Sunday soundings

It's been a day of TV sport so far, starting off with Match of the Day, then the final round of the end of the European Tour golf season in Dubai, Thistle v Aberdeen, a brief interlude to watch Lewis Hamilton on the podium in Abu Dhabi, having won the Formula One Drivers' Championship, then back to football again - Crystal Palace v Liverpool, now Hull v Spurs.

Whew - haven't had time to read my Sunday Times yet.

I did squeeze in a cycle this morning as well. Well, it was too nice to spend the whole day watching TV. I've made up for that aberration since, however.

Gary and Luca paid a surprise visit this afternoon - partly to show off the new car Gary bought when they were down in Lincolnshire last week:

Very nice - but not sure about the Go Faster stripes and the blitz of headlamps.

Gary goes for his further tests on Wednesday - let's hope he gets the same all-clear as I did.

Yesterday was CAMRA's local AGM, and, as Membership Secretary, I had a duty to attend. It was actually quite an interesting meeting, with a few thought-provoking points raised, including a request that we contact our local breweries to ask if any of them are considering becoming Fairtrade breweries or at least producing an out of the ordinary beer that can be labelled such. Of course, standard beers using local barley, hops etc are, by definition, Fairtrade, but it's the more exotic ones that perhaps use ingredients like ginger, coffee etc that would need to be carefully certified. Apparently there are but 2 breweries in the UK that currently carry Fairtrade certification, one of which is http://www.freeminerbrewery.com/.

I was talking to Jim Strachan at the meeting. He was out in KL for a few years and he was the one that told me about the brewpub there. He's not long back from Oregon and was telling me about a great place he discovered in the Willamette Valley, near Oakridge - http://www.brewersunion.com/pub/. He was also in Northern California near Shasta and recommended http://www.dunsmuirbreweryworks.com/. That's two possible trips for us next year.

Jo took the opportunity to start off the Christmas shopping and drive me in to the CAMRA meeting - and back.

So what does the coming week bring? Tomorrow morning, it's the Optician's for me for my annual routine eye test. If the weather's OK, I hope to get another cycle ride in after this.

Back to work on Tuesday and it's our monthly Board meeting. Then, on Friday, we're off to Edinburgh for the Wine Gang's Christmas Fare.

Relief all round

Well, I finally got round to phoning the Doctor's today to find out the results of my OGTT. the receptionist checked my file and told me that Dr. McCrone had seen the results which were normal. Thanks for letting me know. My relief overcame my annoyance that they hadn't phoned to tell me. So I'm not diabetic or pre-diabetic and there's also no need to change my blood thinning medication for the time being.

I've been down all week anyway, mostly because I still had toothache after the extraction last week. I had thought it was getting a little better this morning until I went out for a very short cycle ride when the pain came back as bad as ever. Jo got her torch out and had a look at my gum but couldn't spot anything out of the ordinary. Nonetheless, I resolved to phone the Dentist. By the time I got through to them, it was 2 pm and the receptionist told me they shut at 3 pm on a Friday. Could I wait until Monday? I guess I'll have to, I responded, whereupon she said they did have a Dentist free at 2:30 pm if I could get there by then? Banchory to Aberdeen in less than 30 minutes? No problem.

The Dentist examined the area and told me I had a bit of infection in the wound, so he gave me a few injections and then cleaned it up, putting cloves in, which apparently help kill the bugs. He's given me some Chlorhexidine Gluconate mouthwash and told me it'll probably still be sore for a week or so yet, but it's on the mend. I was home by 3:20 pm and felt all the better for my visit.

Just the results of my knee scan to come then.

I put new front and rear lights on my bike this morning - I had shorted the rear one when I hosed the bike down last week. I also fitted a rear mudguard - hopefully that'll keep the back of my hi-viz jacket a bit cleaner.

That's it. Tonight it's the golf club - they've got a quiz night on. Pity there's no real ale at this time of year.

Midweek mumbles

It's Wednesday and it started off very wet, but now the sun's shining brightly - at least in Fraserburgh.

I've done nothing activity-wise for a while now. My football days are long over and I'm now also avoiding squash - at least until I have the results of last week's scan on my left knee - so the only activity I have been doing of late has been cycling, but the weather has stopped my last 2 attempts to get out and about. I resorted to doing a bit on the static bike downstairs on Monday - but it's like going to the gym - tedious.

As well as waiting for the results of my knee scan, I'm also waiting to hear the results of my fasting Oral Glucose Tolerance Test. I was expecting a call from the Doctor's on Monday, but it never happened - and nor did it yesterday. Should I remain on tenterhooks or phone them up now?

I'm still feeling a bit down from the tooth removal last week - my whole mouth is sore and I've had to pop a few paracetamol occasionally to dull the pain. It should die down soon, I hope.

Driving home from Fraserburgh in the dark and driving rain last night reminded me of one of the main reasons I am retiring. No matter how many times I've travelled the cross-country route between the Broch and Banchory, oncoming headlights in the dark confuse my old brain and my tired eyes and my fear is I "lose" the road.

That was almost as bad as Jo's day. She went in to town to do some Xmas shopping but left her purse at home. She discovered this only when she parked and then realised she didn't have enough money to even pay for that! Enterprise overtook her and she went to her old school and borrowed some money from one of the staff there, after which she went home, got her purse, bought some flowers and drove back in to Aberdeen to hand them to the kindly soul who had lent her a few shillings. Best laid plans.

It was either the tale of Jo's chaotic day or watching Scotland humbled by England last night that led to a night of dreaming for me. Most of the dream sequences took place at airports and I seemed to spend most of the night chasing Jo around as she repeatedly left her stuff behind at security and then took wrong turnings. The stuff of nightmares - endlessly chasing and never catching up.

I've been digitising more of my old LP's, but I've had a few technical issues and have had to enlist Ross' support. Hopefully we'll get it sorted soon.

Enough from me for now.

Blog Stats

Would you believe - this blog has been read a total of almost 300,000 times now. There are now well over 1,000 people per day and over 2,500 per posting who read it - and the numbers are increasing all the time, it seems. My family's not that big.

It's coming up to 8 years since I started this blog and I've now posted over 1,200 times - not to mention another 1,400 postings on my 9 other blogs.

Quantity over quality.

Didn't do much yesterday - other than in the evening when I went to the pub as usual, but this time to watch the Scotland - Ireland match. Great game - and Scotland won 1-0.

Today, Jo and I walked to Buchanan's for lunch - and back again - about five and a half miles in all. Since then, it's been the rugby on TV. This time Scotland lost - but it was New Zealand they were playing, albeit pretty much their second string.

By now, Gary, Carole and Luca should be safely settled in the timeshare down in Grantham, Lincs - near Carole's family. It's Carole's birthday on Wednesday, so a nice little treat for her.

That's all for now folks.

A day in the life of .....

I may not be a typical (semi) retired person, but, as I've commented on a few a times before, it seems that most of my time off from work nowadays is spent on medical matters. Take the last 24 hours:

• Dashed down from Fraserburgh to Albyn Hospital yesterday afternoon for the MRI scan on my "good" (left) knee

• Fasted overnight for my OGTT at Banchory Medical Practice this morning

• Jo drove me in to my dentist in Aberdeen this afternoon for my tooth extraction

That seems to be a recurring pattern recently.

My knee surgeon will get the results of the MRI scan in a week or so and I'll be called back in then. It was my first ever personal experience of MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging). Note how the acronym has changed in recent years. When I was working at Nuclear Enterprises back in the late 70's/early 80's it used to be called NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance). I guess Nuclear is a bad word nowadays.

Anyway, I had to lay down on a bed and the lower part of my body was inside the tube you commonly see for whole body/CT (Computed Tomography) scanning, whilst a metal sleeve was put round my knee. There are loud bangs and other noises - mostly like a pneumatic drill - and you are given a set of protective headphones to wear. The whole process takes about 20 minutes.

My Oral Glucose Tolerance Test involved taking blood, then drinking a syrupy sweet drink, waiting for 2 hours and then taking blood again. The results will be back on Monday and I'll find out then whether I'm diabetic/pre-diabetic or not. I'm praying for good news.

The 4 injections I had at the dentist this afternoon are now starting to wear off and the pain of the extraction is coming on. She had a bit of a job getting the tooth out. The big lump of amalgam in the middle was easy enough and came out first, but then the prising started before the forceps came in. It seemed to take some time - although I found out later that it was only 20 minutes or so - and the dentist told me she was just about to give up when the tooth finally came out, complete with a bit of bone that the root had fused to - probably caused by root canal treatment.

So no rinsing or spitting for me and only soft food and lukewarm drinks whilst the clot in the cavity forms. No alcohol, aspirins or other blood thinners either.

Moving off medical matters, Gary's and Luca's flights to America next year have now been booked. Would you believe he's flying out on his 40th birthday!

Oh - and we've got new bed linen:

Sunday evening

It's a bit of a cliché when people reach about my age and say they suddenly begin to appreciate their own mortality - "the big clock's ticking" etc. - but when so many things are happening to your body, you can't help but think negatively.

I seem to spend an enormous amount of time nowadays attending various medical institutions. My latest was on Friday afternoon when I went to see Mr. Bidwell, my knee surgeon, again. He had x-rays taken of both knees and confirmed that structurally/skeletally both knees are fine. The recent problems I've been having with my "good" (left) knee are more probably ligament/tendon/cartilage based, so I'm going to have to go back this Wednesday to have an MRI scan.

The day after that, I have my fasting OGTT in the morning and then it's the dentist in the afternoon for my tooth removal.

Moving on from medical matters, we had a good Headbang on Friday night - although this was my 4th post-midnight bedtime in a week. Whew, rock and roll!

On Saturday we took a short stroll down to the Feugh restaurant for a spot of lunch. It was a lovely day but there had been rain overnight and both the Dee and the Feugh were "full". This was the view from the narrow bridge over the Feugh looking down towards the Dee and Banchory Lodge:

Looking upriver:

Of course, Saturday was Bonfire Night in Banchory. The town was mobbed - they seem to come from miles around. I had walked up to the Legion to watch the football with Colin (and Dave) - we usually enjoy a couple of pints at that time each week, but it was a bad move this week. There was a group of young guys in - possibly a football team - and they were getting pretty noisy as they played pool and darts, pumped up by regular shots. The TV was playing up too, so it was a far from relaxing evening. We did see some of the fireworks, however, through the large windows in the Legion - and at least we were dry, unlike all those who attended the Bonfire - it had started raining just as they were about to start the festivities.

Sunday has been glorious again - not a cloud in the sky. Early morning ground mists soon cleared and it was wall to wall sunshine during our golf.

We've just finished our tea - chicken fajitas - hadn't had that for a while. I finished off the remains of last week's wine bottle, but Jo abstained. She's been cleaning out cupboards today too - she didn't go to Mass this morning. I think she's preparing to leave.

In a more cheerful vein, we did some more holiday booking this week. Gary and Luca are going to USA next year and we'll meet up with them and the Lesinas at the Marriott, Newport Coast resort that we've been to a couple of times before. It's not far from Disney, Anaheim, so that'll be an experience for Luca. I've booked 2 villas for us all.

We're also starting to make arrangements to go to Richard and Gail Simcox's villa in the Dordogne early in June. Our table had made an unsuccessful bid for a week there in the auction at last week's fund-raising dinner for Banchory Sports Village at the Marcliffe, but we decided afterwards that we'd all still like to go and Richard agreed that we could have another week there. Here's the location - http://www.mapquest.com/fr/lanouaille

Still on the holiday front, I've booked a week next October (first week of the school holidays) at our original time-share just outside Marbella. We've only been back there once since we first bought it 16/17 years ago.

Thursday evening

Well, I've been to the dentist and she says I have 2 basic options with my broken tooth - extract or crown. The problem is that the tooth basically consists of filling now, so putting a crown on it may not be the best idea, leaving extraction as the realistic option.

There's always a "but" however - if the dentist does it, the tooth is likely to break up when she gets the forceps round it and it may be that the (3) roots don't come out cleanly, which might mean a subsequent operation by an oral surgeon. Alternatively, I could just bypass the dentist and go straight to the oral surgeon. If I did that, there would be no point in using the NHS - the waiting list is apparently endless - so it would be an expensive private job.

The upshot is that I've made an appointment next Thursday to have the dentist remove it. It's my upper right 7th and I still have a lower right 7th which would then have nothing to oppose it, meaning it would grow steadily out of my gum. Apparently teeth grow quickly when unopposed - as much as 1 mm. per month.

No other startling news today, but I did notice a link on the Allen Valleys Folk Festival Facebook page which was a trailer filmed when we were there last month. Check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uXGzmQhPXs and scroll forward to 2:26 and 2:32 to see us in the audience to see Michael Chapman.

Wednesday woes

Can't keep medical stories out of my blog just now. Last night, we were at the fund-raising dinner for Banchory Sports Village at the Marcliffe. The meal itself had huge portions, topped by dessert, which was a massive brandy basket with 2 large balls of ice cream inside.

Most of our table couldn't finish the brandy basket, but I munched my way through it - and now I wish I hadn't. Ageing receding gums mean that bits of food often get stuck between my teeth and I thought this had happened again, and I must have spent the next 10 minutes or so trying to remove the offending morsel with my tongue. Eventually, something gave way - relief! Whoops - what's this? It's a chunk of rotten tooth:

Outside

Inside

Horrible, isn't it? So today I phoned my dentist and I'm going to see her tomorrow afternoon - presumably to remove what's left of the tooth.

Much better medical news is that Gary has got his appointment through quickly for his heart scan - he goes along on Monday afternoon.

Nothing much else to report today.

Monday's medical news

It's the end of another of my long weekends and I've just returned from seeing my GP to get the results of my fasting glucose blood test on Friday. It wasn't good news - the reading was 6.2, and although this was lower than the non-fasting test (6.7), it was of sufficient concern to my GP that he has arranged for me to go back for an Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT) a week on Thursday (13th).

This will be a session where they give a prescribed level of glucose orally and you have to sit there for 2 hours, doing nothing other than read. They expect to see a parabola of an initial spike, followed by a reasonably sharp reduction in the glucose level. If it's a long, slow reduction, that's not good news - I may be pre-diabetic.

Any kind of diabetic diagnosis would obviously mean a change in lifestyle - particularly diet - and also means a marked increase in my stroke risk factors, affecting the blood thinning medication I would have to take, which was the very reason I underwent these blood tests first of all.

I was disappointed, of course, and I then checked my previous annual health screen results, the last of which was in June, 2013, when my glucose level was at its lowest ever reading of 4.3. The recommended range is from 4.2 to 6.1, so my latest reading is only just outside that, and my health screen last year was right at the lowest level. I'm told you become diabetic at 7.1. Go figure.

Looking on the bright side, Lucy finally got her results today and she's had the all-clear - that's a great relief - she's been worried sick. She still has to go back in 3 months to check again, but it's a very positive sign.

Enough of all that medical stuff. We had a lovely time at the Kilgours on Saturday night, but we struggle nowadays when we get home after midnight, and, for me, that was the second night in a row. I still managed golf on Sunday morning but Sunday afternoon was a lazy one - even more so for Jo, who had a couple of hours' kip. We went to bed reasonably early, but had to watch the latest episode of Homeland first of all, of course. Great series.

Before we went out on Saturday night, we had a discussion about the external porcelain/pottery/china lightshade that Jo had recently discovered languishing in our loft, having been there for a couple of decades. It was bought when we were on holiday in Portugal. There was an existing nail on the wall on our porch and I used that to hang it, but Jo was nervous about it not being properly secured - a gust of wind could bring it down and it would shatter. "But it's been in the loft for over 20 years - what would it matter?", says I. Unsurprisingly, I got little sympathy for this remark. Anyway, it's now survived a couple of nights and hopefully it'll last a bit longer. Here it is:

This morning, the surveyor was due at 9 am to look at our various roof leaks - nothing major, we think, but some work is required. I was just about to shower and get dressed when I looked out the window and there was the D & D van arriving - and it wasn't even 8:15 am! We had to do a bit of scurrying around, but we coped OK in the end and he was finished his review well before 9 am - just before the rain came on. We await his estimates with interest.

This afternoon, I went for a bike ride - I thought it would just be me and Archie, but a bunch of others in our cycling group showed up, so 8 of us eventually set off to Drum. Nice scones and a bit of exercise on what turned out to be a glorious afternoon.

Tomorrow night we're off to the Marcliffe for the big fund-raising dinner for the planned new Banchory Sports Village (http://www.banchorysportsvillage.co.uk/). Jo's picking up Luca as usual but she's bringing him back here for tea instead of taking him home to Inverurie, and Gary will pick him up from here before we have to leave at 6:30 pm.

What else is on this week? On Friday, I go back to Albyn to see my knee surgeon, and then we have a Headbang in the evening. On Saturday, it's the do for Lucy Bannatyne's 21st - still not sure yet whether we're going or not.

November starts

Saturday afternoon, listening to the football scores coming through on Radio Scotland - Thistle winning 3-2 at league leaders Hamilton. 94th minute - should be confident of a great result, but years of being a Jags fan have taught me to fear the worst - and it happens - a late equaliser. Opportunity wasted - but no real surprise.

It's exactly a year since my knee operation and overall it's been a great success, allowing me to play golf, walk and cycle without pain again - although it's been feeling a bit sore this week - the first time I've experienced any real discomfort. The other knee - the left one - has been troubling me a bit and I'm going to see the surgeon next Friday. I may ask him to look at the right one too, just to be sure.

Yesterday I had my fasting blood test and am going to see my GP on Monday to get the results and determine what blood thinner I am going to use. I walked down to Bellfield and on from there to the Post Office at Tillybrake to pick up what I thought would be a small parcel. It turned out to be somewhat larger than I imagined and I had to humph it over a mile back home. It was a surprisingly warm morning and I was bathed in sweat when I arrived home, still not having had any breakfast or fluids since Thursday night. I ate and drank everything for brunch.

Incidentally, my parcel was a replacement Archos DVR that I had bought on e-Bay - my old one had given up the ghost.

With Jo out at her usual Friday afternoon swimming session, I headed off for a few holes of golf before jumping on the bus in to Aberdeen for a few beers and something to eat prior to going to the MacFloyd gig at the Lemon Tree. I was back home just after midnight, but it had been a long day and I've been in relax/recovery mode today.

We're out for dinner tonight at the Kilgours - that'll be nice. Tomorrow golf, then Monday cycling before stepping back on the work treadmill again on Tuesday.

Gary's medical tests didn't bring very good news and he has to go for a heart scan, due to an apparent enlargement of part of it. Hope it happens soon and he gets a clear prognosis. Coming so soon after Lucy's recent health scare, it prompted Jo to ponder this morning on the "bad genes" she had passed on to her children. Nothing to do with me of course.

Gary's news came in as we were in the throes of planning the logistics of he and Luca going to USA next July, trying to organise accommodation at Newport Coast, Disney and the Lesinas joining us - a complicated process.

Thursday night - the weekend starts here

Whew - another week closer to retirement. Luca's here tonight - he's playing games on Jo's i-Pad just now but he has to do his reading homework soon.

Gary's just been on the phone - he was concerned about who was going to apply Luca's medication tonight. No contest of course - it's Granny Jo. Granda Ian is just that silly old man that Luca occasionally patronises.

It's 4 years since Gary and Carole got married at Meldrum House. Remember this?:

Gary and Luca are hoping to go to USA next year - ideally California Disney, plus Oregon of course. We would hope to join them - especially if they choose to go during the Aberdeenshire school holidays in July, when we will be there anyway.

Tonight is my fasting night prior to my second blood test tomorrow morning. No breakfast for me then - or at least not until much later. No cycling either. Perhaps I'll manage a game of golf in the afternoon if the weather's fair. I'm off to Aberdeen in the evening so need to finish early to catch the bus in to town. We're going to see MacFloyd - a Pink Floyd tribute act.

Wednesday - one day's work left this week

It was Fraserburgh again for me this morning, but, first, I had to scrape the car. Yes, the skies were clear last night and there was a fairly heavy frost on the windscreen - the first this year.

The drive north east was effortless and soon I was approaching the village of Strichen, where Scotland's First Minister, Alex Salmond, has his home - in the heart of his constituency. The signs that greet you tell you that Strichen is a 16th Century planned village. It sits in the shadow of Mormond Hill, which used to house a huge underground NATO monitoring station, keeping an eye on the Russian fleet movements in the North Atlantic in the days of the Cold War.

On the west side of Mormond Hill, there is a prominent White Horse carved out - an unusual sight in Scotland, something more normally associated with southern parts of the UK. There used to be a Stag's Head on the east side of the hill, but it's pretty overgrown now and urgently needs some TLC to restore it to its former glory.

At the western entrance to Strichen the villagers have recently put this welcome sign up:

Nice to see the hanging baskets still here at this time of year.

It was another busy day for me in the Broch - non-stop until I left, going home via Dyce, where I dropped off our architect, who's unable to drive just now due to a recent ankle operation. This, of course, meant I had to encounter the rush hour round the airport area - no fun.

Tomorrow, it's Aberdeen, thank goodness - and we have Luca staying with us tomorrow night as his parents celebrate their anniversary.

Tuesday night - one third of working week over

Today was the first day I travelled home from Fraserburgh in the dark. The clocks changing last weekend have certainly made a difference - and not one that suits me so far. Still, it was a lovely evening - I watched the sunset over a silhouetted Bennachie as I drove south west.

It wasn't quite as nice this morning as the wet weather that has been lingering in the west finally made it over to the east coast. There was plenty of standing water on the roads.

Today was also when both Carole and Gary had separate doctor's/hospital appointments - I hope they both got some answers and some satisfaction prior to celebrating their 4th wedding anniversary on Thursday.

Back to Fraserburgh for me tomorrow - another busy day in store. I had the chance to go to Pittodrie again in the evening to see the Dons play Hamilton in the League Cup, but I know I'll be knackered and won't really enjoy it, so I said no to Malcolm Grigor's invitation.

I did at least get some exercise yesterday - an early morning cycle with Archie Cook, then some doubles squash in the evening. My legs were like jelly on the cycle, but I felt a bit stronger at squash, although I do feel a bit sore and stiff today.

I spotted another of Banchory's new "artistic" murals yesterday:

The jury's still out as far as I am concerned - I can't see them surviving the test of time - more like sub-standard graffiti.

Tonight I received my new safety cycling glasses, with interchangeable lenses:

Yellow?

or Tan?

Dark?

or Darker?

Plain perhaps?

or, for the real, geeky, Bono look, try plain with the glassless inserts

Need to think about which ones to wear on my next cycle - don't want to dent my street cred.

The weekend's over - or is it?

The good thing about doing a 3 day week is that Sunday night is not really Sunday night any more - no work tomorrow. The bad thing is that I'm now officially a "TWaT" (Tuesdays. Wednesdays & Thursdays).

Gary, Luca and Carole's Mum, Liz are over this afternoon for dinner. Jo did steak pie - my suggestion. Apple Sponge with custard and ice cream to follow - lovely.

Golf at Monifeith on Friday was excellent and then I took Jo in to the theatre. I met up with Gary, who had driven Liz in for the theatre, and he, Luca and I went to Pittodrie to see the Dons scrape a win against Motherwell.

Saturday was lazy day but there was golf this morning and perhaps cycling and/or squash tomorrow, depending on the weather.

The coming work week brings Managers' appraisals - probably for the last time - and then Friday night drinks will be in Aberdeen for a change. We're planning to go see a gig at the Lemon Tree. This coming Saturday we are going to the Kilgours for dinner with the Masons. That should be nice.