Holiday Eve

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

I'm sitting here in the office, just waiting until 3:15 pm, because that'll be exactly 24 hours before we are due to fly from ABZ to LHR and I can then check in online and print off our boarding passes. I've already done the LHR-KUL-ADL ones with Malaysian Airlines - they allow you to do it 48 hours before the flight.

I hope we're all well tomorrow. I've still got my cough - although it's easier than it was a few days ago - and I've now developed a bloodshot eye - where did that come from? Is it just a symptom of the cough and cold I've had for the last 10 days, or is it the first sign of something new coming along? I hope not the latter.

Jo's still treating her sore shoulder as well - another visit to the physio today. It could be an uncomfortable flight for her.

Anyway, looking forward to seeing some Australian daylight - there's not much here at this time of year.

Ross had plans to do his last minute Xmas shopping today. He was planning to take Jo's car and go in to town, then head off to drop off all our surplus food from Sunday at Inverurie. Hope he manages to squeeze it all in - he's still got to pack as well. Come to that, I've still a bit to do as well.

Otherwise, I think we're all set to go. I thought I would take the chance to have a couple of rants before we left so I've added some to my Pet Hates Blog.

I was away on Saturday but the weather wasn't too exceptional inland, but I first heard about "The Perfect Storm" in the media on Sunday and Monday. Apparently, it hit the coastal regions only. It was a rare combination of very high seas and high winds and a number of small communities suffered badly. (Check out http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/east-coast-counts-the-cost-of-storm-1494828)

Our own factory in Fraserburgh just missed it - this photo is taken at the back of our site, with the public walkway along to Scotland's National Lighthouse Museum looking a bit precarious:

Our factory is built on a granite block, so hopefully it'll be OK.

Fake Christmas

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

The heading was Ross' name for our pre-Christmas get-together yesterday when Gary, Carole and Luca came over for a meal and an exchange of presents. We had been out for dinner at Banchory Lodge on Friday night and I had set off early on Saturday morning, heading to Newcastle for the match against the current Premiership champions, Manchester City, whilst Jo stayed at home and prepared for yesterday's banquet.

We didn't buy a proper tree this year - the first time for many years - but we used the little artificial one that normally sits in our back room:

After a few more pre-dinner glasses of wine than planned, whilst waiting for everything to be ready, after the meal Carole had her by now traditional little snooze as Luca watched Jo's i-Pad:

Then we exchanged presents - I got a lovely Bush DAB radio and Ross was also delighted with his gift from Gary and Carole:

I suspect the ukelele may be travelling in Ross' hand baggage on Thursday!

Time now for the team photo:

After a suitable break, it was time for dessert. Jo had baked an enormous chocolate cake and apple pie, to boot:

Note the young gleaming eye in the background, licking his lips at the thought of the chocolate cake!

So, it's back to work today and I'm pleased to say for the first time in a week, I feel a little better. I certainly seem to have got my voice back and I'm definitely not coughing as much as I was a couple of days ago. Hopefully, I'll be fighting fit for Oz.

Countdown - one week to go

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yes - this time next week, we'll be on our way to Oz. Looking forward to it, especially after this morning's shock drop in temperature. We were told it was going to get warmer as it got nearer the weekend but this was the reading on my car when I got to Kirkton of Skene this morning:

Yes - that's minus 8.5 degrees C - and it's almost 8 am. Definitely the coldest this winter, but still a long way from the record lows we had a couple of years ago.

They're now saying we're going to get some snow tomorrow - hope it doesn't upset my travel plans on Saturday. We're planning to go to see the Newcastle - Man City match and our schedule is fairly tight - an early start, straight after a late(ish) night tomorrow at Banchory Lodge.

We had a lovely dinner with the Kilgours and the Masons last Saturday - Jo's first time entertaining, using our new cooker, hob etc - and it went very well.

Looking ahead, we are scheduled to get to Adelaide early on Saturday morning local time, and we head about an hour south of there on Christmas Eve, down the Fleurieu Peninsula to where Chris' parents live. We have hired a place to stay for a couple of days and we are having our Christmas meal at David & Lorene Steele's place in Port Elliott.

We'll go back to Adelaide after Christmas, past the McLaren Vale wine region (there's a brewery or two there as well - http://www.mvbeer.com/ at the historic Salopian Inn, for example).

For New Year, we're heading to Kangaroo Island for a few days, then we're all going to see one of Cirque du Soleil's shows - OVO (http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/ovo/default.aspx). We've only seen one of their shows before - the Beatles' Love in Vegas a few years ago - it'll be an interesting comparison.

Here's an outline map of the area:

Glenelg (middle top on map) is the beach resort where we stayed before, and Victor Harbor is the scene of the infamous seafaring incident never to be repeated/mentioned. We've also been in the Adelaide Hills before, and up Mount Lofty, and also visited brewpubs in Hahndorf and Lobethal. Looking forward to more of the same and some new experiences this time around.

Incidentally, I've now passed 25,000 readings of this blog - never ceases to amaze.

Greetings from home

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Just like Gary yesterday, here I am blogging from home today. My reason for so doing is a little different from Gary's - I didn't fall down the stairs and injure my knee - at least, not yesterday I didn't. No, mine was largely weather induced.

Jo had stayed overnight at Gary's last night so that she could drive him in to work first thing this morning. He couldn't drive Carole's car because it's not automatic. Anyway, I was a little later leaving this morning and it was a snowy start to the day. I was driving along the top road on the Raemoir to Garlogie section, just before the Hirn turnoff, when I noticed a queue of cars in front of me. I sat patiently in line for a while, not moving at all, then a police car came up the outside line, lights flashing. It was clear there had been an accident and soon we are all told to turn round and head back to Banchory.

OK - second attempt. North Deeside Road this time. I got as far as Kippie Lodge, just short of Milltimber and the traffic stopped again. This time it was sheer volume - everything was backed up. It appeared that Aberdeen city had iced up and there were logjams everywhere. North Sound radio was reporting hour long jams at Haudagain roundabout and cars struggling to get up the hill at the Parkway. That was enough for me. Two hours in the car already and still no nearer the office, so I just turned around and came home and worked from there - or, at least, tried to.

Jo got home not long after me, having spent a couple of hours taking Gary to work. Next, our doorbell rang - it was Irene from next door. She wanted to discuss some of the potential issues on the Council's draft contract to lay new surfaces on Birch Grove and Arbor Court. If you haven't been here recently, you won't have seen the huge potholes in the road - so bad, in fact, that Les Mason - Jo's pal Anne's husband - had recently tripped when carrying his baby grand-daughter. It could have been a really nasty accident, but she was OK in the end. It did, however, prompt Les to take action and circulate all the neighbours to get their approval to the proposed scheme - the roads are not adopted so they're our responsibility, not the Council's, so we have to pay.

Irene is the only one who hasn't signed up yet, and, given her chequered past relationship with all her neighbours, some suspected she might not agree, but actually she does - in principle at least. It took at least an hour and a half to find out what her points of detail were - and some of them were pretty pertinent - but, by the time she was gone, it was lunchtime and I still hadn't done any work.

Anyway, I did get some work done this afternoon, so I'm feeling a bit better now - hence this quick blog.

We've had some aerial problems recently - it only affects digital terrestial TV and we use the satellite virtually all of the time, so it's not been a great problem, but it was a job that Ross had to find time for and today is one of his days off, so up in to the loft he went. Problem only partially resolved - it needs more time - but whilst he was up there, he was at least able to clean the loft skylight, which had built up layers of dust and bugs - it might have been a decade or so - since the fire - that it was last cleared.

My journey to Fraserburgh in the morning might be disrupted again, but I'll give it a go anyway if there's not too much snow. We're planning a curry night out with the Veterans' Football Group in Aberdeen on Friday night - again weather permitting.

That's my lot for now. I'll finish with a slightly artistic photo, "stolen" from Facebook, of Scolty Hill from Banchory today:

St. Andrews Day Greetings

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Happy St. Andrews Day to all - especially those in far-flung parts of the world - don't forget your Scottish roots!

What have we been up to over the last week? Not a lot, to be truthful, but it looks like being another 3-match squash week for me. I played on Monday and Wednesday and am planning to play again this afternoon/evening. Might be a bit sore tomorrow. It's getting seasonally cold now, with freezing temperatures most mornings, which makes squash on a cold court in the back of beyond a bit of a challenge. It would be far easier for us to play racketball when it's cold, but we all enjoy doubles squash and it's more sociable with 4 of us.

With the exception of the whupping my son-in-law gave me in Idaho this year, I haven't played any racketball for at least a couple of years now. Note to self - must try again before July, so that Scott doesn't find it so easy next summer!

Last weekend, we started watching the DVD I got out of the library - Il Divo:

It's in Italian with subtitles and is all about Italian politics and links with the Mafia, focusing on Giulio Andreotti, 3 times Italian Premier. It's very stylishly done, but some prior understanding of the history would have made it more interesting. Jo was bored rigid and gave up, so I ended up watching the second half of the film myself on Tuesday night when she was at Inverurie.

The actor who played the lead character, Tony Servillo, looked very odd in the film, but, on checking out Wikipedia, the real life man looked exactly the same - chillingly enigmatic as it says in the blurb:

Need to take the DVD back to the library tomorrow - my time's up. We also need to get back up to Banchory Car Centre and make up our minds about the new family car. Jo - and Ross - quite fancied a Subaru (Legacy, I think?), but they wanted one a bit newer than the ones Malcolm has in stock just now, and he's had difficulty locating any. They also tried the eco-friendly Prius, Toyota's hybrid:

The silence of the engine when it's in electric mode, not knowing if it's running or not, may have put Jo off a bit, but you never know - she might become an eco-pioneer yet!

We've also finally got the painting started in our kitchen and downstairs WC, which have both been bare since the new kitchen, shower and porcelain set was put in earlier this year. Davie, our work's painter, became ill and has now finally retired at the age of 76, but we've now got his "apprentice" Gordon, a mere 61 year old, on the job.

Oh - and we successfully sold a spare shower we had on e-Bay. We installed a more powerful shower downstairs, but not before we had already ordered a conventional one, so we were left with one extra. The eBay experience was good - we got most of our money back.

Enchanted Castle

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

The North East again escaped the worst of the weather last night and so Jo and I were able to join Gary, Carole and Luca at the Enchanted Castle (http://www.theenchantedcastle.info/) evening at Crathes. It was principally lights and sounds, with a few entertainers - magicians and firethrowers - plus a BBQ (hot dogs and veniburgers). We were all ever so slightly disappointed that there wasn't more of a Christmas Fayre feel about the event - we half expected local food producers with tastings as well. The first 2 floors of the castle were open to visitors, but, apart from a couple of little Christmas trees, there was nothing especially festive going on in there.

Images and music - Fantasia, Harry Porter etc - were projected up on to the castle wall:

The next bit was good - we went in to the walled garden, which was nicely atmospheric with low level coloured lighting and spooky music, and from there on to a walkway through the woods. There was a smoke generator in one of the buildings, adding to the atmosphere and Gary and Luca posed outside it:

Carole wasn't allowed to dodge the camera either:

Luca then went to inspect the magic, sparkly, rotating toadstools:

The strange things round everyone's necks were proof of payment:

A juggler was playing in the middle of the woodland walkway:

We managed to get a shot of all of us in front of one of the famous cultivated hedges:

Luca then tried, after a little coaching, to spin the plates:

All in all, it wasn't a bad way to spend a couple of hours - but we reckoned it was probably about a fiver's worth, which was half what they charged - unless, of course, you are a concession. The girl at the entrance was a little hesitant when she suggested Jo and I might fall in to this category, but we assured her we weren't at all offended!

More of these photos on my Facebook Timeline.

Jo suggested we stop off on the way home and pop in to the bar of the Douglas for a swift half. This at least gave Ross some glasses to clean on what was another quiet evening for him behind the bar!

Oh - and our new mattress arrived on Tuesday, so that's 2 nights we've slept on it now. It's different - bigger, a bit softer and not so rigid at the edges. So far, so good.

I also managed to get tickets for the Newcastle - Man City match on Saturday 15th December. It's a lunchtime kick-off, so it's quite easy to do the journey there and back in a day, but it's going to be a hectic weekend, as we've got our squash/golf group night out at the Banchory Lodge Hotel on the Friday night, then have our Christmas lunch with Gary, Carole and Luca on the Sunday before we go to Oz.

Greetings from murky Aberdeen

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Not many hours of daylight at this time of year and when it's overcast - like now - or raining, it's even worse. Thankfully, so far, we haven't had the heavy floods they've been reporting in west central Scotland - and SW England - but it's still very gloomy.

Just over 4 weeks until we head for Oz - hopefully a lot brighter there. I looked at the programme for the outdoor Moonlight Adelaide cinema (http://www.moonlight.com.au/adelaide/) for when we're there, and there's a couple of things on that might have been quite interesting, but they're on days when we're already booked to do other things. All that remains is sing-a-long Grease - can't see us doing that!

Last week, for the first time for many years, I actually managed to play squash 3 times in one week. OK, it was only doubles, but it was better than doing nowt. Ironically, at the weekend, when the sun was shining gloriously, I did nothing. We had a lazy Saturday morning and we knew Luca was coming over to stay some time in the afternoon. In the end, Jo ended up driving over to Costco to meet Gary and transfer the precious cargo over, whilst I watched the televised football. On Sunday morning, I agreed to forgo golf and look after Luca whilst Jo went to church. As it turned out, Gary came over about 10 am to pick him up, so I was soon on my own again. A nice walk down to the shops to buy the papers, then a quick visit to the clubhouse to read them was all the exercise I managed all weekend.

We've got a lot of series recorded on our Sky box to watch just now. Not that you need to record them nowadays - they're all on the new catch-up facilities which you can just download at any time. The best, though, is series III of The Killing, which started on Saturday night with two episodes - looks intriguing already. We've also been watching House of Lies, about a team of Management Consultants - quite funny, but lots of flesh and pretty crude too.

Oh - and I re-joined the library on Saturday. Amazingly, they still had me on their records after what must be 15-20 years. I thought I'd give it a go anyway, so I took out one CD (PJ Harvey - Let England Shake); one DVD (Il Divo); and one book (Chic Murray biography).

I'm just finishing off a book Gary gave me - Louise Wener's autobiography - Different for Girls: My True-life Adventures in Pop (aka Just For One Day: Adventures in Britpop) - she writes really well, so it's not surprising that she changed career path from pop star to writer. I've got some holiday reading lined up now as well - I bought a Michael Connelly (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Connelly) book that was on offer in WH Smith, and I'd already acquired a 2nd hand Stuart MacBride (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_macbride) that I spotted in Homebase the other day (50p!). On a whim, I also bought from Amazon Steak Diana Ross: Diary of a Football Nobody
by David McVay. That lot should keep me going on Kangaroo Island for a while!

Some bugs going around just now. Feeling a bit under the weather - hope it clears soon. Perhaps it's just S.A.D.?

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.