Winter is here

The first snows of winter arrived yesterday - nothing much on the ground so far, but the temperature has plummeted - overnight it went down to -11C in nearby Aboyne. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, it looks like it's baking in Oz - which reminds me, we still haven't spoken to Kelly this year. Put that on the to do list.

We've been planning and organising our trip which begins one month today - i.e. 4 weeks on Monday. We've booked a few excursions when the boat docks - Jo surprised me by choosing this one on our first stop:

Incidentally, we've been watching the ITV series The Cruise, which features the Majestic Princess - the vessel we'll be on. The series is still running on ITV and the first 3 episodes are available on catch-up, but you can see a glimpse of the first show here - https://youtu.be/_PdUF0Ma-XE

That apart, nothing much else been going on - usual Tuesday visits to Inverurie and a number of fairly shortish cycles for me, taking advantage of the fairly mild and still weather we've been experiencing this winter - but things may be changing now weather-wise.

Next Wednesday is Jo's cataract appointment at ARI. She'll need a few days to recover fully but should be back driving pretty soon after that. Ironically, Jo's now got another chauffeur in the shape of Ross to take her around - he's still looking for work around here. It's not a great time of year for recruitment in the hospitality sector, but we discovered that Duncan's of Banchory, one of the two High St furniture stores, is relocating to larger premises a bit further east in the town, and they're opening some kind of eating facility, including a coffee shop. Fingers crossed.

Visions of Jo(hanna)

The title of this post refers to a famous song by Bob Dylan (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visions_of_Johanna) but more appropriately now to Jo, who has finally got her appointment for her cataract operation - it's Wednesday 23rd January at ARI. She's looking forward to being able to drive again.

We've been remiss in talking to Lucy and Kelly since the New Year - must make amends soon. Jo and I were out yesterday (Sunday) when we took a trip down to Crieff to meet up with Barry and Helen, who are having a 3 night break there. We had a long mid-afternoon meal with them (which, for the record, Barry paid for - we'll get the next one) in the Brasserie there, and we took a quick team photo just as we were leaving:

I was wearing a bulky body-warmer - that's not all me - honest! I know it's been a gluttonous holiday period, but I didn't put on as much weight as this photo implies.

So, just 6 weeks today till we set off on our round the world adventure. I've been able to print our boarding passes and luggage labels this morning for our cruise down the east coast of New Zealand, but we've yet to decide which restaurants we're going to eat in each night and which organised excursions we want to join. The vessel we'll be on is the Majestic Princess and the web site shows this view of roughly what our cabin should look like:

Schools are back so it's back to the old routine for us this week - Inverurie tomorrow.

2019

It's my first blog posting of 2019 - let's start where the last one ended with photos of Gary running a race - the Lumphanan 10K on January 2nd:

Gary and Luca came over to Banchory on January 1st and all 5 of us had Jo's traditional steak pie dinner and we also belatedly celebrated Luca's 12th birthday last Sunday:

It had been a slow day for Jo and I as we had been entertaining the Kilgours and the Masons in to the wee small hours. As per usual, I had taken a team photo - it has to be one of the worst ever - so bad, I took it twice, without any visible improvement:

To be fair, I think they were all mid-song when the camera timer kicked in.

Unusually, we're 3 days in to our New Year and we still haven't spoken to Kelly or Lucy - or, for that matter, Dawn or Barry. We must make amends soon. We might get a chance to catch up with Barry and Helen in the next few days as they're taking a short break at the Crieff Hydro, so we might pop down to see them there.

After all the excesses of Hogmanay, I had to give my liver a rest on January 1st and I was then able to go out for a decent cycle on the 2nd - although my phone battery let me down mid-trip, so my Strava stats haven't made a good start to the year. Given that it's winter and we live in the North East of Scotland - 57 N, the same latitude as south Alaska - the weather has been great for getting out and about. It's been moderately cold (-5C early this morning, the coldest yet this winter) but it's been dry and sunny with very little wind - excellent cycling weather.

Strava collates my hill-walking and cycling stats and then sends summaries at the year end:

In addition to that lot, I get my daily steps on the i-Phone and I was having a really good year, keeping my daily average over the 10,000 steps mark until the latter end of the year when my activity dropped off noticeably:

A valiant effort, I think - must try harder in 2019 - a year which I hope will also see better things for Partick Thistle who are in grave danger of dropping down yet another league, so I'm planning to take a trip to Dundee on Saturday to lend them my support. Fingers crossed.

That's all for now - have a good new year everyone!

Boxing Day

It's the day of turkey toasties, the festive "fun" run (for Gary) and the resumption of the festive football season on TV - Gary is actually going to Pittodrie this afternoon to watch some proper live football - Aberdeen v Celtic - and, of course, it's our anniversary - our 46th.

After my 4 cycles last week, this week's indolence is the payback. Must make an effort to get out tomorrow. It's gone all mild again - we had a lovely crisp, clear Xmas Day - perfect for a nice long walk, one that we didn't have. Jo and I managed as far as Dee Street and then just circled back. That was it as far as fresh air and exercise was concerned yesterday.

My excuse? - feeling a little stiff and sore after our first ever Xmas Eve walking football match. I hadn't dared go near a football since my replacement knee operation just over 5 years ago, but this sounded like a bit of fun and something that I thought I could manage to cope with OK - and, by and large, I did. It was a slightly weird feeling looking out my old sports bag and then hunting for my trainers. There they were, lying untouched and unloved in the cupboard under the stairs.

Gary and Luca surprised us by arriving a little earlier than anticipated for Xmas dinner, but we still waited until after 3 pm to sit down and eat. We were hoping that Jo's swimming buddy, Elizabeth, who lives alone, would come and join us, but she sent an apology message later that evening.

Ross was pretty much in charge of proceedings in the kitchen, with Jo taking a bit of a step back after doing all the prep work. Gary contributed too - in the shape of a couple of cheesecakes he put together.

We Facetimed with Kelly early in the morning and with Lucy later on, and Barry called too, although I never got a chance to speak to Dawn on the day.

The tree was back in its rightful position and fully powered up this time:

The Christmas/Anniversary flowers were also on display:

After dinner, it was the Luca show - aka the opening of the presents, one of which was a combination of his two current obsessions - Fortnite Monopoly. Mass participation was manadatory, but I did manage to get them all to spare a minute for a team photo:

Progress on my mini "projects" - the en suite woodwork is finished - just in time for Christmas - and so is the beer - I had to dump it as it didn't clear. As I suspected, it got contaminated when I overdid the yeast and had to deal with a virtual explosion of activity from the brew. I'll try again sometime.

To close, I took a wander down to see Gary in today's Fun Run. First of all at the Corsee Road crossing near the start:

Then, at the finish, Gary was coasting home when, all of a sudden, he was overtaken. Startled, he immediately burst in to a sprint finish in a vain attempt to catch the culprit:

Winter Solstice

We're at the deepest darkest hour, daylight-wise, today. In theory, from tomorrow, the days get a bit longer and the nights a bit shorter - although it's hardly noticeable until about March, it seems. Today would also have been my Dad's 98th birthday.

I wasn't feeling too good yesterday but Jo and I went in to Aberdeen early morning to do some shopping and we got things done pretty quickly - we were home by lunchtime. While I went for a bit of a rest, Jo started on the Xmas decorations, including the tree:

It's drying out now after 4 nights on our balcony and it'll be moved in to its proper position later on and the lights will then be powered up.

I even pulled out of our show on River Dee Radio last night, but I feel a bit better today so I'm planning a short cycle this afternoon after Jo's gone to her swimming. Right now (Friday morning), I'm uploading last night's show in podcast form to the various platforms I use - Mixcloud, Soundcloud, Spreaker, Stitcher, i-Tunes etc.

Tonight, we're off to Keith and Annette Gray's for dinner with Archie & Eileen Cook, so it could be a slower start tomorrow morning, although we'll have to keep popping back and forward to Tesco over the weekend to keep topping up the fresh, in-date food.

Our en suite is my next destination- that's where the beer is brewing and also where I'm working on the wood surrounds and the grouting. Happy days.

It's beginning to look a lot like ....

Yes - just a week to go now. We've got our tree - Jo and I drove down to Dess on Sunday and got it. It now sits on our balcony, unadorned and seemingly unloved. We need to unfetter it and bring it in to the warmth of the house soon.

Today (Tuesday) is Inverurie/Luca day and we're at Rae Circle for a change as Gary's not feeling too well, so we took Luca back to his Mum's. Talking of Luca, Jo's going in to panic mode as we still haven't got him a proper Xmas present. Perhaps we need to take a trip in to the city soon.

I've got 4 mini "projects" on the go just now. We got the old carpet removed from our en suite and had vinyl fitted instead. The issue I now have is with the wooden ledge that the shower tray sits on. The original plan was to paint it the same colour as the skirting boards, but Jo then suggested we could just treat/varnish the wood and leave it as is. OK - the only problem is the dark water staining. I've tried everything to remove the marks - sanding, even resorting to the dreaded Cillit Bang, which managed to bleach the wood but not remove the heaviest stains. Still a work in progress:

Project number two will probably have to wait until the spring - or at least a prolonged spell of dry weather. The summerhouse/hut is now complete but we want to reinforce and treat the floor to avoid rising damp. The external wood will need treated as well.

The 3rd job is replacing the broken shaver light above the mirror in our en suite. I've searched in vain for a similar sized replacement - it looks like manufacturers' built-in obsolescence at work again. Anyone got a spare one of these?:

The last job on the go is one I've made a bit of a mess of - again. I decided to have another stab at brewing some beer for Christmas. The materials I got this time were better quality and everything was properly sterilised beforehand and the temperature control was good - it's brewing in our en suite. My error was much more fundamental - I had materials to brew 40 pints, but my fermenting vessel only has capacity for less than half of this. I realised this half way through the process, by which time I'd used all the malt. Even at this stage, I probably could have retrieved something but I then went ahead and added all of the yeast, which naturally brought about a huge over-reaction in the too small fermenting vessel. I had to break the airtight seal umpteen times to avert the brew blowing the top off, thus probably allowing the brew to become contaminated. Nonetheless, I'm ploughing on until the hydrometer tells me the SG is low enough.

That's my trials and tribulations just now. The Xmas cards have all been written and posted in good time - just - so that crisis at least was averted.

We're still working our way through the Wine Advent calendar. We do have a few non-alcohol days during the week, so we always have a bit of catching up to do at the weekend!

Looking ahead, we're out for dinner on Friday night at Keith and Annette Gray's - that should be nice - and, on Monday, it's the annual get-together of our old football crowd with a match to celebrate Dave Williamson's Xmas Eve birthday. Of course, I stopped playing in this when I got my metal knee 5 years ago - as did a few others in a similar plight - but this year we're experimenting with something new - Walking Football - and it's indoors! We'll see how that goes. Meanwhile, I'm trying to get as much cycling in as the weather allows before the excesses of the next couple of weeks.

This time of year tends to be when families get together. I can remember when I was young I never quite understood exactly who was who when distant cousins, uncles, aunts etc all gathered - I wish somebody had drawn up something like this for us all:

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.