Saturday morning Medical Report

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Jo's fine - she's got the feeling back in her arm now. They put a nerve block in and she couldn't feel her arm at all until this morning. She said it was the strangest feeling - and she didn't realise how heavy her arm was until this happened! Now for the physiotherapy.

I'm going to see my implant dentist this morning and hopefully get the cap on my crown glued permanently. I'll perhaps pop in and see Doris Edwards and see if we can fix her PC properly - probably on the way back.

Tonight Carole and Luca are coming over to stay here on their way down to Lincoln next week. Gary's got pals staying over and they're taking part in the Garioch 10K tomorrow - brrrr.

Oh - and Kelly and Chris' flights are all arranged now - great.

Jo

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

She's come out of theatre now and is awake although a little sleepy - and cold:

Another few hours here and then we'll be home, hopefully.

Waiting, wondering

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Well, she's done it - Jo's in theatre just now and I'm sitting here in her empty ward waiting for her to return. Hospital wi-fi will keep me occupied for a little bit. Wonder how long she will be?

I could tell you a story about the ankle ID Jo had to put on - but she'd probably kill me if I did! She let me read what she wrote on her i-Pad about her Dad - very touching. Hope she lets the rest of the family see it eventually.

Eve of decision

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yes - it's Thursday night and Jo still hasn't made up her mind about whether to go ahead with her shoulder operation tomorrow or not - she will wait until her discussion with the surgeon tomorrow.

But last night, we were celebrating Jo's birthday in the lovely surroundings of the Cowshed - our first ever visit there:

It was delightful - much better than I'd been led to believe. They overheard us discussing the fact that it was Jo's birthday and decorated her dessert plate:

Do we like the new hairstyle?

There was some snow on Tuesday morning - and today - and, as a result, Gary and Carole thought it would be best to cancel Jo's regular weekly trip through to Inverurie to meet Luca coming out of school, so it was nice that they could all manage along last night.

I've got my letter from the knee specialist and I'm going to see him on 25th April - the earliest date he had. I've asked for an earlier cancellation if possible, but it will probably have to run its course.

My crown came off again on Monday so it was a quick visit to the dentist again on Tuesday to get it glued back on. This is the second time it's happened and so my dentist has only put temporary glue in and I've to go and see the implant specialist on Saturday.

I've now done 2 more episodes of Renshaw's Chronicles in quick succession and I got comments about the latter one being a bit too long. I wonder if the chapters will get longer as we get a bit closer to the present day, with the added benefit of more photographs to help remember events of 30 years ago?

That's about it for now.

Dr. Kildare's report

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Most of you probably don't remember Dr. Kildare - or Emergency Ward 10 either - but us oldies do, and we're increasingly in need of the services of the medical profession. Today, Jo is at Albyn hospital doing her pre-operation blood tests etc., but already she's having second thoughts about the op itself. Her shoulder is definitely not causing her as much concern as it had been for the months prior to seeing the specialist - but isn't that just sod's law?

I was back at the physio today, getting more treatment on my hand and ankle. I'm having to avoid squash just now, which is about the only enjoyable exercise I get nowadays - I don't count the gym as enjoyable. Still, I want to be OK for the golf season, which starts in less than 2 weeks - hard to believe when there's more snow forecast for today.

I've also now had a date for my appointment with the knee specialist - but it's not until April 25th - just after I get back from Turkey. I've asked them for a cancellation if they get one earlier.

Well, we went to the quiz night on Saturday night - me, Jo, Leslie Mason and Maura Ross. We did OK in the end, coming in about 7th from 25 tables and just a couple of points from getting a prize - and, more importantly, we easily beat the teams at the other 3 tables I'd booked!

Today, I spoke to Doris, wife of Dave Edwards, our poor friend with Vascular Dementia, who's now been sectioned in Cornhill Hospital - how sad. Doris was actually trying to get in touch with Ross as she was looking for help with her computer set-up. I'll go and see her and see if I can do anything.

As a final comment today, here's a little graphic that I saw in the papers. In advance of next year's referendum on whether Scotland should remain in the UK or not, it's interesting to note how relatively important the fishing industry is to Scotland, as compared with its fairly lowly status in overall UK economic terms:

The "surface-dwelling" fish, aka Pelagic, is the main type of fish we process. The Pelagic sector is by far the largest, and Scotland, which is less than 10% of the UK population, has the lion's share of that sector. Now I'm certainly not saying that you should vote for Independence for Scotland purely because of that, but this does at least show that there are certain industry sectors that might be of greater economic importance to an independent Scotland than they currently are to the UK as a whole. The fishing industry is therefore one that may be looked upon more favourably by a future Scottish Government rather than a Westminster Government, who, frankly, have paid scant heed to it in recent years. Lecture over.

This week

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

So it's Friday now - another week gone. What's happened? Well, I received another package from USA this week - it was marked as birthday present no.1, but it actually arrived after the one I got last week. It contained a small packet of Haribo jellies and a t-shirt, which I wore last night when I went to see Mud Morganfield (see music blog):

Sorry for the poor quality - it was taken in absolute darkness and the only light is that of the flash.

This afternoon, I'm off to a funeral - our Architect's father died and I'm 3rd reserve as both Michael and Francis are away just now.

Still waiting for my letter to go and see the specialist about my knee - I wonder if it'll be the same day (next Friday) that I'm taking Jo in for her shoulder operation? That would be neat.

Gary started his new job this week at Pentagon Freight (http://www.pentagonfreight.com/) - hopefully he'll have a bit more time to himself and a few less call-outs than his previous job at ASCO.

Oh - and we managed to Face Time Kelly when she gave us the news that it's a boy - yes, yet another one! That'll be four and counting.

Jo got a nice letter from Liz, Carole's Mum yesterday, wishing her a happy birthday next week and good luck with her operation. Sorry, Liz - no Luca in this blog today - I haven't seen him this week as I didn't make it to Inverurie on Tuesday, as I had a meeting with a man trying to sell us renewable energy systems - i.e. solar panels. Can't make up my mind about it.

Talking of Jo's birthday, she knows she wants a replacement for her i-Pod that broke, but can't make up her mind about which model. Hurry up, Jo - only a few days left if you want it by Wednesday.

Tomorrow night we're off to the Golf club for another Quiz night. Isn't life in Banchory exciting? Actually, they're pretty good fun and we have the Masons for company tomorrow - hope they can help, as there's not enough sport and music trivia for my liking. That's what happens when the Quizmaster is an ex-teacher. We did win one Quiz Night, but that was on a Friday and it was a boys only occasion then.

So that's it - end of another working week. Hope the weekend is good for you.

Another health report

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

It's Monday now and I'm back from my trip to Glasgow for the Wilko Johnson gig (details on Music blog). We took in the Thistle match as well, which was nice, and I was safely home on the train by lunchtime on Sunday. Ross and I were going to take Jo out for Mother's Day, but Jo preferred to stay at home as Lucy was going to FaceTime, so we just did fish suppers instead - plus an episode of Vegas and 2 of Spiral.

This morning, I went to the Sports Injury clinic to ask them to look at 2 long-running niggles I had - one with my wrist/hand has been making the squash racquet difficult to hold in recent months so I've had some treatment (including ultrasound) and he's given me some exercises to do prior to going back to see him again next week. It's in the sheath coming down from my index finger. I wondered if it was a version of vibration finger caused by using the touch mouse on the laptop, but he noticed the bony calcified lump on the back of my hand and thought that had probably caused it. The other injury is in my left ankle and it's a weakness I've had for a couple of years and he said there was some scar tissue there which he manipulated for a while and again gave me some exercises to do.

Anyway, no squash for me today now!

Closing today with a photo of my new sleeveless pullover that I got from Jo for my birthday. It looks the same colour as my shirt in this photo - but it's not really:

Hot off the presses - just heard about a gig by Mud Morganfield (son of Muddy Waters) this week at the Forum, so I've just bought tickets. Like London buses, you don't go to any gigs for absolutely ages, then, all of a sudden, 2 or 3 come along at once.

Health report

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Well, I had my appointment with my GP this morning and he has now referred me to the knee specialist again. I was amazed when he told me it was two and a half years since my arthroscopies - I had thought it was only 18 months!

We spoke about the bowing in my bones and he assured me that a new knee would take this in to account and somehow re-align things to alleviate the ongoing pain. The lifespan is only 10-15 years so I asked him if I should have done this earlier? He gave me a very firm no to this - he said I was right to put it off as long as I can. I told him I was still undecided and he understood and said I should have a long chat about the pros and cons with the surgeon, and he reminded me that any operation is not without risk.

So, while I was doing that, Jo was at the optician's - wonder how she got on? Will find out later, no doubt. She has been complaining about her eyesight for a while with none of her glasses quite cutting the mustard for her now.

Yes, I had a very nice birthday tea on Wednesday. Gary and Luca came along, armed with a huge chocolate cake that Gary had baked - and very nice it was too. After they left, Ross gave me some specialist beers he'd bought for me and we shared a couple.

Jo's present - a nice sleeveless pullover - arrived yesterday. Nice colour, but hard to describe - no doubt they've got a special name for it. The Lesinas also sent me a package that arrived yesterday - 2 beers and lots of chocolate - as if I needed fattening up!

Got a game of squash last night and then went home and we watched Argo - pretty good, we thought. The memories of the Iranian siege of the US Embassy in Teheran over 30 years ago came flooding back.

I took the South Deeside Rd to work this morning and drove along the beach road and there was white froth blown up on to the road. I looked at the sea and it was as if somebody had put some soap powder in it. I stopped to photograph it but it didn't come out too well on camera:

So tomorrow I'm off to Stonehaven to catch the train down to Glasgow for the Wilko Johnson concert. Weather and time permitting, we'll take in the Jags match v. Dumbarton when, conceivably, they could even go back to the top of the table, given a fair wind. We travel back first thing Sunday, so no golf for me then, but it looks like being a cold weekend again anyway.

Happy birthday - to me!

Always best viewed from the blog itself - http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Yes, it's a day for reflection as I enter my 65th year. This also happens to be the 1,000th posting to this particular blog - and I'm up to almost 2,000 blog postings in total now - after almost exactly 6 years - not quite one per day. This blog is also within a whisker of having had 30,000 viewings in that time - more than half the viewings of all 9 of my blogs.

So, thanks to everyone for their wishes, whether by e-mail, Facebook, text or just an old-fashioned card. Some people have even spoken to me face to face - how unusual. It's a strange day because I know of 5 other people who have birthdays today - there's squash partner Gordon Moir (exactly 10 years younger than me); Steve Paterson, footballer and fellow Headbanger (58); Ben Barr (33) - my cousin Douglas' son; Maurice Taylor (72) - former MD and owner of Nor-Sea Foods from where I'm writing this; and John Long (70) who I worked with many years ago - we even went on a driving holiday in Norway with his family back in 1990 - here's one of the photos taken at Andalsnes:

l-r: Ross, John Long, Fran Long, can't remember, Gary, Jo, Heather Long, Kelly & can't remember

So how do I feel? Not great today actually - hope I don't have the Luca bug. Talking about GS3 (I'm better at numbers), he's taken an aversion to Jo's new car - doesn't like the smell apparently. Jo's now frantically thinking of how she can sort this - air fresheners are OK, but I would stop short of replacing the car just because Luca doesn't like it.

Jo thinks I may be a bit anaemic just now, but I think it's just a little bug - something in the air. On Friday, I have my appointment with my GP which is the first step on the road to deciding what to do about my knee - when exactly to get a replacement and whether and how it will improve my lifestyle. I need to speak to the specialist who did my arthroscopies 18 months ago - the X-rays that were done then clearly showed the damage I'd done to both my femur and tibia on the right leg, which are both severely bowed through 43 years of living with the knee damage that wasn't properly fixed when I ruptured my medial ligaments at football training back in 1970.

Moving on to what I've been up to recently - my last blog posting was on 23rd February - an unusually long gap between postings for me. Well, I managed another game of golf on Sunday 24th - that was 2 weeks in a row! - and we had another of our triennial Headbangs last Friday (all the gory details on my music blog), after which Jo and I went to St. Andrews for our first visit to the Clydesdale Bank Ceilidh for a number of years. We were regulars for a while, but had dropped off the guest list for a bit when we were no longer doing business with them, but we've been back with them for a couple of years now, although it clashed with our Aussie trips a couple of times.

We had a leisurely drive down - it's only about 75-80 mins away - dumped the car at the hotel and then walked up past the Old Course to the Auld Grey Toon. We strolled round the streets in the sunshine, vainly looking for an outdoor table somewhere nice for lunch. In the end, we had to settle for indoors at the tried and trusted Central Bar.

We walked back along the shore front where we stopped at a plaque commemorating the famous beach scene from Chariots of Fire:

We nipped across the 17th fairway and checked in to our room - sorry, suite. It was massive and must have been one of the prime rooms in the hotel overlooking the Old Course - the type of room that the top pros stay in when the Open is played at St. Andrews. We could scarcely imagine what Tiger got up to in there. These were some of the views from the room on the 3rd floor:

We got dressed for dinner and posed for the camera as we sipped the chilled champagne that had been left for us:

Dinner was nice and the company at our table were fine, but we'd already made our excuses about lack of dancing when the band started playing - Jo's shoulder and my knee! We survived until 11:20 pm then toddled off to bed, leaving the rest of the revellers to it.

Nice breakfast in the morning then a short walk to get the Sunday paper before heading North again. We did make one pit stop - at Fettercairn, normally a place that's too close to home to stop at, but we fancied a coffee and we liked the look of The Arch (http://www.thearchbistro.co.uk/) - and it was very good - particularly the monster home baked scones, even if they accidentally gave me a chocolate one instead of a fruit one.

Sunday evening was a quiet one, just a snack whilst we watched some of our Sky + recordings - Spiral, the French detective series is getting better - or we're getting more into it.

Then it's back to the usual midweek routine - work, some squash on Monday and hopefully tomorrow too, some good footy on TV and that's about it until the weekend, when I'm off on Saturday to Glasgow to see Wilko Johnson in what could well be his final gig - he's got terminal cancer.

New car for Jo

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

A fruitful day so far - we've agreed to buy this as Jo's new car:

Astra Elite 1.6. Now it's time to empty and tidy Jo's Nissan Almera!

Friday frustrations

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

So here I am, in the office at 4:10 pm on a Friday afternoon - well after my usual departure time - and I could be here for a while yet. My car has been having some vibration issues and I took it in to Law's Tyres opposite us to get them to balance the wheels. They've just come back and shown me a video of one of them, and it's bent. They have a new machine that straightens wheels out, but there's always a risk that they'll actually break the wheel when using it - and I don't have a spare (run-flats only).

So I'm going to be here for another hour at least - and it could be more if my wheel breaks. There might have to be an emergency phone call home - Jo - come and get me! Fingers crossed.

Bloody pot-holes - they're everywhere - and some of them are really deep. I've had quite a few serious thumps recently.

Squash last night then the final episode of The Fear, followed by episode two of Spiral, Series 4. Are we becoming too crime-oriented? Jo reads endless crime novels and watches virtually nothing but crime on TV. No wonder I wake up during the night - and it seems I'm being drawn in to watching crime drama now as well. Still, got to know what to watch out for, haven't I?

The local news we've all been expecting for a while has finally come - Inchmarlo Golf Centre has gone in to liquidation - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-21549139. Will somebody buy it as a going concern, or will it just wither away and the land revert to the local Laird (http://www.burnett.uk.com/leys.htm) again?

Ironically, it was just this week that I tried to book the lodges there for the Lesinas and Steele/Stewarts. Never mind, they'll still be there come Christmas - not sure if they're part of the liquidation or not, but hopefully somebody will want to own/run them.

That's all - the weekend starts here - eventually.

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

The only reason for this blog posting is because it gets me one nearer my 1,000th posting. This will be number 997 - and there have been 28,992 viewings of this blog so far. On average, 29 people read each post - and that doesn't include those who only view it by e-mail. It'll be 6 years next month that this blog has been running.

Of course, that's only half the story - when you add my other 8 blogs, there have been 1,939 postings and 52,692 viewings.

So, all of this statistical analysis suggests I'm going for quantity rather than quality in my blogs. Well, maybe, but not on purpose - it's just that I'm not very good at it. When I first started doing my blog, I didn't know what tack I should take - opinions, comments on the news, sport - what should I talk about? I got the feedback that it should just be some kind of diary - what I've been up to, what plans I have etc - and I've stuck to that ever since. The feedback was also responsible for starting up the separate football, golf, squash, beer etc blogs - subjects which hold no interest for different family members, so it was best to keep them separate.

So that's my side of it - and I'll keep on doing it for as long as I can. I originally thought it would be something that I would do more when I retired - and I fully expected to be retired by now - but it hasn't worked out that way.

So, am I a blog addict? Answers on a postcard please - and incidentally, I had a Board Meeting this morning and I went to the gym at 4 pm - that was today that was.

Second Tuesday Blog Posting

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

Today keeps getting better. Kelly's news this morning and then, when I get home, there's an envelope waiting for me from AELTC (All England Lawn Tennis Club) telling me I've got a pair of tickets in the ballot for Wimbledon this year! Thursday 4th July - great - second week, bound to be some good tennis. Even better, it's Centre Court tickets. The ever so slightly disappointing news is that it's Ladies Semi-Finals and Mixed Doubles that day - so no Andy - boo-hoo!

Just to clarify about the Lesina/Steele/Stewart visit this Christmas - I thought everyone knew I had always intended putting them all up in the lodges at Inchmarlo - a bit more civilised than cramming in to our house, or even, as Gary alluded to, shuttling back and forward to Inverurie.

Anyway, back to today. I presented the CAMRA Club of the Year award to the Legion tonight - with Jas in tow:

When I got home, Ross, whose days off are Monday and Tuesday, was downstairs gaming again. I suggested he was regressing a little - his riposte was "yes, but at least I'm saving money this way". Good answer. Ross is hoping to move out before the summer and needs to save up a bit, so fair cop. He's still off the fags - sorry, cigarettes - too - that shows some will.

Enough from me - Arsenal v Bayern Munich calls.

Xmas good news

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

What a good start to the day - Kelly and Chris - and baby - are coming to Scotland this year after all! Lucy and Scott have also confirmed they are coming when the boys are off school - 20th December to 3rd January - so it's going to be a mass gathering of the clans this year!