First week of vacation

It's a week since we left Banchory and headed across the pond. The flights went well and there was no pain at all in downgrading our flights this year to World Traveller Plus.

We arrived at Vancouver airport early evening Canadian time and got through Customs etc fairly quickly and picked up a cab to take us to our hotel downtown. Nice room - junior suite. The hotel's bar was closed so we walked round the corner to a little tapas bar for a quick bite and a couple of beers before heading for bed. After all, it was now well past 5 am body clock time.

Our time in Vancouver was fairly limited so we thought the best thing for us to do was to go on one of the hop-on, hop-off tourist buses. We got off in Stanley Park, which is Vancouver's green lung - larger even than Central Park, NYC. We posed at the totem poles:

We walked for a bit, just to get our legs working again, and then picked up the bus back to Canada Place. By now it was lunchtime and we headed for a place that had been recommended to us. There's more detail of this - and all our other beer and food stops - on my Ale blog (http://iansaleadventures.blogspot.com/), so I'll try not to repeat myself on this blog - and I'll try to only use photos that haven't already appeared on any of my many other blogs - or Facebook.

Back on the bus in the afternoon, we headed for Granville Island where we went on an interesting walking tour. It's a former industrial site that has largely been converted in to a modern, funky, artistic centre all round the large public market - with one exception - the concrete factory is still there, but even it has undergone an artistic make-over:

We passed what they call float houses:

Apparently much sought after, their market value is in millions.

After completing the tour on the last bus, we had dinner with Fred. Who's he, you might ask? Well, listen very carefully. Jo's sister Mary is married to Brian, whose brother is David and he's married to Sherie, whose father is Fred, who lives in Vancouver. Got it?

Fred is now 85 but still very sprightly and we had a lovely evening with him. He took us to his favourite Chinese restaurant, did all the ordering and even paid the bill. Try as I might, he wouldn't let me pick up the tab. He ordered crab, prawns, scallops, chicken and noodles - tons of everything - and he eats like a sparrow! We made a valiant attempt to get through it, but I don't think Fred was too worried as he picked up the leftovers in a box. He even drove us back to our hotel.

We had only met Fred once before - he came to Scotland for Julie's wedding back in the early 90's, and he, Brian and David came up to Banchory for a game of golf. They all stayed at the Tor-na-Coille hotel and I remember on the Thursday evening, I took them to the folk club upstairs in the loft at Scott Skinner's. It's a very small room and this was in the days before smoking was banned in pubs in Scotland. It didn't take long for Fred to be literally smoked out - he couldn't take the choking atmosphere and went back to the hotel. We told him it's safe to come back to Scotland now!

On Friday, we initially planned to go back and do the interactive experience at Canada Place, then head for Vancouver Island in the afternoon, but, in the end, we just opted to catch an earlier bus/ferry. The journey was easy - once you get to the bus station and load your bags on, that's it - the bus takes you all the way to the ferry terminal (45 mins away) and straight on to the ferry and off the other end and in to the very pretty little city of Victoria, capital of British Columbia.

The weather was improving by the hour and the water was like a millpond for the ferry crossing, which passes through narrow channels between small islands - very pretty:

It was a good decision to catch an earlier ferry as we arrived at our hotel at the peak of the day. The hotel's location is stunning and there's a lovely coastal walk just outside - and, would you believe it, a lovely brewpub along the way (actually, the receptionist told us about it).

Our receptionist was hyper - so much so that we thought that we must have been on Candid Camera - everything was "awesome" in a high pitched voice. Jo was quietly giggling away, but I had to try and keep a straight face - at least until we got our keys.

The coastal trail was lovely and there was plenty of activity on the water - sea planes coming and going, little water taxis everywhere with a backdrop of snow-capped mountains and a cruise ship had just arrived:

After refreshments at the brewpub, we continued on the trail and came across this strange sculpture:

On Saturday, the plan was to catch the bus to Butchart Gardens and we spent a couple of hours walking round there - delightful place:

We took the bus back about lunchtime and walked back to our hotel from the drop-off point. We have to cross a strange-looking bridge to get over to the Delta Victoria Ocean Pointe:

The counterweight looks like a dog's head - note the eyes and ears.

We went to the spa and had a quick swim before dinner.

On Sunday morning we were awake early, so headed back down for a swim, sauna and hot-tub before breakfast and packing. Our 2 flights from Victoria to Medford went pretty well, although we skirted a thunderstorm as we approached Medford. The temperatures have been unseasonably high in Southern Oregon - 4 days in a row were, in old money, over 100 F, which hasn't happened here so early for half a century. Thankfully, it's cooled down a bit today (Wednesday) - mid 80's now - much more pleasant.

Lucy met us at the airport and drove us back to Grants Pass, where we met up with some strange-looking Lesinas - especially Cade, who has shot up and also lost a ton of weight - and, of course, he sounds different now! Scott, too, has lost some weight after his recent operations.

There's a new (to us) Jeep in the garage as well:

Meet the rest of the Lesinas:

Holly - not quite as lively as last year

Buster

Tina

 

Bugs

That's enough for now - got to go and pick up Braeden - I'm on the school runs this week - until they finish next Wednesday. Jo and I have just been chilling this week after a hectic few days in Canada - although I did manage a reasonable cycle this morning.

Final preps

Bags pretty much packed - just waiting to check in online and print boarding passes, then we're off to Inverurie this afternoon.

For those that didn't see it, Gary had an excellent Edinburgh Marathon on Sunday - terrific time of 3 hours 26 mins. Here he is with his pals Andy and Jamie:

I hope his running helps him cope with the stress of losing his job - he's one of the many victims of the recession in the oil industry in Aberdeen. He opted to take voluntary redundancy on Friday and the details will be sorted out in the next week or so. Hope he manages to get another position soon.

Meanwhile, Ross is working away in Deeside Drinks Emporium - although he's still to sort out his hours and pay etc - hope this goes well too.

Friday - home alone

Jo's away having her hair done before we head off on Wednesday so I'm just getting all my bills and online stuff done this morning. We FaceTimed Kelly this morning and had a chat with Miller - talkative little boy. Meanwhile Asher was sleeping away - that and feeding is all we have seen him do so far. Here's a photo Kelly sent us when he's actually awake and not taking milk:

The eyes are alive, aren't they?

Not much else to report - a couple of cycles this week, plus golf on Wednesday. More golf tonight, Sunday morning and Monday (Seniors match at Brechin) but then that's it for a while. I hardly played golf in USA last year - nor Australia this year. Must make more of an effort to play this time - otherwise when I come back, it'll be like starting the season all over again, whilst everyone else is fully up to speed.

Off to the dental hygienist this afternoon - hope she's not too rough with me.

To close, I spotted this article in the paper recently:

He's the guy who bought the hotel from Roxanne and her husband. We tried to set up a meeting with his people to discuss the squash court situation and they agreed but kept stalling/cancelling agreed dates, until one morning we awoke to the sound of bulldozers knocking the courts down. Fait accompli - no discussion now necessary! Drumtochty Castle is where Kelly and Chris were going to get married - 19th-21st July, 2016 was the plan. Wouldn't that have been nice if everyone was coming to Scotland in just a few weeks' time?

Mid-May

Well, it's been an interesting week - much of it spent at the beer festival. Setting up on Tuesday and Wednesday and serving punters Thursday and Friday. The downturn in the oil industry definitely had an effect on attendances, which meant it was never too busy - plus we had loads of volunteers, so I was able to head home on Thursday and Friday at a reasonable hour and I took Saturday off. By then, I was pretty knackered anyway. Erecting scaffolding and lifting casks isn't something I'm used to doing and I was definitely feeling a bit stiff and sore.

We've also had Luca staying with us the last two Saturday nights. Today (Sunday), Gary headed off for his last long training run prior to the Edinburgh Marathon next Sunday, and Jo was at church, so it was just me, Luca - and Yoda - for a while. We took a walk along to buy my paper which gave Luca the chance to climb his favourite little hill - with Yoda in tow this time:

He insisted I take a video of them running up - https://youtu.be/IQL3pYq0r0Q. After that, we went over to the golf club and hit a few balls in the practice facility before the darkening clouds made us scurry home. It's been intermittently bright then dark, with occasional showers. Wonder how the boys are doing on the hill-walking weekend in Assynt? Would like to have been there - but not if they're getting a soaking!

Early rise tomorrow - I'm taking Jo's car in to Aberdeen to get some work done on it, but I hope to be back in time for a cycle in the afternoon - weather permitting.

Need to start organising our packing this week as well - just 10 days until we head to North America again. I've got golf on Wednesday and Friday too and I also have to go back to get my bloods done - yet again. The results from my second test were again a bit out of range. I had a telephone appointment with our doctor and he said one of the two liver readings - Gamma GT, I think - was higher than normal. He asked me if I'd had a change of drugs recently - well, of course I did - you prescribed Riveroxaban for me! My two blood tests were taken just before and just after I was ill as well, so the only thing to do really was to get tested again - so that's Wednesday morning.

Ross started his new job - at Deeside Drinks Emporium - this afternoon. Hope it goes well.

Week of change

It was great while it lasted - the sun shone and it was beautifully warm all the way through to Thursday, but there was a sea change yesterday (Friday), when the temperature plummeted back down to more seasonal levels.

Golf on Wednesday was lovely, as was our cycle on Thursday morning up beautiful Glenesk. I can't believe I've lived in the North East for 33 years and never been there. There's even a nice Folk Museum and cafe called the Retreat which is worth a stop. I posed for a photo outside:

It's the beer festival next week - I'm working there Tuesday through Friday. In fact, I'm a judge of the Beer of the Festival this year. The downside is that it clashes with our hill-walking group's annual trip - this year they're heading to Assynt, staying 2 nights at Aultbea and 2 nights in Ullapool.

We FaceTimed with Kelly yesterday. Little Asher has had his tongue tie done and all seems to be well. Miller will get his done when he's a bit older - similar to his Mum. I never had mine done, but I've never really had any problems with it. OK - I can't stick my tongue out as far as others, but so what?

I've also had my first little rant for a while - check http://curmudgeonlyramblings.blogspot.co.uk/

Recovered

I was ill most of last week so had to cancel my trip to Inverurie last Tuesday and the CAMRA meeting that night, plus golf on Wednesday and cycling on Thursday. By Friday I was feeling a bit better and managed to make it down to Montrose where I'd entered the Senior Open.

I was grateful that I was well enough to attend our 61st golf outing to Boat of Garten on Sunday/Monday as the weather was stunning. On Tuesday we were back to Inverurie as usual, but I knew I was running out of time to distribute our local CAMRA branch's newsletter round the pubs in upper Deeside - it's the festival edition and the beer festival itself is next week - so I jumped in the car in the morning and drove down to Braemar, taking in Ballater, Tarland and Aboyne on the way back. At Ballater, Lochnagar was looking magnificent as usual:

To close, here's some pics Kelly sent us of her boys:

Luca in Banchory

The sun shone today and I took Luca along to the practice area at our golf club to hit a few balls:

Check these short videos as well - forgive the bad camerawork - I was too busy watching where he was hitting the ball! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVA_reIM5Ds and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kBN2382jZA

What do you think? Tiger Stewart or Luca McIlroy?

London etc

Thankfully, it seems to be getting a bit warmer now - at last. Not exactly tropical, but at least a bit more spring-like.

London was just as cool as Banchory when we were there on Thursday/Friday, but we still had a nice time - it was pretty sunny and mostly dry. We caught the 7:25 am flight to Heathrow so we were in London fairly early in the morning. Tube to Earls Court then change to get tube down to Wimbledon - Jo's choice of destination. We walked up the hill to Wimbledon Village and then took a stroll over the vast area of greenery that is Wimbledon Common, which is linked to Putney Common and Richmond Park. Jo spotted the war memorial at the start:

Further on, we came across the Windmill Museum and adjacent cafe:

Putney Village is a very upmarket area and we stumbled upon a lovely "country pub in the heart of the city" - Telegraph Road. Too nice not to stop and have a beer in the garden.

Continuing our ramble we made it to Putney proper where Jo was charmed by a magnolia tree in bloom:

Tube again - Putney to Embankment - then a short stroll across the "new" footbridge (opened 2004) next to Westminster Bridge and Waterloo:

Our hotel was just a couple of hundred yards from the London Eye and the venue for the evening gig was just round the corner so we didn't have to worry too much about timing. In fact, we had time to check in and have a quick kip before heading out to grab something to eat before the show. The curiously named Camel and Artichoke served our needs and after our meal there, we tried another strangely named pub - the Crown and Cushion. It is an old London pub, which is now an Irish bar. The table we sat at had a hole in the floorboard and we could see right down to the cellar:

The venue for the All or Nothing musical was The Vaults - one of the arches under Waterloo station converted to a theatre. At quiet moments in the show we could hear the trains rumbling overhead. There were several rooms we had to wander to to get to our seats. It felt a bit like going to one of the Edinburgh Fringe shows, but the show was at least as good as the Kinks' Sunny Afternoon show we saw last year. Here's a typical stage scene of the band playing one of the Small Faces' hits:

On Friday morning, after breakfast at our hotel, we walked back across the Thames to catch the Tube again, but stopped first to take this photo of Jo at the Eye:

Jo then took this unfortunately poorly contrasted photo of me with the Houses of Parliament in the background:

We got off the Tube at Sloane Square and walked round to the Saatchi Gallery where we'd bought tickets to view the Rolling Stones' http://www.stonesexhibitionism.com/ - a really well done show with lots of differently themed rooms, a number of which were interactive.

After an hour and a half there we walked along the Kings' Road for a bit until we found a suitable coffee shop. We had to get to the Piccadilly line to get a Tube back to Heathrow so we strolled up to South Kensington. We still had some spare time so managed a couple of beers at the Admiral Codrington. At Heathrow, we met up with Dave and Jayne Williamson, who signed us in to the exceptionally busy Executive Lounge. We were back in Arbor Court well before 8 pm.

On Saturday, Jo was working at the Seniors' lunch at her church, so I decided to jump on my bike and head out to Feughside to deliver some CAMRA newsletters - and grab some lunch. It was a beautiful day - and so peaceful:

This morning (Sunday) I decided to forsake golf and go for a hill-walk up Kerloch. The low cloud made visibility poor at the top. Here we are back at the car park after our 3 hour walk:

So, Luca is with us tonight as it's the May Day holiday tomorrow. We've just had a take-away curry for tea and Luca is now heading to bed.

April snow

It's not quite May yet but we're getting another Arctic blast this week. It was OK at the weekend - I cycled on Friday and golfed on Sunday - but we were due to play a Seniors match against Royal Aberdeen yesterday (Monday). We all turned up for the pre-match coffees and bacon butties but watched as snow squalls frequently passed over the course. Eventually we decided, by mutual consent, that conditions were too unpleasant and we would postpone and re-schedule the match.

This morning (Tuesday), if anything, it's worse - regular snow squalls - not lying in Banchory, but enough to close the higher level Cairn o' Mount road. No chance of cycling today, so I took the opportunity to take my bike back to the bike shop and ask them to tweak the gear changes again as it's still not slipping in to the lowest gear. Hopefully it's now fixed but I'll know as soon as I test it out on an upward hill stretch.

I got my bloods done on Friday - I had thought it was just a blood pressure check but the nurse decided to take three samples at the same time. BP was fine - 110/68 - perhaps a little low, but OK. Urine sample clear as well. I phoned to get my blood results this morning and have been asked to come back and have the bloods done again next week - apparently there was an abnormal liver reading.

This afternoon, it's back to Inverurie as usual. We'll be taking Jo's car - she is definitely a good bit better this week - as I'll be heading off to a CAMRA meeting in Aberdeen this evening. When I was through last week, I noticed a nice framed photo on the hearth of Gary finishing his recent run at Brodie:

Yesterday, I finally got round to sorting out what we're doing for the first few days of our North American holiday this year - only 5 weeks away now. I've booked a hotel in Vancouver for 2 nights and then one in Victoria, Vancouver Island for another 2 nights. We'll then fly from Victoria to Medford - via San Francisco - on the Sunday.

Here's the Vancouver hotel:

and the Victoria one:

Our hotel in London this Thursday is a bit more modest - the Premier Inn at Westminster Bridge, Waterloo.

Back in Banchory

It's been a far from normal week, with Jo virtually bed-bound most of the time with some kind of respiratory virus. At the time of writing, she's still suffering a bit - particularly in her ear - but she's ever so slowly improving. This morning (Saturday) she even ventured out of the house for the first time, strolling along to the village for a coffee with me.

Touch wood, so far, the bug hasn't got to me. I've had my usual week golfing and cycling. The one major difference came on Tuesday. Jo clearly wasn't up to going through to Inverurie to pick up Luca from school, so I did it solo. I took Luca to his new running class then we went to Tesco - his choice - for tea. Luca has obviously done this before - he knew exactly what to do when we got there - a choice of 5 items, none of them particularly healthy.

We've managed a couple of FaceTime calls with Kelly this week, which was nice. I picked up this photo from Instagram of Matt (Chris' brother) holding little Asher Thomas:

This coming week, Jo and I are travelling to London for just one night to see a show - All or Nothing, the Small Faces' musical.

Grandaddy again!

Nearly a fortnight since my last blog post and it's all been happening. Only one place to begin though - little Asher Thomas Steele was born on Wednesday 13th April at 1:10 pm Adelaide time - our 5th grandson. 9lbs 2 oz and mother and baby doing well - so much so that Kelly was home 4 hours later!

I didn't get a chance to speak to Kelly until this (Saturday) morning on FaceTime, having just got back from the Algarve at tea time yesterday. Kelly was looking and sounding great - and so was little Asher - and Miller, who has become very chatty and his speech is becoming much clearer. Asher is much darker than Miller, reminding Jo very much of Kelly when she was born:

Jo had been looking after Luca this week while I was away golfing, but she felt ill all week and had lost her voice when I got home. She's having a medicated down day today - it seems that she's got some kind of respiratory bug - sore ears and head and coughing all the time.

Just before Gary came over to pick up Luca last night, Luca asked for some Angel Delight - something we haven't had for a generation or so. Jo agreed and asked Luca to help mix it, handing him a hand whisk. Luca looked puzzled and searched the whisk before finally saying "where's the button to switch it on?" This generation don't expect to do anything manually, do they?

Going back to the previous week, we went down to Glasgow on the Wednesday for a little gathering to welcome Meghan back home from New York for a short break. We had a late lunch, lasting 5 hours or so at the Three Craws in in Crow Road, Glasgow:

l-r: cousin Sheila; Jo; Meghan; Chloe and Jordon, John and Dawn (half hidden); Aunt Nancy; Barry and Helen

We walked back to Foxbar Drive and spent the night at Barry and Helen's. In the morning, we drove over to Elderslie and Houston. Jo joined Mary in looking after Julie's boys and Brian and I went golfing at Ranfurly GC where he works P/T as Secretary.

Friday was similar, except this time Brian took me down to the other club he joined recently - West Kilbride. It was a lovely day and the course was great, with super views across to the nearby Isle of Arran:

We had a take-away curry for tea at Julie's where the boys were snapping away with my phone:

On Saturday, Jo, Mary and I drove in to the King's Theatre in Glasgow to see the first of the plays in the James Trilogy, after which Jo and I drove back to Banchory whilst Mary went shopping.

I was mostly packed and ready for my early morning drive back down the road to Edinburgh airport on Sunday morning. We only had 4 days' golf planned and the weather was a little disappointing on the Algarve - unseasonably cool and wet. In fact, as we had breakfast on Monday morning, a virtual monsoon went over, but thankfully it passed before we played and it all turned out OK in the end, with the weather slowly improving as the week went on.

Well tonight we were due to go to the church centre for the annual Malaysian dinner, but there's no way Jo's up to going anywhere just now - nor is Colin's wife, Johanne, who seems to have the same bug. Too bad - let's hope they recover soon.

The week after Easter

Another week passed - nothing much going on. I rested Monday and didn't join our group peleton and Tuesday, of course, it was Inverurie. We took Luca for a haircut - just a tidy-up - he and his Mum both like to keep his hair on the long side.

With the clocks changing, our midweek golf competition started again on Wednesday. We got a freak hailstorm after we'd played 6/7 holes and had to abandon the round as the greens were completely white, so we replayed on Thursday in much nicer conditions - immediately after going for a short cycle.

On Friday, Jo had her usual swimming but I just chilled at home. I started another brew - I was very careful this time to follow instructions and keep the hygiene standards high. The last brew was drinkable - just - but the temperature fluctuations were too much. This time I've set it up in the bathroom and hopefully the temperature will be more constant.

Saturday was a beautiful day and Jo was working at the Seniors lunch at the church, so I took off for a short cycle. I've finally succumbed and got some padded pants:

My ride took me south of the Dee on the quiet roads past Tilquhillie. I came across the remnants of an old stone circle:

The Falls of Feugh were looking a bit murky:

Sunday morning's forecast wasn't looking great so I cancelled golf early on. It was damp rather than properly wet so I thought I would go for another short solo cycle. I'm glad I did because I vegetated in the afternoon on a diet of a non-stop sports fest on TV - football and cricket. Brilliant.

Monday was our first Seniors golf match of the season. Again, it was a little damp, but playable. We're heading down West on Wednesday and not back until Saturday so, this afternoon, I had to do a bit of organising/packing for this and for my trip to Portugal on Sunday.

We're having a late lunch with the Stewart relatives on Wednesday and staying with Barry and Helen that night, moving over to Brian and Mary's on Thursday - Brian has arranged golf with me on Thursday and Friday - and then on Saturday, Jo, Mary and I are off to King's Theatre (http://www.atgtickets.com/shows/james-i-the-key-will-keep-the-lock/kings-theatre/).

That's all my news for now - although we did get a message from Kelly this morning (she's got no wi-fi just now so can't FaceTime) that her latest date will be a week on Friday - so it might all happen when I'm away. We're thinking of you, girl!