Banchory to Adelaide day 3

The journey here went pretty well - the chauffeur drive from Banchory to Glasgow Airport was easy and comfortable and we checked in to the Emirates lounge for what we thought would be 90 minutes or so before they called our flight. However, a 15 minute delay in the incoming flight was announced, but that didn't give us much concern. However a further delay of 20 minutes gave us pause for thought - we only had a scheduled 2 hour turn-round in Dubai - this was going to be tight.

They did make up some time on the flight but we still knew when we got off the plane that we would need to scurry to get to the other side of the terminal for our onward flight to Adelaide. Fortunately we were first off the plane and passing through security was remarkably quick and easy, so, in the end, we made it in good time.

Apart from the usual eating and drinking, I had passed the time on the first flight by watching the recent Oscar-winning Korean film, Parasite and also live TV coverage of Manchester United's Europa League match against Bruges.

The much longer flight to Adelaide is a bit more of a challenge. The first crisis is when the cabin crew tell you your first meal will be breakfast. We know the plane left Dubai at 2 am local time, but our body clocks were still at just 10 pm UK time and we were ready for another G & T. Before breakfast? How decadent.

I watched two more films on that flight - Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Blinded by the Light, a British film about a young man, born in Britain, but to a first generation traditional Pakistani family, growing up in Luton in the troubled late '70's/early '80's, when Thatcherism/Reaganism were at their peak and the National Front were running wild and free. His troubled relationship with his father was saved when he "discovered" Bruce Springsteen - his lyrics spoke to him.

I enjoyed all 3 films on the journey and I think I had a reasonable sleep as well, so I didn't feel too bad, all things considered, when we landed at Adelaide. There was a bit of a hold-up when the captain announced we would have to stay seated for a bit as we had to wait for paramedics to board to attend to an ill passenger. Otherwise, immigration and baggage handling were smooth and easy and our driver was waiting to take us on the fairly short drive to Old Noarlunga.

We got some sleep that night at Kelly and Chris' but, of course, our body clocks were still confused and we both woke well before the Adelaide dawn. Still, we had to just get on with it and get used to South Australian time as soon as we could. Kelly took me on a short walk across the Onkaparinga and up the hill to look over their house, the small town they live in and out to sea. This one was taken from the small bridge just outside their home:

Later in the day, after a nice walk round the trails at Onkaparinga Recreation Park, we were taken on the first of what will no doubt be many alcohol experiences to Penny's Hill winery where there was a separate Gin tasting session:

On Sunday (day 2), I decided to take a short exploratory ride on Chris' spare bike:

Kelly had some work to do, so Chris, Jo, Miller, Asher and I walked round to Miller's school and had a picnic brunch there. The boys played in the sand pit and Asher tried out some of the equipment:

In the afternoon, Kelly took over grandparenting duties and drove us over to Moana beach, and then to another winery - Ivybrook Farm - a lovely place that used to be a sheep station:

Day 3 (Monday) was back to work and school for all bar me and Jo. We walked Miller along to school and Kelly and I took Asher to his day care, then Kelly caught a train to work, leaving me with her car.

Jo and I decide to stretch our legs a little before it got too hot so we crossed the bridge in to the National Park and completed one of their trails, which involved a little bit of a climb towards the end:

After that, we drove over to Noarlunga and the Colonnades shopping centre to get some more medication for Jo, who had developed a stye which was beginning to look a little troublesome. Hopefully the antibiotic cream will now sort the problem out.

The pick-ups of Miller and Asher were completed successfully but there was a slight communication breakdown with Kelly - somehow we missed each other at the railway station, but all was sorted in the end.

Dennis the Menace

Saturday afternoon and we're back home now after a couple of days in the West of Scotland. It's definitely a day for staying in - it's wet here, although not half as bad as some of the weather we came through this morning. The roads were awash - far from ideal driving conditions and I'm delighted to be able now to put my feet up, sit back, relax and watch some sport on TV. I had originally intended to go to the CAMRA meeting in Aberdeen for the selection of our area's entries in to next year's Good Beer Guide, but the timing was awkward and the weather frankly offputting.

Why were we in Glasgow anyway? Well, first of all, I had another of my old school reunions to attend, and then Jo wanted to go and see Mary before we went to Australia, so we decided to combine the two. We spent Thursday and Friday night at Mary and Brian's. I had taken my golf clubs with me and Brian had booked us a tee time at West Kilbride on Friday, but the imminent arrival of Storm Dennis put paid to all that so Brian and I ended up just spending the day watching golf and cricket on TV, while Mary and Jo gabbed away next door.

On Friday night we went over to Houston to have a meal with the Whaleys. Take-away Indian and Chinese meals hit the spot, after which I took this team photo:

The twins are now in 5th year and will be sitting their Highers in a couple of months. Note the girlfriend addition at the table.

Brian looks worried here - and in this one:

To be fair, the poor old fellow wasn't feeling too good - he was coughing away all the time we were there (as was Mary) and knocking back Lemsips and paracetomols. Hope he gets better soon - and trust it's not the Corona virus!

Got to start getting organised over the next few days for our departure to Oz on Thursday.

E & O E

How could I? I forgot to include news of our visit to see Ross before we went to Fife. Ross made us coffee in his kitchen:

Jo waited in anticipation:

Trying to get both of them to look at the camera at the same time is pretty tricky:

Oh - and the other good news is that I finally - after a stressful week of  waiting - received my Aussie Visa. Whew.

More good news - Lucy, Scott and the boys have actually booked their flights over to Scotland at Christmas! They arrive at 4 pm on Tuesday 22nd December and leave at 6 am on Tuesday 29th December. Put the dates in your diaries now.

Busy weeks

We've been pretty busy the last couple of weeks so the only way to bring the blog back up to date is to post on a day to day basis, so here goes:

TUESDAY 28th JANUARY

This was the day of my appointment at the Dermatology Dept at ARI. I had thought they were going to cut out the former mole on my chest when I was there, but it was actually only an examination and assessment. They agreed it needed cut out but there was no need to rush matters and it could easily wait until we came back from Australia.

WEDNESDAY 29th JANUARY

More medical stuff. We had made appointments at the local chemist to have a travel vaccination assessment due to our coming trip to Bali. It lasted about half an hour and we discussed the various options and risk factors, but, in the end, we opted only for the NHS free ones, so an appointment was made for us to get these done by the Nurses at the Medical Centre.

THURSDAY 30th JANUARY

We had realised we were running out of time to make use of the Xmas gift that Barry and Helen had given us so we had arranged to have lunch this day at Banchory Lodge. We walked down there and took our nice window seat, looking over the confluence of the Rivers Dee and Feugh:

Lovely meal, but the portions were huge and rich, meaning we didn't have to eat again this day!

FRIDAY 31st JANUARY

The start of our week-long break in the East Neuk of Fife. To save Gary the trouble of going back to Inverurie after work to pick up Luca, Jo and I drove over to meet him straight from school and the three of us headed south, arriving at Kilconquhar Castle Estate about 5 pm, with Gary joining us an hour and a bit later.

Our original plan for dinner was to eat at the onsite Bistro but when we got there we discovered it was pretty busy and they were running behind in the kitchen so we just had a quick drink and headed back to our villa to eat there instead.

SATURDAY 1st FEBRUARY

Gary and Luca went to play table tennis so Jo and I decided to take a quick recce drive round the area. It was dry but pretty cool and windy as we briefly got out of the car in Elie harbour:

Despite apparently having looked forward to using the pool, Luca decided he wasn't interested when actually given the opportunity - 3 times over the weekend. He did, however, go for a (very) short ride on his bike followed by some badminton with me and his Dad.

I had booked a table at the local Kinneuchar Inn, a recently refurbished gastro pub, and we walked there for our early dinner booking. It's a lovely place and the food was good, but perhaps not ideal for a 13 year old fussy eater. Some of the dinner choices were a bit too exotic for Luca, but he then spotted fish and chips on the menu. However, it was John Dory and it arrived whole on his plate - eyeballs staring out. I filleted it for him and he did eat most of it, thank goodness.

SUNDAY 2nd FEBRUARY

Luca had a football match to play at Mintlaw in the afternoon, so Gary and he had to leave our villa before noon. It suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't taken any photos of them, so, as we relaxed with the Sunday papers, I snapped this one:

Why the suspicious looks, boys?

Jo and I went for a drive westwards along the coast in the afternoon - firstly through Largo, which is the birthplace of Alexander Selkirk, author of Robinson Crusoe - there's a statue there on the house:

We drove on to Leven, where, reputedly, MacDuff's Castle is - but we never found it. Onwards through some of the less salubrious towns - Methil (no more) and Buckhaven and on to the outskirts of Kirkcaldy where we stumbled upon the lovely little harbour of Dysart, which was one of the locations for filming Series 2 of Outlander, the Amazon Prime historical fantasy that has been a huge international hit, spawning holiday tours all over Scotland for jetsetting holidaymakers.

The weather had improved and we were able to take advantage of some nice trails leading us to Ravenscraig Castle:

Back at Dysart harbour, we spotted this quaint little shack:

MONDAY 3rd FEBRUARY

Barry, Helen and Dawn arrived mid-morning and, after a spot of brunch, we all decided to go and try the Elie Chain Walk, a mini Via Ferrata. It consists of 8 stretches of chains pinned to the rocky outcrops along the coast for 0.5 kms. It was a little difficult to find at first and we ended up marching up a hill along a narrow path in high winds. We spotted where the chain walk must be, but by now, we were high above it and getting down to the start would have meant fully retracing our steps and starting all over again, and, with the wind so strong, we decided it was too dangerous anyway - we would try another day.

Back down the narrow track again - Helen and I leading, with Barry hanging back to make sure Dawn and Jo could navigate the path safely. At various stages, they were travelling in a chain, holding hands. Eventually they made it back down to a safe level:

A quick pint in the Ship Inn then Steak Pie from Penman's of Crail followed by Dawn's pavlova for dinner in our villa.

TUESDAY 4th FEBRUARY

A quick morning walk in the grounds of Kellie Castle was the plan, but this soon developed in to a longer walk up Balcaskie hill. Barry and I marched ahead and girls followed on:

The wind had dropped substantially and, after lunch, we all thought we needed to have another go at the Elie chain walk. We found it OK this time, but, despite Trip Advisor and various blogs advising that it was OK for anyone reasonably fit over 8 years old, we - especially those of us with metal knees that don't bend far enough to take the high steps required to get from foothold to foothold - didn't manage to get far at all - particularly when we spotted a section of the chain link missing.

Of course, some of us had to pose on the chains before we headed back:

On the plus side, although we hadn't managed to find MacDuff's Castle the other day, we did find MacDuff's Cave.

Dinner was at the Bistro.

WEDNESDAY 5th FEBRUARY

Dawn, Barry and Helen were heading home today so we decided to drive west and head to the trails at Loch Leven, where Barry and I planned to cycle round whilst the girls would walk part of the way and we would all lunch at the cafe afterwards.

It all pretty much went to plan apart from a brief chain snagging incident with my bike.

THURSDAY 6th FEBRUARY

All alone are we - for the first time this week. Jo and I decided to drive out to Shell Bay and see if we could find the other (western) end of the chain walk. We could have driven all the way to the bay, but decided instead to leave the car at the start of the Caravan Park and take a trail walk which would eventually lead us to the Fife Coastal Path and, from there, we walked up to Kincraig Point, where our first aborted attempt at the chain walk had ceased 2 days previously.

We did spot the start of the chains but the path down to them was steep and narrow and neither of us fancied risking it, so instead we found a spot in the rocks further back where we watched as a couple of birds of prey hovered above us:

FRIDAY 7th FEBRUARY

Time to pay the bill and head home - we had our appointment with the Nurse for our vaccinations in the early evening. We got our jabs - one in each arm - Diptheria, Tetanus & Polio in the right and Hep A/Typhoid in the left.

When is winter going to arrive?

It's Monday morning again and it's another beautiful morning, but when is winter proper going to arrive? It's the end of January and it's been very benign so far. Not that I'm wishing the bad weather to arrive - well, at least not until we're off to Australia!

Just over 3 weeks to go - and we've got a busy time before then. Today, it's Inverurie again, but it'll be a short day as it's Parents' Evening at his school tonight which means we'll be gone by 6 pm. Tomorrow, it's off to ARI and the Dermatology Clinic for me to cut out a small former mole on my chest. Wednesday, we've got our appointments for our vaccinations for our trip to Bali, then on Thursday we've got lunch booked at Banchory Lodge - a Xmas present from Barry and Helen.

Friday we head down to south Fife, near Leven - https://www.kilconquharcastle.co.uk/ to be exact. Gary and Luca will be down with us on Friday and Saturday, but Luca will have to be back for his football on Sunday - assuming it's on. Barry, Helen and Dawn arrive on Monday for a couple of nights. Not sure what we'll get up to - hopefully some walks and maybe an odd cycle - I plan to take my bikes with us. There's a pool too.

The following week we're travelling down to the West of Scotland - initially for another old school reunion for me, but also to see Brian, Mary and family. Then the week after that, we're off to Australia - that is, assuming my visa comes through. I had a lot of problems applying for it - I'm sure there was something wrong with their web site as I went through the whole process several times and got right to the end, but when I pressed the "submit" button, it just flashed back an error message and I had to start all over again.

I waited a couple of days and applied again and this time it went through all right, so I did Jo's as well. Her application went through instantly and we got approval back almost before we'd sent it - but mine still hasn't been approved. Worried of Banchory.

Oh - and we finally got our dishwasher fixed last week after several months without. Ross' analysis of the problem was correct - the water pump had gone and had to be replaced.

On Saturday, Colin and I travelled down to Arbroath to see Thistle play - we met Gary there - and his pal, also called Colin. Arbroath lived up to its reputation of having the windiest stadium in the land. It was a farce - and, of course, Thistle lost.

Well, that's it for now - no photos today, I'm afraid.

1 month to go

Exactly one month before we head off to Australia. We got a nice surprise when Lucy told us yesterday that they are planning to take a (very) short break over here this Christmas. It'll just be for a week so they won't be able to go haring round Scotland - hopefully a few will manage to come here and see them.

We had our Big Quiz for River Dee Radio at the Legion on Saturday night. It was a sell-out - about 140 attended and it seemed to go well - we raised a decent amount of funds to keep us going for a while. Our team - me and Jo plus pals Dave and Aidan - came in 4th equal - a pretty respectable performance. Most of the presenters lined up for a photo afterwards:

We're over in Inverurie today - Monday for a change. Luca's got his kick-boxing tonight so I guess we'll be eating soon. This is the typical view I get of him every week:

His big adventure was on Saturday when he wanted to exercise his independence by travelling in to Aberdeen to visit his old pal Tyler. The "independence" however involved being chaperoned on the train by his father:

Things pop up on various feeds in January each year. This is what Strava told me:

Much more useful was this notice:

That's all my news for now.

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: