Xmas & Anniversary

Yesterday was nice - not as hectic and exciting as when we had 13 for Xmas dinner last year, but nice all the same. Ross was a huge help to Jo with the cooking and preparation - he came round on Christmas Eve and was here again on Christmas morning when Jo was still at church. He introduced Jo to a couple of cooking innovations and they worked out well - the turkey was moist and tender and the stuffings and cranberry sauces were good, but the piece de resistance was the roast potatoes, made from the more crumbly King Edwards.

Ross, Jo and I had G & T's mid-afternoon while we awaited the arrival of the non-drinking Inverurie clan - Gary was on call, Carole's on medication because of her shoulder and, as far as we know, Luca hasn't developed the habit yet.

Smoked salmon from http://www.ugie-salmon.co.uk/. with prawns and home-made aioli for starters and Carole's excellent Lime and Chocolate Cheesecake plus a Chocolate log for dessert. None of us could face the cheeseboard after this - we never do.

The day had started with a FaceTime call from Kelly and Lucy did likewise after dinner. Here's some snaps from Christmas:

Table set for dinner

Ross on carving duties

The aftermath of a heavy dinner

Luca plays his favourite games

Some of the cycling stuff I got

Sadly, a blurry family image

Jo bought us all identical cardigans

The weather has been lovely - very cold and frosty, but dry and sunny. The frost patterns on the cars are interesting:

Jo and I vowed last night that we wouldn't do anything or go anywhere today - our 42nd anniversary - and we didn't. We even vegetated to Pinnochio this morning. Gary made a brief appearance at lunchtime - he was at work today but drove out to Banchory to take part in the Fun Run again. Jo and I have been telly-watching mostly, although I've been sorting out some IT issues with my laptop and backup.

That's it for now.

Xmas Eve

I awoke this morning with a very stiff left knee after yesterday's injection at Albyn. It's funny because I felt absolutely fine after the injection, drove home, then walked up to the Legion with no problems, but during the night it's stiffened up - it's like somebody has kicked me on the outside of the knee.

When the surgeon was doing the injection, he was on my left, whilst a nurse was standing on my right, trying just a little too hard to distract me with conversation about Australia etc. Of course, this led me to look left to see what Mr. Bidwell was up to and I nearly fainted when I saw the size of the needle - long and thick. He plunged it in and I thought it was going to come out the other side. Not surprised it's sore today.

The only thing I was advised to look out for was possible infection - a 1 in 500 chance apparently. If my knee swells up, gets hot or red and I feel ill, then head for A & E I was told.

The rest of yesterday was a bit of a non-event, although I did manage a couple of celebratory pints at the Legion with the squash guys. There'll be more of that today with the football group, who are currently playing the traditional Xmas Eve match to celebrate Dave Williamson's birthday down at DATA. I'll meet them in the Douglas when they're done.

That's it then - all up to date. We plan to FaceTime Kelly when we awake in the morning - she and Chris have his family over at theirs for Xmas. Then, in the evening, we'll do the same with Lucy.

The End

I'm sitting here in my Aberdeen office - my last day at work. I have nothing really to do so I thought a quick blog update would fill some time.

Some thoughts - why am I sitting here in a shirt and a tie? Won't have to do that any more - that's a plus. Some people have been in to bid farewell already - "how are you feeling?" - don't know how to answer that, but I do know I wish today was over and I could relax over a quiet beer.

Just had a couple of hours' chat with Michael and Francis, mostly speaking about the old days. I'd written a historical Timeline for future reference for them and it brought back some memories for all of us - some good, some not so good. I reckon that, in my years with the Clarks, I've been involved in one way or another with over 50 companies/operations. I could write a book.

There was further discussion about me returning briefly when we come back from Australia - just to review the Budgets and how to cover Forex for 2015-16. Michael said I had to come back anyway so they could take me out to lunch.

Dawn, Barry & Helen came up on Sunday - that was nice, but I forgot to take any photos. Instead, here's another one of our tree, fully decorated:

Jo did a nice job, didn't she?

Gary and Luca came over on Sunday as well and Luca stayed overnight with us, with Gary picking him up from work last night. Yesterday, I was out with our cycling group on a beautiful riverside run, although there was a bit of a climb to follow. I struggle up the hills - I'm always last in our group. I'm not very fit, but I guess the old bike doesn't help much when compared with the others, who mostly have new ones, with larger 29" wheels, front suspension, disc brakes and many more gears than I've got. Over the next couple of months I'll have a wander round the various bike shops and see what I can get.

Dick Taylor came riding up behind me yesterday and reckoned I have got my saddle too low and, as a result, I can't maximise the pulling power. When I think back to when I started cycling again to recuperate from my knee replacement, my focus was on getting maximum bend in the knee, so I wanted my saddle to be low, but I've never changed it since then. Something to consider and experiment with perhaps.

This afternoon I have my appointment at Albyn for the injection in my knee, after which I hope to have a beer with my squash-playing pals.

Then it's the start of a new life.

Saturday Stories

Well, I finally got BUPA sorted out and I'm going to get the injection in my knee on Tuesday. I had also hoped to get our BOSE sound system sorted yesterday - the upstairs part hasn't been working for a while - the control box had blown - and our man from Alford was scheduled to come back and fit the repaired part, which he did, but it didn't work.

Andrew - the BOSE man - reckoned it was partly due to the way that his father had set up the system back in the late 90's. The unit is from the first series and BOSE are now on to series 4 - they don't make any of the 3 previous series any more. However, Andrew apparently has a couple of spare series 2 units and he's going to fit them instead - eventually.

Today (Saturday) Jo and I went Christmas tree hunting - Jo had gone to her usual source (Raemoir Garden Centre) yesterday but they had completely sold out - so we drove down to Glentanar this morning, where we used to get our tree in years gone by, but the place was closed - it looked like they're not doing trees at all this year.

On the way back home, we saw a sign for Xmas trees so we turned left towards Deeside Activity Centre, turning off into a woodland just past the Falls of Dess, and we managed to pick up a nice one there, which now has pride of place in our living room:

Xmas tree safely in the bag, we stopped off at Dee's Teas in Kincardine O'Neil for a spot of lunch. The tea and coffee was served in proper old-fashioned cups:

Tomorrow, Dawn, Barry & Helen are coming up to see us.

To close, brother-in-law Brian texted me the following photo of him with the Ryder Cup. That's Stephen Gallacher, who played for Europe, second from the left, with his hand on Brian's shoulder:

Farewell Fraserburgh

After 30 years of travelling up and down to work in Fraserburgh, I attended my last 3 Management Meetings there this morning. As The Proclaimers might have said Fraserburgh no more, Memsie no more, Strichen no more .......

Tomorrow, it's Aberdeen - and same again on Tuesday - and then it's over.

Tomorrow I'm picking up our smoked salmon for Christmas. I had hoped to get the injection in my knee as well, but there's been a blip with BUPA, my private health insurer, and my surgeon is trying to clear this up - if he can't, then I have 2 options - either go for the operation, which BUPA would pay for, or just pay Albyn's fees myself.

The countdown continues.

3 days to go!

Another day out of the way - just tomorrow, Thursday and next Tuesday to go now. Today was my final Board Meeting and it also confirmed my formal resignation as a Director of the various Group Companies.

It was also agreed that I could keep my company car - it's just about to trip over the 100,000 mile mark, but it's running well - hope it continues to do so for a while yet.

That's all the news now from limbo-land.

Weekend news

I made it along to our Cyclists' Group lunch at the golf club on Thursday, but I'm glad I had to work and go to Albyn Hospital in the morning - I certainly wouldn't have cycled, although 8 of our group did, and half of them had a tumble on the black ice.

Our journey down to Gleneagles on Friday was smooth enough, although we didn't risk Cairn o' Mount, having heard the stories of the 20 motorists who got stuck near the top on Thursday and had to be rescued. Black ice was the danger - we still haven't had any snow here in Banchory, although the Angus hills were white as was most of Perthshire.

Golf at Gleneagles was out of the question. Our host, Keith Gray, had booked a tee time on the PGA Centenary course, where they had recently played the Ryder Cup, but there was so much snow there, that the courses were closed all week. Plan B was for Keith and I to go for a cycle round the estate, using the two mountain bikes each lodge had, but that was out of the question too.

Despite the weather interventions, we had a really nice time. We arrived about noon and Annette had prepared a lunch of soup and sannies for us, after which we all headed off for the superb leisure complex. The main pool was amazingly quiet, as was the separate Adults section, where Jo was delighted to be able to get 20 lengths in.

The main pool has an outdoor section, which is pretty cool - literally, overhead anyway. We followed that with a beer in the main hotel bar, where we spotted Bill Beaumont, ex England rugby captain - and a former team captain on Question of Sport. There was lots of stuff going on in the hotel, including a Jersey Boys theme night.

Keith and Annette's son, Ross, was also staying in the (3-bedroom) villa with his wife Susie. They had dinner in the Dormy House and who should be at the next table, but former First Minister, Alex Salmond.

We had dinner in the relatively casual Deseo restaurant, where we were able to pick our steaks and seafood from the butchers' and fishmongers' slabs.

On Saturday morning, after breakfast, Jo and I took a wander round the estate. It was a nice, but cold, morning and it also gave me a chance to ensure I had got rid of the last of the alcohol from last night. With Scotland's new drink-driving restrictions now in place, you can't be too careful.

Our walk took in the Dormy House, where there was still loads of memorabilia etc from the Ryder Cup, including this display cabinet, with signatures of the players:

The hotel too is still bedecked with Ryder Cup stuff, including the famous fish tank full of yellow and blue fish only - the European colours:

Here's Jo and I outside the hotel:

There was a Craft Fair in the hotel and there we bought our weekend meals - fish pie for Saturday and Scallops for Sunday. Driving home, we went through Auchterarder, which must have the longest High St. in Scotland. Cairn o' Mount was well gritted and it was safe for us to go over the top.

I met Colin for our usual early Saturday evening beer and footy. On the way there, I thought St. Columba's Church was nicely lit and stood out - a little spooky perhaps:

It thawed overnight so I decided to go for a cycle on Sunday morning, and also do a pub survey at the Learney Arms, Torphins. I got a text from Jo when I got there, telling me I'd locked her out of the house - again! I hot-footed it back, taking the main roads - something I normally avoid - but when I got home, Jo wasn't there. Perhaps she went to Tease, or to Ross', or perhaps Anne's? None of these were correct - she'd walked to Morrison's to place our order for Xmas turkey.

Come 5 pm, I suggested we should go for a walk round Banchory and do the local pub surveys. We started at the furthest point - Scott Skinner's - and worked back from there to the Legion, Burnett and, finally, the Douglas. Job done - now just the database to update - and, of course, the rest of Deeside to do as well.

Monday morning has started nice and bright, but the temperature has dropped again and the black ice is back. Hope it doesn't disrupt this afternoon's cycle too much.

Tomorrow is my final Board meeting, when I officially tender my resignation as a Director of the various companies. Just 4 days work left for me now.

Thursday things

I got a return phone call from Albyn Orthopaedics yesterday, following my chaser to them after I had seen our GP on Tuesday. They apologised - apparently they had somehow overlooked the results of my scan, so they immediately offered me a consultation with Mr. Bidwell this morning - and that's where I've just been.

I have a tear on my cartilage to the rear of my left knee. He also said that the gap between my bones was a bit narrower, although it's not ready for drastic surgery yet. There were two possible solutions - keyhole surgery to fix the cartilage (day patient, but general anaesthetic), or, more short-term, try an injection. I opted for the latter, which should happen next week. The type of injection is:

Need to read up on this now.

Everything grinding to a halt at work - I've emptied all the cupboards and drawers and passed my keys on now. Our in-house Quarterly Newsletter has now been issued as well, with the following extract on the front page:

No going back now.

Still counting down

Another working day out of the way - each one is proving to be more dull than the last. It's hard to concentrate fully when I'm contributing so little. It's the way it should be, of course - and the way I planned it - so I can't complain really, but I now can't wait for it to end.

It's actually a bit of a baptism of fire for my replacement, Ross, as we're in the middle of changing banks just now and, inevitably, there are wrinkles. It's all supposed to happen this week but it's looking very tight now.

Beyond that, not much to report today. Jo had a nice time with her friends on Sunday evening but she's now suffering with a sore back again. I think a hot water bottle for Xmas would be an appropriate gift.

Despite the black ice yesterday, I did get out for an afternoon cycle, but I'm not sure what was creaking most - me or my old bike. I must start looking for a new one - virtually all of my pals now have lighter framed, larger wheeled bikes with many more gears than mine. Some have bought former hire bikes from the shop at Ballater (http://www.cyclehighlands.com/) and I might pop in here when doing some of the CAMRA pub surveys before we head Down Under.

Talking about CAMRA, there's another committee meeting in Aberdeen tomorrow night, but the weather forecast is so awful, I don't think I'll be attending.

To close, my Doctor's appointment tonight was a waste of time. When I phoned the receptionist the other day, she told me there was some correspondence in from Albyn Orthopaedics, but it turned out to be a routine letter, not the results of my MRI scan. Unfortunate, but the receptionist wasn't to know - they aren't allowed to see the details of medical correspondence. I'll just have to wait a bit longer.

Saturday/Sunday

Gary did bring Luca over yesterday for an overnight stay with us, whilst he considered whether to do the Beach 10K or not this morning.

When Jo was at church this morning, Luca and I eventually got dressed and walked along to get my paper, passing Luca's favourite spot - the mound at the corner of Corsee Road, which he loves to climb up on:

On the way up

At the top

Getting down is a bit trickier - and Luca is pretty cautious as he edges his way down.

We met Jo in the High St. and went for tea/coffee/hot chocolate with marshmallows at Tease. Guess who had what?

In the mornings, especially on the days I'm not working, Jo and I have tea/coffee in bed, watching the world - or mostly the trees - through our bedroom windows. I'm still waiting for my first sighting of the red squirrel who was a daily feature last year when I was recuperating from my knee op. Jo says she's seen the squirrel once this year - and he/she now apparently has a mate.

The low morning sun often creates interesting and unusual colour patterns on the trees and there was a moment yesterday morning when Jo exclaimed "look at that!" - so I tried to capture the moment:

It didn't quite come out the way that we saw it.

So that's Sunday almost over now. Gary arrived and took Luca home and then Jo went out to the Tor-na-Coille again - this time with her friends - so I'm home alone, listening to some Spotify.

Planning to go cycling tomorrow then it's back to work again on Tuesday.

Fridiary

It's still only 4 pm, but here's Friday's diary entry. Jo seems a lot better and is now looking forward to dinner tonight - albeit she's still unsure about whether to have any wine. If I was a betting man, however ......

Jo and her pals didn't go swimming this afternoon but they still took a trip over to Westhill to do a Costco shop - after we'd walked down to the village and had a bite of lunch in the Burnett. I decided to go out for a short cycle this afternoon before the sun went down - the light starts to go about 3:30 pm at this time of year.

I was surprised I hadn't had the results of my MRI scan yet and my attempts to contact my knee surgeon had been fruitless so far, so, when I received a letter from our GP's practice today, asking me to call to make an appointment for their cardio clinic, I thought I would take the chance to check whether they had received the results of my scan - and it appears they had, so I'm going to see them on Monday. It seems a pretty convoluted way to do things - now I'm probably going to have to be referred back to the knee surgeon by my GP - seems like a lot of wasted time.

Incidentally, I couldn't get in to the cardio clinic - apparently the next one is 15th January and we're gone by then.

There's also a little uncertainty about Luca coming over tomorrow as well. Gary is contemplating entering a race on Sunday morning - his first since his collapse at Dinnet - but it's his office night out tonight and if he wakes with a hangover tomorrow, he may think twice about entering.

Normality (almost) returns

Jo spent yesterday in bed, but she's up and about again today - still not eating much, but definitely a good deal better. Hope she gets her full appetite back tomorrow - we've got our Xmas Dinner at the Tor-na-Coille Hotel.

Then we've got Luca staying on Saturday night.

Next Friday/Saturday, we've been invited to stay with Keith and Annette Gray, who have a week's timeshare at Gleneagles:

This week we booked our flights down to France - the first time we've been on holiday in that country since our kids were just kids. We're staying at Richard Simcox's 7 bedroom villa in the Dordogne with 4 other couples - the Cooks, the Grays, the Salters & the Grigors - in June. The villa is in a place called Dussac and there were 3 possible airports we could fly to - Limoges (an hour north), Bordeaux (two hours west) and Bergerac (90 mins south). We chose the latter, partly because of the better flying times. Here's the area:

Some of you may remember our holidays in the Vendee, which is not too far from La Rochelle, which you can see in the top left above. This was in pre-Ross days:

The week after France, we're off to USA - flying in to Denver and staying there 2 nights at:

After that, we head west to the ski resort of Breckenridge for a week:

Then it's over to Oregon, then down to southern California, back up to Oregon, then off home again at the end of July. I think we'll do a bit of travelling in USA this time - Yosemite and Death Valley are still on my wish list, so we'll see if we can squeeze these in some time.

August and September are back in Scotland then we're off to our original timeshare in Marbella in October.

Of course, before all of this, we've got our Australian trip in January/February. It'll be our first time at Kelly and Chris' place in Semaphore, which is not far from the beach:

We've got a week booked at a timeshare at a golf resort just outside Normanville, south of Adelaide:

Hectic schedule, eh? How am I going to fit my golf holidays round that?

I'm really winding down at work now - emptying desks, filing cabinets etc. It feels a bit like moving home. I'm hoping my slow, gradual withdrawal after 31 years with the Clark family and in my 50th year since I left school, will help me adjust easily to life in retirement.

S & D strikes

Jo went round to see how Ross was on Sunday. He had recovered enough that at least he was no longer excreting from both ends, but his washing machine had broken down so Jo gathered his stuff and brought it home.

On Monday, Jo took the newly washed stuff back to Ross. That must have been when she picked up the bug, because not long after going to bed last night, it was her turn to hit the loo - the first of several visits.

Naturally, we had to cancel Jo's weekly trip to Inverurie today to pick up Luca from school, and I also decided it was best to cancel my planned trip to Edinburgh - I didn't fancy having the bug hit me when I was 100 miles from home. As it happens, I seem to have been OK so far - a little fragile, but intact at least.

Ross came round this afternoon to see how we were - and to deliver some of his home-made soup to us (I had the leek and potato for tea tonight) - and he told us his flatmate now had the nasty little bug as well.

Please - no more.

Edinburgh

We took the train from Stonehaven for our trip to the Wine Gang's annual Xmas Fair in Edinburgh. We missed the event last year as I was recuperating from my knee op, but we'd been a couple of times before with Anne & Leslie Mason. This year, Colin & Johanne Kilgour were due to join us but had cancelled when Colin got his appointment for a new hip. Sod's law, his operation was subsequently cancelled after he'd unpicked all their bookings.

The train was packed in both directions. Not surprising when it was only 3 carriages. This seems to happen frequently. Why? Packed carriages also meant no trolley service and no hot drinks either, even if you could fight your way to the buffet car.

Our accommodation was at Jury's Hotel, not far from Waverley and the Scotsman building. Edinburgh is already in full-on Xmas party mode. There were functions in our hotel and Princes St. Gardens and St. Andrews Square are both packed with Xmas stalls and entertainment, with ice skating, carousels and a large ferris wheel - all looking very Christmas-ey, especially in the dark:

View from Waverley across Princes St. Gardens, with the Scott Monument in dark in the middle of the festivities.

Balmoral Hotel

Sweeping the water off the ice in the mild temperatures

Looking from Princes St. Gardens towards the Mound

We climbed the steps up Fleshmarket Close - the title of one of Ian Rankin's Rebus novels - intending to have a beer in the Halfway House, but it was pretty mobbed, so we moved next door to Jinglin' Geordie's, which I had thought was named after a historic character, but inside there's a large framed photo of the late, great George Best when he was there, looking the worst for wear, in his late playing days with Hibs. It transpired that I was right - he is a historical character, and the pub is not, after all, named after George Best - check http://www.jinglingeordie.co.uk/

We taxi'd down to the Stockbridge Tap for another beer. Jo and Anne took one of the neat little window seats:

We then walked from there to Anne & Leslie's favourite restaurant, the Loon Fung. Dinner was excellent again. Jo was fascinated by the bamboo above our heads:

To get back to our hotel, it was all uphill from Canonmills, but we broke our journey with a swift pit stop at the Cask & Barrel. Before we knew it, midnight had come and gone, so it was going to be a late start in the morning.

We had arranged to meet the Masons at the Assembly Halls at 12:30 pm, so we had plenty time to wander round before finding somewhere for a bit of brunch. We looked in to St. Andrews Square first of all, to see the old-fashioned Helter-Skelter and watch the ice skaters - thankfully, the circular rink there had been properly frozen, unlike the one in Princes St. Gardens the previous evening:

There's a small Valvona & Crolla (http://www.valvonacrolla.co.uk/) outlet at one of the rear (Rose St.) entrances to the famous Jenner's store and we had croissants, haggis roll & mince pies with our tea/coffee there.

The next trick was to find our way in to Jenner's properly, and from there down to the Toy Dept in the basement. What a maze of a place it is - the stairs, lifts and escalators in all corners of the building each only go part of the way - there's none of them can take you all the way to the top and down to the bottom, so you have to wander through the store's narrow passages to get to the next way up or down. It's completely crazy.

No matter - we made it to the Wine Fair in good time and had a nice afternoon there, taking in two Masterclasses - Penfolds' Australian Reds and Pol Roger's Champagnes. We had 9 separate wines to taste at the former, including one that sells for £150 per bottle and several £50 per bottle ones. Penfolds' origins at the Magill Estate lie in the heart of Adelaide, a city that has grown up round about it. Might be worth a visit to the Cellar Door and/or Restaurant there when we're visiting Kelly and Chris - less than 6 weeks' away now.

We had a brief mid-afternoon coffee break at Jamie's Italian restaurant downstairs:

You can tell we've had a few wines by now, can't you? Some of the Aussie ones we'd tried, with an adjacent one from Oregon too:

Jo's favourite Penfolds wine was just about the most expensive:

We also had six-figure champagne tastings. Pol Roger was Winston Churchill's tipple of choice and they now have a range named after him:

Supper had been booked in the Gallery at the Guildford Arms, overlooking the lounge bar - and very nice it was too, even if they had run out of the lamb's kidneys I had ordered.

Lazy Sunday is almost over. Jo went round to see Ross after church as he had texted us to say he had really bad S & D on Saturday night. He thinks he's on the mend now, thank goodness - not a pleasant experience, as I remember only too well from our recent golf trip to Turkey, where 5 or 6 of us came down with it.