Sunday Post

Third blog post in a row on a Sunday. It's derby day in the English Premier league, so it's been football, football, football all afternoon - none of it Scottish, even though Aberdeen are playing Celtic in the League Cup Final - but it's on BT Sport and we don't have that - only Sky.

It's all very much a consolation because my first love, Partick Thistle, are now bottom of the Championship, having just been relegated from the Premiership last season. Gary even went to the trouble of blaming me and shaming me on Facebook for passing on this peculiar inheritance. Well, I blame my Dad too.

None of this will be of any great interest to most of the rest of my family, but I thought you should all know that it still leaves scars on my psyche.

On to other matters - it was a pretty wet week last week and we were housebound for a few days, although I did manage a couple of cycles at the start and end of the week when the sun did actually shine. I was also over in Inverurie 3 days in a row, starting with the usual Tuesday Luca visit. Gary's hot water broke down so I arranged to come back on Wednesday morning to house-sit until the engineer arrived - he discovered that it was a broken diaphragm - but he would have to order one - could I come back tomorrow?

So, Thursday morning, I set off for Inverurie once more. Just as I was leaving Banchory at 7:30 am, my phone rang - it was Luca. "Granda, I can't do up the top button of my school shirt and I normally leave to walk to school at 7:55 am". Don't worry son - Granda will get there by 8 am, fix your top button and drive you to school. Crisis averted.

So all good so far, but, sod's law, when the engineer did arrive, it was with an apology - the part hadn't arrived - could I come again (yet again!) tomorrow? "Sorry - no - we're getting our flu jabs on Friday". I could come back Monday, but Gary couldn't wait that long, and, in the end, Gary had to take a couple of hours off work - he couldn't survive all weekend without hot water.

So, today, two new frames arrived for the posters we've had hidden in our cupboards for years. I fitted them up and put one in the study/studio downstairs:

The other one has temporarily gone up in our bedroom, but I'm pretty sure it won't survive the evening there - Jo has plans for that space. Still, it fills a gap, doesn't it?:

Well, we're two days in to Advent now and that's two bottles down. All good so far - can we keep it up for the month?

To close, another plug for our Headbangers show on River Dee Radio - now available as a podcast on a number of platforms - Mixcloud, Soundcloud, Spreaker, Stitcher and you can find it in i-Tunes too. The RSS feed is https://www.spreaker.com/show/3251191/episodes/feed

Déjà vu

It's Sunday night and Jo and I are sitting here in the back room , variously knitting, blogging, reading the Sunday Times and watching the last episode of Dark Heart on catch-up. Who says we can't multi-task? The second bottle of wine is now open and that helps of course.

Nothing too exceptional took place last week. Tuesday was Luca day of course, but this time we went to Rae Circle as Gary was down in London. It was the day after Carole's 50th as well.

The final fitting of the doors on our hut/summerhouse was postponed again by a couple of days, but hopefully it's all done now. We have to watch out for a bit of rising damp. The last 4-5 days have been the wettest and gloomiest for a while, but we can't really complain - it's been a good year for weather generally.

Ross and I drove back down to Edinburgh on a miserable Thursday to pick up the last of his stuff from his flat. We left at 8 am and were back here at 2 pm, after a spot of brunch and some humping and loading. Adaptive cruise control certainly makes driving a bit easier. Ross is now fully ensconsed back in Banchory - and looking for work.

Friday night was our 3rd Headbang this year - good fun. The team photo is on Facebook so I won't repeat it here.

A bit of cabin fever has been setting in so I'm hoping to get out on my bike again tomorrow - need to get some exercise.

Our first Xmas gift arrived last week - from Oregon, of course - and , guess what? - it's alcohol - an advent "calendar" of 24 bottles of wine - not full-sized ones thankfully! I guess there's no chance of any dry days in December then?

One month from today - the hype has already started and it's impossible to escape. If I have to think about my Christmas list, then I know I need a new electric shaver and some recent CD's that may be of interest are those from Paul Weller and Elvis Costello - maybe even Paul McCartney at a push. As far as books are concerned, I can't think of any offhand. I guess the e-bike is more of a 70th birthday thing, but that's not going to stop me from looking just now.

Now that Ross is here, a few changes have been made - especially electronically and IT-wise. We now have access to his Netflix account on all platforms throughout the house. Jo's been an addict for a while, but I've now latched on to Narcos, a series about the Mexican drug barons - pretty addictive it is too.

To close, another holiday tale. Yet another airline schedule change - all sorted now, but there's always a cost to bear. Makes you wonder about booking well in advance. We now leave Adelaide and arrive in LA a day later, but, thankfully, Scott and Lucy are coming to pick us up and drive us out to Palm Desert, taking some of the pain out of our journey.

November update

It's Sunday evening and Jo and I are sitting in the back room with our tablets in front of us, with the Chase Celebrity Special on in the background. We are not completely alone, however - Ross is downstairs in what used to be my exclusive office/studio, which is now shared with him. The plan was that I would use it in the mornings and he could have the afternoons and evenings, but I don't know if it's going to work out that way or not - we'll see.

I drove down to Edinburgh first thing on Thursday morning to pick up Ross and all his gear. He'd packed up everything in bags, cases and boxes. All we had to do was carry it down four half flights of stairs - 38 steps in all - and try to load it all in to the back of my car - not as easy as it sounds. It's a very old tenement building and the steps are all severely worn and sloping downwards - especially tricky when the two of you are are trying to safely manipulate a giant, heavy plasma TV screen and you can't even see your feet.

We managed to get all the essential stuff in and the two of us were back in Banchory by 3 pm after a lunch stop at the Horn. There remains a few of Ross' items in the flat, some of which he's trying to sell, so it's likely we'll be going back again later this week.

Earlier in the month, Jo and I were down in Edinburgh with our friends the Kilgours and the Masons, paying our annual visit to the Festival of Wine, which is run by Anne Mason's brother, Tom Cannavan. We travelled by train on Friday morning, had lunch at Tom Kitchin's gastropub, the Scran and Scallie in Stockbridge, then dinner at Anne's favourite Chinese restaurant, the Loon Fung in Canonmills. On Saturday morning, we went to the National Museum of Scotland to attend Rip It Up - The Story of Scottish Pop, which was good fun. Then it was the afternoon at the Festival of Wine, followed by a slightly disappointing - and expensive - dinner at the Cafe Royal:

Meanwhile, the saga of our hut/summerhouse goes on. We've had another set of doors delivered, wrapped in polythene, so there should be no question of them being swollen and mis-shapen this time. The fitters arrive again - for the 4th time - on Tuesday - fingers crossed.

It was our local branch of CAMRA's AGM yesterday and guess what? I was re-elected as Membership Secretary, a job I'm likely to have for life, given the low numbers of active participants locally. We have 400 members in our branch but we've got the widest spread geographically - all the way up to Orkney and Shetland. Our branch numbers have dropped every year since I've been on the committee, mostly occasioned by the slump in the oil industry over the last few years - a situation that contrasts dramatically with the national picture, where membership now stands at over 190,000 and CAMRA remains the largest and most successful consumer campaigning group ever - much larger even than any of the political parties in the UK, with the sole exception of the Labour Party, which, in recent years, totally changed its membership rules and fees to (artificially) swell its numbers.

I paid what I hope is my last visit to the local Dermatology Clinic on Friday. The two growths on the bridge of my nose have now almost completely gone - just a couple of minor spots remain and these were both treated again with frozen nitrogen, so hopefully that's that.

Incidentally, Jo's still waiting for her cataract operation - that's over 6 months now since she saw the consultant - and she's already on the "cancellations" list and will travel anywhere in Scotland to get it done. One apology letter after the initial national target of 12 weeks was exceeded and that's all.

I'll finish with another moan - this time about BA. Our big holiday in a few months' time for my 70th birthday involves a round the world ticket with BA and Qantas, their partners. We're flying Business Class again but BA have recently changed their policy re seat booking - even Business Class flights have to pay extra now to pre-book seats. There has been plenty of adverse comment recently on social media about this. Imagine having to pay a huge premium to upgrade and then finding out that you're not even sitting next to your partner - and that's what happens when you just leave it until check-in opens 24 hours before the flight. The cost of booking a seat is now £80-£100 per person per flight - outrageous. Thank goodness their codeshare partners, Qantas, haven't adopted this policy.

E & O E

Whoops - I forgot to finish the summerhouse story! The fitters did manage to get it erected yesterday, but the doors had become a little swollen - probably through lying in the rain in some yard somewhere - so they're coming back again next Tuesday to sort things out, but they said we can start to put stuff in it if we want:

Kelly FaceTimed this morning - from the hospital. Little Miller took unwell and the doctors initially thought he may have pneumonia, but they now believe it may be allergies/asthma/virus that is causing him breathing problems and also atrial fibrillation - which is my heart problem too. Kelly and Miller are staying overnight for observation etc but will hopefully be released in the morning.

Back to GMT

Yes British Summer Time is now officially over - the clocks went back here last weekend. I wonder how much difference it really makes - yes it's a bit lighter in the mornings for a wee while longer but the days are rapidly drawing in anyway and, for me, it's dark anyway when I get up and now it's dark even earlier in the evening/late afternoon.

I picked Ross up at Stonehaven on Wednesday and he spent a few days here before heading back down to Edinburgh on Monday, but he's coming back to Banchory next week. He's cleaning and clearing out his flat in Edinburgh just now and is giving notice of termination to his landlord today. Next week, I'll drive down and pick up Ross and his belongings and bring them back to Banchory. Ironically, Jo and I are down in Edinburgh this weekend for the annual Wine Fair, but we're booked on the train with the Masons and Kilgours.

On Saturday, I travelled down to Glasgow to watch Partick Thistle and meet up with my old school chums again. It was a fine day out, spoiled only by two things - Thistle lost (again) and it was a long day on public transport, leaving here at 8 am and not getting back home until after midnight:

Sunday was pretty quiet after that - as was Monday - but it was all happening on Tuesday. Normally our Inverurie day, but we had the added complication of the fitters scheduled to arrive in the morning to erect our new hut/summerhouse. Just one problem - the replacement hadn't arrived by Monday evening and I had to chase up the shipping company, who assured me that it would be delivered first thing on Tuesday morning - and it was. The fitters were also due to arrive first thing and be finished by lunchtime, but they never showed up until just after 12 pm.

Suddenly, we had to change the plans for Luca - Jo would stay at home whilst the fitters worked away and I would go over and pick up Luca from school and bring him back to Banchory. So far, so good, but then Gary got in touch - could I take Luca to buy a Hallowe'en outfit as he had a party arranged with his kickboxing group on Wednesday? Oh - and make sure he writes a birthday card for Carole's Mum.

The mission was accomplished successfully, but only after Luca getting a little stressed initially when he saw how few Hallowe'en outfits were left for sale - but he eventually spotted one he liked at another display in the store. Phew! We nipped back to Gary's place to pick up his jammies and clean underwear and then drove back to Banchory for the night.

Luca's big thing just now is Monopoly - Jo had bought a set when he was here during the school holidays and he wanted to play it non-stop - even before we'd had breakfast some days. Here's he and Jo playing at the kitchen table during the holidays:

This scene was repeated last night after tea - only there were 3 of us playing this time. Luca rejoiced in trouncing Jo and I - thankfully finishing not long before bedtime.

So this morning, I drove Luca to school and popped in to see Carole and to drop off his overnight bag and also his Hallowe'en outfit - he's staying at Rae Circle tonight.

Most of the wall decorations are now up in the office/study/studio. The canvas print and the frame arrived and I've now added them to the other pictures I'd put up:

The canvas is on the left - it comes from a photo I downloaded from the Weyermann's Maltings website after our recent visit to Bamberg, Bavaria. The intention is to put a bigger, longer picture between the canvas and the key-holder, but, for now, I just used this photo taken at Lucy and Scott's wedding.

Pity I didn't think to get non-reflective glass for this print.

The old golf club photos and the print of the Grand Canyon were formerly hanging on different floors in the hall.

2nd week of school hols

Yes - Luca's here again. Gary brought him over on Sunday and I'm taking him back tomorrow. Gary's Facebook post showed Luca's success at fishing on Saturday but what we didn't realise was that they were in Banchory doing it - at the fishery on Raemoir Road.

Luca enjoyed catching the fish but he didn't fancy either handling it or eating it afterwards. In fact, he jumped a mile when the fish twitched as it went through its death throes! I believe Gary ate one of the trout on Saturday and Luca brought the other one over to ours on Sunday - Jo cooked it and I had it for tea last night:

We didn't do much yesterday, other than a walk to the Co-op and a visit to the library, passing Luca's favourite little hill, which he has a routine of climbing every time he passes it:

Today (Tuesday), I drove Jo and Luca over to Morrison's and they walked back from there to Tease for a coffee/hot chocolate, while I went for my usual Tuesday morning coffee with some of my pals. One product of the visit to Morrison's was a game of Monopoly - Luca's now addicted to it and wants to play it non-stop.

I've finally been getting round to putting some stuff on the walls in the office/studio to make it a little bit more homely - the walls were a bit stark after the recent paint job. One new edition yet to be hung is this canvas which Tesco produced from a small photo I sent them:

I'm awaiting a frame for a poster I have and I'll then decide which one goes where.

Tonight I have a CAMRA committee meeting in town and then tomorrow night another show on River Dee Radio. We're also expecting Ross here tomorrow - he was due yesterday but was laid low by a bug.

The weather's been very mild - in fact, it was downright hot on Saturday afternoon when I was playing golf. Unseasonal they say. The clocks go back this Saturday which will help us in the mornings, which are getting increasingly dark, but, conversely, the evenings are going to be dark much quicker next week.

School hols

What's this? Another blog post within a week - almost like the old days. Not that anything exciting has been happening, but we have had Luca over here for the last 3 days. I went over to pick him up early Monday morning, just as Gary was leaving to go to work. Luca had had the misfortune to have spent virtually the whole of the previous day on a bus with his football team-mates travelling down to Hampden to watch Scotland get thumped by Portugal - and what's worse, the iconic figure of Cristiano Ronaldo wasn't even playing.

We allowed poor tired little Luca a very easy 3 days - no rush to get up in the mornings, nor to get dressed. We were stuck at home most of Monday anyway as we had booked our annual gas service for then. Don't you just know that when they give you a not at all narrow "window" of 8 am to 6 pm, that the engineer is guaranteed to arrive in the last hour of the day - never the first. Who does get the early morning appointments? Answers on a postcard please.

We did venture out of the house on Tuesday - only briefly in the afternoon to Morrison's and then again at tea-time when we had a meal at the Burnett Arms. This morning (Wednesday) was another beautiful sunny day, highlighting the fabulous autumn colours:

Shame about the bin!

This was due to be another day when we could be stuck at home as the fitters were arriving to put together our new shed/summerhouse, but as soon as they started they realised that half the parts were missing - an error made by the shipping company who delivered it on a pallet a few weeks ago. The fitters have now arranged for the missing parts to be sent out and we will apparently now be treated us as a priority case. Meanwhile, the parts that did arrive sit forlornly at the back of the house:

We decided to use the free time after the fitters had gone to head to Inchmarlo Driving Range - Luca and I on bikes and Jo walking. We hit some balls and then went for coffee and cakes - chocolate of course for Luca.

The plan was then that I would drive Luca to his football training at Kemnay and Gary would pick him up after he'd finished. The first bit went well but when we got to Kemnay there was no sign of any activity. We drove around looking for other possible locations but eventually had to phone Gary to get him to check. It transpired that he had misread the instructions, so all I could do was take a slightly disappointed Luca back to his Dad's in Inverurie. No harm done however.

So that's me up to date again. Forecast looking good for next few days, so planning to cycle tomorrow (Thursday) and hopefully golf on Saturday too.

Autumn Almanac

Here we go - events of the last 2 weeks:

• Friday 28/9 - Returned (one day early) from Carrbridge
• Saturday 29/9 - Brian and Mary arrive - golf in the afternoon, then curry in the evening with Gary and Luca:

• Sunday 30/9 - Golf in the morning (Scotland v RoW) is delayed due to early morning frost, so we shortened our round to 12 holes and made it back in to the clubhouse for lunch - and to watch the final day of the Ryder Cup
• Monday 1/10 - took car in to Arnold Clark early morning for its first service - not the greatest experience as it was freezing in their reception and the job ran late and they didn't even have time to clean my car.
• Tuesday 2/10 - Luca day - we should have both been off to Inverurie, but Gary had a works thing on at night, so I drove over and picked Luca up and brought him back to Banchory.
• Wednesday 3/10 - another early start to get Luca in to school in time, then back on the bike again for an afternoon "Booze Cruise".
• Thursday 4/10 - Golf at Scotscraig.
• Friday 5/10 - Bus to Braemar and 7 of our walking group had a glorious afternoon's walk in the sun, followed by a few fine beers in the Moorfield House Hotel before catching the bus home and an earlier than nornal Friday night.
• Saturday 6/10 - Jo and I catch the bus in to Aberdeen for an afternoon's tasting training by CAMRA in Carriages and Krakatoa - very educational and good fun. Back in plenty of time to go for another curry in the Derbar with the Masons and Kilgours.
• Sunday 7/10 - definitely a quiet day with the Sunday Times and TV football.
• Monday 8/10 - another quiet one, catching up with admin.
• Tuesday 9/10 - Luca day again - this time in Inverurie.
• Wednesday 10/10 - another afternoon on the bike in glorious warm sunshine. Another live show on River Dee Radio in the evening.
• Thursday 11/10 - Alistair Scott, our IFA, arrives for our 6 monthly review of our pension etc. funds. Weather is a complete contrast to yesterday so hopes for an afternoon's round of golf are quickly dashed and we settled for a short lunch in the Tor-na-Coille instead.

So that was the last couple of weeks - what's coming up next? School holidays for a start, so I'll be picking Luca up on Monday morning and bringing him back to Banchory, returning him to football training in Kemnay on Wednesday evening - then repeat the following week.

We've also got our gas service on Monday and then the fitter arrives on Wednesday to erect and install our "summer house" in the back garden - its parts are currently lying in the garage. It had started as an idea to have a small shed to store garden tools, fertilisers etc, but then it grew wings.

On Saturday 27/10, I'm meeting up with some of my old school pals again - this time, we're going to meet in Glasgow and go to see Thistle playing Ayr United.

Looking further ahead, having booked (and mostly paid for) our grand round the world trip next year, encompassing my 70th birthday and visits to Kelly and Lucy, I've now also booked a week at Marriott Marbella for Gary, Luca and Ross next October.

That's about it, I think.

Carrbridge update

I awoke not feeling too bright on Tuesday morning so, after another 9 am visit to the pool and sauna, we stayed in our apartment for the rest of the morning.

Feeling a little stronger after lunch, we decided to go out for a bit of fresh air. It started as a simple stroll around the grounds at Lochanhully, but then stretched to a walk up to the viewpoint at the top of the golf course:

Feeling invigorated by this, we then did the Riverside trail, followed by a bit of one of the many woodland walks and then the walk back to our resort. In  the end, what started as a gentle stroll ended in a decent afternoon's walk - 12,500 steps in all.

First thing Wednesday, I checked again the conditions on Cairngorm mountain. Visibility was so-so, but the main thing we had been planning all week was a ride on the Funicular, and, yet again, it was closed. Not quite sure why - maybe high winds, maybe technical issues, or perhaps they're just approaching the end of the season. Very frustrating, particularly when you have already bought a couple of vouchers for the ride.

We opted to do another ride instead - the steam train from Aviemore to Boat of Garten. After another pool/sauna session, we walked in to the village and caught the bus down to Aviemore to catch the 12:30 train. The carriage we were in was definitely 50's/60's vintage - the springs in the seats were well worn:

All the steam enthusiasts were salivating when the locomotive hooked up to our carriages:

It's all very well done and Boat of Garten station was very pretty too:

Lunch was booked in the adjacent Boat Country Inn, but there was another photo opportunity first of all:

Lovely lunch - especially the starters of scallops, black pudding and bacon. I know - every restaurant does this nowadays, but it's still hard to beat. We had coffee in the lovely nearby 1896 Gallery and then set about walking back to Carrbridge. There was a little bit of climbing involved - not Jo's favourite exercise - but we eventually got down over the hill to rejoin the Carr Plantation walk that we'd done on Sunday and Jo decided it was time to rest on the bench that I'd posed on 3 days prior:

Still not feeling quite 100% on Thursday morning, and with a wet weather forecast, we decided another easy morning after our usual early morning pool/sauna trip would be appropriate. Things brightened a little in the afternoon and we took the car over to Ballindalloch Castle and Estate - a lovely place to visit, although unfortunately not a National Trust property, hence pretty expensive. The walled gardens were our first stop:

A heavy - not forecast - shower forced us to head for shelter within the castle itself and we did the standard tour before heading out again to do the riverside walk down past where the rivers Avon and Spey merge. The grounds of the estate are immaculate:

So that was Thursday. We're now planning to return home tomorrow (Friday) - one day earlier than originally planned, having given up on the Cairngorm Funicular rail being open this week. Back to a busy weekend, with Brian and Mary coming up on Saturday and then more golf on Sunday with our annual Challenge match - and, of course, there's the Ryder Cup too!

Another catch-up

Another couple of weeks have passed, so, without further ado, here's what I've been up to since my last blog post:

THURSDAY 6/9

Jo had been missing the regular Wednesday/Friday swimming outings with her pals, so I suggested we should take a run over to Tarland and use the leisure facilities there. It seems Jo was fated not to get any swimming as, when we got there, there was a notice saying the pool was closed "due to unforeseen circumstances". We moved on to Ballater and paid a compensatory visit to the newly re-opened tea room - The Carriage - at the former Ballater station. The building had been virtually destroyed by a huge fire a couple of years ago, but royal patronage had funded the rebuilding programme. It's probably the nicest coffee shop in the country now as demonstrated by one of the dining rooms:

That same day we finalised our big holiday next year. Time is marching on and we don't know how much longer we can carry on doing two long overseas holidays each year, allied to which our experience this year with the smoke and fires in Oregon led us to re-evaluate our plans. Perhaps instead of hitting midsummer in both Australia and USA, we could combine the two and do a round the world autumn/spring combination?

It's also my 70th in March, so it would be a special treat too. Anyway, this is the plan, leaving Aberdeen on Mon 18th Feb:

• 1 week in the Cape Town area
• 3 nights in Auckland
• Cruise - our first ever! - down east coast of NZ then back to Sydney
• 2 nights in Sydney
• 3 weeks in Adelaide
• 1 week in Palm Desert, CA
• 2 weeks in Oregon

All in, it amounts to over 9 weeks, with us not getting back home until Saturday 27th April. It'll be our longest ever stay away from home and it means we will be spending a full summer in Banchory for the first time in roughly 20 years - let's hope it's as good a summer as this year's.

Kelly has since added another little jaunt for us when we're in South Australia - she's booked us all a trip up to Cairns/Port Douglas. We're looking forward to catching up with these little tykes again:

FRIDAY 7/9

Had a nice walk up Bennachie again - the second time I'd done it.

MONDAY 10/9

Jo and I flew to Nuremberg, via Amsterdam, for our first ever CAMRA Members' Investment Club (CMIC) outing. From there, we caught the underground in to the central rail station and then a direct train to the beautiful old town of Bamberg - a UNESCO World Heritage site - and also home to an incredible number of breweries.

A welcome dinner was arranged for our party of 40 for the first night at Brauerei Spezial just across the street from our accommodation:

Our hotel was the Brauerei Fassla:

TUESDAY 11/9

An organised trip to Weyermann Maltings, a huge, well-preserved old factory, supplying raw materials to breweries world-wide, rounded off by a couple of hours in their free bar!

The afternoon was free and Jo and I roamed the medieval city, catching up with a few of our fellow travellers on our occasional refreshment stops.

WEDNESDAY 12/9

The warmest day so far - 29 C - and we chose to walk up to the castle on the hill, where Jo posed:

Back down the hill, a pit stop at the town's oldest brewpub:

THURSDAY 13/9

Short break over, it was time to return home. Another ride on the super-smooth and super-quiet Deutsche Bahn (DB) rolling stock, then the Nuremberg U-Bahn to the airport and our 2 KLM flights back to Aberdeen.

FRIDAY 14/9

No sooner was I back, then I was off again. My annual walking weekend had been booked some time ago, but somehow I had made a mess of the dates as I was supposed to leave with the other guys on Thursday. I now had to travel alone - and quickly. I was booked on the 12:30 ferry from Ardrossan to Brodick, but I made it in good time and was soon checking in to my hotel in Blackwaterfoot and then back out again for a short afternoon walk on my own.

SATURDAY 15/9

Visibility was poor - low cloud covered the top of Goatfell, the highest mountain on Arran and our target for the day. 95% of the walk was fairly comfortable, but the last bit nearly killed me. I really struggle when it gets very steep, as it did on the last leg to the summit - but I made it in the end.

SUNDAY 16/9

It was a boat trip over to the Holy Isle and a coastal walk out to the Buddhist retreat there - very nice.

MONDAY 17/9

Time for a morning coastal walk past King's Cave before heading for the early afternoon ferry and the drive home. Full details of our trip are on our hill-walking blog - https://bvhill-walkers.blogspot.com/

TUESDAY 18/9

Back to the old routine - well almost. Tuesday is our Luca day, but this time it was our first visit to Gary's new home. It's small, as you would expect, but Luca seems happy to spend a few nights there every week, interspersed with nights at Rae Circle with his Mum.

WEDNESDAY 19/9

Time to renew Jo's passport, which we did online - after taking this photo for her new passport:

All it lacks is the prisoner number.

THURSDAY 20/9

Finally, after 18 months or so of prevaricating, we headed in to Aberdeen to sign our Powers of Attorney. Another sign of our passing years.

SATURDAY 22/9

The start of our week at the Lochanhully Resort, Carrbridge. Just Jo and I - for various reasons, the hoped-for visits from other family members didn't happen. Never mind, we'll make the most of it. The drive over was easy enough and we stopped just the other side of Tomintoul to look at a newish structure that had gone up there:

SUNDAY 23/9

A walk in to the village of Carrbridge to the most photographed spot:

Then we decided to do the Carr Plantation trail:

MONDAY 24/9

An early morning visit to the pool, sauna and steam room was followed by a trip down to Aviemore - first stop, the Mountain Cafe and its fine selection of scones and cakes. To work some of this off, we did the trail round Loch Morlich:

That's it so far.

Back again

My blog posts are becoming more irregular as time goes on. I seem to be busier now than ever. When I was working, I seemed to be able to find the time to update this more regularly. Anyway, here we go - this is what I've been up to in the last couple of weeks:

Golf at St. Andrews, Banchory and Ballater and my annual check-up with the cardiologist (all seemed fine, he said). Then it was off to Edinburgh for the Fringe for Jo and I. It wasn't quite so frantic this year - I cut back the number of events to just 6 (in 2 days) so we weren't rushing from venue to venue for a change.

We took the train down on Sunday morning and went to see shows by Jon Culshaw (impressionist) and Zoe Lyons (comedian) before dinner and then our evening show at the ShowDome at Dynamic Earth, next to Holyrood - this was an audio/visual display with 360 degree projections on to the large domed roof with the music from Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon all around us. It was all a bit disorientating for Jo, who spent much of the show with her eyes closed!

We ended our day in the Guildford Arms, handily adjacent to Motel One where we were staying. There was a band playing and a good atmosphere and we stayed for a while before hitting the sack.

Monday was the last official day of the Fringe and our first event was a walking tour of the Old and New Towns, starting at Greyfriars Bobby:

We had lunch afterwards at the Grain Store with my old school pal Robert Rowan and his wife Bridget, followed by an Elvis show - a young guy from Barnsley with a distinct northern speaking accent managed to mimic the King uncannily on a succession of his big soaring ballads.

Our last show was Mark Watson (comedian) and then it was back to the Guildford Arms for dinner with Ross:

I went back to our hotel to view the closing night fireworks display from our room overlooking Princes St. - but Jo and Ross arrived after me - just as the show finished!

Back in Banchory, it was more golf for me - Banchory, Aboyne, Boat of Garten and Grantown-on-Spey - as I play catch up before the season ends.

Gary and Luca stayed overnight with us on Saturday - Luca liked his new football boots:

Looking ahead, we have a very busy month coming up. Next week, Jo and I are off to Bamberg in Bavaria for a few days, after which I head straight off to Arran for our annual walking weekend. The last week of September we'll be at the Macdonald Lochanhully Woodland Club. Gary and Luca will be with us overnight on Saturday and Mary and Brian overnight the following Friday. Must get round to seeing if Barry, Helen and Dawn might be available to join us sometime too.

First week home

We've been back a week now and, thankfully, we're finally re-establishing our sleep patterns after several fitful nights. The journey home went as planned, but it did involve 4 flights and 2 long layovers after an extremely early departure from Grants Pass on Friday morning, arriving back in Banchory about 9 pm on Saturday night, so it wasn't an easy trip. We've travelled home from Australia in less time.

Anyway, our experience in Oregon this year is making us re-think our usual holiday plans for next year. The West Coast fires arrive every summer and with them comes the smoke - some years worse than others. We certainly think mid-summer (July/August) may not be the best time to go. It's also my 70th next year (and Kelly's 40th) and we may do something completely different - watch this space.

We have a bunch of BA Air Miles and a Companion Voucher to be used next year, however - we usually use these for our American summer trip - but we weren't particularly impressed with BA this time - it feels like they are cutting back on everything.

Plenty to ponder.

I have managed one short cycle and a round of golf this week - and a monumental hill-walk on Thursday - Lochnagar - my first official Munro in my 70th year. We did the circular loop from Glen Muick and it took seven and a half hours and a record number of steps:

We also had our second Headbang of the year on Friday night and Jo and I have both had trips to our local medical practice. Jo had her ultrasound scan on Thursday - all looks well, but she awaits the official follow-up with our GP. I was back at the Dermatology Clinic on Friday and got another nitro freeze on the bridge of my nose, with another follow-up in 6 weeks.

Today (Sunday) we have Luca staying with us overnight - it's the last day of his summer holidays tomorrow (Monday).

Nothing much else to report for now, other than the fact that, after a week of relative peace and quiet at home, we have another very busy period coming up, including a trip to the Fringe in Edinburgh next weekend.

Does anyone else remember the old flower displays on the embankment at the corner of Corsee Road? I've finally managed to track down a few old photos (thanks to Jo and the Heritage Society). I had always thought they said Bonnie Banchory, but it seems they changed all the time:

This area is now just overgrown:

Do you think I should start a campaign to bring it back to its former glory?

Last full day in Oregon

Still confined to quarters here - no sign of this smoke moving soon. Here's this morning's Air Quality Index for this region:

The red "181" index (Unhealthy) is sitting right on top of Grants Pass.

Never mind - need some time to pack. Got to squeeze some additional stuff in - 2 new pairs of shoes,  3 books and a few second hand vinyl albums - it's going to be tight. Jo's got the Moose Munch and t-shirts as extras so it'll be tight for her too.

We've had two family birthdays in the last week. Last Friday, Cade turned 18 and as soon as he got back to Oregon on Saturday, he dashed off to the tattooist and got what he says is going to be the first of many "tats". Look out for photos - to be fair, it's fairly tasteful and it's on his collar bone so not generally visible when he's fully dressed. (18 is the minimum age for getting a tattoo here, in case you wondered).

On Sunday, it was Miller's 5th birthday. When Jo and I got to our hotel room in Portland on Saturday night (Sunday in Oz), Jo and I made up a quick "happy birthday" greeting for him. We got it wrong a couple of times:

https://youtu.be/5ueqZGcjDeo

before finally getting it right:

https://youtu.be/3YoISFikwZY

Feeling a bit frustrated from lack of any kind of outdoor activity recently, I decided to risk a very short afternoon ride yesterday (Wednesday), but I took the precaution of wearing a face mask that Lucy provided:

Hot and smokey

Now that we're back in Grants Pass and on the last few days of our holiday, we have triple digits heat to face and poor air quality from the smoke that still covers hundreds of miles of Northern California and Southern Oregon. Everyone will have seen the particularly devastating fire that hit Redding, where Scott and Lucy used to live - in fact, where Lucy was is now completely burnt out.

The result of all this is that we can't really spend much time outdoors and cycling and hiking opportunities are limited unless we travel much further afield.

Anyway, our journey back from Hawaii went smoothly enough and Jo and I spent another night at an airport hotel in Portland before driving Lucy's car back down to Grants Pass on Sunday. Scott had the Traeger on since early morning to cook a lovely pork side so that was a nice welcome back.

Scott and Lucy had booked yesterday (Monday) off work as well, so Scott and I took the opportunity to drive up to Myrtle Creek, where it was less smokey, for a quick round of golf. Lucy and Jo had a decadent lunch of cocktails and churros at the Haul.

Today (Tuesday), we're taking Braeden to his football practice (they bus them north to get away from the air quality here), then we'll head down to Medford and do our annual Harry and David's shop. Look out for some Moose Munch heading to the UK!

To close, here's a few more photos from Maui:

Friday morning we walked across the road to hit a few balls on the range at Kaanapali GC

I finished before Scott so could sit and admire!

Beach stroll Friday evening

View of the hills from our apartment