Midweek mumbles

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

I couldn't join Jo in Inverurie yesterday and I assumed I would be home alone in the evening with Ross due to be at work. As it transpired, Ross didn't make it to work as he was ill - but I only discovered this when I eventually got home, having taken a detour to Tarland and Aboyne to squeeze in another 3 pub surveys - time is running out as the meeting which decides which pubs in our area make it in to next year's Good Beer Guide is a week on Saturday.

I've managed to do 10 of them so far, so I'm not quite half way on the list of 21 that I was given, and there's a couple of extras likely to be added as well. If I get a bit of time tomorrow when I'm up in the Broch, I'll hopefully manage to squeeze another couple in before dashing off to squash. That would then leave Ballater (4), Crathie and Braemar to do - plus 3 in Banchory, which I hope to do on Friday night. The long trip up Deeside will probably have to be done this weekend - if the weather behaves itself.

And today, I actually made it along to Bannatyne's at lunchtime - the first time in a long while - and who should I bump into in the changing room but our Gary! Amazing what you find out - apparently he's handed his notice in at work and is leaving ASCO to join rivals Pentagon, who, coincidentally, Colin Kilgour works for. In fact, Colin is retiring (again) at the end of this month on his 65th birthday, so maybe Gary's effectively replacing him?

Next week we have to try and secure our tickets for the Ramsdens Cup Final between Thistle and QoS (Queen of the South to the uninitiated). We lost our young Manager last week - he stepped up to the SPL with Dundee United - so I'm not sure that we're favourites to win the cup any more, but we'll be heading to Livingston on Sunday 7th April, mob-handed, in any event.

I'm now starting to feel guilty about not having done any more of Renshaw's Chronicles (http://renshawschronicles.blogspot.co.uk/) for the last 3 months. I've been very good at keeping my other blogs going recently but the Chronicles requires a lot more time, effort and working memory cells. Who knows when I'll manage the next episode - the early days in Banchory - virtually 30 years ago.

I always like to add some pictorial stuff to my blogs - dry prose only bores - I can almost hear you yawning from here. Here's a recent one from USA:

Terrorists at large? Well, very small ones.

Lastly, to continue on one of the themes making a lot of headlines in the press recently - the battle over mackerel in the North Sea. I spotted an interesting graphic that neatly sums up the problem:

As you can see, the biomass is huge, but we need to come to an agreement soon as to who gets what, and reduce the overall annual catch from all the northern European nations back down to nearer the sustainable level of 0.5m. tonnes, or we will quickly deplete the stock, even allowing for the fact that the relatively short life cycle of mackerel helps it regenerate quickly.

Today's short lesson over.

Jo's op

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yesterday (Monday), I took the day off to take Jo to Albyn for her appointment with Dr. Kumar, who seemed to quickly recognise and diagnose the problem with her shoulder. Apparently it's frozen shoulder (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frozen_shoulder) or, more properly, adhesive capsulitis.

Apparently the shoulder joint sits in a bag and this bag has now shrunk, causing lack of movement in her shoulder. Jo first experienced symptoms and pain in the middle of last year. According to Dr. Kumar, it goes through stages and, if had been caught in the first few weeks, or even months, then a simple cortisone injection should have resolved the matter and stopped it developing further, but there's now scar tissue there which is adding to the restriction and the pain. Now that we're 7 or 8 months on, Jo had 2 choices - either wait for it to heal itself - which could take another year or more, or have an operation. Jo chose the latter.

She had an X-ray just to confirm that there's nothing else going on - and there's not - so we're now just waiting for a space in Dr. Kumar's busy diary. Mid-March is most likely. It's keyhole surgery, but although it's just daycare, there's a general anaesthetic, followed by some fairly lengthy physiotherapy apparently.

What causes it? Apparently nobody knows.

Tayside weekend

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Spittal of Glenshee was closed, so we had to head south east on Saturday morning - and we couldn't even go over Cairn o' Mount, so it was the Slug Road to Stonehaven for us. We had thought we might have to go all the way down to Dundee and across to Perth and back up the A9 from there, but it seemed fairly mild so we cut across country from Forfar - to Kirriemuir and Blairgowrie, with the intention of carrying on westwards to Pitlochry from there. Bad luck - roads closed due to flooding, so we ended up having to go down to Perth anyway - only on the country roads rather than the main dual carriageways.

So, despite leaving Banchory nice and early, we were a bit late arriving for lunch but at least I'd managed to get hold of Barry and let him know. We parked at our B & B in Strathtay and took the short walk to the Inn on the Tay - only we started walking in the wrong direction and had to go all the way back again! I guess it just wasn't our day.

Lunch was nice and we caught up on all the news. Barry and Helen are back working again - part-time, 2 days a week as Assessors for the new Modern Apprentice scheme. They're actually training as they're doing the job - the first in Glasgow as well. Harriet, the dog they were training for the Guide Dogs for the Blind, has now gone. She failed, I'm afraid, so she's now just a house dog somewhere. I think Helen misses her.

Dawn told us about Julie having quit her PhD, which came with some funding which has now obviously gone, so it's going to be tough for them with just Kieran's wage coming in and a wedding on the horizon.

After lunch, we posed outside the Inn:

Don't know why Barry and I are looking so unhappy?

Jo and I walked back to our B & B and Dawn, Barry & Helen drove back home. Riverwood was a lovely, high quality place - if a tad precious. We were told the house rules as soon as we arrived - including wearing slippers in the house.

The Evening with Tony Robinson at the theatre in Pitlochry was good fun. It was very informal and was far from a full house. He was on stage with a fellow actor and he just chatted away. He is very small - and very round. His chosen outfit of sparkly cardigan over plain t-shirt wasn't exactly flattering either:

We popped in to the Moulin Inn for a quick pint before heading back to Strathtay.

Breakfast was lovely - sitting at the window looking out at the Tay, with red squirrel and pheasant roaming round the garden. French toast with maple syrup and bacon - delicious.

We had decided we wanted to do a walk before coming home, but it appeared that the planned trip over the hill to Pitlochry was a lot more than the 4 miles I'd been led to believe it was, so we looked elsewhere. I spotted a walk from Grandtully to Aberfeldy - 4 miles apparently, but it would be a bit more than twice that there and back, as it transpired.

Arriving just outside Aberfeldy, first stop looked like being Dewar's distillery, but their coffee shop was shut on Sundays in winter, unfortunately. Nevertheless, there was a photo opportunity in front of their symbol:

You'd never guess we'd just had words, would you?

We found a lovely new coffee shop in the town centre however - the Habitat Cafe. Suitably refreshed, we headed back along the trail to Grandtully, passing Dewar's once more:

Then, the long drive home - on the main roads this time!

Saturday snow

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

We'll be heading off to Strathtay/Pitlochry in the next couple of hours, but we've woken to another covering of snow this morning. It's not much, but it's enough to make up my mind about which direction to go. It would be too much of a risk to head west up Deeside and over Spittal of Glenshee, so we'll have to go down the main A90 and then decide whether to tackle the Angus/Perthsire cross country route or go all the way down to Perth and then back up the A9.

If we get there in good time and the weather's OK, I think we'll dump the car at our B & B (http://www.riverwoodstrathtay.com/) and then take the short walk to our lunch date with Dawn and Barry (http://www.theinnonthetay.co.uk/).

We've got the theatre tonight in Pitlochry - Tony Robinson - and then home tomorrow. If the Glenshee road is open tomorrow, I might even manage to do a pub survey or two in Braemar/Ballater on the way home. I managed to get another 3 done yesterday - the Cock & Bull, Balmedie, Scott Skinner's and the Legion last night. 5 down, 16 to go!

On Monday, I'm taking Jo to Albyn for her appointment with the specialist to look at her shoulder. Hope they sort something out.

Now own up, all you people, who was it that gave my last blog posting a "rubbish" rating?

The worst kept secret

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yes - the news is finally, officially out. We are to become Grandparents again in August. Many congrats to Kelly and Chris - great news. We only wish we could be there - or, even better, that they could be here!

The original plans had been for Kelly and Chris to come over here for Christmas/New Year this year and have a big family reunion as Lucy, Scott and the boys had also planned to come at the same time, but Kelly and Chris can't afford to come now - which is presenting Lucy and Scott with a bit of a dilemma - do they come this year and miss Kelly, or do they cancel their plans and come next year, hoping Kelly and Chris can make it then?

It's also means we will be going back to Oz early next year. We had originally thought that we were getting a year off from doing this journey, but I guess we'll just have to put up with another winter break in the sun! Mind you, it would be cheaper for us to pay Kelly and Chris' air fares over here (cattle class!) than pay for Jo and I to return Down Under (Business Class!)!

That's about all I've got to say today. Believe it or not, I've been exceptionally busy at work this week and have had little time to myself - the odd short blog, that's all. I had fully intended to go back to the gym today - for the first time this year - but got waylaid again. No time left now - got to get home as it's our golf club's AGM tonight and we're expecting a rammy, so I need to be there.

I'm hoping to get some squash tomorrow night, but I've also got all the pub surveys to do for CAMRA and I only have 2 weeks left to cover Banchory, Aboyne, Potarch, Strachan, Tarland, Torphins, Ballater, Crathie, Braemar, Balmedie and Fraserburgh - 21 pubs in all over a wide geographic area, and I've only done 2 of them so far - help!

Music studio

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Has our downstairs room now been turned in to a music studio? You be the judge:

Yes - 2 guitars, stands, amps plus, under wraps on right, a full size drum kit. Here's a better view of Ross' new electric guitar:

Thawing

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Hello again. It's Monday and I'm at home - alone. I was at a seminar at lunchtime in the city centre and just came home afterwards. No Jo, no Ross - empty house. Never mind, I'm heading off to squash soon.

Jo's latest handiwork was lying on the carpet in the back room. Was she showing off?:

Is anyone else watching Borgen? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borgen_(Danish_TV_series) Scandinavian political intrigue - with subtitles. Sounds great doesn't it? Well, I'm enjoying it anyway. Next episodes Saturday night - when we'll be away. Sky + and Catch-up always come to the rescue.

We're also catching up with Homeland Series 1 - on DVD - having missed it first time around - that's pretty good too.

We're having lunch with Dawn and Barry on Saturday at the Inn on the Tay:

Don't think we'll be sitting out on the decking this week, however!

Jo and I are going to the theatre in nearby Pitlochry at night. Wonder if we'll be able to drive down Deeside and over the hills? If it carries on thawing we should be fine.

Some of you may have noticed last week's press about problems with the North Sea Mackerel fisheries. It's the staple product of our business - 100% of the output of one of our 3 factories and a significant share of the other two, and responsible for probably 300 or more jobs. Complicated subject but the Times tried to summarise it on Saturday:

(Click on to enlarge).

Ironic - plenty mackerel available but it seems the various European countries are hell-bent on destroying the most valuable resource left in the North Sea because they can't agree what's the fairest way to share it all out. Anyway, don't let that stop you continuing to eat it - it's good for you and it's plentiful - for now anyway.

That's all for now, folks.

Saturday blog

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Travel to work did get much easier towards the end of the week. I got up early on Thursday morning fearing the worst for my journey to Fraserburgh, but I sailed through and was at my desk in the Broch by 7:45 am - well ahead of schedule. It was a busy day, but I made it back down to Kippie Lodge in time to get a game of doubles with Malcolm, Richard, Keith and Dan.

The forecast for Friday was bad and I was swithering about whether to work from home or not. I was tempted by the additional possibility of watching Andy Murray's semi-final from Melbourne, but, in the end, I went to the Bridge of Don office, where I was able to do some work and also watch Andy's great win. Tomorrow morning - like the rest of the nation - I'll be glued to my TV, hoping he can pull it off against Djokovic.

This morning, we watched the Tour Down Under - with the sound off mostly - on TV, looking out for some of the places round Adelaide that we'd visited a few short weeks ago. Then, Gary and Luca arrived - the first time Jo had seen them since before Christmas. They had come directly from Luca's football practice and he was resplendent in his new Aberdeen strip - a Christmas present. When I asked him to pose, he insisted on also showing one of the Octonauts gifts that Kelly and Chris had bought for him:

It's a beautiful, almost spring-like day outside, but with plenty of snow still lying on the golf course - ideal for sledging down the 3rd hole, as our children, nephews and nieces, and, indeed, other grandchildren, have done over the years - but the boy is not for turning. He'd rather stay indoors with his Granny Jo.

Another moan

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yes, here I go again. It's been a week of travel hell. I made it to Fraserburgh yesterday - eventually. Again the major problem was wind blowing dry, powdery snow off the fields on to the roads. I was listening to the local travel reports - including NorthSound's JamBuster line - and they were bad enough to make me stop off in Inverurie for a cup of tea and assess whether to go on or not.

I had the good grace to phone Carole before I stopped off at Rae Circle, giving her the chance to hurriedly get dressed. Gary was just getting ready to go to work and Luca was there, complete with big smiles and a giant hug - that made it all worthwhile stopping.

In Fraserburgh itself, there wasn't even the remotest sign of snow. However, I had experienced what it was like inland, so I decided to drive home down the coastal road to Aberdeen - and that was fine until I got to Garlogie where I started to hear the ominous rumble of hard packed ice under the tyres, so it was a slow crawl from there.

Summary of yesterday - time spent at work = four and a half hours. Time spent in car = 5 hours. Something not right there.

Today wasn't much better. I'd had enough of side roads and decided to stick to main roads only on my way to our Aberdeen factory at Bridge of Don. The problem with this is, nowadays, Westhill is so busy with all the oil service companies that have set up there, that it was nose to tail all the way from there to B.o.D. Elapsed time to my office - 2 hours. Grrr.

I'll be out of here soon - well before everyone else heads home hopefully.

Tomorrow it's Fraserburgh again. Any bets on how long it's going to take me?

Monday moan

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Great start to the day/week - got stuck in snow this morning - and it's not even snowing here! I went the back road via Tyrebagger and came to one section of the road that is open with high fields on one side, and the wind was blowing the snow from the field on to the road.

A car coming up the slope towards me got stuck but I thought I still had room to get past him, but it was so tight that I ended up going in to the deeper snow just off the road. Great - now there's 2 cars stuck, side by side, with the road now totally blocked. The good thing about this is that everyone behind came out to help dig and push us out! Uncomfortable, but a result.

After a weekend of complete inactivity, it's squash again for me tonight.

I booked tickets for Jo and I to go and see Tony Robinson at Pitlochry Festival Theatre on Saturday 1st March. The blurb says:

Come and hear Tony talk about his love of archaeology, his passion for history and how he's created a career that has lasted and lasted, making him one of the best known TV stars of our time.

Here he is:

Yes - it's Blackadder's Baldrick!

I also bought tickets for 5 of us to go to Glasgow to see Wilko Johnson's final concert in his Farewell Tour. He's got pancreatic cancer and is refusing chemotherapy, so he ain't going to be around much longer. Here he is in his prime:

and here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilko_Johnson

So that's about it for today. Oh - nearly forgot to tell you that "Wart-off" works. Yes, I got my first ever wart at the age of almost 64, but it's gone now thanks to this Aussie acid.

Another thing - I suspect that I'm allergic to the memory foam pillow I bought last month, so I've now acquired a cheaper hypo-allergenic one to try out.

Weekend blog

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

First weekend at home for a while and I'm taking the opportunity to revel in doing just about nothing. Why, even my Saturday and Sunday papers were brought to me, courtesy of Jo (yesterday) and Ross (this morning).

I did go to the golf club on Friday night and have a few beers at the quiz night - it was nice to see everyone again. Not sure exactly when we all stop wishing each other Happy New Year though.

I also went to the Douglas last night to watch the tea-time match and have a couple of beers with Colin and Ian McRae, so you can see I'm not completely de-toxing after our Aussie holiday. Lucy was on FaceTime last night and we were talking about how, when we come home after our American holiday each year, they make a point of taking absolutely no alcohol for a while. In other words, all the beer, wine and cocktails we consume daily in Grants Pass is all our fault. Maybe she's right?

I guess Kelly and Chris will be feeling exactly the same just now - not having to imbibe daily. Yes, holidays are for sunshine, heat, books and alcohol - or so it seems.

I especially enjoy reading books on holiday - I seldom get the time to devour them at home - an occasional chapter before I go to sleep, that's all. I read Diary of a Football Nobody, plus a Michael Connelly Harry Bosch novel - and half another one - and Lorene (Chris' Mum) gave me one of her Lee Childs' Jack Reacher (now a Hollywood novel starring Tom Cruise - http://www.jackreachermovie.co.uk/) books to read as well. I'm sure I read another book too, but can't remember which one it was now - it's probably still at Kelly and Chris' place. I've brought Pete Townsend's autobiography home - it was a Christmas present from Kelly and Chris.

We've also started watching Homeland Series 1 - we missed out on it when it started, but are catching up now. We've come back to the usual mountain of Corries as well - good zoning filler when you're a little zonked out. A new series of Borgen started on BBC Four when we were away so we've missed the first couple of episodes - damn - and they're not on catch-up TV, so we're going to have to figure it out somehow. All these series start each episode with what happened in previous episodes anyway, so we should be alright.

So what's on the agenda today then? Sunday Times of course, plus Match of the Day, followed by the Chelsea - Arsenal and Spurs - Man Utd matches, with filler supplied by the golf from Abu Dhabi - played on one of my favourite courses - one I know well. Sounds good to me - best get on with it then. Bye for now.

Back at work

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

This weeks's been interesting - I haven't felt too bad at all, considering the journey we've just done. OK, I awoke early on Tuesday and went in to the office, but Tuesday and Wednesday nights were relatively normal. I'm wondering when - or whether - it's going to hit me. I did sleep in a bit this morning and I seem to have a bit of a head cold coming on again, but otherwise all's well.

I even played squash last night - and I'm going to try again tonight - I badly need the exercise.

I've spent most of the last few days catching up with mail, admin etc - both business and personal. Tomorrow will be different, however - lots of meetings and all the Managers will be here. I'll be ready for a few beers on Friday night.

Nowt else to say really.

Journey home

Check out the view at http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Our Sunday in KL was even less busy than Saturday had been. We took the hotel shuttle bus up to the Twin Towers, intending to go up, but, when we got there we found out that the first tickets to go to the top wouldn't be available until 7:15 pm, which would make it too tight for us as we were getting picked up to head for the airport at 8:30 pm.

Still, we already had a Plan B in place - we would instead wait until dusk and head up for cocktails at the adjacent Marini's on 57 - not quite as tall as the Twin Towers, but no entrance fees and wonderful views.

We strolled round the very upmarket KLCC mall before heading back to our hotel to pack and relax the afternoon away. Here's Jo in the mall:

It finally came to dusk and we checked out of our hotel and walked to Marini's on 57 where Ross tried out their cocktails as Jo and I stuck to G & T, with a few tapas, including a cheeseboard:

Lots of photos were taken as well, including this one which shows how close the Twin Towers were:

Our journey to the airport was fine and in good time, nicely arriving there just as the Man Utd - Liverpool match started, with the match ending just as we were called to board our plane.

The flight from KL was very good - Malaysian Airlines are excellent - super service and great food, and the A 380 is a terrific plane, although how this monster gets off the ground I'll never know. We arrived at Heathrow's Terminal 4 just after 5 am UK time, and we positively flew through customs and immigration and were over in T5 before 6 am, with our scheduled flight to Aberdeen not due to leave until 4 hours later.

Was there any chance of changing to an earlier flight to Aberdeen? I noticed there was one at 6:55 am, but we were told that was too soon - we had to be there 90 mins before apparently. Disappointed, we trudged off and eventually checked in, went through security and waited. It was Ross who was first to notice that there was another flight at 8:40 am, but, yet again we were too late to notice this. We were disappointed the BA staff didn't point this option out to us however.

Eventually we boarded our scheduled flight, which was held up a little at Heathrow, apparently due to a bit of snow in certain parts of the country. We were therefore a little late landing in Aberdeen, but they then compounded the felony by keeping us waiting on the tarmac for half an hour as there was no available berth for our plane - grrr.

Jacquie's husband Tom was circling the airport building in my car for an hour waiting for us to come out - he wasn't very pleased!

Anyway, we're home now and all seems well. I'm doing this blog partly to keep me awake - it's 5 pm now and we're hoping to stay awake until about 9-ish this evening. Ross has already crashed however, but I bet he's up in the middle of the night.

The North East is white just now and apparently the temperature is going to drop overnight - could take a bit of adjusting to!

Final day in KL

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

We didn't do a lot yesterday - a walk that lasted a couple of hours but didn't go far - it's too hot and steamy - and an afternoon by the pool followed by an evening at the pub then some late night food. There was an opposition (yellow shirts) rally at the Twin Towers, so we kind of bypassed that and just photographed them from the park:

After several beers at TAPS, we decided the only place we wanted to eat late at night was back at the hotel. Ross and I had Shangri-La Slings first:

That's it for now - we're headed out - the rain seems to have stopped for now.