November 2023

Happy St. Andrews Day!

For those on Facebook, there were plenty photos from our recent theatre trip to London, so I won't repeat them here. It was a short (2 nights) trip but a really nice one. We went to Tina, the Musical, the Van Gogh Experience and Cabaret. All were excellent - especially the last-named, although it comes with a word of caution as you have to be fairly broad minded. Like the film, it's set in decadent pre-war Berlin, but it's not quite as sanitised.

Last Saturday, I made my first trip to Firhill for a while to see Thistle comfortably beat Queen's Park in a Scottish Cup tie. Nice day - but a long one, leaving the house before 8 am and not getting home until 10 pm. It would have been even later if Jo hadn't driven in to Aberdeen to pick me - and Ross, who was travelling up from Edinburgh to meet his pals - up. Here's the hallowed ground:

Then, last Sunday, we finally made it along to Craigellachie. We had booked to go there over 3 years ago but the prolonged lockdowns etc meant we never made it until now. We were a little unlucky in our timing as it turned out that they couldn't do one of their themed whisky tastings as their "Quaichmaster" was off on holiday - and there was a double whammy when we were told on arrival that the famous Quaich bar with all the whiskies would not be open either due to staff absences. We were able to get a sneak look however:

It's a lovely room - perhaps another time.

We arrived on Sunday afternoon, checked in then went for a short walk to the old Telford bridge:

My earlier version of this was taken from the beach below but Jo wanted to include the towers at either end of the bridge - I managed to get one of them in this selfie.

In the heart of Speyside - whisky country - we weren't surprised to see this on our walk:

We had a really nice meal on Sunday evening in the hotel's Copper Dog bar. After breakfast on Monday morning we had originally planned to go for a walk along the adjacent Speyside Way to Aberlour and back, but the weather beat us, so, instead, we decided to go for a drive along the north coast. First stop was Cullen, which sits in a lovely rocky bay with a large viaduct as the backdrop. In between the showers there was some really bright sunshine and we saw a photo opportunity as the sun shone on the white waves crashing on the rocks but just missed the best of the light:

Next stop was Sandend where we saw some lovely small shorefront properties. The wind and waves were whipping up the sea foam on to the shore:

We drove on through Portsoy to Banff and MacDuff. By now, we were ready for a coffee stop, but didn't see anything worthwhile so headed south and eventually got a nice cafe for a spot of lunch in Turriff.

Yesterday (Wednesday) we finally got our Hep A top-up in advance of our trip to Bali in February. We'd had the first vaccine nearly 4 years ago, in preparation for going to Bali then, but Covid intervened and we had to cancel. One issue that the pharmacy did raise was the question of measles immunity. Jo's pretty certain she had it as a child but I don't remember having it, so I've now been referred to the vaccine centre as the disease has been growing again in the UK, following the drop off in children having the vaccinations.

That's about it for now. Pickleball for me again tomorrow. I've now set up a group of 17 and we're playing twice a week - it's become hugely popular and it's a great indoor sport during the winter months.

I'll plug again my appearance on BBC Radio Two's Sounds of the 70's show on Sunday - here's the link:

https://soundcloud.com/ian-stewart-911268803/sot70s-26-nov-23-no-music

To close, a couple of Audrey's photos of Kendall:

October 22nd - 3rd post

 More photos:

Lunch in Puerto Banus on Saturday 14th - the day before the boys arrive

We walked right round the harbour and Jo needed a sit-down

Another angle

Inside church in Mijas on Sunday morning (15th)

A little shrine in a cave in Mijas

Disc golf on Monday 16th - before my fall

Bridge in Nerja on our day trip on Thursday 19th

Another view of Jo and Ross on our acqueduct walk on Friday 20th

Our walk passed a hornet's nest and Gary was the unfortunate recipient of a sting

Chill out day Saturday 21st - the day before the boys' early morning departure

View from my sunbed on Saturday 21st

Another post from Costa del Sol

My earlier post this morning must have been a bit grim reading - and there were no photos, so I'm going to put that right now. Here's some recent photos that didn't appear on my Facebook page:

Lynnhurst Hotel, Johnstone where Jo and I stayed

Kendall getting ready for Hallowe'en

Barry and Helen after completing their epic walk round Menorca

Jordon all spruced up for a friend's wedding

View from our villa the day after we arrived

Jo with the little car we hired for the first few days

October post from Costa del Sol

It's been a while since my last blog post and a lot has happened since then, most tragically the passing of Guy. Jo and I drove down to Renfrewshire on the Sunday and spent a couple of days with Julie, the boys and Brian and Mary. Unfortunately, the earliest date for the funeral was some 10 days later, by which time we would be in Marbella with Gary, Luca and Ross. We toasted Guy on that day.

Jo and I flew out to Malaga the day after (Wednesday). We hired a small car for a few days and returned it on the following Sunday when the boys were flying in. I had hired a bigger car for the rest of our vacation and Ross was added as an additional driver but when we went to pick it up I realised I didn't have my passport, but I did have my driving licence, alternative ID and credit card and the rental company - Firefly - already had my passport details from the small car I had just returned. However, we were confronted with a real jobsworth - "no passport, no car". In the end, I had to endure a long phone call to cancel the booking and Ross would take out a new booking in his name - but I wouldn't be allowed to drive.

Subsequently, I checked Ryanair's confirmation of booking, which read:

Things to remember when picking up your car
• Your voucher.
• A valid credit card in the main driver's name.
• Your Driving Licence (Both parts if applicable).

No mention of passport there. I've tried taking this up with Ryanair but to little effect, surprise, surprise.

Anyway, another airport story today (Sunday 22nd October). Ross, Gary and Luca set off for the airport at 4:30 am local time. Dropped the car off, got through security and were then in a 50 minute queue at passport control (due to staff industrial action apparently). They - and a dozen others - finally got to the gate 10 minutes before take-off but 20 minutes after the gate was closed.

The upshot is that the 3 of them are now sitting at Malaga airport. Ross is now booked on a 4 pm flight this afternoon - to Glasgow, which is not a problem for him, other than the fact that he has wasted return train travel from Aberdeen to Edinburgh. Gary and Luca, however, are now booked on the 6:35 am flight tomorrow morning - again to Glasgow, which means they have had to book in to an airport hotel tonight.

What a nightmare end to their holiday.

Jo and I are going back on Wednesday - let's hope we don't have the same problems.

Mid August update

The months have rolled on since my last blog post. We returned late June from the heat in Oregon to the tail end of the good weather in Scotland. Since then, it's been a pretty poor summer here - July was particularly overcast and wet occasionally. None of this disturbed anything we were likely to do post holiday and, so far, none of my (limited) golf has been cancelled, but it would have been nice to have had a bit more sunshine and heat.

Barry, Helen, Dawn and Jordon recently came up to stay for a couple of days. Barry and I cycled from Aboyne to Tarland to look at the new Tarland trails system, which has caused some controversy since it opened, with several accidents, necessitating the local Braemar Mountain Rescue Team and occasionally Air Ambulance, to be called out. We were careful, only trying the lowest trails, but even that was a bit much for me. Barry fared a bit better. Here we are at the start:

 We all went for a walk round the Crathes estate the following morning:

Barry and Helen went home on Saturday but Dawn and Jordon stayed another night and we all went to Banchory Lodge's Sitooterie for dinner that evening:

Of course, we just missed the birth of our first great grand-daughter, lovely Kendall Brae. Audrey has been posting lots of photos on Facebook - here's one of them:

Incidentally, Lucy is having a surprise visit from her BFF Lorna this week. It was all kept under wraps until she arrived in Medford a few days ago - well done to Scott for managing to keep it all a secret. Lucy and Lorna both celebrated their 50th birthdays this year but they hadn't seen each other for a decade.

Miller had his 10th birthday a week past Saturday. Here's the cake and Miller blowing out the candles, watched carefully by Asher:

Gary and Luca are now in their new house - and Luca has a new bike:

We all went over there for lunch when Barry, Dawn etc were here. Luca got his Highers results last week - he did OK in English and is appealing his Maths grade. He goes back to school for 6th year next week.

Dawn was hospitalised for a few days just over a week ago. She collapsed on the train heading in to Glasgow and was unconscious for a few hours. She had a number of tests in hospital but they came to the conclusion that she had Syncope (fainting). She's now trying to take things easy - she's not allowed to drive for a while.

Jo has been monitoring her blood pressure for a while and yesterday she was at the Doctor's. A review of the results was pretty encouraging and it's likely that she will be coming off some of her medication which seemed to be causing the problem. An ECG is lined up for tomorrow just to confirm.

My turn now - I have an appointment with an orthopaedic surgeon at the end of the month. My left knee (the non-metal one) has been causing me problems whenever I exercise - initially it was mostly when playing golf that I suffered but now it's affecting my walking too. I can go for a couple of miles with only discomfort but after that it gets really painful. Last year's X-ray and the physiotherapy I've been doing didn't produce any positive results so I need to have this investigated further. The wait on the NHS is about 18-24 months so I'm now going private - for the consultation only at this stage.

Jo and I are heading off to the Edinburgh Fringe on Sunday. We're meeting up with Ross for dinner then. We only have 4 shows/events lined up (one was cancelled) so it's not going to be a hectic break.

We've now booked our flights to Australia next year - using Air Miles, which we normally use for our American trips, so next year these will be paid with hard cash. We've enjoyed going to USA earlier the last couple of years. May/June avoids the west coast fires and smoke - and the excessive heat (it's 43 C there today) that you get in July/August, but a slight downside is that it comes fairly soon after our long Australian trip. We are currently thinking about perhaps trying September/October next year. We'd like to do some kind of road trip then as well.

Our Costa del Sol break comes up in October this year but I've made a provisional booking to go there in April next year, which would accommodate a trip to USA in the autumn.

To close, Lauren, who now lives and works in London, recently met a small Glaswegian singer, who's ages with me:

(Lulu).

Holiday preps

Our brief overnight in Perth worked out well, even though the weather wasn't especially kind to us for our planned walk. Jo and I met up with Barry, Helen and Dawn in Blairgowrie, The intended meeting place was busy and all open tables were reserved so we moved to another cafe, where, again, it was very busy but we managed to get the last available table.

It was pretty damp outside but we decided to at least drive out to the start of the walk and assess the situation then. Barry managed to find the start OK but I had problems with my Sat Nav - both on my car and on my phone. Jo and I ended up at the other side of Drimmie Wood and it took us another 20+ minutes to get back to where Barry, Helen and Dawn were patiently waiting.

It was still raining but not too heavily and anyway, Jo and I felt the least we could do was agree to go on the walk, which was partly circular. I was a little concerned about my calf muscle which was still swollen and causing pain but I thought I could always head back if I struggled.

The initial part of the walk was on good, wide trails through the forest but we had to circumnavigate quite a few fallen trees which had still not been cleared from the trails, despite the fact that Storm Arwen had been almost a year and a half ago.

In the end, I completed the full walk but struggled with my leg, particularly on the latter half and held Barry and Helen back a fair bit. Here's some of the photos from the walk:

After driving back to Perth then checking in to our hotel, we made plans to meet up again in the adjacent pub for dinner. We got a nice 6-seater booth and the meal was good, enhanced by 2 free bottles of wine!

An informal self-service breakfast in the morning:

Then Jo and I headed back to Banchory with Barry, Helen and Dawn driving up to Dunkeld for another walk. Very enjoyable and one we must repeat some time soon.

Meanwhile, I'm still struggling with my calf muscle and it's less than a week until we're due to fly to Portland, Oregon. I've had to pull out of our regular Wednesday afternoon golf the last 2 weeks and I'm trying to rest with my leg up as much as possible. I'm applying Ibuprofen gel regularly and and wearing the compression sock I got after my knee replacement almost 10 years ago. I would dearly love the swelling to go down before our transatlantic flight.

Incidentally, there's a planned strike of security staff at Heathrow next week which seems as if it might affect our plans - let's hope not. We have about 4 hours layover in Terminal 5 - will that be enough?

Oddly, although I get pain when walking, cycling seems to be OK. I cycled back to Potarch to collect our car on Saturday morning, having left it at Dave's after Friday night's headbang, and I also made the short cycle up to the Legion on Monday (on my analogue bike) for the presentation of the local CAMRA Club of the Year.

Tonight is our monthly curry night with the Kilgours and the Masons and then tomorrow I'm off to Dunblane to meet up with some of my old school pals. Saturday is Luca's last football match this season and I'm hoping to pop along to watch a bit of it. It's coronation day and the media will, as usual, be going overboard with their coverage of the pomp and ceremony, the implicit assumption being that everyone is a monarchist and loves it all.

Gary and Luca are hoping to come over before we head to USA - probably on Sunday. By the time we get back, they'll be in their new house!

Back again

We had a lovely time at the Peat Inn last week - expensive, but it's a special treat and a bit of compensation for our wasted Golden Wedding Anniversary stay at the Old Course Hotel. Our room had two and a half levels - you enter in the middle and go down to the bedroom and en suite and up to the living room etc:

Dinner was lovely - 3 main courses but lots of little extras:

When we went back to the room after dinner, there's a small decanter of port - enough for 2 schooner glasses each - plus a plate of brownies. Breakfast in the morning is brought to your room - they lay it all out on the table in the living area - lovely:

They have a nice sheltered garden which would have been nice to sit in, but it was a little too cold for that. We had a little walk round it before leaving:

When we had arrived the previous day, we'd taken a walk along the beach and round the harbour, castle and cathedral area of St. Andrews:

Lunch that day had been in Waterstone's, Dundee where we went in hunt of suitable baby books.

On our return to Banchory, Jo joined her buddy Elizabeth for a swim at our local sports centre - the first since pre-pandemic. It wasn't entirely successful but they're going to try again this Friday at the Westill pool, which used to be their regular haunt.

Thursday was beautiful and it was our monthly golfer's beer day in a very sheltered garden - it was lovely. Briefly it felt like summer again.

We are no further forward with our replacement fence. One windy night a couple of weeks ago was more than enough to bring down another couple of panels and our neighbour's fence at the back of her garden finally fell completely flat. They're both long overdue for replacement but we can't seem to find a resolution with our neighbour.

The shared fence always falls in our direction so on Saturday I set about removing it:

Clearing this up plus scooping up all the dead leaves from the winter meant 3 seperate trips to the Waste Recycling centre. The sweat was rolling off me and I needed a complete change of clothes plus a bath afterwards. I started to feel a twinge in my right calf muscle which developed further the following day and soon I was struggling to walk - my calf was rigid and swollen. I'm now trying to give it the recommended RICE treatment - Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. It's improving but I've had to skip golf this afternoon and I don't know how I'll get on tomorrow on our planned walk round Blairgowrie with Barry, Helen and Dawn.

This Friday is another of our musical headbang evenings - and Ross arrives at midnight for a very brief visit - another of his pals' 40th birthdays.

Really good news is that Gary put in a bid for a house - and he got it! Entry's scheduled for early June (when we're away). https://www.aspc.co.uk/search/property/415322/53-Selbie-Drive/Inverurie/

Next Tuesday we're off to Dundee again - this time to the Caird Hall to see Walk Right Back - the Everly Brothers Story and on Thursday, I'm off to Dunblane to meet up with my old school pals again. Before all that, of course, we're in Perth tomorrow night with Barry, Helen and Dawn - looking forward to it.

Hello again

It's been a long time since my last post here. We've been and gone to Australia, had Easter and are now starting to think about our next long vacation to USA - we fly out in less than 4 weeks' time.

One of our concerns on returning from Oz was that we would again be surrounded by the noise and the mess created by the seagulls who have taken residence round here for the last 3 or 4 springs. We decided to buy a cover for our car to stop the mess and damage from the aerial bombardment. So far, that has worked pretty well, but it has been much quieter on the seagull front when compared with the last few years. They're still around but seemingly not so many of them and most appear to be a little further away from Arbor Court. The gym etc Unit next door (formerly D.I.S.C.) has put up 2 large bird kites which have probably helped.

Anyway, the holiday Down Under was great - we spent virtually all the time at Chris' and Kelly's place, enjoying their new pool. We only went away once - the short trip down to Carrickalinga for Chris' birthday - but we also did a few Adelaide Fringe shows in the last week of our stay. The holiday did us both good - Jo, in particular, had been pretty poorly prior to our travel but, within a few days she was back to her old self again.

We've seen Gary and Luca a few times since we've been back - my birthday, then Jo's, then Easter Sunday when we feasted on:

We're still trying to get a replacement fence in at the back of our house. We've had a couple of quotes and we're in discussions with our neighbour. It was windy overnight and when I looked out this morning, our joint fence had been further damaged up at the embankment, but also our neighbour's fence at the back had completely collapsed:

Next week we're paying a return visit to the St. Andrews area. We didn't dare risk a return to the Old Course Hotel where we'd had an awful time trying to celebrate our 50th anniversary when we were both under the weather. This time we're going to the gourmet Peat Inn, a few miles out of the town. Hopefully this time, we'll manage to enjoy it.

The following week, we're meeting up with Barry, Helen and Dawn in Perth for one night - courtesy of Barry and Helen. The week after that we go for our monthly curry with the Kilgours and Masons and I'm travelling to Dunblane to meet up with my old school pals again. Then, on Tuesday 9th May, we fly off to Oregon to meet up with Scott, Lucy, Cade, Audrey - and the bump:

Unfortunately we're not going to be there when our first great grandchild - a girl - is born in July. We had booked our flights last year before we knew Audrey was expecting.

Eve of departure

Jo and I have had a bit of a rough time over the festive season. Christmas wasn't a great success - Gary and Luca managed over to ours, but, like us, Luca wasn't feeling great so a lot of the food prepared went to waste. Then there was our 50th Anniversary trip to the luxurious Old Course Hotel. We thought at that stage that we were getting over the respiratory virus but we were mistaken - it took a second bite at us and we ended up spending most of our time there in our room. Our plans for spa treatments etc had to be abandoned.

Our plan to head from St. Andrews to Edinburgh to pick up Ross and bring him to Banchory for the New Year also had to be aborted, as did a subsequent plan for me to go down and pick him up for his weekend off.

Anyway, we now feel sufficiently well - just - to be able to fly out tomorrow. Aberdeen - London - Kuala Lumpur - Adelaide with Malaysian Airlines is our chosen route.

Anyway, here's a photo from Christmas Day as we were telly watching:

This is what Gary and Luca bought me for Christmas:

I plan to be wearing it daily in Oz!

Wish us well on our travels.

Diary update

Events chez Arbor Court these last few weeks include:

 - the sale of Jo's car - we're now a one car family;

 - the Volvo has been serviced and a new battery installed which will hopefully mean that the car won't be dead when we return from Australia early March;

 - I've started attending weekly physio classes at the Sports Centre for my knee;

 - we had some kind of respiratory bug, which thankfully seems to have mostly passed now;

 - went to corporate hospitality at the Cove Rangers - Partick Thistle match last Saturday with 3 of my pals, and Gary did similar with 4 of his;

 - received a letter from my Institute to tell me that I'm now a member of their "prestigious Gold Club" as it's now 50 years since I qualified as a C.A. I got an invite to a lunch - either in Edinburgh or London - but didn't go - I wouldn't know/remember anyone else, so my only "reward" is a little ICAS tie-pin.

We're having a bit of difficulty with our fence at the back of the house which was badly damaged in last year's Storm Arwen. It's 40 years old and was coming to the end of its life anyway. A few months ago our neighbour told me that she'd been trying to find a fencing contractor but hadn't been successful so we said we would try as well - and we found one, who came, inspected it and gave us quotes to replace it. Unfortunately we're now in limbo as our neighbour is not responding to our requests for permission to go ahead. Dilemma. Here's what it now looks like:

The first snows of winter have arrived. Nothing too bad so far, but after a long, mild autumn, the sudden plunge in temperatures has come as a bit of a shock - not least to our fuel bills. It's a battle to keep the house even moderately warm without racking up huge costs - a battle the whole country is facing.

On a lighter note, Kelly sent us this photo of the karate kids a few months ago: