Can't think of a heading!

As promised, this is me basking in the glory of my win on Tuesday in our Quaich competition:

Wednesday was a slow day - it's the fresh herring season and I took some home, picking up oatmeal, tomatoes and fresh bread on the way home. After tea and a bit of catching up with Sky + recordings, we actually went to be bed at 9:00 pm! Of course, I then awoke at 3:00 am but at least managed to roll over until almost 6:30.

Jo's car is in for MoT etc and she's got a loan from the garage of a little Fiat - she wasn't keen on it as it made what she called an embarrassing noise and she was worried it would let her down. Incidentally, can anyone remember when Jo started to worry so much - in fact, at all? Perhaps in her new life she'll go back to what she calls watching the grass grow?

Malcolm was there yesterday when she put her car in and asked her what she was going to do after retirement? He said he was looking for an admin assistant - I think Jo was flattered a little at being asked, but wasn't sure if it was in jest or not - she merely retorted that she couldn't type!

More golf for me tonight - Deeside League at Aboyne, then tomorrow it's off to St Andrews Bay for our Midsummer Outing.

The week so far

Played the 3rd and final round of the Seniors Club Championship on Monday evening - finally put in a decent performance and actually had the best score on the day (although well off the aggregate).

Got fitted with the heart monitor on Tuesday morning and have now taken it off and am about to return it to Albyn. The cardiologist is off on holiday so I won't hear any more for a couple of weeks anyway. It wasn't too bad to wear - I did a short session at Bannatyne's as he suggested I should, and I played golf last night with it on. Even sleeping was OK - the only real downside is not being able to take a shower.

I also had my best round in our weekly Summer Quaich last night - gross 74 for 40 points - and I won! Photo to follow.

OK, that's enough of golf for now - you can all wake up again - it's safe to read on.

Jo finally got the answer from the Council officials last week re her request for early retirement - they would not recommend it to the councillors as she would have to be replaced and there was therefore no cost saving. We told them to put the request forward anyway - no harm done - if they don't accept it and offer enhanced pension, then we're no worse off - she just resigns anyway. Looking forward to getting my wife back again - can't you see it? - Jo Stewart, domestic goddess!

Monday + Luca video

First of all, a short video of Luca playing with his toys and studiously avoiding the camera yesterday:

I went to my appointment with the cardiologist this morning - a different one this time. I'd expected just a chat, but he decided to do a full ECG, plus stress test (too early for me!) and did a scan of my heart as well, so I felt I got full attention and my money's worth!

I made him aware of my aversion to Warfarin and he thought it probably wouldn't be necessary - yet - although as I got nearer 65, I would probably have to go on it. The stress test showed my heart rate reaching very high levels (240) under maximum pressure - but he said apart from that, my heart seemed to be functioning OK. He did think it might be a good idea for me to give up squash now - but I tried to argue that squash now is not so pressurised - we're all getting older and slower and when we get tired we just play a bad shot and end the rally!

Anyway, he wants me to take on a 24 hour monitor and so I'm going back tomorrow morning to have it fitted. He wanted to see how my heart performed during a normal day, including a spell at the gym. Only problem is you can't shower with it on and sleeping's very difficult as well.

The US Open was great last night - even although I finally fell asleep about 1:30 am, I think. Watched the finish this morning and I'll see the latter stages of the play-off tonight after golf.

Sunday

Been another mixed, fairly cool day. Had a foursomes tie at Torphins - which we lost - then got home before Gary, Carole and her mum arrived for lunch. We had a nice, extended lunch and Lucy Skyped us to wish me Happy Fathers' Day - and we moved the laptop around so that she got to talk to and see everyone.

Luca has inherited his mother's camera shyness - every time you point the lens at him, he looks away:

I did (just) manage to get Jo and Carole to kind of half pose:

Settling down now to watch the US Open - 6 hours of golf in HD on 50 inch plasma - great! Going to be a very late night, but I'm not going in to work until later tomorrow as I have my appointment with the cardiologist at 9:30.

More golf tomorrow night - 3rd round of our Seniors, then golf again on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday before heading off to Fort William to see Kelly, who texted me today to wish me HFD.

Fri/Sat

More golf on Friday - 2nd round of Seniors Club Championship - and I played even worse than I did in the 1st round on Wednesday. Amazingly, I still made the cut and now have to play the final round on Monday - I was looking forward to a break - but no rest for the wicked!

Golf again this morning - weather a bit cooler and showery. Tomorrow (Sunday) we've got Carole's Mum coming over for lunch.

We watched Midnight Express tonight - first time we'd seen it - very good and still pretty harrowing despite being 30 years old now.

Weds/Thurs

Got a bit cooler here now - but still dry thankfully. Had to get a new windscreen put in my car as I was hit by a stone on Monday. Jo's car is in the garage today as well - bearing and exhaust noises (or is she just paranoid?) plus MoT and service - sounds pricey. Ross is running Jo to and from work today.

Played the first round of our Seniors club championship last night (poorly) and caught up with Nigel, who was on a flying visit over here. Tonight it's the Deeside league at Ballater.

Spoke to Kelly yesterday - her 3 Peaks Challenge is next weekend (21st) and she starts off up Ben Nevis at 6:00 pm, so we've booked ourselves in to a hotel in Fort William and will drive over to see her. Of course, whilst she's busy running up (and down) the mountain, we'll be visiting one of Scotland's best pubs - the Grog and Gruel (http://www.grogandgruel.co.uk/) - we'll be thinking of you, pet!

Appointment

Oh - and I've now got my appointment with the cardiologist - a different one this time - Dr. Broadhurst - I see him on Monday morning.

Stressed? Try this!

http://www.therightfoot.net/mystuff/whatever/swf/bubblewrap.swf

If you're really bad, use manic mode!

Quick trip to Glasgow

Having let Dad settle in to Erskine (Flanders House, The Erskine Glasgow Home, 200 Dorchester Avenue, Glasgow G12 0BZ if anyone wants to write to him), I decided it was time to pay him a visit last night. I found him in great form, striding round the corridors and laughing and joking with the staff:


He was initially a little reluctant to actually go in to his room with me, and, perhaps, on reflection, it would have been better if we had stayed out in one of the common areas - but eventually he agreed and we had a little chat and a laugh, then I started to show him some recent photos of the family. After that, I switched his TV on and we settled down to watch a bit of the Holland-Italy match together. He seemed quite content and even displayed some interest in the football - something that he has lost in recent years.

He went to the toilet and when he came back, he wouldn't settle down again and started to put on his big cardigan and talk about going home with me. It wasn't too bad, however - he just got a bit confused and eventually he went back to walking the corridors (with his slippers under his arm!) and I went over to Helen and Barry's for the rest of the night.

This is a short video of his room, which is lovely and airy and very tidy:



I think it's an ideal place for him and I really hope he settles there - check the web site (http://www.erskine.org.uk/) to see what they do for ex-servicemen.

Barry was working late but I had a bit of toasted cheese and some apple pie with Helen until he came home from a school play. I tried out my new trick with the automatic "smile and shoot" feature I'd just discovered with my camera - do you think Barry's trying too hard here?:

Got up sharp this morning and headed off north east, stopping by Airdrie to pop in and see Dawn and Jordon, whose smile certainly made the camera work:

Still haven't got this feature to work with a female yet - but most are camera shy anyway, so I haven't pushed it! Dawn's got a new car:

Meghan got the results from her Masters yesterday - she got a 2:2 - initially she was a little disappointed, but when she saw what some of her friends got, she apparently cheered up a bit and is now looking forward to going ahead with her PhD.

Luca videos

Luca took great delight in using our brush to sweep the slabs at the back:

18 months of intensive coaching from his educated parents and this is what Luca can do now:

Did you notice what happened as Gary put Luca down - seen in the reflection of the window?

Glorious week in Deeside!

Blog's been neglected a little - partly due to the magnificent weather, but also because it's been so busy. The annual CAMRA beer festival is now over - didn't manage to put in as much work as I would have liked and, of course, we didn't have our usual bus in from Banchory on the Friday night - so Jo missed out as well. I worked behind the bar on Thursday evening and Saturday afternoon - I offered to take Jo in then, but she had too much to do and couldn't make it. This was me taking a short break on Saturday afternoon - wearing my Oregon Beer Taster hat!:

We strolled along to the golf club on Saturday evening and sat on the balcony (for the second week in succession) - it was lovely and warm - and Colin and Johanne joined us as we ate alfresco:

Ross came home on Saturday night (or should I say Sunday morning!) - but no car - it transpired that he and his buddies went along to the beer festival on Saturday night for the first time - and enjoyed it so much they had to taxi home.

The reason for me not organising our usual bus to the festival was that the organisers had had to change it from its usual November date to June - and this clashed with an outing to Blairgowrie that I was already committed to. It was another fabulous day there and all the photos are available on my golf blog - http://bsvgolf.blogspot.com/

On Sunday, Gary, Carole and Luca came over for a while - they had been at Crathes taking Luca on the short train run there. I discovered a new feature on my camera - if you smile it automatically takes 3 quick pictures. I didn't believe it at first, but it worked with Gary - then me - but I couldn't get it to work with either Jo or Carole. Jo was trying desperately to grin from ear to ear to make the camera take a photo - and Gary even forced his way in to the frame to try and help her out - to no avail:

We tried with camera-shy Carole but no luck:

Luca's laser spots are clearing up rapidly:


Videos to follow.

Medical

Oh - forgot to add that I received the written report from Albyn from my medical last week and I'm now scanning these reports and keeping them on my PC, with a comparison with previous results. Overall, looked OK - BP rising a bit - 136/83 now with a resting pulse of 85 - higher than I've been used to.

Overall cholesterol a little high, but lower than the last time; PSA OK at just 0.3 - so the only thing to concern me is the continuing Atrial flutter/fibrillation from the ECG results. I spoke to Dr. Morton, who did the medical, yesterday and asked if I could be referred to a different cardiologist this time - Steve Walton did the 3 (failed) cardioversion attempts a couple of years ago, and he does not perform the ablation procedure anyway. I'd like to hear somebody else's opinion anyway - I'm not keen to go back on Warfarin and if there's another route to go, then I'd like to at least consider it.

Sorry if this puts you off your breakfast!

Monday evening

After a game of racquetball with Richard, I went home for tea - Jo had bought some smoked mackerel - produced by our main competitor! - and we both agreed it was pretty c..p - never again - we both had stomach pains.

Anyway, Barry phoned to say Dad was successfully ensconced in Erskine - they had been advised not to go back for a couple of days to allow him to settle in - Barry said he seemed fairly content - time will tell.

The rain is due to arrive later on today (Tuesday) - I'm thankful I'm not golfing today. It's also the start of the set-up for beer festival, which has been switched from its usual November time to June. I'll pop along later and see if there's anything that needs doing.

Back to work

Monday morning and it's back to work. It's Barry and Helen's 14th anniversary today and it was Meghan's 22nd birthday on Saturday.

Today's also the day that Barry and Dawn are going to try to take Dad to Erskine - I wish them well - it won't be easy.

Ross is off work for 2 weeks' holiday and it appears he's already back to owl hours. The old blue Saab is supposed to be taken away this Wednesday - here's hoping!

Just finishing off another Eastenders Omnibus DVD for Lucy - been slipping a bit - this one's 18th May, so there's another couple of Sundays to be done this week some time.

Apart from that, nothing much doing - trying to have a fairly quiet day today.