Smile!

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

So yesterday afternoon I went along to the dental surgeon and he fitted my implant. I played golf last night, then went home, and this morning I've been chairing a few management meetings at work, but has anybody noticed or commented? - No! Here's the new smile:

As you can see, the amount of ironware you can now see depends on how much I smile. there is a gap above the tooth and below the new gum line. I go back to see him in 2 weeks and he tells me that, if I'm concerned at this, then he can arrange a skin graft from my palate to my gum to cover this up. At this stage, I'm not sure about whether I should do this or not. What do you think? Answer the poll on the blog please.

and the winner is ........

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

...... Kelly! What was the competition? World's shortest blogger, of course. Kelly's done exactly one blog per month since we came back from Australia - and they're not exactly tomes either!

This week's Graze Box is:

I didn't see Gary on his birthday, but Jo caught up with him in Inverurie after she returned Luca and Gary got back from his football - but I did get a piece of his very lemony birthday cake - it was scrumptious. I especially enjoyed the half of it I left over for this morning, as I didn't have any breakfast today due to the fact that it was my annual medical screening at Albyn. I'll get the full report in due course, but it seemed to go well - both the doctor and the nurses made encouraging noises.

We've almost hit magic number of 10,000 viewings of this blog - just 50 to go - keep it up!

Supposed to be golfing tonight, but, although it's OK just now, it's forecast to be raining this afternoon, so might have to carry over to tomorrow. More concerned about this weekend when it's our annual Summer Tour to Slaley Hall - hope it's dry then. I got in to trouble about this last night as I think I had forgotten to remind Jo I'm away - whoops - and sorry!

The following weekend we're at the Carrick at Loch Lomond, then we've got a weekend at home (which includes seeing Laura Marling (http://www.lauramarling.com/) at Woodend Barn), then it's off to USA the following week!

My work plans were disrupted today - I had planned to go to Fraserburgh as we had invited a couple of our bankers up to see round the place, but first thing this morning, Tesco showed up for one of their unannounced technical audits, so we had to cancel everything else.

Gary 36!

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

It's a very happy 36th birthday today to our Gary. this one of him was taken in our back garden in Broxbourne about 35 years ago:

Note the smile - we didn't get many of them from him in those days!

Not too much else to add, other than to say I've been enjoying the excellent weather and taking the opportunity to get out and golf in shorts again. Yesterday it was St. Andrews and it was glorious.

They say bad luck comes in threes. Well, you heard about my chair and how it's broken? That was the first. Yesterday, I broke my reading glasses - one of the lenses has snapped away from the frame. That was the second. Then I got home last night and was told that my Archos (my mini DVR) had "fried". That was number three. No more please.

Graze Box

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

This week's Graze Box contains:

The question now is, am I snacking on these instead of munching on crisps and biscuits, or as well as?

Weekend with Luca & Yoda

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

The gruesome twosome were delivered over to us as a package on Thursday as Gary and Carole headed off for a long weekend in London. Poor Yoda really is a feartie and regularly seemed to empty her bladder in different places at unpredictable times - no major disasters but you do have to watch her - she's so timid.

Luca, on the other hand, is, as Gary has said several times, much more confident and capable of manipulating any situation with anyone. Of course, he gets spoiled rotten when he comes over to ours - not of my doing, I hasten to add.

I didn't see Luca much on Friday as I was at work in the morning, golf at Ballater in the afternoon, and out at one of our thrice yearly "Headbangs" in the evening. I cancelled my golf on Saturday, however, and we took Luca and Yoda down to Milton of Crathes as we had heard that the Deeside Railway Preservation Society were running train rides along the first mile of track they are restoring.

We arrived early for the 12:30 ride, so we bought our tickets then wandered down a bit of the adjacent Deeside Way, allowing both Luca and Yoda the opportunity to let off some steam. It's an old diesel locomotive they run, pushing carriages that used to take the Royal Family out towards their summer holiday home at Balmoral. They do have a steam engine as well, but only crank that up on high days and holidays when they know that visitor numbers are likely to be greater.

Having started walking westwards towards Banchory, we spotted the train returning to the station:

Hey Luca - we need to run back to the station in case we miss our train! So, back we headed:

We made it in plenty of time:

Our traditional thick cardboard tickets showed we were entitled to a seat in "3rd Class", but, as the only passengers on the train, we sat where the h**l we liked - and that was the Royal compartment at the front of the 1st Class section:

Apparently, my seat (next to Jo's) was where the Queen Mother always used to sit. The "inspector" came round and punched holes in our tickets - very quaint. He opened the driver's compartment at the front of the train and offered to let Luca sit in there - but he refused. He preferred to stay a bit further back.

When the journey was over we were allowed to go up in to the real driver's cabin, which was at the back of the train. The main purpose being to lift Luca up so he could pull the cord and blow the train's whistle - we did it, but I'm not really sure Luca knew what was going on - he didn't seem to correlate his pulling the cord with the sound of the whistle.

Back home later on, some gardening had to be done - Luca was the snail-remover-in chief:

On Sunday afternoon, we went to Malcolm Lodge's surprise 60th birthday BBQ. Jo drove there and spent a bit of time at the start making sure Luca was settled OK:

I think we were last over there at Malcolm's 50th, not long after they bought the property, and it's come on a lot since then - they've worked hard at it - here's the longer shot of Jo and Luca in the lower part of their garden:

Gary picked up Luca on his return yesterday (Monday) but he'll be back with us again briefly this afternoon for his usual Tuesday afternoon/early evening.

I finish with a tale of woe - my favourite - and very expensive - chair, is broken. It felt a bit odd on Sunday and today it appears as if the main right hand supporting bolt has sheared:

It's been reported and we now await their inspector's visit - but I'll miss my chair for a while it seems.

Midsummer madness

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yes, it may have been the Summer Solstice yesterday, but it was a wet one, and the rain carried on this morning, so they've decided to close the golf course, so no golf for me tonight - going to play squash instead. Of course, it's sod's law, it's stopped raining, but perhaps the course needs a bit of time to absorb the moisture anyway.

So, here I am, blogging again. I think we provoked Kelly in to action and her photo of the Koala bear in Adelaide city centre was interesting, but the narrative was - well, less than massive, let's say. Apparently the poor wee lamb has done something to her neck and she's getting a constant migraine now - hope you get it fixed soon, Kelly!

What else is new? Well, I've been preparing for our headbang on Friday night - there's going to be 9 of us there this time, squeezed in to Dave's front room.

I got my first ever (trial) box from Graze (http://www.graze.com/) today. Not bad, although whether I'll keep it up or not, we'll see. Must leave some for Jo to try when I get home - oh, and it's the Apprentice tonight - the UK version that is, with "SirAlan" Sugar - not the original American Trumpster, who was in Aberdeen again yesterday, touting the new course he's building and putting it forward for a future Ryder Cup and an Open.

We've got Luca for a few nights - and Yoda - as Gary and Carole go away for the weekend. We've all received our written instructions - seems like Ross has been singled out to handle Yoda. We'll take Luca with us to Malcolm Lodge's surprise 60th birthday party on Sunday.

So that's it for now.

Friday thoughts

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Been hectic sports-wise this week, what with walking on Sunday, golf at Inchmarlo on Monday and again at Banchory on Wednesday, then some squash last night, and, with any luck, golf at Glenisla this afternoon. The forecast's not too good, but the day has started off very nicely and we may get lucky.

Spare a thought for poor Syd - his wife has got an inoperable brain tumour. It suddenly came to light last week and there's nothing they can do. She's been transferred from Aberdeen to Aboyne hospital and Syd's hoping she'll get home today, but it'll be a full time carer job for him - he may even need help eventually. In Syd's words, "it won't be months". Syd's 72 and Barbara is a couple of years younger - still plenty young enough, and active. You just never know, do you?

So tomorrow is the next stage in my tooth implant. He's asked me to book a long appointment, but he told me last time he wouldn't need to do any more cutting - hopefully it's just the final impressions.

That's about it for now. I've been planning the next instalment of Renshaw's Chronicles (http://renshawschronicles.blogspot.com/) and have been scanning a few old photos for the next episode to cover our period down in Corby, Northants - bet you can't wait!

Tuesday 14th June

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Half way through June and approaching the longest day and the weather's up and down like a yo-yo - one day lovely and another a bit dreich. I have to say, however, that I seem to have been fairly lucky so far - the weather hasn't really interfered with anything I've tried to do - yet!

We had a lovely outing at Blairgowrie on Friday, despite forecasts of potential heavy showers. I started to come down with a bit of head cold, however, and, typically, my voice gave out - this seems to happen at least once a year. I awoke on Saturday not feeling the brightest and decided to give golf a miss. It was the right call, as not only did we have Luca with us that day anyway, but Carole came over for lunch and the afternoon - plus it p****d down virtually all day.

We watched Soul Men at night - Samuel L. Jackson in a kind of soul version of the Blues Brothers - it was OK - there was enough humour and music in it to keep us interested - and awake.

On Sunday, the weather was lovely again as we completed the 11 mile stretch along the Deeside Way from Aboyne to Ballater - check out the details on my Hill-walking site - http://bvhill-walkers.blogspot.com/.

Yesterday, I managed a round of golf at Inchmarlo, courtesy of Nigel Meany who was on a brief visit over here from Dubai. He's job hunting just now and was at an interview in Norway on Friday and popped over here for a few days.

So that's what I've been up to - what about Jo? She seldom blogs nowadays and when she does, it's with the same photos that I've recently published on my blog! Jo was swimming again yesterday, but complained to me last night that she had to curtail her exercise, having "only" done 34 lengths, instead of the scheduled 40. What with swimming twice a week plus regular walking, I reckon Jo's fitter now than she ever was - and it's keeping her a free member of Weight Watchers as she's still well within her target that she set when she first agreed to chum her pal Ann along.

It's only 4 weeks now until we take our short break at the Carrick at Loch Lomond -  http://www.cameronhouse.co.uk/cameron-house/lodges/the-carrick.html. It's a full week we've got booked but we can only stay Friday to Monday as I have to return to work. We hope to catch up with Barry/Dawn/Mary some time that weekend - and we also hope that somebody will be able to use the extra days from Monday until the Friday check-out - Barry and Helen might be interested, but will wait to see what the weather's like.


After we get back from Loch Lomond, it's just over a week until we head off to USA. It seems they've been having unsettled weather this year as well, but I'm sure it'll be fine by then - and their definition of "unsettled" is a little different from our island climate!

That was the summer, that was!

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yes - it was truly glorious on Thursday and Friday - everywhere by all accounts. It was still hot in the South East when I flew back from Terminal 5 late Saturday morning. We'd got a bit of a scorching at Lord's on Friday - our seats were out in the open, and whilst I'd slapped on the sun cream and kept my floppy hat on (as instructed by my doctors), my arms and legs got a little red.

It was a nice, short break - some cricket, some nice beers and a couple of great gigs - full details on my other blogs. As soon as I landed back in Aberdeen, I headed straight to my dentist's for the latest stage in my implant procedure. It was fairly straightforward this time - the surgeon removed a screw and put in what he called - I think - an abutment. Wikipedia describes it as "the part of an implant that acts as a connection between the implant and the crown". Check it out in this grisly close-up:

Not a pretty sight. I go back again on 18th June and he will create the final impressions then. I wonder if my implant will be in place by the time we go to USA late July? Don't want to scare the grandchildren too much - although Cade's braces may scare me!

I had the house to myself on Saturday night - Jo was down at the Town Hall listening to Banchory Singers with her pals. She said she thought I wasn't coming back until Sunday!

Golf on Sunday morning, afternoon with the Sunday Times and the TV, then we watched Gainsbourg - A Heroic Life - a biopic of Serge Gainsbourg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serge_Gainsbourg). It was in French with English subtitles and naturally included scenes with some of his famous amours - Juliette Greco, Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin to name but three. It was a little artistic and a tad too long for our liking.

Back to work yesterday, but escaped early to play my tie in the next round of the singles at Banchory. Today, I've been at Pittodrie on a course. I picked a casual shirt from my wardrobe this morning, but it was only later that I realised it wasn't mine - it was Ross's - thought it felt a bit big.

I arrived home to a slightly tired and mopey Luca, and I gave him my name badge from the course to wear on the way home - that was about the extent of our communications before Jo took him back to Inverurie. Still, he's back with us on Friday/Saturday.

I've got the long drive to Fraserburgh to face tomorrow and Thursday, but I'm away at Blairgowrie golfing on Friday, so can't complain. Got to cram it in now - it's only 2 weeks until the longest day! I've got my memory stick set up for the drives to the Broch - I've been recording Sounds of the Sixties every Saturday for a number of years and I save it for one of the drives north the following week. I'm also now recording Sounds of the 20th Century, which is broadcast on Radio 2 on Thursday nights, and this entertains me on one of the other days I have to travel. It's a programme of music and news clips, without commentary, from each of the last 50 years of the 20th century - one show for each year. I think it's 1959 I'll be listening to tomorrow.

So that's this blog up to date now - must rush - got other blogs to do!

Flaming June!

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Not so far, it's not - but the weather forecast for Banchory for the next couple of days is wall to wall sunshine and 23 C - and where am I going to be? - down in London! Ah well, hope it's as least as warm there and I can enjoy Friday's 2nd Test Match against Sri Lanka in the sun - although I don't expect we'll see anything as exciting as the finish to the 1st Test Match in Cardiff on Monday.

I played my first Seniors match of the season for Banchory at Deeside yesterday afternoon - and very nice it was too, despite us getting duffed. More golf tonight, then an early morning drive up to Fraserburgh in the morning before heading back to the airport for the plane down to London.

I bought a couple of cheap holiday books on Sunday - on offer in John Menzies - but I've really been enjoying reading Keith Richards' autobiography, Life. It's quite a big tome but I've been making no effort to race through it - in fact, I'm savouring reading only short excerpts at night to try and make it last a while. It's written just as if Keef was talking to you - fun reading.

Talking about holidays, would you believe we've already got something fixed up for USA 2012? We got confirmation this morning of an exchange week next July at Stoneridge Resort, Idaho - http://www.stoneridgeresort.com/. It's in Blanchard, which is northern Idaho, and it's 627 miles from Scott and Lucy's - a little less than they travelled last year (and this year) down to Newport Coast, CA. Nearest airport is Spokane, Washington. This is a map of North West USA, with "A" marking Blanchard:

Incidentally, check out my Headbangers blog (http://banchoryheadbangers.blogspot.com/) for a rare sighting of an old school-mate of mine appearing on Top of the Pops in 1976!

You may have noticed on my blog that it's now been viewed 9,200 times - keep logging on and we'll get to 10,000 soon!

Lastly, spare a thought for poor Johanne Kilgour, who had to retire from teaching many years ago when she contracted Parkinson's - one of the youngest ever to do so. She and Colin went to Bruges for a holiday, but Johanne had a nasty fall on the first full day there and they had to return home, with her looking heavily battered and bruised. Externally, she appears to be looking a bit better, but she's still got internal injuries and now she's building up fluid in her feet/ankles. Poor girl doesn't have her troubles to seek.

Last posting in May

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yes - tomorrow's June - can you believe it? Where's the year going? Only 3 weeks until the longest day - then it's all downhill from there!

You may have read from my other blogs or on Facebook about the incident we had on the golf course at the weekend - that was unwelcome and I hope there's going to be no more of it. The youth of Banchory have always traditionally spent weekends and evenings in the summer down by the river, getting up to the usual teenage high jinks - it's almost a rite of passage. Sometimes it's spilled over a little from the area down by the Dee bridge, but this is the first time we've seen anything this far up - in the middle section of the course.

Next week is CAMRA's big annual event - the Beer Festival at Pittodrie - and I spent a bit of time last night distributing the latest quarterly newsletter round Deeside (and Fraserburgh). The Festival was originally due to be held this week, but Aberdeen Football Club took a late booking for a Rod Stewart concert and so the organisers of the festival had to hastily make arrangements to put the festival back a week - not an easy task, given that it takes the best of a year to organise the event.

This change of date has rather messed up my plans for attending the festival - it used to clash with a regular annual golf outing we went on to Blairgowrie, but I managed to persuade the organiser of the golf outing to put his event back a week this year so that it didn't clash with the beer festival - and he agreed. All was well until Rod the Mod's concert changed matters - I can't pull out of the golf outing now, having got the date changed just to suit me, but it means I won't be able to go along with our usual crowd to the festival on the Friday night. I'm planning to work behind the bar on Thursday and Saturday - perhaps I'll manage to take some time off to allow myself a few beers?

When I found out about the changes in dates, I also then arranged my annual trip to Lord's for the cricket - and it's this Thursday that I'm going down - ash clouds permitting, of course. I'm taking in a Nils Lofgren gig at Cadogan Hall on Thursday evening and then on Friday night, Donovan is performing Sunshine Superman (and his greatest hits) at the Royal Albert Hall, backed by the London Symphony Orchestra - something to look forward to. I fly back on Saturday morning - too late for golf, but I've got my next appointment on Saturday afternoon with the Dental Surgeon who's trying to put the smile back on my face by filling the huge gap in my grin.

So that's about it from me. If you're viewing this from the blog itself, you'll notice that I've removed some of the archive photos from the sidebar of my blog, so I thought I would just add one old photo to the main body of this posting. It's from a year ago when we went to Edinburgh to see Les Miserables (again) and briefly met up with our old friends the Elgies, who are now back in Middlesborough, but happened to be in Edinburgh the same weekend as us:

Leslie Mason, Colin Kilgour, Colin Elgie and yours truly.

Lucy 38!!!

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yes - no hiding place - this time next year, Lucy will be entering her 40th year! Happy birthday, girl! Here's an old one of her when we lived in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire. We had 2 fabulous summers in a row - 1975 and 1976, but I suspect this one was taken in 1977 or 1978 as Gary was a little boy then. Our neighbours were Ray and Chris Barrie from a couple of doors along and their children, Sasha and Karl, were similar ages to our two:

Good - Blogspot allowed me to upload this, so perhaps I haven't reached my limit after all.

Have a good one, Lucy - see you in August.

Thursday update

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

I just tried to update the sidebar archive photos on my blog and was told by Google that I couldn't do it as I had exceeded my photo upload limit! - but I was deleting one and replacing it? Bah!

Watched The Apprentice last night after golf - I enjoy the analysis of what went wrong (or right) with the task - it's part of what I do at work, so I find it interesting - and the characters are generally so odious - I guess that's why I always look forward to it.

So far this week, I've played squash once, golf once and been to the gym once. Tonight it's squash again - twice in one week - unusual for this time of year. My body will be sore tomorrow.

Forgot to say we watched Wall Street - Money Never Sleeps last Saturday. I had thought I might enjoy it, but Ross merely pulled a face when I told him what the DVD was, so our expectations were immediately lowered - and he was right! Much better - although gloomier and tragic - was the previous Saturday's viewing - Telstar - the Joe Meek (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Meek) story.

So, I've now booked our accommodation in Australia and Singapore next year - we're there during the Adelaide Festival (http://www.adelaidefestival.com.au/), which should be fun. We've also finally decided on a date for our golf trip back to Turkey next year - I think! It's been a long drawn-out battle trying to get 7-8-9 guys to agree a mutually acceptable date, but I think we're almost there. Of course, I narrowed the options a bit by taking an extended break Down Under - and a little later than we did this year.

This Saturday it's the Champions League final. I had initially proposed bringing a few friends round to watch it but was told, in no uncertain terms, not to bother, but to go to the pub instead - so that's what I'll be doing!

Next week I'm off to London for my annual cricket trip to Lord's, and also to take in a couple of concerts - Nils Lofgren and then Donovan - the latter at the Royal Albert Hall again.

My pal, Gary Grant, has just recorded a slightly politically charged single and it's available on You Tube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0IfIum_B0w. Ross will probably enjoy the sentiments!

Lazy Sunday afternoon

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yes - it feels like the famous Small Faces 1967 track - remember "cor blimey Mrs Jones, how's your Bert's lumbago?" - as I while away the hours alone at home. Ross is asleep and Jo's at church/coffee and there's no golf today. I should have been up Lochnagar but had to pull out at the last moment as I didn't feel too great and my knees are acting up a bit again. I was concerned that I might hold the other guys back so I pulled out.

As a consolation, I did go a walk up Scolty - it was nice and quiet early in the morning, and I enjoyed the peace. Here's a panoramic view I took from the top: