Sod's law

Would you believe it? After I had my little rant about seagulls the other day (see My Pet Hates blog), I decided I had to do something about the chick that had made our back garden its home for a week - and secreted its toxic innards all over our slabs - so I went on to Amazon and ordered a couple of cheap bird scarers to see if that would work.

The scarers arrived yesterday (Friday), coinciding neatly with the disappearance of our little fledgling! I guess it finally found its wings.

Now the task is to clean up the back. The pressure hose loosened some of it, but much of it is so ingrained, it's going to take some chemicals and scrubbing to remove all the unsightly marks the gull left behind.

As a precaution against future raids, I did still hang the scarers out:

Back garden

Balcony at front

Let's see if they work. Having had many years of experience with seagulls at work in Fraserburgh, I realise they're not so dumb. Whilst real birds - hawks and owls - scare them away for a while, they soon suss things out and realise when a threat is real or not, then just revert to their normal pattern.

To other matters. Tomorrow (Sunday), Gary, Carole and Luca are coming over for Gary's slightly belated birthday dinner, then on Monday, Dawn is coming to stay with us - I hope the weather stays fair - it was beautiful yesterday and it's a cracking start to Saturday.

Hello

Here we are entering Phase 3 today and I've got nothing much to say, I'm afraid. Life goes on - thankfully - and most weeks it's the same routine of various Zoom meetings, some golf (twice a week), a bit of cycling when I can manage and that's about it.

Next week, I hope to be able to go for a short hill-walk with some pals and, from Wednesday, we'll be able to go indoors in pubs etc - although I would always to prefer to be outside anyway.

There's more football on TV now so that can while away the hours - but I've been pretty selective so far and haven't done much binge-watching.

Jo and I are going out for a short walk this morning so it's time for me to end this blog post. I'll close with a photo that's stuck on a tree down at the "Platties" area (for those of you who know Banchory). It's where the Banchory railway station used to be. The Deeside line from Aberdeen to Ballater closed in 1966 as part of the Beeching cuts. The line was single track and that's why I was rather surprised to see this old photo:

It was tricky to photograph as it was wrapped round a tree but I hope you can make out that there were several tracks there. I guess Banchory must have been a bit of a shunting stop?

Lockdown eases so weather deteriorates

As we inch towards what they call the "new normal" it seems like the weather is about to take a downward turn. After 3 months of lovely spring/summer weather, it's getting a lot cooler and a bit wetter this week apparently - sod's law.

In Scotland, some target dates have been set - today shops can re-open (as long as they have a street front) and on Friday our current 5 mile travel restriction is removed. Outdoor drinking at pubs will be possible from next Monday (6th July) - and indoors too from 15th July. Schools go back at the usual post-holiday time of 11th August.

That's the good news - subject, of course, to continuing falls in new cases - but, on the negative side, Jo and I have finally bitten the bullet and cancelled our trip to USA this year. We were due to leave in just over 9 weeks but things are not looking good in USA just now and frankly, the prospect of spending 10+ hours on a plane wearing a face mask and with no/little food/drinks service doesn't really appeal, so, after chatting with Lucy yesterday, I got online and on the phone this morning and cancelled both our flights and our resort accommodation.

We had booked our flights using air miles (Avios) plus a Companion Voucher, and the points have now been returned to our account and the date of expiry of the Companion Voucher has been extended by 6 months to 9th July, 2021, so let's hope there's no 2nd/3rd outbreaks anywhere and we can use these before they expire.

That's about all I have to say this time, other than the fact that Jo and I took part in a CAMRA Zoom session on Saturday concerning the new beer styles to be used in future when The Great British Beer Festival (and other local ones) hands out the prizes for its Beers of the Year. Naturally, it involved some beer tasting as well as explanations in the 2 hour session. This is what Jo and I worked our way through:

These were reference points to explain why some new styles have been introduced - and some re-defined, so the new list is:

Fascinating or what?

Phase 2

We're now officially in Phase Two, although the announcement came with a little bit of disappointment that outdoor cafes and beer gardens are not being allowed to open - yet. Apparently they need some further medical information/research before allowing this, which should come through in the next two weeks. No doubt the continuing good weather will abruptly cease then!

Anyway, we took the opportunity to catch up with both Gary and family and Ross this weekend. It's the first time we've seen them in the flesh for 4 months. Gary, Carole and Luca came to Banchory for a spot of alfresco lunch yesterday (Saturday) - and to deliver my Father's Day present:

Luca has definitely grown since we last saw him - although he's not quite looking down on Jo yet. The other big change is in his voice, which has dropped several octaves. His appetite hasn't changed at all - he scooped up the leftovers and took them home after lunch.

We had arranged to see Ross mid-afternoon so we then headed off to Aberdeen. We grabbed a coffee at a local shop and sat out in Ross' back yard and had a natter:

Lizzie has been staying with Ross during the lockdown but she had gone to Perth with her parents yesterday afternoon, so we didn't get a chance to see her.

Ross' employers are struggling apparently and he doubts whether there will be a job for him once the cafe is allowed to re-open again, so he and Lizzie may have to look to the supermarkets for work as soon as they come off the official furlough scheme.

Kelly FaceTimed yesterday morning and Lucy usually calls on Sunday afternoon/evening so we'll have managed to make contact with all four this weekend. We're also still holding our weekly Zoom call with Barry, Helen and Dawn on Thursday nights - which usually signals the breaking of our alcohol fast. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays are usually when we have G & T, beer or wine but we avoid it where possible from Sunday to Wednesday - although I have to confess I had a CAMRA meeting last Wednesday and it would have been rude of me not to have a beer then, wouldn't it? Oh - and, of course, as it's Father's Day today and I've been inundated with beer, I guess I'd better sample some of these:

I've got a fully functioning phone again, thank goodness. After weeks of trying to get Vodafone to repair my water-damaged one, they finally sent me a repair bag and I immediately popped my phone in it and returned it to them. They responded very quickly and just sent me a brand new replacement iPhone - at no cost to me. OK - it's only an iPhone 6 but mine was 6 years old and now I've got a brand new one, so I'm quite happy.

Our local Household Waste Recycling Centre reopened a couple of weeks ago, so I managed to get rid of the garden refuse that had built up. We've got another appointment tomorrow (Monday) when we're planning to finally get rid of the old fridge/freezer that's been in our garage for many years. After that, Anne and Leslie's old barbeque, which we have been storing since they moved to Drumoak, will hopefully go soon and we can then begin to clear any other unwanted items taking up space in the garage.

We've still done nothing about our USA flight and accommodation bookings in September. At this point, it looks highly unlikely that we'll be able to make the trip, but we haven't completely given up yet - we're just playing a wait and see game.

Middle of Phase One

Halfway through this phase and hints are being dropped about what further restrictions are likely to be eased on Thursday 18th. Beer gardens have been mentioned and also the possibility of meeting another household indoors - but we all have to continue to behave - or else!

Frightening to think that it will be Midsummer next week, after which the days start to get shorter again. Right now, daylight hours are from 4 am to after 10 pm - in excess of 18 hours and still rising. Hopefully we'll also still get some decent weather in July and August to enjoy.

In the first full week of the golf course opening again, I managed to squeeze in 4 games, so I can't really complain, despite the difficulties of the online booking system. Ongoing, however, I'm only looking for 2 games per week on a regular basis, with perhaps an odd week with an extra one thrown in.

We had an odd situation last week one day when I opened our front door to find these two boxes dumped right in front of me:

Nobody rang the bell and, as you can see, the boxes are unmarked - and nor was there any indication inside of where they came from or who they were intended for. Inside were cans of food, bread, toilet rolls etc - perhaps some kind of emergency supply for somebody who was shielding?

We obviously hadn't asked for them and nor did we need them. My main concern was that whoever they were intended for would obviously be missing them, so I set about tracking down the source - contacting Banchory Community Council, Aberdeenshire Council, Aberdeenshire Voluntary Services and the local Red Cross shop.

Nobody seemed to know but, after 24 hours of chasing, eventually the Red Cross came and took them away, although I'm not convinced they knew who had delivered them to us nor who they were intended for. In the next 2 days, two other Red Cross volunteers turned up to pick up the boxes - "sorry, they've already gone". The co-ordination of the various local helping hands seems to have gone awry a bit.

Anyway, a couple of photos to finish. Jo and I were out walking yesterday (Monday) and we ended up exploring through the woods at the other end of Banchory. The trail we were on eventually came to an end, but there was a stile to take us over the fence in to a small field which would take us back to the road we were heading for. Only one problem - the residents of the field were big and ugly with huge horns:

Should we risk it? Well, we did - and they never batted an eyelid.

Another view of the back - this time from the ground floor:

Easing off

The Scottish Government eased the restrictions a little with effect from Friday and the golf courses are open again - hooray! There was a mad dash for our club's online booking system on Wednesday morning at 8 am sharp and within a couple of minutes all the times for Friday were gone - and I never got one. I did, however, manage to get a game on Saturday (courtesy of Les & Angela Gray) and I also managed to get a booking this morning. So two rounds on consecutive days - and now I'm knackered! It's been 8 months without golf at our club (I don't do winter golf any more) and I now realise how unfit I am. I guess every sport uses different muscle groups.

A couple of weeks after we came back from Australia, about 2 weeks in to the lock-down, I was still shaving every morning and this was roughly how I looked then:

Then I went slightly feral as the Covid-19 crisis stretched on, but I decided to tidy up a bit last week and have a shave and a haircut, so now this is how I look:

I'm not sure yet what the next phase will be - watch this space.

The fabulous spring/summer weather continues and I decided to go for a ride out to Finzean on Thursday afternoon when Jo was on Zoom with her pals:

Jo and I have been eating our lunch out back quite a lot in the last couple of months. We keep the table and chairs in the hut/summerhouse and wheel them out at 1 pm:

We've probably been out there more often this year than we have in the last 20 years.

Jo and I received our (slightly belated) birthday presents from America this week, so we had to model them and send the photo to Lucy. No - it wasn't cold - far from it - but we felt we had to show them off:

Week 10

What do you say when you've just had your first haircut and shave for 6 weeks and your wife hasn't even noticed? Answer - nothing - just wait until she reads this!

The good news is I got an email yesterday from our golf club telling us of the arrangements for re-starting golf this Friday, assuming the First Minister confirms what she's already strongly hinted at, at her daily press/public briefing on Thursday.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) morning at 8 am, our online booking system opens and I imagine there'll be a mad scramble for times. Hope the web site is robust enough to stand up to it.

Apart from that, it's been business as usual - regular Zoom meetings, occasional walks and cycles. Jo and I did a 10-miler last week and an 8-miler yesterday. Most of the photos have already been on social media but here's one of Jo that I don't think has been published yet:

and here's one of me (pre haircut and shave):

Jo does the regular once a week trip to Tesco at 7 am every Saturday morning and she's very careful about social distancing and wearing her mask in store, but not everyone seems to be treating the situation as seriously, as I found out on Sunday morning when I took my usual stroll along to the Co-op for my Sunday paper and some rolls for our bacon butty lunch.

Four youngish lads - in their twenties, I'd say - were straddling the pavement outside the store munching on some goodies they'd obviously just bought in the shop. They all had bikes with them, although they obviously weren't regular cyclists (no helmets nor safety wear). They made no attempt to separate and create space for me to socially distance and get to the shop's front door and I had to cross the road and approach the shop from the opposite direction - and the same again in reverse when I left the shop.

Should I have confronted them? I don't think so - there's already too many "vigilantes" out there trying to impose their own interpretations of the laws and guidelines, and so many either ignorant or misguided people who flout them - and not many seem willing to see the other's point of view. I initially thought there might be some good come out of this crisis - the "we're all in this together" attitude - but as time has gone on and we head towards relaxation of the regulations, it seems some of our worst traits are beginning to re-appear.

Amen.

Sunday evening - still locked down

Not much change in the pattern of our lives since my last blog post - daily Zoom calls with various groups, fairly regular walks and occasional cycles. Much of my time spent at home is downstairs in the office/studio working on our programmes for River Dee Radio. Most days follow a similar pattern - the only differential being who I'm Zoom-ing with - if it's Friday, it must be my football group etc ...

Jo is still keeping her daily diary. She promises to let me see it, but thinks I will find it too boring, although I won't actually know until I get a chance to see it for myself. Some day.

A chink of light is beginning to appear. Personally, I'm hoping for an early return to golf and to get out cycling with some friends again. The prospects of going for a coffee - and especially a beer - seem a good bit more distant.

We've done nothing about our USA holiday bookings in September yet - we're playing a waiting game here. Que sera, sera.

Anyway, some photos of recent activities. First of all, Kelly and Chris have installed a new wood-burning stove and Asher and Miller took the chance of  posing in front of it:

While we're on the subject of Australia, I saw this interesting graphic on FB:

A recent cycling trip over to Potarch

Struggling uphill at Inchmarlo - but Jo always gets there

You may have seen a photo on FB of Jo sitting on this beam over the Dee on our walk this afternoon. What you didn't see was how she got there - nor how she got back!

I've always liked this corner of Banchory - at the curling pond at Burnett Park

Mayday

We're not quite screaming out for help yet - in fact, we're coping pretty well and keeping busy with various jobs around the place and daily Zoom calls to different groups. I think Jo's trying to catch up with me - she's now got 2 regular group Zooms set up - one her swimming pals on Wednesdays and another with her church/coffee group on Thursdays.

The weather has continued to be wonderful - ironically it would have been a terrific start to the golf season had we been allowed to play. We've walked over the course down to the river a few times and it's in superb nick. Jo thinks it's wonderful to have such a beautiful "park" on our doorstep! I had to reminder her that the only reason it's looking so nice is because the members - well most of them anyway - are paying our subscriptions which go towards keeping the greens staff employed.

Unbelievably, there are some members who have stopped paying their subscriptions because they're not allowed to play golf. What do they think the club is? Some huge international corporate? No - it's a members club and there won't be a club unless we continue to pay for it. Very selfish - it means those of us who are still paying will have to face increased subscriptions in the future.

I've finished cleaning up the 3 tiers of slabs at the back of the house and I've painted the step at the rear plus the plinth on which our spiral staircase sits. The next job is to clean up the staircase itself and get rid of the winter rust stains. Of course, all this work would slow dramatically should the government relax some of the current restrictions - especially golf - but this doesn't now seem likely until at least 28th May. Already I sense the public getting a little restless - and complacent about the virus - there's definitely more traffic on the roads and more people taking advantage of the good weather and getting out and about for their daily exercise.

The Government(s) seem to be placing great store on the R number - the reproduction rate - but, as far as I am aware it's a fairly spurious calculation. There's still not enough testing going on - especially in clear problem areas like care homes, so how can they be sure about their calculations?

Enough about the covid-19 virus. Let's just hope we get a safe vaccine soon and we don't suffer a second wave - or have a covid-20 virus hit us later.

Tonight I'm organising a virtual Headbang - there's a few technical difficulties with trying to do this remotely but we think we have something worked out - let's hope it goes smoothly. I'm all set anyway - I have our office cum studio nicely set up now with good external speakers and a new large monitor. In fact, the room is now very like the way Ross had it before - the only difference being that I'm not a gamer like he is:

I went out on my bike yesterday when Jo was Zooming and cycled out past Craiglash quarry and down to Potarch, then back on the south side of the Dee to Banchory, stopping for yet another photo at one of the favourite stops where the forest trail veers upwards and away from the river and you get a nice view down the Dee:

We had a Victoria Drive FP's Zoom call last Saturday, with former pupils calling in from Australia, Canada, Coventry, Dalry, Edinburgh, Glasgow and, of course, Banchory. One of our reminiscences was this stupid game the boys would play back in the day:

Those punishments were dealt by a full pack of cards being smacked down on your knuckles. The skill was catching the edge of the knuckle and drawing blood. I don't know when this masochistic fad faded out.

Signs of hope?

The weather has turned a bit cooler this week and there's talk of showers, but Jo's out there watering the pot plants - they badly need it. They say it's the sunniest April ever - and I could believe that.

With every day seeming the same and with little photographic evidence to prompt me, it's difficult to complete a diary of everything we've been up to since my last blog post 11 days ago. I know I've been working out back - principally clearing the slabs of - I don't know how long - maybe 15-20 years of grime that built up. Finally uncovered a drain on the lower level and I've been using that - and the pressure hose - to help clean up. Had to get some patio cleaner from Amazon as well - it turned out to be a pretty strong bleach. Jo came running out and insisted I wear some kind of mask when working with it - my cycling balaclava came to the rescue.

We've been for a few nice walks, trying to vary the route every day. There's loads of forest paths behind us - and across the river towards Scolty too. The Banchory Paths Association have done some tremendous - all volunteer - work upgrading the old forest trails. Good for cycling too. The last walk Jo and I went on a few days ago was in Scolty Woods. There's a bit of climbing there - not too bad, but it's not quite Jo's favourite pastime. Naturally, she complains whenever there's any sort of upward gradient in front of her, but she always gets there - she's sussed out how to strategise her way up:

Back home, Jo still has to climb - apart from all the flights of stairs in our house, the clothes line is now on the top tier of our back garden:

We've probably had lunch out back more often in the last few weeks than in the previous 10 years.

I'm still Zooming regularly - 3 yesterday, 1 today, 1 tomorrow, 2 on Thursday, 1 on Friday and 1 on Saturday, so I'm making good use of my subscription and will continue with it until the end of May anyway. Hopefully, by then, we'll be able to get out and about a bit more freely and be able to see people in the flesh again. The transcontinental family Zooms haven't quite worked out however - timing has been one of the issues - so it'll probably be back to one to one FaceTimes (for those with Apple products).

That's all for now. Stay safe:

and still it goes on

It's Friday and it's 4 weeks ago today that we hot-footed it out of Australia to return home to who-knew-what. We're coping but there are times when frustration sets in. The daily zoom conferences help a lot to pass the time. This week so far, my schedule has been:

Sunday night - Gary and Carole's screen off temporarily

Monday - Cycling group

Tuesday - Coffee group in the morning and CAMRA in the evening

Wednesday - Golf group

Thursday - Cycling group in the morning and, in the evening:

Tonight, it's our regular Friday night football virtual pub crawl. Thank goodness my beer stocks got topped up yesterday with a delivery from our local Strong Water Company.

This afternoon we're just awaiting delivery of our new washing machine. For the last week and a bit we've not been changing  our (external) clothes as often and Jo has been handwashing our smalls etc.

Since we got back, as if to taunt us, the weather has been perfect for golf. If/when we get back to playing again, no doubt the weather will turn again.

Have you noticed how prices of anything you order online have skyrocketed? One tin of paint was all I wanted - the first quotes that popped up were £85! I eventually ordered one at £40, but even that was just ridiculous. I appreciate manufacturers and retailers are having a hard time just now with their customer footfall either well down or zero, but if they push it too hard they will lose the public's support.

Oh - that's the men from Curry's with our washing machine - must go.

Happy Easter!

Yes - hope everyone is managing to enjoy the weekend, despite being deprived of our liberty for how many weeks now? The days merge in to each other. Some say it's important to have a daily regime and stick to it - others prefer to go laissez faire.

Jo and I haven't been taking full advantage of the government guidelines/recommendations on daily exercise. We've been going out for walks just 2-3 times per week. We've made a couple of supermarket trips as well, but they feel a lot less comfortable - despite the fact that the stores are well organised. With the best will in the world, it's almost impossible to avoid getting closer than 2 metres to somebody, however briefly.

I've been filling my days with:

• Compiling Headbangers' shows for River Dee Radio
• Occasional bits of home/garden maintenance
• Zoom video conferences

The latter has been a godsend - every day I either host or participate in at least one group video chat. Mondays and Thursdays are the cycling group, Tuesday is the coffee mob, Wednesday is golf, Friday is my regular Friday night pub visit with my ex-football pals and last night (Saturday) I hosted my first one with my former schoolmates. Then, of course, there's the family - Thursday evenings with Dawn, Barry and Helen and tonight (Sunday) we have another one with our offspring (couldn't think of another collective name - sorry).

So it's now mid-April and who knows when we can get out of this mess. There's a clamour for lifting some restrictions soon but surely that's going to start it all over again? Until they have a vaccine - or until we've all had the virus (and maintained immunity) - we can't return to our old ways. The best estimates for the vaccine are 6 months, but I heard Bill Gates talking about 18 months this morning. Worrying times.

It's 50 years this month that Jo and I got together - which also means that it's 50 years since I had the first of many operations and procedures on my right knee following a serious injury at football training. We can both recall the first time I met Jo's parents I had a "stookie" - a full length leg plaster. It felt a little surreal that day.

To finish on a brighter note, there are little rainbows appearing everywhere just now - I took the photo below from our 3rd floor bedroom window, looking down at the approach to Arbor Court:

Home again

So we made it - and the travel was remarkably straightforward - no hassles, although the airports often looked like something out of a science fiction movie with all the face masks and even some full body suits.

We were home before 2 pm on Saturday afternoon and Gary arrived a couple of hours later with some groceries for us - and wearing a scarf round his mouth and keeping his distance from us!

Even since we've been back, things have changed a fair bit with Governments ramping up the controls and airlines cancelling international flights everywhere. We're now told we're in lockdown, but, in the same breath, our leaders have told us we can have one outing (every day if necessary) to get groceries and medicines and one for exercise but we must observe the 2 metre social distancing rule.

We had planned to do our 7 days of self isolation and then hopefully get out a bit to stretch our legs and it seems this is still permissible, but all non-essential businesses are being forced to close - and even our golf club is shut now.

Everything seems to be changing daily so who knows where we'll be next week even.

Anyway, to close this post, a couple of previously unpublished holiday photos:

Asher and Miller took full advantage of having a TV for a change when we were in Renmark - but they had to watch it in our bed, despite there being another TV in the lounge!

Another version of the end of holiday family photo with everyone doing the bunny ears thing

Renmark

With our planned trip to Bali cancelled this week, Chris and Kelly booked us all in to a 6 berth cabin at one of Big Four's premier campsites in Renmark in the heart of the (Murray) River Country. We knew it was going to be hot inland which would be perfect for the boys to use the water park there - and they did. They loved it - couldn't get enough.

Probably easiest just to upload some of the photos rather than have long narratives, so here goes:

Kelly and Asher

Jo and Miller

Boys on a "twike"

Asher

Miller

Miller and Asher on mini slide

Down to waterfront at Woolshed Brewery

Note daily temperature range

Back in Old Noarlunga, a slightly premature birthday party for Jo - home made cake and cards

All being well, we should be back home in Banchory tomorrow (Saturday). Borders are closing all round the world and airlines are cancelling international flights so we felt we needed to cut short our holiday by 2 weeks and try to get home as soon as possible so we're now booked on Emirates flights tonight (Friday). Otherwise, we might have been stuck in Australia for some months - not that it's a bad life here - far from it - but I think we all need to get back to our own homes and as much normality as possible in these crazy times.

In hindsight, it's just as well we didn't go to Bali on Monday as we would not have been allowed back in to Australia as the Government here have now stopped all foreign nationals arriving. Also, our carrier Malindo Air would have flown us to Bali OK, but they then suspended all flights so we couldn't have flown back with them anyway!

We now hear that UAE have barred all foreign nationals from entering, with effect from 19th March. We are transiting through Dubai so we don't technically enter the UAE, so I'm kind of assuming our flights will be OK and we can make the connection from Dubai to Glasgow. Fingers crossed.