Dollywood

It was the longest drive of our road trip - from Hilton Head Island, SC through North Carolina to Pigeon Forge, TN, but we did it in 3 legs - a 3 hour drive followed by two 2 hour spells. We arrived at the Dreammore Resort mid/late afternoon, in time to take in the surroundings, have a drink and dinner (buffet) and a relax by the fire pit.

Tuesday was the day we planned to "do" Dollywood. It's a theme park, but there was no way I was going to get Jo to go on any of the rides, so we planned our day on doing all the shows instead - and there were plenty of them. We made a prompt start and were in the park before 10 am, only to find that there was virtually nothing open at that time - thankfully with the exception of the Grist Mill, where they bake the apparently "famous" cinnamon bread - so we had to have one.

Our first show was a gospel one - the Kingdom Heirs (https://www.kingdomheirs.com/). The band were good and the 4 vocalists excellent - especially the bass singer - Johnny Cash eat your heart out. I was a bit fearful that it might get a bit "preachy" - and there was some of that, but thankfully not too much. I got picked on by the compere/drummer - "where are you from"? He couldn't understand my answer at first. We were in the front row, sitting next to a couple of locals who had seen the group many times before. He kept yelling "yeah, yeay" all the time and he seemed to take a shine to me, even swapping seats with his wife so he could sit right next to me and tell me some stories about the group. Creepy. Notably, not a black face to be seen - the complete opposite of our experience in Atlanta at the Juke Joint.

The Smoky Mountain String Band gave us some bluegrass and we got all of Dolly's hits at My People, which featured Dolly's brother and other members of her family. Country Crossroads was good - like Country's greatest hits all condensed in to an active half hour show:

We heard the GemTones, a street corner acapella group featuring mostly 50's music and we did the self guided tours of The Dolly Parton Story and the Southern Gospel Museum and Hall of Fame. We even squeezed in a ride on the steam train, the Dollywood Express - a misnomer if ever there was one. We had a burger and shake at Red's Drive-In. Soon it was time to return to Dreammore:

We toyed with having a swim in the evening, but the pool was busy so we opted for a simple relax and read until the nightly fireworks show, which we viewed from the lobby area:

We enjoyed Dollywood - a little twee in places, but the day went quickly and I just love the sound of banjos!

On Wednesday we travelled across Tennessee to Nashville. It looked like a two and a half hour journey, but we overlooked the change to Central Time, so it took an hour more, but we were still at our hotel by lunchtime. We took a taxi downtown - short ride - and walked up and down Broadway. There were bands playing in every bar - no wonder it's dubbed the Music Capital. We managed a couple of brewpubs in the Gulch area but the best place to go - no music - is the rooftop bar at the Acme (http://theacmenashville.com/) overlooking the Cumberland River. It's on a corner site and you can see all the way up Broadway:

By sheer coincidence - and luck - James Taylor and Bonnie Raitt were playing that evening and we managed to get tickets.

Hilton Head - day 4

It was our 3rd - and last - day with the bikes so we rode out to South Beach and found a spot with a little shade (not much) to sit and read for a while:

We couldn't quite settle there so we rode on to the Sea Pines Beach Club - a much better option. It was now lunchtime and the bar looked tempting so we stopped for a while for some nibbles and beer:

We then moved over to the beach where we hired a couple of deckchairs and a parasol for a very relaxing afternoon:

The sea was warmer than the pool at our hotel - and way warmer than any sea we'd experienced before, incluing Newport Coast, CA.

That was about it for Saturday. We had no more bottled beer left in our apartment so we crossed the road and had a couple of draft beers at Harbourside Burgers and Beer, listening to some live music, to while away the time until 6 pm when the workers stopped at our resort and we could safely return to a more peaceful environment.

It was a case of leftover pizza, pasta and ice cream for our meal tonight. Our last full day here is tomorrow (Sunday) and our plan is to get a relatively early start on Monday morning for the six and a half hour drive to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and Dollywood!

Hilton Head - Days 2 & 3

On Thursday morning, we took the plunge, and, like almost every other holidaymaker on this island it seems, we hired bikes. It's as flat as a pancake here - no hills at all - and the bikes are all the same - no gears and no brakes - just pedal back a bit to slow down and/or stop.

It is hot, however - and very humid, so any outdoor activity is draining. We might have been a little adventurous on our first outing - especially given that this was Jo's first time on a bike since her disastrous falls last year in Oregon. She freaked out a bit at the start - the bike lanes were very busy here and she was concerned about crashing in to someone. To be fair, the bikes aren't that easy to handle either, but, eventually, Jo got the hang of things and relaxed a bit.

We cycled up to the main shopping mall 4 miles away and stopped for a coffee and a bite. Suitably refreshed and strengthened, we headed to the South Beach through the Forest Preserve. From there, we made it out all the way to the South Beach marina for more much-needed refreshments:

The journey back to our apartment wasn't too far and soon we were both down by the pool at our resort - although we didn't last long there - partly due to the fact that it was pretty busy, but mostly through the noise of all the machines repairing the hurricane damage. I'm now in touch with Marriott about the amount of work going on here - it's way more than usual maintenance and I believe they should have closed the resort to guests until the work is completed.

Our apartment is lovely and the resort would be too, if there wasn't so much work going on. It would normally be a nice tranquil spot overlooking the water:

Today, we took another short ride on our bikes - out to see the Stoney-Baynard ruins:

In the afternoon, we went on a short Dolphin cruise, which, to our surprise, was hugely successful. We must have seen 30 - 40 dolphins and on so many occasions - hundreds - and so close to our boat. It was fascinating - I swear they were playing with us. I also spotted a shark leaping completely out of the sea. We had a nice time:

Independence Day and beyond

We celebrated July 4th by setting out on a series of walks round Savannah, taking in as many of the lovely little squares as we could. In the morning, we headed towards the river and walked along the shore line as far as we could before returning to our hotel to shower again - and, in my case, have a quick dip in the pool.

We found a nearby coffee shop for lunch and then headed in the opposite direction towards the largest patch of greenery that the city has - Forsyth Park. Then back to the hotel, shower again and then hang around for a while before heading out for the evening, when we headed towards the river again - albeit by a different route, taking in more of the squares. Geometrically, of course, some of them are oblong, some circular, oval etc. (That one was for the pedants out there). We reckon we did about 15 of them, but probably missed another 9 or 10 - all of them within a short walking distance.

By the time of our evening walk, I figured I might be well enough to face a beer again - and it was July 4th, so it would have been rude not to. We tried a couple of pubs - one brewpub, Moon River Brewing, and adjacent Churchill's, which had a nice rooftop bar outside.

We'd had enough beer by now and it was time to eat before the fireworks began at 9:30 pm. We tried a couple of place along River St but the waiting times were pretty long, so we ended up in the Hyatt, where we had a lovely meal and a fine rooftop view of the fireworks.

So, time for some photos then - here's a few that didn't appear on Facebook:

This is the square where Forrest Gump sat waiting for the bus

So that was Savannah - a very pretty city indeed. Just a pity I wasn't feeling too great when we were there, but it was now time to move on to our next destination - Hilton Head Island - just an hour's drive north east across the state line in to South Carolina. We arrived there about noon - way too early for our room to be ready, of course, but we parked our car and then walked out for a bite of lunch at Harbourside Burgers and Beer at the yacht marina, adjacent to the lighthouse.

It was hot and steamy so we bought ice creams and sat on the shore front under the shade of a tree before taking a short walk along the shore. There were shells everywhere - oysters, razor clams, mussels, scallops.

When we got back to our resort, our apartment was ready so we took in our luggage and then drove off to the grocery store to stock up for our 5 nights here. It's like a building site as they rush to repair the damage from the October hurricane before the next hurricane season. Thankfully, the workers knocked off at 6 pm and didn't start again this morning until 9 am, so we had a peaceful evening on our balcony looking out towards the ocean, albeit through some trees.

The staff tried to make light of the building work with a gift for us:

Jo bemoans the quantity left in the bottle:

USA 2017

Greetings from Savannah, Georgia on the eve of Independence Day. I'm sitting in our room, feeling a bit sorry for myself as I've got a bit of a dicky throat, which I initially thought was just a reaction to the air conditioning in our room in Atlanta and/or the flight over here, but I now think it's some kind of bug I've picked up. I'm dosing it with throat sprays and lozenges and hopefully it'll disappear soon - like the red marks on my legs from the bites I've had. Anithistamines, paracetomols and my usual array of drugs - I'm a walking chemical factory.

A feature of our visit to the south west has been the afternoon rain - some of it pretty heavy, with the worst yesterday - we had to take shelter in a multi-storey car park as the lightning and thunder crashed round about us and the water poured everywhere with the storm drains backing up, unable to cope with the huge deluge.

Anyway, in chronological order, here's the story so far. Flight over a little delayed, but otherwise OK. The seats in World Traveller Plus were fine for a daytime flight, but I'm not sure about the return overnight trip. Slow immigration clearance, but the taxi ride to our hotel was short and quick and we checked in, dumped our bags and went for a quick beer before bed.

Friday morning was a short stroll through the Olympic Centennial Park to Coca-Cola World, which was much more entertaining than it sounds. We managed to spend virtually the whole morning there without getting bored. Atlanta was the birthplace of the product and the locals are very proud of that fact. Jo said here best bit was the sampling of all the different Coke products from all round the world - each continent had a feature of maybe a dozen different drinks. I liked watching the old adverts - including probably the most famous I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing from 1971.

We had lunch at the Hard Rock on Peachtree - some translation problems - the waiter thought Jo said Red Bull when what she wanted was Rebel (IPA).
In the afternoon we went to the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, which was a bit of a harrowing experience, especially the bit where you sit at the lunch counter, shut your eyes and put the headphones on and hear - and feel - the sort of abuse that "coloreds" used to have to undergo in the South - in our lifetimes too. Martin Luther King was shot in Memphis, but, as a native of Atlanta, his funeral was held there and there are many memorials around the city.

We had dinner at a nice brewpub - Max Lager's - in the evening. The plan on Saturday was to stretch our legs and walk to Piedmont Park and the Botanical Garden. It should have been about 3 miles there and the same back, but we couldn't find the Botanical Garden at first and must have walked at least 7 or 8 miles in the steamy heat. At least we had a nice brunch at the street market first of all:

Dinner on Saturday night was at the Juke Joint, just around the corner from our hotel. We were one of the few caucasians there. We had a good seat and Jo enjoyed the "fashion parade" as the customers filed past us.

On Sunday morning, we packed and took a cab back to the airport to pick up our hire car to take us on the 4-5 hour drive to Savannah. Fairly uneventful and not a lot to see - just miles and miles of tree-lined dual carriageways. We stopped at Subway somewhere to grab a sandwich lunch and also stopped at a place called Metter to use the facilities:

It was Sunday and it was a holiday weekend, so even the visitor centers/centres were closed.

We have a nice room at Springfield Suites and it seems everywhere in Savannah is walkable. Once yesterday's storm abated, we had a couple of beers - one at a Scottish pub (awful), and another couple at World of Beers, where we got chatting to a nice couple - Kyle and Kelly, I think? He was a "soccer" fan who follows Man Utd and, would you believe, Glasgow Rangers! We then walked down to River Street and chose a seafood restaurant for dinner.

This afternoon and evening have been a write off, spent in our room, but we went on one of the historical trolley tours this morning., taking in a short stroll along River St, where the paddle steamer was loading up:

Hope I'm feeling better for tomorrow's big celebrations.

The week just past

We had a nice trip down to the Central Belt on Sunday/Monday. We stopped off at Dawn's new flat to have a look around - very nice - and then drove over to Foxbar Drive from where Barry, Helen, Dawn, Jo and I made our way to Scotstounhill train station for the one stop hop to Jordanhill, adjacent to the Three Craws, where lunch for 16 was scheduled:

l-r: Me, Jo, sister Dawn, Helen (hidden behind Dawn), Barry (hidden behind cousin Sheila), cousin Lesley, Aunt Nancy, Kirsty (Lesley's daughter), Cameron (at front - Sheila's son), Lucy (Lesley's daughter), Lauren (Dawn's daughter), Malcolm (Lauren's husband), Kieran (Dawn's son), Mara (Kieran's daughter) and Julie (Kieran's wife)

Afterwards, we all looked on as Aunt Nancy got on to her "bike":

Finally, all set to go:

We stayed at Barry and Helen's on Sunday night. When Dawn moved house she had to get rid of a lot of stuff she had, one of them being my Children's Encyclopaedia collection, which my Mum and Dad bought me when we lived in Corby, Northants back in the 1950's:

Inside - self printed:

I remember typesetting the letters and stamping the books, which have seen better days, with a number of the spines damaged beyond reasonable repair. It was nice to look through them again, but they are definitely outdated and superceded by the modern power of the internet, and Barry is now arranging to dispose of them - to any charity shop that might take them.

On Monday morning, we drove over to Houston and met up with Brian and Mary. Brian and I played a quick 12 holes of golf, then we all had a quick lunch before Jo and I drove over to Edinburgh to pay a quick visit to see Ross. Just as we were leaving, one by one, Sam, Tom and Julie appeared to say hi to us.

Ross met us at the Cumberland Bar, which had a nice sunken beer garden and we had a drink and a bite with him there:

Ross had a scheduled meeting with his boss the following day which turned out pretty well for him as he got a pay rise!

It was a pretty slow crawl out of Edinburgh after that - at least until we got across the bridge - but we got back to Banchory just in time for me to head to the Legion for another live show on River Dee Radio.

It was another 3 consecutive days of golf for me after that - Edzell on Tuesday, Banchory on Wednesday, then Balmoral on Thursday. On Friday, I had a funeral to attend at Dyce - a former work colleague who died suddenly at the age of just 70. I went straight home afterwards - just in time to catch the bus down to Ballater for our scheduled hill-walk.

Just a few days now until we head to the States, so we need to get our packing etc organised. Hoping to get 2 more games of golf in before then - on Monday and Wednesday.

To close, Gary and Luca came over on Saturday evening to deliver my Father's Day gift, and cards - one pre-printed, the other drawn by Luca's fair hand:

Friday frustration

Well, I was supposed to be golfing at Blairgowrie today but ended up stuck at home all day. I finally got a response yesterday from the fitter who was to install our replacement shower, cubicle etc in our en suite - he could come tomorrow (today - Friday)! Blow me, what a day to choose, but I couldn't put him off as I didn't know when next he could do it - or we were available - and our USA holiday is less than 2 weeks away now.

He and his mate finished the job not long after 4 pm, but there was a pile of debris to shift - mostly cardboard and polystyrene - and the recycle centre closes at 5 pm, so I had to load the car quickly and dash up there. It's all done now, so we look forward to using our new shower once it's settled.

I whiled away a chunk of the morning giving the old garden seat that sits in the back a lick of paint. One more should do it and then we'll put it out in the elements again.

Yesterday (Thursday), Jo and I took a trip up to Douneside House (http://www.dounesidehouse.co.uk/) in Tarland. They had a promotion on at their health club, offering free entry to newcomers, so we went for a swim/sauna/steam room etc and followed it with lunch in the main house, which they've just spent 3 years refurbishing:

Nice grounds and gardens too - well worth a visit:

On the way home, we stopped at Tomnaveerie Stone Circle, where Jo posed on the one recumbent stone, with Morven in the background:

Last night we broadcast another live show on River Dee Radio - our next one comes up next Monday and I might manage one more before we go to USA.

Tomorrow there's a CAMRA branch meeting in Stonehaven and then on Sunday, we're heading down to Glasgow for a family lunch, picking up Dawn at her new flat on the way. On Monday, we're paying a quick visit over to see Brian and Mary at Julie's. Then it's golf for me on Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday afternoon, Thursday evening, then a hill-walk on Friday. Definitely going to need a holiday after all that!

Good to hear Scott's recovering - albeit slowly - he'll be off work for 3 months and is stuck in his neck brace for 6 weeks at least.

Still on the medical theme, Jo got her exercise schedule from the physiotherapist on Wednesday, so she knows exactly what to do - and what not to do - now.

Midweek update

Well, I'm home safely from my 3 days of golf at Dalmahoy and, although a little tired, I'm very pleased to say that, despite my prior fears, my knee is not feeling too bad. In fact, I'm going to play again this afternoon. I've also got golf on Friday at Blairgowrie and I'm hoping for another game on Monday with brother-in-law Brian as we're heading over to Elderslie and Houston after spending Sunday night at Barry and Helen's - we've got the big family dinner on Sunday at the Three Craws again.

June is always the busiest month for golf - and I missed it last year as we went to USA a bit earlier than usual - and it's a question of cramming them in before we go away on the 29th - just over 2 weeks now. Next week, as well as golf with Brian on Monday, I've got golf at Edzell on Tuesday, hopefully Banchory on Wednesday and then our annual trip to Balmoral on Thursday evening.

With all this golf, there's no room for cycling, particularly when I'm also trying to keep up a regular series of hill-walks. We did Glen Dye last Friday (check http://bvhill-walkers.blogspot.co.uk/ for photos) and are planning another one next Friday (23rd).

Anyway, that was quite a shock when we heard about Scott's dirt bike accident. He seems to be making a habit of going to hospital at this time of year. We all wish him a speedy recovery - not least because we need our BBQ king back in action for our arrival in Oregon on 17th July!!!!

We're having fun and games with our holiday plans. We received an email from Marriott yesterday confirming the cancellation of our 5 night stay on Hilton Head Island - what???? Must be some gremlin in the system as I certainly didn't cancel it. As we speak, Marriott are trying to sort it out - fingers crossed. As if that wasn't enough, United are mucking about our schedule again - we got notification this morning that our journey from Memphis to Medford will now be a 3 leg affair, rather than just 2 - going through Chicago now as well as Denver. Grrr.

What else is on the horizon? Another live broadcast on River Dee Radio tomorrow night, and then a CAMRA branch meeting in Stonehaven on Saturday.

This morning, Jo's got her first physio appointment - hope she can get some help from this.

To close, here's a photo of the old house at Dalmahoy, where I stayed this last weekend. It's just a mile or two from our old home in Balerno and it's where I used to play squash regularly with my American work colleagues back in the early 80's:

The journey down there means crossing the Forth Road Bridge and you get close-up views of the magnificent new bridge which is rapidly nearing completion. It's going to be quite a tourist hot-spot as people come to admire the spectacle of the three bridges (including the rail bridge) side by side.

Wet week

It's been a damp start to the first official month of summer - but I guess we needed the rain.

It's just been cycling and a bit of golf this last week. There's more of the latter to come as I'm heading down to Dalmahoy on Sunday for 3 consecutive days of golf - the first time I've tried that for a while. Hope my body stands up to it OK. If it does, I would normally be playing at Banchory again on the Wednesday, making it 4 days in a row, with another outing next Friday to Blairgowrie. 5 days out of 6? Not sure I'll manage that - may have to prioritise.

Still on the subject of golf, my driver's head cover - a gift from Kelly and Chris - is not faring too well. It now looks as if the 'roo has been savaged:

Major achievement this week was the completion of the 1,000 piece jigsaw that Colin gave me a couple of months ago. He got it as a Christmas present and decided to challenge me to complete it after he'd managed to finish it. It's the first jigsaw I've done for probably 40 or 50 years. At first, it just lay in our house, largely ignored by Jo and I, but slowly, we started to fit a few pieces each day. The brightly coloured bits were easier to start with and Jo was a big help here, but when it came to large areas of just sea and sky, it was a slow grind. Jo's eyesight wasn't good enough to contribute much here so it was a question of trial and error for me - and huge patience - but we got there in the end:

Tomorrow is a possible hill-walk for me, but there will definitely need to be a rain check in the morning - the forecast is a bit mixed just now.

Summer has arrived

Officially, meteorogically, as it's now June, we're in to summer - although it's actually been a little cooler than last week's highs.

This morning we had a little treat - Kelly FaceTimed to show us Asher has started walking - at last! Kelly confirmed they are moving to Chris' unit at the end of August - so bang goes our free accommodation! Anyway, now we know for sure they're not going to be in Semaphore next year, we can perhaps think about planning our next trip.

We're kind of booked now for our UK road trip - from 8th to 16th October - but still haven't done anything about the Fringe yet. Talking about Edinburgh, Jo was back down there again yesterday for a brief shopping trip with Anne Mason, and she managed to see Ross briefly as well. He'll be on his own as from tomorrow as Lizzie is returning to Banchory - what a shame.

Also going through a life change just now is Dawn, who has now sold the former family home and moved in to a flat with Jordon. We'll see them in a couple of weeks when we have another family lunch gathering in Glasgow.

I took Jo down to Stonehaven yesterday to catch the train down to Edinburgh and packed my bike as well so that I could take a brief wander round the Mearns. I cycled through Dunnottar Woods and up to Dunnottar Castle. It was a lovely morning for a short, but hilly, ride:

It was exactly 50 years ago yesterday that the Beatles released Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - as most of you will have heard. I'd prepared a special show for River Dee Radio, but got caught up in a golf tie and never made the transmission - Gerry and Andy had to do the show on their own.

That's yer lot for now.

Blogging again

I'm back. It's a quiet Sunday - we were entertaining again last night and it was pretty late when we got to bed - probably about 2 am. At our age, anything past midnight is a killer.

We've had some great hot weather - almost touching 30C. It was perfect for our Friday afternoon hillwalk as the temperature at the top was only low 20's. Everything is growing and there's pollen everywhere - covering the cars and even our newly refurbished bench:

I was finishing off the painting of the iron railings on our balcony yesterday and the little yellow dots kept landing on the wet paint - pretty annoying, but nothing I could do about it.

On Thursday, we finally got the chance to travel down to Edinburgh to see Ross. He was working most of the day but we spent some time with him before, during and after. He's now working for Barney's Beers (http://barneysbeer.co.uk/), who have a stall at the Flea and Food Market, down East Market Street, near the foot of the Royal Mile:

If you look closely that's Ross serving a beer to some customers at his stand - the second one along

It was a fairly quiet Thursday so Ross was able to sit out in the sun with us for a while:

Jo and I went away for a while - did some shopping, then went for a bite in the Halfway House, where Ross joined us again. We strolled down the Royal Mile and stopped for ice cream floats to cool us down in the hot sun. Ross had to get back to re-open the stall so we walked back with him:

Jo and I went down to Teuchter's Landing in Leith - it was mobbed - and we met Ross again after his work and before we had to catch our train home. It was really good to see him again - he's had a hard time, but he's fighting his way through it.

Last Monday, we had lunch with Jacquie Howden, who I worked beside for over 30 years. She was widowed at the end of last year and we had said at the funeral that we would catch up with her when we got back from Australia.

I'm halfway through organising our trip to London in October. We've decided to make it a bit of a road trip, taking in Liverpool, Winchester, perhaps Chester plus some old haunts. We'll take in a show - or two - in London and go to the Wine Fair.

I've made no progress with the Fringe yet, however. If we go, it'll be later on in August as we need a bit of time after returning from USA.

So that's a quick summary of some of the things we've been up to in the last couple of weeks. My work with CAMRA has been keeping me fairly busy as well - as has River Dee Radio. What's coming up over the next few weeks before we fly to Atlanta on 29th June? A fair amount of golf for me - June is always the busiest month of the year - lots of outings and matches to play. I just hope my knee stands up to it. I've been curtailing my golf to little more than once a week, whereas I had originally planned to try and play more this year, but haven't been able to.

On my low days when my knee hurts most - usually after 10 or 12 holes - I've often speculated that this might be my last year of golf. I sincerely hope not, but it is troubling me. Do I carry on playing golf and making my knee worse, bringing the inevitability of another big operation ever closer - or should I refrain from golf and stave off the date of the knee replacement for a while? Dilemma. I'll see this year out anyway and decide then - I'm already committed to a number of events this year and I'd like to try to complete them before deciding.

So, on that low note, I'll end this blog post. Bye for now.

Back on blog

Hello it's me again. Been busy. To follow on from my previous blog post, I did finally finish the restoration of the old garden bench that Anne and Leslie Mason were throwing out:

I played Gleneagles on the last Friday of April - there were 12 of us going, but there was one late withdrawal so I got in touch with brother-in-law Brian Hanson and he agreed to come along - and ended up winning it! I was being driven down to Gleneagles so I was at the golf club nice and early to organise my gear. What a beautiful morning it was:

Still on a golf-y theme, I was playing at Banchory last week under cloudless skies and two planes traversed high above us, leaving jet trails behind them:

Momentarily, it looked like a giant St. Andrews cross but I don't think the picture quite does justice to what we saw with the naked eye.

Last weekend was our first Boat of Garten outing this year. Whilst it was a glorious 21C further west, it was positively Baltic at Grantown on Sunday - although thankfully dry. There were 16 of us there and I was the organiser again as I won it last time, but I am phasing out of organising all our golf outings - as I've done for nearly 30 years now - and am passing it all on to others in our group. I've still got plenty of other interests, so don't worry, I won't get bored. There's River Dee Radio and our Freewheelers cycling group for starters.

We've got the second in our entertaining/dinner evenings coming up on Saturday and again we've been hit by a cancellation - although thankfully we got a bit of notice this time so we were able to find replacements - coincidentally the couple who cancelled the last time!

Trying to organise our trip to London in October for the wine fair just now and hoping to see a show or two at the same time, but what a cost the West End is nowadays!

Need to get organised for the Fringe as well - plus another trip to Edinburgh to see how Ross is doing.

End of the month update

It's almost the end of April and it's been a couple of weeks since I updated this blog diary, so here goes.

Of course, on Easter Sunday, Gary, Carole and Luca came over for dinner - Jo was delighted they could make it. The eggs were all labelled and hidden in the house but it didn't take Luca long to locate them all and a chocolate feast followed.

The golf season is in full swing now and I'm trying my best to play a bit more than I have done in the last few years since my knee op - I've been partially successful, but my left knee still troubles me after 10-12 holes and my scores reflect that - usually a good outward half followed by a much poorer inward nine. This week, I had a tie on Sunday, a Seniors match on Monday, our usual Wednesday Quaich and then it's Gleneagles tomorrow (Friday). I was also picked for the Seniors match today (Thursday) at Culter, but I pulled out as I knew this was at least one match too much.

Last Saturday we had friends over for dinner. It was due to be the Cooks and the Corbetts, but Dan was a late withdrawal due to illness. We were fortunate to get a late replacement in Ken and Irene Page. Archie Cook had a sneezing fit at the table and knocked his glass of red wine over, spilling all over Ken's trousers and his seat. All was well in the end, however, as we managed to clean everything up OK.

I've been recording some more shows for River Dee Radio and have updated our schedule so it now reads:

• Sunday - 1970's part 1
• Monday - 1970's part 2
• Tuesday - Body Parts (new)
• Wednesday - Rock & Roll
• Thursday - Cigarettes & Alcohol (new)
• Saturday - Female Fronted Bands

(We don't do Fridays just now)

The two newest shows can also be listened to and/or downloaded at:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fin7ittfhykk99t/BP.mp3?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6sl0wfrumsji7x0/C%26A%20final.mp3?dl=0

Andy & Gerry did the two 1970's shows when I was in Australia but the rest are me solo. I'm hoping however that all three of us will get together soon and do some more live and pre-recorded shows.

We've now ordered the replacement shower cubicle, shower and cistern for our WC. Last night we had a meeting with the fitter, who happens to live nearby in Birch Grove - right next door to Jo's pal Anne.

I'm currently attempting to restore an old garden bench seat that Anne and Leslie were throwing out. It's seen better days and I'm not sure how well it will come up, but I'll persevere anyway.