2017 so far

We didn't see the bells in, Adelaide time, but I hatched a cunning plot to observe Scottish time and celebrate New Year at 10:30 am on 1st January over a fine brunch of bacon and eggs, washed down with a dram and some shortbread, while listening to Radio Scotland welcoming in 2017.

Kelly and Chris had made an early morning start and had hiked up Mount Lofty with their friend Matt, but I wasn't up to it at this time, primarily because of my knee, so I stayed behind with Jo and we looked after the boys. It was another coolish morning, although Kelly perhaps went a little bit over the top with her apparel:

Jo and I went for a short walk after brunch and the rest of Ne'e'rday just seemed to disappear.

This morning (Monday), Chris took me up to the bike trails at the other side of the city. They turned out to be a bit more technical than I'm used to and I came off a couple of times. The first fall was a fairly gentle controlled one, going down a tricky slope, but the second one was almost inexplicable as I was cycling down a fairly gentle slope and came through some dappled sunshine and couldn't see the trail clearly, so I panicked a bit and squeezed the brakes too hard, causing them to lock and skid on the gravelly surface and over the handlebars I went. Analysing it afterwards, the v-brakes are not as responsive initially as the hydraulic ones I have on my own bike and I over-reacted by squeezing too hard. Schoolboy error.

Of course, it would be my false knee I landed on, wouldn't it? The ride was curtailed, which was a pity for Chris, who hadn't had a chance to use his new mountain bike much recently, but we posed for the photo afterwards anyway:

Here's the damage:

This afternoon, we all drove in to the city to do a little bit of shopping - I bought a new pair of thongs/flip-flops, merino cycling pants and a waterproof cover for my rucksack, while Chris picked up a light rain jacket in the summer sales, but these were mere diversions for the main event, which was a visit to Scroll, a specialist ice cream parlour where they prepare the ice cream scrolls in front of you:

Poor little Asher has been excreting from all orifices these last couple of days and threw up in the shop, but he seems none the worse for the experience this evening:

Hogmanay

It's New Year's Eve, mid-morning, but it seems much later to me. I drove Lucy, Cade and Braeden to the airport early this morning to catch their flight to Sydney, so I was up before 3 am. They've completed the first short hop but have now got a 14 hour plane journey to LA to look forward to, with a 7 hour stopover there before shuttling on to SFO and then Medford - but they still arrive on New Year's Eve, Oregon time. The joys of international travel.

Since my last post, we've had Christmas, of course - and a lovely day in Inverurie with Gary, Carole and Luca, plus Liz and Fergus and Guthrie. We had a super meal, but missed out on Carole's famous lime chocolate cheesecake, as Liz had a rather unfortunate accident, with the 3 dogs the grateful recipients. Here's Luca in full flow with Guthrie and Gary looking on:

Luca directed the present opening after dinner - and woe betide you if you weren't paying full attention, or were distracting the master of ceremonies.

Monday morning was the start of our long journey - not to mention it being Boxing Day and our 44th anniversary. Whereas Christmas Day was positively balmy - Aberdeen was the warmest place in the UK, just failing by fractions to beat the Xmas Day temperature record of 15.6 C - we awoke to a reasonable covering of snow the morning after. Cairn o' Mount was closed, of course, but our driver managed over the Slug Road OK and we thought it would be plain sailing after that, but, just north of Dundee, we hit a patch of ice and slalomed our way across the dual carriageway. Fortunately, we had an experienced driver who steered in to the skids and recovered the situation. My right hand might never recover, however, after the vice-like grip Jo exerted on it.

The rest of the journey went well and, despite a late departure from Glasgow due to de-icing the wings, we made our tight connection in Dubai and got to Adelaide nearly an hour earlier than scheduled on Tuesday night.

On Wednesday, we spent most of the day with Lucy, Cade and Braeden, as they had just 3 days of their holiday left before returning to USA. A traditional walk down the length of Semaphore pier first:

The plan was then to take the train in to the city and perhaps have something to eat at the Asian Food Court in Central Market, but our train was late and we were fast running out of time, so opted for Plan B, which was a walk up to Port Adelaide:

We were keen to see whether any visible progress had been made on the restoration of the City of Adelaide:

We walked back to Semaphore and had tea on the upstairs decking at Lickerish. Back in Derby St, I hit the wall at 8 pm and toddled off to bed.

Plans to head to Cleland Wildlife Park on Thursday had to be aborted - there had been overnight storms for the second night in a row and they had to close the park until further notice whilst they cleared up - so we reverted to a journey in to the city and to Central Market for lunch:

Cade and Lucy went for a short pedalo trip on the River Torrens afterwards:

Notice how brown the water is after the storms?

We got back to Derby St in good time for Chris' BBQ. Matt and Abby had come over for the occasion and the usual team photo was taken:

Miller has got two little figurines - an old man and an old lady - and he calls them Grannie Jo and Granda Ian:

By Friday morning - Lucy's last day - they had managed to clear most of the debris and open the Wildlife park again, so off we drove up the hills to Cleland, where we spent most of the morning in the low cloud, but the boys enjoyed viewing and feeding the animals, especially the kangaroos and wallabies.

Chris, Kelly and the boys arranged to meet us for a late lunch in the pretty little nearby German town of Hahndorf. None of what happened before at Cleland Wildlife Park seemed to stop Braeden from eating Kangaroo Fillet for lunch.

We had time for some silly tourist photos:

Nobody was all that hungry in the evening so we just took a short stroll along Semaphore esplanade and some had fish and chips before heading to bed to get a couple of hours' sleep before the early rise.

As I complete this post, Kelly's at the gym and Chris and Jo are just about to head off to the cinema to see Star Wars' latest, so I'll be holding the babies for a short while. I'll see if I can summon up the strength for a short cycle later on.

Xmas Eve

We're almost there now. Ross and Lizzie arrived here last night (Friday) - they're spending Christmas Day at Lizzie's family home, whilst Jo and I are off to Gary and Carole's in Inverurie.

Jo and I are all packed - we've got our boarding passes and the chauffeur drive company have confirmed our pick-up just before 8 am on Monday morning.

I've had a few cycles this week but I guess it'll be a while before I'm back on the bike again. A few calories have come on board over the last couple of days - the usual Friday night session followed our first ever live recording on River Dee Radio. Pretty tense at first, but we got through it OK. The mixing desk may look small, but there's more than enough controls there to confuse an old head like me:

Today (Saturday) was the traditional Xmas Eve Oldies football match - not that I can play any more, but it was nice to join them all afterwards in the Burnett.

Hope everyone has a nice Christmas.

Friday night blog

It's now Saturday morning and I'm pretty near up to date with most of the things I had to do - all bar some o/s CAMRA work, and, of course, starting to pack - it's just 10 days until we head Down Under. In fact, Lucy will be off there today or tomorrow.

We had our 3rd Headbang of the year last night over at Gary Grant's place in Finzean and it was the Xmas lunch for our cycling group on Thursday, so the holiday pig-out has already started. Jo, too, was out for lunch on Thursday, and we both returned from our respective gatherings a bit full and boozy and didn't need any more to eat that evening. I did manage to record another show for River Dee Radio, however, and it should be on the schedule soon - hopefully from tonight.

I had my first physiotherapy session on Tuesday in Inverurie. My next session won't be until we get back from Oz, but I've been given the usual set of exercises:

It's like deja vu from 3 years ago when I was recovering from my right knee replacement, but I've had to order new ankle weights as the old ones are leaking sand all over the place now.

We're heading for the hills soon - out to Finzean Farm Shop for a coffee. Bye for now.

Monday night

Here I sit - it's Monday night and I've still not progressed my action list much - although we have sent off all our local Xmas cards - I took them down to the West church on Saturday for them to distribute. Jo has done her longer distance ones, but I hadn't started, so Jo offered to write them out for me - all I have to do now is address them and personalise a few.

I'm halfway through preparing the stats for our cycling dinner on Thursday, preparing the videos for our Headbang on Friday night and putting the shows together for our next few recordings for River Dee Radio. Got a lot of CAMRA work to catch up on too.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) I'm taking my bike over to Inverurie - Luca has asked to cycle home from school and to and from his running club with me. That'll be the 3rd day in a row on my bike - although it's hardly going to be an onerous ride.

We had a really nice time with the Grays and Grigors at Gleneagles last Wednesday/Thursday. A game of golf, a cycle and 2 visits to the lovely spa plus a boozy in-house dinner - what's not to like? Here are the girls in the main bar in the hotel enjoying an aperitif:

We met up with Barry and Dawn for afternoon tea at the Wood House, Kippen - that's Kippen, not Killin, as I initially wrongly input to my Sat Nav:

I thought I'd set this up in the same order as the one taken 60 years ago - but I was wrong:

There have been some lovely sunrises and sunsets recently - although I haven't properly captured any of them yet. The view from our bedroom window is a little restricted:

Tuesday tales

The clock's ticking towards the holiday period - lots to be done before then, including:

• Record more shows for River Dee Radio, to be played when I'm away in Oz
• File my online tax return
• Prepare the music videos and programme for our next Headbang on Friday 16th
• Prepare the annual stats for our Cyclists' lunch on Thursday 15th
• Organise numbers for the annual Xmas Eve footy match
• Complete all the pub surveys and update CAMRA's online records

I've already distributed all the North Sea Ales round Deeside and done the surveys for all bar the Banchory pubs, but the online updates are quite time-consuming.

I've finally sorted out our travel insurance as well. We'd had such a good deal with our Black Card which offered free worldwide travel insurance for both of us, with no exclusions and no medicals required, but we recently got notified that the bank were ceasing this benefit. Instead, they could offer a new type of account which included this, but did not cover pre-existing medical conditions, which would have to be assessed separately - so we've done this and, naturally, had to pay an additional premium. This becomes an increasing problem as we get older, however - eventually we'll be uninsurable and therefore unable to travel extensively.

Talking about travel, let's think ahead folks. In March, 2019, I'll be 70 - if I'm spared - and Kelly will be 40 a couple of months later. Time for another family get-together somewhere methinks. Suggestions on a postcard - if you remember what they were.

I was out cycling 4 times last week - twice for CAMRA deliveries and one night ride too. On Friday, I drove down to Aboyne and cycled from there up to Tarland to deliver North Sea Ales, and then looped back through the trails north of Loch Kinord and back on to the Deeside Way back to Aboyne again. As I was on my own this time, it gave me time to stop at Tomnaverie Stone Circle for the first time:

Not very clear in this photo but the two upright stones either side of the wide flat one perfectly frame distant dark Lochnagar.

We had dinner at the Masons, with the Kilgours, on Saturday night. Very nice, but we ate way too much and Sunday was a slow day.

We'll be heading off to Inverurie soon and tomorrow (Wednesday) morning, we're off to Gleneagles to stay with the Grays and Grigors for one night, hopefully including a round of golf - my first since Tenerife. Fingers crossed.

The letter came through yesterday for my physiotherapy for my knee. Unfortunately, Banchory's not available until January, when we're away, so I've arranged it for Inverurie next Tuesday, prior to picking Luca up from school.

Officially winter

The meteorologists say that 1st December is the official start of winter, but it doesn't feel like it - it's got pretty mild these last few days after some freezing weather last week.

Dawn came to stay for a couple of nights - I picked her up at Aberdeen bus station on Sunday afternoon. Jo had made mince and tatties for dinner and we veg'd out in front of the TV for the evening - Strictly, X-Factor and I'm a Celebrity - none of them shows we would normally watch, but Dawn's a fan so we sat through them, criticising in a GoogleBox kind of way.

Dawn was working at Camphill on Monday afternoon so I drove her there, taking my bike with me so that I could go for a cycle while she worked. In the evening, we went to Banchory Lodge for dinner - and very nice it was too.

Tuesday was a beautiful crisp, clear day so we decided to go for a walk prior to brunch. Dawn's bus home wasn't until 13:45 so we had plenty of time. I parked the car up at the castle at Crathes and took this photo before we walked down to the Milton for brunch:

After we'd eaten, Dawn and Jo browsed the small shops at Milton of Crathes - first Rustique:

Then we crossed over to the Wee Boorachie:

Now we had to walk back up to the castle to get the car. We took one of the alternative trails and I took a wrong turn, which set us back a few minutes, but soon we were back on track:

Although it had got a little milder, there were still remnants of ice round the static ponds:

Having seen Dawn off, Jo and I then headed to Inverurie, where Luca proudly showed us his winner's medal from the weekend judo tournament:

Apparently there were also two Olympic judo athletes present - one a paralympian - and they signed Luca's belts:

Luca's school project is Europe and he's chosen Moldova as the country for his project. This is his drawing of King Stephen the Great from the 15th century:

Wednesday started with a bang - as I came out of our shower, the whole glass door fell off its hinges. I grabbed at it, tweaking my shoulder in the process, but couldn't stop it crashing down across our en suite, smashing the porcelain on the lid of the cistern - debris everywhere:

In the afternoon, when Jo went swimming, I cycled up to Feughside to deliver some more CAMRA quarterly newsletters. On return, I stopped at Bridge of Feugh to photograph the residual ice there:

We had our first ever night cycle last night - and it went pretty well, sticking to off-road sections of course. This meant I missed the first transmission of our latest show on River Dee Radio - a St. Andrews Day special - Scotland's Greatest Album - http://tunein.com/radio/River-Dee-Radio-s274232/. It'll be on rotation now every evening from 7 pm to 8 pm until the next show is made - we've scheduled to start this next Monday.

Freezing Friday

It's been a great week of bright, sunny and still weather - but freezing. Minus 6C when we woke this morning. Bit tricky cycling, but I've managed a couple of short rides, the latest of which was this afternoon, out delivering CAMRA's quarterly newsletter to the local outlets.

Our new settee arrived yesterday:

Jo much prefers it to the old one, which is now with Ross and Lizzie in Edinburgh.

Dawn's coming up on Sunday and staying for a night or two. She's got a job to do in Aberdeen on Monday afternoon.

Headbangers show 2 is now on River Dee Radio between 7 pm and 8 pm nightly - http://tunein.com/radio/River-Dee-Radio-s274232/. Show 3 is being worked on - hopefully finish it tomorrow afternoon.

The GP had a good look at my left knee on Tuesday. I told her about the problems I was having with it and the fact that the surgeon had told me when I got my right knee replaced that my left knee would eventually need done too - but it didn't feel the same as the right one did prior to the operation. She therefore suggested a period of physiotherapy initially and, if that doesn't work, then it would be the orthopaedic surgeon.

I've finally booked our road trip to USA next year - and it's quite an odyssey:

• Fly to Atlanta 29th June and spend 3 nights there
• Pick up hire car and drive east to Savannah for 3 nights
• Make the short journey over to Hilton Head Island and spend 5 nights there at Marriott's Harbour Club at Harbour Town (http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/hhhht-marriotts-harbour-club/?scid=bb1a189a-fec3-4d19-a255-54ba596febe2)
• Shortish drive north to Charleston for one night
• Drive west to Asheville for one night
• Then Nashville for 2 nights
• Memphis for 3 nights
• Fly to Oregon on 17th July
• Return home - 14th/15th August

I'd always talked about doing a bit of a musical/blues heritage tour - my initial grand plan many years ago was to pick up a Winnebago and drive to all the musical hot-spots, including Nashville, Memphis and Clarksdale, but also New Orleans and Chicago - and possibly Austin as well. In the cold light of day, the logistics of that are pretty horrendous - and the Winnebago idea only works if you can find suitable places to camp/park - and it appears that most of these are well out of town, so I've opted for city centre hotels instead and restricted the itinerary to a more manageable level.

As I've said before, there's no point in us waiting much more at our time of life to do the things we want to do - do them now, while we're still spared!

Edinburgh etc

Got back from Edinburgh on Sunday evening. It was cold down there - but I think it's even colder here - although beautifully crisp, with lovely blue skies. The hard frost put me right off going out on my bike today, however.

We took the train down, arriving just in time for lunch on Friday, which I'd booked at Tom Kitchin's gastropub, the Scran and Scallie (https://scranandscallie.com/) - and it was really excellent - especially the Plum Tatin, washed down with their recommended dessert wine. Here we are:

Anne and Leslie came down later and joined us for dinner at night at the Loon Fung, preceded by a couple of pints at the Cask and Barrel.

On Saturday morning, Jo and I walked down to Ross and Lizzie's new flat. They're settled in now, having been there for 3 weeks, but their work plans have been deferred a little, so they're now looking for some casual work to tide them over until the New Year.

Ross had made some soup for us - and bacon butties - a nice breakfast.

From there, it was the Wine Gang's Xmas Fair for the rest of the afternoon. Some nice Aussie wines there, including Penfolds:

We had dinner on Saturday night at the Guildford Arms. Sunday morning was relaxed - a late breakfast at the Filling Station in the Omni Centre, then coffee and a scone in Jenner's before catching the train home.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) I'm off to the Doctor's to see about my knee, then we're off to Inverurie as usual, but I have to be home by 9 pm as we're finishing off our latest recording for River Dee Radio. Apart from that, nothing much else planned for this week other than a CAMRA branch meeting on Thursday evening.

I've booked our flights to USA next year now. We're flying to Atlanta, Georgia late June, then doing a big road trip, which takes us east out to Savannah, then Hilton Head Island and a Marriott property there, then up to Charleston, Asheville and further west again to Nashville and Memphis, after which we fly up to Oregon for a month.

Oh - and we've just ordered a new settee for the TV room - it arrives on Thursday.

Back home again

I got home from Tenerife not long before midnight on Saturday. Nice holiday and travel arrangements all went smoothly but I did have problems with my (unreconstructed) left knee and had to pull out of the final day's golf. It got progressively worse as the week went on - I think 6 days in a row is too much for me nowadays.

I was told at the time of my right knee replacement 3 years ago that my left knee would also need replaced eventually but it doesn't feel like the same sort of pain I experienced then and I am wondering - maybe secretly hoping - that there's something else wrong with it that doesn't need as drastic surgery as a complete replacement. Anyway, I've decided to set the ball rolling and have made an appointment with the GP next Tuesday.

On the way back from Tenerife, I looked out of the plane window to see the setting sun shining on the wing tip of the plane:

So while I was away, Jo had to cope with the replacement of our hot water tank which we discovered had been slowly leaking for a while. They didn't do it properly at first as Jo awoke the morning after the fitting to find the utility room floor awash with water. The towels she used to mop it all up were then washed and dried and Jo thought the weight of them had then broken the washing machine, but it transpired that it was only due to a lack of water infeed - the water supply taps hadn't been fully re-opened after the  tank was replaced. Cue embarrassed looks from Jo.

It's been a school in-service couple of days so Luca has been staying with us, but Gary will be picking him up tonight as Luca's back at school tomorrow. This afternoon Luca and I went out on our bikes. The initial plan was for us to cycle along to Morrison's/Tesco to get some shopping. Luca was OK cycling on the road that goes through KGV park, but when we turned on to the Deeside Way - a path he's walked many times before - he panicked and said he couldn't do it - the path was too narrow.

In the end we just cycled up and down the road in KGV park and he was very happy to do this - in fact, it was a problem getting him to stop. "Cycling's good fun, Granda, isn't it?". Here we are:

Finally, I've started looking at USA holiday options for next year. I'm currently hatching a plan to travel over early July, flying in to Atlanta, Georgia then over to Savannah, pick up a hire car and on to nearby Hilton Head Island for a week or so.

Then possibly do at least part of the Musical Road Trip described in an earlier blog posting, which would involve driving:

• Savannah to Atlanta - c. 250 miles
• Atlanta to Nashville - ditto
• Nashville to Memphis - c. 200 miles

That's do-able, I think - and it helped my thinking to write it down here. From Memphis, we might make the relatively short trip down to Clarksdale (home of the Blues), or we may just fly from there over to Medford. I wonder how that sounds to Lucy - and Jo? I think we need to book soon - we can't wait until we come back from Australia.

Our first Headbangers show is now on the internet on River Dee Radio each evening between 7 pm and 8 pm (UK time). Have a listen - http://tunein.com/radio/River-Dee-Radio-s274232/. Tomorrow night, we're going to record our second show which should go on the same nightly loop next week.

We've got a funeral to attend on Thursday. Jacquie Howden, who worked for the Clarks for even longer than my 31 (and a bit) years - and is still there - her husband Tom collapsed and died suddenly last week. It was only a month or so ago that I cycled to Garlogie and had lunch with them both there.

 

Eve of golf trip

It's Friday morning and I'm almost packed and ready for my early morning departure tomorrow to Edinburgh to catch the flight to Tenerife for a week's golf. I had planned to go for an afternoon cycle today whilst Jo was at her swimming - yes, she seems well again - but a bit of a spanner was thrown in to the works yesterday when we discovered that our hot water storage tank is leaking and we're now sitting here waiting for the Gas Engineer to come. We have been given an 8 am to 6 pm slot, but they never seem to arrive at the earlier end of this spectrum, so I suspect I'll have to cancel my plans for a cycle and wait in for him this afternoon. Ho hum.

We're wondering whether this leak has anything to do with the fact that we're not all that impressed with how our central heating system is working after installation of the new boiler - or perhaps we haven't quite figured out how best to run it yet?

Other matters on the go include further research in to what we can do with our Florida timeshare - there's loads of companies out there in the market, but we want to avoid the snake oil salesmen if we can.

I've started to look at possible holiday opportunities in USA next summer as well - as usual, dependent on what's available with Avios and Marriott.

Nowt much else to say today, but I thought I'd better add a photo to brighten up my blog a little - this one is a shot of the Brentwood B & B we stayed in last weekend in York:

That's our bedroom window top right - slightly ajar.

Back from York - to a shock!

(http://ianrstewart.blogspot.co.uk/)

Well, that was a bit of a shock today. Jo has been struggling since she picked up a UTI a couple of weeks ago and she had a bad night last night, so phoned the Doctor this morning and got an appointment at 10:30. I was waiting for her to come out when I was approached by an ambulancewoman in uniform - "Mr. Stewart?" "No need to panic" - but, of course, that's exactly what I did. "We're taking your wife to hospital - I suggest you go home, pack an overnight bag for her and then follow us to A & E".

Jo's home now and seems OK, but Dr. Rough (the GP) was concerned when he examined her stomach - he thought she might have an Aortic Aneurysm, which made it an emergency. He phoned the hospital and an ambulance whisked Jo away - blue light flashing all the way!

By the time I got there, parked the car and walked over to A & E, Jo was being examined. I was eventually allowed in and was relieved to see that all was well - they had scanned her and there was no aneurysm. Her blood and urine test results were all positive too, as was her ECG, so she was allowed to come home.

Jo will go back to see the GP and continue to investigate her symptoms unless they go away soon - they suspect that it's all a left-over from her UTI.

So, we thought we were going to have a very quiet day at home today after our weekend in Yorkshire, but certainly didn't expect this. Here's some photos from the weekend:

We'd travelled all morning on the train - First Class! - with the Masons and Kilgours and we were all ready for a beer. This was in the Three Legged Mare 

Just along the road from the pub was the magnificent York Minster

Dinner on Thursday night was at Raj's Indian restaurant - a celebrity hotspot allegedly. Well, Dame Kelly Holmes was there once anyway.

On Friday, we took the train down to Harrogate and had coffee and cakes at the famous Betty's Tearooms, where we were joined by Linda Elgie - she and Colin moved down to the area from Banchory 16 years ago.

After Betty's we went for a walk round the Valley Gardens.

The short walk was enough to make us all thirsty again so we stopped for alcohol top-ups in the Old Bell Tavern

We stopped off briefly in lovely Knaresborough on the way back to York.

Dinner on Friday night was at the lovely, atmospheric Star Inn the City, where this caricature of all the celebs that have been there was displayed.

 Unfortunately, Anne got food poisoning and most of Saturday was a write-off for her. The rest of us spent the morning going round York Minster and the afternoon at York's Chocolate Story - the history of Rowntree's and Terry's etc. Anne managed to crawl out of bed and join us for dinner with the Elgies at the Lamb and Lion - I should have taken a team photo here, but forgot!

On Sunday morning, Johanne, Jo, Anne & Leslie went to Mass, whilst Colin and I took a stroll around the city.

Colin at Clifford's Tower.

After church, the girls hopped on a tourist bus, whilst Leslie, Colin and I went to the National Railway Museum. Here I am with a replica of Stephenson's Rocket.

Lunch was at the Hole in the Wall - Yorkshire Pud for some - and then it was the train back home. Nice trip - and good to catch up with the Elgies again.