First Thursday down Under

Kelly was at work yesterday and Miller, who had been a bit under the weather the evening before, seemed good enough to go to Day Care, which meant Chris could drive Jo and I out to Prancing Pony's (http://prancingponybrewery.com.au/) brand new brewery - so new, in fact, that the builders were still tidying up as we arrived.

Nice place - and a good lunch - but when we got back, Miller had taken a bit of a turn for the worse and poor Kelly and Chris had a bit of a night of it last night, dealing with projectile vomiting etc. All he wanted was his Mummy:

This morning, Miller seems a little brighter. Kelly's off to work and Chris has gone for a haircut, leaving Jo and I in charge for the first time. Jo took this photo of me out in the back garden with Miller earlier on:

Today is the start of our week long time-share down at Normanville - just an hour and a half south of here. We're taking Chris' car and he and Kelly might come down and join us for the weekend if Miller's up to it. Chris is working next week but he gets the train in to the city, so doesn't need his car, which is handy for us.

Oh - and Chris' Mum & Dad weren't able to come over yesterday as Lorene had an emergency tooth extraction, poor thing. We'll catch up with them another time.

Oz - days 3 & 4

On Tuesday, we wandered round Rundle Mall with Chris and had lunch at one of these quick-as-you-can-eat Malaysian restaurants in the Asian Food Mall. It was good, if a little heavy for lunchtime. Kelly, meanwhile, had left work and was heading for her Citizenship test, which we assumed would take 30-45 minutes. In fact, she finished it in less than 5 minutes and got 100%. Celebrations were held at the Curious Squire before heading back to Derby St., where Chris prepared Spag Bog.

No excuses on Wednesday morning - we had been idle for long enough, so Jo and I went for a long walk south along the coast. We had left fairly early in the morning and planned stopping for breakfast at the first cafe on the shore, but it didn't appear until after 5.6 miles of walking on concrete paths, grassland, beach and on paths in the dunes. Here's a few of the photos we took along the way:

Semaphore Pier at the start of the walk

Finally, the Grange Pier Cafe and breakfast - and a rest

As you can see, it was overcast and coolish - low 20's is as high as it's got so far. The locals are all complaining about the "cold snap".

As we were having our breakfast, at first just a trickle, but then a flood - if that's the correct collective noun - of local lifeguards walked past us. There must have been 30-40 of them, all of them in just their swimsuits and pretty ripped. It was like something out of Baywatch - except no babes. They all had tanned arms and legs, but white on the core body where their vests normally were.

Then it was back to Derby St. for us. the entire walk was 11.3 miles and it took us over 4 hours of walking, not including our stop for breakfast (BLT for Jo, pancakes, maple syrup & cream for me). Check out the stats and route here - http://www.mapmywalk.com/workout/842406403

Kelly still had a bit of admin to do on her Citizenship papers so we all headed back to the city with her and from there to fine local brewpub - the Wheatsheaf - where I even managed to get some cask conditioned beer - my first in Oz, I believe.

By now, the clouds had cleared and it was a beautiful sunny day, so Jo and I spent some time in the back garden, reading, snoozing and boozing, whilst Chris prepared salmon for dinner. Excellent.

Today (Thursday), Kelly is back to work, Miller is in Day Care and Chris is doing some work at home. Chris' Mum & Dad are coming over later on, and I think we're just going to chill until then.

Aussie Diary Day 2

My case duly arrived yesterday morning about 10 am, so it was nice to shower and change in to my own clothes.

Jo and I went for a walk and a spot of lunch - along the prom, up to the end of Semaphore Pier and then up - and down - Semaphore Road, looking for a cafe that Kelly recommended. We never saw it so ended up going back to the cafe where we'd all had coffee on Sunday.

There were little specks of rain, but it never came to anything. After lunch we all went to the movies to see Imitation Game - very good - then we picked up Miller at his nursery and went back to have dinner on the decking. Chris had prepared a huge chunk of corned beef - and really nice it was too. Here he is relaxing on the decking with Miller whilst the rain - which was pretty heavy by now - was giving the garden a good soaking:

This morning, the storm is moving east - it's quite windy, but dry and overcast. Today, Kelly has gone back to work and then has her test for citizenship and we're meeting her up town before we pick up Miller.

First day Down Under

The journey was pretty good, considering it's a mammoth 32 hour slog. We rate Cathay Pacific - excellent service, nice food - everything went well, but I'm not sure how it would have been had we been at the back of the bus. On the longer leg to Hong Kong, we both managed to get a decent few hours' sleep in our little pods. The section of cabin we were in only had 8 berths and we were in the middle but we hardly saw each other, the way they were angled.

I watched the James Brown biopic, but there weren't really any other movies I wanted to watch. When we got to HK, we only had about 40 minutes to catch our connection to Adelaide and it was quite a walk - I reckon over a mile! Going east meant we were losing time so this was our second night trip, but neither of us was ready for a long sleep, and we just dozed off and on.

On arrival in Adelaide, we were amongst the first off the plane and whisked through Immigration courtesy of the electronic system. Jo's bag and my golf clubs arrived quickly, but soon there was a call over the tannoy for Mr. Stewart. I knew what that meant - my bag didn't make the final leg from HK to Adelaide.

So here I am, sitting here on Monday morning, blogging away, awaiting a call from the airline, who are supposed to be delivering my bag this morning. Just now, I'm wearing a pair of Chris' shorts and one of his t-shirts - yes, I did get in to them! - but, having worn them all day Sunday, I'd quite like to shower and change in to my own gear now. This was yesterday's look:

Jo and I didn't crash until after 8 pm last night, having survived a long day, Kelly and Chris having picked us up early morning at the airport. It was overcast in the morning but the sun broke through in the afternoon and it got pretty warm later on. We went for a morning stroll, then back for a spot of lunch, then out again in the afternoon for a walk along the beach, followed by a beer, then more beer back at the house, where Kelly and Chris demonstrated how to relax in a hammock:

We don't look quite as relaxed:

Miller was having a great time playing in the paddling pool and the adjacent sand pit, although you could barely tell one from the other after he'd finished shipping sand in to the pool and water in to the pit:

We had G & T's and wine to follow to wash down the lovely meal Chris prepared, then it was off to bed.

This morning we spotted the large Huntsman spider that Kelly and Chris share their house with:

They tolerate its presence - high up near the ceiling - as it is apparently harmless to humans and it eats a lot of the other nastier beasts around.

To close, here's Kelly's typical breakfast - a huge bowl of 6 - yes six! - boiled eggs, pickles and salad:

Whiling away the time

We escaped the high winds in Scotland - in fact, it was pretty calm when we left, but we did spot a couple of trees that had blown over through the night, but otherwise our drive to the airport and the subsequent flight down to London was uneventful - apart that is, from not being able to find Gary's office. It took a couple of phone calls before we eventually met up with him and he dropped us at the airport and took my car away.

We purposely had quite a long wait at Heathrow - just in case of any weather problems - so that's why I'm sitting here in the Cathay Pacific lounge, blogging away - just to pass the time. The food's good and they've got London Pride in bottles too, but have to be careful with the alcohol intake, given the long flights ahead of us. We need to leave some room for our G & T's and wine with our meals on the plane!

That's about it. Two hours till scheduled take-off and then almost 12 hours in the air, arriving in Hong Kong at 17:45 local time Saturday (8 hours ahead of UK). Then less than an hour and a half in HK and back in the air again for another almost 9 hour flight, finally arriving in Adelaide at 6:35 on Sunday morning with our body clocks still ten and a half hours behind Aussie time.

Wonder when Miller takes his nap?

Incidentally, Kelly, if you're reading this, we have 2 suitcases and a set of golf clubs - hope you can manage it all!

Nearly ready

Not long now till we head off - hopefully. This morning's weather forecast wasn't encouraging, however, with major storms on the horizon. 100 + mph winds are forecast for Friday and wind speeds are twice this level at cruising altitude, so I suspect there may be some travel disruption. Nowt we can do about it - just wait and see.

When I went for a beer with Colin on Saturday, there was a really bright full moon out and the angle was again such that I caught a glimpse of it over the cross at the top of the Episcopal church - just as I'd done some months before. This was my first attempt at lining up the photo, looking at the moon through the cross:

You can just about make out the shape of the church roof, but the moon was so bright that the exposure wasn't quite right, so I tried again:

Better exposure, but alignment slightly off this time.

Gary and Luca came over on Saturday afternoon but Jo was out with her swimming group - Luca was really disappointed - at least until I told him he was authorised to use Jo's i-Pad in her absence.

Jo took the Christmas decorations down on Sunday and I took the tree off to the dump on Monday to join all the other rejected trees, which had served their purpose for another year.

I knew I couldn't/shouldn't cycle on Monday as I didn't want to do more damage to my knee before we went away, but, on the spur of the moment, having walked down to the shops with little pain, I decided to take a longer walk up Scolty Hill. It was a fine afternoon and it was nice to at least get a little bit of exercise. I took a few photos at the top:

My knee was a bit swollen and sore when I got back but an icepack soon sorted that - although I certainly didn't get any sympathy from the female members of our family.

Tuesday could be seen as my first real day of retirement as it was the day I would ordinarily have returned to work after the holiday break. So what did I do? Go to Inverurie with Jo to pick up Luca from school, that's what. Furthermore, I repeated the feat today - this time solo, as Jo was swimming. I took Luca for the haircut that his parents thought he needed. Here he was before the event:

and here's the "after" shot:

No cycling for me tomorrow either. Bags are virtually packed so not much else to do.

Gary runs at Lumphanan

Forgot to say about Gary's return to competitive running - he had an excellent result at the Lumphanan Detox yesterday:

Great stuff, Gary!

Knee problems again

My left knee - the one that hadn't been replaced but had an injection just before Xmas - is causing problems. I suspect my cycle on Hogmanay worsened the tear in my cartilage. It was very sore when I went to bed after our dinner party and all day Ne'erday. Yesterday, I did manage to walk - slowly and carefully - to the shops and up to Arbeadie Terrace for the Simcoxes Cocktail Party, but it kept giving way on me and Jo had to act as my crutch.

I can't have the operation so soon before the long-haul flight to Oz - nor for some time afterwards - so I just hope it calms down and lets me get around a bit more when we're away.

Anyway, our traditional New Year's Day steak pie dinner was terrific and Lucy FaceTimed us not long after we'd finished the meal. We caught up with Kelly yesterday morning.

We're still eating away the Xmas/New Year leftovers - there's certainly no need for us to food shop just now. Ross brought us some of the soup he made and we had that last night after we came back from Richard and Gail's. Their cocktail party involved a bit more than the nibbles we expected. They came round with hors d'oeuvres first of all, but then followed it up with little plates of soup. Mini main courses then followed and, of course, there was a dessert course - although we left just as they were dishing it out. A four course mini meal - never seen this before.

The weather's still great - bright and cold. We seem to have escaped the wet weather other parts of the country have had, which included the cancellation of Thistle's match against Celtic on Thursday - a game we were all looking forward to watching after dinner.

No more to say really, but I'll close with this photo of the Feugh, taken at the end of our bike ride on Wednesday:

Note the ice-tinged rocks and the tree debris at the top.

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2015 and it appears that all's well with the world - we spotted our little red squirrel again this morning. He/she hadn't shown his face out front recently, but Jo spotted a glimpse of red in the trees out front and exclaimed excitedly - "he's back!".

While Jo grafted away all day in the kitchen yesterday, preparing for our dinner party, I went out cycling - and now I regret it. Today my left knee is so sore I couldn't even walk down to the shops to get my paper. It's over a week now since I received the injection in the knee, but it doesn't seem to have helped. I may have to have the cartilage operation sooner than I'd hoped.

Anyway, we had a lovely Hogmanay dinner with the Kilgours and Masons and we stood on the balcony to watch the Tor-na-Coille's fireworks display from the golf course to welcome in 2015. Here's a brief extract - http://youtu.be/dGKyEcyUV3I.

Once again, I tried to take a photograph with my camera perched on our mantlepiece, and just like Christmas, it turned out all blurry - it must be the light behind causing it. Here it is anyway:

Ne'erday is steak pie day and Gary and Ross are coming over to share. Apart from that, it's been vegetating in front of the usual holiday TV schedule - although Thistle's match against Celtic is on at 5:30 pm tonight.

Luca's birthday

Jo and I drove over to Inverurie late this morning and had a birthday lunch with Carole, Luca and his friend Tyler before they headed off for some Ten-pin bowling. Jo had bought a bagful of presents which Luca duly opened:

At the lunch table, prior to the cake:

The cake duly arrived - watch the video here - http://youtu.be/0R4oHjRvKlg - and here's the photo:

Munch munch

Yes, we're still trying to eat our way through the remains of Xmas and empty the fridges to create space for the New Year nosh. Turkey, stuffing, cheese, smoked salmon, chocolate log, cheescake, mince pies - that's been our meals for the last few days - and there's still plenty of each left.

Although Friday was completely inactive, on Saturday we decided we had to get out of the house, even if it was only to complete a few of the annual CAMRA pub surveys before we go away. We took the bus down to Ballater and did the rounds there. Got a chance to look at a few bikes as well - it's all so confusing. It seems you can get a pretty good bike with most of the things you would want for about £500, but then you see other ones for £3,000, even £5,000!

On Sunday, I went over to Gary's to watch the Man Utd match and have a spot of lunch - egg roll plus the obligatory mince pie. Today I had planned to go cycling again but the skies have been clear for so long that we wake to a good hard frost every morning, and some of the roads and tracks can be tricky and I don't fancy coming off the bike - my joints are dodgy enough, thank you. I actually went out earlier this morning just to test the conditions, but, at that time, it wasn't looking great - and it was really freezing, so much so that my fingers felt like they'd got frostbite. Most of the rest of our cycling group agreed but 2 hardy souls ventured out.

I am getting a little stir crazy, however. It's not retirement - it's always a bit this way at this time of year - especially when plans for exercise have to be cut short or cancelled. The weather is beautiful - lots of sunshine - ideal winter walking weather really. Jo had things to do, however, so we just went out for a short stroll - up through Burnett Park and back down past Inchmarlo. I took one photo at the entrance to Brathens forest:

Today is Dawn's birthday and tomorrow, Luca is 8 - can you believe it? Then, on Wednesday night (Hogmanay), we have the Masons and Kilgours coming over for dinner and to see the New Year in. No doubt we'll be entertained by the fireworks from the Tor-na-Coille and Freddie Duncan's party across the road. On Friday, we're off to the Simcoxes for a little soiree and by then it'll be less than a week until we head off to Australia. Kelly sent us this photo, taken from the end of her street, to let us see what we were heading to:

That's all for now.

Xmas & Anniversary

Yesterday was nice - not as hectic and exciting as when we had 13 for Xmas dinner last year, but nice all the same. Ross was a huge help to Jo with the cooking and preparation - he came round on Christmas Eve and was here again on Christmas morning when Jo was still at church. He introduced Jo to a couple of cooking innovations and they worked out well - the turkey was moist and tender and the stuffings and cranberry sauces were good, but the piece de resistance was the roast potatoes, made from the more crumbly King Edwards.

Ross, Jo and I had G & T's mid-afternoon while we awaited the arrival of the non-drinking Inverurie clan - Gary was on call, Carole's on medication because of her shoulder and, as far as we know, Luca hasn't developed the habit yet.

Smoked salmon from http://www.ugie-salmon.co.uk/. with prawns and home-made aioli for starters and Carole's excellent Lime and Chocolate Cheesecake plus a Chocolate log for dessert. None of us could face the cheeseboard after this - we never do.

The day had started with a FaceTime call from Kelly and Lucy did likewise after dinner. Here's some snaps from Christmas:

Table set for dinner

Ross on carving duties

The aftermath of a heavy dinner

Luca plays his favourite games

Some of the cycling stuff I got

Sadly, a blurry family image

Jo bought us all identical cardigans

The weather has been lovely - very cold and frosty, but dry and sunny. The frost patterns on the cars are interesting:

Jo and I vowed last night that we wouldn't do anything or go anywhere today - our 42nd anniversary - and we didn't. We even vegetated to Pinnochio this morning. Gary made a brief appearance at lunchtime - he was at work today but drove out to Banchory to take part in the Fun Run again. Jo and I have been telly-watching mostly, although I've been sorting out some IT issues with my laptop and backup.

That's it for now.

Xmas Eve

I awoke this morning with a very stiff left knee after yesterday's injection at Albyn. It's funny because I felt absolutely fine after the injection, drove home, then walked up to the Legion with no problems, but during the night it's stiffened up - it's like somebody has kicked me on the outside of the knee.

When the surgeon was doing the injection, he was on my left, whilst a nurse was standing on my right, trying just a little too hard to distract me with conversation about Australia etc. Of course, this led me to look left to see what Mr. Bidwell was up to and I nearly fainted when I saw the size of the needle - long and thick. He plunged it in and I thought it was going to come out the other side. Not surprised it's sore today.

The only thing I was advised to look out for was possible infection - a 1 in 500 chance apparently. If my knee swells up, gets hot or red and I feel ill, then head for A & E I was told.

The rest of yesterday was a bit of a non-event, although I did manage a couple of celebratory pints at the Legion with the squash guys. There'll be more of that today with the football group, who are currently playing the traditional Xmas Eve match to celebrate Dave Williamson's birthday down at DATA. I'll meet them in the Douglas when they're done.

That's it then - all up to date. We plan to FaceTime Kelly when we awake in the morning - she and Chris have his family over at theirs for Xmas. Then, in the evening, we'll do the same with Lucy.

The End

I'm sitting here in my Aberdeen office - my last day at work. I have nothing really to do so I thought a quick blog update would fill some time.

Some thoughts - why am I sitting here in a shirt and a tie? Won't have to do that any more - that's a plus. Some people have been in to bid farewell already - "how are you feeling?" - don't know how to answer that, but I do know I wish today was over and I could relax over a quiet beer.

Just had a couple of hours' chat with Michael and Francis, mostly speaking about the old days. I'd written a historical Timeline for future reference for them and it brought back some memories for all of us - some good, some not so good. I reckon that, in my years with the Clarks, I've been involved in one way or another with over 50 companies/operations. I could write a book.

There was further discussion about me returning briefly when we come back from Australia - just to review the Budgets and how to cover Forex for 2015-16. Michael said I had to come back anyway so they could take me out to lunch.

Dawn, Barry & Helen came up on Sunday - that was nice, but I forgot to take any photos. Instead, here's another one of our tree, fully decorated:

Jo did a nice job, didn't she?

Gary and Luca came over on Sunday as well and Luca stayed overnight with us, with Gary picking him up from work last night. Yesterday, I was out with our cycling group on a beautiful riverside run, although there was a bit of a climb to follow. I struggle up the hills - I'm always last in our group. I'm not very fit, but I guess the old bike doesn't help much when compared with the others, who mostly have new ones, with larger 29" wheels, front suspension, disc brakes and many more gears than I've got. Over the next couple of months I'll have a wander round the various bike shops and see what I can get.

Dick Taylor came riding up behind me yesterday and reckoned I have got my saddle too low and, as a result, I can't maximise the pulling power. When I think back to when I started cycling again to recuperate from my knee replacement, my focus was on getting maximum bend in the knee, so I wanted my saddle to be low, but I've never changed it since then. Something to consider and experiment with perhaps.

This afternoon I have my appointment at Albyn for the injection in my knee, after which I hope to have a beer with my squash-playing pals.

Then it's the start of a new life.