Dejected

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

My first family blog for 10 days and I had hoped it would be a celebratory one, but it wasn't to be in the Ramsdens Cup final yesterday. It could have been the second time I had seen Thistle lift a Cup - and the first for Gary and Ross, who weren't even born back in 1971 when the Jags famously beat Celtic 4-1 in the League Cup final. Here's the boys - with Colin Kilgour - at the start:

What else is new? Certainly not the weather, which is still unseasonably cold as witnessed on our golf course which remained closed until Friday last week. I did manage to play on Saturday in the first Medal of the season - it was lovely - almost like a proper Spring, but it's gone again and we're getting more snow flurries now. Looking forward to golf in Turkey next week.

I was back at the physio today - still getting treatment on my hand/wrist and my ankle - they're both getting better slowly. My legs were sore after golf on Saturday - even up to the hip - hardly surprising I suppose, as it's been a while since I played a full round.

My appointment with the knee specialist is a few days after I come back from Turkey and the thought of deciding whether to get a replacement or not is getting to me a bit. It's the finality of it all - and the long period of recovery, and what I would miss out on, plus the uncertainty of whether they can make a sufficient improvement or not.

I've been overhearing my hill-walking pals talking about their plans for this year - West Coast island-hopping at the end of May. It sounds great and I felt really left out, but I know I couldn't cope with some of the stuff that they've got planned, so I've made a late decision to join them for the latter part of their walks and do the slightly easier stuff on 25th/26th May.

I think that's about all for now - Luca's coming over for a few days tomorrow, so that'll be nice.

Scott 40!

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

It's a very happy big birthday to son-in-law Scott today. Hope it's a good one, even if it's a bit scarey to realise our eldest will be the same age in just a few weeks' time. Here's the two of them sipping cocktails in Grants Pass last year:

What a mixture today has been. Right now the sun is shining, but I was due to get the windscreen in my car replaced this morning and when they showed up to do it, it was snowing, so it's been postponed until next Wednesday.

Yesterday the corporate packages arrived for the Ramsdens Cup Final a week on Sunday:

Looking forward to it.

Good Friday today and the traffic was a bit lighter this morning. It seems like the whole of England is closed for 4 days now - not as bad as Scandinavia - they seem to be shut for about 2 weeks. We're still working - you lot need to be fed and Tesco and Morrison's make sure there's no rest for the wicked.

Jo's making progress with her shoulder and is religiously doing her exercises. She's also downing the dosage of painkillers she was given a week ago, but she reckons it's causing some mood swings. On Monday, she goes to see the nurse to get her stitches out - and she'll be able to drive again next week as well - I think she's found it hard having to walk everywhere, especially when you never know when the snow showers are coming.

Have a good Easter weekend everyone.

Sunshine, but still cold

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

It's Thursday and I'm in the Broch as usual. All our weekly management meetings are over and I'm having my lunch now - the taste panel, followed by crackers and cheese. It's a fantastic looking day - so bright and sunny, but the temperature is still in very low digits.

I took a walk out into our yard and beyond to the public footpath just outside our factory fence. Did I tell you that it had partially collapsed/eroded in to the sea below a few months ago? We managed to establish that it is the Council's responsibility but all they have done so far is put up a sign and some temporary fences:

That's Scotland's National Lighthouse Museum in white at the back, and an old Wine Tower to the right, with the fence marking our factory to the left. The bit that's collapsed can't quite be seen in the above photo, but perhaps it's a bit clearer below:

Meanwhile a group of birds - cormorants perhaps? - were sunning themselves on the rocks:

The seagulls had their own rock:

If I had a gun! Where is Scott when you need him? These pests swarm all over our yard and they're a perennial problem for us.

Those views were looking mostly west and north, but, heading the other way, there are the large pelagic trawlers, which are laid up at this time of year, awaiting the next fishery - herring in June/July:

To the left of them, looking south now, is the other lighthouse at the end of the harbour wall:

So, if you've never been to Fraserburgh before, you've some idea of what it looks like now.

It was warm enough to go out without a coat, but the following graphic on Facebook showed an interesting comparison with the same time last year:

Yes, it really was 24 C in Deeside last March. As if to underline how nice a day it is today, though, our receptionist has just been round to the shops and come back with a small tub of ice cream for everyone in the office - how nice!

No snow anywhere near the coast of course, but inland it's still lying in places and it looks almost certain that the opening day of the golf season on Saturday will be cancelled in Banchory. I had therefore tentatively suggested that Jo and I take the chance to go to Nairn on Saturday and take in the Beer Festival at the Braeval Hotel again, but, being Easter Sunday this weekend, Jo wasn't keen - although it rather looks like we're going to be on our own for Easter Sunday Dinner as Luca has a birthday party to attend that day.

Oh - and next weekend, I finally managed to track down how we could get to the Ramsdens Cup Final on Sunday 7th - corporate hospitality at Livingston! Looking forward to taking the boys to the match and to hopefully seeing the Jags overcome QoS and lift some silverware for the first time since 23rd October, 1971 - well before Gary and Ross were born. As a precursor to that, last night Thistle went to the top of the 1st Division Table:

TABLES

• 3RD
• 2ND
• 1ST

		PD	PT
1	Partick	28	62
2	Morton	29	61
3	Livingston	27	43
4	Dunfermline	30	41
5	Falkirk	29	40
6	Raith	28	34
7	Hamilton	27	32
8	Dumbarton	28	30
9	Cowdenbeath	29	29
10	Airdrie	29	19

Going to head home soon - got a lot of music to listen to just now as I downloaded 3 albums last week - all oldies of course:

Not to mention Mojo's usual free monthly CD.

To close, it's my pal Dave Edwards' 64th birthday today but he's now in Cornhill, unlikely to get out again, and he will be blissfully unaware of what day it is. It's Doris that has to live with the loneliness now. There but for fortune.

Spring is in the air ........?

From http://ianrstewart.blogspot.com/

The days are definitely getting longer - that's a statement of fact as we are now past the Vernal Equinox, but it's also visible, despite the fact that, inland in Banchory we still have a fair amount of snow - so much, in fact, that our golf club is talking about cancelling this weekend's season-opening Captain's v Vice-Captain's match, which would be the first time in living memory that this has had to be done.

We drove in to town on Saturday morning and, of course, there's not a sign of snow anywhere near Aberdeen - it's completely clear. I saw my Implant Surgeon and he photographed and X-rayed my mouth but gave me a clean bill of health - and also a not-so-clean bill. I thought he was going to remove my cap and put more permanent cement in, but he said he preferred not to do that as it would make it difficult to get it off in the event of an emergency or something happening to my gums.

We watched Lincoln on Saturday night - a bit dull, we both thought. A lot of dialogue and, although we know some more about the American history of the time now, we both felt a bit more of prior knowledge might have made it more enjoyable. Daniel Day Lewis was OK, but not so outstanding as the critics had suggested.

Carole and Luca popped in past in the afternoon on their way down to Lincoln. They didn't stay the night after all, but instead went to one of Carole's friends in Edinburgh before travelling further south on Sunday. Seems the timeshare is very nice.

While they were here, somebody got transfixed by Kung Fu Panda on TV:

Who is the shadowy figure staring at the box?:

Why, it's Luca of course, complete with goody box for the journey. He's really starting to stretch those legs now.

No golf on Sunday of course, so I decided to walk down for my paper - and just kept walking and walking. I hadn't had any exercise for a week and had been sedentary, spending all my time at my desk and in my car, so I needed some fresh air and to stretch the legs a bit. I walked along the river bank, past Platties, along the Deeside Way until you meet the train line coming the other way. I then doubled back, crossed the road and headed up towards Woodend Barn and popped in to Buchanan's for a coffee. Who should come in 20 minutes later but Jo and her pals from church - but she made it very evident that she wasn't going to sit beside me - she wanted to chat to her pals. Fine - I'll carry on reading the papers then.

I walked back home, mostly on hard pavements, but my knee wasn't too sore when I got home after my 10 kms + walk. It's at times like this that I wonder about the wisdom of getting the replacement.

Today, it was back to the physio for more treatment on my hand and ankle. Jo also started her physio treatment on her shoulder as well.

So that's about it, but I'll finish with what I thought was an interesting graphic:

A simple way of understanding where the Government gets all the money and what it does with it. Graphics are good - not many politicians use them to explain fundamental economics - but they should, in my humble opinion.

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!