Blast from the past

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Anyone recognise this face?:

It's Austin Donohoe! Who he? - Lucy's godfather. I hadn't quite reached this stage in Renshaw's Chronicles, but Austin trained beside me at Fraser, Martin & Co and was at our wedding - and we at his. I stumbled across his name almost by accident today. Austin has had kidney problems almost all his life and is actively involved in various Kidney charities and hospices and he provided a foreword to a book about kidney failure (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kidney-Failure-Explained-Everything-Wanted/dp/1872362907/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1326459277&sr=1-1).

I then Googled his name and came up with his speech at the National Kidney Federation Conference in 2003 - http://www.kidney.org.uk/conf03/donohoe_a.html

This also reminded me that I must try and do at least one more episode in Renshaw's Chronicles before we go to Oz (5 weeks today!).

Not a lot else to say on this particular blog today, other than the fact that Jo and Ross will be busy at home today - we've got Scottish Gas returning to fit the new downstairs radiator, and they'll almost be bumping in to Taylor's of Banchory's men coming to fit the new blinds in the downstairs office/music/computer/work room.

Ross has got a rare IT job on this afternoon - a former customer - but he's been back and forward to Elgin the last couple of nights after work, picking up and returning his pal Richard. When he was away last night, one of his other pals, Dan, was in looking at our downstairs loo with a view to replacing the WC, shower etc as a "homer". Whilst he was there, Jo got him to look at the cistern in our en suite, and also our leaking shower. For the last few weeks, every time we flush our WC, it's like the whole plumbing system is going to explode - an incredible racket, guaranteed to waken even the heaviest of sleepers. It happened once before a few years ago and it's just a valve next to the ballcock that needs replacing - hopefully today as well.

Aberfoyle

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

We had a nice, albeit brief, trip to the Forth Valley last weekend, staying at Macdonald Forest Hills (http://www.macdonaldhotels.co.uk/our-hotels/macdonald-forest-hills-hotel-spa/?gclid=CKqbrq34x60CFYEmtAod8A8Biw) in the heart of the Trossachs - but where exactly is that, some of you may ask? Check this map:

Ignore the red trail lines - we were staying at the Hotel marked in the bottom left, on the shores of Loch Ard.

It was a beautiful day in the North East when we set out on Saturday morning - not a cloud in the sky, and warm enough for us to go over Cairn o' Mount without fear of it being closed with ice. From Perth west and south, however, there was a noticeable change - there was obvious evidence of widescale flooding, and damaged and fallen trees from last week's wind storms. The narrow road from the village of Aberfoyle alongside Loch Ard to our resort looked like it had been - or was about to be - closed. The loch seemed very high and choppy and looking like it was above the level of the road.

We left our car at the resort and Barry and Helen - and little Harriet in her cage at the back of their car - drove us over the Duke's Pass to Kilmahog, just outside Callander, to the Lade Inn, a well-known little brewpub. Jo sat in the back of Barry's Merc and suffered a bit on the windy road - she had to sit outside for 10 minutes before she was ready to come in for lunch. Dawn was already there, waiting for us at a nice corner table that Barry had reserved. That corner spot was cold and drafty and we moved twice as other tables nearer the open fire became vacant. We managed to get just one team photo, in which Dawn is, unfortunately, looking the other way:

We all popped in to the adjacent Scottish Real Ale shop where Harriet had to be carefully controlled:

By the time we got back from lunch - going the slightly flatter alternative route, with Jo sitting in the front of Barry's car - and checked in and unpacked, there was only time for a quick snooze and a swim/steam room/jacuzzi visit before dinner. We were located in the Ben Lomond timeshare apartments, which looked like it was the first block built and it was adjacent to the hotel, where we had decided to dine, so it was just a short stroll for us. The dining room was very nice and so was the food - particularly the steaks.

The forecast for Sunday had been reasonably promising but when we woke up we were disappointed to see how overcast and misty it was. Nonetheless, we headed out in the car, initially exploring westwards, but then we drove back in to Aberfoyle to buy the papers and have a coffee, taking in the well laid out and interesting Tourist Office as well.

With the weather so dreich - intermittent drizzle and poorish visibility - we ended up doing 3 very short walks - round the nature trail that follows the path of the Forth in Aberfoyle; then back over the Duke's Pass to find a suitable forest walk, where I took this photo of Jo, toiling up a slight hill:

Our last mini-walk came on the short waterfall trail at the David Marshall Lodge (http://www.forestry.gov.uk/website/recreation.nsf/LUWebDocsByKey/ScotlandStirlingQueenElizabethForestParkAchrayForestDavidMarshallLodgeVisitorCentre). This marks the start of Queen Elizabeth Forest Park, which is one of the places Dawn used to take Mum on day trips in her later years. The Lodge itself - and cafeteria - was shut but we managed a couple of photos on the trails:

The view from the top of the trail at the front of the Lodge was very nice, even on this dreich day:

We had lunch in the Forth Inn in Aberfoyle - Jo didn't fancy it much at first, but a bunch of walkers arrived and helped drown out the noise of the football on TV in the adjacent bar and this certainly helped improve the atmosphere where we were sitting.

Back to our apartment and another little snooze, then a walk round the resort grounds followed by another quick swim and soon it's time for dinner - doesn't time fly? We went back to the same hotel restaurant - it was nice and it was very convenient. I had brought the latest DVD from LoveFilm of The Killing TV series that we'd missed first time around, and, over the weekend we took in 3 of the last 4 episodes, leaving the final chapter until we got home.

Sod's law, Monday was the best day of the weekend and we had to head home. Although the exchange was for a full week, we never intended to spend more than a few days there. Ideally, if check-in had been on Friday, that would have suited us better. We could still have been there if I was fully retired, but work has to come first for now.

The outlook from our balcony over the resort gardens towards Loch Ard was a bit more photographable on Monday:

The hotel's dining room is the curved building on the left.

On the way home, Jo wanted to have a proper look at Callander so we made a slight detour there, but parking was tricky and we couldn't find a nice-looking coffee shop so we ended up driving out to Kilmahog again and went to the Woollen Mill for a scone instead. Just along the road is the Lade Inn, where we had lunch on Saturday and there was a nice snowy, hilly backdrop from this angle:

After that, we made good time on the drive home and I was able to detour past Banchory to drop Jo off and grab a spot of lunch before heading to the office for a short afternoon's work. In the evening we settled down for the final episode of The Killing, so, after 20 episodes, we now know who did it! There was one little loose end that could have done with more explanation, however, and I think Jo was a little miffed that this wasn't properly tidied up like they do in the Poirot and Agatha Christie's Miss Marple TV crime series that she loves!

Back to work

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

It's back to work today, but it's still fairly quiet here so I'll head home early again.

I've watched the news video of Kelly's dramatic rescue umpteen times today (http://au.news.yahoo.com/video/national/watch/27757738/) and each time I see her wobbly little chin, I want to burst into tears. She so nearly did that herself. Wish we could be there now, but I suppose it's only another 6 weeks or so until we see her in the flesh again.

Before that, we've got Aberfoyle this weekend - lunch with Dawn and Barry at the Lade Inn (http://www.theladeinn.com/) on Saturday then back home on Monday - just in time for the Gas Man to fit our hall radiator. Only a couple of weeks until Gary, Ross and I go to Firhill to sample the Corporate Hospitality at the Dundee match - hope the weather stays fair.

We've now got up to Episode 16 of The Killing - just 4 to go now - exciting stuff!

And another milestone has been passed - we've had over 16,000 viewings of this blog now - wow!

So much to write about!

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

So much has happened since my last posting that I could fill a few pages, but I think it's best to start with the most recent. We had just had breakfast this morning and I was casually trawling Facebook and my eyes bulged as I read Kelly's posting about her near-death experience in the waters off South Australia. We managed to get her on Skype and she seems fine - thanks goodness she's always been a good swimmer and is so strong and fit now - otherwise she would never have survived two and a half hours in the ocean.

As most now know, Chris headed off for shore and got there after an hour and a half swim and summonsed the rescue boat. Kelly was in the water for over two and a half hours with Chris' Dad and uncle - ages 65 and 73 respectively, with the uncle being a very poor swimmer, and only one lifejacket between the three of them. Kelly thought they were going to lose Chris' uncle - he mentally gave up fairly quickly, saying he couldn't keep going as the three of them tried to swim to shore, making absolutely no headway in the heavy seas. Chris' uncle lost consciousness and has been kept in hospital, but they think he will recover OK.

Kelly didn't know what to fear most - the threat of sharks, who are known to frequent these waters - the heavy seas that were crashing round about them - or Chris' uncle not surviving. Chris' Dad survived OK, but was treated for hypothermia, but Kelly was fine - she heated up again just sitting in the sun! South Australia has been having a heatwave, with temperatures of 40 degrees C.

Kelly said they were on Channel 7 News - Chris spoke to the camera, but Kelly could only offer a trembling lip - she couldn't actually utter any words! I haven't been able to find this clip on the web yet, but I did find a brief news report in one of the local papers - http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/four-rescued-from-capsized-boat-near-granite-island-victor-harbor/story-e6frea83-1226234956192. Perhaps there will be more available tomorrow.

I'm shaking just thinking about it as I write this.

Then, of course, we had Luca's 5th birthday party on Friday. Jo and I went over to have lunch with Carole and Luca, with Gary joining us later after getting home early from work. Here's Luca looking very pleased with himself, in anticipation of his chocolate birthday cake:

Here's a short video of him blowing out the candles, then rushing to the door as the bell rings and yet another present arrives - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1LwMbDNX_E&list=UUBDeleoM99bWx2-P6rMydgA&index=1&feature=plcp

The next day was Hogmanay and there was a late change of plan. We had originally planned to have dinner at Ann & Leslie Mason's, just round the corner in Birch Grove - it was their turn to host, but there were complications with Ann's mother which resulted in her asking if we wouldn't mind hosting dinner. Ann would still do all the cooking and just bring it round to ours. No problem we said - all we had to do now was clean the house and set the table.

Jo followed me round as I dusted and hoovered, making corrections as I put ornaments back in place. She was practising her own particular brand of feng-shui in our front room, and this is how it looked before our guests arrived:

The evening went well and we were able to step out on the balcony after the bells to watch the Tor-na-Coille Hotel's Firework show from the golf course - there's a short clip of it here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oUQDrjDrRA&list=UUBDeleoM99bWx2-P6rMydgA&index=2&feature=plcp

Ne'erday was a bit of a write-off - we were too tired to move, although Jo did cook her traditional steak pie. Today was better - a lovely day - crisp and bright, so, after assuring ourselves that Kelly was OK, we headed off to Stonehaven for a short walk to try to get rid of our lethargy and blow away the cobwebs. I had spotted the walk in one of the books that Jo had bought some time ago - this was our route:

We started off in Market Square and walked down to the beach, where we came across this model boat:

Along past the harbour, then up the hill to the clifftops overlooking the town:

By the time we got round to Dunnottar Castle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunnottar_Castle - where parts of Hamlet, starring Mel Gibson and Glenn Close, were shot) it was pretty blowy, as you can tell from this photo:

The castle was closed, of course:

Our route was a circular one that took us through Dunnottar Woods, where we came across what they called the Shell House:

Nothing to do with the oil company of that name - much simpler than that as can be seen from the inside:

We finished our walk back down in the harbour, where we went to the Marine Hotel for a swift pint (me) and coffee (Jo).

Boxing Day/Anniversary

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

We had a lovely Christmas - especially opening the presents. Luca was in charge, handing out the gifts, getting ever more excited with each one that was for him. There were a couple of strange ones, however -  one of Jo's presents for Gary was a Science Kit:

Note the top right corner - ages 5 and up. I suppose Gary is more than 5, but what was Jo thinking of?

Worse was to follow with Gary's next present - from Dawn and John - it was a Joke Box. Yes, fake dog turds, nails through fingers and the Pièce de résistance, at least as far as Luca was concerned, was the ring that squirted water - we all got a good soaking.

Ross bought Luca a Monster Truck:

and we got him a Pirate Ship jigsaw - here he is reading the instructions:

Jo helped him complete it:

When it came to opening our present from Dawn and John, there was a slightly embarrassing moment when we spotted the tag that was on the bag it came in:

It's good to re-cycle, but always remove last year's tags before you use the bags again! Dawn, of course, is far too young for Senior Moments, but as I was hanging up our Xmas cards this year, by coincidence, two in a row of the same card appeared and seemed to come from the same source:

Luca wasn't quite sure about a hat he got for a present, but his mother immediately took to it:

Carole also posed with the teeth from the Joke Bag:

Then the team photo - with Ross holding Yoda:

and it's our 39th Anniversary today - and, for the first time ever, Jo remembered and bought me a card!

Xmas Eve disaster averted

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

The aftermath of the gas men working here for 2 days was that there was a pile of rubbish sitting outside our house, including 2 spent radiators. They'd neatly bagged the rubbish and told us - again - that a team would be along to take it all away - but, as usual, they never showed, so we had little option but to take it all to the tip ourselves.

After all, the front of our house looks like a big enough tip without adding more to it - we've had the planks on our porch missing since early this year, waiting for the builders to come back and fix the leak on our balcony, after which they were supposed to replace the harling, which is coming away from the building after the Virginia Creepers did their worst. Then there's the old Mercedes sitting at the front door, rusting away - we were assured again that it would be moving "in the next couple of days", but we're still waiting.

So this morning I put the back seats in my car down and started to load the radiators. It was only as I was lifting the second one that I realised they hadn't been fully emptied - there was black gunge seeping out - in my car and on the driveway. I rushed back in to the house calling Jo for help - but I never thought about my feet. My shoe soles were carrying the black gunge in to the house - help!

Eventually we managed to drain the radiators and block up the holes sufficiently to allow me to drive them to the tip, whilst Jo was left mopping up the mess. All's well that ends well, but it could have been a real disaster. Even the inside of my car seems not to have suffered too much.

So we're sitting here waiting for the turkey to defrost. You would have thought that almost 3 days would have been enough, but apparently not, so I'll need to nip to the Cook Shop and try to pick up a food thermometer/probe. Jo may have to wait until tomorrow to cook the bird.

I was back at the Doctor's on Thursday, getting my 6 month check-up on the damaged skin on my nose. He said it was mostly OK - no sign of anything happening apart from one tiny bit at the top of the mark. He offered to zap it there and then - and he did, but it means I'll be featuring a red spot on my nose in my Xmas photos - see if you can "spot" it.

Whew!

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Well - what a 2 days it's been - I'm glad I was at work as our house was torn apart by the Gas board as they attempted to fix the saga of the leaking radiators. They ended up stripping and draining the entire system, cleaning out all the gunge and it appears we now have a fully functioning central heating system again - just in time for Christmas.

There was one final potential crisis averted as well. Just as the men were tidying up and preparing to leave, Ross was heading for his shower prior to going on his work's night out. He decided the main shower upstairs wouldn't be ready as the heating had been off most of the day when the men were working on the system, so he thought he'd use the downstairs electric shower. It seemed to be working again after shorting out a few months ago. Ross got in to the shower, then - bang! All the power went - no TV, no cooker - nothing except the lighting circuit was left on.

I initially thought it was something Jo had done as she was fiddling with tree lights for our second (mini, artificial) tree in the back room. Then my mind turned to the work that the gas men had been doing, but all was revealed shortly. We managed to get it up and running again eventually, thank goodness, but we definitely need to get an electrician out to fix this weak spot in our electrical system.

I was out at the Golf Club Committee and Staff Christmas dinner at the Tor-na-Coille last night. Very nice it was too - 19 of us there, but the staff were vastly outnumbered by the Committee. We made a £10 contribution to the food and drink, but that seems paltry - I felt a little guilty at using Golf Club funds for this, but I suppose it's the one perk that the volunteers on the Committee get.

Hopefully a fairly short day today - and some squash this afternoon. Tomorrow is our annual oldies football match which also celebrates Dave Williamson's birthday. It'll be a bit like outdoor Subbuteo - at least on my part. Not sure how my knees will stand up to it - I'll take it easy.

Enjoy the festivities everyone.

Crisis approaching

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Why a crisis? Well, I still haven't got a 2nd present for Jo. Should I panic? Probably.

I did get our other (joint) present yesterday - a replacement TV for our bedroom - very nice it is too - it's a Samsung 32" Smart TV. Why "Smart"? Well, it's got wireless and there's a number of Android style Apps on it, including BBC i-Player, Facebook etc. There's also an inbuilt Freeview HD box, but we can't use that yet, because the aerial cable they supplied is so short! We also now need to get another Sky HD box to properly use the HD facilities of the new set.

Ross had a frustrating time at the Doctor's yesterday. He nipped out from work for his 2pm appointment but had to wait an hour before Dr. Platt appeared - but even then it wasn't for him - it was the previous patient! Ross had to go back to work so this appointment will have to be re-arranged for another time.

It's the shortest day of the year - and it shows - it's barely been light today. It also would have been Dad's 91st birthday.

Christmas week

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Last week was - unusually for me - a pretty full and busy time at work, including 2 consecutive day trips to Fraserburgh. I had thought that travel might be a bit tricky as I go cross country along some of the lesser used roads, but we're fortunate in not really having had any proper snow yet, and although it's been cold and we've had to scrape the cars in the morning, I haven't encountered any of the horrendous black ice we experienced last year - not yet anyway.

I got a couple of games of squash, but didn't golf yesterday - nobody was very keen after our night out on Saturday (see golf blog for photos). It was, in fact, a day of vegetation - or, as Sky Sports called it, Super Sunday - 3 big matches on TV from noon to 6 pm. What with all that, plus recorded Match of the Day, and the Sunday Times too, I didn't move much from my chair. Jo was out for dinner with her pals last night at the Tor-na-Coille so we didn't see much of each other yesterday.

We had a brief trip out on Saturday morning to drop off some salmon and then select a Christmas tree at the garden centre. £50 it was - although they did deliver it. I should think so too at that price. A little controversially, the tree was not erected in its usual place:

Still to be decorated of course.

Now that Kelly's moved house, we've also had to change our plans a little for our upcoming trip to Adelaide. We had originally booked our first week in Semaphore, which is a bit nearer where Kelly used to stay in North Adelaide, but now that she's moved, I've re-arranged and we're going back to the same apartments in Glenelg that we were in this year - only this time with a sea view.

Been trying to sort out our Sky TV subscription as well - been having problems with our multi-room connection ever since Ross did some re-wiring of our telephone system a few months ago. I didn't realise at the time what the full implications might be, but as Sky can't get a callback signal from the second box in our bedroom, their system immediately defaults to an assumption that the box could have moved - to a second home, for instance - and they now charge another £34.50 per month for it. Ross thinks he has a solution but it means moving so much stuff in our garage to access the connections. Meantime, we've had to put some temporary cabling from our bedroom to our back room - Jo was horrified when she saw it running across the floor and then drooping off the lights last night!

Still haven't picked a replacement TV for our bedroom either - there's so many choices - Freeview HD, internet TV, 3-D etc etc. I was also thinking about DAB radio as well. I currently record a lot of radio programmes on the Sky box, then transfer them to my Archos, then to my PC, then convert them to audio, then put them on my memory stick to listen to in my car - quite a process. So I thought that if I had a DAB radio and I could record directly on to a memory stick, that would save a lot of hassle - but it appears that none of the DAB radios on the market do that. Many of them record, but they all seem to do it to an SD card, rather than a memory stick - why?

So, turkey ordered - all set now, except for the fact that, apart from her big present which we got at the Apple Store, I don't have anything else for Jo yet. Mmmm - thinking cap on.

And just to prove that we're always thinking about our children:

Last photo was taken yesterday morning from the War Memorial looking towards Arbor Court, on my way back from buying the Sunday Times. It was a beautiful, bright, crisp morning and it shows the miserable dusting of snow we had overnight - the first this winter:

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Well, we had a nice time on Sunday when Dawn and Kieran (Jordon was a late cancellation) came up for the afternoon. Luca was still here, of course - I had taken him to his football practice on Sunday morning and his Mum came over early afternoon to have lunch with us and take him home later on.

This was the only photo I took that afternoon:

Kieran's new semi-mohawk was actually done by his Mum!

Dawn also gave us our pre-invite invites to Lauren and Malcolm's wedding:

I managed another game of squash last night. We'd had the Gas Board out again yesterday as we've got more problems with our central heating system - it's never been right since they tried - and initially failed - to do a "Powerflush" a year ago. They have now agreed to try again next week - but then, overnight, we had another radiator leak so they're now coming this Friday - although they did send a man out tonight to turn the offending radiator off properly. Jo's now got a hotline to their main man locally - she seems to have elicited some sympathy from them, judging by the response we've had so far.

So that's been my week so far. Fraserburgh the next 2 days for me - hope the high winds don't bring down any trees on my route.

Another week flashes by

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Another week of my life has flashed by - what have I done? A bit of golf on Sunday, a couple of games of squash and a lot of work. I also saw another solar panel supplier on Thursday - still not sure whether to do this or not - the payback still seems reasonable despite the Government halving the incentive - you have to have the system installed by tomorrow to still qualify for the higher rates. Our house is south facing and the roof pitch is good, but, despite being 3 storeys high, the tall trees between us and the main road may reduce the amount of power we can generate.

This morning, Jo and I went to the Apple store in Aberdeen and bought her Xmas present - and sat through the introductory course on the i-Pad. We were there for a couple of hours, then we went out to pick up Luca - and we left Inverurie just in time to see Carole's new car being delivered. Luca was posing outside the house as we waited for the car:

and finally, it arrived:

On the way back to Banchory, we detoured past Costco to check out the TV's - the one we had in our bedroom (Dad's old one) packed up a couple of weeks ago, so we're treating ourselves to a new ones for Christmas. I also took the time to check out the glasses - I've still not replaced my broken reading glasses and have been surviving using an old pair found lying in a drawer, that used to belong to one of the kids.  I spotted these ones - what do you think?:

Driving back to Banchory, Luca went quiet - we thought he was getting sleepy, but it turned out he was feeling sick - and he threw up. He's absolutely fine now, however - playing with his Lego.

Ross is working tomorrow (Sunday) and Jo is going to church. Gary normally takes Luca to football practice on Sunday morning, but he's on call this weekend and they've got a big job on and he'll be working, so I'm going to skip golf and take Luca to football.

Dawn, Kieran and Jordon are coming up tomorrow afternoon - that'll be nice.

We made it!

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Hooray - I can post again - this blog just made it past another milestone - over 15,000 viewings! I think it may actually have been me that triggered the threshold when I logged on this morning. Why do so many people apparently read this? Heaven knows - there must be a lot of people out there with a lot of time on their hands - a bit like me today.

Well, what have I been up to in the last week? We had a lovely meal at the Kilgours last Saturday. Johanne made her own curries - nice starters too - home made bhajees, pakoras and samosas. Colin made a good job of the cheesecake afterwards as well. We decided - in conjunction with the Masons - to walk home, rather than wait for a taxi. After all, it's downhill, then flat, all the way and there was only a light drizzle - or so we thought. We had barely got 50 yards down Rosehill Crescent when the rain and wind hit us. We got well and truly soaked.

Just a few short hours later, after a short sleep, the wind and rain had completely gone and I crossed the road for my usual Sunday morning golf, followed by a nice pot of tea, drambuie and then, when I got home, my usual half scone from the Milton that Jo kept for me from her post-church coffee with the girls.

I was due to go to the Clydesdale Bank's SPL roadshow on Monday night, but I came home mid-afternoon and couldn't be bothered to drive all the way back in to Aberdeen again. I'd been to one of these (hosted by Chick Young) earlier this year and imagined that the format would be similar - the usual suspects - Aberdeen Manager Craig Brown trying to explain away his team's poor start to the season, and a couple of other footballing personalities - and I use the term loosely - wittering on about the Old Firm, to the background of SPL goals projected on to the big screen.

I was at a Scottish Enterprise seminar on Tuesday morning and then, back at the office, it all started kicking off. Orders have been slow recently and the various Factory Managers were concerned about manning levels and what they were all going to do. I had to hastily call them to a meeting the following day and we reluctantly had to decide to close down one of our night shifts and cut back another shift.

The staff were given the bad news yesterday and the statutory consultation period formally starts on Monday, but then, this morning, some good news. One of our competitors let down one of the major supermarkets and they have switched their order to us, so, if we're lucky, we may not have as many to pay off after all. It's an ill wind.

My Graze Box orders started again this week. I had decided to cancel them a couple of months ago, but, when you try and do that online, they always come up with an offer. Instead of cancelling, I could suspend for a couple of months, so I did and now it's re-started. Here's this week's offer:

The BBQ pistachios were excellent

Do you, like me, get umpteen e-mail offers each day - including one from Groupon (www.groupon.co.uk)? Normally, these just get sent to my junk e-mail folder, but I was alerted to one offer for the Potarch Hotel and I decided to try it just to see if it worked as well as their advert suggests. I phoned up on Monday and booked a table for two for Wednesday and Jo and I made the short trip there early in the evening.

The Potarch Hotel (http://www.potarchhotel.co.uk/) sits in a lovely spot, just over the bridge that takes you up to Shooting Greens and the South Deeside Road.The bridge itself is a much photographed tourist hot spot:

Nowadays, however, you have to watch out for the looney young locals "tombstoning" from the bridge in summer.

Anyway, back to our meal. The offer was dinner for two and a glass of wine each for £19 in total - a discount of 64% they said. It turned out to be exactly what it says on the tin - no restrictions, or fine print. Jo and I had a very nice meal - and a bargain.

I had been to the nurse just before this to get my bloods done again - a regular feature - and I was back at the Practice again 24 hours later to see a Doctor about the stomach problems I've had for the last 5-6 weeks. The only one I could get an appointment with was Dr. Rigby, who I'd never dealt with before. You know how the old saying goes about how young the policemen are getting? Well, this Doctor looked young enough to be my grandson! He was very pleasant however and I'm now on more drugs - one a day in the morning - forgotten what it's called - for the next 6 weeks or so. If no improvement, then its another endoscopy (http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/endoscopy/Pages/Introduction.aspx) for me. When I told him I was scheduled to come back again tomorrow for my flu jab (they missed me off their list this year), he immediately offered to give me it there and then, to save me coming back again - very nice of him.

Coincidentally, Jo was at the Doctor's again yesterday morning. She's been getting pains in her chest and under her arm, so, given her previous history, I finally managed to nag her in to going back to get it checked out. So she's now been referred back to Stonehaven for another ECG.

None of this stopped us both from going out again in the evening. The local specialist drinks shop - Deeside Drinks Emporium - was having a wine tasting, so along we trotted. It was fun, but the measures they poured and the quantity of wines they gave us to try out (12), meant we were both a little tipsy at the end. We did manage to watch Episode 8 of the original Danish version of The Killing when we got home, however. I thought it was building up to a climax and that this might even be the last episode, but I've just checked http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00y4z22 and I notice the series actually ran for 20 episodes - help! Jo has seen the American version of it and knows the story and the ending and it's an almighty job to get her to shut up about it. She starts talking about it and doesn't mean to tell me the story, but she doesn't seem to realise that the more she talks, the more I can deduce. We've nearly come to blows several times.

So, just a quiet weekend at home for us. I had originally planned to go to Firhill tomorrow to partake of the corporate hospitality at the Livingston match, but Colin had to change his plans so we have now re-scheduled it for the Dundee match on 21st January - hope it doesn't snow! Ross and Gary are coming along too - as part of their Christmas present.

Almost 15,000!

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

It doesn't seem that long ago that the number of readings of this blog was approaching 10,000 - well now, it's almost 15,000 - and that doesn't include most of the immediate family who mostly receive the blog postings by e-mail and don't actually look at the blog itself.

Who are my readers? Well, according to the Blogspot stats, they come from all over:

By country, they are:

United Kingdom 5,620

United States 4,937

Australia 653

Germany 419

Netherlands 350

Russia 238

Canada 221

France 144

Vietnam 115

South Korea 113

I  could guess  most of the American and Australian  readers, but Vietnam and South Korea? Isn't the internet an amazing thing?

I've been suffering from an upset stomach for over a month now. I've got a horrible taste in the roof of my mouth and it won't go away, so I've finally made an appointment to go and see a GP - next Thursday is the earliest I could get for a non-urgent appointment. I've also got my bloods to get checked with the nurse - that's on Wednesday - and I'm still trying to get a check-up with the GP who has been monitoring the skin blemish on my nose - the earliest currently available is 20th December - I'll keep phoning to try and get something a bit sooner.

Despite all this, I'm hoping to get another game of squash this afternoon - and some golf on Sunday, if the weather behaves. The temperature has certainly got a bit more seasonal today and I believe there may be snow at last on the Highland hills, but it's certainly been a lot milder than this time last year.

Going to try and book our flights to USA soon as well - can't leave it too much later.

Tomorrow night, we're out for dinner at the Kilgours - should be fun - hope my stomach behaves.

Tuesday at home

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

I decided to stay at home and work today as I had a report to write and I thought there was little point in me wasting an hour and a half driving to and from the office - particularly as most of the Managers - and my co-Directors - are away today.

I'm still working on the report, but was getting bored so I thought I'd do a quick blog posting. Since last week, I've been to see Dave and Doris in their new flat at Tor-na-Dee - very nice - and we were all at Crombie Park, Culter on Saturday to witness what was very nearly a cup upset, with Thistle just managing a draw with lowly local Junior team, Culter FC. Fun day out, however - Ross drove us in his new car - with the top down to start with! Five miles later, we insisted he stopped and put the top back up. Perhaps if he had driven a bit slower?

Luca was staying with us overnight on Saturday as his Dad took his Mum out for her birthday. Gary dropped Luca off at ours before the Thistle match - complete with football. Jo was delighted - not. All those interested in football then disappeared and poor Jo was left holding the baby. "Come on, Grannie - let's play football outside!" - Help!

On Sunday morning, Ross took Luca back to Culter to meet his Dad for Luca's football practice. Again, the top came down on his car and Jo put the car seat in the back:

No reports have yet been received from Inverurie as to whether Luca survived the journey with the top down or not!

Golf on Sunday was played in beautiful conditions and squash last night was pretty good too.

We've now watched the first four episodes of the Danish original version of The Killing on DVD, with the next episodes due to arrive soon. Pretty good - catch it if you can - that is, if you didn't see it first time round on TV.

Dawn's been in touch and hopes to pay us a visit before Xmas - look forward to it.

That's me up to date again.