Ullapool and beyond

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Well we had a lovely weekend on the West Coast - the weather was terrific - much better than we anticipated, and Saturday and Sunday were a huge improvement on the rather mixed weather we drove through travelling to Ullapool on Friday.

I left work at the back of three and drove home to pick up Jo and we were on the road about 4-ish. I wanted to get as much of the driving as possible done in daylight and so I just kept going. We made very good time - over the Lecht, up to Inverness and then on to a much better road than I anticipated from Tore on the Black Isle to Ullapool. We checked in and were down in the bar having our supper before 7 pm.

After eating, we took the one mile walk up the hill to the Morefield Hotel, who were holding the 8th Ullapool Beer Festival. As expected, it was a fairly small affair - the hotel had 9 handpumps on, compared with their usual 3, but it wasn't anything like the huge affairs at Pittodrie or Stonehaven (next week!) - or even the one we went to at the Braeval in Nairn earlier this year. The Morefield just held it in their usual lounge and it was fairly quiet when we arrived - we were able to get a comfy corner seat with a good view of the band, who were setting up at the time.

We had a few beers and walked home - not too late. On Saturday morning we had breakfast in the lovely dining room, looking out at Loch Broom, with the sun coming over the tops of the mountains. We both ordered kippers and were astonished at the plates that arrived with 2 huge kippers each on them:

Our room was described as a balcony double overlooking Loch Broom. It was fine, but it wasn't quite what I imagined. The balcony wasn't individual to our room, but ran all the way round that side of the building:

We decided we would take the coastal road which heads south to Gairloch and go and see Inverewe Gardens, a National Trust property. First of all, however, a little stroll along past the ferry port up to the end of the breakwater:

Time now to jump in the car back inland to the start of Loch Broom. Just as we turned round to head along the coastal trail, we came to Corrieshalloch Gorge, another National Trust site. We took the 1 km walk round the gorge, across the suspension bridge and on to the overhanging viewing platform. Jo wasn't keen on crossing the bridge, which moved about a bit too much for her liking:

She was just a little less edgy on the metal viewing platform - just as well it wasn't glass like the Grand Canyon!:

The drive south from there was spectacular - super viewpoints over the mountains and out to the ocean and the islands everywhere. We got to Inverewe Gardens just in time for lunch, after which we strolled round the grounds, starting at the walled garden. We went through the gate on to the foreshore and sat on a bench to read for a little. It was beautifully sheltered and the sun was beating down. What else would a couple of old folks do but have a quick nap? This was our bench:

So that was pretty much Saturday morning and afternoon. We drove back to our hotel, showered and then walked out to get something to eat. Earlier on we had spotted that the Seaforth had advertised that it had won various awards for Seafood Pub of the Year several times, so we thought it was definitely worth a try - and what a good decision it was. Smoked haddock risotto with Stornaway black pudding - lovely!

We went back to the Morefield, which was a bit busier this time. The band playing was North Sea Gas and a few more had come along to hear this "name" act. They've been on the go for 30 years, toured the world and made 15 albums - check them out here - http://nsg.gplrank.info/

After a couple of beers propped up on bar stools, we left and headed for the Argyll Hotel, which is Wester Ross Pub of the Year. It was OK, but we went on the wrong evening - no band and very quiet - we should have been there the night before.

That was Saturday. Sunday's stories to follow later.

The week so far

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

I had a really lazy time last weekend. The weather wasn't conducive to any outdoor activities and I probably could have done with the rest anyway, but I did spend a lot of my time in my chair reading the papers and watching TV. The best part was watching Thistle on BBC Alba on Sunday, complete with Gaelic commentary, as they beat Cowdenbeath to reach the Ramsdens Cup Final, where they will meet Queen of the South. Bizarrely, the final isn't until 7th April.

We watched Animal Kingdom on DVD on Saturday night. A bit grisly it was - Jo wasn't too keen on it, but we sat through to the end.

I made up for my lazy weekend a bit with 2 days in a row at Bannatyne's on Monday and Tuesday - the first time I've done that for a long time. I've found it a bit of a motivational struggle this past year or so to go to the gym - you know you should, but often you just can't be bothered.

Jo's big sister Mary arrived on Tuesday. Like me, she felt she needed a bit of a rest and, as a result, she and Jo didn't really get around all that much this week, but it was nice to see her anyway. We - Jo, Mary, Ross and I - went to the Burnett for tea on Wednesday evening, where I snapped the Twitter Sisters together:

Not Mary's best photo - a kind of world-weary, resigned look on her face.

Last night, Jo, Mary and I went to the Deeside Drinks Emporium for another wine tasting evening. This time it was Spanish wines - but only one Rioja. Five of them were white and they were OK, but the 3 red ones were nice.

Mary's gone home today and this afternoon, Jo and I are heading to Ullapool - a new adventure for us - some walking, some sight-seeing - and a beer festival to boot! What's not to like? I had to forgo my ticket to see the Steve Miller Band in Glasgow on Sunday night, but I didn't mind really. The ticket's still available if anyone wants it?

Looking ahead, we have a Headbang next Friday and we're going to see the Jags for the first time this season - at Falkirk - the following day. The weekend after that it's the Stonehaven Beer Festival, then the following weekend we're back in Edinburgh for the Wine Gang's (http://www.thewinegang.com/live/) Christmas Fair again. Jo's signed us up for a few of the Masterclasses - including wines of Lebanon, of all things!

After all that, it won't be long until we're off to Oz for Xmas! We have to arrange our Scottish Christmas Dinner first of all - probably on Sunday 16th December. That's the day after I'm scheduled to go down to Newcastle for a Premiership footy match. Going to have to fit in our group golf/squash Xmas dinner party some time as well. Whew.

I'll finish with a rare photo of Kelly and Chris all dressed up at a mask ball:

Looking forward to seeing them in a few weeks' time.

Back again

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Got back from my week's golf in Mallorca on Tuesday. The return journey went fine but the outward one was a bit of a nightmare - but we got there in the end and what a great week of weather we had - much hotter than we expected, rising to 30 C.

On the Sunday before we left, we held our annual end of season Scotland v Rest of World Challenge match, followed by lunch at the golf club - and what a nice day out it turned out to be.

Not much else to say - the weather was lovely when we got back and yesterday brought a ton of rain and everywhere is pretty damp now. No golf today - perhaps tomorrow. Could probably do with a lazy day anyway. May go and visit Dave and Doris Edwards. Dave's got vascular dementia - he's been going downhill for years, and now he's got to the stage where full-time care is required. Doris can't cope any more. Memories of Dad come flooding back - and it was 3 years ago on Thursday that he passed.

I'll finish with a photo of me on my balcony overlooking the Med last week:

Weather

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Apparently there have been reports of a weather onslaught on Aberdeen. It's not been great - there's been plenty of rain and wind - but, from watching some of the news reports from other parts of the country, it looks like we've escaped lightly this time - so far anyway.

What we did have was some pretty freak conditions round about Fittie, which brought sea foam ashore, making it look like a snowstorm. There have been loads of photos on Facebook already, but I rather liked the one on the front page of the Times today:

Never seen that before.

Nothing much else to say in this blog. Jo and I finished distributing the CAMRA newsletters on Monday evening, but otherwise all's quiet.

Holiday weekend

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

We don't do holiday Mondays at work any more, but it's still noticeable that a number of people take the day off. Not that I would have noticed any difference in the rush hour traffic this morning - I slept in - didn't waken until 7:50 am!

We were knackered yesterday and I just vegetated. We had gone for a drive and a walk on Saturday afternoon - it was such a lovely day. The walk wasn't hard - it was pretty flat and only 13kms long, but I had forgotten my wedges and the second half of the walk was absolute agony - I didn't think I was going to make it back to Ballater at one stage. Well, at least it proves that my wedges must be doing something - I didn't get any pain like this last weekend when we were in the Lake District on harder walks 4 days in a row.

I had also been refereeing - without wedges again - on Friday night at our little celebration for Andy Gore's 1,000th match - and it was a fairly late night too, so that probably didn't help the way I felt on Saturday.

Details of our walk are on the Hill-walking blog, but it was a loop from Ballater along the south side of the Dee, over the bridge at Cambus o' May then back along the Deeside Way on the north side of the river. Here we are at the halfway point:

We've also had a visitor this weekend - Charlie, Ross' pal Liam's lovely young lab. He was very good really but needed a fair amount of attention.

Got the quarterly newsletters for CAMRA to deliver this week - I've done about half already, but still have to get out to Aboyne, Tarland and Potarch. Apart from that, I've been preparing for our annual end of season Scotland v. R.o.W. Challenge match next Sunday, followed by lunch at the golf club, and also for our next overseas golf trip - to Mallorca a week tomorrow. I've hardly played recently - will need to sharpen up quickly for this trip.

The other little trip planned is a couple of nights in Ullapool on 19/20 October. Never been there, so it'll be nice to see it - and, of course, it's the weekend of their beer festival too - wouldn't you know it! The only slight downside was that it clashed a bit with the Steve Miller Band playing in Glasgow that Sunday, so I've had to cancel that.

Hello again

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Where have I been? Well, mostly down in the Lake District since my last blog - check out http://bvhill-walkers.blogspot.co.uk/. I didn't cope too well and I rather suspect this will be the last time I can join them on a trip like this. My best day was Saturday when the sun shone and I was on my own, happy to stroll along at my own pace with my music on. I think I decided I liked my own company that day. Here's a couple of photos I took that aren't on the hill-walking blog:

It's been back to the old routine for now - Tuesday Fraserburgh, Wednesday Aberdeen and tomorrow back to the Broch again - busy catching up. Friday should be a bit easier and we've got a special football celebration match then - not that I'll be playing - I can't risk kicking a ball again, but I will probably referee. My pal Dave and I are putting together a presentation for Andy Gore, who's now played 1,000 matches - we're going to show it on the big screen in the Douglas Arms after the football. It's a bit of a technical challenge, with Dave working down in Reading and me up here, but we'll manage somehow.

That's about all for now - no more news, but I'll keep you posted.

Table

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

A poor photo taken with my iPhone, but it gives you an idea of what the new kitchen table looks like:

No - the table legs aren't green - they're buttermilk - the same as the units - it's just a poor flash.

Arise Sir Andy!

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

What a night last night - no wonder I'm tired today - we stayed up until 2:30 am watching Andy Murray finally overcome the British male hoodoo and become a winner of a Grand Slam event - after a gap of almost four generations. I think my tiredness is only partly due to lack of sleep - the rest is due to the emotional wringer that Andy always seems to put us through. Even when he was 5-2 up and serving for the match against an apparently wounded opponent, you still felt it wasn't going to be a shoe-in - but it was, and what a relief.

What was even more surprising was that Jo, who doesn't really like sport at all, stayed up with me and watched every ball too. Ross was in and out of the room, regularly checking up on the score - and adding, in his unique way, comments about there still being time for Andy to mess it up - but, for once, he didn't.

So what now for Andy? Honours certainly - Knighthood? - perhaps not yet. Sports Personality of the Year? - good chance, although several Olympians, including Mo Farah, may contest that one - and that's without mentioning Bradley Wiggins, winner of the Tour de France.

Tired though I was, I think I successfully steered our company through its annual wage negotiations with USDAW in Fraserburgh this morning, so it looks to have been a good day so far. I'll stop off at Inverurie on the way home and have a bite with Jo and Luca - and poor, sick Carole, who's got pleurisy apparently - before heading back home for an early night.

The weekend was good - especially Sunday's golf up at spectacular Castle Stuart - check the golf blog for some nice views of the course and the surrounding area.

I'm half packed for this weekend's walking trip to the Lake District. All we need now is for the weather to behave itself.

We're considering going to Ullapool for a weekend late October, to coincide with their annual beer festival, but there's a slight logistical complication in that I've also got a ticket to see The Steve Miller Band at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on the Sunday night. Watch this space for further news.

There's a Food and Beer night coming up at Milton of Crathes on 20th September - looks interesting, and so it should be at £45 per head. Here's the provisional menu:

Appetiser- Venison tartare, caper relish, coal oil, gorse flower.

Starter- Grilled smoked salmon, rockette and a

pple salad, cucumber gel.

Main- Slow braised pork belly, cauliflower purée, sweet and sour peppers, coconut porter sauce.

Cheese course- Badentoy blue cheese, toasted brioche, sweetened stout jelly.

Desert- Warm chocolate ganache tart, yoghurt sorbet.

Coffee and fudge.

Oh - and our new kitchen table arrived yesterday - and it's lovely - Jo's delighted with it. Painting the kitchen - and the chairs - will finish that project off, but we're waiting to get a plasterer to do some repair work in the downstairs WC before we call the painter back.

Ross in his 30th year!

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yup - 29 years ago today, our youngest came in to the world at Simpson's Maternity, Edinburgh - and I was just about to start a new job - and a new life - at Clipper Seafoods, Aberdeen. Where has the time gone?

Jo was out last night and I was idly trawling the internet, looking at potential flights to USA next year - using our (Avios) air miles and the BA Companion Voucher we have (which was due to expire next year). I tried Los Angeles first - no dice. Nothing at all in June/July/August. Same with San Francisco - and Seattle. The next big west coast(ish) airport I could think of was Las Vegas, but I didn't hold out much hope - but there they were - departing Wednesday 10th July, returning Monday 5th August - Business Class. I nabbed them, without further consultation.

So our plan would be to spend a few nights in Vegas, recovering from the journey and perhaps taking in a show or two, then fly to Reno on Sunday, where, hopefully Scott and Lucy would pick us up on their way to South Lake Tahoe, where we're all spending a week at the Marriott timeshare.

We'd have to sort out logistics to get us back from Reno to Medford, then from there back to LV at the end of our holiday, but that shouldn't be insurmountable.

I feel relieved this morning, having sorted out our dates for next year already - I was concerned we wouldn't get to use our air miles and companion voucher before they expired.

Tomorrow looks good, weather-wise and I've got golf in the morning and then Gary and Luca are over at lunchtime after Gary has completed his 10K - http://www.stoneystomp.org.uk/Stoney_Stomp/homepage.html

On Sunday, I'm off to Castle Stuart (http://www.castlestuartgolf.com/) on the Moray Firth, where they held the Scottish Open. It looks spectacular - hope the weather holds. Then on Thursday, it's a return to the Lake District for a weekend of hiking/hill-walking.

More press

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

I got quoted in today's Deeside Piper article about the lack of a decent swimming pool in Banchory - check out http://www.deesidepiper.co.uk/news/local-headlines/calls-for-new-pool-in-banchory-1-2510659

Following on yesterday's comments about my annual health screen, despite the predictable adverse comments on my diet, I think overall I was pretty much in range for most things - in fact, pretty good on some of them, like BP and Cholesterol. The adverse ones included the fact that I was dehydrated at the time of the test - no surprise as it was taken first thing in the morning after over 12 hours of fasting with no liquids. This too could have contributed to the trace of protein they found in my urine - often caused by a concentrated sample.

My weight and BMI are also rising - but I knew that.

The bad one was my liver function tests which showed a raised Gamma GT - 127, when the recommended range is 10 to 60. It's almost identical to last year's screen result, but these 2 results were much higher than in previous years. I blame the Lesinas - we had just returned from a month's holiday in USA. Mental note to self - get screened before we go off on holiday next year.

Talking about holidays, we got one of our exchange requests coming through, so we know we're going to South Lake Tahoe for a week in mid-July - http://www.marriott.co.uk/hotels/travel/rnotl-marriotts-timber-lodge/

Must get on with booking flights now. We have Avios points to use and a Companion Voucher too, but no doubt there'll be no availability for Air Miles bookings at that time of year.

Autumn Almanac

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Would you believe it? I've suddenly discovered some form again at golf after a whole season of playing rubbish. The magic started last Wednesday on the final night of our season long Quaich competition when I scored 43 points - what does that mean you ask? Well, it's 7 under par for my handicap - pretty good, I can tell you.

I didn't quite do as well at the Terry Edmonds' Memorial at Aboyne on Friday - I only finished second! I soon corrected that at Grantown and Boat of Garten on Sunday/Monday however by winning the trophy again on our 54th outing there.

OK - enough of golf - well, maybe not - the sun's shining - I may disappear soon.

In between all this golf, Jo and I took the bus down to Potarch on Saturday morning and, after a beer and a spot of lunch, we walked back along the Deeside Way - read all about it at http://bvhill-walkers.blogspot.co.uk/

Here's one of Jo en route:

Saturday night we watched the modern version of True Grit - not bad, we thought.

My medical results are in - shall I save the bad news for another day? Here's a sneak preview of their analysis of my diet:

That's enough for now.

Bank Holiday Blues

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

It's not a Bank holiday here - but it is in England and, seemingly, some other parts of Scotland. They can have it, though - it's pretty miserable in most of the UK anyway as yet another wet front passes through our island.

It's still August, however - we must hope that it's just passing. Perhaps we'll have an Indian Summer? Hope so - the golf season is rapidly coming to an end. This Wednesday is the last of our midweek evenings competition for the Quaich - an event I won last year, incidentally - and, on Friday we're at Aboyne for the Terry Edmonds' Memorial, then it's off to Boat of Garten on Sunday/Monday.

Talking about golf, this has been my worst season for a couple of decades in terms of scoring and events won etc. What can I put this down to? Perhaps my knees? I did play pretty well at St. Andrews last Tuesday, however, and again at Kintore on Thursday, so perhaps there's hope there yet.

The news that Neil Armstrong had died was another bit of our past gone. Like Kennedy's shooting, everyone can remember where they were on that day in 1969 - "one giant step for mankind". I was in a caravan in Paignton, Devon with my pals. Coming so soon after they successfully landed the probe on Mars, it was slightly ironic.

We watched the DVD of War Horse last night. I knew it would be a bit schmaltzy, but it was classic Speilberg and kept us well entertained for a couple of hours.

I've dished out the CAMRA LocAle stuff to the Douglas and the Burnett in Banchory, but need to get round to some of the other Deeside pubs soon and do likewise.

I'll finish again with a medical report. I had my annual full "M.o.T." on Wednesday at Nuffield Health. We usually go to Albyn, but thought we would try Nuffield for a change this year. They're pretty well organised, even although they had to postpone my medical by a week when the doctor who was due to see me left them at short notice. However, they were able to ship another in from Glasgow for the day, so that's the advantage of being with a national chain, I guess. It seemed to go OK, but I'll wait for the full report before further comment.

I also went to see the nurse at our local medical centre on Friday to have a look at the apparent foreign body in the sole of my foot. I can't see it, but she reckoned it was a verucca and so we're now treating it that way. Jo has since spotted another one on the same foot - where did I pick them up from?

This morning was my annual check-up with my cardiologist - ECG, treadmill, heart scan and physical examination. He reckoned my heart, apart from the known AF, was fine. He noted I couldn't do as long on the treadmill as a couple of years ago, but, equally, my heart rate didn't rise as far, which is due to the beta blockers of course. Just carry on, he said - get as much exercise as your heart - and your knees - will let you do.

Beery weekend

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Brian Hanson arrived on Friday and we played golf at Tarland and Banchory and then he was gone on Saturday afternoon. For those that didn't get a chance to see him, here he is:

Brian's been on an exercise regime and has lost weight over the last year. He started off going for long walks, then reverted to cycling - he even bought a new bike. His golf was a bit better too.

I also had a CAMRA meeting to attend on Saturday afternoon, so, the combination of Brian being here, some golf and the meeting, meant a few ales were supped. Not a good idea with my medical coming up on Wednesday.

We watched The Iron Lady on Saturday night - Meryl Streep was brilliant - and it was quite a poignant film, with the emphasis on her slide into Alzheimer's. Must have been good to get us feeling sorry for her.

Jo says I've got something stuck in the sole of my left foot, and I'm going to have to go to the Nurse to get it removed - it's too deep-seated - but I'm sure it's not like the time Jo stood on a needle and it disappeared into her foot. I thought at first it was just my wedges hurting, but apparently not.

Tomorrow, it's St. Andrews for me - hope it stays dry.

And the footy season's back in full swing now - the Dons have made a reasonable start and the Jags have won every game so far. Tonight, it's Man Utd - they're playing Everton away - tough start.

I've also got new CAMRA LocAle handouts to take to the local pubs - the idea is to promote the benefits of drinking locally produced real ales, including the environmental ones. This got me thinking about a couple of real ale festivals coming up in the next couple of months - Loch Ness and Torridon in particular. Might be worth a weekend trip or two.

Thursday evening update

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Unexpectedly a lovely day today - even in the sea-surrounded Broch it was over 20C. I'm at home now and have just booked our next holiday - to go and see Kelly and Chris over Christmas/New Year, when it's also our 40th Wedding Anniversary. And guess what? - Ross is coming too!

Malaysian Airlines this time - via Kuala Lumpur, and we're having a 2 night stopover there on the way back - at http://www.shangri-la.com/kualalumpur/shangrila/.

When I got home tonight, I noticed Luca had a plaster on his elbow - he had fallen in the street. He was pretty quiet and when Jo nipped out to the shops, I never noticed him falling asleep at first - I thought he was still watching the cartoons - but then I spotted him reclining on the settee, propped up by his other elbow and with his eyes apparently half open:

Spooky, eh? Jo says Gary was just the same - she used to go over to him and shut his eyelids - just as the undertaker does with the dead.

The dentist smoothed off the rough edge on my broken tooth yesterday so that it doesn't catch my tongue, but I have to go back for a full appointment to get it repaired properly. Apparently the tooth had 2 old fillings and it split right down the middle of them.

The roof surveyor is coming out next week to assess what needs to be done to the flat roof above Ross' bedroom and to look at the pitched roof above ours at the same time.

Do you remember the complaint we were having with Santander? Well, yesterday, completely out of the blue, we received a bunch of flowers:

Very nice - but even this was a cock-up. The investment, the complaint, and all the correspondence are all in Jo's name, but the flowers and the apology were addressed to me:

Can't they do anything right?

News now of a big challenge coming up over the Christmas holidays next year - 2013-14. With all the athletic training apparently going on in our (extended) family, Scott has given notice that they - the Lesinas, Scott and Lucy - are going to be taking on Kelly and Chris in a race up Scolty Hill!

Of course, Gary and Carole could be contestants as well by then! Watch this space. I'll be keeping a fatherly eye on this one - particularly as I did the official Scolty Hill Race (http://www.scottishhillracing.co.uk/RaceDetails.aspx?RaceID=RA-0049) when I was older than any of my offspring and their partners are now!

Tomorrow, Brian Hanson arrives at lunchtime and is staying overnight, with golf planned for tomorrow afternoon and Saturday morning - hope the weather behaves.

Last word - a thought for Jo - it's 21 years ago today that her father - Granda Bill to most - died.