End of a (blog) era

Well, that's it - I've now given notice to all my sporting colleagues that I'm retiring from writing all my sports blogs and keeping the historical records, photos, databases etc. Some have stopped already and some will stop at the end of this year. I'd given notice a year ago that I would be phasing out of organising all the golf outings this year - still around to help, support and advise, but not taking on any new admin duties.

So no more golf, football, squash or cycling blogs. That "just" leaves me with the Family, Music, Beer and Hill-walking as "live" blogs, with the Chronicles and Pet Hates lying dormant in the background.

My time and attention has turned a little to other interests such as River Dee Radio and CAMRA so I won't exactly be idle.

It's also now time to organise next year's big holidays - first of all Australia, where it's going to be all change with Chris and Kelly having now moved out of their lovely 4 bedroom home in Semaphore to Chris' smaller 2 bedroom unit in O'Halloran Hill, which, of course, means there's no room for us! Boo hoo! It's right across the other end of the city - from the north west down to the south:

The upside is that they're nearer the McLaren Vale wine area. Perhaps somewhere with good train and bus connections to both the city and the south would be good for us?

We'll manage, of course, but it's a very residential area that they're moving to and it's proving difficult to find accommodation nearby - there are no hotels nor B & B's - not even an Air BnB within a 10 minute drive. We're considering a beachside location - possibly a cabin in a caravan park, or even hiring an RV and using that as accommodation and to get us around. Brighton might tick most of the boxes? Not too far from Kelly & Co., on the beach and also on the train line.

Timing has to be decided too. Some of the dates/events we're trying to work round are:

• Sat 13th Jan - Sun 21st Jan - Santos Tour Under
• Friday 26th January - Australia Day
• Fri 26th Jan - Sun 28th Jan - Crush Festival
• Friday 9th February - Chris' birthday
• Fri 16th Feb - Sun 18th Mar - Adelaide Fringe
• Fri 2nd Mar - Sun 4th Mar - Cellar Door Festival
• Sunday 4th March - Adelaide 500
• Tuesday 6th March - My birthday!
• Fri 9th Mar - Mon 12th Mar - WomAdelaide

Now it's obvious that we're not going to manage all of the above. We also have a potential trip to Tasmania to plan. Much to think about - but it helped my thought process to write it all down here.

Then there's USA next year. We'd half considered a possible trip to Hawaii, but we'd need to book it soon before all the Marriott villas are booked. We need to consider when's the best time to travel as well.

Last weekend I was at Boat of Garten and I coped not too badly, but, generally, golf is becoming a bit of a struggle for me. I'll be very interested to see the results of my knee X-ray when I see our Doctor at the end of the month.

This weekend, Brian and Mary are up with us for a couple of days. We got soaked on Friday afternoon when a sudden thunderstorm hit, just when we were at the furthest point from the clubhouse. It was much better this morning when Brian and I played Aboyne. Tonight we're planning to go out for a curry.

End of Summer?

(For those receiving this by e-mail, remember this is best viewed directly on the blog -)

It's August 31st and the media are telling us that it's the last day of the meteorological summer - whatever that means. The weather's not been great - but not all that bad either. Good enough to wear shorts anyway.

It's been an interesting week, starting off the previous Tuesday when I tweaked my back lifting the Inverurie food box in to my car. It wasn't heavy - it was just the way I did it, and it was enough to make me cancel golf last Wednesday and Friday, plus any cycling. I think it's OK now, but I'm treating it with kid gloves.

Remaining on medical matters, I finally managed to attend Aboyne hospital this morning for the x-ray on my left knee. They say it takes a couple of weeks before my GP receives the results. Why? They check the images as they take them, so why can't they just send/e-mail them immediately? So the earliest appointment I can get with him is Monday 25th September.

Jo and I had an interesting couple of days in Edinburgh - the last days of the 70-year old Fringe, the biggest arts festival in the world. Having recently made contact with each other through the FaceBook page "I went to Victoria Drive Senior Secondary", I'd arranged to meet up with a couple of my old school pals who I hadn't seen or been in touch with for over half a century. One of them - Robert Rowan - remembered everything as if it were yesterday. He was telling me stuff about myself that I never knew or had completely blanked out.

One example was of a scam I pulled in our last year when dogging off school - usually on Friday afternoons. I had been attending hospital for some reason and, in those days, they gave you an appointments card with spaces for repeat appointments, which I of course then filled in and used as evidence to the school for my absences.

Robert also brought along more photographs from our school days and a subsequent holiday we went on to Morecambe. One of them was from the infamous Scientific Society Trip to Annan in 1965 - a couple of embarrassing photos from that trip featured in a recent blog posting. I hated - and was useless at - science, and what I was doing on such a trip, I'll never know. I guess it was just a day out for me. Anyway, here's that photo:

The Morecambe holiday came in 1967. Robert had booked us in to a boarding house and me and my pal John Duncan had gone along with him. These are definitely not how we normally dressed - we were obviously posing for the camera:

There's a cravat thing going on here - and what were Robert and I doing linking arms like this?

To compound matters further, John and I put on our pyjama tops for some reason!

While I was having a few beers with my old school chums, Jo was over with Ross at his work. I met them there in good time to attend our first show of the day - Alexander Fox - Ringo. It's almost obligatory to see at least one cringeworthy show at the Fringe - and this was it. It was staged in a small bubble tent at the Pleasance. All of us were sweating profusely, some of it from embarrassment, but mostly because there was no air.

Our second show was a whole lot better - Matt Forde, well-known TV political satirist and occasional impressionist. He savaged them all - which was pretty fair - but saved his best - Trump - till last. Seeing a "named" artiste up close in a relatively small, bare stage venue gives you some appreciation of their skills - and how hard they worked, going at it with nary a stumble for an hour. Impressive.

We went back to see Ross winding up his day at work and then all went to try to find something to eat - not easy at 10 pm on a Sunday night in Edinburgh. We settled for Bella Italia in the end, after being knocked back at 6 or 7 others, which were closing for the evening.

We never made it along to the free music at the Guildford Arms, but opted for a quick nightcap at our hotel instead. Amoretta for Jo and I, and Gin for Ross, if you're interested.

Our first show on Monday was to see TV comedian David O'Dougherty at noon and I'd inadvertently bought 2 extra tickets for this, which I'd kind of hoped Ross might be able to use, but he was working, so I offered them to Robert Rowan and he and his wife, Bridget, came along with us. We even had lunch with them afterwards at Miller and Carter, a recently opened branch of the small steak house chain. Not having seen each other for over 50 years and now this was two days in a row!

It was then off to the Jazz Cafe to listen to a Blues Guitar Duo - very nice, if slightly soporific. Our final ticketed show was a News Revue, almost a must at the Fringe. It's been one of the most popular genres ever since the heady days of the Cambidge Footlights' Beyond the Fringe in the early 60's. In turn, these early shows featuring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore spawned many other copyists leading to a multitude of satirical TV shows, culminating in Monty Python's Flying Circus. The Revue we saw was fast-paced and furious - the performers had to be young and fit.

I had earmarked another couple of free shows over the 2 days, but we decided to body-swerve them and instead, Ross, Jo and I opted for a couple of quiet pints in the Guildford Arms, with an occasional trip outside to view the Festival's closing fireworks. Jo and I shared a single fish and then we retired.

We caught the train back on Tuesday morning and drove over to Inverurie, via Banchory, to do the usual Tuesday Luca pick-up. We were under instructions to take him for a haircut - it was getting ridiculously long. I think we succeeded, without upsetting him too much. The stylist knew Luca well and handled him superbly. Here's the result:

We were about to head home for an early bed after a hard couple of days in Edinburgh, when we got a message that Ross was on a train on his way up! I picked him up at Stonehaven and we were back home before midnight:

We arranged for us all to go to the Derbar for a curry on Wednesday evening - and here's the results of my - and Luca's - camerawork:

Oh - Luca looked away

Luca was ready this time - but Carole and I weren't

Show your teeth, Luca!

That's better!

Back Home

No - the title does not reference that awful song by the England football team for the 1970 World Cup. Home is Banchory and Jo and I have been back for a week now. Jo may not agree but I've found the transition OK so far. I've kept myself busy - we had a decent sleep on Tuesday night and then I golfed on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and also managed to squeeze in another live show on River Dee Radio on Wednesday night, then a Headbang on Friday night (late night).

I took it fairly easy over the weekend, but then went for short cycles on Monday and Tuesday. The first was in Aberdeen - my car was booked in for its MoT at 8 am and I also had my annual visit to see my cardiologist at 11:30 am, so I decided I would spend the time in between on my bike. I cycled from Altens down along the river a bit, then in to Duthie Park and then out to the Torry Battery, where I took this photo looking back over Aberdeen Harbour and bay:

It was all fairly leisurely, but it was good to be back in the saddle again.

My car initially failed its MoT, but it just needed one tyre replaced and then it was OK. I guess I kind of failed my own MoT as well. Blood pressure (110/60) and ECG etc were all OK, but the cardiologist noted that my heart rate was 91. He wondered whether it was due to the cycle over to the hospital? Hardly - I was early and had to wait over half an hour, so what little exercise I had done was long out of my system and wouldn't affect the reading. It was only 71 the year before, so he decided it might be best if I went for a heart scan - it had been 3 years since my last one and perhaps it was time anyway. He told me not to be alarmed and there was no rush to do the scan as my risk factor is still apparently very low, but he did explain about the heart expanding and getting weaker with age and he wanted to have a proper look to see which stage I was at.

Still on medical matters, I received two letters from Aboyne hospital when we were away, with X-ray appointments for my knee. I'd explained to our doctor that I would be on holiday until mid-August and to arrange it for after we returned, but obviously something was lost in translation. I phoned the hospital and they told me they would have to go back to my doctor due to the two "no-shows", so I left them to do just that. Blow me, this morning I've received another letter with an appointment for next Monday - when we're in Edinburgh! Grrrr.

It's been a bit dreich overnight as rain swept over Scotland. I thought there was no way we were going to be able to play golf this afternoon, but, as I sit here it's calm and dry outside. Oh well, I've got a bit of a bad back anyway, so the rest won't do me any harm. I'll substitute golf with a pint later on. After 6 weeks in USA with, I think, only one "dry" day, I've just had 3 days of clean living, so I reckon it's time to top up again.

Due partly to the respiratory bug we both picked up on holiday - and the excessive heat - we were pretty inactive all the time we were in Oregon, but I've picked up the steps again since I got back. This snapshot from my phone was taken on Saturday morning:

That was the steps taken over the last month - note how it increased as soon as I got back and started playing golf again. A daily average of just over 6,000 steps isn't at all good and my year to date average has now dropped down below the "standard" of 10,000 steps:

Jo's off to her swimming again this afternoon - she didn't do any on holiday, but she much prefers going to Westhill with her buddies anyway. She's writing stories of her childhood - I've seen the one she wrote about her father - so look out, she'll be sending these out soon.

Good to see Scott's on the mend - hopefully back to work next month. Allowed to drive again now and the movement and strength in his weaker arm is still improving.

Dawn is going back to work too at the start of the month. She and Jordon seem to have settled in to her new flat OK. Helen and Barry were round for a meal when I phoned on Sunday night.

I'll finish with a slightly prettier picture. Our golf course has developed a new wild flower area, well away from normal play:

Pre-penultimate Day

It's Saturday morning - our second last full day in Grants Pass. Last night we went to Scott and Lucy's friends Rich and Jen England's for a lovely BBQ. Don't think I've seen so much protein for a while - steaks, chicken and sausages - all cooked to perfection. Of course, we also had the benefit of a driver - Cade took us there and back and spent time at the Englands with his pals.

Earlier on we'd had lunch at the new Red Robin franchise in town. The food was good but they were somewhat short-staffed.

I'd been out on a short bike ride early on and had picked some blackberries for breakfast, so Jo and I went back to the Allen Creek Trail a bit later on - this time in the car - and picked some more, so now Lucy's fridge is full of cups of berries. She took some along to Jen's last night and the girls had them in their champagne.

It's hit 100 + F a few more times this week and it looks like it's not going to cool down until after we leave. We've been waiting for the pressure build-up to bring some storms - hopefully with rain - to help clear the air and reduce the heat a bit, but, despite a couple of brief threats, nothing has happened yet. There has been talk locally of the smoke from distant fires and sure, the hills aren't as clear as they were a couple of weeks ago, but I have neither smelled nor tasted anything in the air this time.

We did get some heavy peals of thunder and some sheet lightning through the night earlier this week - enough to waken us, but still no rain. Holly, however, is the really sensitive one and she trembles any time there's any kind of electrical activity in the area. You can usually find her hiding in the bath, cowering in terror. Lucy eventually had to sleep with her to try to calm her.

The other night, Scott and Lucy were at Cade's pre-season football family BBQ and Jo and I were (mostly) home alone. There were a few distant rumbles and Holly went in to fear mode again:

Nice reflection from the camera flash!

Meanwhile, Shelby and Buster are lying down, very relaxed:

So it looks like we're going to hit a couple of wineries this afternoon. We have to be back before 6 pm as it's Cade's Senior photo session for the yearbook.

Tomorrow we'll probably go out for breakfast and then it's early to bed in preparation for the absurdly early rise on Monday morning to start our nightmare convoluted journey home - Medford - Denver - Atlanta - Heathrow - Aberdeen - and no Business Class this time!

Midweek update

So what day is it now? So easy to lose track of time, especially when neither of us are on top of the world. It's over a month since we picked up this respiratory bug down south and it just refuses to go away. I thought I was finally on the mend a week ago, but it sneaks back and hits you again when you least expect it. Not that we're totally out of it or anything - we can still get about our daily rituals OK, but we - certainly me anyway - don't feel much like stretching ourselves at all. A couple of short cycles, 2 games of golf and a few very short trail walks is about all we've managed.

Days are largely spent eating, drinking - the bug hasn't stopped us doing that! - and shopping. It's been too hot these last 10 days or so - once it gets in to the 100's F, it's difficult to do anything in the middle of the day.

Scott joined me again on Monday on the one hour drive up to lovely Myrtle Creek for a round of golf at what was now been renamed Cougar Canyon golf course. We doubt if cougars actually roam the course - at least not during the day - as there were families of young deer who weren't scared off by any golfers.

Yesterday (Tuesday) morning, we arranged to go for a short hike on the Shan Creek Trail. Lovely spot, but after a mile or so, Jo - and Scott - had had enough and we headed back. It was too hot for Jo - and there was a bit of climbing involved - and the trails were fairly narrow with poison oak, something Scott's allergic to, overlapping. Lots of photos on FB already, but here's a few more that didn't make it:

Resting on the rocks on the creek

Just about as far as Jo could manage

The trail was a little hard to follow in places, but we knew there was a log crossing point, so I went over.

At the other side of the creek there's another log with notches in it, leading upwards. I decided to climb up to see if it took us to the trail again. It didn't.

There was a lovely spot where there was a swimming hole. Perhaps the boys will try out some rock jumping there some time.

We had lunch once more at White Horse RV park - and very nice it was too.

There's a new slushie/smoothie type outlet in GP. The base liquid is one of 5 exotic fruits whose names we'd never heard of before:

They add various fruits, granola etc. We've tried it a couple of times - very interesting.

So today (Wednesday), Lucy drove Scott over to the hospital in Medford for some neurology tests - something that Lucy wanted to get done as a reassurance that all's well. It'll be another 2 weeks before Scott hopefully gets the all-clear from the doctor and he can finally discard that annoying neck collar, which must be even worse in this heat.

Penultimate week

(Always best viewed on the blog itself, rather than e-mail).

Last weekend, on the Saturday, Jo and I took a drive downtown and walked round the Grants Pass shops, stopping occcasionally to admire the bears, which are a feature of the town every summer:

Last Sunday all four of us took a run down to lovely Ashland. We had lunch at the Caldera brewery and a short stroll around the town and through Lithia Park, finishing with ice creams.

Not having a proper camera nowadays, I notice I'm taking far fewer pictures and hence, half the time I can't remember what we've done! I do remember, however, that we had to hunker down for a week of triple digit temperatures, soaring as high as 115 F (46 C) midweek. We had chores to do on Wednesday, which kept us busy and mostly out of the worst of the heat. Braeden had two orthodontist and one dentist appointment, all within a few hours:

We managed to squeeze a nice lunch in at Matsukaze, a local Japanese restaurant, and it was another Japanese restaurant we ended up at for Cade's 17th birthday on Thursday. On this occasion, 7 of us, including girlfriend Avena, travelled to Medford, with the initial plan being Kaleidoscope, but it was way too busy, as was Plan B - MOD Pizza. Jo and I stuck to the tried and tested teriyaki meals at Bonsai, whilst the rest did all sorts of sushi and other exotics.

Lucy doesn't work Fridays so we were able to take Shelby for a bit of exercise on the Limpy Creek trails. A lovely spot and we had a fine hamburger lunch at a local RV park afterwards.

We enjoyed the walk, so decided to repeat it today (Saturday), this time with all 3 dogs on two separate trails at Cathedral Hills:

Note that Scott doesn't have his neck brace on here. He takes it off quite often now, but still has to sleep with it on. However, not long to go now until he will hopefully get the all-clear from the medics.

Cade went away to the coast with his football buddies overnight, and Braeden stayed with a pal too, so we don't see as much of the boys as we used to, but they are sure growing up.

On the mend

It's Friday evening and we've just had a Costco curry - and very nice it was too. Jo and I are definitely much better now, although still not 100%. This one's going to take a while to clear.

I've been out on my bike a couple of times, but fairly short and non-taxing rides - that's when I really notice that I haven't fully recovered yet.

The weather here's been fine so far - mostly mid 90's, but, unlike down south, the temperature drops to mid 60's overnight, so the early mornings and evenings are the times to do anything. They're forecasting a fairly substantial increase in temperature in the next few days, however - up to 112 F - that's mid 40's C. That's about as hot as we've ever had it in Grants Pass. Memories of what it was like when Lucy stayed in Redding, Northern California.

 What have we done this week then? Well. there was Scott and Lucy's 16th anniversary - all four of us went to River's Edge restaurant for a lovely meal:

Braeden was playing on his trampoline one evening and I tried to get some action photos:

We did a couple of wineries in the Applegate valley on Thursday - Lucy drove. It's a lovely area. We were the only people at the first one - Serra Vineyards. Nice spot, but disappointing wines. The next one - Wooldridge - was much busier and much better. The photos, however, are from the first one:

Today (Friday), we were granted special dispensation to go and pick Blueberries at Judy's farm/home. Officially, the picking season's over, but Scott and Lucy work in the same place as Judy so we got a royal reception. Her husband Pete constructed a fun tree house:

Later on, Lucy was heading to Medford for a Costco shop, so Jo and I tagged along for the ride and got Lucy to drop us off at the new brewpub, RAM, for an hour:

This next bit really belongs in my Renshaw's Chronicles blog. I'd found a group on FaceBook for former pupils at Victoria Drive SS and spotted a pal I'd been on holiday with exactly 50 years ago. Robert Rowan now lives in Edinburgh so I've agreed to meet up with him sometime - and possibly another old school chum, Donnie Gemmell, who Robert met recently for the first time for 52 years! The power of Facebook.

Robert sent me a couple of very embarrassing photos of one day in 1965 when we were on a school trip to Annan apparently. I'd forgotten all about it - and I had no idea these photos existed:

16 years old and daft as a brush.

Sick week

Well, it's been a week since we travelled from the South East to the North West of USA and there's not much to report as we've both been a bit poorly, suffering from some kind of respiratory illness. Lucy was Googling it last night and reckons it's the spores that fly around in hot, humid climates like we were travelling in. Apparently it's quite a common thing.

Jo didn't move from her bed for the first 3 days. In fact, Cade didn't even see her until a brief glimpse on Wednesday evening. I thought I'd escaped it - after all, I'd been a bit sick in Savannah, so I thought it had now passed - but it came back to bite me again. Before it did its worst, I thought I needed to stretch my legs a little so I went for a short ride on the bike on Thursday. Perhaps, on reflection, I shouldn't have pushed it as I think this set me back again.

We've both been dosing up on various medications to alleviate the symptoms, the worst of which was the all-night coughing. Thankfully, we're now getting some sleep, so that's a relief.

Yesterday (Sunday), Jo and I went for a short midday walk down to the river and back, but I was pretty knackered after it. On Saturday, Jo and Lucy travelled to a Lavender farm for a class on how to make lavender wreaths. Everyone else was away, but I did nothing - just stayed at base camp, slept and read.

Today is Monday and the plan is to travel to Medford - Barnes & Noble's book store, lunch at Kaleidoscope plus some camera shopping - Jo's has bust too, so all we have is our phones.

To close a couple of photos:

The feature here is my Father's Day gift - the leather growler holder that fits on the bike

In practice for the next season, Scott has been heard blowing this - his Elk caller

Memphis (2) and Clarksdale

After Sun, we used Lyft to take us over to Stax Studios - another place I'd always wanted to visit, having been brought up in their halcyon days in the mid 60's when Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Booker T and the MG's, Eddie Floyd etc were all the rage in Europe - to the artistes' huge surprise when they took a chance and toured here.

It's a huge operation, with tons of memorabilia, but somehow it lacked the sheer magic of Sun Studios. One of the original artistes there - and at Sun - was Rufus Thomas, who used to specialise in funny dance songs, with animals as the main theme. Here he demonstrates how to do the Funky Chicken, with Jo pulling the shapes:

I think she did pretty well, didn't she?

It was back to Beale St again for some lunch, more music and a stroll round the historic area. We came across two very famous stores - Lansky's, the tailor that used to dress Elvis, and the historic A. Schwab's, a store that has changed little in the last century. We could have spent hours in there - there were lots of little speciality sections, one of them being the "Hoodoo" (voodoo) area where we came across some Mojo Hands, as sung about in so many of the old blues songs, notably Hoochie Coochie Man, covered by umpteen blues artistes, including Muddy Waters. There was a brief explanation of it there:

We even found some Davy Crockett (King of the Wild Frontier) hats. No doubt this is another name that means nothing nowadays, but to those of us brought up on late 50's/early 60's TV, he is a fond memory - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txcRQedoEyY:

Rather fetching, don't you think?

We had to use their soda fountain bar - we thought about sasparilla, but coke floats went down well:

Time now for a short cruise on a paddle steamer on the Mississippi:

Then it was more beer, music and food. I especially enjoyed listening to Blind Mississsippi Morris, who we saw in two different bars.

On Sunday, we took the short drive south on Highway 61 to Clarksdale, where the famous crossroads is, where Robert Johnson allegedly sold his soul to the devil. It's a small town and it was a quiet Sunday when many shops etc are closed, but it seemed to us like a bit of a ghost town, with deprivation everywhere. Some of the local worthies are trying to keep the heritage and history of the birth of the blues there alive, but it didn't strike us as a very vibrant scene.

We had brunch at Abe's - excellent pulled pork rolls - and took the obligatory photos at the crossroads:

The only place of interest open was the Rock and Blues Museum, so we spent an hour or more there before heading back up to Memphis to pack for our early start on the nightmare journey - thank you United Airlines - over to Oregon on Monday.

It had been a really interesting road trip, covering well over 1,200 miles and 5 states - here's our map:

United had altered our original plans for 2 flights over to Medford, Oregon to 3 flights, going through Chicago and Denver, so this was the route:

Anyway, we made it in the end. Lucy was there to meet us at the airport. We were both shattered - not just from the journey, but also what seems like a recurrence of the respiratory problem I had when we were in Savannah, only this time it seems more flu-y. We had a bad night last night - especially Jo - and are now under medication from Dr. Lucy. Hope it goes away soon.