Wednesday of contrasts

It's been a strange day. Bright start and lovely finish, but this afternoon wasn't at all pleasant, so it was a bit of a stir crazy day again today.

The workmen finished not long after Jo went swimming, but, by then, it wasn't worth going out, so it was an afternoon reading the paper and snoozing in the front room.

When it did brighten after Jo returned from swimming, we went out for a short walk through Burnett Park, Hill of Brathens and back down past Glen o' Dee - that helped a little, but it was barely enough. My knees are sore again, having been locked up and stationary for a while. I need to keep moving.

One thing I did manage to do today was another episode of Renshaw's Chronicles - http://renshawschronicles.blogspot.co.uk/. At least that was something.

First part of the week

Yesterday (Monday) started bright but soon went downhill - there were even a couple of minor snow/sleet flurries late morning - enough to put me off going out for a cycle.

I think both Jo and I were a bit down yesterday - perhaps a little tired, and certainly a bit stir-crazy by the end of the day, but maybe that train journey on Sunday had some effect - did we pick up a little bug or something? Anyway, I took the bus down to Aboyne at 6 pm to join the squash guys for a beer - that helped a little.

Jo was in full genealogy mode yesterday, armed with the fresh information she garnered on Sunday. Some light has now been shed on my Grannie Barr's (my Mum's Mum) impoverished family background.

D & D Slating came back yesterday and erected the scaffolding to do our roof repairs:

When they were up on the roof, they discovered that one of our chimney pots was dangerously loose - as was Irene's next door - so they're replacing that tomorrow morning when they finish off.

It was a little weird to wake up to this sight from our bedroom window this morning:

Today (Tuesday) is Inverurie/Luca day but, with the workmen still here this afternoon, I had to stay behind and Jo went over on her own. I did get out for a short cycle with Keith this morning, however.

My knee is definitely getting better and I now feel confident enough to have booked a short golf break at the end of the month - just after I have my follow-up visit with the consultant.

Family gathering

Facebook is full of different versions of the family group from yesterday, but here's mine:

Back row - Iain Bannatyne, Gary Stewart, Barry Stewart, Gwen Kelly, Johanne Sahal and her partner John Kelly
Middle row - John Campbell, Kieran Hughes, Jo Stewart, Helen Stewart, Carole Stewart, Lauren Hughes-Glass, Eleanor Kelly and Ian Stewart
Front row - Lesley Bannatyne, Dawn Hughes, Lucy Bannatyne, Nancy Barr with little Mara Hughes on her knee, Kirsty Bannatyne, Luca Stewart & Julie Hughes

Lucy Lesina, Meghan Hughes and Ben Barr joined us remotely via FaceTime/Skype. Not present were Sheila and Cameron Barr. Sheila drove her mother to the Three Craws, but then had to leave as she had a prior appointment - at the opera, I think somebody said?

The day before, Lesley had bumped in to my cousin Dugald - or is it Dougal? Shows how long it is since I've seen him. He's the last remaining of that wing of the family - my Dad's elder brother Willie's side.

My Aunt Nancy is the senior member of the group above, but it's a bit scary to realise that I'm next!

It all went very well - a lovely afternoon - and Jo was pleased when both Aunt Nancy and John Kelly produced some more genealogical material to assist her research in to the family tree.

We travelled on Club 55 First Class, but, as usual, the trains were packed and soon a number of other passengers who couldn't get a seat were piling in to First Class. There was no buffet service on either train and the staff kept a very low profile, knowing they would face the wrath of the punters. Over-crowding seems to be a regular fixture on these inter-city services. I'm going to file a complaint - not because we suffered much, but just to register the facts with Scotrail, whose franchise has just been taken over by a consortium of Stagecoach and Virgin - they can only improve things surely?

Another gathering is planned for later this year - nearer a couple of big birthdays. Banchory was mentioned as a location, but that's not going to happen - too far for Aunt Nancy.

Here's another few random shots I took yesterday:

Saturday Deeside run

My real birthday (Friday) was a fairly quiet one, having had my nice family meal the night before. Jo always goes swimming on a Friday afternoon and I go to the pub on Friday evening. Creatures of habit, both of us, we stuck to tradition.

I had, however, been invited by Keith Gray to go to Kippie - the Aberdeen Petroleum Club - in the afternoon. It was nearly scuppered when D & D, Slaters turned up unannounced mid-morning. They had some work to do on our roof and cladding and we knew they were coming soon, but we didn't expect them to turn up now. They finished what they could do by lunchtime, which let me go to Kippie with Keith, and they'll be back on Monday.

Keith and I hit some golf balls on the range - it was a little soon after my operation, but I managed OK without too much discomfort. I did a little work on my quads in the gym afterwards and then went for a short swim and steam room.

Today, I decided it was time to finish off the Deeside deliveries of the local CAMRA quarterly newsletters, so Jo and I set off late morning and drove down to Braemar. We had a bit of time to kill, so we thought we would go a little further west in to the hills to Linn o' Dee, a place we hadn't been to since all the kids were at home.

It's a spectacular spot as the Dee charges under a bridge and through a narrow gorge, carving huge swathes out of the rocks over the centuries. The following video - http://youtu.be/TPtXMdUQ_so - and photographs, demonstrate:

Back in Braemar we went to The Bothy for a plate of soup:

The outdoor tables weren't all that inappropriate - North East Scotland was reputed to be the warmest in Europe today with temperatures peaking at 16/17 C - not bad for this area in early March.

Ballater, Tarland, Torphins and Banchory deliveries were made after this and that's us done now.

Tomorrow, we're off to Glasgow for a family reunion, organised by Lesley Bannatyne.

Friday - birthday boy

Got my stitches out on Wednesday. The nurse put a couple of small micropore strips on but they will fall off soon. She also advised me to rub E45 cream on them after 4 or 5 days to help with the scarring, and to keep taking the Ibuprofen. The swelling is reducing and there's less pain now when I walk - so much so that I managed a slow 36 kms on the bike yesterday morning. When I got home, Jo was hard at work in the back garden:

Last night we all went for a pre-birthday meal at Echt Tandoori:

and here's some of my birthday cards:

Wednesday - stitches out

Two days ago, exactly one week after my knee op, I finally got to take off the Tubigrip from that leg. I've still got the compression stocking on the other leg - that has to remain there until I see the surgeon again at the end of the month - but today, I'm heading to the nurse to get the stitches out.

Progress has been made - it's still a bit stiff and sore, but it's a lot better than when I last posted to this blog. I've stopped the Ibuprofen as well - or rather, I've finished our stock. After a short session on the exercise bike, I thought I would try the real thing on Monday. I had to drop off some CAMRA stuff at the pubs and the bike seemed like a good way to do this. Plenty of stops of course, so it wasn't too difficult, but I managed about 18 kms after looping round Crathes Castle.

On Saturday, I took the bus in to Aberdeen to attend the CAMRA meeting, and, on Sunday, Gary and Luca popped in after Luca's football at Laurencekirk. Luca was in the bad books for not trying hard enough at the football.

Yesterday (Tuesday) we were back to the old routine, picking Luca up from school - for the first time this year. He always seems pleased to see us, smiling and running over with big hugs. Grannie first of all, of course, but he makes sure I get one as well. He was carrying an oversize bag:

When we got back to his house, he showed me the Inverurie family spider:

Not exactly a Huntsman, is it?

Gary came in, hot and sweaty, after he'd been to the gym:

The full beard is staying on until he completes his latest challenge - an ultra marathon. Jo wants him to reverse the upside-down look and shave the beard and grow the hair back on his head.

The more observant will have noticed that I've finally got round to doing another episode of Renshaw's Chronicles - http://renshawschronicles.blogspot.co.uk/

Recovery mode

Well, here I sit with my leg up, as instructed, and with a bag of frozen peas on my knee, hoping to bring the swelling down. I've started taking Ibuprofen now as well, to help with the inflammation. I don't like taking unnecessary medicines, especially painkillers, unless I really need them. I haven't touched the Co-Drydamol that the hospital gave me on Monday, but needs must and I'll start with the Ibuprofen now, especially after having had a bad day yesterday.

On Tuesday, the day after the op, I took it easy but I seemed to be able to move around OK, and, on Wednesday, I walked along to the shops with little difficulty. On Thursday, I had my regular appointment at the local Cardio Clinic and so I again walked along there. It was on the way back, when I got to Corsee Road, that I suddenly encountered pretty sharp pain in my knee, and it was a struggle to hobble home from there.

My knee is still swollen and sore this morning but I was able to gingerly walk along to the shops again. I'll tread carefully from here, but I am getting a bit stir-crazy sitting around the house all the time - especially when the weather is so nice. It's another beautifully sunny day again today - I would definitely be out walking or on my bike, if I could.

Incidentally, the Cardio Nurse complimented me on losing 2 kgs since my last visit. "What?", I said - "I've just returned from 6 weeks with the lushes Down Under. Are you sure?" Apparently it's true - well that's 2kgs less I have to lose now.

At this time a week ago, Jo and I were sitting in the lounge at Hong Kong airport, on the long wait for our flight back to the UK - a mistake we hope never to repeat. We should have gone in to the city and kept on the move, rather than sitting around indoors for 11 hours.

I had a couple of beers last Saturday, but otherwise, it's been a week of abstention - some of it enforced of course. I broke the fast last night when Malcolm Grigor invited me for a beer. I agreed - but only if we had it at the Tor-na-Coille - that's as far as I could make it yesterday.

Jo went swimming with her pals on Wednesday and she's going back again today - getting back in to the groove. I don't have a groove yet - this retirement thing is still all new to me, and I've had the distractions of a long holiday and an operation, so I don't really have a routine yet.

We've been catching up on Corrie of course - another 10 episodes or so and we'll be up to date. It's very much wallpaper TV - it's on in the background whilst we're doing other things. You don't have to watch, as long as you hear most of the narrative - and you can generally figure out where the story lines are going. Why then do we still record it? Habit, I guess - and it's a bit like an old cardigan - warm and comforting to come home to.

I'll be heading down to the Douglas Arms again tonight to join our usual Friday night crowd - my first time this year. Tomorrow afternoon promises more beer as there's a CAMRA meeting in Aberdeen and I've missed a few when we've been away.

The days are noticeably getting longer - nice to see. Of course, it's March on Sunday and just 4 weeks until the clocks go forward to BST again. This would normally be about the time when I go to seek some golf in the sun, in preparation for the new season. Last year, we went to Dubai and stayed with Nigel and Andrea Meany, but we certainly won't be doing that this year - Nigel gave us the shock news that Andrea has a large brain tumour, and as I write this, she is undergoing surgery in London to remove it, with her family anxiously awaiting the outcome.

More bad news came to Banchory this week when we heard that Frances Davies, wife of John, died on Monday. She, too, had a brain tumour and it had been a question of time.

What a terrible way to finish this blog posting - but I can't really follow this.

Tuesday post-op

Yesterday's operation to fix the torn cartilage in my left knee nearly didn't happen due to a simple administrative error. I'd asked for it to be done as soon as I came back from Oz and before the end of February, if possible. I'd asked for them to give me the date by e-mail as I would be away, but nothing came through to me in January, so I contacted them again and discovered they had posted it out to me after all - and what's more the operation was booked for Friday 20th February - the day before we were home.

I reminded them this date wasn't possible and so they changed it to Monday 23rd (yesterday) and confirmed the time was 13:00 hours. I accepted this, although an afternoon op isn't great when you have to fast all day before it.

Well, we were sitting in the house yesterday and it was about noon and we were thinking about getting ready to leave, when the phone rang. "Mr. Stewart - Albyn Hospital here - we thought you were coming in at 11:00 am for your op?" No - it's 1:00 pm says I - I had this confirmed by e-mail. "Well, can you get here as soon as possible please?" Of course - and so off we set. I wished I'd had a blue flashing light on my car, but anyway, we got there about 12:35 pm, which wasn't too bad considering all the road works at Crathes and Blairs.

Despite all this, everything seemed to go OK and we left the hospital at about 6:00 pm, with Jo driving this time as I'd had a general anaesthetic and can't drive - or drink - for 48 hours at least.

I awoke early again this morning - 4 am - and lay there until almost 6 am when I eventually had to get up. I had a bite and came back upstairs with Jo's coffee and Kelly then FaceTimed. We wondered what Miller's reaction would be, but it was delightful - he beamed and tried to eat us on Kelly's iPad!

The heavy bandage I'd had on my knee slipped off, leaving just the waterproof plasters covering the two incisions:

For the medics amongst you, here's the papers the hospital gave us showing what was carried out:

 

What exactly is an "Arthroscopic Partial Medial Meniscectomy"? Does this help?:

So the saga of the Stewart knees continues. Since I ruptured the medial ligament on my right knee at football training in 1970, then discovered 20+ years later that I'd done my cruciate at the same time but they never fixed it, I've had arthroscopies carried out on both knees (in 2011), my right knee completely replaced (2013) and, after an x-ray and an MRI scan late in 2014, I've now had a further arthroscopy and repair to the cartilage on my left knee. I reckon all of that still leaves me behind my wee sister who had both knees replaced (one partial, one full) a number of years ago.

I do hope there's no more to come for a while - for me, or for any other family members. I was pleased to see that none of our grandchildren appear to have inherited this weakness. In fact, little Miller is so flexible when kneeling that Kelly was told by the development nurse last week not to let him sit on the floor with his legs splayed out behind him any more as it might apparently make him hen-toed!

As a final footnote to the admin errors referred to above, the postman rang the bell this morning. When we came back on Saturday, our mailbox was full and overflowing (we have no letterbox on our new front door) and then today he showed up with a plastic box full of even more mail - about another 3 mailboxes worth. Included in the postman's plastic box was a letter from the hospital confirming my changed appointment for yesterday - at 11 am!

So today I've followed instructions and rested up. Tomorrow, I'll take a short walk along to the shops and keep doing the exercises and ice treatment.

Home

The journey back went pretty well as scheduled - no flight delays - but the hard part was the 11 hour layover at Hong Kong - that seemed interminable. We tried for an earlier flight but the only other Cathay Pacific flight to London was just one hour ahead of the one we were booked on, and it just wasn't worth the hassle with changing tickets and trying to re-direct bags etc.

As it happens, we arrived in Aberdeen just before 10 am this morning only to find that Jo's bag didn't make the last leg. It arrived on the second BA flight this afternoon so we're just waiting for the couriers to deliver it to Banchory now. I've now given our address details to 4 separate people so who knows when it will be here.

We got a taxi from the airport round to Gary's work to pick up my car and then drove back to Banchory, stopping at Tesco to pick up some groceries. We've had lunch and I've unpacked, showered and changed and, so far, we've done 4 Corrie episodes already - just 28 more to do to catch up!

Cathay Pacific were excellent but we were both a little disappointed that we only got 3-4 hours' sleep on the long haul to London. We'd stayed awake on the shorter (9 hours) daytime flight from Adelaide to HK, hoping that we'd get a good long sleep on the longer (13 hours) night-time flight from HK to LHR, but it wasn't to be. Such are the vagaries of world travel.

To be honest, I don't feel at all bad just now, so I'm wading my way through the paperwork - and blogging, of course. Assuming I stay alert for at least the next hour, then I'll pop down the pub to watch some of the early evening footy with Colin and Dave.

Tomorrow, Gary's bringing Luca out to see us and then, on Monday, I have my operation to fix my torn knee cartilage.

The Three's

So far, we haven't jinxed anything else - but Kelly ran up the hat-trick today when she suggested that we go to to Grace - The Establishment, which was one of our favourite places for coffee and/or beer a couple of years ago when Ross with with us.

She was taking Miller for his latest vaccinations and said she would meet us there, but, like the Royal Croquet Club and the Garden of Unearthly Delights on Monday, it was closed, so we had to find somewhere else to wait for her - which we did.

Miller's Doctor was late, which made us late getting to Brighton to meet David and Lorene, but we got there in the end and had a nice meal and a walk along the pier, followed by ice creams:

Jo cooked hamburgers when we got back and we had a very nice last evening together. I pointed out that we had a tradition of taking a last night of the holiday photo when we were at the Lesinas - and this had been done for 15 years now, and I wanted to start a new one with the Steeles, but there was some initial reluctance from the locals, but I finally managed to get this shot:

There's more I could tell you about tonight, but I'll save that for another time.

Jock Jinxes and G.U.D.

Best laid plans and all that. We set off south on time this morning and stopped at Henley to pick up coffees. Miller had fallen asleep in the back of the car and so I agreed to sit with him in the underground car park whilst J & K picked up the coffees for our road trip.

We left the keys in the ignition with the radio playing so as not to alert M to any changes - but, crucially, we switched the engine off. Unfortunately, the AC was still running and although J & K were only away about 5 minutes, when Kelly tried to start the car again, it wouldn't turn over.

The car has a 5 year warranty with roadside assistance, so Kelly called them, thinking it would be the usual wait of over an hour and they probably wouldn't do much when they got to us. How wrong can you be? Less than 20 minutes later the RAA van was at our side and quickly diagnosed a flat battery and then gave us a start with his jump leads.

By this time, however, Kelly had contacted Lorene and David and cancelled our lunch appointment with them, so we just went back home.

Kelly and Jo took Miller to a local playgroup for an hour and we then arranged to just swap Wednesday and Thursday over - we're meeting Chris' parents tomorrow and we met Chris in the city tonight to pay a quick visit to the Garden of Unearthly Delights and Gluttony, two of the main Fringe areas. We walked around for a while and then picked a stall to eat at. Jo had a pulled pork roll whilst Chris and I opted for the Reuben.

Here's some photos from the G.U.D.:

The washing machine and the car have broken down and they say these things come in three's, so is there something else we're going to jinx before we leave?

Narrative only

After yesterday's photo orgy in my blog post, I have absolutely none to show today. I think Tuesday was the first time this holiday that I didn't take any photographs at all.

After our exertions walking miles round the city on Monday, we both thought we would need a down day, so I cancelled the golf I'd booked at Adelaide Shores and we just hung around the house and read our books until Kelly, Miller and Chris - in that order - came home.

I finished my book - the first Jo Nesbo Harry Hole novel, The Bat. So that's 3 novels and 3 autobiographies so far, with just one (Viv Albertine) left for the journey home on Friday/Saturday. We have a very long layover at Hong Kong - 10-11 hours, I believe - so I'll need a book for that.

We're scheduled to arrive back in Aberdeen mid-late morning on Saturday. My car is at Gary's work, which is just a short taxi ride from the airport.

It was salmon for dinner last night, with salad courtesy of Jo. Today is Kelly's usual day off and we're heading south once more - down to Goolwa to have a beer at the brewpub there and then lunch with Chris' folks. The detox hasn't started yet.

Kelly is also off tomorrow (Thursday) and she's taking Miller for his injections and then we're heading off to the Fringe for a while.

Awkward holiday questions, answers and comments:

• Kelly (in jest) - "not that it's a competition or anything, but don't you agree that Australia is better than USA then?". The correct answer is, of course, "yes but". (Got to give them something to work on for the next time).
• Jo and I to Kelly - "we'll really miss Miller next week", hurriedly followed by "and you and Chris, of course".

Walking wounded

To finish off the photos from our weekend in the Clare Valley, as I said in my last posting, we walked along to the Sheep shearing station at Bungaree to have a look at what was once Australia's biggest industry.

We made a slight detour on the way home and went to Tanunda to have a couple of beers at the Barossa Valley Brewery. It was Sunday lunchtime and it was pretty busy when we got there, partly due to the fund-raiser they were running in the grounds for the victims of the recent fires around Adelaide.

The temperature had already hit 40 C before noon and we all needed cooling down. The adults could use beer of course but for little Miller all he/we could do was throw water over him and soon he was completely soaked through:

So that was our weekend. On Monday, Jo and I decided to go back in to the city, but not before I went out for a pre-breakfast 24 km cycle.

We walked to Peterhead station and caught the 10:12 train and our day then panned out as follows:

1. Got off at Bowden station and had coffee at the Loose Caboose, which is virtually on the station platform
2. Walked from there, past the Entertainment Centre, following the River Torrens towards the City Centre, passing the most beautifully prepared gardens at the South Australian Brewing Company
3. We had originally planned to leave the greenery and cross the road to head for the Wheatsheaf, but we went a little bit too far and my map reading hadn't taken account of the uncrossable railway line
4. We diverted and took a 360 degree walk round the Adelaide Oval before heading back towards our original target
5. Stopped for a refreshing coke at a pub in Hindley St. then walked from there to George St. and the Wheatsheaf
6. Beer and nibbles at the "Wheaty" then we walked back towards the city again
7. Another diversion - this time for a couple of hours walking round Adelaide Gaol
8. Walked from the Gaol back along Hindley St, looking for Kelly's recommendation of the Clever Little Tailor in Peel St., which we found through a combination of deduction and sheer luck
9. Walked from there, down King William St towards the Royal Croquet Club, one of the main centres of the Adelaide Fringe Festival, which started last weekend. (It's a bit like the Pleasance or Udderbelly, which are centres of the Ediburgh Fringe.) Unfortunately, it was Monday and everything was closed
10. Undeterred, we headed for the other main Fringe Centre, the Garden of Unearthly Delights, stopping for a quick beer and book reading at the Wakefield Hotel. The Garden was also closed!
11. Hungry now, we headed for Rundle St. and picked out Piatta, an Italian street restaurant, where we had dinner
12. Our penultimate walk was back to Adelaide Railway Station for the train back to Peterhead
13. We walked back to Derby St. from the station, creeping silently in to the house just before 9pm. Miller and Kelly fast asleep, of course, and Chris was just heading to bed.

It was a hard walking day - 24 kms, mostly on the city pavements.

Here's the story above in pictures:

Loose Caboose

Loose Caboose

Brewery gardens at River Torrens

Newly extended Oval

Wheatsheaf

Gaol

Wakefield

Piatta

Breweries & Vineyards Weekend in Clare Valley

Our accommodation for the weekend was at a former Sheep Station called Bungaree (http://www.bungareestation.com.au/) in the heart of the Clare Valley's wine country. It's still a working farm but nowhere near as grand as it used to be - a mere 7,000 acres now, compared with 180,000 in its heyday. It was a complete village in those times and the first major centre of Merino Sheep in Australia, dating back to 1841.

The original Hawker family's dependants still have a presence on site and, although the days of supplying the world with wool and lamb have long gone, a new tourism business is getting off the ground.

We stayed in the former Council Chambers, which had been beautifully restored with all mod cons:

Having checked in, we headed back to the town of Clare and popped in to Knappstein Winery, who also happen to brew a solitary beer. That was just a brief pit stop on the way to one of Kelly's and Chris' favourite spots. They'd booked a table on the patio right underneath a lovely old tree at Skillogolee's.

The temperature had climbed dramatically since we left the city in the mid 20's. We were now in to the 40's and something had to give - and it did. A proper downpour forced us all back on to the terrace behind the wind protectors:

It was very atmospheric with the rain battering down on the tin roof - and the food was excellent.

We had dessert as well - as did Miller:

Our bathroom had an old "washing machine" in it - a built-in basin with a fire underneath, which Miller took a shine to:

On Saturday morning, we had arranged to join Mark to go round and feed the animals. First we saw where he and his wife - one of the original Hawker family - lived:

There were turkeys, ducks and, of course, 'roos:

Then there were deer:

Earlier on in the holiday, Miller had displayed his liking for old tractors and there was another opportunity here:

We drove down to Clare again and bought coffees whilst Miller slept in the car and we headed further south to Auburn and the Hop & Vine Cellar Door for the Clare Valley Brewery. Miller awoke when we arrived so we roused him in the playpark there - http://youtu.be/8E1vmfBdJMA

The Cellar Door was pleasant too:

Next stop was Pike Brewery:

Then it was Paulett Winery, followed by Sevenhills, founded and run by the Jesuits. Jo and I took a trip down to their cellars:

When we got back to Bungaree, we had agreed to meet Mark again and he was going to take us up in his open Land Rover to check on the horses. It was too hot and sticky for Miller, so Kelly took him back to our accommodation, whilst Chris, Jo and I took the trip, with Jo in the front and Chris and I in the back as we rode the prairies:

There was a bit of competition for the apples Chris and Jo were trying to feed them - check this video - http://youtu.be/-a52MCc2XDE

This morning (Sunday), we all breakfasted and then strolled along to the old Sheep-shearing station, after which we had a second hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs, courtesy again of Chris.

We diverted our route home slightly to go in to Tonunda and visit the Barossa Valley Brewing Company. Beer was required because it was now 42 C. Photos to follow later.