Has Spring sprung?

We've had some lovely weather - bright sunny days, although not the temperatures they've been getting in the South of England, but it seems to have gone a little changeable again. Still, it can happen anywhere - even in the Algarve as we found out on our recent golfing trip. It was a short trip this year - just 3 days' golf - any longer and I wouldn't have gone. The weather was unseasonably poor - cool and wet at times. We would wake to temperatures of just 11 C - similar to Banchory - rising to just 16 C. Thursday morning was really bad - it was lashing and we had to postpone our tee time. Fortunately, it stopped at lunchtime and we did manage to play in the afternoon.

Friday was better - it got up to 21 C - and we did manage 3 rounds of golf in the 3 days, so it wasn't a complete disaster - just a little disappointing. The worst was getting some kind of food poisoning on the Thursday night - and I wasn't alone. I couldn't even face going out for dinner on Friday night, our last evening.

So, yes, as I suspected, this was my last overseas golf trip. I just can't hack it any more. I'll still keep playing golf here of course - and I have one more big commitment I've signed up to, which involves 3 straight days of golf on our annual Summer Tour - to Peebles this time, in June, immediately after a cricket trip to Edinburgh. Will I see Ross when I'm there? Who knows? He's still looking for employment down there, without any success at the time of writing, and he's given himself a deadline of the end of this month, so he may be back in Banchory by June.

So what have we been up to since I got back from Portugal? I went for a cycle with the Freewheelers last Monday - the first time I'd been out with them since our Xmas lunch. Tuesday it was back to Inverurie and Wednesday was golf for me and swimming for Jo again.

On Thursday, Jo and I took advantage of the good weather and went for a walk. We parked the car at Milton and walked eastwards along the river. It was a voyage of discovery for Jo. We came across a "host of golden daffodils":

A little further on, we came across a tiny adder on our path:

Friday was a really busy day for Jo - she had the West Church coffee morning, immediately followed by her afternoon swimming. I was going hill-walking in the afternoon, but had been working away on re-varnishing our garden bench that sits out front and also preparing the balcony decking for its annual oiling, so I got on with these chores in the morning.

More of the same for me on Saturday and I also managed to give our new car its first wash in the warm sunshine. On Sunday, after Jo had finished her duties at St. Columba's coffee morning, we drove down to Perth to meet up with Barry, Helen and Dawn, who were caravanning/camping near Scone Palace - they had come to see the Classic Car show on the Saturday. We all went for a stroll to Scone Palace and took a wander round the grounds, taking a photograph in the old graveyard:

Annoyingly, there were some showers on Sunday and, all of a sudden, my car was filthy again.

Today (Monday) I played my first Seniors golf match of the season and tonight we have another live show on River Dee Radio - https://tunein.com/radio/River-Dee-Radio-s274232/ in case you've forgotten.

Tomorrow it's back to Inverurie and then golf and swimming on Wednesday. Thursday is medical day - Jo has her breast screening and I'm going back to the Dermatology Clinic re my nose.

Eve of Algarve

I'm off to the Algarve in the morning for 3 days' golf - hope I manage OK. I suspect this may be my last overseas golf trip.

Luca and Gary came over for a belated Easter lunch yesterday with Jo, Ross and I. Sorry no photos again - I'm slipping up, aren't I? Ross goes back to Edinburgh tonight - I'll drive him in to Aberdeen to catch his train. He thinks he's going to give notice to his landlord at the end of this month, but where he'll be after that is dependent on where he can find some work. Edinburgh hasn't been a happy hunting place for him so far, but there's no doubt the economy there is buoyant and he probably has more chance of picking something up there than he has in the North East, where, although things are picking up a bit again in the oil industry, it's still suffering from a bit of a hangover from the oil price crash a couple of years ago.

Luca is here for a few more days as it's the second week of his school Easter holidays. He and I rode our bikes up to Inchmarlo driving range this morning and hit a few balls there. Watch him in action here - https://youtu.be/F9J27YtWArM.

On to medical matters - Jo's appointment at the hospital for her cataracts has come through - Thursday 3rd May.

Central Belt trip

We're back from our brief trip south - and we've gained a body - Ross came back with us for a few days, so the house is now full of the sound of he and his Mum discussing/arguing about world affairs. Have you ever known two people who can rant endlessly about the most trivial of matters - and miss the entire point in the process? Oh well.

Yes - plans to have Easter Sunday lunch/dinner with Ross and Gary fell apart. Carole's sister came up to visit them and Ross' plans changed too, so all of a sudden, it was just Jo and I - and guess what? - Jo suggested that, as it was such a beautiful day that the two of us should take a walk up Scolty! Surprised? I nearly fell out of bed. Jo hadn't been up there for probably three decades - but she made it OK - and probably more comfortably than she thought. She'll tell you, of course, how hard it was for her - and it wasn't easy - but I think she's more capable than she gives herself credit for. As long as she takes her time and stops often, she can get there OK - Jo even climbed up the Tower on the top - and here's the proof:

On Monday morning, we went for our first proper trip in our new car. I still await a full printed manual (although there is one available online and another onscreen in the car) so still haven't figured out all of the fancy functions of this high-tech car. We had already marvelled at the blind spot warning lights but discovered the virtually driverless technology in use when operating cruise control.

We made it to Dawn's in time for a spot of lunch before heading over to Barry and Helen's to drop the car off. Meghan is over from NYC just now so Dawn had arranged for us all to meet up in the city for a couple of beers and a meal. I remembered to use my camera to get a shot of Barry and Helen on the train, but failed dismally to capture images of Dawn, Meghan or Jordon - idiot!:

The weather was foul - I had originally hoped to squeeze in a game of golf with Brian on Tuesday, but the forecast was so bad, I didn't even bother to pack my clubs. We had lunch over at Julie and Guy's in Houston - the boys were off school during the Easter holidays and Mary was over there supervising.

Brian and I popped out in the afternoon to go and do some indoor practice at the Glasgow Golf Centre. I decided to take a video of a few of my swings. It worked OK for the first one, but I then struggled to get a ball to balance on the tee supplied - it took me ages to have another hit. Watch this farce here - https://youtu.be/ZPzQkTVeIMU

Back in Houston, Guy and Julie eventually got home from work and we had dinner there. Here's some shots from our day at the Whaleys:

I had somehow succeeded in snapping a pair of reading glasses, so I popped in to ASDA and bought another cheap - identical - replacement pair:

We left Brian and Mary's in Elderslie on Wednesday morning and, if anything, the weather had taken another turn for the worse - it was horribly sleety. Brian had arranged to take Leo fishing - he'd got a rod for Christmas and was keen to try it out. We didn't think they'd manage, but Brian sent me this photo of Leo and his catch:

We drove through the snow to Edinburgh to Ross' flat, where he told us he'd lost his job and wanted to come back with us to Banchory for a few days. The snow was building up in Edinburgh and the traffic was awful - it took us hours to get out on the open road, but the North East of Scotland again appeared to have escaped the worst of it. We couldn't go over Cairn o' Mount, but, generally, Deeside was virtually snow free and it improved sufficiently on Thursday for me to get a game of golf.

This morning (Friday), I awoke to find the scab on my nose after the recent liquid nitrogen treatment had come off. Now all that's left is the growth underneath, which will get treated at the end of this month:

To close, I've been trying for while to locate a photo of the old Bonnie Banchory flower display at the corner of Corsee Road. I contacted various local clubs and societies etc and eventually, the local Heritage Society came up with this:

Great, I thought - then I looked again - it doesn't say Bonnie Banchory! I've since been told that, from time to time, a new "sponsor" would have their name featured - and then it would change back to Bonnie Banchory again. So the bottom line is I'm still searching for that elusive photo. Once I get a suitable one, I think I'll start a campaign to bring the display back again. What do you think?

Two weeks on

Yes - it's exactly a fortnight since we flew in to Glasgow airport. I think we've pretty much got back to normal now, but it did take a while this time.

We FaceTimed Adelaide this morning - it was nice to see everyone's faces again. Asher kept attacking the screen trying to get at us behind it! They don't change their clocks until this coming weekend, whereas we changed last weekend, so we're currently only 9.5 hours behind and this will further reduce to 8.5 hours this weekend as they "fall back" after our "spring forward".

On to matters medical - I attended the Dermatology Clinic last Thursday. Dr. Smith examined the growth on the bridge of my nose and told me there were two things going on there - one underlying and another on top. He mentioned the two skin conditions but I can't remember the technical words he used. What I do remember is him telling me the growths were benign. We agreed to start a treatment of burning them off with liquid nitrogen - just as you do with warts - and he applied a few doses there and then. He warned me it would leave a red mark on my nose. It's now scabbing over a bit:

I have to return on 26th April for more treatment.

Last Friday, Jo was back swimming again whilst I went out with my pals for a walk along the Dee and the Deeside Way from Culter to Aberdeen. It was a fine day and the walk was easy, if a little longer at 18 kms than we had originally planned. We were more than ready for some beers when we finally arrived at Wetherspoon's in the city centre. With our CAMRA 50p off vouchers, 5 pints only cost just over £7! What a bargain - and more was to come when we ordered our food, which came with another free beer! With our free bus passes, it was a very cheap afternoon and evening out.

Saturday was the start of the golf season with the traditional Captain's v Vice Captain's teams match. My clubs hadn't been out of the locker since our trip to Tenerife in October - probably the longest gap I've had since I first started playing golf regularly over 30 years ago, so it wasn't my greatest performance on Saturday, but it was nice to be back - the first rites of spring.

We were out for dinner on Saturday night at Anne and Leslie Mason's with Colin and Johanne Kilgour. It was quite a boozy evening and we both felt pretty jaded on Sunday.

It was back on the bike for me on Monday morning before we headed over to do our Luca duties in the afternoon. Incidentally, Gary changed jobs whilst we were away and he now works in the city centre, so he tends to take the train in. He bought a cheap mountain bike and uses it to travel between home and Inverurie station. There's usually only one train per hour however, so if he misses one - as he did this week - he has to wait for another hour before he can get home.

Forecast this afternoon (Wednesday) is for rain so it looks like no golf for me today. Jo's going swimming so I'll probably head down to what Jo now refers to as my "studio" downstairs where I prepare our shows for River Dee Radio. It's also effectively an office as I keep all our personal filing etc down there - and all the CAMRA stuff.

Not sure what we'll do tomorrow yet, but Friday is Jo's swimming again and I've got the first of our Headbangs this year in the evening. On Sunday, Gary and Luca are coming over after Luca's football for a spot of Easter Sunday lunch - and it looks as if we're going to be joined by Ross too.

Back in the old routine

Our sleep patterns are returning to a more normal cycle thankfully, so we've been back in the old routine this week.

I made it to the pub on Friday night to see my pals, although round about 10 pm, I hit a bit of a wall. On Saturday morning, Jo and I took a short drive in the new car over to Aboyne for coffee and a scone in the Black-faced Sheep, then on Sunday Jo was back on church duties, whilst I just vegetated with the Sunday Times and sport on TV.

Luca's football practice is on Mondays and that dictates when we go over to Inverurie. We had bought Luca an Adelaide United soccer strip, although we didn't realise how much he'd grown, even since we went away - it's a little on the snug side:

Hopefully he'll get a couple of months' wear out of it anyway - he'll certainly be the only boy in Inverurie with one of these shirts!

Gary had baked a cake for our birthdays and Luca cut us a slice:

We then went out for a meal to celebrate Jo's birthday. It was Monday and, just like it was on the outskirts of Adelaide, many of Inverurie's eating establishments were closed, so we chose to drive to Dunecht and go to Jaff's. Basically, it's a pub, but it has a nice separate restaurant and we had a lovely meal there - scallops and Stornaway black pudding to start, then monkfish and prawn jalfrezi.

Tuesday was when I usually meet a few pals over coffee and a scone at the golf club, but I decided my body was now ready for some much needed exercise, so afterwards I went for a slightly longer than planned 40 kms circular ride out to Drum. I was more than ready for a hot bath when I got back to the house, where Jo was entertaining our former next door neighbour Trish. There was a CAMRA committee meeting in the evening and I had missed the last few, so I felt obliged to jump on the bus and head in to Aberdeen. I missed the penultimate bus home, but fortunately the last bus did show up and I stumbled in to bed about 12:30 am.

Yesterday (Wednesday) it was back to swimming for Jo, whilst I went for another - shorter - cycle.

This morning (Thursday), Jo has just been to the optician for an eye test. For some years she's known that her eyesight has been deteriorating and the prospect of cataract operations was looming. Today it happened - she's had a full scan and has now been referred to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, where there's a long waiting list for these operations. Patients are being shipped all over Scotland wherever and whenever opportunity arises. It'll be up to 10 weeks before she's been properly assessed by the medics at ARI and then it's just a waiting game. Naturally, Jo is a little concerned about all of this - nobody looks forward to going under the knife - and she's fearful of what might go wrong. She'll have plenty of time to think it all through, but, always assuming she does decide to go through with it, the light at the other end of the tunnel is improved ability to do the things she's not been able to do as well recently - she loves reading in particular. There's also the question of driving to consider - the current situation is uncertain but she hopes to clarify this soon. Fingers crossed.

This afternoon, after a long wait, I'm finally getting to see Dr. Doug Smith again - there's a dermatology clinic at our Doctor's and he'll be looking at the piece of sun-damaged skin on my nose that goes all hard and gnarly. I'll report back in the next blog posting.

To close today - want to know where the Stewarts came from?:

This graphic shows the Stewarts just above the Central Belt on the edge of the red.

Home again

It's Friday afternoon and it's freezing back here in Scotland. It's not quite another Beast from the East, but it's cold and windy with occasional wintry showers. Quite a change.

The journey went as well as can be expected. We're both suffering a little in terms of irregular and deprived sleep - much more so than we did on the way out to Australia - but we're getting there.

The long flight to Dubai was in a very new 777. We even had our own little mini bars behind a glass door:

The chauffeur drive back to Banchory from Glasgow went smoothly enough. The aftermath of the recent bad weather was pretty evident in places:

Banchory was completely clear however and our house was warm - courtesy of Ross' recent stay there - and Hive.

I decided to try and adjust to UK time as soon as possible and the fact that I had a River Dee Radio show to do that evening was incentive enough. On Thursday morning I took a walk up to Banchory Car Centre to pick up my new(ish) car:

It's a well-spec'd Volvo XC60. Yes, after years of complaining about the increasing numbers of bulky SUV's etc, which smaller cars can't see past, I've decided I can't beat them, so better just to join them.

Today (Friday), we drove in to WeBuyAnyCar.com in Aberdeen and sold my BMW, which was my company car from eight and a half years ago.

That's about it for now.

Day of departure

Tuesday morning and it's our final day of this holiday. Our flight is scheduled for 10:35 pm tonight local time and we're getting picked up at Kelly's at 7:35 pm, so we've got a whole day in front of us - but we're pretty much packed and we've cleared our little Air BnB of our stuff - but we can leave our bags here and return later to collect them.

Just thought I'd update our activities since my last post on Friday. On Saturday morning, while Chris did some more work on their new floor, Kelly, Jo and I took Miller and Asher to a kids' Fringe show. We had to wait a bit prior to the start so we found a shady spot:

We couldn't take Asher's pram in to the show, and, as a result, he spent the hour running around with Kelly helplessly chasing after him. Miller really enjoyed it, however and he got a little treat of "fairy floss" afterwards:

One of the Fringe performers allowed Miller to pose on a little motorbike:

On Sunday morning I bit the bullet and went for a ride on Chris' bike. I reached Glenelg well before 8 am and was a little surprised to see huge crowds on the beach. The signs said it was the World Surf Life Saving Championships, but there were other activities going on prior to the start - like inter-town beach races:

Further on, near West Lakes, I came across a developing incident. There was a civilian lying on the large rocks below the esplanade and he was being tended to by a team of police, paramedics and eventually fire and rescue teams. He was obviously in great pain and was being given shots prior to being raised up in a safety cradle.

On Sunday, Jo and I went to a Fringe show - a Cat Stevens tribute act. Nice place, but the actual performance wasn't great. After the show, we walked back in to the city where we found Rundle St closed off to traffic and all the restaurants had their tables out in the middle of the street. We chose an Indian restaurant and ate our meal as the sun set at the end of the street:

Monday was a public holiday and everyone was off work. Kelly and Chris had arranged for family and friends to come over for a BBQ in the afternoon, so Jo and I took a morning walk down to the beach for coffee and a shared muffin (hopscotch, I think it was described as - we would say butterscotch). We walked back to our place up the "zig-zag" path:

This was the first attempt at our group/team photo after our BBQ:

Chris' parents, Lorene and David, gave us a lift back to Seacliff where Jo and I decided to go down to the local hotel to watch the sunset:

That's about it. I think we'll head to the beach for coffee and return later. The AC man hasn't arrived yet and it's just after 10 am now.

Holiday weekend

It's Friday morning in Adelaide and the start of a long holiday weekend here. Typically, it starts with travel delays - Sydney airport has come to a virtual halt due to an IT glitch. Well it makes a difference from striking air traffic controllers in France.

It's been getting hotter again here - mid 30's the last few days. We'd originally planned to head for the hills today to go fig-picking at Glen Ewin Estate, but there's bush fires up there so we've had to abort. Plan B is to head down to Moana Beach this afternoon with Kelly and the boys.

Yesterday (Thursday) Jo and I spent the morning on Seacliff beach and then, after a spot of lunch, we hopped on the train and went to the massive Marion shopping centre to pick up groceries for tea for the boys (including Chris). It was Kelly's long day at work so we wouldn't see her.

Home made hamburgers it was and very nice too. Our routine is to walk to Casa Bambini and collect Asher and Miller, then, back at our temporary home, we give them each some milk, switch on ABC Kids on the TV and this produces half an hour or so of peace. Next, we stick them in the bath, then feed them and before we know it, Daddy arrives and the adults eat together. By 7 pm they're all ready to head back to O'Halloran Hill - but not before watching Andy's Prehistoric Adventures - Miller's favourite - on ABC Kids.

While I remember, another feature of this holiday is Pop-See-Ko. One day, Miller came back from Casa Bambini and he was singing what we thought was Popsicle. I googled it when we got back and up popped this on You Tube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pwn4beja1QE. Annoying and addictive - Miller can't get enough of it.

Last night, as usual, I checked the temperature in our house in Banchory using Hive remotely. Wow - all of a sudden it was 21 C! (I'd been keeping it at about 10 C.) We soon figured out why - Ross is back in Banchory for a few days before returning to Edinburgh at the weekend.

I tried another short cycle before breakfast yesterday morning, but, boy, am I struggling. It's going to take a while to regain any kind of fitness when I return - and to lose all the extra pounds I've gained.

To close, a couple of photos I'd meant to include earlier. First, strolling down the "laneways" (as they call them here), we came across this old fashioned sweetie shop:

On the night of my birthday BBQ at Chris and Kelly's, this is a nice one of Jo entertaining Asher:

Deep Creek and birthday

Well, it was a good bit cooler last weekend when we spent a couple of nights in The Sanctuary in Deep Creek Conservation Park. We were about 600 feet above sea level so that contributed a bit, but it was very strange when we arrived there on Saturday afternoon. As we left the main road, it was 27C, but just a couple of kilometres up the unsealed road, it had dropped to "just" 21C. It was like we'd entered a black hole all of a sudden.

The Sanctuary used to be an art gallery but it's now a holiday rental. Shabby chic is probably the best description of the place. It's an eco house - a simple rectangular build using what they refer to as rammed earth. The middle section of the house is the one that has all the utilities - kitchen, shower/WC etc and the rest is one big open plan room with a mezzanine floor above where Jo and I slept. This was our view when we awoke:

The house sits in 4 acres and the garden is kept pretty wild. We saw plenty of varieties of birds coming to visit, but didn't notice any of the larger animals in the garden itself - although there was plenty of evidence of 'roo poo scattered about the place. This presents a bit of a health hazard to the eating machine that is Asher Steele - he picks up everything and it goes straight to mouth.

There was a beautiful sunset but, unfortunately, this picture doesn't quite capture it:

On Sunday morning, Kelly and I took the long downhill road to Blowhole Beach:

The rest of the gang were driven down by Chris and we met up on the beach:

Kelly looked after Asher at lunchtime, whilst Chris drove Jo, Miller and I over to Leonards Mill for a spot of lunch/coffee. Miller tried his hand at croquet:

The afternoon was spent doing shifts with the boys. First, Jo and I did a couple of the trailwalks and then we took over whilst we reversed roles with Kelly and Chris later. Meanwhile the boys were happy to be entertained by DVD's:

Chris had cooked spag bog on Saturday and it was casserole on the slow cooker on Sunday. Chris had to return to university early on Monday morning, but the rest of us took our time to breakfast, shower, pack and leave, and we were back in Adelaide not long after lunch.

Tuesday was a day for Jo and I to head back in to the city and go to the Adelaide Writers' Week. We listened to three of the authors talking about their rather traumatic books, but it got a bit hot so we decided to leave and head to the balcony at Harry's Bar for a quick birthday beer - plus a cheese platter.

It was my birthday and we knew we were heading over to Chris and Kelly's for a meal, but we didn't realise that Matt, Amanda and Abby would be there too - and that Chris would be BBQ'ing what seemed like a mountain of protein. It was lovely - and the birthday treats didn't end there. Kelly arranged for Chris' Mum, Lorene, to babysit on her day off and she drove us up to the Adelaide Hills to the lovely little town of Uraidla for lunch at the hotel today (Wednesday)- and soon to be microbrewery - there:

Not content with that, Kelly took us on a short drive to the Prancing Pony Brewery - a place we'd visited a few times before - but soon it was time to head back to Seacliff, and for Kelly to get back to her boys. It's been a lovely couple of days.

It's getting hotter again - back in to the '30's C. Ed Sheeran's playing at the Adelaide Oval tonight - hope it cools down when the sun goes down and he takes the stage - it'll be an arduous session for his fans before then.

In other news, I've finally bitten the bullet and bought a new car - sight unseen. I gave my pal Malcolm Grigor (Banchory Car Centre) a rough spec of what I wanted and he's bought me a Volvo XC60 - 2017 plate with less than 4,000 miles on the clock, and with all the fancy widgets, I believe. Look forward to seeing it next week.

End of penultimate week

Yes - summer is now officially over in the southern hemisphere and we are entering autumn, which should, of course, mean it's the start of spring in the northern hemisphere, but from what we've seen on the media, it's hardly spring-like back home just now. Still, they do say March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb - let's hope.

We only now have one full week left in Australia this year. It's now Saturday morning and we're heading south again this weekend - to Deep Creek Conservation Park. Photos and report to follow, but it tends to be cooler down there generally and this weekend, they are forecasting the high there to be only in the high teens. Yikes - this'll be our coolest days yet then.

Jo, Kelly and I headed in to the city again last night (Friday), dropping the kids off with Chris first before heading to the Convention Centre for a Cellar Door Fest - i.e. wine tastings, just like we do every year back home. Good fun - and the cheese masterclass was excellent, including one with green ants added on top:

Yes - the ants are on the one on the left

 Kelly's not a great cheese fan, but she certainly enjoyed some of the wines:

Earlier in the day, Jo and I had walked down to the beach and had our first dips in the sea:

Heading backwards chronologically, Jo and I went Fringe-ing on Thursday, but first we thought we would take a walk along the beach front from Seacliff to Glenelg. We met an old friend on the way:

The Fringe was good fun - our first show - a freebie - was a Best Of show where several comedians do 7 or 8 minutes each of their acts to give you a flavour of what to expect and to promote their shows. I think we saw 7 of them and just 2 of them we could have taken more of. A couple of them were real cringe-worthy.

We walked down to the park and in to a field called Gluttony, where there are shows, food and drinks, but we couldn't decide what to go and see. Fortunately, we were approached by a man with a wad of tickets for a show by 3 comedians and we were given the tickets for nothing. This show was different class - all 3 of them were very good.

Going off at a slight tangent, here's our walking stats for February:

Some long walks there - plus some inactive travel days.

Back to Wednesday and our trip in to Adelaide to see the Dinosaur show. This was after the event - don't know why Miller looks so glum - in fact, almost confrontational:

The exhibition itself featured a few large animatronic dinosaurs who roared when least expected. We had never seen Asher act scared before, but here he is hanging on to Jo for dear life:

The boys were happier playing in the soft toy corner:

We didn't have the pram with us so Asher was transported on my shoulders:

I think that's me up to date again.