Thursday frustration

Well, the fitter arrived to install our new boiler - sharp at 8 am. He had driven up from Fife, but there was an immediate problem - he didn't have the correct parts with him. Not his fault of course - the parts were ordered by the surveyor. Whenever you buy anything like this, you always have 3 separate visits - first the salesman, then the surveyor and finally the fitter. They should communicate effectively with each other, but seldom do - in fact, they often "diss" their colleagues. (This could have been a topic for My Pet Hates blog).

The upshot is that he is going to have to come back next week, which means at least one of us has to stay at home again. I could have gone cycling with our group this morning, but missed out. I'm glad I managed a shortish run yesterday - in glorious sunshine again.

We're still waiting for the last coat of the decking oil I put on our balcony to dry fully:

One application of cleaner, then one of preservative, followed by two of decking oil - the first applied by brush and the second sprayed on. Maybe the second coat was unnecessary - but it can't do any harm in the long run. One upshot of the brush application was that some splashes landed on my car below - I don't know what to do about this, but the paintwork has definitely been breached and no doubt it will rust in those places. Oh well.

Another glorious day in store. I could nip down to Carnoustie, St. Andrews or Kingsbarns to watch the Dunhill Cup - or I might go for a solo cycle this afternoon. I feel I should get out whilst the weather's so good (24 C on Deeside!), but I'm a little tired - I had a poor night's sleep - I lay awake from 2:30 am on.

I took my first Rivaroxaban pill yesterday morning and I got an immediate reaction - I felt dizzy and a bit drowsy. The effects wore off a bit in the afternoon, but it made me decide to take the next one at night, rather than the morning. Dizziness is one of the possible side effects listed on the instructions, which also say that new patients normally take two 15 mg pills daily for the first month then move on to one 20 mg pill daily, but I've gone straight in at 20 mg daily. We'll see how I get on tonight after taking my second dose.

Kelly FaceTimed yesterday, so we got lots of kisses from little Miller - that was nice. So it's going to be grandson number 5 then. Some of you aren't trying hard enough.

Busy morning

It was all go this morning - pick up my car from the golf club, then my paper and head for the Doctor's. We discussed my recent visit to the cardiologist. He had recommended coming off aspirin and moving to the new generation of anti-coagulants like Rivaroxaban. This time last year, my GP had persuaded me to give it one more year before changing drugs, so now was the time to change - and he agreed, so I've got a month's trial to do, then back to the GP. If all's well, he'll give me another 2 months' worth of the drug and, at the end of that period we'll decide whether to continue with it permanently or not. Unlike Warfarin, there's no antidote, so, if I bleed, it's serious. I'll have to be even more careful on my cycling trips.

I rushed from the Doctor's to my new Dentist for his initial assessment. Generally OK, but a bit of pus round my implant and a dodgy filling that needs replaced - on Friday.

Next stop was the pharmacist/chemist to pick up my new medicine, then on to Special FX who act as the local UPS depot. (I had to return a part I'd ordered from Apple - incorrectly). Then it was off for a haircut - back down to a bare number 4 again. I think I'll need to buy another head shaver.

The Legion was next - annual renewal time - then it was home again. Good day to wash both cars, I thought. Good idea but it gave our next door neighbour an opportunity to complain about the location of our bins on the driveway - too close to her house apparently.

A bit of bad news - an old friend of mine from Knightswood days died last week. Colin McKay was just 67. I hadn't seen him for decades but we still exchanged Xmas cards. He had type 3 colon cancer and was operated on last Wednesday, but there were complications and he was put on life support before passing away peacefully. Colin and I were pretty close in the 60's and early 70's. He was at our wedding and, before that, at my 21st:

That's Colin lying down at the front of the photo - and his sister Moira is on the far left.

The weekend has passed - and it was a glorious one with fine autumnal sunshine - perfect for our end of season Scotland v. R.o.W. match and lunch yesterday - and again today for the Seniors' season-ending golf and lunch.

We had a slightly shortened FaceTime call from Kelly on Friday morning - Miller spilled some stuff and she had to hang up - then Lucy called last night.

My pensions/financial adviser Alistair Scott called on Friday. I had half promised him a game of golf, but the course was busy and, anyway, I had to wait for the man from Penicuik who was supposed to be here in the morning to fix our front door anyway, and, as usual, he didn't arrive on time, so we decided to forgo the golf and just nip up to the Tor-na-Coille Hotel for a quick soup and sannies lunch.

The blood red "super moon" last night looked interesting, but there was no way we were getting up at 3 am to view it. I took a couple of snaps of the bright full moon on Friday night however:

Nowhere near as impressive as some of the photos on today's TV - I guess you had to be there - it was quite a sight - like a giant light bulb.

End of today's diary entry.

Winter's coming!

So, did anyone notice that the night was longer than the day? I thought not. It is autumnal, but it's bright and there's high pressure on the way for the weekend, so it's not all bad.

It wasn't all bad yesterday either as Scotland trounced Japan in the Rugby World Cup - and confounded a few critics in the process. Bring on USA on Sunday.

Golf at Forfar today was excellent, despite me feeling a little stiff from yesterday's cycle. Jo was at the Doctor's this morning and has had blood tests, for which she will get the results next week. Lots of speculation about the cause of the pains and funny feelings in her leg, but let's wait and see.

Tomorrow my pensions/financial adviser arrives, as do Penicuik to repair our front door. Next week's busy too - Seniors golf and season-ending lunch on Monday, my Doctor on Tuesday morning (cardio meds), followed by my first appointment at Fountain Lodge Dental Practice - I've decided to go local after more than 30 years of going to Holburn Dental Care in Aberdeen. As Bob said many years ago, The Times They are a Changin'.

Scottish Gas arrive on Wednesday morning for the service and, on Thursday, our new boiler is being installed. Two days later, Jo and I go for our flu jabs first thing in the morning and we're at the Masons for dinner in the evening.

Enough for now.

Equinox(es)

Yes, it's the autumn equinox today - or the spring (vernal) equinox in the southern hemisphere. As all the doom and gloom merchants in NE Scotland would say - it's all downhill from here. Another 5 + weeks and the clocks will be going back. It's a bit of an oddity that, when that happens, the time difference from Kelly in Adelaide goes up from eight and a half hours to ten and a half hours, as they spring forward when we fall back.

It's also 50 years since I left Victoria Drive Secondary School to start training as a Chartered Accountant in September, 1965. This was the Top 10 in the UK then:

Pos	LW	Title, Artist	Peak Pos	WoC
1	3	MAKE IT EASY ON YOURSELF WALKER BROTHERS PHILIPS	1	6
2	1	(I CAN'T GET NO) SATISFACTION THE ROLLING STONES DECCA	1	5
3	7	TEARS KEN DODD COLUMBIA	3	4
4	2	I GOT YOU BABE SONNY AND CHER ATLANTIC	1	7
5	5	LOOK THROUGH ANY WINDOW THE HOLLIES PARLOPHONE	5	4
6	4	LIKE A ROLLING STONE BOB DYLAN CBS	4	6
7	6	WALK IN THE BLACK FOREST HORST JANKOWSKI MERCURY	3	9
8	10	ZORBA'S DANCE MARCELLO MINERBI DURIUM	6	10
9	18	EVE OF DESTRUCTION BARRY MCGUIRE RCA	9	3
10	9	LAUGH AT ME SONNY ATLANTIC	9	6

So it wasn't all great music in the 60's - viz. Ken Dodd at No. 3 - and, unusually, there are two instrumentals in the Top 10, but Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone increases the credibility factor - a tune I remember well from a weekend in Millport, as earlier reported in my Chronicles. I had just passed my Highers and Mum and Dad didn't buy me the promised record player until Christmas that year, so I never owned any of these records.

 It's also 32 years ago this week that I started work at Clipper Seafoods in Aberdeen. The rest of the family were still in Edinburgh and I used to bring home the bacon (chocolate biscuits actually) on a Friday night.

Bringing things back up to date, today is Scotland's first match in the Rugby World Cup and they face Japan in a game that Scotland were initially expected to win, but, after Japan's deserved win over former World Champions South Africa on Saturday, they have started to make noises about running Scotland off the park. We can only hope that this serves as a clarion call to the Scots to do their stuff.

Tomorrow, it's golf at Forfar and on Friday, the Penicuik men arrive to repair our front door. I also have Alistair Scott, our financial/pensions adviser coming up and we'll have a spot of lunch somewhere. If it's nice we might go for a game of golf as well.

News from the North East

It's been a busy week - a lot of golf - Scotscraig on Monday, Royal Aberdeen Thursday, Aboyne Friday and Banchory today (Sunday). Tuesday was Inverurie as usual to pick up Luca from school and I managed a short cycle on Wednesday.

On Saturday, Gary took part in the Crathes half marathon and I agreed to pick up Luca from his football practice with Colony Park BC. It was a glorious morning and Luca was a little reluctant to leave the playing field. I let him play with his pals for a while then eventually he trudged off, trailing his training kit:

He wasn't so keen on his new football boots - they didn't shoot very well, apparently!

I took Luca back to Banchory to await his Dad finishing his race nearby. We had intended going along to Crathes to watch, but Gary said he didn't feel too good and didn't want Luca to see him distressed, so, in the end, I stayed at home with Luca whilst Jo slipped out to see Gary finish:

At the time of writing this blog, Lucy is taking part in her first ever marathon in Jacksonville, Oregon. Good luck, girl!

Finally, preparatory work has started on the development site where the Tor-na-Coille filling station used to be. Most of the trees have now been felled:

By spring there will be 5 new 2-bedroom, 2-storey houses here.

I've completed another Chronicles episode - 2002 this time. Just a few years left to complete now.

There will be less golf  this week - currently only Thursday at Forfar is scheduled, and next Sunday is our season ending Challenge match when we all play and have a lunch together, with Dick Taylor sponsoring it, just after his 70th birthday.

End of weekend

Brian and Mary have just left and are on their way back to Paisley. We met them at Edzell Golf club on Friday - Jo came down with me and took Mary back to Banchory in my car, whilst Brian took me back after the golf.

Brian and I were having bacon butties with the other golfers (it was our Veterans' Football Group annual outing) and I asked Jo if she and Mary would like to join us? Yes, said Jo, so we all sat down in the lounge, but I was then called over by the barmaid. "Excuse me, sir, but the lady is wearing jeans - they're not allowed in here". She started to apologise at this point and said, if we liked, we could go in to the separate Members' lounge - as long as there were no members there, or they didn't object.

Jo and Mary decided it would be easier if they just left and went elsewhere, so they headed off to the Arch in Fettercairn instead. Jo says this is the first time in her life she's ever been thrown out of anywhere!

Anyway, Brian and I had a nice afternoon, followed by a few beers back in the Burnett in the evening.

Saturday was the day of the Members' Invitational at Banchory, but there were dire warnings of wet weather arriving in the North East about 11 am. We hoped we would get most of our round completed by then, but, for once, the forecasters were spot on with their timing. The rain started on the 13th hole and never relented. Brian and I finished our round, but our playing partners didn't, walking in when the heavens opened on the 13th hole.

We put our gear in the drying room and went in to the clubhouse for a welcome beer and bacon butty, with the rain still teeming down. We watched the end of the Aberdeen - Celtic match, won 2-1 by the Dons, then had to call home to ask Jo to come and pick us up - it was still too wet to walk even the short distance home.

In the evening, Brian and I met Colin in the Douglas to watch the Man U - Liverpool match then walked along to the Derbar to meet up with Jo and Mary for a curry, which we all enjoyed:

Brian, Mary and Jo went to church on Sunday morning, and the girls went on from there to Tease for coffee, where Johanne revealed that the surgeon who performed the experimental surgery on her brain to relieve the symptoms of Parkinson's was the same one who was reported to have harmed over 100 patients, but was allowed to resign, rather than be removed from the medical register - check http://www.pressreader.com/uk/scottish-daily-mail/20150912/281809987677823/TextView.

Johanne's operation relieved some of her pain, but, in the process, her vocal powers were greatly diminished and she finds it hard to make herself heard now. How unlucky has she been? One of the youngest to contract Parkinson's - in her 30's - and then this.

Guess what we had for lunch when Jo and Mary came home today? Yes - it was bacon butties again - the 3rd day in a row for me, not that I'm complaining.

Tomorrow, I'm off to Tayport for the Seniors penultimate match this season against Scotscraig, then on Thursday the last one is at Royal Aberdeen, so I don't know when I'll manage to squeeze in some cycling this week. Brian and I spoke about doing some cycling together some time - perhaps next time we go down there.

Talking about bikes, there were loads of ads in the papers this weekend for this product - http://www.gtech.co.uk/ebike.html. A snip, starting at a mere £1,695. I hope to get my new mountain bike for a lot less than that.

Thursday rest again

It's my second rest day of the week - unplanned. I should have been out on my usual Thursday morning cycle but we did a run yesterday and I wasn't really ready for it after the weekend exertions, and it took too much out of me, so I had to dip out this morning. Incidentally, we met a fisherman on the river when we were out on our cycle - it was Paul Whitehouse, the comedian. Google him.

I've spent most of the day so far catching up with admin. I've completed my tax return online and I've also sent off the guarantee claim form to Penicuik. Our front door has moved a bit and needs adjusting:

I've had a look at it and I can see where and how it adjusts but it needs a tool that I don't have. We're also missing a small plastic spacer bar. It galls that, although the doors and windows are under guarantee, they want a £90 call-out charge! If I'd known that yesterday, when we bought a new boiler from the same group - different division - I'd have negotiated harder.

That's all for now. This blog is nearing 400,000 viewings now - wow. To close, here's the nice room I had on Sunday night at the Grant Arms Hotel, Grantown-on-Spey:

Golfed out

I'm recovering now from 5 games of golf in the last week - much more than I've done all year. I have absolutely no intention of doing any type of exercise today. No more golf until Friday when brother-in-law Brian makes his annual trip up here, but I've been selected to play in the last couple of Seniors matches this season next week, so it's not quite all over yet.

We were very fortunate with the weather for our golf trip to the Highlands - it was glorious and Boat of Garten in particular was looking very pretty. I stopped at one of the holes for this photo:

Notice how I'm kneeling on one knee - my right - the one that has been replaced. I did this unconsciously - I was told I would never kneel again, but here's proof that's not true. It's my left knee that I am now protecting most. One day, it's going to have to be replaced too, but not now please.

It was Ross' 32nd birthday yesterday and Jo and I took he and Lizzie to the Douglas for a meal in the evening after their work:

Very nice it was too.

I've been busy updating my other blogs too - including more Chronicles and even another Pet Hate!

Midweek update

It's Tuesday evening - we're just back from Inverurie.

Went to our Headbang on Friday - our second this year and had an easy day on Saturday. Jo was doing lunches at the church centre. We had fish and chips for supper - and it was the best we'd had from the Ashvale for a long time - hope they can keep up the standard.

Golf at Banchory on Sunday morning, then golf again on Monday, this time it was my first ever visit to the Trump course. He may be a bit of a buffoon (should that be bouffant?) but the course and facilities are truly excellent. It's a spectacular setting amongst the huge dunes. Here I am on the 15th tee:

It's the last night of our midweek golf tomorrow and then on Friday, it's the Terry Edmonds' Memorial at Aboyne, followed by our 60th outing to Boat of Garten on Sunday/Monday. The season is fast coming to a close. The BBC weather reporter even said this morning that today is meteorologically the first day of autumn. How sad.

Problem solved?

It's Friday morning and the roofer has just been. Observant chap that he is, he noticed the bottom of our downpipe at ground level had somehow been squeezed virtually flat, and, as a result, it was blocked with debris, meaning that when we get really heavy rain - like we did on Saturday night and Monday, and when we were in USA - the pipe just backs up with water, which then cascades down through our bedroom window. He sawed off the bottom section and proved his point:

He went up on the roof - brave man! - and checked the flashings etc and there was a small bit of damage caused by the water backing up, so he fixed that as well. Job done - hopefully.

I went on another longish cycle yesterday and when I came back, I noticed there was activity on the old Tor-na-Coille filling station site. It's been the subject of various planning discussions etc, but agreement has finally been reached and the development is going ahead at last, so they were erecting the advertising sign yesterday. I stopped and spoke to Alan Buchan, who told me they have sold one already. The price is £325K for a 2 bedroom, 2 storey town house style. The timing is not ideal from his point of view, given the current downturn in the Oil sector, but at least the site will be tidied up now - albeit all the trees are coming down:

A day of rest for me today, I think. Jo has got her swimming this afternoon, but I've had 3 days in a row of exercise and that's enough for now, I think. Relax until this evening's Headbang sounds like a plan.

Fringeless

Well we never made it to Edinburgh this year. As we went to bed on Saturday night, with the rain lashing down outside, all of a sudden, water started pouring down the inside of our bedroom window and we had to rush to get towels - and eventually buckets - to minimise the damage.

It brought to mind our return from USA when we noticed that the inside windowsill in our bedroom was warped a little by water ingress. Initially we put this down to heavy rains when we were away and the windows weren't securely shut, but we later noticed that all the family photo frames on the windowsill in the front room downstairs, immediately below our bedroom, were also water damaged.

It was as recently as March that we had some fairly extensive work done on our roof etc, and the current leak seems to be coming from the same area.

With the forecast for more wet weather, we decided we could not risk going to Edinburgh on Sunday morning, so our tickets for 7 shows - and our train tickets, which I'd just booked a few hours earlier - were all wasted. We couldn't even get hold of any roofers or our insurance brokers or insurers on Sunday, so had to wait until Monday to make these contacts. The earliest the roofer can come is Friday morning!

Sod's law, Sunday was an absolutely glorious day, but it rained again on Monday when I took this short video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVZOkcJv1_A

We compensated ourselves by finally using the voucher I got from my replacement on my retirement for a meal at Raemoir House Hotel on Sunday. It was lovely:

So instead of walking the streets of Edinburgh, rushing from show to show on Sunday and Monday, we virtually did nothing - apart from the dinner above. Monday was so bad that I couldn't even get out for a compensatory cycle, but I managed to do this yesterday (Tuesday) - and it was a long one - approaching 40 kms. I was completely gone by the time I got back home, some 4 hours (including a coffee stop) after I'd left.

Of course, Tuesday afternoon was spent through in Inverurie as usual.

For those that haven't noticed, I've been busy again with my Chronicles. After 5 months' of inactivity here, I've now posted three times in the last 10 days. I'm now half way through 2001 - not long to go until I catch up with this blog diary, which started in March, 2007. The link to the Chronicles - and all my other blogs - is on the sidebar at the right of this blog.

Coming up, it's the second of this year's Headbangs on Friday night and then next week, it's the last official week of our midweek golf - and it's a busy one. I'm playing at Trump on Monday for the first time, then it's the last night of our Summer Quaich at Banchory on Wednesday, followed by the Terry Edmonds' Memorial at Aboyne on Friday. On the Sunday immediately after that we head to Boat of Garten for what will be our 60th outing in our 30th year of going there. Whew.

Eve of Fringe

We're taking the train down to Edinburgh tomorrow for our 2-day binge at the Fringe. Four shows tomorrow and another three on Monday, then back up the road on Tuesday morning, in time to get to Inverurie to pick up Luca from school as usual. I made a last minute decision to book the train, having earlier ruled this possibility out - it saves any hassle with parking anyway.

Been catching up with golf a little this last week, having missed much of this season. Seniors on Monday, our usual Summer Quaich group on Wednesday and then the annual trip to St. Andrews on a glorious Thursday. This only left room for a short cycle on Friday afternoon - need to get more miles in soon. I had planned to go out on Tuesday morning with Keith Gray, but it was a bit damp so Keith suggested we go to the gym and pool at Kippie Lodge instead.

Today (Saturday), I was at Pittodrie with Malcolm Grigor, who had a spare ticket. A good 2-0 win for the Dons was spoiled a little by the news coming through from Tynecastle that Thistle had been hammered 3-0 by a rampant Hearts. It's going to be a long season for the Jags.

I missed a Face Time call from Kelly on Thursday when I was on my way to St. Andrews. Jo was at her hairdresser's so we both missed out. Kelly did send a quick snap of her and Miller, however:

Today's Times Travel section had a feature on Oregon:

This provided me with a reminder that, having now arranged our big flights next year, we need to get the rest of the holiday sorted out - including hopefully a return to Newport Coast again.

I've also done another Chronicles posting - http://renshawschronicles.blogspot.co.uk/.

We're back - again!

Yes - no sooner are we back from USA than we were off again last week - this time to London - but more of that later. Before we went, we managed to book our big holidays next year. Unable to find any Air Miles flights to West Coast USA online, I eventually phoned BA. Initially, the girl also struggled to find anything, but eventually she came back with an option of flying in to Vancouver and flying back from San Francisco. It was a little earlier than we would ideally have liked (1st June) but I felt we had to take it. On the way out it's "only" World Traveller Plus, but it's Business Class on the return leg.

Having fixed that and used up all our Air Miles, it was time to book our Australian trip - and we would have to spend some cash. We decided to try Emirates from Glasgow for a change - and it cuts out one flight, touching down in Dubai and flying from there all the way to Adelaide. Business Class also means they send a driver all the way to Banchory to pick us up and take us back home again. We leave in January, but, having booked this, we then got the news that we may have another grandchild on the way in May!

Carole invited us over to Inverurie last Saturday for dinner as a kind of belated Father's Day treat - and very nice it was too. On Sunday afternoon, Jo and I went along to the Banchory Beer Festival on a beautiful afternoon. There's more about this on my Ale blog (http://iansaleadventures.blogspot.co.uk/) but here's a photo Jo took:

Gary brought Luca along on Sunday evening and he spent Monday/Tuesday with us before we went to London. He was his usual creative self, drawing "Jo's Garden":

and here he is, bug-hunting:

Our theatre trip to London went well. Flights were fine, Tube was OK and the hotel was good, as were the two shows, the first of which was Sunny Afternoon - the Kinks' story:

That evening we went to Olympia for the Great British Beer Festival:

The following morning we took a stroll through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park:

Peter Pan

 

Albert Memorial & Albert Hall

Household Cavalry exercising

Nice lunch near Covent Garden, then round to the Aldwych Theatre for Beautiful, the Carole King story:

Great show, after which we walked round to Mayfair and had drinks in an old haunt of mine, the Guinea Grill. Dinner was at an Italian restaurant in Gloucester Road, just round the corner from our hotel:

On Friday morning we walked along to the Natural History Museum, but the lines were too long, so we did the V & A instead, having coffee in the garden cafe:

That's me up to date again - and I've also done another Chronicles posting - http://renshawschronicles.blogspot.co.uk/