Monday afternoon news

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

I met Jo at Albyn this morning - just to get the all-clear after her shoulder operation. No problems - in and out in less than 5 minutes - and he will probably charge BUPA £100 or so for it too!

We went to Woodend Barn on Friday night and I was reminded what great acoustics it has. A nice warm evening listening to Karine Polwart.

Golfed on Saturday - usual story - managed OK for the first half, but then my knee started to give me gyp and I struggled on the back nine. It did, however, clear my mind of any doubt about going ahead with the operation this year. I was a bit better on Sunday and managed to play again, although again the closing stages were painful. I hope the knee brace will help me stagger through the summer and then get the op this autumn. With no winter trip to Oz planned this year, it gives me plenty of time for recovery before spring next year.

It's only 2 weeks until our first trip to Boat of Garten this year - I hope it warms up a bit before then. Although the weekend was nice and sunny, there's still a bite in the wind.

We watched the Jack Reacher film on Saturday night - typical Tom Cruise film, we thought. Make of that what you will.

Last night we slept in the back bedroom as we had to clear our bedroom for the painter today. The bed's OK, but it's not as good as ours - and the noisy chatter from the downstairs room at 3 am this morning didn't help. It did stop when I got up to complain and Ross did leave me an apology note this morning.

Lucy sent me the following photo of Braeden wearing my Partick Thistle strip that used to hang on his wall. He wore it one day last week - must be in celebration of the Jags winning the Division 1 Championship:

Yes, I know it's sideways again - there's always a problem with orientation when taking photos from an i-Phone and putting them on Blogger.

It's Thistle's last game of the season on Saturday - away to Dumbarton. One part of me feels I need to be there to celebrate, but the other part of me shudders at the thought of driving down and back - I don't like using the car much at weekends generally. Pity there's no Club 55 promotion on just now.

Friday sign-off

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Well, that's post-golfing holiday week one out of the way now. I survived - although I have been a bit sleepy all week - don't think I ever got caught up with my lost sleep night Sat/Sun travelling back from Turkey.

Staggered round the squash court last night and then went home to catch up on some of our recorded TV episodes - The Following (will it ever end - and how much more blood can be shed?) and Broadchurch (now ended).

It's much more difficult keeping my reading up when I come back - can't seem to find the time or the concentration. I was enjoying Cold Comfort - an Icelandic murder mystery I bought in Adelaide, but I'm losing the plot - literally - a little now.

Tonight, we're off to Woodend Barn to see Karine Polwart (http://www.karinepolwart.com/)again. Tomorrow and Sunday golf I hope.

Jo's new car is causing DVLA some problems. They've twice sent us reminders about overdue road tax, which their records show as expiring on 31st March, but the actual tax disc says 31st May:

Looks like a DVLA cock-up. We wouldn't have bought the car with less than a month's road tax on it - we'd have asked Malcolm to tax it before selling it to us. What do we do if the DVLA come back and say we've to pay tax for April and May?

Knee news

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Had my appointment with the specialist this morning and have pencilled in the knee replacement operation for the autumn - well after our trip to USA - and the golf season!

Before that, however, I am going to the physio he has recommended to get fitted with a knee brace. This may - or may not - stave off the operation for a bit. It makes sense to try every avenue as the new knee will only last about 10 years. My orthotic insoles definitely helped for a while but the beneficial effects seem to be wearing off a bit now - maybe the knee brace will be the same.

Elated!

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

My last family blog posting was over 2 weeks ago and was just after we had returned from the Ramsdens Cup Final, which Thistle lost. Despair has since turned to joy as Thistle won the First Division Championship on Saturday and will be playing in the SPL next season for the first time for quite a few years. I listened to the match on internet radio on my phone in Turkey, getting ever more excited as full-time approached with Thistle 2-0 ahead. However, 7pm local time (5pm BST) came and went and still they were playing. It was then that I discovered that there was a substantial time buffer on the transmission, so a quick switch to text results told me we had won. Joy!

So how was my golf week in Turkey? Great. The all-inclusive deal works really well and the resort (http://www.corneliaresort.com/diamond/diamondeng.html) we have been at for the last 3 years is truly 5 star. Very much a "bling" feel to it, which I guess is not everyone's cup of tea, but it was excellent for us. The locals say it is Turkish money behind it, but it feels very much like something a few Russian oligarchs would do.

The hotel and grounds are massive - almost Vegas style - and there's everything you could want there. Of course, golf is the primary reason for the resort being there, but it also attracts a lot of conventions and there were some families there as well. Most days we teed off early in the morning and went back to the hotel for lunch by the pool, then it was swimming, spa, bridge or squash for most of us - plus a snooze of course - I usually had mine in the bath, which was pretty deep. We've all reached the age where getting in and out of baths is starting to get pretty tricky - particularly when they're deep and slippy. The roll-over on to the knees technique was the most favoured in our group - yes, we do discuss such things over dinner!

We had a free day on Saturday as our flight wasn't until late at night, so it was a leisurely day. We played petanque, had a beer, sat in the sun, read our books, played 10-pin bowling, squash, bridge and then showered and changed before heading for the airport. We got to Glasgow about 2 am on Sunday morning local time and, after customs and baggage - mine was almost last out - finally drove north east, trying hard to stay awake. It brought back memories of a few years ago when we came back from New York after our holiday chez Lesinas. We were flying Continental that year out of Glasgow, which meant an overnight flight, against the clock, and then a long drive up the road. I was OK until just outside Strachan, when I finally must have momentarily shut my eyes and the car started to veer off the road. Fortunately, by this time Jo and Kelly were awake and they screamed out simultaneously, which instantly alerted me and I managed to bring the car quickly under control - but it was pretty scary. It wasn't quite as bad this time and we were back in Banchory not long after dawn at 5:30 am.

I didn't want to waken Jo at that ungodly hour, so I unpacked and watched a bit of TV, before finally giving in to my tiredness at 7 am and heading for bed for a couple of hours. I stayed awake most of the rest of the day, but there were a few nodding donkeys along the way.

Anyone interested in the details of the golf - and the photos - can read all about it on my golf blog, but, in short, I was pipped at the post by the grand old man of our group, Syd, who will be 74 next week - and he still has the lowest handicap of all of us, and manages to beat us all regularly - amazing! Syd even had a hole in one on holiday. The drinks were on him, of course - easy to do on an all-inclusive deal! Here's one previously unpublished photo of Peter Street, Ken Page and I taken on the last night:

Back to work on Monday - Aberdeen office, then Fraserburgh yesterday, stopping off for tea in Inverurie with Jo, Carole and Luca. Today's Aberdeen again and hopefully Wednesday golf again this evening.

Tomorrow is my appointment with the knee surgeon. Jo's coming with me. I still don't know what to do. Sometimes I'm OK, but then other times I'm completely debilitated and in a lot of pain. The irony is I'm planning to play squash tomorrow evening after seeing the specialist!

To close, a recent article in one of the trade papers featured some of our factories:

Anyway, enough for now.

Dejected

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

My first family blog for 10 days and I had hoped it would be a celebratory one, but it wasn't to be in the Ramsdens Cup final yesterday. It could have been the second time I had seen Thistle lift a Cup - and the first for Gary and Ross, who weren't even born back in 1971 when the Jags famously beat Celtic 4-1 in the League Cup final. Here's the boys - with Colin Kilgour - at the start:

What else is new? Certainly not the weather, which is still unseasonably cold as witnessed on our golf course which remained closed until Friday last week. I did manage to play on Saturday in the first Medal of the season - it was lovely - almost like a proper Spring, but it's gone again and we're getting more snow flurries now. Looking forward to golf in Turkey next week.

I was back at the physio today - still getting treatment on my hand/wrist and my ankle - they're both getting better slowly. My legs were sore after golf on Saturday - even up to the hip - hardly surprising I suppose, as it's been a while since I played a full round.

My appointment with the knee specialist is a few days after I come back from Turkey and the thought of deciding whether to get a replacement or not is getting to me a bit. It's the finality of it all - and the long period of recovery, and what I would miss out on, plus the uncertainty of whether they can make a sufficient improvement or not.

I've been overhearing my hill-walking pals talking about their plans for this year - West Coast island-hopping at the end of May. It sounds great and I felt really left out, but I know I couldn't cope with some of the stuff that they've got planned, so I've made a late decision to join them for the latter part of their walks and do the slightly easier stuff on 25th/26th May.

I think that's about all for now - Luca's coming over for a few days tomorrow, so that'll be nice.

Scott 40!

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

It's a very happy big birthday to son-in-law Scott today. Hope it's a good one, even if it's a bit scarey to realise our eldest will be the same age in just a few weeks' time. Here's the two of them sipping cocktails in Grants Pass last year:

What a mixture today has been. Right now the sun is shining, but I was due to get the windscreen in my car replaced this morning and when they showed up to do it, it was snowing, so it's been postponed until next Wednesday.

Yesterday the corporate packages arrived for the Ramsdens Cup Final a week on Sunday:

Looking forward to it.

Good Friday today and the traffic was a bit lighter this morning. It seems like the whole of England is closed for 4 days now - not as bad as Scandinavia - they seem to be shut for about 2 weeks. We're still working - you lot need to be fed and Tesco and Morrison's make sure there's no rest for the wicked.

Jo's making progress with her shoulder and is religiously doing her exercises. She's also downing the dosage of painkillers she was given a week ago, but she reckons it's causing some mood swings. On Monday, she goes to see the nurse to get her stitches out - and she'll be able to drive again next week as well - I think she's found it hard having to walk everywhere, especially when you never know when the snow showers are coming.

Have a good Easter weekend everyone.

Sunshine, but still cold

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

It's Thursday and I'm in the Broch as usual. All our weekly management meetings are over and I'm having my lunch now - the taste panel, followed by crackers and cheese. It's a fantastic looking day - so bright and sunny, but the temperature is still in very low digits.

I took a walk out into our yard and beyond to the public footpath just outside our factory fence. Did I tell you that it had partially collapsed/eroded in to the sea below a few months ago? We managed to establish that it is the Council's responsibility but all they have done so far is put up a sign and some temporary fences:

That's Scotland's National Lighthouse Museum in white at the back, and an old Wine Tower to the right, with the fence marking our factory to the left. The bit that's collapsed can't quite be seen in the above photo, but perhaps it's a bit clearer below:

Meanwhile a group of birds - cormorants perhaps? - were sunning themselves on the rocks:

The seagulls had their own rock:

If I had a gun! Where is Scott when you need him? These pests swarm all over our yard and they're a perennial problem for us.

Those views were looking mostly west and north, but, heading the other way, there are the large pelagic trawlers, which are laid up at this time of year, awaiting the next fishery - herring in June/July:

To the left of them, looking south now, is the other lighthouse at the end of the harbour wall:

So, if you've never been to Fraserburgh before, you've some idea of what it looks like now.

It was warm enough to go out without a coat, but the following graphic on Facebook showed an interesting comparison with the same time last year:

Yes, it really was 24 C in Deeside last March. As if to underline how nice a day it is today, though, our receptionist has just been round to the shops and come back with a small tub of ice cream for everyone in the office - how nice!

No snow anywhere near the coast of course, but inland it's still lying in places and it looks almost certain that the opening day of the golf season on Saturday will be cancelled in Banchory. I had therefore tentatively suggested that Jo and I take the chance to go to Nairn on Saturday and take in the Beer Festival at the Braeval Hotel again, but, being Easter Sunday this weekend, Jo wasn't keen - although it rather looks like we're going to be on our own for Easter Sunday Dinner as Luca has a birthday party to attend that day.

Oh - and next weekend, I finally managed to track down how we could get to the Ramsdens Cup Final on Sunday 7th - corporate hospitality at Livingston! Looking forward to taking the boys to the match and to hopefully seeing the Jags overcome QoS and lift some silverware for the first time since 23rd October, 1971 - well before Gary and Ross were born. As a precursor to that, last night Thistle went to the top of the 1st Division Table:

TABLES

• 3RD
• 2ND
• 1ST

		PD	PT
1	Partick	28	62
2	Morton	29	61
3	Livingston	27	43
4	Dunfermline	30	41
5	Falkirk	29	40
6	Raith	28	34
7	Hamilton	27	32
8	Dumbarton	28	30
9	Cowdenbeath	29	29
10	Airdrie	29	19

Going to head home soon - got a lot of music to listen to just now as I downloaded 3 albums last week - all oldies of course:

Not to mention Mojo's usual free monthly CD.

To close, it's my pal Dave Edwards' 64th birthday today but he's now in Cornhill, unlikely to get out again, and he will be blissfully unaware of what day it is. It's Doris that has to live with the loneliness now. There but for fortune.

Spring is in the air ........?

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

The days are definitely getting longer - that's a statement of fact as we are now past the Vernal Equinox, but it's also visible, despite the fact that, inland in Banchory we still have a fair amount of snow - so much, in fact, that our golf club is talking about cancelling this weekend's season-opening Captain's v Vice-Captain's match, which would be the first time in living memory that this has had to be done.

We drove in to town on Saturday morning and, of course, there's not a sign of snow anywhere near Aberdeen - it's completely clear. I saw my Implant Surgeon and he photographed and X-rayed my mouth but gave me a clean bill of health - and also a not-so-clean bill. I thought he was going to remove my cap and put more permanent cement in, but he said he preferred not to do that as it would make it difficult to get it off in the event of an emergency or something happening to my gums.

We watched Lincoln on Saturday night - a bit dull, we both thought. A lot of dialogue and, although we know some more about the American history of the time now, we both felt a bit more of prior knowledge might have made it more enjoyable. Daniel Day Lewis was OK, but not so outstanding as the critics had suggested.

Carole and Luca popped in past in the afternoon on their way down to Lincoln. They didn't stay the night after all, but instead went to one of Carole's friends in Edinburgh before travelling further south on Sunday. Seems the timeshare is very nice.

While they were here, somebody got transfixed by Kung Fu Panda on TV:

Who is the shadowy figure staring at the box?:

Why, it's Luca of course, complete with goody box for the journey. He's really starting to stretch those legs now.

No golf on Sunday of course, so I decided to walk down for my paper - and just kept walking and walking. I hadn't had any exercise for a week and had been sedentary, spending all my time at my desk and in my car, so I needed some fresh air and to stretch the legs a bit. I walked along the river bank, past Platties, along the Deeside Way until you meet the train line coming the other way. I then doubled back, crossed the road and headed up towards Woodend Barn and popped in to Buchanan's for a coffee. Who should come in 20 minutes later but Jo and her pals from church - but she made it very evident that she wasn't going to sit beside me - she wanted to chat to her pals. Fine - I'll carry on reading the papers then.

I walked back home, mostly on hard pavements, but my knee wasn't too sore when I got home after my 10 kms + walk. It's at times like this that I wonder about the wisdom of getting the replacement.

Today, it was back to the physio for more treatment on my hand and ankle. Jo also started her physio treatment on her shoulder as well.

So that's about it, but I'll finish with what I thought was an interesting graphic:

A simple way of understanding where the Government gets all the money and what it does with it. Graphics are good - not many politicians use them to explain fundamental economics - but they should, in my humble opinion.

Saturday morning Medical Report

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Jo's fine - she's got the feeling back in her arm now. They put a nerve block in and she couldn't feel her arm at all until this morning. She said it was the strangest feeling - and she didn't realise how heavy her arm was until this happened! Now for the physiotherapy.

I'm going to see my implant dentist this morning and hopefully get the cap on my crown glued permanently. I'll perhaps pop in and see Doris Edwards and see if we can fix her PC properly - probably on the way back.

Tonight Carole and Luca are coming over to stay here on their way down to Lincoln next week. Gary's got pals staying over and they're taking part in the Garioch 10K tomorrow - brrrr.

Oh - and Kelly and Chris' flights are all arranged now - great.

Jo

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

She's come out of theatre now and is awake although a little sleepy - and cold:

Another few hours here and then we'll be home, hopefully.

Waiting, wondering

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Well, she's done it - Jo's in theatre just now and I'm sitting here in her empty ward waiting for her to return. Hospital wi-fi will keep me occupied for a little bit. Wonder how long she will be?

I could tell you a story about the ankle ID Jo had to put on - but she'd probably kill me if I did! She let me read what she wrote on her i-Pad about her Dad - very touching. Hope she lets the rest of the family see it eventually.

Eve of decision

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yes - it's Thursday night and Jo still hasn't made up her mind about whether to go ahead with her shoulder operation tomorrow or not - she will wait until her discussion with the surgeon tomorrow.

But last night, we were celebrating Jo's birthday in the lovely surroundings of the Cowshed - our first ever visit there:

It was delightful - much better than I'd been led to believe. They overheard us discussing the fact that it was Jo's birthday and decorated her dessert plate:

Do we like the new hairstyle?

There was some snow on Tuesday morning - and today - and, as a result, Gary and Carole thought it would be best to cancel Jo's regular weekly trip through to Inverurie to meet Luca coming out of school, so it was nice that they could all manage along last night.

I've got my letter from the knee specialist and I'm going to see him on 25th April - the earliest date he had. I've asked for an earlier cancellation if possible, but it will probably have to run its course.

My crown came off again on Monday so it was a quick visit to the dentist again on Tuesday to get it glued back on. This is the second time it's happened and so my dentist has only put temporary glue in and I've to go and see the implant specialist on Saturday.

I've now done 2 more episodes of Renshaw's Chronicles in quick succession and I got comments about the latter one being a bit too long. I wonder if the chapters will get longer as we get a bit closer to the present day, with the added benefit of more photographs to help remember events of 30 years ago?

That's about it for now.

Dr. Kildare's report

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Most of you probably don't remember Dr. Kildare - or Emergency Ward 10 either - but us oldies do, and we're increasingly in need of the services of the medical profession. Today, Jo is at Albyn hospital doing her pre-operation blood tests etc., but already she's having second thoughts about the op itself. Her shoulder is definitely not causing her as much concern as it had been for the months prior to seeing the specialist - but isn't that just sod's law?

I was back at the physio today, getting more treatment on my hand and ankle. I'm having to avoid squash just now, which is about the only enjoyable exercise I get nowadays - I don't count the gym as enjoyable. Still, I want to be OK for the golf season, which starts in less than 2 weeks - hard to believe when there's more snow forecast for today.

I've also now had a date for my appointment with the knee specialist - but it's not until April 25th - just after I get back from Turkey. I've asked them for a cancellation if they get one earlier.

Well, we went to the quiz night on Saturday night - me, Jo, Leslie Mason and Maura Ross. We did OK in the end, coming in about 7th from 25 tables and just a couple of points from getting a prize - and, more importantly, we easily beat the teams at the other 3 tables I'd booked!

Today, I spoke to Doris, wife of Dave Edwards, our poor friend with Vascular Dementia, who's now been sectioned in Cornhill Hospital - how sad. Doris was actually trying to get in touch with Ross as she was looking for help with her computer set-up. I'll go and see her and see if I can do anything.

As a final comment today, here's a little graphic that I saw in the papers. In advance of next year's referendum on whether Scotland should remain in the UK or not, it's interesting to note how relatively important the fishing industry is to Scotland, as compared with its fairly lowly status in overall UK economic terms:

The "surface-dwelling" fish, aka Pelagic, is the main type of fish we process. The Pelagic sector is by far the largest, and Scotland, which is less than 10% of the UK population, has the lion's share of that sector. Now I'm certainly not saying that you should vote for Independence for Scotland purely because of that, but this does at least show that there are certain industry sectors that might be of greater economic importance to an independent Scotland than they currently are to the UK as a whole. The fishing industry is therefore one that may be looked upon more favourably by a future Scottish Government rather than a Westminster Government, who, frankly, have paid scant heed to it in recent years. Lecture over.

This week

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

So it's Friday now - another week gone. What's happened? Well, I received another package from USA this week - it was marked as birthday present no.1, but it actually arrived after the one I got last week. It contained a small packet of Haribo jellies and a t-shirt, which I wore last night when I went to see Mud Morganfield (see music blog):

Sorry for the poor quality - it was taken in absolute darkness and the only light is that of the flash.

This afternoon, I'm off to a funeral - our Architect's father died and I'm 3rd reserve as both Michael and Francis are away just now.

Still waiting for my letter to go and see the specialist about my knee - I wonder if it'll be the same day (next Friday) that I'm taking Jo in for her shoulder operation? That would be neat.

Gary started his new job this week at Pentagon Freight (http://www.pentagonfreight.com/) - hopefully he'll have a bit more time to himself and a few less call-outs than his previous job at ASCO.

Oh - and we managed to Face Time Kelly when she gave us the news that it's a boy - yes, yet another one! That'll be four and counting.

Jo got a nice letter from Liz, Carole's Mum yesterday, wishing her a happy birthday next week and good luck with her operation. Sorry, Liz - no Luca in this blog today - I haven't seen him this week as I didn't make it to Inverurie on Tuesday, as I had a meeting with a man trying to sell us renewable energy systems - i.e. solar panels. Can't make up my mind about it.

Talking of Jo's birthday, she knows she wants a replacement for her i-Pod that broke, but can't make up her mind about which model. Hurry up, Jo - only a few days left if you want it by Wednesday.

Tomorrow night we're off to the Golf club for another Quiz night. Isn't life in Banchory exciting? Actually, they're pretty good fun and we have the Masons for company tomorrow - hope they can help, as there's not enough sport and music trivia for my liking. That's what happens when the Quizmaster is an ex-teacher. We did win one Quiz Night, but that was on a Friday and it was a boys only occasion then.

So that's it - end of another working week. Hope the weekend is good for you.