of the 12 of us out last night. Tonight, Malcolm Grigor has invited me for a rare chance to play at his home course of Aboyne - looking forward to that.

Then, there's the World Cup starting tomorrow, with England due to play USA on Saturday night - not sure if I want to watch that or not.

I've managed to digitise a few of my old vinyl albums now - Graham Parker (Squeezing Out Sparks), Elvis Costello (Trust), Small Faces (1st one), Ry Cooder (Bop till you drop) and Best of Bobby Bland. It's fun listening to them again - and most seem to be recording OK so far - only the Ry Cooder one was plagued with jumps and sticks.

If you're going to ... .........

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

We'll certainly be going to the West Coast again next year, but it looks like we've got Oz to fit in as well. I'm not sure I fancy two big journeys in the same year, so it may be we have to combine our trips and do a round the world tour instead. How will I find the time off work? Don't know - but I'm thinking about it.

I've been in touch with a couple of operators and got some preliminary ideas for a possible schedule:

1. Aberdeen-London- Singapore (or Hong Kong)

2. Singapore-Oz

3. Oz-Hawaii (or Fiji)

4. Hawaii-LA

5. LA-Medford

Then back again! What do you think? Could this be a plan? We'd need to think about what to do in Oz - would like to see Melbourne and Sydney as well as Adelaide. It's been suggested we could do the drive along the coast from Adelaide to Melbourne, then fly to Sydney - or we could it in reverse and fly in to Sydney and work our way round from there. We would also need to consider how much stopover time to spend in Singapore (or Hong Kong) and Hawaii (or Fiji).

Now when? Early part of the year again? Get the tail end of summer in Oz and then on to Southern California, followed by the Oregon spring rain again? It's Jo's 60th birthday on 20th March and the week that follows happens to be the Oregon school holidays - same as this year.

I've written all of this down to help myself think my way through it all - it's far from a done deal yet, but at least putting my early thoughts down in writing has helped me to think a bit more about the logistics. Any other inputs welcome of course.

That's enough about 2011 plans - there's still lots to do in 2010 yet, including the first of 3 trips to London this year in a few weeks' time. That's going to be a busy weekend - I had originally planned just my usual short annual overnight trip down to Lord's to see the England - Australia ODI, but Dave Williamson was lucky enough to get 2 tickets for Wimbledon on the Thursday, 2 days before Lord's, so he asked me. We've subsequently managed to fit in a couple of gigs as well - we got tickets to go and see Crosby Stills & Nash at the Royal Albert Hall on the Saturday night, and discovered at the weekend that Laura Marling is heading up the bill at the second annual Serpentine Sessions (http://www.serpentinesessions.com/home/) on the Thursday evening, so we're going to that as well now. If the weather holds fair, it could be a trip down to Henley with the toffs on the Friday to see the Regatta, so it's going to be all go!

I'll barely have recovered from that weekend before I head off to Slaley Hall the following weekend for our annual Summer Tour golf trip.

Then, there's our weekend at the Fringe - it's on from 6th to 30th August, but I'm back in London for the England - Pakistan Test match on 21st August, so it'll either have to be the first, second or last weekends that we go to Edinburgh.

And, of course, the 3rd trip to London comes in November when we go to see Jools Holland at the Royal Albert Hall.

More immediately, I've got my annual medical next Monday - I'll need to ask them to look at my knees and possibly get a referral. I'd long ago accepted the pain and distortion in my right knee, which was badly damaged at football training back in 1970 - just before I met Jo - but now my left knee has been playing up for the last few weeks - I need to have at least one leg that I can rely on - particularly if I'm going to manage to complete (a bit of) the West Highland Way in September.

It's been a hard day's .....

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

I got in to the office early enough on Friday and had a busy morning, but got through a lot, which allowed me to leave at lunchtime with a clear conscience. It was the usual weather whenever there's high pressure in the North East - the coast retaining some cloud/haar cover, but glorious weather inland. Jo and I walked along to catch the 2:35 bus back in to the city. We waited outside the Burnett - I crossed the road to get some cash while Jo took in the rays:



There was no more than a dozen or so passengers the whole way in to Aberdeen, and only two of them - Jo being one - were actual cash customers - the rest of us were Seniors using our free bus passes, with one Student as well!

We had a good time and were home at a respectable hour - more photos on http://iansaleadventures.blogspot.com/.

Saturday was another fabulous day in Deeside, and after golf in the morning, I went back to the festival to do a couple of hours' work behind the bar - and Jo came too, to get her first experience of serving punters with ale. She was a little apprehensive, but it wasn't too busy and she soon got in to her stride. Here she is in full schoolteacher mode lecturing some poor innocent customer:



In the absence of anything decent on TV last night, we went back to series 3 of the Wire on DVD - not quite as good yet as the first two series, but still interesting.

Today wasn't as nice - overcast, but calm and mild and I managed another round of golf this morning whilst Jo did her usual Sunday church/coffee thing with the girls.

Jo's been doing some work in the back garden:



Incidentally, I finished the 3rd book in the Millenium trilogy - excellent reading - all of them - highly recommended.

So, it's back to work in the morning - and the dental hygienist to face!

What a day for a ........

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Well, it is another beautiful sunny, summer's day in Banchory anyway - but it was overcast and cool when I left B.o.D. at lunchtime. I'm home now and having a quick cup of tea then Jo and I are heading back in to Aberdeen on the bus to go to the early shift at the beer festival and hopefully miss the massed Friday night mobs.

I worked there last night for 4 hours - got my staff t-shirt and badge!



More later.

Summer's here and the time is right for ........

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

It certainly feels like summer today - and yesterday was much better than forecast. I played for our Seniors at Deeside and it was lovely. Looking good for tonight's golf as well - let's hope it keeps up.

I spoke to Brain Hanson last night - he's up in Portsoy on a week's golf with his pals - he's actually playing Fraserburgh today and I was going to go along and see him, but I had to change my plans and come to Aberdeen today.

And it's a very happy anniversary to Barry and Helen today - I can't believe it's 16 years!

I borrowed Colin's digital turntable converter and have now started to convert my old vinyl to mp3 files - a project I always said I would do in retirement. It's funny hearing all the old scratchy records again 30-40 years later.

Anyone want any music? I haven't bought much recently - just a few - Phosphorescent, Black Francis, Decemberists (Crane Wife), Elvis Costello (Secrets, Profane & Sugarcane) and, of course, T.H.I.S.T.L.E.! Let me know if you want me to send you anything.

That's enough for today - it's too hot in the office - time to go, I think.

Furniture update

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

No golf yesterday morning - the sun didn't come out until it was too late. Sod's law, today has been beautiful, but, despite being a bank holiday, I was in Fraserburgh working. Tomorrow, I've agreed to play for our Seniors at Deeside and, what do you know - it's going to be raining again!

However, after much debating about what to do with getting me a replacement chair/desk, we've finally made a decision - this is what we've chosen:



We noticed on their web site that they had a laptop table attachment - exactly what we've been looking for, but couldn't find anywhere until now. It was sheer chance - Jo spotted it looking over my shoulder - and it was her idea originally too. Result - now we've got to get a proper TV table before our old one falls under the weight of the huge plasma TV. I thought we'd kind of agreed on a John Lewis model, but Jo's still not happy - she's got other ideas - but I don't know what they are - and nor does she yet!

That's all tonight from the only blogger in town.

Luca video

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

OK - apologies - it appears that there was a bit of a technical problem with the Luca video I tried to upload yesterday.

Yesterday, after golf, Jo and I re-discovered the Tor-na-Coille Hotel. The new owners have improved the internal decor - and they've got ale as well! Next thing to try will be the food some time.

We went down to the Potarch for a bar supper with Colin and Johanne last night. Ross drove us out there and brought us back later. We were in the restaurant at the back rather than the bar - nice and bright and airy. We had coffee in the lounge afterwards: