This week

Sunday was golf at Elgin and Monday we climbed Clochnaben again (http://bvhill-walkers.blogspot.com/). My knee is coping fine with the hill-walking but I obviously still struggle a bit with my heart issues and when the climbing gets steep, I have to stop more often than the others to get my breath. I usually get there in the end, but a bit slower than my pals.

Having a pain-free knee is obviously allowing me to do a bit more exercise - as is having another 2 days off per week. The stats produced by my Jawbone Up wristband show the trend since I got it:

Definitely an upward trend and I've hit the 10,000 steps per day average in 3 of the 9 weeks so far. The sleep pattern is not quite so clear:

My total weekly mileages are also displayed on this graph and this shows that I'm now up to 40 miles per week - can I keep it going? Anyway, I think I've found that the Jawbone Up is a useful motivating tool, if nothing else.

Wednesday evening was golf after the long drive back from Fraserburgh through some horrendous showers. I didn't think there was any chance of golf at Banchory but when I got nearer Deeside it miraculously cleared up and the roads were dry. We got a few showers later but they weren't much and basically we dodged a bullet, I think.

A similar thing happened yesterday when we travelled to Montrose for the Senior Open. The gear got a little damp and I left it in the golf club drying room overnight and I'll pick it up this morning and load in my car in preparation for our trip to Grantown-on-Spey and Boat of Garten tomorrow.

Having cycled on Thursday morning (see http://bvetscycling.blogspot.co.uk/) I'm having a rest day today. We went to Bridge of Feugh last Saturday for lunch - maybe we'll repeat that today? Here's Jo leaving the restaurant:

She liked the moisturiser in the loos there - that's why she appears to be wringing her hands.

The sad news earlier this week was the death of my friend Bill Miller's Auntie Pam, who was a lovely old soul. The local church magazine featured her this month, anticipating her imminent 90th birthday:

Active week

Monday did turn out just as the weather forecasters had predicted - wall to wall sunshine and temperatures in the 20's C. Lovely - even although my golf was poor.

Tuesday was our monthly Board meeting in Aberdeen and later on we presented CAMRA's Club of the Year award to the Legion (http://iansaleadventures.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/legion-presentation-and-more-publicity.html).

I had a lot of reading and research to do on Wednesday so I didn't waste any time travelling to and from the office and just worked from home for a while. This did allow me some free time, however, and I was able to join the midweek Cycling group for the first time for a while (http://bvetscycling.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/robins-match-report-from-this-mornings.html).

It was a damp day and it didn't let up in the evening when we played golf. I had to leave my gear in the drying room at the club overnight.

Thursday was Fraserburgh and the weekly Management Meeting. I got home in the evening and was knackered. How can this be after only 3 days' work? It's not the work, it's the travel - I'm finding it harder as I get older. Thankfully, I could have a lazy lie-in on Friday morning - I slept for over 9 hours.

We were finally able to FaceTime with Kelly again. She had called me at work on Thursday and we arranged to call her back on Friday morning when we had more time - and Jo was around to see little Miller crawling all over the place. He even managed to stand up for the first time on Thursday - but then promptly fell back down again! Kelly sent us this photo of him holding himself up:

I know - the photo's sideways and it looks like Miller is horizontal, but he's not really.

Jo is finally feeling a bit more like her old self and she was able to take her first tentative steps back swimming again on Wednesday and on Friday. You could say she was dipping her toes in the water - not yet quite back to her usual 40 lengths, but at least able to do some exercise again.

This meant I was at a bit of a loose end on Friday afternoon, so I decided, on the spur of the moment, as it was such a nice day and I had missed out on Sunday's planned walk, that I would go and climb Hill of Fare - all by myself. It was delightful - I never saw another soul - it was just me and the Arctic Monkeys. Here I am at the top:

(More photos and stats at http://bvhill-walkers.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/hill-of-fare.html)

I met Keith Gray for a quick pint at the Legion after my walk - it was the end of his first week back at work again. I had a couple more pints later in the Douglas Arms with the usual Friday night crew.

I'm travelling to Elgin tomorrow to play in a Texas Scramble and we're hoping to walk up Clochnaben again on Monday morning, so, I decided to pull out of this afternoon's golf at Banchory, on the basis that I would be knackered by Monday if I went through with everything.

Jo's pal from college days - Sadie - has been in touch again and she and her husband, Brian are coming up to Ballater in a couple of weeks' time, so we've arranged to meet up with them. It'll be their first meeting for over 40 years. They share the same birthday and have swapped cards every year but have never actually met up since we moved to London in 1974.

Sunday evening - USA FaceTime

It's Sunday evening and Jo and I were planning to watch the first episode of Fargo, but Lucy has FaceTimed so I'm sitting here listening to the two of them talking - mostly Jo of course.

Lucy has blogged again (check the sidebar to my blog for a link to hers) and told us about Scott's accident with his motorcycle - doesn't sound good. What sounds more positive is Cade and his girlfriend - can you believe it?

My planned walk up Hill of Fare this morning with Colin Kilgour, Ken Black and Andy Marshall had to be aborted due to poor visibility - there was a bit of haar and we would have been walking through low cloud and wouldn't have got any decent views. Having already cancelled golf, and knowing I had to do something, having not had any exercise since Wednesday night's golf, I decided to go for a cycle on my own. I headed east on the Deeside Way past Crathes and then turned up the hill at Myrebird, just before Drumoak and looped back that way. 12 miles (19 kms) in all, lasting 86 minutes and climbing almost 700 feet. Here I am at the end of my cycle at the War Memorial:

Forecast is for high temperatures in the North East tomorrow - 20-21 C - and I'm playing for the Seniors against Royal Aberdeen. That will at least be some compensation for missing out on yesterday's Medal at Banchory, which was cancelled due to overnight rain. The course was open again before noon but it was too late for the competition.

That's about it. Nothing special for this week other than a Board Meeting on Tuesday morning. Otherwise, same old, same old.

The weekend starts here!

My work here is done for this week. Next visit here will be Tuesday morning for a Board Meeting, which I've half prepared for.

This morning was my 6 month (almost) visit to see my knee surgeon. He got it x-rayed first of all:

The two bright white bits are the metal that is screwed in to my thigh bone and shinbone. In the second one where the knee is flexed, you can see my kneecap protruding at the front (left top) but what is not quite so clear is the plastic insert between the metal. This is likely to be the first thing that goes - in several years time, I hope!

He told me that it's best if I give him early warning of pain starting. Then he has a chance of doing more minor work, such as replacing the plastic, but, if I leave it too long, it's major surgery again as it's likely that the metal will have started moving as the bone deteriorates.

That said, he was very happy with it and I don't have to go back and see him unless I have any problems. He did say the remaining swelling on the knee should still come down a bit further over the next 6-12 months.

All in all, a pretty good report card, I think.

Midweek looming

One day's work done and now one third of the way through my working week. Fraserburgh tomorrow, then golf tomorrow night, followed by my 6 month appointment with my knee surgeon on Thursday morning then I'm free again!

I got my own car back today. It was making noises last week and apparently one of the brake calipers was binding. I'll be able to test it tomorrow on the 55 mile drive to the Broch. Hopefully it's OK now.

I had a busy day in the office, but managed a decent walk at lunchtime and still got home not long after 5 this evening and managed a short cycle to the Legion, via Inchmarlo and Burnett Park, after dropping off North Sea Ales to the Raemoir House Hotel and Deeside Drinks (note to self - need to go there when I have more time to use up my birthday voucher from Ross). A couple of pints and the Times and, before I knew it, an hour or so had passed.

Another look at our energy bills. First of all electricity:

2013-14

2012-13

Looks like our electricity consumption is under control - we've more than halved it since last summer. Wish I could say the same thing about gas:

2013-14

2012-13

Virtually no change. What to do? New condensing boiler? Magic box? More insulation? All of the aforementioned?

Easter - long weekend no. 3

It's Easter Monday morning and we've just failed to talk to Kelly on FaceTime - there seems to be some kind of connection problem.

Jo's not had a good week. She seemed to be recovering last Sunday, but has since gone backwards a bit and has been coughing away. I was despatched to the Chemist's on Saturday morning to try and get some Mucron, only to discover that this product was taken off the market some years ago. I was then quizzed by the pharmacist about Jo's symptoms and her medication and she refused to sell me any other decongestant as it could cause issues with her heart. We had to settle for some Olbas Oil topped up with paracetamol.

So Easter Sunday wasn't looking good for a while - just Jo and I at first, with Ross joining us a bit later, and Gary and Luca then making a quick surprise visit. Gary was on call and, sure enough, he got called away after half an hour or so. Lucy FaceTimed us over dinner, so it was like she was there with all of us. When the chocolate cake came out, Luca's eyes shone - as did Lucy's!:

Here they are, munching away:

I golfed on Wednesday night and played my first medal competition on Saturday, then played again on Sunday morning. The weather has been terrific, with wall to wall sunshine and it's been great to get out. It must have been very frustrating for Jo to be bed-bound most of the time.

Jo did get out with me on Friday when I was doing the CAMRA newsletter deliveries round Deeside. She came along for the ride, but only got out of the car once for a little stroll round Ballater. Deeside was looking fantastic with the skies so blue and not a cloud to be seen. The best bit was when we were approaching Ballater and got a magnificent view of Lochnagar, still covered in pure white snow. We should have stopped and taken a photo - I'd never seen it look so stunning.

On Friday afternoon, Keith Gray and I went for a cycle out to Crathes, stopping at the Legion for a beer or two on the way back. We sat on the terrace there, basking in the warm sun, looking over the Deeside hills. Lovely.

All of this golf and cycling has certainly improved my activity levels. Of course, it's Spring now and the weather's better and the days are longer, so that's helped, but so has my change to 3 day weeks. I'm less sedentary now, and that's reflected in my Jawbone Up stats - which also act as a motivating tool too.

I've been a member of BA's Executive Club for over 20 years now and they recently sent me a link showing my history of flying with them over that time:

Every single flight is recorded and you can search to see where you travelled any year. Interesting.

That's all for today, but I've got my hopefully final visit to see my knee surgeon on Thursday. I'm hoping he'll give me the all-clear, although it'll still be up to me to keep up my exercise and stretching regime after that. The knee's been great so far but I don't want it ever to stiffen up on me.

Semi-retirement week 2

So that's the second of my new long weekends over - and what did I do? Play golf of course. Not that I intend to spend all my extra days off doing this, but it worked out that I was selected to play for our Seniors yesterday and with Jo out for a long lunch with her swimming buddies on Friday, I went and played a friendly fourball with Keith Gray, Ken Page and Jas Bhagrath.

Jo came back the worse for wear from her lunch at Finzean Farm Shop and spent a good part of the weekend in bed with some kind of bug. I felt a bit seedy too, but not as bad as Jo was. All she could eat on Saturday was a bit of toast, but by Sunday evening she was ready for a fish supper again.

I did little on Saturday but went for my first hill-walk with my new knee on Sunday - and I had no problems at all. (Check the blog for photos etc - http://bvhill-walkers.blogspot.co.uk/).

In other unrelated stories, Francis Clark sent me a photo when he was away golfing last week at Royal St. George's in the Halford Hewitt competition (http://www.halfordhewitt.org/), which is played for annually amongst the UK's "public" (i.e. private and exclusive) schools. Francis went to Fettes and represents them every year. Amongst the "Hoorays" present was none other than Nigel Farage, Leader of UKIP, who are causing a major political upset just now in the heartlands of England with their anti-EC stance:

Farage in the middle between Francis (right) and a fellow Fettesian.

Jo also came across this soft toy, which a young Braeden may have left behind one year:

Continuing with the random subject matter of this blog, here's our latest energy usage:

Not a pretty picture, is it? I wonder if we should have taken up that offer of the Magic Box? (http://www.magicthermodynamicbox.com/press.php?id=42&article=Magic-Box-Company-@-The-Solar-Energy-Show-NEC-Birmingham).

To close, here's the stats for last week's activity and sleep schedule from my Jawbone Up bracelet:

Golf on Wednesday and Friday and a hill-walk on Sunday make the stats look good.

Luca's been with us again for the last 2 nights. Boy, does he love his football cards just now - almost an obsession, in fact, but I guess it's very similar to the Panini cards that his Dad's generation had, and even the football cards that used to be in cigarette packets in the 50's and early 60's.

I've booked our flights and hotels to London in early June for the Graham Parker and the Rumour gig, but what show do you think we should go to on the Saturday night?

• http://www.thecommitmentslondon.com/
• http://www.scoundrelswestend.com/

or something else in the West End - http://www.londontheatre.co.uk/?

Got a CAMRA committee meeting tonight, followed by an early start to Fraserburgh in the morning, then back for the evening's golf. I'm going to miss out on the cycling trip again this week - the boys are going on Thursday morning, but I have a meeting in the office then. Oh well.

Luca cycles

It was a lovely day today and Luca was out in our street from 9:15 this morning until his Dad came to pick him up at 7 pm. His cycling has really come on:

He was playing with the other kids in the street - principally Torquil from No.1, who had set up a jump for the bikes:

Don't be fooled by this photo however - Luca wasn't quite ready to make a jump yet.

Luca left me a drawing of a footballer:

What looks like a crown on his head, is, I am assured, a representation of a spikey haircut!

The week so far

Still feels a little odd this week, this part-time thing. Still, it's nice that today's my last day of work until Tuesday.

Didn't do much on Monday - just strolled along for the paper and spent the rest of the day at home. As we were walking along past the War Memorial, we looked up to the sky and it was like a scene from Apocalypse Now - 5 Apache helicopters appeared over the hills, flying close together in formation:

It transpired that this was part of the biggest ever European war exercise - and one of the choppers had had to ditch in a field at Maryculter.

Gary brought Luca over to stay with us for a few nights. His current obsession is football cards - and there's a big focus on world stars, with the World Cup in Brazil just a couple of months away now. Every morning when he wakens, the first thing he wants to do is to open a new pack of cards - he's so excited. Jo is becoming an expert on the players now too. Here they were at breakfast the other day:

It's the start of the golf season now - our regular Wednesday night group started last week and I joined them last night. This is also Masters weekend, which traditionally gets all golfers going - a bit like everyone starts playing tennis the week after Wimbledon.

According to my Jawbone Up device, my sleep patterns have not been very good recently - a lot of light sleep, but very little sound sleep. Am I still thinking too much about work?

No more news from me, but, to close, here's Gary's race number from Sunday's 10 miler at Perth:

Weekend

I was confused when I got up yesterday - it felt like Sunday, but I was heading to Newcastle for the football match. Haven't got the grip of these long weekends yet. It was a long day - 16 hours - but it was fun - see my football blog. I missed Kelly's FaceTime call however, but she spoke to Jo.

I spotted an article about Adelaide and the Ghan in one of the weekend newspaper magazines:

Played golf this morning at Banchory - bit of a contrast from Dubai, but OK. Gary had stayed with us overnight on the eve of his departure to Perth for a 10 mile race. He had stomach cramps on the way down, during the race, and afterwards, but seems OK now. He's gone home, but he'll be back with Luca tomorrow night - he's with us for 3 days this week during the school holidays. Luca's short haircut looks smart on camera, but I'll see it in the flesh for myself tomorrow.

It seems something is finally happening at the old filling station next door. The building has finally been torn down:

So that's about it for now. Keep watching this space for blog postings.

Post holiday update

Today (Friday) is the first day of my semi-retirement, but can I learn to switch off sufficiently? It's very easy to carry on working from home - I must learn to ignore work e-mails. Perhaps I need to re-open a separate private e-mail address?

Anyway, we had a lovely time golfing in the Emirates. Nigel and Andrea's hospitality was wonderful. They have a nice villa with a secluded central courtyard and a small pool. What's more, I won the golf for the week:

Malcolm Grigor, Keith Gray, me and our host Nigel Meany

Courtyard

Pool

Lounge

Parrot in garden

 The world's tallest building is the new Burj Khalifa, which is so high it's occasionally in the clouds on the rare days when the sun's not beating down. The sun usually glistens off it:

and at night, it's lit up:

There's more photos on my golf blog.

Tomorrow, I'm off to Newcastle to see the match with Manchester United - long day on the train - hope it's a good game!

Eve of holiday post

I've packed now. My golf bag weighs 17kgs and my luggage 10 kgs so I should be ok for the 30kgs that Emirates Airlines allow. After some debate, I've reluctantly packed my suit for the VIP seats at the World Cup of Racing on Saturday night - I'm told it's a very fancy do, morning suits and all.

Six consecutive days of golf coming up - that'll be a good test for my new knee. We'll be in buggies most of the time so there's not much walking involved, so I should be OK.

Right now, I feel a bit grotty - hope it goes soon and doesn't spoil the journey or the holiday. Jo's at Inverurie today but she's left me some soup and bread for my tea - I'm sure that will be fine. Tonight there's another meeting about the new Sports Centre at 7pm. Hope it doesn't last too long - would like to see the Manchester derby on TV.

My Up band suddenly failed the other day and needed a soft re-boot, so it missed recording one night's sleep, but here's the weekly summary they send me anyway:

So Gary did the Inverurie half marathon after all - and in a really good time too - well done! Luca, too, had his own race:

Sorry about sideways!

Well, I've now worked my last Friday and my last Monday and when I come back from Dubai next Wednesday, I work on Thursday then have Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday off. Looking forward to it. We managed to get tickets for the Newcastle - Man Utd game on the Saturday so that'll be our annual train trip there and back, and, in fact, our only Premiership match this season. I've also only seen Thistle once, although I have seen Aberdeen a couple of times, but I guess I couldn't expect much having had the knee operation this winter.

Week of mixed activity levels

I was fairly active in the first part of the week, going for short cycles and hitting some balls at the range on both Monday and Tuesday, then going for a slightly longer run on the bike on Wednesday morning with the usual group (details on cycling blog - link on sidebar).

Thursday and Friday were lazy days however - no exercise at all. I didn't have much time yesterday as I was pretty busy all day in Fraserburgh then met up with everyone at Fennel's in Inverurie for Jo's birthday meal. No real excuse today, however - I could easily have gone to the gym mid-afternoon, or gone for a cycle when I got home about 4 pm, but I opted for the power nap instead. Could it be all the rubbish I've eaten today, compounded by one of Jo's scones when I got home? Not that Jo's scones are rubbish of course, but it was probably something I could have done without after gorging myself on sweet stuff at the office. Washing it all down with a couple of pints tonight will help though, won't it?

Talking of the birthday girl, here she was last night:

Ross had driven Jo through to Inverurie and took her home too, but I also had a passenger on the way back. Carole and Gary had bought Jo a cherry tree for her birthday (at Jo's request) and, after a short struggle, we propped it up in the front of my car. Every time I went round a bend, it was like an attack from The Day of the Triffids (for older readers only).

Also present, of course, was young Master Luca, and he was delighted when his Kids' Meal came with chocolate ice cream:

Gary revealed that he has now completely given up running - from the sublime to the ridiculous. Like his mother, he doesn't believe in the middle ground - everything to extreme. The pendulum swings again - it will be interesting to watch what happens to his weight.

Kelly FaceTimed us yesterday morning. Little Ba' Heid was there too of course and I would swear his hair looks reddish - at least on the i-Pad. Kelly assured us it wasn't, but we'll watch carefully.

Our Psychologist daughter had no theory to propound this time about my dream of her drowning in the bath, but Chris believes this was also directly connected to my knee. I'll need to think of a scenario that can't be linked to my knee and tell them I dreamt it.

The weekend starts here and the weather has got decidedly cooler again. My walk up the hill to the Legion tonight will soon warm me up however - and I've got Dubai to look forward to on Wednesday as well. Hopefully warm enough there.

End of an era

Aberdeen Football Club were THE team when we moved to the North East. Under Alex Ferguson, they won everything, and Rangers and Celtic were nowhere. Times changed from the 1990's onwards - money took over and since then it's been virtually impossible for the other Scottish teams to compete with the Old Firm.

All of this meant that a whole generation - our Ross included, and, to a lesser extent, Gary - grew up without knowing what it's like for Aberdeen to win anything. Well, yesterday, that finally changed and Ross and I were there when Aberdeen picked up their first trophy for 19 years.

We weren't the only ones there - there was a mass exodus from the North East. I'd never seen so many cars, buses and mini-vans migrating towards Glasgow - it was an incredible sight - a mass of red. Accidents on the way down and the way back didn't help, and our journey was a lot longer than we expected, but at least Ross and I were there when it mattered. Gary would have been too, but he was on call, so elected to watch the match at the local cinema, who had put on a special broadcast for fans who couldn't get a ticket - and there were lots of them.

Ross and I had arranged to meet Barry, Helen and Dawn for a spot of lunch and a beer, but it appeared that Glasgow City Centre wasn't ready for the hordes who were seeking a pre-match drink. All the pubs - apart from one Irish bar - were closed until 12:30 pm, just 2 hours before kick off. What a chance they missed. Didn't anyone in Glasgow realise what was happening? 40,000 thirsty "Sheep" plus another 7,000 or so Inverness followers could have helped the coffers of the Glasgow businesses.

We found a place for lunch - well, a snack really - eventually and I took this photo:

In other news, Jo got an early birthday present from Oz:

Kelly gave me her professional opinion on my recent anxiety dream:

"This is my interpretation of your anxiety dream.... you are concerned about the age at which you retire (obviously having enough money to keep you going), but you are worried that if you leave it too late you will not have enough time to enjoy yourself and do what you want to do. Hence the turning up late bit and not getting to play golf."

Jo and Chris thought, however, that it was related to my knee. Jo because I had expressed a little concern that I had plateau'd with my knee bending exercises, and Chris because I wouldn't be able to do what I used to.

So, continuing on the same theme, I dreamt the other night that I was bathing Kelly and Ross - when they were younger obviously - and they weren't happy about it and Kelly, in particular, took umbrage and I had to virtually drag her to the bath and throw her in. Kelly's reaction was to just sink to the bottom of the bath (it had suddenly got deeper) and lie there, totally submerged, with bubbles coming from her mouth. I think I awoke at this stage. What do we all make of this then?

My first full week of UP stats is out now and here's the summary:

 

 

The dilemma for this week is what to buy Jo for her birthday on Thursday - and where shall we go to celebrate it? Jo doesn't want anything and can't make up her mind where to go for a meal. I suggested she might like a bike, but she's procrastinating on this one. What do you think? Vote on the poll on the side bar of this blog.