ONE WEEK LATER

Just over a week ago, Scott and Lucy came to pick me up and drive me home from Woodend. There weren’t that many hours left in the day before most would be heading to bed prior to their early morning drive to the airport. Scheduled departure was 4:20 am but we were all awake by 3:30 am. And then they were gone after 2 hectic weeks.

The rest of Friday was quiet but I had to run our 3 monthly Headbang in the evening – remotely on this occasion.

Nothing eventful on Saturday either – other than the fact that Jo and Mary broke with tradition and didn’t spend the afternoon video calling!

Sunday mornings are usually my turn to go shopping – and pick up my Sunday Times while Jo’s at church but she wasn’t quite ready for that this week so was happy to do my usual little chores for me.

All had seemed to be fine – progress on my knee was OK and I was getting through the exercises alright too but an unexpected issue crept up on me on Monday – my bladder and bowel were blocked. No movement overnight either so, on Tuesday morning I had to phone our local GP Practice for help.

Dr. Henderson arranged for me to come in immediately and he then went about sorting the problem for me. Having a catheter fitted is, shall we say, a novel experience, but when I saw the length of the extraction tube I got a bit of a shock. Not a fun way to start the day – for me or for him. Well at least I now know the capacity of a male bladder (600 mls if you really want to know).

Prior to the operation, once the date was confirmed, it finally gave us an opportunity to organise a few short trips that, earlier in the year, we had thought I would be fully fit for by now. These included a CAMRA brewery visit in Shropshire early in September and our usual trip to Marbella in October.

Because the operation was now later in the year it did, however, mean that I would not be able to participate in our group’s annual Walking Weekend which this year would be based in Mallaig. It was all booked and fully paid – hotel, ferries etc – and it would be a shame to waste it, so Jo is now coming too. We won’t be walking with the rest of the group but it gives us a chance of a short break.

All good you would think but then one of the nursing staff suggested to me last week that I wouldn’t be able to drive for 6 weeks after the operation. What? Even though my operation is on my left knee and we have a right hand drive automatic car? I had to consult a higher intelligence:

I know which one I prefer.

Anyway, how is the knee progressing? Here's the "before" and "after" shots:

 

The one on the left was taken in hospital immediately post-op. The one on the right was taken yesterday - 8 days later. The dressing is the same - there has been no need to change it. It gets removed on Monday anyway.
Other news in photos:

Greyhound no.3 has just been delivered to Gary. " Completely demented with a bad case of the runs" - Gary's words, not mine.

Scott on river walk with Lucy on their last full day here.

Ross in his daily routine.

Lucy checks up on Kendall

Kintore Utd's promo for their match on Saturday features Luca (no. 2)

We seem to have dodged a bullet, weather-wise, yesterday. The high pressure eventually brought some thunder and lightning to Scotland - and locally, there were some flash floods, hailstones and, apparently "818 lightning strikes in the last hour across the Cairngorms and Aberdeenshire" (according to a headline on FB). We heard some thunder but never experienced any of the other stuff in Banchory.

This was a road leading in to Dinnet:

Some of the hailstones were pretty big:

Quiet house

Scots comedian Kevin Bridges often refers to "empties" in his stories - that's what our house feels like now that all our relatives have gone home. The last to leave were Scott and Lucy. Early on Friday morning - 4:20 am to be precise - Ross drove them to the airport:

Now they're going through the usual pain of jetlag. They had a busy 2 weeks in the UK - London first, where they met up with Lauren and Malcolm:

Then they arrived in Banchory and it was Brian and Mary for a couple of days plus Lucy's "bestie" Lorna popping in occasionally - they went to Craigievar Castle for a photo opportunity to show little Kendall the "Princess Castle":

Next was Dawn and Julie - for this Lucy and Jo had to travel down to the Central Belt - they took our car while Scott and I headed off to St Andrews for golf. Here's the team photos they took:

Obviously nobody in Houston was technically proficient enough to set up a camera timer and get all 8 of them into the photo - they had to get Lucy to do one and then Jo the next one!

Jo and Lucy drove back to Banchory on Saturday where they were met by a car-less Gary who joined us on the short drive up Deeside to the Aboyne Highland Games.

On Sunday, it was Barry and Helen's turn to arrive. Bacon butties for lunch then Barry, Scott and I grabbed our bikes and headed west to the Deeside Activity Park. Scott's a big, strong lad who's a generation younger than Barry and me but he's not used to off-road riding - especially in a lightweight analogue bike - nor was he kitted out in suitable undergarments for a rough-ish 40 kms ride. No problem for me or Barry, appropriately kitted out on our pedal-assist e-bikes, but, by the time we got to DAC Scott was ready to dial 111. Thankfully, we'd arranged to meet Ross, Jo, Lucy and Helen there and they came to Scott's rescue for the return journey:

Barry and Helen were resident at the Tor-na-Coille and they treated all of us (incuding Luca after his shift finished) to dinner there that evening.

Happily, the weather had generally been fine for the 2 weeks that our Americans were over here, but it appeared that this was about to change - Storm Floris was on the way. We did get a bit of rain and it was pretty windy, but nothing like as bad as had been forecast. As a result, Barry and I decided to do another bike ride - heading east, taking in 2 castles.

Scott, who by now, had got the golf bug - virtually every day he'd either been at the driving range at Inchmarlo or playing 9 holes there - had a caddy this morning - Lucy:

After we had all finished our morning activites, we met up at Drum Garden Centre for coffee and cakes/scones.

Before Barry and Helen went back to Glasgow, we had to take another team photo:

No Gary (at work) nor Luca, but, jumping forward to Saturday, Luca played his first full game for Kintore since his series of metatarsal injuries which started 18 months ago:

That's him in yellow on the ball. His team, which finished  bottom of the league in his absence, won this match against Banff 4-3 with Luca providing a few assists.

Wednesday was the day I'd been waiting for, for over 2 years - my left knee replacement. Ross drove Jo and me over to Woodend Hospital and then the admin and the waiting started. It was fully four and a half hours before I was actually in theatre.

I'd been advised to take music and headphones with me. As soon as the anaesthetist had done her work - spinal, so I would be conscious during the operation - I put the music on and inserted my earbuds. I knew they would also administer "mild sedation", but, blow me, I only heard one track and the next I knew they were waking me up again.

I was told the operation (robotic) went well but all I could see was a hugely inflated knee, swathed in bandages. Of course, I was given some heavy opioids which probably helped me sleep a bit that night. I had been told that morning operations get home the same day but afternoon ones require an overnight stay. However. on Thursday morning, the staff - particularly the physios - started back-tracking a bit and told me it could be Friday before I got home.

Scott and Lucy were booked on the redeye on Friday morning so I was keen to get out to see them before they left, so I started agitating a bit. I was put through the mill by one physio but thankfully I passed his tests with flying colours so they now had no reason to keep me in another night.

Scott and Lucy had a pretty hectic fortnight but they got round to see everyone they had planned for - with one exception. Kelly had video called just before they arrived and asked me to try to find a convenient time to call when as many as possible were there - I did try but it proved to be too difficult, only partly due to the time difference.

Friday was quiet in Banchory but I had a long-planned Headbang to attend that evening - remotely. It actually went quite well - and I didn't fall asleep!

 

All go here

It's been all go over the last week since Scott and Lucy arrived on Monday, followed by Mary and Brian on Tuesday. Scott and Lucy had arrived in London on Saturday and spent Sunday being tourists then went to see Lauren and Malcolm. Monday was a bit of a bummer for them though as their plane north was delayed by almost 2 hours, but eventually the welcoming party of me, Ross and Gary were able to greet them and drive them over to Banchory.

Mary and Brian checked in to the Tor-na-Coille mid-afternoon on Tuesday and I immediately whisked Brian and Scott off for an afternoon of beer drinking in the sunshine with my golf group at our monthly do at Ian Dring's Man Shed:

On Wednesday morning we went for coffee at the Unit next door:

In the afternoon it was golf at Banchory with my pals. Scott started nervously and Brian, likewise, struggled for a couple of holes but eventually they came on to their games. After the round was over, the plan was to gather on the golf club balcony with the others for a quick beer. First of all, Scott and Brian had to walk their clubs back to Arbor Court. Meawhile, I went through my usual procedure, utilising the trolley and battery room then putting my clubs in their locker.

The first part went OK and I stepped out of the trolley store and was about to lift my clubs when, all of a sudden, I heard a huge bang behind me - followed by the air outside filling with this black, acrid smoke then huge flames broke out just a couple of feet behind me through a glass door. I immediately abandoned my clubs and ran up the stairs shouting "fire, fire!". By this time, all the alarms were going and everyone evacuated the building. This was the scene I narrowly managed to escape from:

Brian and Scott arrived back at the club wondering what was happening - fire engines were arriving and smoke filled the air. I was somewhat shaken - but a beer might help, so we headed to the Legion and the terrace there.

Dinner had been arranged for 7 pm for 8 of us (Luca was working) so the 3 of us strolled down the lane to the Derbar, where we were eventually joined by Jo, Lucy, Mary, Ross & Gary. Here's the team photo:

Lucy's bestie, Lorna, came over on Thursday morning and she took Lucy away to Alford for most of the rest of the day. I had originally planned that Scott and I go for a bike ride but I was too tired after the previous day's events. We had been to the Inchmarlo driving range before golf on Wednesday and Scott then decided he would like to play the 9 hole course there, whilst I chilled.

Another golf challenge for Scott on Friday - we were off to St. Andrews to play the Eden course - an annual event for my golf group. This would be a whole new experience for Scott - links golf - fast, undulating greens and deep bunkers. Just like the day before, Scott's start wasn't the best but he settled down eventually and hit some booming drives on the back nine, topped by a terrific par at the tricky 14th hole:

Dinner for our golf group was at the Balgove Steak Barn.

Jo and Lucy had driven down to the Central Belt for a (late) long lunch with Dawn, then dinner at Julie's (after an adventurous near 2 hour drive from Dawn's!).

Jo and Lucy stayed at Mary and Brian's on Friday night then set off back to Banchory on Saturday morning. Gary, Scott and I had decided not to drive down to Perth to see Partick Thistle after all - we would instead go to the Aboyne Highland Games, but first we needed a car to get us there. Gary had left his car in Aberdeen and bussed through to Banchory so only 5 of us could go in our car. I think Jo was quietly pleased to opt out.

It was a brilliant, sunny afternoon at the Games - lots of activities happening at the same time - pipe bands, sword dancing, tug-of-wars, hammer throwing, track running, hill racing etc. Very entertaining:

Now today, Sunday, Barry and Helen will be arriving shortly. Bacon butties first then a cycle this afternoon, followed by dinner for 9 of us tonight in the Tor-na-Coille.

Rain at last

It's cooled down a bit in the last few days and finally we've got some proper rain - a bit too much this morning, if truth be told. We had seemed to have dodged the previous storms sweeping the UK but it's finally caught up with NE Scotland now.

Only a few days now until Scott and Lucy leave Oregon on the long journey over the Atlantic. They arrive at ABZ a week tomorrow after spending a couple of days in London. They're going to be busy when they get here and the time will flash by. Lucy will want to spend time with some old friends, especially Lorna, and she plans to meet up with Julie somewhere too. I'll make sure I keep Scott busy too - and Brian and Barry when they're here. This is some of what I'm thinking of:

    Monday 28th July - pick up at ABZ (17:40)

    Tuesday 29th July - Brian & Mary arrive. Scott, Brian and me to Ian Dring's for beers

    Wednesday 30th July - Afternoon golf at Banchory

    Thursday 31st July - Brian & Mary leave

    Friday 1st August - Golf at Eden course, St. Andrews

    Saturday 2nd August - St. Johnstone v Partick Thistle (Perth) with Gary?

    Sunday 3rd August - Barry and Helen arrive

    Monday 4th August - Barry, Scott and me cycle?

    Tuesday 5th August - Barry and Helen leave

    Wednesday 6th August - My knee op (11 am)

    Thursday 7th August - I get home after op

    Friday 8th August - Scott and Lucy leave (6:50 am)

I've added Scott and Lucy to our car insurance for the period when they're here. Sod's law - we don't have our car now! Last week Jo came home from her regular Tuesday afternoon with her pal Elizabeth and reported that there were a couple of amber lights showing on the dash so I had a quick look - usual drill - reboot and see if they disappear (they didn't).

I got in touch with our car dealer and they advised me to call Volvo Assistance. I got an immediate response and they told me they were sending a vehicle out. I assumed it would be a technician/mechanic to have a look at the problem, but, no - a great big car transporter arrived within 30 minutes and hauled our car away to the dealer's. Great, I thought - super service - but since then, nothing other than a daily text to tell me they haven't even looked at our car yet:

Tomorrow (Monday) we're heading to the Crail Festival (https://www.crailfestival.org/) with Anne & Leslie Mason. I was supposed to be driving but it's going to have to be Anne now. Anne's brother, Tom Cannavan, is hosting this event:

Jo's been busy rearranging the plants in the back. First she created a mini rock garden corner:

Next, she moved up a level and rearranged the layout:

No news yet of Ross' HGV licence. It's been way too long now - something must have gone wrong.

Last week I went to Edinburgh to meet up with some of my old school pals again:

The heat is back

It's a hot one today and it's going to be even hotter over the next few days we're told. I'll be heading across to the golf course shortly - looking forward to it. I've now received confirmation of my knee operation - August 6th it is. I guess I'll be in recovery mode from then until about the end of the year so now's the time to get things done.

Getting a bit more golf in is a start - with the op pending, surely I can't do much more damage to the joint that won't be fixed then? I'm making a start this weekend as it's our group's Summer Tour and this year it's being held around the East Kilbride/Strathaven area. The rest of the group are playing 3 days in a row but I'll just be playing in 2 of them - the latter in a buggy.

Also next week, I've arranged another get-together with my old school pals - our first this year. We're meeting for lunch in Edinburgh next Thursday.

Ross hasn't yet received his provisional HGV licence from DVLC. It's a bit worrying how long it's taking - hope he gets it soon.

Also coming up is our great-grandaughter Kendall's 2nd birthday. We sent her a present and here she is with the first part of it:

Looking back now over the last week and a half since my last post, we had a visit from the Whaley boys on Monday. They came up to see the Grampian Transport Museum at Alford and had booked in 2 nights at Inchmarlo resort - where Lucy and Kelly had stayed on their last visit back in 2013. We took them for a curry at the new Saffron Garden (our usual haunt, the Derbar, was closed that day). Here's the team photo and one of Jo and me too:

The above was all written before I went out to play this afternoon - and it really was hot.

Last Saturday, Jo, Ross and I drove over to Dunecht to meet Gary and Luca for a meal at what is now called the Waterton restaurant. Gary and Luca were playing pool in the sports bar when we arrived but then we all sat down and Gary was presented with his 50th birthday gifts:

We've been enjoying the strawberries from our garden this year but Jo was also delighted that as many as 3 fruits were now visible on the cherry tree!:

Lucy also told us that Scott had finally sold their runabout Jeep and also his old truck, which was replaced with this:

Our friends and former close neighbours were getting rid of their old garden bench a decade or so ago. It was in a pretty sad state but Jo was keen to have it so I set about trying to resurrect it - and it worked for a while, but the bench was riddled with woodworm. I've repaired it as best I could several times but I really thought it was a goner this year. However, I thought I would give it one last go to see if we could get at least one more year out of it. I replaced one of the seat slats and effected some crude repairs to the seat back as well as repainting the ironwork. As long as you don't examine it too closely it doesn't look too bad now:

Funnily enough we're going out tomorrow night for our second curry this week - with those same former neighbours and still good friends.

Oh - and today I finally got round to booking our flights for our return to our Marriott's Marbella timeshare in October. Anyone fancy joining us? 

Post midsummer

We're now past the Summer Solstice so it's the start of the long, slow slide towards winter but at least the weather's holding up. We're not experiencing the European heatwaves up here in NE Scotland - nor those nearer home in the south of England - but the temperatures are pretty good and, although we've had a bit of rain now it's been far from disruptive.

Of course, it's the complete opposite Down Under - Asher's hair has been left to grow a bit over their winter:

He was donating the family games to his school's games club.

Now, a further update on my planned knee operation. On Monday morning I got a phone call from Woodend Hospital asking if I could come in for another pre-op medical - my 3rd. I wasn't totally surprised as it was now 15 weeks since my previous one and it would be 6 more weeks at least until the earliest date for my op. So I went along on Tuesday morning and whereas my first pre-med last year had taken almost 2 hours, this one was over in 10-15 mins. I got some sympathy from the staff - "you again?". There was no need for me to complete the long questionnaire this time, nor see the surgeon again.

So that was all pretty positive - but then I got an email from the surgeon's secretary to tell me that the theatre list for 4th August had been cancelled. I froze for a second but then read on - I am now potentially booked for 6th August - just 2 days before Scott and Lucy head home. It is, however, still just a potential date - to be confirmed. It seems there are only limited days when my surgeon does robotic knee operations - I hadn't realised when I first saw him that accepting a robotic operation would limit the availability of theatre time - and hospital locations.

Meanwhile, Ross is still waiting for his provisional HGV licence from DMV. He phoned them to check that they had received it ok and was told that 3 + weeks was pretty standard. Stagecoach even contacted him to ask if he was still interested as it has been several weeks since they had received his eye test and medical exam results.

Ross is still baking daily. Here's this morning's batch:

Sgt. Braeden is back in USA and received an award recently:

I'm resting today as I actually managed to get round 3 games of golf this week - more than my normal once a week. It was our Senior Championship so I played in that on Monday and Wednesday and then our group had an outing at Braemar on Thursday - I had to have a buggy for that but otherwise managed ok.

It's just over 4 weeks now until Scott and Lucy arrive in Banchory. They arrive in London 4 weeks today and initially I wondered whether we might go down and meet them there but this is probably impractical now. Scott is looking to play a bit of golf when he's here - perhaps Brian might bring his clubs and join us when he's here?

Gary has changed his plans for his and his pal Donald's 50th birthdays next Saturday - they're now celebrating the following week (12th) so Gary has now booked the Dunecht Sports Bar & Waterton Restaurant (formerly Jaffs, now under new management) for an evening meal there. Look forward to it.

Medical and other updates

I'll start with the good news - Luca has passed his driving test:

After failing his first test he thought he would have to wait until autumn to get another but he got a cancellation for July - and that's as much as his father knew until he came home with this bit of paper! What Luca hadn't told Gary was that he'd since got an even earlier cancellation. Look out world - Luca's out and about now. At least he'll be able to drive to/from work now.

Still on the Luca front, he finally got the all-clear to resume playing football after breaking metatarsals in both feet at different times in the last year - 3 in all, I think:

Not such good news for me, I'm afraid. This is now week 15 after my (2nd) medical pre-assessment, so I chased up my surgeon's Medical Secretary at Woodend Hospital and got the following response:

"I am just waiting for confirmation that Mr Stevenson will have a robotic theatre list on 4.8.25.  If this date does not happen will be looking into a September date.  I will keep you posted."

Hugely disappointing news after 2 years of waiting, including last year's withdrawal of their offer to send me to the Golden Jubilee in Clydebank - due to funding cuts. My response yesterday was to offer to pay the costs of travel and accommodation myself but I was told that, in any event, this was unlikely to be before the autumn anyway so I was advised to stick with Woodend.

Another potential issue is that my operation will be at least 5 months - possibly 6 - after March's pre-assessment, which will most likely invalidate those results, so it's likely I'll have to have another one - my 3rd! It's hugely frustrating.

4th August (if it happens then) is when Scott and Lucy are here - Barry and Helen too. Hopefully I get home the same day - if it's a morning operation. One night overnight if an afternoon operation.

One ever-so slight upside is that I had assumed I wouldn't be golfing at all this summer but the way it's now turned out I've managed to limp my way through my one game a week through April, May, June and now July too.

And my broken tooth implant isn't making any progress either. Nobody seems to be able to locate the type of implant so I'm stuck with half of it still in my gum - and a very toothy smile!

Meanwhile, at home, Jo's just finished yet another blanket:

Just what's needed in the middle of summer, eh? It's forecast to be 27 C (81 F) here tomorrow. Ross has encouraged Jo that her next knitting project should be a tea cosy, so she's now working out how best to do that.

Talking of Ross, he is still waiting for his provisional HGV licence to come through - that's over 3 weeks now. Until he gets that, he can't start his training.

It was our monthly golfers' beer afternoon on Tuesday and what a glorious day it was. Four of us went for a cycle beforehand and were more than ready to join the others and slake our thirst, come 4 pm:

It was definitely barbecue weather and we had jumbo prawns to start, followed by BBQ'd prime rib of beef in a bun - fabulous!

Everyone I know says when they retire that their first "project" will be to clear up/tidy up/organise the garage. Well, over a decade has passed and I finally got round to doing something about it this week - aided by Jo and Ross. We emptied out all the cupboards and nooks and crannies and threw out a bunch of stuff we didn't need or want - Jo and I took it to the tip this morning. The garage doesn't look any different but I now know where everything is at least. It's a long way from being as organised as Scott is in Grants Pass. Should I now get a tool tidy for the wall - or would that be too pretentious?

(Non) Flaming June

The long spell of warm, sunny weather did, indeed, come to an end just as the weather forecasters were predicting. Not that we've had it bad over the last couple of weeks - far from it - but we have had some much-needed rain at long last. It's a bit cooler too.

Jo and I were at another funeral last Wednesday - our former neighbour at no.1, Frances Salter. We attended the crem but swerved the afters at Banchory Lodge. The crem was well short of being full and we only saw 3 people we knew - former primary school head Karl Revel and 2 of the Girvan/Thomson sisters - Carol and Betty.

Ross is getting ever nearer a start of his training with Stagecoach - he's just waiting for his provisional licence coming through from DVLA - hopefully very soon. Not so me - today is the start of week 14 since my pre-med the day after we came back from Australia. How much more can they stretch it without having to do yet another pre-med? The examination takes a couple of hours and covers virtually everything, but one of the most important ones is the MRSA swabs. Given that my op is now going to be at least 16 weeks after my pre-med, surely the MRSA swab is no longer of any value?

If I'd gone private when I had the chance 2 years ago - at a cost of £14.5K - Albyn would have swabbed me the day before the op.

My broken implant hasn't moved on either. They're still trying to identify the type of implant I had/have.

Brian and Mary have now booked 2 nights at the Tor-na-Coille on Tuesday/Wednesday 29/30 July when Scott and Lucy are here.

We had a lovely (bus) trip to Ballater last Friday for a late, long lunch at the spendid, albeit hugely expensive, Fish Shop restaurant (https://fishshopballater.co.uk/) with Anne and Leslie Mason:

Just a month now until Gary's 50th. He's already arranged something for the weekend of 5th July - presumably with some of his pals (Donald has the same birthday) - but we'll have a meal with him to celebrate round about then.

We missed our usual Sunday FaceTime with Lucy yesterday but we had a video call from Kelly on Saturday. Things have started to move with their new house - they appear to have all the official permissions now so they'll be taking down the non-native trees soon to start site clearance. The boys start their new schools in January but it looks like Chris and Kelly are going to have to find a place for the family to rent for at least a year before the new house is habitable.

Kelly sent a photo of Asher at Bush School:

Miller was at Kuitpo Forest too:

and we got this one of Kendall from Lucy today:

Kendall is in Grants Pass for her cardio checks today.

To close, just for a laugh, I did one of these silly "age your face" things and this was the result:

So I've "lost" 13 years!