Here I am again

15 years I've been doing this blog and never have I had such a big gap between posts as now. My last post was on 30th August, so nothing at all in either September or October. I'll never return to my old prolific ways - at one stage I was posting daily - but I would like to at least write something 2, 3 or 4 times a month at least.

We got back from our 2 week holiday on Costa del Sol on Saturday. The travel was easy - everything went smoothly - but - we've both picked up some kind of bug. Chest and head congestion. It's not Covid. Jo's been worse than me so far. I think she's coming out of it now but the last 4-5 days have not been good for her. I seem to have it much milder so far - hope it's not just a delay and I'll go down like Jo did.

Most of our activities when we were away have been posted on Facebook and Instagram so I'm not going to repeat it all here but suffice to say that the holiday went well. The first week was with the boys but the second week it was just the two of us and we managed to get a few nice walks in - usually in the morning, with the afternoons at the pools. It was good to see Jo back swimming again after almost 3 years:

The walks we did were varied - beach, boardwalk and trails. Our first one was really interesting, following an old aqueduct round the Guadalmina basin:

The week with the boys was completely different. Football is Luca's obsession - and both Gary and I are hardly averse to it either. We were really grateful to Ross, however, as he did all the driving that week, including the long drive to and from Sevilla in one day, principally for Luca, Gary and I to watch the Sevilla - Valencia match whilst Ross and Jo had dinner and a walk round the city gardens:

We regularly went to one of the bars at the resort to watch English football on TV - with Spanish commentaries - and much of the rest of the time, Luca kept Gary on the go with football, badminton and table tennis.

We visited the huge Monday flea market in Marbella and managed to find a fairly decent coffee shop for Ross as well. Crazy golf a couple of times and once we went karting - that was great fun:

To continue with the football theme, Luca was playing at Crathes against Banchory on Saturday afternoon - just after Jo and I got home. I went along to watch Kintore's number 14:

Jo and I bought the Marriott timeshare for our silver wedding when it first opened. This year, it's our golden anniversary - I don't know what we'll do this time? The resort is still looking very smart:

The apartment we stayed in this time is marked in red on the balcony.

Moving on to other matters - remember the Be a Brewer for a Day trip that Jo and I went on? Well, the finished article arrived a few weeks ago:

We were down at the theatre in Glasgow a few weeks ago and had a big lunch the following day with Meghan, Ellis and Avery, who were visiting from NYC, plus Dawn, Barry, Helen, Lauren, Malcolm and Ethan (Malcolm's son). I'd taken down a bottle of our brew to give to Barry but forgot to hand it over. Next time if I remember.

Here we are at the theatre and the following morning at the famous duke of Wellington statue with the "traditional" traffic cone on his head:

Fringe etc

Our return to the Fringe after a 3 year absence went well. For a change we stayed in an apartment, rather than a hotel. It was located very centrally on Market St., very close to Waverley station - not that we travelled by train. Too many strikes - we just couldn't be sure the trains would be running, so we decided to drive. Due to all the roadworks etc, we had great trouble initially getting to the designated car park, but once we got there it was a great relief. We had views of the Scott monument and the Balmoral hotel from our apartment:

We had 6 shows booked - 3 each day - and the first was:

The singer was former pop star Cleopatra who we'd seen once before. She was excellent. I wish I could say the same about our 2nd show, which was another of those awful cringe-worthy shows in a tiny room that you always get at the Fringe. Mind you, it wouldn't be the Fringe without the usual proportion of stinkers.

We had a really nice meal at a Mediterranean/Middle East fast food parlour then headed off to where we thought our evening show was, only to discover that it was a completely different location in another part of the city at least 25 minutes' walk away. We had to scurry but got there just in time for the News Revue. Satire can amuse and make you smile but you don't get many belly laughs from it. It was a relatively old-fashioned Cambridge Footlights style of revue which got pass marks - just.

The following morning was a chance to stretch our legs again - a historical comedy walk round the city centre. Daniel Downie was hilarious. He greeted all his guests and interacted with them all, remembering all the names too. I would happily go back to any one of his shows next year. Next was the Political Party with Matt Forde, who we'd seen before. This time it was a one to one interview with Joanna Cherry, a controversial figure in the Scottish National Party who, during the course of the show, revealed her ambition to one day be leader of the party, a revelation that made all the papers the following day.

Now we had a few hours to spare and we'd arranged to meet up with Ross for a meal. We walked through Princes St gardens towards Haymarket:

We met Ross in a lovely little pub with excellent ale called Monty's, which, sadly, was to close down in a few days due to the landlord's huge increase in rent. An excellent steak meal followed and then we went back to Ross' work for a coffee to finish:

Our final show was How I Ruined Medicine - a one man stand-up comedy show by TV's Dr. Phil Hammond - and that was that. We got home by lunchtime on Tuesday, a little tired but otherwise fine.

It was another drive back down the road on Thursday - to Clydebank this time for Jo's cataract operation, which was scheduled for 7:45 am on Friday morning, so they put us up in the adjacent hotel for the evening - and it's a proper hotel. We had a nice meal before retiring. Jo especially enjoyed the dessert - ice cream from Porrelli's of Paisley:

Early Friday morning, I accompanied Jo to the Eye Clinic and then headed back to have breakfast in the hotel restaurant, after which I went back to our room for what I thought would be most of the rest of the morning. Imagine my surprise when Jo appeared again not long after 9 am. She said it was so quick and easy this time compared with the previous cataract op in Aberdeen. We were home by lunchtime.

This last weekend, I was golfing at Boat of Garten and Grantown-on-Spey so Gary and Luca came over on Sunday to stay overnight at Arbor Court with Jo:

Meanwhile, Barry and Helen were celebrating Barry's birthday on the west coast, near Port Appin. Not far away were Dawn and Jordon, who arrived in style:

This afternoon, I finally got a call from our doctor concerning the results of my recent knee x-ray. She told me there is some additional degradation on the bone on the inside of the knee but not enough to merit any additional surgery at this stage. That means the pain must be coming from the soft tissues. The physiotherapist had already suspected tendonitis and I am undergoing an exercise programme plus Ibuprofen just now. I was told I should see results by the end of October - if not, then I'll have to be referred to the orthopaedic hospital - probably for an MRI scan.

That's all for now.

Be a Brewer

It's been a bit of a heavy week for me - my old school reunion in Glasgow on Tuesday, golf and a CAMRA social on Wednesday, a walk in Upper Deeside on Friday, then Jo and I attended a "Be a Brewer for a day" session with 5 other local CAMRA members at Burnside Brewery in Laurencekirk, which meant an early start on Saturday morning. Here's Jo waiting for the morning bus in to Aberdeen:

We both got involved in stirring the mash, adding the hops, clearing the mash tun and all the other jobs involved in a day's brewing:

Tapping a Pin

Jo and I took advantage of the continuing great weather and took a drive over to St. Cyrus' Nature Reserve, just north of Montrose, on Thursday. A lovely long beach backed by tall cliffs:

My walk on Friday afternoon with 3 of my pals from our hill-walking group involved a drive out to a spot a few miles past Braemar, for a lovely hike out to Loch Callater:

It was the "Glorious 12th" - the first day of the grouse shooting season - so it was no surprise to us when we were passed on the track by a Range Rover with Prince Charles at the wheel. Three hours later he passed us again, going back, but this time in the passenger seat.

Tomorrow (Monday) morning, I'm off to East Lothian for golf and an overnight stay at Longniddry. I'm meeting up with 2 of my old school pals (one of whom hasn't been able to join the last few reunions) in Edinburgh on the way home. Wednesday is the gas service and a curry in the evening with the Masons and Kilgours. Thursday is my annual appointment with the cardiologist. On Friday, I have my first telephone consultation with the NHS physiotherapist. I had my knee x-rayed last Friday but I've been told it'll be 2 weeks before my doctor gets the results. I've no idea why it takes so long in this digital age. Then on Sunday, we're off to the Fringe again.

Post holiday recovery

The return from USA was fine - all went well until Father's Day when Luca and Gary came to visit. That evening, Luca started to feel unwell and yes, it was Covid. A day or so later, Jo became unwell and a couple of days after that, so did I. Of course, we think Luca gave it to us and Luca thinks we gave it to him! No matter, Luca recovered quickly but it took us a bit longer. 3 or 4 days of feeling pretty lousy and a slow recovery after that. Almost 7 weeks have passed and I can still feel it occasionally in my chest but there's no doubt we're a whole lot better than that first week or so. Now we await the autumn "booster" programme which will be almost a year since the last "booster" so there's no doubt that the immunity offered by the vaccination has waned substantially - although our recent illness will hopefully have boosted our immunity a bit again.

What else has been happening? Car problems mostly - 6 weeks away and we come back to problems with both the Volvo and the Astra. The latter seemed to be a battery issue which we thought a jump lead start would resolve - but it didn't and our local garage couldn't resolve it either so we had to take it in to the specialist electrical garage in Aberdeen and they managed to fix it eventually - at a pretty high cost. We now think it's time to ditch the second car. The Volvo problem - a broken spring in the suspension - was something the local garage were able to fix, thankfully.

We spent a couple of days in Yorkshire - Masham - and did the Black Sheep brewery tour with some other members of CAMRA's Investment Club - and it was a lovely little local B & B we stayed in. We've also been back to Clydebank for Jo to get assessed for another cataract operation, which will now take place on Friday 26th August. It's an early morning operation but they put us up the night before in the adjacent hospital hotel.

Another post Covid symptom that Jo suffered from was blocked ears but that has since been resolved after a visit to the doctor followed by a trip in to Aberdeen for microsuction ear wax removal, which went well.

I've had to restrict my golf this year to just once a week most of the time due to pain in my left knee, which I assumed was going the same way as my right knee and would eventually need replacement. Eventually I got in touch with our local practice and they are arranging for an X-ray to be done. Additionally, I saw the First Contact Physiotherapist on Monday who assesses and recommends appropriate follow-ups. Her view was that, in addition to the long-term arthritis issue, the pain I'm now experiencing may be tendonitis, so she's given me an exercise regime and Ibuprofen gel to see if that helps.

The weather's been great since we came back - memories of the long hot summer in 1976. Drought conditions abound and there are now hosepipe bans in the south of England - just like there were nearly half a century ago when we lived in Hertfordshire. We remember the Government campaign to "bath with a friend"! If you don't believe me, Google it. Here's a photo of a recent walk we took along the River Dee which is very low just now:

On Monday Jo and I went to to Coull, near Tarland, to visit a recently established home brewery. It was quite interesting  but we never even got offered a taste of anything! It was another hot day , so when we came home, we had to have a beer on the balcony:

Next week, I'm off to Glasgow on Tuesday for another reunion with old school pals, including one visiting from Canada just now. Then on Saturday 13th, Jo and I are joining some of my CAMRA colleagues going to Burnside Brewery (https://www.burnsidebrewery.co.uk/) in Laurencekirk for a whole day's "Be a Brewer" session. On 21st/22nd August we're back at the Edinburgh Fringe again after an absence of 3 years.

I've also booked our flights to Australia (Jan/Feb) and America (May/June) for next year - at enormous expense. We've got the trip to Marbella in October first of all, of course.

That's all for now, folks.

USA holiday catch-up

I've been a bit remiss the last couple of weeks with updating this blog, but I'll try and catch up now - and hopefully not repeat some of the photos that have already appeared on Facebook. The last few days in Grants Pass before we flew out to Phoenix were fairly quiet - a bit of golf and a walk around the city center. The tourist board in GP have two main themes - Cavemen and Bears. Did you know they have as many as 52 of these around the town - all with different themes?:

Time to show the dogs - first the new pup Philly:

Then Cade's Shelby:

Sorry - none of the only male, Buster. He had a hard time, needing an anaesthetic before a couple of teeth were removed. Unfortunately, Shelby reacted adversely to this, sensing something different about Buster and now the two of them have to be kept apart.

Our journey to Phoenix was an easy one, although we arrived at the start of a major heatwave. Our first day was a new all-time record high for the area and the next day was another record - and so on for the first 5/6 days before settling down a smidgeon, but I think the lowest temperature we experienced during our 10 days there was 105 F (41 C). At night, it only dropped to 85 F (29 C). Our escape from this came via a few day trips plus judicious use of the AC and the pools - Jo particularly liked the little spa pool close to our apartment:

A few times we took the shuttle bus over to the adjacent grand JW Marriott hotel and enjoyed the use of their lazy river - Scott and Lucy too:

Grants Pass (3)

Our stay in Grants Pass is rapidly coming to an end - on Monday we fly to Phoenix and spend the last 10 days of our US holiday there. Scott and Lucy will be joining us for the last 4/5 days after attending Braeden's school graduation.

Last night, everyone got their best togs on - Lucy had arranged a professional photo session, which took place in All Sports park on a beautiful evening. We'll see the photographer's efforts later but here's a few I took:

Over an hour of posing and grinning and we were then ready for some beer and pizza so we headed to Wild River Brewery, where the food was good but the service was poor - particularly by American standards - and the ambience wasn't great either - the place needs a bit of an update.

We travelled to Ashland on Lucy's birthday and had a nice lunch in the Brickroom, followed by a stroll round the shops and a couple of beers, the last of which was at the new SKOUT taproom:

Saturday was cool and occasionally showery which was a pity as the main street downtown was completely lined with locals, sitting, standing, some in gazebos, to watch the Boatnik parade. We had our usual Saturday morning coffees at The Weekend with Lucy and Audrey running there and me cycling.

On Sunday we all took a drive out to Waters Creek and went for a hike there. It was Philly's first outing and it was all too much for her - she had to be carried the last bit, initially by Cade until he slipped and twisted his ankle, whereupon Scott took over:

On Monday - Memorial Day - after a very early start at Applegate GC for Scott and I, we drove over to Rich and Jen England's to watch the finale of the Boatnik weekend festival. Their house has a grand river view and a huge decking area. There was a (very) brief fly past of a Jet Fighter and then the jet boat race started - 18 boats with a Le Mans style start - 4 legs up and down the river to Robertson bridge. They were so fast, I only managed to (just) catch one with my phone:

On Tuesday it was back to work for Scott and Lucy whilst Jo and I headed back to Table Rock to do the Lower trails this time:

Wednesday was a day to relax until the evening photo shoot and today (Thursday) is heading the same way. Sleep was a little disturbed last night - after the usual loo visit, trying to get back to sleep, first there was Braeden's 4:15 am alarm, then after that, the neighbour's dogs started their morning howling session, followed by Jo fumbling around, apparently trying to get in to Lucy's bedroom when she was looking for the bathroom in the dark!

USA weeks 2 & 3

This week - on Wednesday - saw our highest temperature yet when it hit 90 F - warm enough for Jo and I to hit the pool - the first time it's been used this year. This coming weekend brings Memorial Day - traditionally the start of summer. There are celebrations planned in Grants Pass - Boatnik (https://www.boatnik.com/) - but the weather forecast isn't particularly good. There's a front passing through and we're expecting some rain and temperatures dropping down, maybe to the 60's, before it begins to heat up again at the start of the week.

Hard to remember everything we've done these last 2 weeks - I've been a couple of short cycles and we've played a few short rounds of golf - plus one of pickleball (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqLRRNOpe8U). Those on Facebook will have seen photos of much of what we've been up to but I've kept a few back for this blog. Here's a few from our day at the ghost town of Golden:

USA - week one (part 2) - Grants Pass

Nice easy taxi ride to the airport and baggage check-in and security were a breeze so we had tons of time to spare - more than enough for a pretty full breakfast. The flight was on time - in fact, a little early, almost catching out Lucy and Scott who were picking us up. Back at Delsie Drive, we met Audrey for the first time and saw Cade and Braeden, like their parents, for the first time in 3 years.

It was Braeden's 18th birthday so he had the job of blowing out the candles on his cake:

Incidentally, the glass of red wine is mine - 21 is the age when alcohol is permitted in USA. Lucy had kept a bottle of Black & White for the occasion, so we toasted Swanson Renshaw - father, father-in-law, grandfather, grandfather-in-law, great grandfather and great grandfather-in-law to all present:

Incidentally, to get to his birthday cash, Braeden had to punch his way through these:

Tina, the "fat cat", doesn't normally come near anyone, but she made a beeline for me and then Jo:

Of course, we saw the dogs as well - puppy Philly for the first time, Buster, looking his age, and sturdy Shelby. 

USA - week one

 All went well in the run up to our flights - Covid tests passed and all paperwork completed. The following morning, we were all packed and ready for our 4.45 am taxi to the airport. Checking in and security etc were no problem and the flight to London was fine - and punctual.

We had time at Terminal 5 to visit the BA lounge which allowed us to catch up with breakfast. The new Business Class cabins on board the 777 were smart, the food - and drinks - were good and the flight smooth and timely. We even managed a few hours' sleep - making up a bit for the early rise.