A day at work with Luca

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yesterday was my day with Luca - I took him in to our Aberdeen factory whilst Jo had a bit of a day off, getting her hair done. He was pretty good and Michael and Francis entertained him for a while to allow me to do a little work.

We did a quick factory tour with him as well. We had to take one of our visitor coats and cut off half the sleeves and the bottom half of the coat before he went in to the production areas:

We shared my tuna and sweetcorn sandwich for lunch - Luca washed his down with a glass of Irn Bru. He wanted to draw, so I gave him some paper and out came various shapes of animal:

Did you correctly guess what they all were? Luca told me, but I'm sworn to secrecy.

One week to go

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Exactly a week until we head off to USA - but it's still a bit of a mad time for me. I was away in London this last weekend for my annual cricket visit to Lord's - plus a gig - and some beers, of course (details in my football, beer and music blogs), and then I'm away this weekend golfing down in Dumfries and Galloway - an area I don't really know at all. I get back from there on Monday night and then have to pack hurriedly for our departure to USA on Tuesday morning, squeezing in a couple of hours in the office first of all.

On my way down to Dumfries on Saturday morning, I have to detour to Hamilton for my check-up appointment with the Orthotist. I hope he can do something about the additional stick-on wedges, which keep slipping out of position.

I must be getting anxious about it all - either that or I need lessons from Fergie on how to chew gum safely. I was driving to work this morning, chewing away, when suddenly I bit really hard on the front edge of my tongue. Blood all over the place - how do you stop a tongue bleeding? Never done that before - how stupid is that?

Gary brought Luca over last night - he's with us for 5 nights now - school has stopped for the summer and it saves Gary and Carole some day care costs if he stays with us. Tomorrow morning, I'm bringing him in to the office - Jo's got a hairdresser's appointment.

That's about it for now. I'll finish with one of the photos from last weekend that aren't already published on Facebook or other blogs. This is Dave Williamson, Colin Kilgour and I having a quiet beer in Henley-on-Thames on Sunday:

2 weeks to go!

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yes, 2 weeks' today we head for USA - but first of all, I've got London this weekend, then Dumfries next weekend - it's all go.

What have I been up to for the last week? Well, some golf naturally - a pretty scary experience in the midst of a thunder and lightning storm at Tarland last Tuesday. Perhaps not the best protection standing under trees with a bag of induction agents (golf clubs) underneath a steel-tipped umbrella? We made up for it with a super afternoon at Kemnay on Friday - great fun, and we followed it with one of our Headbangs in the evening.

I cancelled golf on Saturday and stayed at home in the morning listening to Sounds of the 60's on Radio Two - we got another mention on the programme from Brian Matthews. I played my first game of squash for ages on Saturday afternoon and, in the evening, we watched the Hollywood version of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - I had wanted to see how it compared with the Swedish originals. It was pretty good, but it all seemed a little hurried to me - the book's a long one and it was like they were trying to cram every detail in to the film - I didn't get that feeling from the Swedish version.

My first hill-walk of 2012 was planned for Sunday morning, but early morning rain put a few of my fellow walkers off and we cancelled it at the last minute. I could have gone off to golf but decided instead to spend a lazy day with the Sunday Times.

Monday morning I was off to Fraserburgh, but I had to get back in time for our annual evening at Balmoral - and what a lovely one it was too.

So that's everyone up to date now.

Father's Day

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

We had a lovely late lunch/early dinner at the Potarch Hotel yesterday - Gary's treat - but Jo, Luca and Ross came long too. I was off duty and didn't take my camera, but Jo did - but will we ever see the photo she took?

One of Luca's paintings has been made in to a tea/coffee/beer mat and this was part of my present - it now sites proudly on my desk:

Perhaps not quite so proud is my Father's Day card from Gary:

I wouldn't say it was an obsession of Gary's but I do recall going to Denmark on business back in the mid/late 80's and I came across a town called Middelfart. Well, I had to buy a postcard and send it to Gary - even then it seems it was a subject that amused him!

Gary also took some photos of Luca and I attempting to lift the famous Dinnie Stones - perhaps we'll see them later?

This week, it's golf, golf, golf - Tarland tomorrow, Banchory Wednesday and Saturday and Kemnay Friday. We've also got a Headbang on Friday night, then a hill-walk on Sunday. Next week's worse - Balmoral Monday, Banchory Wednesday then off to London for my annual trip to Lord's followed by a gig. Just as well it's only 3 weeks' tomorrow until our trip to the States!

Kitchen latest + Father's Day

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Fitters are finished and here's where we're at - painting, lino and new table/chairs now required:

Note new lights fitted.

I received a package from John Lewis on Friday and it contained a new set of pyjamas - in the Olympics design! Now who would send these to their father?:

The kitchen takes shape

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

It's been a week of take-aways and eating out - the new Oriental on Monday and again tonight, the golf club (with Luca & Carole) on Tuesday, and Echt Tandoori last night (Jo & Ross only, as I was at golf).

The fitters reckon they will finish the kitchen tomorrow morning - that would be good. Jo would get to her swimming in the afternoon and we could start to lead a more normal life again. Yesterday's state of play was:

and tonight:

Tomorrow afternoon it's golf at Blairgowrie for me, but the weather forecast is wet again - oh no.

Kitchen chaos

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Well, it's been an exciting day all round. Jo spent most of the weekend emptying all the cupboards in the kitchen in preparation for the arrival of the kitchen fitters today. Of course, all the stuff had to go somewhere, and now every room in the house has got kitchen stuff in it!

I got home early from work in good time so that I could see the Olympic Torch Relay coming through Banchory just after 5 pm. The house was in chaos - noise and dust everywhere - and it was freezing. Doors and windows were open and, of course, we have no heating just now - the gas man's visit last Wednesday determined that we needed another Power Flush and meanwhile, we're experimenting with switching different radiators on and off to see if we can clear the black gunge that Jo is daily having to clear out of the system through the filter.

We shouldn't need any heating at this time of year, but the weather has been so poor recently.

I walked down to the High St. to join the throngs who were lining the street, awaiting the arrival of the Torch. Jo couldn't join me as she wanted to stay at home until the workmen were finished for the day. I suggested I would pick up a take-away at the new Thai/Chinese/Asian - it wasn't bad, by the way. The relay duly arrived and took 10-15 minutes to pass along the High St. - I hadn't realised there were so many people and vehicles involved. Finally, the Torch itself:

Back home, the kitchen is now stripped:

The old fridge/freezer is going down to the garage - everything in the new kitchen will be exactly that - all brand new.

Giving up golf?

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Well, the forecasts were right - and I got soaked yesterday playing in the Banchory Seniors Open. Light drizzle when we started and it looked like it might clear, but it did the exact opposite, and I got wet through and through and all my gear is now absolutely soaking.

Fortunately, Tuesday afternoon at Royal Aberdeen was much better - a really enjoyable few hours. Much more important, however, was the fact that I played golf 2 days in a row wearing my new wedge insoles - and I don't have the usual aches and pains in my legs - wonderful. Sure, I'm a bit stiff and sore, but I haven't been able to walk much more than 14/15 holes this year without being in absolute agony - so maybe there is something to this black art they call Orthotics. The only slight downside is that the additional removable wedges he gave me to stick on to the bit of the insole just short of the ball of my foot, keep sliding back and end up under my foot arches. Today, I've taken them off, so we'll see how I get on without them.

So I'm able to play golf again - but fair scunnered with it right now. I was invited to play again today, but I couldn't face it. Hopefully, I'll have got over yesterday's trauma by Saturday - if it's dry.

Got to attend a "public consultation" meeting tonight as a representative of our (non-existent) squash club, concerning the proposal to build a new sports centre down at King George V park. We're trying to be supportive of anybody that is willing to provide squash facilities locally again - Inchmarlo is also supposed to be doing this - but I've been around long enough to remember that the project was initially called KGV 2000 - yes, it was set up in the mid/late 90's with a view to providing the facilities in the Millennium year!

Just made a very late timeshare exchange - it was due to expire next week and we couldn't find anything that we could use, but a week in South Australia came up and Chris' Mum and Dad - and possibly daughter-in-law - are going to use it.

Complications with our replacement shower in the downstairs WC - to get a more powerful version, we may have to rip up some of our lovely floorboards in the front room - not sure I want to get in to major work here. Planning to meet Ross' pal Dan tomorrow to discuss.

Next week is New Kitchen week - guess we'll be eating out a few times!

Onward to the next milestone

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Hey! - we've passed 20,000 viewings of this blog - and that's not counting those family members who receive it by e-mail and never actually log on to the blog itself. Give yourselves all a big hand.

I'm in the almost unique position of having all my blogs pretty much up to date. Normally, I have a backlog and have to prioritise which blogs to post to first. Generally, if photos have been taken somewhere then that particular blog is the next to be done.

This all led to me thinking about summarising the stats for my blogs. I now have a total of 9 blogs. I started with my main diary style blog over 5 years ago - on 12th March, 2007, to be exact. I then opened the Football, Golf and Squash ones the following year, and then the Music one late in 2009. The next year brought 2 more - Beer and Hill-Walking, and the Chronicles started last year and Pet Hates this year.

I've now posted 1,702 separate blogs, of which the most frequent is, of course, my main diary one, which has now been posted on 915 occasions - almost every other day since it started. It gets an average viewing of almost 22 per post, but the most read seems to be the Squash one, which averages 61 viewings per post.

If you've never checked the others out, here's the full list and the links:

IRS	http://ianrstewart.blogspot.co.uk/
Football	http://bvetsfootballgroup.blogspot.co.uk/
Golf	http://bsvgolf.blogspot.co.uk/
Squash	http://deesidesquashracquetballclub.blogspot.co.uk/
Music	http://banchoryheadbangers.blogspot.co.uk/
Beer	http://iansaleadventures.blogspot.co.uk/
Hill-walking	http://bvhill-walkers.blogspot.co.uk/
Chronicles	http://renshawschronicles.blogspot.co.uk/
Pet Hates	http://curmudgeonlyramblings.blogspot.co.uk/

I'm sure that was rivetting reading, but what else do I have to say today? Not much - I was supposed to be travelling down to Gleneagles to have lunch and play golf, but there's been an outbreak of the norovirus there (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-18302473) so we're giving that a body swerve and heading to Royal Aberdeen instead. There's a report that Gleneagles are going to have to pay out up to £200K in compensation!

Luca's been with us the last 2 nights and he's been a good boy - as usual. This morning I went down for breakfast and I spotted him in his room, sitting on his bed quietly reading his books, not disturbing anyone.

We opted out of going along to the St Ternan's Jubilee Fair last night and also missed the lighting of the beacon on Scolty Hill. Both were really too late for our little grandson.

Tomorrow, it's the Senior Open at Banchory for me, but the forecast isn't too good - hope they're wrong.

The wedding

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Some scenes from yesterday:

Jo and I in our room just about to head off to the wedding

Barry, Helen, Ross & Jo - The Usual Suspects

The line-up changes

Dawn & John, with Jordon to the left and Kyle and his girlfriend on the right

Signing the book as Bridesmaid Meghan and Best Man, Red, look on.

Jordon plays as the register is signed

Signing the Register with Ethan looking on

A short video clip of part of Malcolm's speech:

The hog roast arrived not long after 9pm

Dawn, armed with camera - and a change of dress

So that was the wedding, that was. A lovely day - it was really nice that the weather allowed the service to be held outdoors in the garden.

This morning, Jo asked for a slight diversion on the way home, to do some further Ancestry explorations, so we headed off to the tiny hamlet of St. Quivox, where there were only a few houses, including the former station master's, a church and a graveyard. The names on a few of the stones included some Stewarts, but it was the other side of my family that Jo was looking for - but no luck. There was a big, empty mausoleum in the graveyard, beside the church:

Ayr

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

After a sleepless night, I drove in to work on Friday morning then dashed home to pick up Jo and head south west. Our new kitchen had arrived, as scheduled, at 7:30 am and is now safely stored in our garage, ready for installation in just over a week's time.

The traffic was pretty bad and we were a bit late by the time we got to Sports Orthotics in Hamilton for my wedge fitting. It feels pretty awkward - don't know how I'll cope - feel like I'm wearing high heels!

The short drive from there to Ayr allowed us to check in in good time to have a couple of beers in the garden before dinner:

We got the monster room:

After dinner we took a short stroll up to Lauren's pad, where preparations were underway in the marquee:

Summer bummer

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Well, is that summer 2012 over now? Seems like the clouds are here to stay for a few days - but what a great week it was - even better than it was in March. High 20's most of the week - almost too hot for golf. Talking about which, I nearly had another hole in one yesterday, when playing in the Seniors match at Deeside. My tee shot at the 1st slipped agonisingly over the hole, resting just a couple of inches behind it.

The even better news is that the old Merc, after many years of rusting in our driveway, has finally gone - never to return - we hope! Our new kitchen arrives (in bits) this Friday and will be installed week commencing 11th June, and, last night, young Dan Hibbert was round again and it seems like our downstairs WC/shower room is finally going to get its long-awaited make-over.

All good so far - and soon I'll be heading off to Pittodrie to help out with the set-up for this week's beer festival - most of which I'll miss as we head off to Ayr for Lauren's wedding this weekend. On the way down on Friday, I've got my fitting appointment for my wedges at Sports Orthotics in Hamilton.

And I got a really nice surprise parcel from Australia this week - no, not from Kelly, but from Tony Lang, my old Scout Leader from Knightswood, who had phoned me several months ago, promising me some photos of me at Scout camp in Arran in 1961. I'll need to add them retrospectively to Renshaw's Chronicles some time soon, but, meanwhile, here's one of Tony himself from 50 years ago, when he was but a callow youth of 20:

All's well again

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Sunshine and some heat at last - great! Drove in to Aberdeen at 7 am this morning with beautiful clear blue skies on Deeside - until I came to Drumoak and ran into a wall of haar - and it stayed that way in Aberdeen all day. It's a sign of high pressure however and it always brings heat and sun to inland areas like Banchory - but you have to get away from the coast.

I left the office about 2:30 pm and it was cloudy and just 11 C in Bridge of Don, but I had arranged a game of golf at Banchory and, sure enough, it was still shorts weather there - lovely. Keith Gray, Harry Salter, Rob Pollard and I played an 18 hole fourball and then had some lovely Young's Waggledance (with honey added!) on the balcony.

I picked up my car again this morning and returned the loan car I'd been driving for the last month or so. In fact, it was 5 weeks ago today that I had the accident. The loan car was very nice, but it's also nice to have an old friend back.

From the car repair shop, it was straight to the dentist for my 6 monthly check-up. No great problems, but the hygienist is going to do a deep clean of a pocket that is building up next to my top rear right tooth, which has been heavily filled already. Hopefully this will avoid the need for extraction.

So that was today. I arrived home tonight and Ross' pal, Dan and his brother, Peter are both here having a look at our downstairs shower room - a job that was stalled a bit until after Dan's recent wedding. Glad it's progressing at last. We've also been promised again by Derek Glass that he'll move the old Merc in our drive - on Wednesday - but don't hold your breath - we've had so many promises already over the last few years.

But what about our weekend in the West of Scotland? We got off to a bit of a bad start when we were late leaving Banchory and just made it down to Hamilton in time for my scheduled 4 pm appointment at Sport Orthotics (http://www.sportorthotics.co.uk/). It was somewhere that Lucy had found on the internet - nice web site, but we were a bit doubtful when we saw it was just a little sports shop in the very run-down centre of the town - even more so when we found out that the Orthotist had forgotten about our appointment and had left at 2pm! A few phone calls and a quick coffee soon sorted this out, and the guy seemed quite nice when we finally met him. We spent over an hour there - he examined my knee(s) and video'd me on the treadmill, which clearly showed my knee moving out of alignment each time I put my foot down.

I go back in 2 weeks for a proper measurement for new insoles, but the very strong indication from him was that this would only be a primary step. He seemed keen for me to consider a knee brace - if not now, then it would certainly be the next stage.

We had lasagne at Mary and Brian's and then we headed down to Houston to meet Guy and 2 of Brian's pals to go back to the Fox and Hounds to watch the Champions League final. Nice evening. When we got back to Glamis Avenue, Jo and Mary were still chatting - and at least 2 bottles of wine had been consumed!

On Sunday morning, we went round to Julie's before the Mass and the First Communion service. The boys were wearing (hired) kilt outfits, but they were covered by the albs (I didn't know this word either) before and during service. Mary's good friend, Katherine, was there too:

The sun came out for photos in the front garden:

Julie photographed Jo and I with the boys, as Guy looked on:

After the service, it was back to the Whaleys' for a BBQ. They had a mini-marquee extension, which worked out pretty well. The boys finally got to show us their kilt outfits:

Lovely day - but, again, we were late leaving. We got home about 7 pm and settled down to catch up with some of the TV programmes we'd recorded - notably the final 2 episodes of The Bridge - great.

Car problems

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yes, it's me again - final posting for this week.

Bad start to the day - there was no heating when I got up this morning. I tried to re-boot the boiler 4 times but it seems to have given up the ghost now. The earliest appointment for the gas engineer to come out is Wednesday, so I do hope the forecast increase in temperatures this weekend does happen. It's still pretty cold and damp here just now.

My car was scheduled to be back today after a month in the bodyshop but I got a phone call from the insurer yesterday, telling me that the Specialist Cars had had some problems fixing the wheel/suspension/axle and had had to do it 3 times over as they uncovered more damage than they had initially been able to see. I took this as an early warning that my car would not be ready today, and so I filled up the loan car with diesel this morning.

Well, blow me - I got a call from the bodyshop this morning saying my car was ready after all! I'd like my own car back, but I didn't like the idea of Accident Exchange gaining a full tank of fuel at our expense, so I've now arranged to swap over on Monday morning and I'll use the loan car to go up and down to Paisley this weekend for the Christening. Of course, this meant telling Accident Exchange, and I then had to sign another form explaining why I wouldn't be returning the car today.

Last night we went to Woodend Barn to see Roddy Woomble. I thought he was good, but Jo decided that he wasn't really of much merit, but praised the female fiddle player/pianist/backup singer. The setting in the hall was very nice - all candlelit, linen-covered tables. Here's Johanne and Jo posing for the camera, with Colin talking to his next door neighbour on the left:

Well, it's Friday afternoon and there's not much else for me to do this week, but I'm the only Director on site - Michael's in USA attending Cathy's Mum's funeral and Francis is in hospital having another eye operation, so is it right for me to leave early? Do I hear the gym beckoning? Tough call.