USA 2013 (7)

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Day 3 of our indoor confinement and things aren't improving. The smoke is getting denser and covering most of Southern Oregon and Northern California now and there doesn't seem to be anything in the forecast for the next few days - wind or rain - that could change that. The air quality is now officially hazardous to health and Grants Pass is beginning to look like Hong Kong, with all its citizens running around with little face masks on.

There is talk of which type of face mask is best - how many microns required to keep out the small particulates of ash. Thankfully, no talk yet of any flight problems - hopefully all will be well for our scheduled departure on Sunday evening - Medford-Portland-Las Vegas, then overnight in Sin City before catching the big bird on Monday afternoon. We fly in to Gatwick, so have to get ourselves from there to Heathrow for the flight north.

For those that didn't see the photo on FaceBook, this was the view from Lucy's front room this morning as the sun tried to peer through the smoke:

I drove Lucy's car in to town twice today - once to buy some clothes and the second time to pick her up from work - and I noticed the veneer of ash on her car, which was sitting outside, instead of in the garage:

Yesterday, we broke the tedium by taking the boys to see the relatively newly released RIPD - like a cross between Ghostbusters and some kind of kid-friendly Alien - it was 2 hours out of my life that I will never get back. Star cast - Kevin Bacon and Jeff Bridges, to name but two - and big budget too, much of it probably CGI. I must be getting old .........

We've ordered Cade's birthday cake this afternoon and are starting to draw up Plans A, B & C for Saturday's party. Depending on the weather, we may stay here and have a pool party, or perhaps go indoor karting down at Medford, or, if it's still really bad here, perhaps head to the coast and hold the party in Crescent City.

In any event, we're heading out of here tomorrow morning and heading towards Ashland, where we believe there may be a pocket where the air quality is good.

USA 2013 (6)

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

We're temporarily confined to quarters today (Monday) as the smoke from the mountain fires descends on Grants Pass. Our plans to head for a short hike yesterday had to be altered at the last minute, also because of the fires, which have closed the Illinois Valley Road. Instead we headed up Applegate Valley instead and went a short hike along the Collings Mountain Trail, in search of Bigfoot's cabin. We found it eventually. Amazing really that somebody went to all the bother of building this cabin, off the beaten track, complete with trapdoor to capture the Yeti:

After that, we went for a swim in the Applegate Lake - or, at least, Cade and Braeden did:

The day before, we went to the Farmer's Market in GP and I filled our "Growler" with beer from the little local microbrewery that had just started when we were here last year. Unfortunately, he hasn't made as much progress as he thought he would, mostly because his partner got engaged and went to Portland.

We had lunch at our favourite pizza spot - Kaleidoscope. Their Mozarella bread sticks are to die for.

So that's about it. Must go and check outside for the smoke.

USA 2013 (5)

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yesterday (Friday), Scott drove us up the Applegate Valley and we sampled a couple of wineries - Troon, where we'd been before, and then Red Lily's, which was very nice and sat adjacent to the Applegate River, where we played for a while:

Prior to that, the boys had enjoyed a game of giant Checkers at Troon:

We drove through to the historic old town of Jacksonville where the old schoolhouse has recently been converted in to a German Brewhaus. We had dinner there - which was excellent - and enjoyed practicing our German sounding words - mostly beginning with Sch....

Jo enjoyed the accordionist music - everything remotely Germanic, Swiss etc - and sat beside him afterwards:

The boys played for a while at the stream:

Today it's the Farmer's Market in GP, and also Back to the 50's Weekend.

USA 2013 (4)

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yesterday was Scott and Lucy's 12th Anniversary and we bought them some flowers and chocolates:

Cade had some friends around, staying the night. Here's the boys in the pool:

The boys had pizza but Scott did steaks for us four:

Today (Friday) Scott and Lucy are off work so I think the plan is to go to one of the local wineries for lunch. May manage a visit to Kaleidoscope for lunch this weekend too.

USA 2013 (3)

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Just a quick one today - and no more photos.

After a very lazy day on Monday, we escaped the confines of Delsie Drive briefly yesterday when I drove Lucy's car down to Medford and we all bought books at our favourite store - Barnes & Noble (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/).

Scott and I took part in the Weekly Scramble at Applegate Golf Club (http://www.applegategolf.com/) last night - and came 2nd again - same as last year - mostly through the fine play of Scott's work colleague, Troy, but Scott himself helped us towards an eagle at the par-4 fourth hole, when he drove the green, and Rudy, our 4th team member, holed a long putt.

This morning, I took Cade to his Doctor's appointment to have them look at his ears, which have been causing him some discomfort. All's well, however - suspect the teeth braces are pulling a bit and affecting him.

We've got some clouds today, which is nice - a little respite from the blazing sun - although it's still in the mid-90's. Think I'll go take another dip in the pool to cool down. I've got a number of bites bothering me - I don't usually suffer from mosquitoes over here, but something's got me this year.

Oh - and we're all still on Kelly watch. We FaceTimed her on Saturday and are monitoring developments daily. George Alexander Louis Stewart-Steele anyone?

That's about it for now.

USA 2013 (2)

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

That's the "holiday" part of our holiday over now - we're in Grants Pass, babysitting for Cade and Braeden as their parents return to work. Not that there's much to do - the boys pretty much take care of themselves, which suits us, especially today, as we want to have a "do nothing" day after yesterday's drive back from Tahoe, with all 6 of us in Scott's truck. Scott, as usual, did all the hard work - driving for 7 hours straight - with just one coffee stop, plus a Braeden "huey" - doesn't seem to faze him. When he gets back home, it's straight down to chores for him and Lucy - the grass needs cut, the pool needs treated, cocktails need to be made and ribs have to be barbequed. The latter parts we love - we always look forward to evenings at the Delsie Drive Grill.

You want to see some photos of last week? I'll try to keep it to ones that haven't appeared on Facebook or one of my other blogs - here goes:

Outside the gate to the pool and the quadrangle of apartments we stayed at.

The giant bikes were everywhere in Heavenly Village.

Jo really liked the giant wild daisies just under the Gondola.

You've already seen the looks of fear on the faces of a couple on the other side of our Gondola up the mountain, but here's the more relaxed trio trying to cheer up Jo & Braeden.

The Lesinas on the observation deck at the first Gondola stop.

Panoramic view from the top, showing Lake Tahoe to the left and the northern Nevada plains to the right.

When we got as far up the mountain as the Gondolas would take us, we went walking up further on some of the trails - or, at least, Jo and I did. We made it to the top - over 10,000 feet - and were about to start taking photos when one of the staff drove up in the ambulance buggy and said we had to get off the mountain now as the Gondolas were closing. She offered us a lift down and this was our view as we clambered on board:

Glad I didn't take the seat at the back - I would have had a face full of dirt at the end of the ride.

The following morning, we went along to listen to a presentation of the new Marriott Points system - they no longer sell weeks and we wanted to find out more about how it would now work. Inevitably, we ended up buying more - we had bought our initial week on our 25th Anniversary trip, and now, here we were not long after our 40th, upgrading.

Immediately after the presentation, we took a walk over the State Line to Nevada and came across a statue commemorating the famous Pony Express, which used to run this route:

The climate at altitude is wonderful, but sometimes the sun can get a bit much so we come in to cool off and read:

Why the hat's still on, I'll never know.

Lastly, a view of Mount Shasta on the drive home yesterday, as we stopped to clean up after Braeden's little sickie:

USA 2013

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Well, it's been great so far. The journey over was painless and we've done Las Vegas, Reno (briefly) and have now arrived at our Marriott holiday time-share at Lake Tahoe.

We're used to travelling early morning from Aberdeen, making it a daylight flight all the way as we head west, but this time, we didn't leave Aberdeen until the afternoon and arrived in Vegas early evening local time. We were upstairs on the transatlantic flight and were surprised to find that they darkened the room and dimmed the lights, just as they do on the overnight flights on the way home. It seemed to work OK as we both got a few hours' sleep and weren't feeling too bad when we arrived in LV. On the flight, we had dinner and, later on, afternoon tea, and in between, I only managed to watch one movie - Django Unchained, which I've been meaning to see for some time - in fact, the DVD's at home just now, courtesy of Love Film.

Our first view of Vegas from our taxi was of the flames from the wildfires raging in the nearby mountains. They've been going for 4 weeks now and they can't put them out.

After checking in at The Signature at MGM Grand we walked up to the Strip and headed to Monte Carlo. They used to have a brewery there, but it's now just a pub, albeit they have over 300 beers from all round the world. Body clock time, it was now after 5 am in the morning and here we were drinking beer!

The following day (Thursday) we had breakfast at the Rainforest Cafe in MGM Grand - this was my breakfast:

After this, we jumped on the monorail and went to the end and walked back - quite a hike, I can tell you - several miles on hard pavements and humid heat, although there were a couple of stops on the way, of course, notably The Venetian, where we did the gondola ride and were serenaded by our gondolier.

In the evening, we went to the Blue Man show (http://www.blueman.com/). It's been running for years and we always wondered about it - now we know - it's completely mad.

Friday morning we rested by the pool then headed out in the afternoon. Lunch was downtown - well away from the Strip - at the Triple 7 brewpub, and we had a pre-theatre meal at Bubba Gump's before heading off to the Mirage to see Cirque du Soleil's Love again - we had been there when it first opened a few years ago. At Bubba Gump's we had what they called Coronaritas:

On Saturday we flew north to Reno to meet up with the Lesinas. We had dinner at Silver Peaks brewpub - one of many in Reno:

We had plenty time on Sunday to get through to our timeshare at Heavenly Village, South Lake Tahoe, so Scott suggested a slight detour through the hills to Virginia City, an old cowboy/mining town, still preserved as it was in the mid 19th century, when it was reputedly the richest town on earth. We had been there a few years ago when we stayed at nearby Genoa, but Braeden was just a youngster then. We watched the staged gunfight again:

We did one of the museums too and Jo and Lucy had to pose afterwards:

Another brewpub - this time in Heavenly Village - for dinner, then off to bed.

Today, we walked down to the lake and sat on the beach and swam. The Lesinas hired a pedalo and Jo went for a long swim:

Did you know we're still at 6,000 feet elevation? Lake Tahoe is known as the lake in the sky.

Enough blogging - we're off to dinner soon.

Gary 38!

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Happy birthday to our Gary, born in Hertfordshire on a scorchio day in 1975. Here he was in the even hotter summer of 1976:

He's grown up a bit since then:

Spare a thought for Gary on Sunday when he's taking part in the notoriously hilly Stonehaven Half Marathon. He's concerned he hasn't done enough distance training for this - and, of course, about his dodgy Stewart joints. Predicted to be very hot too. Good luck, Gary - I'm away, otherwise I'd have come to cheer you on.

He's got a little break to look forward to afterwards - I managed to book a half week timeshare at Pine  Lake Resort (http://www.pinelakeresortcarnforth.co.uk/) in Carnforth in the Lake District, so he and Luca are off there on Monday for 3 nights.

Forgot to say that I received my medical report last week. Overall, it wasn't too bad - it shows I've grown by one cm and lost 3 kgs in the last year! I wasn't properly hydrated when the test was done, so I suspect the apparent weight loss is just fluid - and I'm definitely not getting any taller!

B.P. was OK, but my cardiovascular risk score has gone up from 4% to 7% - but I am a year older. I do have to watch my liver count, however - it's been raised for the last 3 years and, although it's lower this year, it's still above the recommended level. I've been told it's almost certainly due to the drugs I'm taking, but the doctor advised me to take a month off alcohol and then get my bloods tested again, just to be sure that wasn't a contributory factor. I will do this - but not right now, with a long holiday in USA about to start. Perhaps the month before, or the month after, my knee operation might be a good idea?

One of the interesting tests they do at Nuffield (as opposed to Albyn, where we used to go) was a spinal flexibility test, which I just about passed muster on:

Another one was the Resilience Index, when you hold weights on extended arms for a period of time:

Seemed to do OK on that one too.

Enough for today. Got to do some work before leaving here to pick up Luca from school.

Pre-holiday blog

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

It's been over a week since my last posting, so I thought I'd better do a quick one before it gets too crazy. I haven't begun packing - I usually prepare slowly over 10 days or so - and I'm away at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning for our annual Summer Tour, this time to Slaley Hall.

I return on Monday evening, then work on Tuesday, before flying off on Wednesday. Ross is taking us to the airport - it's his day off.

It's been another week of sleep/work/golf - I'm kind of relieved it's coming to an end now. My body's hurting - particularly my knee. Not sure how I'll cope this weekend - 3 days in a row. May have to hire a buggy.

We've been clearing off our Sky box to allow room to record all our usual programmes whilst we're away. We're going to miss the last 2 episodes of The Apprentice - can we wait until August to see who's won? We'll probably find out before then anyway.

Later than planned, we got round to watching Searching for Sugarman last week - interesting film - documentary really - and yes, I like many others, did download a Rodriguez album of his afterwards. I saw him playing at Glastonbury last weekend - a bit shaky I thought.

Tomorrow, it's Gary's 38th birthday and he and Carole are going out, so I've arranged to pick up Luca from his last day at school and take him back to Banchory for "one sleep".

Did I tell you about our little contretemps with DVLA and the question of road tax on Jo's new car? Well, we got a letter from DVLA exonerating us from blame yesterday and letting us off with the penalty they'd tried to charge and also the 2 months' road tax - result! It was worth the effort of our appeal:

Bye for now.

Gun control

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

No, I'm not talking about the NRA - it's these guns I'm talking about:

Did you know it's called a caulking gun? The shower in our en suite has been leaking out of the tray on to the carpet and so I had to clean out the old, blackened sealant and put new stuff in. Jo bought a new tube of sealant but the first problem I had was getting the old tube out of our gun - it had sat there for too many years. I managed it eventually but brute force was required and the gun broke, so I bought a new one this morning and came home tonight and completed the job:

24 hours and we'll be back using the shower again - saving the morning tramp up and down the stairs to the electric shower.

The cap on my implant came out again on Friday - that's the 3rd time in all. I got my dentist to cement it in again yesterday but it is a worry - I nearly lost the cap down the wash basin. You wouldn't want to see me without the cap - I certainly wouldn't be smiling like this:

I've been in touch with the knee surgeon and told him that my knee brace didn't work and I wanted to now schedule the knee replacement operation - ideally late October, once my holiday flights for this year are done. He can't give me an exact date yet - it will be a month or two yet before he knows his NHS schedule.

Jo went to Woodend Hospital yesterday to have her X-ray for the long-standing problem she's had with pain in her ribs. We hope to get the results before we head to USA - 2 weeks tomorrow!

Oh well - better go now and heat up the soup Jo left for me - she's in Inverurie on Tuesdays.

Last of the summer golf

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

I've been cramming in the golf recently - June is always the busiest month - often the best weather, courses usually in good nick, and we're off to USA in just over 2 weeks' time and I need to get all my ties played. I played Banchory on Wednesday as usual and had a tie there on Thursday, then we played Edzell on Friday in our Midsummer Outing - and what a lovely afternoon/evening that was. I've been playing in shorts all week, so that's been nice. My golf has been good too - I've been winning almost everything - and my knee has been holding up pretty well.

Three days' golf in a row would have been too much for me a little while ago, but I managed it OK last week, then took a day off yesterday. In fact. I think I've virtually stopped playing Saturday Medals now - that must be 4 weeks in a row I haven't played. Instead, I've had an easy day, strolling up to the village centre to buy my paper, then we go for a coffee and something to eat. I must be getting old.

I had my annual company medical last week too - at Nuffield again. I'll get the full report in a couple of weeks, but it didn't go too badly - I don't think. Sometimes parts of these medicals are not exactly comfortable, but I always take every opportunity to have my body MoT'd, despite occasional embarrassment. I always compare and contrast the results from year to year - it's important to watch trends. My family history is not too bad, but I have to remember I'm getting on a bit now and approaching the ages when Mum had Glaucoma and Dad had a Heart Attack, then Prostate Cancer. So far, so good however - and I got the all-clear from the NHS for bowel cancer after the recent stool test sample - as did Jo.

Tomorrow's going to be a busy day at work - we have a Board Meeting in the morning and we have to sign off our Annual Accounts, but I still hope to be able to get away in good time for our annual trip to Balmoral tomorrow evening - always a fun time, but it's late when we get back to Banchory, so I've left Tuesday fairly free - it may be a slow day.

Jo heads off to Elderslie on Thursday for a couple of days to catch up with Mary and family, so I'll be home alone until she gets back on Saturday - just in time to head to Keith and Annette Gray's in the evening - it's their 40th Wedding Anniversary - should be good fun.

First, however, we're heading off to Ross' flat later on this afternoon - curry and beer - call it a housewarming if you like. He's been moving more stuff out this week, but his old room is still pretty full of stuff - as is the downstairs study/computer room. It would be good to have a clear-out before we head to USA, but will we manage in time?

EdFringe

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Well, I finally got round to studying the massive Edinburgh Fringe programme last night and, after several hours of hard research, I booked a few shows for our mid-August visit to the capital - or so I thought.

I twice got rejected online and changed credit cards each time until one booking finally got through - and it was confirmed. However, this afternoon, I've just had a message telling me my bookings have failed. Now, did that message refer to one of the first two aborted attempts, or had my (apparently successful) booking also now been rejected?

Of course, you can't get through to the Fringe on the phone - constantly engaged - so I've had to e-mail them and await a reply. Here's what I thought we were going to see:

Bangalore Rock at Main Theatre in Spotlites @ The Merchants' Hall on Fri 16 Aug 2013 23:20

John Hunt Four O'Clock Afternoon Blues and Swing at The Jazz Bar (120) in The Jazz Bar on Sat 17 Aug 2013 16:00

Johnnie Walker's Guest Night at Majestic in New Town Theatre on Fri 16 Aug 2013 18:15

Hardeep Singh Kohli: Hardeep Is Your Love at Pleasance One in Pleasance Courtyard on Sat 17 Aug 2013 22:30

Fingers crossed.

Last word today - a photo of the t-shirt Gary gave me on Sunday - plus the badge on the card:

Bye for now.

Monday news

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Nice Father's Day treat yesterday - Gary and Luca came over and took Jo and I to the Douglas Arms:

We've also booked to trip to Belfast, of all places! I had wanted to go and see Graham Parker & the Rumour when they were touring in Europe in the autumn (they've just reformed after 30 years), but their UK mainland dates are the week I'm in Tenerife, so I looked for other gigs in Europe and up popped Belfast - and Paris. Well, we've never been to Belfast, and Jo doesn't like Paris, so it was a no-brainer. We could have done either as both cities have flights from Aberdeen.

So all I have to do now is arrange a visit to the West Coast for Jo and I - Torridon and Plockton - plus a trip to Bath. Oh - and I must get round to studying the Fringe programme and booking some shows.

Apart from that, it's a busy week for me - both at work and leisure. Our accounts for 2012/13 are being finalised for signing at next Monday's Board Meeting and, of course, it's peak golf season for the next few weeks until we head off to USA on July 10th. This week, I've got the usual golf on Wednesday, a tie on Thursday, Midsummer Outing at Edzell on Friday and, supposedly a medal again on Saturday. I suspect the latter may fall by the wayside.

Next week, it's Balmoral on Monday and Ballater on Friday, then Slaley Hall on the weekend of 6th July. It's all go.

Weekend update

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

The knee brace has been returned - it wasn't working. In fact, I think it was actually making things slightly worse. The physio couldn't explain why and offered no alternatives, so I guess I need to fix the date of the operation now. Early November would be best for me - after my holidays are over.

There's been a major change at home - Ross has moved out, He had saved up for a deposit and found a flat, right in the centre of the village, overlooking the High St., and moved in on Friday night. His worldly possessions are migrating over daily. We went down to take a look last night and took these photos:

Main bedroom

Lounge

Lounge again

Bedroom 2 (bed still to arrive)

Jo and Ross' friend, Kyle in kitchen

View from kitchen - you can just see the top of Scolty

Antique letter boxes in the stairwell

Staircase

View from stairs towards Scott Skinner square

Nice place - note the lovely old fireplaces. So, just me and Jo left now in Arbor Court.

We watched Searching for Sugar Man last night - lovely film - look out for it, if you haven't seen it.

Got a golf tie this morning - must get shorts on and get out now. Lunch at the Douglas with Gary, Luca and Jo after golf. Sounds like a nice day.