Turkish Delight

Greetings from Gloria Serenity Resort, Belek, Turkey. 5 of us spent a couple of nights at the weekend seeing round Istanbul before meeting up with the others down here on the Med. It's a fantastic hotel we're staying at and they upgraded us to individual villas - each with 2 bedrooms and all mod cons, including indoor and outdoor hot tubs - and everything is free - it's an all-inclusive resort.

Anyway, here's a few photos from my stay so far:

Istanbul - about to enter the Blue Mosque - Jas, Keith & brother Kenneth with me

Spices

Basilica Cistern

Down near the Bosphorus

Fishermen on the bridge over the Bosphorus bridge from Europe to Asia

On top of the tower overlooking the city and the Bosphorus

After dinner in Istanbul

A quiet corner of the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul

Relaxing at the rooftop pool at our hotel in Istanbul

Lights in the Grand Bazaar

Topkapi Palace

Harem means private place apparently - not just the way we think of it

Beach huts at Gloria Serenity on the Med

Waterway between the beach and our hotel

September week one

After Boat of Garten last weekend, it was a hard 3 days at work this week, most of it with my replacement, but also catching up on some backlog. I was done by Thursday evening and was grateful to chill out on Friday morning, with no drive to work to concern myself with.

Jo was swimming on Friday afternoon so I had planned to go a reasonably long cycle, but the rain was pretty persistent and I had to wait until nearly 5 pm before I set off, so it ended up as just a short 10-miler (details on my cycling blog - http://bvetscycling.blogspot.co.uk/).

On Saturday, Jo and I walked round Loch Muick (some details on http://bvhill-walkers.blogspot.co.uk/). Here's some more of the photos:

Today has been very lazy indeed. Lucy FaceTimed - as did Kelly yesterday - but that's about it. We did, however, book ourselves a week in Breckenridge, Colorado next June - the first week of our long(er) stay in USA.

Golf tomorrow for the Seniors - and possibly again on Wednesday afternoon in Fraserburgh if the weather's OK - but my next game after that will be in Turkey next week. We're having a couple of days in Istanbul first of all - that should be interesting.

Oh - and I picked up a tick at Boat of Garten last weekend. Somehow it got all the way up to my groin and was heading for the big artery there. I think I got most of it out OK, but there may have been a trace left and I've got a Band-Aid on it to try and draw the remains out.

September - a change is coming

Yes - back to work tomorrow after a very busy period of playing golf, watching football and drinking beer - 3 of my favourite recreations.

Tomorrow is also the day my eventual replacement at work - Group FD Designate - starts on a more regular basis with us. He's going to match my 3 day week for the next month before joining us full-time.

Not much else to say in this blog just now - it's all in my other blogs - but I didn't want a full week to go by without another blog posting.

Tuesday Medical Report

Saw my cardiologist yesterday for my annual "MoT". He seemed quite satisfied - they did an ECG and then he did an ultrasound scan on my heart and said it was working well. The only thing wrong with me is the large Atrium which is either cause or effect of the Atrial Fibrillation I have.

Of course, I'm now over 65, which tends to be the rough tipping age for considering a change from my daily baby aspirin to a stronger blood thinner such as Warfarin or one of the new series of similar drugs - Rivaroxaban (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rivaroxaban) was specifically mentioned by him.

I told him I had a slight aversion to Warfarin following what happened to my Mother, and there's no doubt that Warfarin takes a lot of care and regular monitoring of levels, whereas the new breeds of drugs don't. I had the same discussion on the phone today with my GP and both he and my cardiologist pointed out that, whilst Warfarin is a bit of a pain and not very pleasant, they do at least have an antidote to it, whereas the new drugs don't yet - you just have to wait for them to go out of your system naturally.

Something I need to think about before I see my GP about changing from aspirin.

In other news, I'm heading off to the Music Hall tonight to see Richard Thompson - try this - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HApy-Xoix-g

Tomorrow, Fraserburgh in the morning then golf at Meldrum House in the afternoon. Thursday is a trip down to Bradford to see one of our large customers - Morrisons. After that it's golf Friday/Sunday/Monday, with a trip to Pittodrie sandwiched in to see Thistle playing Aberdeen.

Busy boy.

Home again

The journey back went well - but New York is too near! By the time you have your drinks, then your meal, start to watch a movie, then maybe drift off for a few minutes, before you know it they're waking you for breakfast!

The two large Tanquerays and two large Pinot Noirs were nice, but otherwise, it was a waste of Club Class flat beds. Incidentally, the movie I watched was pretty good - The Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed out of the Window and Disappeared. It's Swedish subtitles mostly, but the narrative is in English. It had a bit of the Forrest Gump trickery about it, showing him meeting famous characters from the past in the course of his life. Amusing.

So, we get home - Gary picked us up - and we spend the day unpacking and getting organised again before heading to bed about 9 pm. Ding! 2 am and I'm wide awake again. I lay there till about 4:30 and eventually got up, had a slow breakfast, showered and changed and headed to Fraserburgh.

It was a really busy day at Fraserburgh with lots of meetings and visitors, but I still managed to get away in time to get back to Banchory for golf at 5 pm. I was playing with Dick Taylor and I promised him I would meet up with the guys in the morning for the usual Thursday cycle at 9 am. Wouldn't you know it - I slept in. Hardly surprising, I suppose, after two nights without sleep.

I had to go to the dentist anyway to get the cap on my implant glued on - it had come off again - and then my car was in for its MoT, which it failed. Jo came in to meet me at work and we just went home and left my car in the garage - I pick it up tomorrow - and it's had the work done now to pass the test.

Friday was golf at St. Andrews - and it was lovely. Brother-in-law Brian met us there - he was staying a couple of nights with us as we had golf organised at Banchory on Saturday morning. Mary came up too - but on the train.

After golf on Saturday, Jo and Mary joined us at the club for lunch and we then walked back home, stopping briefly at the War Memorial for a photo:

In the evening we all went to the Derbar for a curry - and very nice it was too. Mary and Brian drove home after church today, but not without a typical Mary mishap. She left her jacket and her keys here. We called and texted them and eventually they got the message when they reached Stonehaven, so they had to come back and collect them. Brian didn't look best pleased.

Anyway, that's all my blogs and photos etc all back up to date again.

Tomorrow, it's my annual (personal) "MoT" with my cardiologist, but I'm hoping to get some golf at Aboyne afterwards.

Last blog of the holiday

We arrived in our hotel at Central Park not long before midnight on Saturday after an "interesting" taxi drive from JFK. Sunday morning was a slow start - especially for Jo, who didn't make it down for breakfast. Once she did get up, we grabbed coffees to go and crossed the road to Central Park to soak up the atmosphere:

Don't we look happy? Call it tired.

We had arranged to meet niece Meghan, now resident in Brooklyn, for brunch, so I asked for a recommendation from the concierge and he suggested http://www.sarabethsrestaurants.com/central-park-south/. Of course, it was peak time around noon on Sunday so we had to wait in line for half an hour, but it was worth it.

We felt it necessary to walk off some of the calories so we set off to do a full lap of Central Park - up the west side and down the east. We now know Central Park is 3 miles long so we reckon we probably walked 6.5 - 7 miles in all. We enjoyed it but not sure about Meghan - she's not a great one for exercise and we discovered afterwards that the whole park is smoke free, so she must have been gasping by the time we eventually left the park and headed for some cool beers!

Our first attempt at finding a suitable brewpub was (partially) unsuccessful but Meghan soon redeemed her direction finding ability by taking us to The Jeffrey,where we were delighted to find an inner city beer garden - and it was Happy Hour! It's a very New York setting with the fire escapes etc - think Ghostbusters etc:

In the evening, Jo and I decided to head for another brewpub, but, again, the information on the web was out of date and it was no longer there, so we trawled some more and then walked some more and ended up in the very place Jo,  Kelly and I were in back in 2004 - the Heartland. Strangely, they were stopping serving food at 9pm - it felt like we were back in Banchory again! We managed to grab something before they closed and then we walked just round the corner to the huge crowds and neon lights of Times Square where everything was open 24/7 - what a bizarre difference in just a few yards.

We had some free time on Monday morning and early afternoon and we headed initially back to Central Park and Strawberry Fields where the Imagine memorial is. After that we took the chance of taking the subway downtown to the shore at Battery Park and the site of the former World Trade Center, where we had been just weeks before 9/11 - and then again in 2004 when it was just a huge hole in the ground. Another tower has been erected but there's still some fairly substantial building work going round there before the site is finished.

The shore round Battery Park is lovely and we stopped and had a bite of lunch overlooking the water and the Statue of Liberty over on Ellis Island:

I'm finishing this off at Heathrow and should close with the traditional end of holiday family photo:

Coming to the end

We did actually finally see some rain on Wednesday but it was hardly anything. In fact, it was very nice when the temperature lowered a bit from the highs we experienced the last few weeks.

Cade was still being put through his paces at football camp on Wednesday and Scott took care of him all day. I took the opportunity of the cooler weather to go for a short bike ride up to see the Cathedral Hills trails - check my Cycling blog (http://bvetscycling.blogspot.com/) for a photo.

I'm losing count of the days, but Lucy, Jo, Braeden and I this last few days have been to Fort Vannoy Farm, done the Harry and David's factory tour, had a slightly boozy lunch at BricktownE brewpub in Medford and been on a trail hike to Rainie Falls. Great fun. Many of the photos have appeared on Facebook and there are a few on my Hill-walking (http://bvhill-walkers.blogspot.com/) blog as well, but here's a few more - firstly Fort Vannoy:

Zip slide

Then yesterday on our trip down the Rogue Valley:

Watch this short video of them coming down:

We stopped off for refreshments at nearby Galice before heading back to Grants Pass:

Finally, a photo of the weird site that greets you as you enter Grants Pass from the North/West:

The Caveman is the symbol of GP - why?

Tuesday's diary

We continue with our relaxing last week in Grants Pass. Cade had the orthodontist and then his football practice again today so Scott took care of him all day, whilst Lucy, Jo, Braeden and I drove down to Medford and went on the Harry and David's (http://www.harryanddavid.com/) factory tour - finally, after several years of promising that we would do it.

We stopped at a local brewpub (http://www.bricktownebeer.com/) for lunch. Very nice - especially the 13 glass sampler tray:

Still no sign of the regularly threatened storms. I think Jo and I are slightly disappointed - we were thinking back to Arkansas many years ago when we drove back from Memphis in the middle of a huge lightning storm.

Incidentally, I was quite shocked when I went to watch Cade's football practice. I had thought that Cade was a pretty reasonable size for somebody just turned 14, but he was completely dwarfed by his team-mates, many of them with facial hair and deep, dark voices:

It's a distant shot, I know, but that's Cade in blue, 5th from the right - almost the smallest in a group of about 40. The High School facilities are excellent, however - here's the football stadium:

Back in GP

So Sunday was a pretty quiet day after our trip to Portland. Cade and Scott went to the local stores and Braeden and I walked round to the local park to practise his soccer skills:

Notice he's practising with his (non-natural) right foot. Then it was his turn in goal:

After dinner on Sunday evening, Scott and Lucy arranged for us to have a S'mores evening:

Today (Monday) was a bit more active. Jo and I got up and headed down to Lower Table Rock for a walk - check the hill-walking blog (http://bvhill-walkers.blogspot.com/). Here's Jo on the way up:

We wandered home afterwards, following the Rogue River all the way. We stopped off at Ti'Lomikh Falls, a beautiful spot, to take a few photos:

Scott took me to watch a bit of Cade's football practice this afternoon then we went for an ice cream -  before dinner. For once we ate indoors as the skies were darkening a little. They have been forecasting storms here for over a week, but absolutely nothing happened until tonight - and even then it was only one peal of thunder and a few drops of rain, and then it was all gone.

A couple of photos I omitted to post from last week:

Just to show that Jo finally did get her new swimsuit wet.

We had to drop off Cade's football registration form at GP High School., so I took the opportunity to take this photo of him in reception with the Caveman mascot.

Weekend adventures

We've been up in Portland the last couple of days - Scott drove us all up there. We left fairly early on Friday morning and our first pit stop was for breakfast and coffee at Bronx Bagels - about an hour up the road:

Further up the road there was a pee stop at the Blue Star Memorial Highway rest station:

One of the targeted destinations was a little nearer Portland again - the outlets shopping centre, where Cade was planning to spend some of his birthday money. Braeden was a beneficiary too with brand new footwear, displayed here at the entrance to Portland Zoo, where we spent the afternoon:

The zoo was good - it was like walking in a park, with plenty of shade. Lucy took a similar photo to the following one of the boys comparing themselves to various bear sizes:

It's a bit like a poster for a movie, I think.

Our hotel - the Fairfield Inn & Suites - was out near the airport, so we checked in and Braeden and I jumped in the pool for 10 minutes before we all headed off to a local brewpub - the Laurelwood - for dinner.

On Saturday morning, we headed for OMSI (http://www.omsi.edu/), an interactive science and technology museum, where the adults received an education - and were occasionally completely baffled.

After a couple of hours there, we walked along the banks of the Willamette river for lunch at yet another brewpub - the Hair of the Dog - posing first of all for a few photos:

Portland's a pretty funky city, but I still couldn't explain these shoes hanging by a string from the overpass above our heads:

Then it was back down the road, with just one stop for Starbucks.

Another milestone!

Well over 200,000 reads for this blog now!

This week has been football week for Cade so we've been at Delsie Drive most of the time. Jo has been out for early morning walks the last 3 days and I went for longish cycles on Monday and Wednesday - 24 and 30 miles respectively (details and photos on my cycling blog - http://bvetscycling.blogspot.com/).

Today (Thursday) we're planning to get the boys out of the house - probably down to one of the local golf driving ranges.

There are, of course, some photos on my other blogs - Cycling, Ale Adventures and Hill-walkers - but all I have to offer today is one of Jo's efforts from last night. She went with Lucy to drop Cade off at his football practice and took a photo of him through the car windscreen. Apparently, Cade was swinging his bag and when Jo came back, she excitedly showed me the magic moment she thought she'd caught on camera. She peered at the screen and saw Cade was in a circle, which Jo assumed was the whirling of the bag in motion. I took one look and told her it was Lucy's necklace that hangs from her dash mirror!:

Still, it's not bad, is it? Kind of Cade's "Abbey Road" moment.

Scott and Lucy finish work today and have all next week off, so we might be getting out and about a bit.

Tuesday morning

The adults are up - the Lesinas have gone to work and I've had breakfast and showered. Jo has taken it upon herself to go for a walk - she got a bit stir crazy staying at home all day yesterday. I hope she can find her way back. No sense of direction and no phone either - what are the odds?

We're under instructions to ensure that the boys get out of the house today - even if just to take the dogs for a walk. It won't be much because Cade's football season started last night - two sessions - 5-6 pm then 7-8pm - and he's got that every day this week, so he's going to be pretty tired come the weekend.

I went for a longish bike ride yesterday morning (see http://bvetscycling.blogspot.co.uk/) so I had enough exercise for one day and spent most of the rest of the day reading my book (over 600 pages so far - just 200 to go), although I did spend a bit of time in the pool - and Braeden joined me. I made the mistake of applying the wrong sun protection, however. It was a spray-on water-resistant, lotion and it ran in to my eyes and I just couldn't get rid of it. Eventually I had to resort to using some of Cade's eye drops.

We watched Gordon Ramsay's Hell Hotel last night - it featured a local lodge - http://www.applegateriverlodge.com/. It was filmed last year and the family that own it didn't come out too well. The old man was a stoner and didn't give a damn. We weren't sure Gordon solved all the underlying issues there - and we certainly won't be rushing off to stay there, despite its beautiful setting.

Temperatures forecast to be a bit lower today - low 90's. There's still a bit of smoke in the sky but it seems to be staying higher in the atmosphere this year as we can neither taste nor smell it - it looks just like a bit of haziness so far.