eBay success!

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Forgot to check my e-mails last night, but when I did this morning, I discovered that I was successful in my bid on eBay for a replacement Archos unit. My DVR went phut last week so I haven't been able to download my recent recordings from the Sky + box, but I found one on eBay and the bid expired at 10 pm last night. Great - should arrive soon - hope it's OK.

Went down to Edinburgh by train on Friday with Les and Anne Mason. We had dinner at their favourite Chinese restaurant, Loon Fung - and very good it was too. We stayed, very conveniently, at the George Hotel, just across the road from the Assembly Rooms where this year's Wine Gang Xmas Fair, featuring Anne's brother Tom Cannavan - star of STV's The Hour wine spot - was being held. Good fun it was too. We attended three of their masterclasses - the two Tom himself did on Portugal and Lebanon were very good, but his colleague Jane got in a bit of a muddle with her presentation on the wines of SW France.

Here we are posing in the hallway adjacent to the magnificent, newly refurbished room where the fair was held:

So, golf yesterday morning was followed by a lazy Sunday afternoon with the papers and TV sport, then we caught up with Boardwalk Empire in the evening. Fraserburgh today - got a bit of a crisis looming - machinery breakdowns have caused a huge backlog of orders and we only have a few weeks left until Xmas, so we've had to ask for volunteers to work additional hours, weekends and holidays.

Squash this evening, then back to Aberdeen tomorrow. Nothing else major planned for this week.

No politics here

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

The internet - Twitter, Facebook etc - is full of comments about Obama's election victory - mostly favourable, but that's from a European perspective, of course. It was supposed to be neck and neck but I spotted an interesting comment from Bob Dylan on Facebook yesterday - "we’re not fooled by the media and we think it’s going to be a landslide". Looks like he was more aware than many of the commentators.

So, I've now completed another (fairly lengthy) chapter of Renshaw's Chronicles. This latest chapter was the most painful yet - hopefully the next few will be a bit brighter. I said at the start of this year that it would take me at least until the end of 2012 - another 18 chapters or so - to complete my Chronicles. After saying that, there was then a 4 month gap before the next spurt of blog postings, then another gap of 6 months, and we're still only up to 1983. There's another 25 years to be covered up to the time I started my family blog back in 2007.

It's taken me 23 posts over 18 months to cover the first 34 years of my life. Amazingly, I've written a total of almost 34,000 words so far. It looks like this project has a long way to go yet. It should get a bit easier from 1999 onwards, which is when my digital photo library starts - these can be sorted by date and type, and thus not only help me recall events in sequence, but also save me a lot of time sorting through and scanning old hard copy paper photographs, which are scattered randomly in my wardrobe.

Apart from that, not much else on this week - apart, of course, from the Champions League. Celtic - Barcelona tonight should be fun. I did get a game of squash doubles on Monday, but it rather looks like this will be the last this week - I had hoped to get another game today or tomorrow, but it's proving difficult to get 4 of us organised. Our pool of players is getting smaller and smaller, I'm afraid. I suppose I'll have to go to Bannatyne's then.

Sunday supplement

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

I don't usually blog on a Sunday but there's been a few things happening and I've been requested to post a few of the photos I've taken over the last few days.

Let's start with Thursday. Jo and I jumped in a taxi with Colin Kilgour and went to the Stonehaven Beer Festival for a couple of hours. Expensive trip, but good fun. More details on Ian's Ale Adventures blog, but here's the photo already posted on Facebook:

On Friday, with Carole and Gary having gone off to Crieff Hydro for a couple of days to celebrate their second anniversary, Jo picked up Luca from school and took him back to Banchory for "2 sleeps". While she was doing that, I left work early to get a game of squash doubles - our first for probably a month or so. I felt it the following day. Despite a couple of sessions at Bannatyne's this week, my legs were sore after the squash - different muscle groups, I guess.

On Saturday morning, I had the optician - it was my first visit in 2 years. I seem to have missed last year - I'm supposed to get my eyes pressure tested every year due to Mum having had glaucoma, which can be inherited. I'm happy to say that there's absolutely no sign of me developing it - not yet at least. The results were identical to those taken back in 2005. The optician said there was no sign of cataracts either - something else Mum had. I couldn't recall at which age - and which order - Mum had developed glaucoma and cataracts, but I suspect she was a fair bit older than I am now.

I also passed the fields test with flying colours, and my vision hasn't really changed much at all in 2 years - just a fractional change to my prescription for distance glasses, but I still hardly need them - only in poor light really. What I did ask for was new glasses for computer work - my previous ones had broken - so I've ordered a pair for collection next week.

Whilst I was in the optician's, Jo walked Luca along to Morrison's supermarket, partly to burn off some of that surplus energy he seems to have. In the evening, it was Bonfire Night at King George V park so we walked Luca down there to see the fireworks etc. At the bonfire, I asked him to pose, but he's never very obliging when you pull the camera out:

No - his head wasn't really on fire.

We took turns at lifting him up out of the crowd to watch the firework display:

Luca was severely underwhelmed by it all. We thought we'd have difficulty dragging him away from it, but, after watching a few minutes of the display, he was nagging us to go home!

After tea and Luca was in bed, I nipped down to the Burnett Arms, where I'd heard that Mick Ralphs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mick_Ralphs) was playing - I couldn't miss the chance of seeing him. (More on this on my Headbangers blog).

This morning, with Jo at church, I cancelled my golf to look after Luca in the morning. We got dressed and walked along to the shops to get my paper - plus a "treat" for Luca. He's a happy-go-lucky wee boy, the way he bounces along - check out this brief video:

Luca wanted to go in to Tease, "where Uncle Ross used to work" so we bought his goodies then went in for a quick coffee and Ribena.

The sweetest bit was when we got home and he said to me "I'm so excited about sharing my treats with you"! When we got upstairs, he sat on the settee and patted the seat next to him, motioning to me to come and join him to share his treats - so I did. One for you, one for me .......

Gary and Carole arrived mid afternoon to take him home. So that's been my weekend.

Midweek musings

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yesterday was a full day in Fraserburgh for me and I was pretty tired when I headed home - could it be the change of the clocks? The experts say it does affect people's sleep patterns etc.

Anyway, I got a text from Jo to say that she was at Inverurie with Liz and Luca, and Liz had made fish pie for tea - and there was enough for me too. So that was me sorted then - the fish pie was lovely. I saw Carole very briefly but not Gary. They were going to the movies in Aberdeen - it was their second anniversary - and we didn't even give them a card! Whoops.

Back in the Aberdeen office today and I've finished off the next chapter in Renshaw's Chronicles that I've been working on the last couple of evenings. It's been a while since my last posting and I must say I found it hard to get back in to the swing of it again - it's a real stretch trying to recall events of 30 + years ago.

It looks like I will manage the Stonehaven Beer Festival after all - tomorrow night. Not ideal after a long day up in Fraserburgh, but better than nowt. The other events I'm organising just now are our group Christmas night out - Friday 14th at Banchory Lodge - and the Summer Tour next July, back to Slaley Hall for a couple of nights. I have to say I'm finding it increasingly frustrating at the delays and lack of responses from certain individuals - why do I do it?

First 2 winter tyres going on today - it's November tomorrow after all. Not only is it Hallowe'en today but it's also the day that the tax on Ross' nice Volvo convertible expires, so it's being moved up to Banchory Car Centre and being "SORN'd"  as we speak. It was a nice car for Ross to have and useful/essential when Banchory Techies was going, but now that that's stopped, the Volvo is an expensive luxury. Frankly, I don't know how many people can afford to drive their own car when fuel costs £80 or so a fill, never mind, tax, insurance and maintenance.

New week, new clocks

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

The "extra" hour in bed yesterday was a bit of a waste of space - I wasn't going anywhere anyway. The golf course was closed again - thankfully - at least I didn't feel guilty about not turning up to play. We'd had a headbang on Friday night and were fairly late getting home - partly due to the snow flurries - and were heading down to Falkirk for the footy on Saturday, so a lazy Sunday was just what the doctor ordered.

Lots of good footy on TV and then Gary, Luca, Carole and her mum, Liz, came over for dinner. Jo slow-cooked some pork - it was delish. We were over at Inverurie on Thursday too - the day Liz arrived - and Carole cooked fajitas for us - also lovely.

That's about all my news. There's nothing much else in the offing just now, other than the fact that Luca is with us for "2 sleeps" when Carole and Gary go away for their second anniversary this coming weekend. Plans to go to the Stonehaven Beer Festival on Saturday now scuppered, but I don't mind at all really. Jo says I should just go on my own, but I don't think so. If it wasn't always so busy on Friday night, that would have been the ideal time to go. Still, there's always Thursday ..........

Leaving Ullapool

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

On Sunday morning after breakfast, we weren't quite sure what to do. We considered heading north a bit and taking a detour home via the Oikle, but instead opted for a short drive up the Brae a little, where we left the car and headed up Ullapool Hill - just a mile the sign said.

It was such a beautiful day - and a very pleasant walk, with wonderful views of Loch Broom, the mountains and out to the ocean and the islands. It didn't take long - short of an hour and a half there and back. Here's some of the photos we took:

We did do one slight detour on the way home - via Strathpeffer and Dingwall. We stopped off for a coffee, tea and a scone at the Victorian Tea-room situated in the old railway station building:

So that was our weekend. It's back to work for me now, but not quite back to the old routine for Jo - Luca is staying with us for "3 sleeps", as he puts it.

Some progress is being made on our house "projects". The plastering in the downstairs loo is now under way, and we've ordered the floor covering, so we'll be able to get it - and the kitchen - painted soon. We've also ordered a new mattress - we've had ours for 12 years now, and it's past time to replace it. Oh - and we're getting a new family car some time soon. We've decided to be environmentally friendly and cut back from 3 to just 2 cars, so we'll trade in Jo's and Ross' cars and get something a bit newer.

Ullapool and beyond

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Well we had a lovely weekend on the West Coast - the weather was terrific - much better than we anticipated, and Saturday and Sunday were a huge improvement on the rather mixed weather we drove through travelling to Ullapool on Friday.

I left work at the back of three and drove home to pick up Jo and we were on the road about 4-ish. I wanted to get as much of the driving as possible done in daylight and so I just kept going. We made very good time - over the Lecht, up to Inverness and then on to a much better road than I anticipated from Tore on the Black Isle to Ullapool. We checked in and were down in the bar having our supper before 7 pm.

After eating, we took the one mile walk up the hill to the Morefield Hotel, who were holding the 8th Ullapool Beer Festival. As expected, it was a fairly small affair - the hotel had 9 handpumps on, compared with their usual 3, but it wasn't anything like the huge affairs at Pittodrie or Stonehaven (next week!) - or even the one we went to at the Braeval in Nairn earlier this year. The Morefield just held it in their usual lounge and it was fairly quiet when we arrived - we were able to get a comfy corner seat with a good view of the band, who were setting up at the time.

We had a few beers and walked home - not too late. On Saturday morning we had breakfast in the lovely dining room, looking out at Loch Broom, with the sun coming over the tops of the mountains. We both ordered kippers and were astonished at the plates that arrived with 2 huge kippers each on them:

Our room was described as a balcony double overlooking Loch Broom. It was fine, but it wasn't quite what I imagined. The balcony wasn't individual to our room, but ran all the way round that side of the building:

We decided we would take the coastal road which heads south to Gairloch and go and see Inverewe Gardens, a National Trust property. First of all, however, a little stroll along past the ferry port up to the end of the breakwater:

Time now to jump in the car back inland to the start of Loch Broom. Just as we turned round to head along the coastal trail, we came to Corrieshalloch Gorge, another National Trust site. We took the 1 km walk round the gorge, across the suspension bridge and on to the overhanging viewing platform. Jo wasn't keen on crossing the bridge, which moved about a bit too much for her liking:

She was just a little less edgy on the metal viewing platform - just as well it wasn't glass like the Grand Canyon!:

The drive south from there was spectacular - super viewpoints over the mountains and out to the ocean and the islands everywhere. We got to Inverewe Gardens just in time for lunch, after which we strolled round the grounds, starting at the walled garden. We went through the gate on to the foreshore and sat on a bench to read for a little. It was beautifully sheltered and the sun was beating down. What else would a couple of old folks do but have a quick nap? This was our bench:

So that was pretty much Saturday morning and afternoon. We drove back to our hotel, showered and then walked out to get something to eat. Earlier on we had spotted that the Seaforth had advertised that it had won various awards for Seafood Pub of the Year several times, so we thought it was definitely worth a try - and what a good decision it was. Smoked haddock risotto with Stornaway black pudding - lovely!

We went back to the Morefield, which was a bit busier this time. The band playing was North Sea Gas and a few more had come along to hear this "name" act. They've been on the go for 30 years, toured the world and made 15 albums - check them out here - http://nsg.gplrank.info/

After a couple of beers propped up on bar stools, we left and headed for the Argyll Hotel, which is Wester Ross Pub of the Year. It was OK, but we went on the wrong evening - no band and very quiet - we should have been there the night before.

That was Saturday. Sunday's stories to follow later.

The week so far

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

I had a really lazy time last weekend. The weather wasn't conducive to any outdoor activities and I probably could have done with the rest anyway, but I did spend a lot of my time in my chair reading the papers and watching TV. The best part was watching Thistle on BBC Alba on Sunday, complete with Gaelic commentary, as they beat Cowdenbeath to reach the Ramsdens Cup Final, where they will meet Queen of the South. Bizarrely, the final isn't until 7th April.

We watched Animal Kingdom on DVD on Saturday night. A bit grisly it was - Jo wasn't too keen on it, but we sat through to the end.

I made up for my lazy weekend a bit with 2 days in a row at Bannatyne's on Monday and Tuesday - the first time I've done that for a long time. I've found it a bit of a motivational struggle this past year or so to go to the gym - you know you should, but often you just can't be bothered.

Jo's big sister Mary arrived on Tuesday. Like me, she felt she needed a bit of a rest and, as a result, she and Jo didn't really get around all that much this week, but it was nice to see her anyway. We - Jo, Mary, Ross and I - went to the Burnett for tea on Wednesday evening, where I snapped the Twitter Sisters together:

Not Mary's best photo - a kind of world-weary, resigned look on her face.

Last night, Jo, Mary and I went to the Deeside Drinks Emporium for another wine tasting evening. This time it was Spanish wines - but only one Rioja. Five of them were white and they were OK, but the 3 red ones were nice.

Mary's gone home today and this afternoon, Jo and I are heading to Ullapool - a new adventure for us - some walking, some sight-seeing - and a beer festival to boot! What's not to like? I had to forgo my ticket to see the Steve Miller Band in Glasgow on Sunday night, but I didn't mind really. The ticket's still available if anyone wants it?

Looking ahead, we have a Headbang next Friday and we're going to see the Jags for the first time this season - at Falkirk - the following day. The weekend after that it's the Stonehaven Beer Festival, then the following weekend we're back in Edinburgh for the Wine Gang's (http://www.thewinegang.com/live/) Christmas Fair again. Jo's signed us up for a few of the Masterclasses - including wines of Lebanon, of all things!

After all that, it won't be long until we're off to Oz for Xmas! We have to arrange our Scottish Christmas Dinner first of all - probably on Sunday 16th December. That's the day after I'm scheduled to go down to Newcastle for a Premiership footy match. Going to have to fit in our group golf/squash Xmas dinner party some time as well. Whew.

I'll finish with a rare photo of Kelly and Chris all dressed up at a mask ball:

Looking forward to seeing them in a few weeks' time.

Back again

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Got back from my week's golf in Mallorca on Tuesday. The return journey went fine but the outward one was a bit of a nightmare - but we got there in the end and what a great week of weather we had - much hotter than we expected, rising to 30 C.

On the Sunday before we left, we held our annual end of season Scotland v Rest of World Challenge match, followed by lunch at the golf club - and what a nice day out it turned out to be.

Not much else to say - the weather was lovely when we got back and yesterday brought a ton of rain and everywhere is pretty damp now. No golf today - perhaps tomorrow. Could probably do with a lazy day anyway. May go and visit Dave and Doris Edwards. Dave's got vascular dementia - he's been going downhill for years, and now he's got to the stage where full-time care is required. Doris can't cope any more. Memories of Dad come flooding back - and it was 3 years ago on Thursday that he passed.

I'll finish with a photo of me on my balcony overlooking the Med last week:

Weather

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Apparently there have been reports of a weather onslaught on Aberdeen. It's not been great - there's been plenty of rain and wind - but, from watching some of the news reports from other parts of the country, it looks like we've escaped lightly this time - so far anyway.

What we did have was some pretty freak conditions round about Fittie, which brought sea foam ashore, making it look like a snowstorm. There have been loads of photos on Facebook already, but I rather liked the one on the front page of the Times today:

Never seen that before.

Nothing much else to say in this blog. Jo and I finished distributing the CAMRA newsletters on Monday evening, but otherwise all's quiet.

Holiday weekend

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

We don't do holiday Mondays at work any more, but it's still noticeable that a number of people take the day off. Not that I would have noticed any difference in the rush hour traffic this morning - I slept in - didn't waken until 7:50 am!

We were knackered yesterday and I just vegetated. We had gone for a drive and a walk on Saturday afternoon - it was such a lovely day. The walk wasn't hard - it was pretty flat and only 13kms long, but I had forgotten my wedges and the second half of the walk was absolute agony - I didn't think I was going to make it back to Ballater at one stage. Well, at least it proves that my wedges must be doing something - I didn't get any pain like this last weekend when we were in the Lake District on harder walks 4 days in a row.

I had also been refereeing - without wedges again - on Friday night at our little celebration for Andy Gore's 1,000th match - and it was a fairly late night too, so that probably didn't help the way I felt on Saturday.

Details of our walk are on the Hill-walking blog, but it was a loop from Ballater along the south side of the Dee, over the bridge at Cambus o' May then back along the Deeside Way on the north side of the river. Here we are at the halfway point:

We've also had a visitor this weekend - Charlie, Ross' pal Liam's lovely young lab. He was very good really but needed a fair amount of attention.

Got the quarterly newsletters for CAMRA to deliver this week - I've done about half already, but still have to get out to Aboyne, Tarland and Potarch. Apart from that, I've been preparing for our annual end of season Scotland v. R.o.W. Challenge match next Sunday, followed by lunch at the golf club, and also for our next overseas golf trip - to Mallorca a week tomorrow. I've hardly played recently - will need to sharpen up quickly for this trip.

The other little trip planned is a couple of nights in Ullapool on 19/20 October. Never been there, so it'll be nice to see it - and, of course, it's the weekend of their beer festival too - wouldn't you know it! The only slight downside was that it clashed a bit with the Steve Miller Band playing in Glasgow that Sunday, so I've had to cancel that.

Hello again

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Where have I been? Well, mostly down in the Lake District since my last blog - check out http://bvhill-walkers.blogspot.co.uk/. I didn't cope too well and I rather suspect this will be the last time I can join them on a trip like this. My best day was Saturday when the sun shone and I was on my own, happy to stroll along at my own pace with my music on. I think I decided I liked my own company that day. Here's a couple of photos I took that aren't on the hill-walking blog:

It's been back to the old routine for now - Tuesday Fraserburgh, Wednesday Aberdeen and tomorrow back to the Broch again - busy catching up. Friday should be a bit easier and we've got a special football celebration match then - not that I'll be playing - I can't risk kicking a ball again, but I will probably referee. My pal Dave and I are putting together a presentation for Andy Gore, who's now played 1,000 matches - we're going to show it on the big screen in the Douglas Arms after the football. It's a bit of a technical challenge, with Dave working down in Reading and me up here, but we'll manage somehow.

That's about all for now - no more news, but I'll keep you posted.

Table

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

A poor photo taken with my iPhone, but it gives you an idea of what the new kitchen table looks like:

No - the table legs aren't green - they're buttermilk - the same as the units - it's just a poor flash.

Arise Sir Andy!

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

What a night last night - no wonder I'm tired today - we stayed up until 2:30 am watching Andy Murray finally overcome the British male hoodoo and become a winner of a Grand Slam event - after a gap of almost four generations. I think my tiredness is only partly due to lack of sleep - the rest is due to the emotional wringer that Andy always seems to put us through. Even when he was 5-2 up and serving for the match against an apparently wounded opponent, you still felt it wasn't going to be a shoe-in - but it was, and what a relief.

What was even more surprising was that Jo, who doesn't really like sport at all, stayed up with me and watched every ball too. Ross was in and out of the room, regularly checking up on the score - and adding, in his unique way, comments about there still being time for Andy to mess it up - but, for once, he didn't.

So what now for Andy? Honours certainly - Knighthood? - perhaps not yet. Sports Personality of the Year? - good chance, although several Olympians, including Mo Farah, may contest that one - and that's without mentioning Bradley Wiggins, winner of the Tour de France.

Tired though I was, I think I successfully steered our company through its annual wage negotiations with USDAW in Fraserburgh this morning, so it looks to have been a good day so far. I'll stop off at Inverurie on the way home and have a bite with Jo and Luca - and poor, sick Carole, who's got pleurisy apparently - before heading back home for an early night.

The weekend was good - especially Sunday's golf up at spectacular Castle Stuart - check the golf blog for some nice views of the course and the surrounding area.

I'm half packed for this weekend's walking trip to the Lake District. All we need now is for the weather to behave itself.

We're considering going to Ullapool for a weekend late October, to coincide with their annual beer festival, but there's a slight logistical complication in that I've also got a ticket to see The Steve Miller Band at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on the Sunday night. Watch this space for further news.

There's a Food and Beer night coming up at Milton of Crathes on 20th September - looks interesting, and so it should be at £45 per head. Here's the provisional menu:

Appetiser- Venison tartare, caper relish, coal oil, gorse flower.

Starter- Grilled smoked salmon, rockette and a

pple salad, cucumber gel.

Main- Slow braised pork belly, cauliflower purée, sweet and sour peppers, coconut porter sauce.

Cheese course- Badentoy blue cheese, toasted brioche, sweetened stout jelly.

Desert- Warm chocolate ganache tart, yoghurt sorbet.

Coffee and fudge.

Oh - and our new kitchen table arrived yesterday - and it's lovely - Jo's delighted with it. Painting the kitchen - and the chairs - will finish that project off, but we're waiting to get a plasterer to do some repair work in the downstairs WC before we call the painter back.