Back from hols

We got back from Spain in very good time on Sunday. The upside of a fairly early start was that we were all back home in Inverurie and Banchory by lunchtime. It wasn't even too much of a shock weather-wise either - it's been fairly pleasant autumnal weather here since we returned.

I went out for a couple of bike rides on Monday and Tuesday and then on Wednesday I drove back over to Inverurie to pick up Luca and bring him over to Banchory for the last 3 days of the school holidays.

When we were in Spain, Gary had put his car in for service/MoT and he got the bad news when he was away that his car was a write-off. Gary wasn't surprised at this and didn't seem too fazed by it either - he said he would buy another one easily enough. Nonetheless, I was a little surprised to see this in his driveway so soon:

Yes - it's a Jag. It may be 15 years old but seems, externally at least, to be in decent nick.

Luca arrived with his Play Station, of course, so we set it up and let him play with it on Wednesday afternoon. Today (Thursday), after a slow morning, we decided it would be good to get out for a decent walk. There was shopping to be done so we took bags with us and headed to Morrison's - via the Platties, of course - Luca's favourite riverside spot.

Finished shopping, Jo suggested we pop in to Duncan's new store and visit their coffee shop before we headed home. Nice enough place but we felt their outside space was a lot better than inside. The ginger cake was very good, however.

I then suggested we take a slightly circular route home via the new Banchory Sports Village as I wanted to enquire about booking the sports hall there for another game of walking football - something we'd only tried once before last Xmas Eve. Not sure I got the answers to the queries I asked, but I left with a sheaf of leaflets and membership forms anyway. We couldn't believe that there was hardly anyone in the new pool in the middle of the school holidays?

So that's it so far this week. Tomorrow I've got one of our monthly hill-walks scheduled. This time, it's a simple riverside walk over in the Edzell area with not much climbing, I believe.

Going off at a bit of a tangent, a photo I picked up from the Banchory Heritage Society Facebook page might be of interest to those, like me, who have only known Banchory since the early 1980's. I'd never seen a photo before of the old railway bridge across the North Deeside road just past the junction with Corsee Road, looking west:

It looks completely different doesn't it? You can even see the dip in the road that used to flood with water when they had a lot of rain - but the dip was necessary as otherwise timber lorries etc couldn't pass under the bridge as it was slightly too low. Judging by the big crane that's there, this must have been when they were taking the bridge down - some time after 1966 when the line was closed down in the wake of the Beeching cuts, first announced in 1963.

Marbella 2019

Travel here on Sunday went fine. Usual wait at car hire but finally got on the road to Marriott's Marbella Beach Resort - the very first time share Jo and I bought on our 25th anniversary in 1997. Apart from that occasion, we've only been here twice before - once 20 years ago or so with Jo's Mum and Ross, and once 4-5 years ago with Ross.

The first time we were here, the resort was very new and we got quite a surprise a few years ago when we saw how well it had matured. This time, it felt homely and our apartment is in the main building, above reception and next to the indoor pool and market place - very handy. We have a south facing unit so we pretty much get sun on the terrace all day.

The days here are getting shorter  but not as noticeably as at home - we're still getting almost 12 hours of daylight. We're sleeping longer - over 10 hours yesterday (Thursday). Some of that is down to being on holiday but much of it is down to the Marriott beds - we always seem to sleep longer on them, although Jo thinks the ones we have this year are a little "seated" and will be due for renewal/replacement shortly. Can't say I really noticed.

Weather's been great this week - mid 20's. A little fluffy cloud and windy the first couple of days but not a cloud to be seen since then. So here's what we've been up to since arrival:

Monday 14th October

Our first full day at the resort after travelling Sunday and we decided it would be good to have a quiet one with no travel and to orientate and settle in. We'd done some shopping for essentials for our apartment on Sunday and there's a handy wee market place on site so we didn't need to do any big shop.

Luca seemed immediately enamoured with the resort and was very happy to go exploring by himself. He loved the small enclosed football pitch and the table tennis tables and has been constantly hassling his Dad to go and play with him there.

Luca also enjoyed the indoor pool and spent a good hour swimming around - something he's not done for some time now. He challenged his Grannie to go in the sea - and Jo accepted:

Tuesday 15th October

We had planned to drive east to Benalmadena to go on the cable car there, but it was apparently too windy at the top and the cable car was closed in the morning, so we decided to make a quick trip west to nearby Marbella instead to check out the possibility of hiring bikes one day. We stayed there for lunch and then drove to Benalmadena to see if the cable car was now open - and it was.

Jo had been on cable cars in Cape Town and Palm Springs already this year so she was an old hand, but that doesn't stop her feeling "feart". The journey up the mountain was the worst for her - and Ross wasn't much better. I was in one cable car with them and Gary and Luca were in the car behind - I can only imagine what it was like there.

When we did get to the top of the ride, after coffees, there was a bit more walking - and climbing - to be done. Luca bounded up the trails but his Dad didn't fancy it and stayed behind. We found a nice sheltered spot at the top for a rest:

Included in our ticket was a falconry display at the top of the mountain, but it was still pretty windy and the falconer told us he would have to restrict the birds flying as they would get blown off course and possibly lost. We did, however, get to see a few eagles and owls:

On the way back we stopped off at El Corte Ingles' huge Hipercor in Fuengirola to do some food shopping. We could have spent all day wandering round this monster of a place, but we did what we had to do and headed back to the Marriott for dinner on our balcony:

Wednesday 16th October

Ross was ill today and stayed at home to sweat off the bug. The rest of us made the short trip to Marbella and Luca, Gary and I hired bikes for an hour while Jo went for a walk along the prom. We met up again and took a team photo - note the bike that Jo knocked over before rushing to sit down before the camera timed out:

Lunch in Puerto Banus sounded appealing so we jumped on the catamaran ferry which had nets that sat between the twin hulls, above the ocean:

Puerto Banus was as up-market as ever - always worth a visit:

Lunch at an Italian restaurant on the quayside was excellent and we went for a long walk round the harbour perimiter afterwards - so far out that we virtually had to sprint back to make the 4 pm ferry back to Marbella.

Thursday 17th October

Down day - time to relax and enjoy the resort. Ross was on the mend now - especially after we popped over to the local Farmacia and got some medicine to aid his recovery. Nothing much else to report, but, as usual, we had a lovely meal on our balcony as the sun went down and Africa came in to full view across the water.

Friday 18th October

A trip to Malaga was organised - Ross had a couple of coffee shops he wanted to try out and the big city was bound to have a brewpub or two wasn't it? Gary thought this maybe didn't hold much appeal for Luca so we dropped them off in Fuengirola at the Bioparc (https://www.bioparcfuengirola.es/) - basically a zoo sporting modern environmental credentials. At the last minute, Luca persuaded Grannie Jo to join them so it was just Ross and I that travelled on to Malaga. I have to confess I didn't notice Jo's absence - she hadn't said anything - until halfway along the motorway!

The traffic in the city was pretty busy but we got parked eventually and found Ross' second target pretty quickly. After sampling their wares we strolled round the magnificent old market and then headed for target no. 1 for Ross - good coffee but nothing there for him to take back to Scotland.

We lunched at a nice brewpub then headed back through the heavy mid-afternoon traffic to pick up Gary, Luca and Jo in Fuengirola. We made it back to our apartment in good time for an earlier than usual dinner - frittata cooked by Ross - after which Jo and Luca went for a swim and I sat here and finished off this blog posting.

Pre-holiday post

https://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

We're off to Marbella in the morning so here's a quick update of what's been happening:

Barry and Helen in NZ just now and will be heading to Oz soon - which reminds me that we haven't FaceTimed Kelly for a while - must try soon. We liked the drawing Miller did at school:

Meanwhile, in Airdrie, Jordon has a new look:

Our annual end of season Challenge golf match last Sunday was virtually rained off but we had a nice lunch afterwards. A couple of days of detox were required after this and the previous week in Nice.

My blood test last Monday produced no negative results for any thyroid issues, thank goodness. Nothing was said about the liver count - surprisingly!

I haven't managed a cycle for a couple of weeks now and obviously next week is out as well - need to get back in the saddle when we get back. I have been a bit more active this week, however, with games of golf on Wednesday and Thursday and a hill-walk on Friday. I even managed to roll back the years and win Thursday's event at Monifeith. Here I am receiving my prize with Nigel and Harry - 3rd and 2nd place respectively:

That's helped get my step count back up again - as did the recent Borders walking weekend - but I still haven't quite got my average for the year up to the magic 10,000 steps per day yet:

Marbella weather for next week looks nice, so we're packing light:

Long overdue post

It's been a month since my last post - possibly the longest gap for years. It's been a hectic time, much of it presaged in my last post, but here's a brief synopsis of what I've been up to recently:

• Loft conversion completed. Now for the hard work of moving stuff up there this winter
• Walking weekend in the Borders completed (https://bvhill-walkers.blogspot.com/)
• Two of the last 3 events of the golf season completed - Quaich and Challenge. Just one event left for me now - this Thursday's visit to Monifeith for the Tayside Autumn outing.
• Holiday in Nice - more details below

We were flying from Edinburgh at 6:15 am on Saturday morning so this meant an overnight stay at the Holiday Inn Express. Arriving in good time for a mid-afternoon snack, we went out for an early dinner with Archie & Eileen (one of the couples we were holidaying with) in the evening at the Dakota Hotel - nice place and lovely meal.

They don't do alarm calls at the hotel - you just have to set the alarm on the TV, so I did - for 3:15 am. All good so far and we slept well and the alarm duly went off. As I slowly opened my eyes, I shot up, startled - it was 4 am! You've never seen two people move so quickly - no time for showers, breakfast, or even a cup of tea. Dash downstairs, order the shuttle bus, pay the bill and off we go. It all worked out in the end - the shuttle bus arrived quickly and bag drop and security were fairly easy, so we were in good time for our flight. In fact, we had time for a bit of breakfast.

The Easyjet flight was good and we were in the centre of Nice by mid-morning, French time. We had dumped our bags at left luggage and jumped on the tram, then down to the beach, stopping for drinks - and eventually lunch - at the Blue Beach Bar:

We took a walk round the Old Town/Flower Market and then went back to the airport to pick up our bags and grab a taxi up to our villa, stopping first of all for a supermarket dash round Intermarche.

Four couples, four bedrooms - so we drew lots and we did OK, getting the only downstairs room, which had one of the 3 showers and was close to one of only two toilets in the villa.

Sunday 29th September

Our first full day at the villa and it was a glorious one as we explored the surroundings:

We took a couple of UBERs down the hill to Cagnes-sur-mer for a nice lunch at a creperie, then took a walk along the prom before returning to the villa:

Monday 30th September

We picked up a couple of hire cars after which we headed to nearby Antibes and took a walk round this lovely old town - and a typical long, leisurely French lunch - a habit we found easy to adopt. There was a Picasso Museum there but we decided to give this a swerve and just walked through the narrow streets, past the market and down to the marina:

 

The obscenely sized yacht is apparently the property of the owner of Arsenal F.C.

Evenings were usually spent at the villa - food and wine flowing freely.

Tuesday 1st October

Our plan was to drive east, past Monaco/Monte Carlo up to the old mountain town of St Agnes - a slow, twisty drive up narrow streets. It was well worth it, however, with spectacular views down to the coast far below:

Four of us climbed up to the very top where the ruins of the old castle were - and there was a fine viewing platform there:

On the road back down, I took a shot of where the castle is located - who would build anything there?

Wednesday 2nd October

We met up with an old squash and golf pal, who now lives in France - some 5 hours' north of Nice. He recently lost his wife to cancer so I think he appreciated spending a couple of days with us. This day's long lunch was held in the courtyard of the old hilltop chateau in Cagnes-sur-mer. Once fed, we walked up through the narrow streets to the chateau itself:

Some of us entered the museum and climbed up the tower for a view:

Then it was back down to the cars - we had to move quickly as we were heading to the Renoir house and museum, which closed at 5 pm. Guess who we had to wait on?:

The car park was an amazing experience - it was all automated. You drive in, leave the car and it is then taken in a lift downstairs where all the cars are parked and is mechanically slotted in to one of the available spaces. On return, the car is picked off the shelf - a bit like the highly automated Amazon warehouses - and transported back up to the ground floor.

We made it to the Renoir OK and had 45 minutes to take in the experience:

Thursday 3rd October

The boys fancied hiring bikes and cycling along the prom - the girls were going to stay at the villa and look after our friend Bill's dog, Millie. We picked up the bikes in Cagnes-sur-mer on a 4 hour hire and headed east along the long Nice waterfront:

We stopped for a beer, then later for a spot of lunch and before we knew it, 3 hours had passed. We now only had one hour to get the bikes back which meant a non-stop ride on these metal lumps straight in to a strong headwind. We made it with less than 10 minutes to spare.

Friday 4th October

The plan today was to take a train ride across the border to Ventimiglia where there is a huge market every Friday, so we had to make an early start:

The trickiest part is getting parking tickets - the machines are set to defy all foreigners it seems - but we managed to crack it eventually and got a lucky break, having missed our scheduled departure, when an earlier train, running late, pulled in so we quickly jumped on it. We liked the 2 tier SNCF trains - especially once we were past Nice Central and all the commuters got off. The view of the coast from the top deck was great.

We walked round the market but Jo and I were the only couple who didn't buy anything. We had a nice walk, however, followed by yet another terrific - and expensive - lunch. By the time we had finished, the original plan to stop off briefly in Monte Carlo on the return journey had to be shelved and we just headed back to the villa to eat and drink our way through the remnants of the fridge and cupboards.

Saturday 5th October

An early, but fairly civilised, start meant we were back in Edinburgh by noon - despite an appalling line at bag drop in Nice. We dropped Keith and Annette off in Dalgety Bay, where they'd left their car, and then headed up the road, stopping briefly for a bite at the cafe at the Antiques Shop between Perth and Dundee.

That was the end of that holiday, but we had another social to attend on Sunday - the end of season Challenge lunch at the golf club. Now we need to properly detox before our next trip next Sunday, when we go to Marbella with Gary, Ross and Luca.

Today (Monday) I had another blood test - a 3 month follow-up to the last one when my thyroid levels were a bit out of the norm. Tomorrow, we go to the dermatology clinic at ARI for them to have a closer look at a small growth Jo has.

Manic Monday

It's all go today. My car was booked in for service at Arnold Clark in Aberdeen, but I got a phone call a few days ago from Jacquie Howden, who is still working for the Clark family at the age of 73, telling me that Francis' and Michael's mother had died and her cremation was this afternoon at Crathes.

So the day started with an early drive in to Aberdeen to drop off my car before 8 am. I discovered that Arnold Clark had moved their Volvo service centre - fortunately not too far away from their former location. Once checked in, I jumped on my bike - the older manual one, not the e-bike - and cycled back to Banchory along the Deeside Way. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a foul morning and I was pretty wet when I got home. A quick hot bath soon sorted that.

Then it was time to put a tie on - something I only do for funerals etc nowadays - and take Jo's car out to Crathes for the service. It was nice to see a few old faces again, albeit in circumstances far from ideal - it seems funerals are the only times I see my old colleagues.

Got back from the funeral before 3:30 pm - I declined the invitation to go to the post-funeral do at the Marcliffe - and Ross and I headed back in to Aberdeen to pick up my car after its service. Nice to get the car cleaned for you - and I've got the towbar fitted now, so the next step is to get a bike rack.

Going back briefly over the last few weeks since my previous post:

• Saturday was Ross' 36th birthday, would you believe? He was working again and had spent a couple of nights at Lizzie's so nothing special was organised for him, but he certainly wasn't forgotten:

• Luca, too, featured this weekend, receiving an award from his kick-boxing club:

• Had another get-together with some old school chums from Victoria Drive on Thursday - in Stirling, of all places - where Dawn works! I was only there for a few hours, fitting in convenient train times, so didn't have a chance to see Dawn this time.
• It was our Boat of Garten golf trip last weekend, signalling that we are heading rapidly towards the end of the summer golf season.
• Now we're in September, I've started to check out flights for our next trip to USA at this time next year, using our BA Miles and Companion Voucher if we can.
• Jo and I made our annual trip to the Fringe a couple of weeks ago. We kept it much simpler this time - no more rushing around from show to show, trying to cram in as much as possible. We caught the train down and went to just 2 shows on the Sunday and just 3 on Monday. We even had time to take a walk to Holyrood and take a tour of the Scottish Parliament:

From there, we walked round past Salisbury Crags and Arthur's Seat:

Prior to that, however, we had popped round to where Ross used to work at his stall in the Food & Flea Market - there was no sign of life at all - all the stalls had gone. Apparently they will be back some time, once all the construction work is finished at what they are going to call New Waverley:

All the shows - bar one - that we saw were good. Three of them were musically based, with Frank Skinner being the comedic act we chose. One of the musical acts was performed by a singer called Cleo, who used to front a band called Cleopatra, briefly popular a decade or so ago (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleo_Higgins). I can't speak of her earlier career as I'd never even heard of her, but in her performance here, she was a real ball of fire:

• The exception was our last event at the Fringe - The Gin Show. It was truly awful - both cringe-worthy and surreal at the same time. A narrator read out some facts about gin, then we were offered a taste - in a tiny plastic sample cup - followed by more facts, then, the really strange bit - a singer came on, with an electronic/tape backing and serenaded us with some irrelevant, show-based tune. This procedure was repeated a further 3 times and that was it. I can't even say we enjoyed the gins.
• On River Dee Radio, it was Jo's turn to feature on fellow DJ Charles Robertson's regular Saturday morning show - Chuck's choice - on his The First Record I Ever Bought spot. Listen to it here - https://www.mixcloud.com/River_Dee_Radio/chucks-choice-24-8-19/?fbclid=IwAR33RDVxcWogIQgInrFYW4vTck62fgizWCXkXWPdXRsZLaTChPYsjwxUBDU - from 9 mins 50 secs onwards.

So that's a very brief synopsis of some of the events of the last few weeks, but what's coming up?:

• Thu/Fri this week - the loft ladder team arrive to extend the flooring and insulation and install a new, easier to use loft ladder
• Thu 19th-Mon 23rd - my annual walking weekend, this time to the Borders. There'll be 12 of us staying in Peebles this year.
• Fri 27th - to Edinburgh Airport overnight prior to flying off to Nice for a week. Four couples - the same as the ones we went to France with 2 years ago.
• Sun 13 - 20 Oct - off to Costa del Sol with Gary, Luca and Ross - the final part of my 70th birthday celebrations.

Filthy Friday

It's been a couple of weeks since my last blog post which was titled "Summer has definitely arrived". Well this morning it doesn't feel anything like summer as a low passes over NE Scotland. I was due to be on a combined cycle/hill-walk up Mount Keen (the most easterly Munro) today but it's definitely not a day for tackling the hills.

I'm still hoping for a short cycle this afternoon when these clouds move away and I also intend to go along to the brand new "Banchory Sports Village" for the first of their Open/Demo days. We've been in Banchory for 36 years - more than half my life - and it seems that we've been waiting virtually all that time for this new facility. It would have been great if it had been around when I was still capable of using the facilities there - especially the squash courts - but, a bit like the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Road, it's taken too many generations and it's passed me by, I'm afraid.

The new pool will be popular - not sure how much use Jo will make of it as she enjoys her trips over to Westhill on Wednesdays and Fridays and she might not be so keen to change her habits.

Luca's been over at Banchory again this week - it's his second stint here but he doesn't have his bike with him this time - not that I'd be taking him out in this weather anyway. It's been a hectic week for me so he's spent most of the time with his Grannie. I'm always first up in the morning and often Luca gets up before Jo's awake, so I offer him breakfast, but he'll only take it from Jo. He's 12 years old and already ingrained in traditional habits!

The first week Luca was here we managed to get him along to the barber's for a haircut. He never wants much off and it was a bit of a negotiation struggle but eventually we settled on this:

Luca and I went cycling along the Deeside Way that week and we stopped off at his favourite spot on the river where he used to walk with Jo:

The October school holiday break is fast approaching and that's when Jo, Gary, Ross, Luca and I are heading off to our Marriott time-share in Marbella - part 2 of my 70th birthday travels. I had to renew my passport recently as it wouldn't have covered our journey to Australia next year and that's when I realised that Luca wouldn't have a valid passport yet, so we took him over to Tesco to have his photo taken:

The passport is still in process but hopefully he'll get it soon.

There was a big kick-boxing tournament at Fraserburgh recently and Luca was entered for his first ever competition. Here's his group receiving their instructions:

Luca ready for action:

It wasn't to be the greatest moment of his young life. In fact, he got soundly beaten in both his bouts and was pretty badly traumatised after the event. Thankfully he recovered after a day or two and Fraserburgh is now a distant memory - although he's still carrying a bit of a foot injury from the event, which is preventing him playing his favourite sport of football just now.

Gary asked me to video his fights, which I did. You can view them here, but I'll be deleting them shortly, so move quickly if you really want to see them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRrtLG8eIsE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcRsFEUqYZY

The local Inverurie Herald featured the event too:

Talking about football, his team organised a photo shoot:

What else has been happening? Well, I had my annual appointment with my cardiologist and all seemed well as far as he was concerned. My main health issue just now is the continuing pain I am getting in my side when I move in certain ways. I've had all the blood tests and a physical examination but they're all clear. Perhaps it's intestinal? I'll give it another few weeks and if it's not better by then, I need to go back to the GP.

Last weekend we went down to see our relatives in West of Scotland. On Saturday we had the Family Day with the Barrs:

The photo's a bit blurry, I'm afraid, but at the front left foreground we have Lucy B and her boyfriend sitting opposite Cameron, Sheila's son. Back left is Lesley and her new man, another Iain, and they're seated beside Dawn. Next to her is Sheila, then Aunt Nancy and me. Jo is sitting next to Helen and Barry.

Here's another one of me and Nancy - the two elders!:

Helen went out and bought lovely crusty Glasgow rolls in the morning and Barry cooked the bacon. Two rolls each kept us going for a while! We drove over to Elderslie and Brian and I went to see St. Mirren beat Aberdeen, with Sam and Tom in tow. Afterwards we had an Indian takeaway, with Mary, Brian, Julie, Guy and the boys.

It had been a foul Sunday but it was much brighter on Monday morning so Brian and I slipped away for 18 holes at Cochrane Castle and Jo and Mary drove over to Houston to do the house-sitting duties and keep an eye on Sam, Tom and Leo. After lunch Jo and I drove home to recover from all the food we had eaten.

This weekend is busy again - cricket tomorrow for me - Scotland are playing Papua New Guinea in Aberdeen and it's an opportunity to see our national team locally - hope the weather's ok. On Sunday, Jo and I are off to Edinburgh for our annual Fringe trip, about which more next week.

Summer has definitely arrived

It's been a hot, sticky week in Europe with record highs in France and other countries. We also benefited from this high pressure but thankfully temperatures only reached the mid-high 20's C here (c. 80 F) - plenty warm enough whilst still able to get out and enjoy it.

Golf, cycling and hill-walking have been enjoyed and we even had one of our Headbangs on Friday night, so it's been a busy week. Jo and I took advantage by having supper on the lawn at the Tor-na-Coille on Tuesday:

On Saturday, Gary and Luca travelled through to the Banchory Show and popped in to see us afterwards, so we all went over to the golf club for supper there. Luca will be back here with us on Tuesday for a few days.

My new passport saga continues - although the first photo I submitted passed the initial online test, it was subsequently rejected, so I had to do it again. It took another 12 attempts before I managed to take one that passed the online test again. Let's hope this one also gets past the secondary check and I can get my new passport soon: