The weekend starts here

Scott and Lucy are both off work today so we're planning to go boating. We've got Cade's birthday on Sunday as well, so plenty to look forward to.

I took Scott's bike to the bike shop yesterday to get them to fix the gears, so hopefully on my next ride, it'll make things a little easier.

Last evening, Jo and I went to the Oregon Pour Authority - a new pub - who had a promotion on with the Southern Oregon Brewery, whose tap room in Medford we've been to a few times on previous holidays. We walked in the door, bought a couple of pints and put our names in the raffle and a few seconds later, my name was first out of the hat - I won the t-shirt you see me modelling here:

'Scuse the untidy trailer!

The beers were, as usual, nice, but a bit too strong for our liking, so we're not quite on top of the world this morning.

Bye for now

Still no storms

Despite all the fears, we still haven't had any storms, but we're sitting outside just now after dinner and we've noticed a couple of helicopters with water buckets flying past so there must be some fires breaking out nearby.

It's been hot again however - three triple digit temperature days in a row. I went out for a cycle again this morning (check http://www.strava.com/activities/173102175 and my cycling blog) but otherwise nobody has done much around Delsie Drive today - at least not until Lucy and Scott came home from work and provided Tequila Sunrise and BBQ'd chicken respectively for Jo and I.

We had lunch at Cartwright's Deli (http://cartwrightsmarket.com/) - nice place and a great selection of beers to refill my growler.

Yesterday, I accidentally "busted" Cade & Braeden. Cade's pal Jacob was staying over and they spent some time in the pool - mostly jumping off the roof of the shed. This was something that was strictly taboo last year, but the brazen way they did it this year - even posing for the camera - suggested to me that it was now an approved practice. I was wrong - but here they are in action anyway:

Braeden's a bit more subdued than Cade.

I forgot to show you the welcome we receive every year:

That's all for now.

Tuesday - lightning forecast

It was 106F yesterday and we're going to be in triple digits again today - and they're forecasting dry lightning storms this afternoon - the very type that usually starts off the wildfires on the mountains.

No cycling for me today - day of rest. I'm hoping to go a hike up Table Rock (http://southernoregon.com/tablerock/) some time, however - not today, but sometime soon.

Yesterday (Monday) we took the boys down to Medford and we all bought new books in Barnes & Noble, followed by lunch at Kaleidoscope. Here's the boys waiting for their meals:

We went to the Rogue Valley Mall afterwards, at Cade's request. We were not allowed to join them, but were told to go and look at other shops, or wait for them, which we did:

Had to pop in to the Pharmacy on the way back to get some antihistamine pills for Jo - her bites are spreading alarmingly and the cream isn't making them retreat at all.

The last pit stop was at Frank n Stene's Monster Growlers to fill mine up again - and that was the day just about done. Tea was leftover ribs from the previous night - and last night's Lucy cocktail was Sangria. I was also given a taste of "Moonshine" to try. Thanks, but no thanks.

Lucy's cocktails - the story so far

It was Rum Punch on Saturday and Margaritas tonight - two of each - very nice. Here's the creator, enjoying hers:

Cade got the chance of a ride in one of the Classic cars in the Back to the 50's parade last night so we went along to watch - and, in some cases, embarrass him in front of his pals:

Braeden had gone to the cinema with one of his pals and was staying overnight with him. Cade had a pre-birthday celebration with some of his pals today (Sunday), including a meal at one of the local Mexicans.

Scott was back at work but the rest of us had a fairly easy day at Delsie Drive, although I managed a quick cycle this morning (details on that blog).

The ribs tonight were excellent and we had Creme Brulee and a Pavlova to follow!

The Lesinas vegetable garden is coming along great as well - check out these zucchinis picked tonight:

Oregon

Our drive from NJ to JFK in Friday morning's rush hour traffic went remarkably well, with no mistakes. We were flying across the continent with United, business class, but weren't seated together - we both had window seats - mine was next to a man with legs that went on forever, and when he went to sleep as soon as the flight took off, I felt a bit stranded. Eventually, I had to visit the loo, which meant stepping over his outstretched legs. As I did so, I knocked his laptop off the shelf and it fell on him, waking him up. He was not best pleased.

No decent films to watch, but a large Bombay Sapphire and a couple of glasses - three in Jo's case - of Pinot Noir helped to send me to sleep. The flight is over 6 hours - nearly as long as it took to get from Heathrow to JFK last week - but it went very smoothly and soon we were waiting in SFO for our connection up to Medford.

It's a little prop plane up from there and there seemed to be some problems with the AC, but they didn't affect us too much. The Lesinas were all there at the airport to meet us, having only just seen off Lorna and her family that very morning.

Kaleidoscope, our favourite pizza bar, was queued out the door so we went to Wild River in Medford for our Friday tea-time meal.

Although Jo and I had by now been travelling for about 16 hours, we'd "gained" 3 hours by travelling west, so we felt semi-obliged to stay up until a respectable bedtime. Lucy poured us large G & T's and that did the trick.

Slow start to Saturday, but Lucy made waffles for breakfast and that was nice. Scott and Cade had some hardware shopping to do, but the rest of us drove in to town and checked out the Saturday market and a few of the shops - including the new bike store, where Jo was smitten by this model:

I also got a chance to fill up my Growler at the new Oregon Pour Authority, using the voucher Lucy got me for Father's Day.

We've had lunch, a quick snooze and a dip in the pool, but I'm still too hot, so blogging in the comfort of the air conditioning in the trailer is a bit of an escape.

Final 2 days in NJ

The last 2 days have been slightly boozy ones - a wine tour yesterday, then a beer tasting this afternoon. Yesterday was a 2-parter - the first was at a specialist restaurant where the owner - a local sommelier/wine expert talked us through some different varieties. The tastings were, however, minimal, to say the least. The spit bowl was entirely unneccessary. Here's Paul in full flow as some of our fellow travellers look on:

The chef then came out and gave us a talk - and some samples (miniscule again!) - of different cheeses. I noted, however, that they were also a bit of a specialist beer supplier as well.

Next stop was a proper winery - Renault. Set up initially by a French family, they are apparently the only non-Champagne area producer still to be able to call their sparkling wine champagne - so long as they continue to do things the traditional way and also limit their production to 2,000 bottles a year.

It was nice set-up at Renault and the talks were interesting - and the samples much more generous. Here's Jo alighting from our bus and approaching the winery:

We walked round the Nature Trail last night - and again this evening, after our beer sampling. The rest of today has been a slow, relaxing one, with the morning by the quiet, adult pool, followed by an attempted lunch at the highly recommended local Oyster Creek Inn (http://oystercreekinnnj.com/), only to find it shut at lunchtime on Thursdays.

So that's NJ and Pennsylvania ticked off. Tomorrow morning, it's the drive north east across Staten Island to JFK for our flights out west. Yes, we've upgraded again.

AC/Philly

Our last 2 days have been excursions - Monday to nearby Atlantic City and Tuesday to Philadephia. We were taken on the Marriott shuttle for the first, so no maps required or parking problems.

AC has suffered from the recession and competition. Quite a few of the large, Las Vegas style casinos have had to shut down - although there's also new ones being built.

Jo and I were thrilled to be able to walk along the famous boardwalk - we're big fans of Boardwalk Empire, so Jo just had to pose here:

From the Boardwalk, there's little wooden walkways across the protected dunes to the beaches, which were pretty busy on a beautiful day:

The less mobile can use this form of transport to go up and down the 4-mile long boardwalk:

There's scores of these 3-wheeled vehicles being pushed along the boardwalk.

The other local delight is, apparently the Salt Water Taffy:

We think "Taffy" may be a corruption of the word toffee.

Here's one for Braeden:

We didn't go Under the Boardwalk but we explored under the pier:

We walked from our drop-off point at Bally's to the end of the boardwalk and back again, paddling in the ocean for a bit, and with a little detour to the end of the pier for a beer. There were helicopter rides taking off right next to us - $40 for a quick trip up and down the boardwalk or $75 for a city view:

There was also a sand sculpture competition starting:

So that was AC. The journey to Philadelphia was a bit more troublesome - it's about 50 miles away and it meant we had to drive and park. Inevitably there were some wrong turnings and the return journey was a bit stressful too, but it's all part of the rich tapestry etc.

It was the full historical experience, helping to top up our fairly limited knowledge of American history. Most of the focus is on what happened in 1776 of course, but Benjamin Franklin is the name you can't escape from:

We decided to take the bus tour first of all, followed by a walking tour. The first took us out to the greener part of the city and the Museum of Modern Arts where the famous Rocky steps are:

There's nothing to them really but everyone feels they have to run up and down the steps. Rocky's statue is now located at the foot - to the right of the steps:

There's funky stuff too - lots of murals, including on this bar called Frank's - the external walls have images of lots of famous Franks:

We were the only ones on our walking tour. Our guide was dressed historically and was a local, born and bred. Jo suspected he was a Quaker too:

This was taken at the start of Elfreth's Alley, apparently the oldest inhabited street in North America - not far from Betsy Ross' house. Google them if you want to know more.

We did the Independence Hall tour and I took a selfie inside one of the rooms:

We didn't join the queue/line for the Liberty Bell, but I took a photo from outside:

Today is a lazy day, but we're going on a wine tour this afternoon.

NY/NJ

So here we are at our Marriott timeshare in Galloway, New Jersey - finally. The journey over to JFK went smoothly - we even managed to bypass the extra security at Heathrow. All the talk was about how you had to have all your electronic devices charged beforehand and, if they couldn't start them up, you would be kicked off the flight - we were even asked if we had done it before they checked us in at Aberdeen airport, and we were also told at Heathrow that there were extra security checks at the gates on all USA flights. It transpired, however, that the checks were random and we were just waved through. We obviously didn't look clever enough.

Short flight from Heathrow - just 7 hours or so - barely enough to enjoy the comforts of Club Class - although I thought the food was terrific - especially the Sea Bass. A can of London Pride, plus a large Tanqueray G & T, followed by 2 huge glasses of a lovely Pinot Noir may have skewed my judgment a little, however. The same - minus the LP - was enough to send Jo unconscious for a couple of hours, whilst I watched the Wolf of Wall Street.

We got straight through Customs, although it took some time for our bags to arrive on the carousel, and then we had to suss out how to get from the terminal to the courtesy shuttle bus. The Air Train was the answer - it was a bit like a roller-coaster ride, but we got there in the end.

We checked in to the Marriott Courtyard at JFK, which, incidentally, is in the Jamaica area of NY, and managed a quick beer before hitting the sack.

Jo was up before me this morning but tried to stay quiet. I slept for about 9 hours, but was still up early, East Coast time. Nice light breakfast, then back on the shuttle bus to the airport to pick up our hire car. I now have to withdraw all my previous negative comments about car hire companies - including the rant on My Pet Hates blog. Not only was our car waiting for us - all nice and clean, with the keys in it - but we had no queue to wait in - all you had to do was read the electronic board and go to the bay against your name - wonderful. I guess it helps being a Hertz Gold member - even though I haven't used them for years, their association with Marriott must have increased our status with them.

Then, we had to face the traffic - without a map. It was fun - we got there in the end, despite a few mistakes. Across Staten Island and down the coast road, with the very last bit being the most difficult. We went round in circles before eventually stopping at the pretty "historic" little tourist trap of Smithville - simply to get a wi-fi signal to see where we were going. Here's Jo at the entrance:

So here we are now - we've shopped and are relaxing over some strong ales and a few nibbles. Alcohol shopping was a bit trickier than we thought - we had to go to a separate liquor store after we'd bought the groceries - even just for beer and wine.

Tomorrow it's Atlantic City - and the Boardwalk!

Poor Kanga!

My Christmas gifts from Down Under have suffered a terrible fate. One was lost on the golf course - you would have thought somebody would have handed it in! - and the other is currently in intensive care at Arbor Court after (literally) coming apart at the seams:

Pray for a speedy recovery for poor Kanga - and I hope its former companion has found a good home.

So I missed my Thursday morning cycle again - too much work to do before we go away on Saturday. It's been a while since I've had my bum in the saddle and when I return I'm going to be way behind the other guys in terms of saddle fitness.

I got tickets for the Aberdeen - Groningen Europa League tie tonight, so Ross is driving me in and we are picking up Colin Kilgour and Ken Black on the way in, then meeting Gary at the match.

That's about it. Next blog posting will be from USA.

Catching up

It's been a while since my last post, but, fear not, it's only because I've been too busy - not just enjoying myself, but working too. This squeezing of my job in to 3 days definitely isn't working for me. The only advantage I've been getting from the change is not having to drive in to Aberdeen or Fraserburgh on 2 days - but that doesn't mean I haven't been doing any work on Mondays and Fridays.

I've started to make financial plans for my retirement - I met up with our financial adviser last Tuesday and I'm going to start drawing down from my pension pot next April, all being well.

But I digress - here's what I've been up to recently. Our golf weekend at Slaley Hall went well, although my own golf is pretty naff just now - I seem to have lost the plot - hopefully temporarily. I have noticed that my left knee is now suffering after golf - is this an effect of my new right knee being stronger again? Look out Scott - may need some physiotherapy advice when we arrive in Oregon.

We had Luca with us last week - the first of the school holidays. His obsession with his football cards continues unabated. Maybe now that the World Cup is over, he may switch to something else, but, when he was here, he wanted to play it constantly - from the time he awoke in the morning until he went to bed. He even started drawing his own version of the player cards:

Note that this one's a "Limited Edition"! The numbers at the foot indicate the player's respective defensive, attacking etc scores, with the last one being the overall rating. This guy must have been a bit special - a combination of Messi and Ronaldo perhaps?

Luca did get outdoors a fair bit when he was here, however. His Grannie Jo would drag him to the supermarket, but he also got a chance to play with the other kids in the street - the weather was great last week.

I got a corporate invite to the Scottish Open at Royal Aberdeen on Thursday. It was a top quality field and it was great to be there. There was, however, a cock-up with the catering - they took 3 hours to serve our main course! They did ply us with wine to keep us from complaining, but, eventually, even the most drunk can see through that little trick.

Friday was our annual Football Group golf outing and, this year, we went to pretty little Auchenblae on what was probably the finest day of the summer so far, with temperatures in the mid 20's C. When we got back to Banchory, it was still too nice an evening to waste, so I phoned Jo and she came over and joined me for a couple of beers on the balcony at the golf club:

I don't know what to say about the shadow of the parasol!

It's back to the usual pattern this week, although I'm trying to get tickets for Aberdeen v Groningen in the Europa League on Thursday. I think the packing will have to wait until Friday.

Countdown to holidays

Another week has passed and we're now just 2 weeks away from our trip to USA - terrorists and security services permitting that is. The latest news about credible threats of new undetectable plastic explosives that can be implanted inside suicide bombers is putting the jitters up everyone - especially poor Jo - she thinks the July 19th London - New York flight will be a prime target - and she could be right, but what do we do? Cancel everything or just carry on as normal? No choice really - we can't live our lives in a shell.

This fear of Jo's came out on the journey back from Aberdeen railway station today - Jo had been down at Mary and Brian's for the last couple of days. Did I cope in her absence? Just about - but Jo had prepared everything for me, which was nice, but I'm sure she thinks I can't manage on my own for a couple of days.

The timing hasn't been great as I'm off tomorrow morning to Slaley Hall for a couple of nights, but it couldn't be helped.

I won't bore you with details of my golf at Banchory this week, but I will mention our annual trip to Balmoral on Monday evening - a delightful area and a fun, although late, evening. The morning after I drove up to Castle Stuart, near Inverness, where the Scottish Open has been held the last few years - a prize I won last year, along with my fellow team members:

(For the Garioch crowd - that's Ian Sinclair, who has the jewellery shop in Inverurie, in red on the left).

Great day out - beautiful weather and spectacular views over the Moray Firth across to the Black Isle, with the Kessock Bridge in the distance.

I missed my morning cycle yesterday - too much work to do. I was in the office until later than I would have liked on what was a gloriously hot and sunny day. More work at home today - on one of my official non-working days. This 3 day working week isn't quite happening the way I would like it yet - but the cavalry is on the horizon. My replacement at work, who starts in September, came in to Fraserburgh this week and sat in on our weekly management meeting.

I'm fairly clocking up the miles - over 41 last week, according to my UP band. How can I top that?

Last days of June

Yes - July is fast approaching. Another year is flashing past. Slow down please!

Most folk could predict my daily diary at this time of year - golf (at Aboyne for the Seniors) on Monday, work at Fraserburgh and tea at Inverurie on Tuesday, golf at Banchory on Wednesday and cycling yesterday morning (details on BVCG blog).

Today, I've got a bit of work to catch up on - I never quite got through everything when I was in the office yesterday afternoon. Jo will be heading off for her regular Friday swim soon, so I'll start then.

What I did manage to do yesterday was book our Aussie trip next year. We're flying off to Adelaide, via Hong Kong on Friday 9th January for 6 weeks. It'll be our first time on Cathay Pacific and we're not stopping over in either direction. The flight times on the way back are a little awkward and we've got a long layover in Hong Kong, but hey ho.

I've also now got my replacement Jawbone UP band - the old one had stopped responding so they sent me a straight replacement. I got some stats for the last few days of last week, but this'll be the first full week of stats. I know I've been keeping up my activity levels though - something that had dropped off in recent times, prior to my knee op. It's great to be able to look forward to walking, golfing, cycling again - I had previously got to the stage where I was avoiding anything that I knew would cause me pain.

Tonight, it's our 2nd Headbang this year and plans for the rest of the weekend are golf tomorrow, a bar supper with the Kilgours tomorrow or Sunday evening, then on Monday evening, it's our annual trip to Balmoral - a regular late night. The following morning, I have to drive to Inverness for golf at Castle Stuart - a prize I won last year.

That's all my news for now.

Midsummer has passed

It's all downhill from here as the gloom-mongers would say. The days are now officially starting to get shorter. I'm certainly cramming in all the golf I can whilst I have the chance to do so. It's just 4 weeks yesterday that we head off to USA.

Since my last blog posting, it's been more of the usual pattern. Tuesday was tea with Jo and Luca at Inverurie, golf at Banchory on Wednesday, cycling on Thursday morning, golf at Edzell on Friday, Banchory on Saturday and Cruden Bay today (Sunday). Tomorrow, it's Aboyne in another Seniors match.

At work, I've announced that a replacement for me is coming, so the exit door is starting to loom.

Lucy and Jo are on FaceTime just now. For me, it's a listening-in session as they jabber away. The World Cup is on the TV, but with no sound.

I spotted "Jemimah" again on Saturday - at least I think that's what Jo used to call her old car:

It looks a little tidier and cleaner now - but it's still got the "bullet hole" in the rear indicator lights.

Tomorrow, I think it's finally time to commit to our holiday in Oz. We should probably go for an extended break of 6 weeks or so. We can always do some travelling plus some time baby-sitting Miller, who is growing every time we see him on FaceTime.

Week since London

We had a busy time in London, walking miles along the city streets, which caused me a bit of a problem with my left knee - the "good" one. The pain still hasn't gone a week later, but, to be fair, it's been a pretty busy week, with golf for the Seniors on Monday, a tie on Tuesday, more golf on Wednesday, cycling on Thursday and then 27 holes of golf at Blairgowrie on Friday.

It didn't end there either as I played in the Medal on Saturday as well - great first nine and then the tiredness kicked in on the back nine. It was a no-brainer to cancel my scheduled Sunday golf after this.

We went to the movies last Monday evening as well - a preview screening of "Chef", courtesy of my Times + membership. Not bad - good (Cuban) music.

Jo was down in Edinburgh on Saturday, shopping for summer clothes with Anne Mason, so I was left to fend for myself. It was the start of the Banchory River Festival - a new name for the old St. Ternan's Fair. There didn't seem to be all that much happening, however, although I did spot a pipe band playing at the Square:

Yesterday, of course, was Father's Day and I was paid a surprise visit by Gary and Luca, who took me for a coffee at Tease, where Ross was working. Luca's second teeth are starting to show in the gap at the front where he lost his 2 baby teeth recently:

Today (Monday) I had an appointment at Aboyne hospital. When you reach 65, they now automatically screen you in case you have an abdominal aortic aneurysm. It took mere minutes - a quick ultrasound scan and then I was given the all-clear - no sign of anything.

Talking about medical stuff, I spotted this article recently:

Can't the Medics make their mind up? They're worse than the Dieticians. Because I have AF, I've been taking baby aspirins for years - and they're entero coated, which apparently means they don't eat away at your stomach, which seems to be the main complaint in the article above.

 Jo had travelled down to Aboyne hospital with me today so we thought we would go for a walk afterwards - it was a beautiful, hot, sunny day. We parked the car at the road that leads down to Bellwade Farm, the World Horse Welfare Centre, and walked from there past the White Cottage to meet up with the Deeside Way, heading back towards the Falls of Dess, where I had cycled on Thursday:

It had only taken us half an hour to get to the Falls, so we decided to walk on, to see where the path might take us. We passed an odd-shaped tree which had been given two eyes and labelled the Mammut Tre (for Mammoth Tree?):

We were rewarded eventually when we arrived at Deeside Activity Park - time for refreshments, we thought. It was the Seniors lunch day and the staff were run off their feet, so we decided it would be easier to just buy 2 Diet Cokes and sit out the back:

Our route back was identical. When we arrived back at the wooden bridge over the Dess, it was time for another photo:

There were plinths either side of the bridge and Jo duly posed there:

(The plinths are, of course, for dismounting and re-mounting your horse on either side of the bridge).

We got back to the car eventually, prepared to head down to Bellwade Farm for coffee and scones, but we had neglected to notice the sign that said the coffee shop there was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Nonetheless, we drove the 1.5 miles down the road where I had a puncture on my bike last Thursday, just to let Jo see what a nice spot it was. There's even a stone circle there:

Looking south over the Dee, there's a clearing in the forestry and the story goes that it was done by some irate forester who was sacked, and he thought he would create an animal shaped clearing:

You can decide what it was meant to be - camel, cow, moose? Not exactly a classic in the vein of the various White Horses you see carved out on chalk throughout these islands.

I took a wander while Jo just soaked up the rays:

Finally, it was time to go seek coffee and a scone elsewhere. Our first port of call was Kincardine O'Neil, but the cafe there was closed as well, so we headed back to Banchory and sat outside the tearoom at Inchmarlo:

I had put my bike in to the local cycle shop in the morning to get them to replace both inner tubes and, by the time we were back in Banchory, the bike was ready. Result.

Nice day. For the record, our walk was 4 miles and it took us 2 hours 12 minutes (including stops), with climbs totalling 367 feet.

Tomorrow it's back to work - Aberdeen and Fraserburgh - with tea in Inverurie.