Happy New Decade!

My first blog posting of the New Year - and the new decade. Will it be a repeat of the Roaring Twenties? I wasn't around then, but this is, statistically, my 9th decade, although I obviously don't remember much about my short experience in the 40's. so the only decade I haven't experienced - yet, hopefully - is the 30's. If I'm spared, I'll be in my 80's by the time it comes around again.

Enough of the numbers game - I'm supposed to be writing about what we've been up to recently as it's now almost 2 weeks since I last reported in. Jo and I have just returned from the movies in Aberdeen - we watched Jojo Rabbit - a slightly surreal, although both amusing and emotional experience. It's about a 10 year old boy who's a member of the Hitler Youth (his imaginary friend is Hitler himself) but discovers that a Jewish teenage girl is hiding in their attic. Worth a visit.

As I write this, we're awaiting Gary sending us a photo of a post-haircut Luca - they've apparently finally agreed that it's time for the long locks to go. This is the "before" shot:

He does look a little apprehensive, doesn't he?

Anyway, back to the latter days of 2019 - we celebrated Luca becoming a teenager over in Inverurie:

The following day, we celebrated Hogmanay at Anne and Leslie's new home in Drumoak:

Gary and Luca came over for the traditional New Year's Day meal at our house. The table was set:

It has to be Jo's home made steak pie, followed by a huge trifle:

Ross was suffering from raging toothache so couldn't make it through, but we managed to Face Time with both Lucy and Kelly, after which Kelly sent us this slightly bizarre photo of her boys with their cousin:

I've managed a few short cycles and a couple of climbs up Scolty plus a session of racketball, at which I tweaked my Achilles a little - hope it improves soon as we've got another session of walking football in a couple of weeks.

The next few weeks before we head to Australia are going to be pretty busy, starting with the next 7 days when I have my usual weekly radio show to do, followed by a Headbang on Friday night then a fund-raising Quiz Night for River Dee Radio next Saturday.

I have my appointment at the Dermatology Clinic at ARI on Tuesday 28th, then we're off for a week down in the south of Fife, where we will be joined at various points by Gary and Luca, then Barry, Helen and Dawn. The week after that we're heading to Elderslie for a couple of nights with Jo's sister, plus another old school reunion for me.

Post Xmas

So Christmas has come and gone now and we're in that limbo-land prior to the Hogmanay celebrations tomorrow night. Today (Monday) we're in Inverurie for Luca's 13th birthday. Jo and I are going to have lunch with Gary and Luca in Gary's house.

Christmas was quiet - just the 3 of us - me, Jo and Ross. I drove in to Aberdeen in the morning to pick Ross up and he stayed the night, with Jo taking him home on Boxing Day. Here we are after our meal:

Jo and I don't exchange presents any more, but I did get some flowers for our anniversary:

 We went for a walk in the woods on our anniversary but the weather wasn't really conducive to getting out again until Saturday when we decided to take a drive to the coast to the Nature Reserve at St Cyrus - somewhere I've always been meaning to visit, but never got round to until now. It's a lovely spot - nature trails and beach walks with high cliffs overlooking. There's even a mighty waterfall at the north end of the beach, but the tide started to come in so we couldn't get any closer than this:

Acres of sand:

That's all for now, folks. Keep watching this space.

Xmas Eve

It's Christmas Eve here in Banchory but Christmas Day in Adelaide and Kelly, Chris and Miller have just been on FaceTime (Asher's still sleeping). I've not long returned from our traditional Xmas Eve footy match - walking football nowadays.

As well as the 2020 Calendar we got from Australia, we received a Christmas card from Miller:

The front of the envelope was obviously written by Kelly (Grampian - really, Kelly?) and the back and inside by Miller.

At the weekend, we had our pre-Xmas lunch with Gary and Luca. No team photo, but here they are at breakfast:

Flowers arrived from Lucy:

The last photo of this blog is an archive one of Dawn and her badminton team:

One week to go

It's Wednesday 18th so exactly a week until Christmas. Our tree's up, but still not decorated - a job to be done over the next couple of days - especially as Gary and Luca are coming over on Saturday for an early Christmas dinner as Luca's off down to Lincoln with Carole to spend Christmas with her family down there.

Our visit to Inverurie was changed from Tuesday to Monday this week, but I couldn't make it over as I had a River Dee Radio committee meeting that I'd already promised to attend. The upshot of going there is that I've now been "volunteered" to man a promotional stall opposite the Farmers' Market on Saturday morning. Hope the weather's OK.

Yesterday, Jo and I went in town in the afternoon to do a bit of Xmas shopping - not something either of us particularly look forward to, but it wasn't too bad, although we did notice how relatively little stock some of the chain stores nowadays are holding in-store - notices everywhere saying more sizes/styles available online. A sign of the times.

After shopping and coffee in M & S, we had a meal at Brig o' Don, a Greene King outlet. Nice enough place and the meals were good, but I was attending a CAMRA committee meeting later on last night so my senses were up, and when I detected that the place had no real ale, despite prominently advertising it, I was properly annoyed.

In other news, I went to the Doctor's yesterday (Tuesday) to have them look at a former mole on my chest which is changing shape and bleeding occasionally, so I'll now be going to the Dermatology Clinic in January to have it cut out and a biopsy done. Better safe than sorry.

We spoke to Lucy on FaceTime on Sunday and, on Monday, we received a 2020 calendar from Kelly and Chris - each month has a photo of Asher or Miller - very nice.

On Saturday, I went to watch Cove Rangers - who've just been promoted to the Scottish Leagues after years in the Junior ranks, followed by the Highland League. So we now have 2 professional teams in Aberdeen, albeit leagues apart just now. I have to say, however, that it was probably the coldest I've felt for years - I couldn't get myself warm afterwards and had to have a bath when I got home to bring my body temperature back up again.

My activity levels have not been good in 2019. They always fall off in the last 3 months of the year, after the golf season's over and when the weather deteriorates, but this year also started badly when we went on our extended round the world trip (I still haven't lost the weight I put on). To date, I've only averaged 9,167 steps per day compared to 9,435 last year:

Must try harder in 2020.

Some of this data comes from Strava, where I record my cycles and walks, but I also "follow" others there, including Chris' brother Matt, who has been taking on enormous challenges since taking up cycling in the last couple of years. We occasionally exchange messages via Strava and in one of them, I spotted that he'd started to get his daughter, Abi, in to the habit too. Not only that, but also his Dad, David:

Look forward to some sunshine cycling when we go there in just 9 weeks' time. Of course, before that, we have the first week in February down in Fife (https://www.kilconquharcastle.co.uk/) to look forward to as well.

Getting closer

10th December now - it's getting nearer - but what is "it"? The General Election or Christmas? We're less than 48 hours away from the former and everyone's saying they'll be glad when it's over - it's been a tortuous process, but is it really going to be "over" on Friday morning? I suspect not - that'll just be the beginning. I guess all we can do is keep our heads down and try to look forward to Christmas, which looks like it's going to be a quiet one for me and Jo.

Still pretty mild here in NE Scotland - no sign of snow here in Banchory yet and the usual autumn winter winds haven't been very prevalent - in fact, the number of times I've been out cycling and it's been absolutely still is amazing. That didn't stop me from having a little tumble last week, however. I was coming back along the Deeside Way from Caldwell and Dempster where Jo's car was getting fixed and there were a number of walkers on the pathway so I swerved on to the grass and passed them. However, the path itself has wooden edges/kerbs and as I rejoined it, my back wheel didn't quite manage to cross it and the bike threw me off - like a bucking bronco. Ouch!

A few of the walkers came over to check that I was OK and I assured them I was. A few nasty bumps and bruises but nothing broken or bleeding, thank goodness. When you're on anti-coagulants, it can take a while for any bleeding to stop.

This little incident came just a few days after I had cracked the same leg (on the knee) with my racket, so it's looking a bit bumpy and black and blue now. I had, however, managed to safely negotiate my second game of racketball just before falling off my bike.

Continuing the medical theme, I've got an appointment at the Doctor's next Tuesday to have a look at an old mole that lost its top recently and has been spontaneously bleeding occasionally so I'd just like it checked out.

Luca's been in the wars too - he had an accident at kick-boxing the other day and appears to have possibly cracked a bone in his big toe - it's certainly swollen and black and blue, but he's getting around OK, although he's been signed off from school for a couple of days, so we've been over at Inverurie all day today (Tuesday).

Meanwhile, over in Oregon, Lucy has finally succumbed to the ageing process and had to get herself some glasses:

Early December

(https://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/)

Well, that's Ross moved out now - he moved in to his flat in Aberdeen on Friday. It's quite cosy and the location is pretty good - not that far from the city centre and near enough to his place of work - although he does now have my old mountain bike to help in that journey, if needs be.

I was away for a couple of days last week. On Wednesday, Colin and I went down to Edinburgh (by bus) and attended a gig by, of all things, an author. There was a musical connection however - he was promoting his next book about the Beatles' Abbey Road album on its 50th anniversary - https://www.marklewisohn.net/hornsey-road/. Strictly for nerds like me and Colin.

The following day was another reunion with some of my old school chums in Glasgow - good fun - and I had the chance of a quick coffee with Dawn afterwards before I had to jump on the bus back to Aberdeen.

Friday night was the night of our 3rd Headbang this year, so it was a pretty full-on few days for me and I was glad to take things easy over the weekend. Come Monday, however, I was ready for - and in need of - some exercise. Initially it was going to be a cycle but there was little interest from my pals and it was a bit grey and damp, so we decided that indoor sport might be better. It had been 6 long years since my knee replacement and I know I won't be able to play squash again, but I thought, why not try a gentle game of racketball at our new sports centre?:

I survived the experience relatively unscathed - with one exception. I stupidly banged my racket on my knee (the non-metal one), resulting in this egg coming up:

Frozen peas were the order of the day when I got home. The swelling's gone down a bit overnight but the joint is still pretty hot and tender. Hope it gets better in time for my next time on court.

To finish, another couple of looks back at the past, courtesy of the Banchory Heritage Society. First, one taken from atop the old railway bridge, looking down the High St:

I exchanged messages with Lucy yesterday, talking about the winter we moved in to Banchory late 1983 when the snow arrived within days and stayed for weeks. This next photo looks similar to that time, but this one was from 1942:

Blog discovery

(https://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/)

If you're one of those who normally get notification of my blog posts by email and were perhaps wondering why you hadn't been receiving any recently, it's because Blogger doesn't send blog posts over a certain size (with lots of photos etc) - so if you want to keep up to date with what we're up to, you'll have to keep checking the blog itself (see link above).

Cheers,

Ian

Emptying Nest (again) + Wine Fair + Belhaven

(https://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/)

It's almost exactly a year since Ross moved back from his stint in Edinburgh, and now he's moving on again. He's taking occupancy of a one bedroom flat in Aberdeen from the start of next month. The house is going to seem very quiet again but we wish him well in his new adventure. With winter coming in, the drive in from Banchory every morning for a 7 am start could get tricky over the next few months, so he'll now manage to avoid that problem at least.

In other news, the Wine Fair went well last weekend. Johanne wasn't well enhough to travel following her recent op, so Peter and Srie Hodgson stood in for them - and I think they enjoyed the experience, even although Srie hardly drinks any alcohol.

The Masons, Hodgsons and Stewarts all travelled down by train from Stonehaven and our first stop in Edinburgh was lunch at the Guildford Arms - after some dropped their bags off at our hotel - Motel One - just 20 yards away.

Dinner on Friday evening was at Fisher's in the City (http://www.fishersrestaurants.co.uk/) - primarily a fish restaurant - and very good it was too.

The Wine Fair's doors opened at 12:30 pm on Saturday so we had a free morning and, as it was a glorious day - albeit cold - Jo and I decided to take a walk up nearby Calton Hill. Here's some of the sights we encountered:

That's the Firth of Forth behind me - and the Kingdom of Fife beyond

Do you think Edinburgh's past architects were inspired by the Greeks?

Jo looks down at Holyrood Palace and the Parliament with Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crags as the backdrop

Rabbie Burns' monument

The old Royal High School, which many, including me, think should have been our devolved parliament building instead of the new one they built back in 1999

Nelson's monument - complete with his famous saying "England expects ..." - perhaps no longer appropriate?

St Andrew's House - yet another building now occupied by the armies of civil servants in Edinburgh. The figures at the top of the columns represented the (mere) 6 arms of government - Health, Education, Fisheries etc - back in the day

Finally - the Wine Fair itself. Our team photo inside the grand surroundings of the Balmoral Hotel:

Anne and Leslie went out for dinner with Anne's brothers and partners in the evening so it was just the Hodgsons and us who had to find a place to eat. Wagamama's did the trick.

On Sunday morning, I was left to my own devices (Sunday Times) as the rest went off to church. We caught an earlier train and were back in Banchory mid-afternoon.

Our other big outing this week was the brewery trip to Belhaven in Dunbar, organised by the CAMRA Members' Investment Club. The drive down on Thursday morning was fairly comfortable until we got a bit snagged with traffic going round the Edinburgh bypass, but we still made it to Dunbar in good time to check in at our hotel - the Rocks (https://www.therockshoteldunbar.co.uk/) - park the car and walk round to the brewery to meet the other members and our tour guide.

Belhaven celebrated their 300th anniversary a couple of months ago and they've built a nice new visitor centre - like a comfy bar - where we sampled some of their products:

The ladies wait in line to be served

After the tour, we all had lunch in the adjacent Brig and Barrel pub - and very good it was too - although it was so filling we struggled to eat anything else that day.

Now it was time for a stroll round the town centre and harbour. It was a beautiful day but there was a biting wind coming off the sea and we had to briefly seek shelter - and a swift half - in the Volunteer Arms.

The harbour is well sheltered - something the fishing boat owners must appreciate - but it must be fairly tricky negotiating the narrow entrance in a swell:

There were some interesting rock formations round the castle ruins:

Stormy seas behind Jo - and our hotel is on the other side of the bay

 We completed a bit of the cliff walk on our way back to the shelter of our hotel as the light started to fade:

We had a lovely room looking out over the bay, the rocks and the stormy seas - and we managed (just) to eat a one course dinner.

Heading home on Friday morning, we took a slight detour and went past the Bass Rock and through North Berwick. I hadn't been to this part of East Lothian for many years but it brought back some memories of holidays in that area when we were younger:

It was a bit warmer that day!

Miserable Monday

It's really horrible outside today - a wet weather front has settled over NE Scotland. I drove in to Aberdeen this morning and the roads were starting to flood - river levels are high - the Feugh is wild at the pedestrian bridge.

Why did I go in to Aberdeen? This is the reason:

I had been promising myself a bike rack for ages - it allows me (and a couple of fellow cyclists) to go a bit further afield and try pastures new rather than just stick to the tried and tested local trails. This morning was the perfect chance to keep my promise to myself and, with a bit of help from Halford's, we got it fitted on my towbar easily enough. The next trick is for me to get it off again - I'll try when it finally stops raining.

Over the last 10 days, I've been out on my bike a couple of times and completed the river walk over at Edzell, but, with no golf now, I've probably been more sedentary than usual. There's been plenty of sport on TV - thankfully for me, but much less so for Jo.

Barry's been keeping us up to date with their big adventure Down Under. He and Helen have "done" New Zealand and, as I write, are in Melbourne which will be the start of their drive along the Great Ocean Route to Adelaide where they'll catch up with Kelly & co before heading off to Perth on the train.

We FaceTimed with Kelly last week and she then sent us these photos of the boys - first Asher "Woody"'s Hallowe'en outfit:

Miller was dressed as a Storm Trooper, but this is one of him getting congratulated at school for the number of nights he has read a book this term:

So that's me up to date again. Coming up, we have our annual trip to Edinburgh this weekend for Wine Fair. We're not yet sure whether Colin and Johanne will be able to join us and the Masons, following Johanne's recent op. Fingers crossed.

The following week we're off to Dunbar for one night - a CAMRA trip to see round Belhaven Brewery. I've also finally managed to book our trip to USA next year - we leave early September.

That's all for now, folks.

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.