Manic Monday

It's all go today. My car was booked in for service at Arnold Clark in Aberdeen, but I got a phone call a few days ago from Jacquie Howden, who is still working for the Clark family at the age of 73, telling me that Francis' and Michael's mother had died and her cremation was this afternoon at Crathes.

So the day started with an early drive in to Aberdeen to drop off my car before 8 am. I discovered that Arnold Clark had moved their Volvo service centre - fortunately not too far away from their former location. Once checked in, I jumped on my bike - the older manual one, not the e-bike - and cycled back to Banchory along the Deeside Way. Unfortunately, it was a bit of a foul morning and I was pretty wet when I got home. A quick hot bath soon sorted that.

Then it was time to put a tie on - something I only do for funerals etc nowadays - and take Jo's car out to Crathes for the service. It was nice to see a few old faces again, albeit in circumstances far from ideal - it seems funerals are the only times I see my old colleagues.

Got back from the funeral before 3:30 pm - I declined the invitation to go to the post-funeral do at the Marcliffe - and Ross and I headed back in to Aberdeen to pick up my car after its service. Nice to get the car cleaned for you - and I've got the towbar fitted now, so the next step is to get a bike rack.

Going back briefly over the last few weeks since my previous post:

• Saturday was Ross' 36th birthday, would you believe? He was working again and had spent a couple of nights at Lizzie's so nothing special was organised for him, but he certainly wasn't forgotten:

• Luca, too, featured this weekend, receiving an award from his kick-boxing club:

• Had another get-together with some old school chums from Victoria Drive on Thursday - in Stirling, of all places - where Dawn works! I was only there for a few hours, fitting in convenient train times, so didn't have a chance to see Dawn this time.
• It was our Boat of Garten golf trip last weekend, signalling that we are heading rapidly towards the end of the summer golf season.
• Now we're in September, I've started to check out flights for our next trip to USA at this time next year, using our BA Miles and Companion Voucher if we can.
• Jo and I made our annual trip to the Fringe a couple of weeks ago. We kept it much simpler this time - no more rushing around from show to show, trying to cram in as much as possible. We caught the train down and went to just 2 shows on the Sunday and just 3 on Monday. We even had time to take a walk to Holyrood and take a tour of the Scottish Parliament:

From there, we walked round past Salisbury Crags and Arthur's Seat:

Prior to that, however, we had popped round to where Ross used to work at his stall in the Food & Flea Market - there was no sign of life at all - all the stalls had gone. Apparently they will be back some time, once all the construction work is finished at what they are going to call New Waverley:

All the shows - bar one - that we saw were good. Three of them were musically based, with Frank Skinner being the comedic act we chose. One of the musical acts was performed by a singer called Cleo, who used to front a band called Cleopatra, briefly popular a decade or so ago (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleo_Higgins). I can't speak of her earlier career as I'd never even heard of her, but in her performance here, she was a real ball of fire:

• The exception was our last event at the Fringe - The Gin Show. It was truly awful - both cringe-worthy and surreal at the same time. A narrator read out some facts about gin, then we were offered a taste - in a tiny plastic sample cup - followed by more facts, then, the really strange bit - a singer came on, with an electronic/tape backing and serenaded us with some irrelevant, show-based tune. This procedure was repeated a further 3 times and that was it. I can't even say we enjoyed the gins.
• On River Dee Radio, it was Jo's turn to feature on fellow DJ Charles Robertson's regular Saturday morning show - Chuck's choice - on his The First Record I Ever Bought spot. Listen to it here - https://www.mixcloud.com/River_Dee_Radio/chucks-choice-24-8-19/?fbclid=IwAR33RDVxcWogIQgInrFYW4vTck62fgizWCXkXWPdXRsZLaTChPYsjwxUBDU - from 9 mins 50 secs onwards.

So that's a very brief synopsis of some of the events of the last few weeks, but what's coming up?:

• Thu/Fri this week - the loft ladder team arrive to extend the flooring and insulation and install a new, easier to use loft ladder
• Thu 19th-Mon 23rd - my annual walking weekend, this time to the Borders. There'll be 12 of us staying in Peebles this year.
• Fri 27th - to Edinburgh Airport overnight prior to flying off to Nice for a week. Four couples - the same as the ones we went to France with 2 years ago.
• Sun 13 - 20 Oct - off to Costa del Sol with Gary, Luca and Ross - the final part of my 70th birthday celebrations.

Filthy Friday

It's been a couple of weeks since my last blog post which was titled "Summer has definitely arrived". Well this morning it doesn't feel anything like summer as a low passes over NE Scotland. I was due to be on a combined cycle/hill-walk up Mount Keen (the most easterly Munro) today but it's definitely not a day for tackling the hills.

I'm still hoping for a short cycle this afternoon when these clouds move away and I also intend to go along to the brand new "Banchory Sports Village" for the first of their Open/Demo days. We've been in Banchory for 36 years - more than half my life - and it seems that we've been waiting virtually all that time for this new facility. It would have been great if it had been around when I was still capable of using the facilities there - especially the squash courts - but, a bit like the Aberdeen Western Peripheral Road, it's taken too many generations and it's passed me by, I'm afraid.

The new pool will be popular - not sure how much use Jo will make of it as she enjoys her trips over to Westhill on Wednesdays and Fridays and she might not be so keen to change her habits.

Luca's been over at Banchory again this week - it's his second stint here but he doesn't have his bike with him this time - not that I'd be taking him out in this weather anyway. It's been a hectic week for me so he's spent most of the time with his Grannie. I'm always first up in the morning and often Luca gets up before Jo's awake, so I offer him breakfast, but he'll only take it from Jo. He's 12 years old and already ingrained in traditional habits!

The first week Luca was here we managed to get him along to the barber's for a haircut. He never wants much off and it was a bit of a negotiation struggle but eventually we settled on this:

Luca and I went cycling along the Deeside Way that week and we stopped off at his favourite spot on the river where he used to walk with Jo:

The October school holiday break is fast approaching and that's when Jo, Gary, Ross, Luca and I are heading off to our Marriott time-share in Marbella - part 2 of my 70th birthday travels. I had to renew my passport recently as it wouldn't have covered our journey to Australia next year and that's when I realised that Luca wouldn't have a valid passport yet, so we took him over to Tesco to have his photo taken:

The passport is still in process but hopefully he'll get it soon.

There was a big kick-boxing tournament at Fraserburgh recently and Luca was entered for his first ever competition. Here's his group receiving their instructions:

Luca ready for action:

It wasn't to be the greatest moment of his young life. In fact, he got soundly beaten in both his bouts and was pretty badly traumatised after the event. Thankfully he recovered after a day or two and Fraserburgh is now a distant memory - although he's still carrying a bit of a foot injury from the event, which is preventing him playing his favourite sport of football just now.

Gary asked me to video his fights, which I did. You can view them here, but I'll be deleting them shortly, so move quickly if you really want to see them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRrtLG8eIsE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcRsFEUqYZY

The local Inverurie Herald featured the event too:

Talking about football, his team organised a photo shoot:

What else has been happening? Well, I had my annual appointment with my cardiologist and all seemed well as far as he was concerned. My main health issue just now is the continuing pain I am getting in my side when I move in certain ways. I've had all the blood tests and a physical examination but they're all clear. Perhaps it's intestinal? I'll give it another few weeks and if it's not better by then, I need to go back to the GP.

Last weekend we went down to see our relatives in West of Scotland. On Saturday we had the Family Day with the Barrs:

The photo's a bit blurry, I'm afraid, but at the front left foreground we have Lucy B and her boyfriend sitting opposite Cameron, Sheila's son. Back left is Lesley and her new man, another Iain, and they're seated beside Dawn. Next to her is Sheila, then Aunt Nancy and me. Jo is sitting next to Helen and Barry.

Here's another one of me and Nancy - the two elders!:

Helen went out and bought lovely crusty Glasgow rolls in the morning and Barry cooked the bacon. Two rolls each kept us going for a while! We drove over to Elderslie and Brian and I went to see St. Mirren beat Aberdeen, with Sam and Tom in tow. Afterwards we had an Indian takeaway, with Mary, Brian, Julie, Guy and the boys.

It had been a foul Sunday but it was much brighter on Monday morning so Brian and I slipped away for 18 holes at Cochrane Castle and Jo and Mary drove over to Houston to do the house-sitting duties and keep an eye on Sam, Tom and Leo. After lunch Jo and I drove home to recover from all the food we had eaten.

This weekend is busy again - cricket tomorrow for me - Scotland are playing Papua New Guinea in Aberdeen and it's an opportunity to see our national team locally - hope the weather's ok. On Sunday, Jo and I are off to Edinburgh for our annual Fringe trip, about which more next week.

Summer has definitely arrived

It's been a hot, sticky week in Europe with record highs in France and other countries. We also benefited from this high pressure but thankfully temperatures only reached the mid-high 20's C here (c. 80 F) - plenty warm enough whilst still able to get out and enjoy it.

Golf, cycling and hill-walking have been enjoyed and we even had one of our Headbangs on Friday night, so it's been a busy week. Jo and I took advantage by having supper on the lawn at the Tor-na-Coille on Tuesday:

On Saturday, Gary and Luca travelled through to the Banchory Show and popped in to see us afterwards, so we all went over to the golf club for supper there. Luca will be back here with us on Tuesday for a few days.

My new passport saga continues - although the first photo I submitted passed the initial online test, it was subsequently rejected, so I had to do it again. It took another 12 attempts before I managed to take one that passed the online test again. Let's hope this one also gets past the secondary check and I can get my new passport soon:

Week 2 of school holidays

This week, we have Luca staying with us in Banchory, having returned from Lincoln at the weekend. Jo went through to Inverurie to pick him up on Monday morning when I was away in Ballater playing for the Seniors.

On Tuesday, Luca and I cycled up to the driving range and hit a bucket of balls each, with Jo joining us for lunch. We sat outside on their decking and it was properly hot.

Luca announced that he would like to go and play tennis. Not sure where that came from but he and I headed off to the public courts late Wednesday morning anyway. We were a little early - they don't open until noon - and Luca dropped a heavy hint about the ice cream shop nearby so I bought us both cones and we wandered over to the bowling club to enjoy them:

Tennis is something I didn't think I would start at the age of 70 but I went along with it:

I have to say, that, as a tennis player - or a golfer - Luca is a good footballer. He wasn't exactly putting his back in to it so I had to do most of the fetching and carrying - and, if he hit a bad shot, that was my fault, of course. Kids. You can see some of the (in)action here - https://youtu.be/Sf0eswgj9iw

The outlook is a little damp again today but we're hoping to get out for a cycle before the forecast showers arrive. Perhaps we'll head out to the Milton if Luca can manage the distance.

In other news, Ross started a trial shift at Figment in Countesswells Road, Aberdeen on Monday. He's been staying at Lizzie's flat in Rosemount for the last week to accommodate this. Hope it all works out OK. The coffee shop looks nice:

I did finally get a callback from my GP re my thyroid blood test and it was reported as negative but I've been reminded to check again in 3 months' time.

We spoke to Kelly and the boys the other day and I've now booked us a week in Bali in the middle of our Australian holiday in March. It'll soon be time to look at flights etc for USA next September as well. We'll probably have a week in Phoenix when we're over.

I suddenly realised my passport expires early next year so I thought it best to renew it now so I went online and completed the application process, including the required photo. My first attempt got rejected because of shadows apparently:

So I tried again and this time it seems to have been accepted, although it appears to me to have more shadow than the first rejected effort:

Gary has been entering the odd road race here and there, but his body is still reacting adversely during them. Despite that he always seem to do pretty well. Here's his latest:

Flights booked!

Well, we've now done it - we've booked our flights to Oz next year:

Now that bit's done and we're committed to these dates, we can now start to think about what else we might do when we're there. Perhaps Bali, where Kelly, Chris and the boys recently celebrated Kelly's birthday? Marriott have a place there and we might spend some time there in the middle of our 6 week break - https://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/dpsmv-marriotts-bali-nusa-dua-gardens/?scid=bb1a189a-fec3-4d19-a255-54ba596febe2

One slight downside is that Emirates have stopped doing free chauffeur drive so we are going to have to figure something else out.

In other news, Luca and Carole got back last night from their little trip to Lincoln to catch up with Carole's family. Luca's next little break is next week in Banchory with us.

I didn't get any more phone calls from my GP, so I'm assuming the results from my thyroid blood test were OK.

Summer's still not here although it has been a bit warmer recently but unfortunately this also brought some heavy downpours plus thunder and lightning. We got a bit of a soaking on Wednesday afternoon and we were due to go to Edzell on Thursday but a Met Office weather warning led to us postponing this trip to this coming Friday - hope it's better then.

It was better yesterday when we went cycling up the Tarland Way, accidentally including the climb up to Queen's View - and I didn't have my e-bike with me either - pity!

Problems with our dishwasher - the drain's clogged and we've cleared all the filters etc but still not solved the problem. Hope we don't have to call a plumber in.

Tomorrow we're going round to the Cooks to help Archie and Eileen celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.

This morning (Saturday), one of my fellow DJ's gave me a dedication on his Saturday morning show on River Dee Radio - Chuck's Choice. He has a regular spot on his show - The First Record I Ever Bought - and it was mine. you can listen to it now on the podcast from 9 mins 46 sec onwards - https://www.mixcloud.com/River_Dee_Radio/chucks-mix-of-50s-and-60s-hits-plus-your-requests-and-first-records-ever-bought/?utm_campaign=notification_new_upload&utm_medium=email&utm_source=notification&utm_content=html

Mum and Dad bribed me that, if I passed my highers - which I did - they would buy me a record player. They also bought me some singles to go with it, but I think the one that Chuck played on his show today was the first one I ever paid for myself 54 years ago.

Wet week

It's Tuesday and it poured this morning and there's worse forecast for the next couple of days - thunder and lightning - not a lot of fun when you're supposed to be golfing.

This is the first week of the Aberdeenshire school holidays so we're not heading to Inverurie this afternoon - or for the next few weeks. Luca is with his Mum down south visiting family this week, but he's with us next week. In Adelaide, the school term has come to an end as well - it was Miller's last day at Braehead Primary - he'll be starting at Noarlunga when they go back, which will be a nice short walk from their new home. Miller's school published a photo of his class on his last day at Braehead:

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Pacific, the Lesinas travelled to Coos Bay for a friend's wedding:

When we saw Braeden back in April, it seemed to us he had grown massively since last year, broadening out substantially, but this photo makes him look slimmer again. What's going on?

I went for my second round of blood tests yesterday and was surprised to get a phone call from Dr. McCrone as early as 9 am this morning, which initially set me on edge - what could be wrong? It transpired nothing was wrong - all my blood results were absolutely fine. When I saw him yesterday, he also took time to examine me physically and he said then that all seemed well internally as far as he could tell. The pain I have been experiencing in the right kidney area he put down to a possible trapped nerve. He pointed out we get a little shorter as we age and there now wasn't much gap between my rib cage and my pelvis and he feels somehow a nerve has got squeezed.

I hope his assessment is right and that the pain will gradually dissipate. One outstanding matter concerns the result of the blood test for thyroid function - that should be in in the next couple of days. In any event, it looks like this is something that is going to have to be checked more regularly.

Bye for now.

Gary 44!

Yes it's 44 years ago today that Gary was born in Hertford hospital. It was a hot summer in SE England - not as hot as the subsequent year, but still enough to be uncomfortable - particularly if, like Jo, you were heavily pregnant. Jo's Mum and Dad came down to help out after Gary had threatened to miscarry.

Thankfully all was well in the end and Gary spent his first 4 years in Broxbourne before we all moved back to Scotland. Here's one early photo in the middle of the 1976 summer scorcher:

After our 4 + years in Edinburgh, we moved to Banchory late in 1983 and Gary joined the local cub pack:

That's one of my company cars - a Ford Sierra - in the background and you can just catch a corner of Jo's first Nissan/Datsun Cherry.

Gary had just one request for his birthday today - that his Mum make dumpling for him!

In other news, I had my telephone appointment with my GP on Monday to discuss the results of all the blood samples they took last week. He seemed quite happy with virtually all the levels - kidney, liver, cholesterol etc and he said my PSA was so low that it was highly unlikely that, unlike my Dad, I would develop prostate cancer. Even those that were slightly elevated he felt were due to the drugs - mostly the statin - that I have been taking for a number of years now. He did say that he thought I must have been a bit hydrated when the bloods were taken - and it was just after a cycle on a hot day when I had had to walk my bike home after a puncture.

The one level that was higher than normal was my thyroid, which is a problem Lucy has been living with for a few years. My GP is going to do the blood tests again on Monday, just to be sure that my slight dehydration didn't distort anything - and also to conduct a physical examination of the pain I've been experiencing in my right kidney area.

On Wednesday, I picked up my new e-bike and went for my first ride on it on Thursday morning. It definitely takes a lot of the pain out of the hills which have been getting a bit tougher as the years are marching on, but it's not completely effortless - you have to pedal to get the power assist to work and the bike is twice as heavy as my non-aspirated one so it takes a bit more effort on the flat when the power is switched off. Once speed gets up to 25 kms, there is no power assistance. All in all, though, a nice experience and one that will hopefully help me do some longer, steeper rides, including ones I used to be able to do but now struggle with.

One unexpected downside was the news that Evans' Aberdeen store is closing in 2 weeks' time, leaving the nearest branches in Glasgow and Edinburgh, which is a bit of a logistical problem as my bike has to go back in after 6 weeks to check and adjust. I'll try and co-ordinate this with the Family get-together in Glasgow on 10th August.

We're now starting to think about holidays in 2020. We've already booked a local holiday in January - a week at Kilconquhar Castle (https://www.kilconquharcastle.co.uk/) in Fife. We have a 3 bedroom unit so we hope other members of the family will be able to join us at times.

As for our big trips to Australia and USA, we're thinking that perhaps around March and September may be best, avoiding the respective intense heats (and fires) of their summers.

Was that summer?

Finally we had a few hot, proper summery days but it seems to have taken a bit of a backward step today (Monday). It's cloudy and considerably cooler - and we've lost our water supply. Apparently it's a Scottish Water problem that they're working on.

I popped in to see our neighbours in the Unit Gym this morning - ostensibly to check that the water supply wasn't just our problem, but I also took the opportunity to ask them about the seagulls problem - and I took a sneaky look around just to be sure they weren't leaving food lying around. It seems everyone is baffled as to why the seagulls have arrived here - and have nested.

My big news from last week is that I finally took the plunge and went in to Evans Cycles in Aberdeen and ordered an e-bike. I'd always promised myself one once I got to 70 and I've done it now. I hope I'll keep on using my "analogue" bike on occasions but I notice all of my friends who've got an e-bike have never gone back to their conventional one. Time will tell whether I'll repeat this pattern.

I pick up the bike on Wednesday morning - here's what it looks like:

After our largely sedentary round the world trip, I've been getting a bit more active now:

Jo checks her fitbit stats regularly and shows them off to me - but there's no way she is sharing any of that information with the rest of the world. What she has been doing is transforming our rather "industrial" back garden to something altogether more green and flowery:

When Jo was doing the monthly Seniors lunch at church on Saturday, I took the opportunity to have my lunch outside - but I didn't quite get the camera angle right, did I?:

Tonight it's our annual trip to Balmoral for golf with our old squash pal Gary Coutts who is now the Head Keeper on the Royal estate. Might be a slow morning tomorrow.

Maudlin Monday

It's a dreich, dark, damp Monday morning. The forecasts of potential thunder and lightning storms overnight haven't happened but apparently there's another system on its way later this afternoon. As a result, I've cancelled plans for a cycle this morning and I've also rescheduled our annual Balmoral trip to next Monday in the hope of better weather.

I'm sitting downstairs in our office/studio and it's dark and gloomy down here. These are the longest days of the year - it's not supposed to be like this. We did, however, have a nice walk on Midsummer's Day on Friday in the Correen Hills north of Alford and the weather was a bit brighter then - and even more so yesterday when I golfed at Banchory on a lovely sunny morning. In fact, it was nice enough for us to sit out in the afternoon in the back garden next to our new shed/summerhouse. (Jo was doing some re-potting). Living in an island climate I guess we get used to such changeability.

Anyway, on to matters new since my last post. Jo's got a fitbit! I think we are both concerned that the weight we put on on our extended holiday isn't shifting and Jo, in particular, was concerned about her lack of regular exercise. She still tries to go swimming twice a week but her regular walks with her friend Anne seem to have come to a bit of a halt - partly due to the fact that Anne's just moved out to Drumoak and also that Anne's been poorly and is going in to hospital for an operation when she returns from holiday. The Fitbit is intended as a bit of a motivator - although Jo does like the fact that not only does it measure her daily steps, but also floors climbed, sleep pattern, heart rate - and it's a watch. She's just come running down the stairs, astonished that she even got a message from Mary on her Fitbit!

Lucy's Father's Day gift arrived on Friday - two cocktail sets. She must have thought we would be missing our usual summer of cocktails in the Oregon sun - and we are, so this is our refuge now:

As you can see, we started on the first one already. On Saturday night we made up the Blackberry and Pear Bramble:

Sunday night was a busy night on FaceTime for Jo. Lucy usual calls on Sunday - and she did - but she had to compete with Mary who was on for a while:

Brian and Mary and all the Whaleys are heading off on holiday to Italy soon to celebrate Brian's recent 70th birthday.

On a completely different tack, we've noticed a recent proliferation of seagulls in our street. What are they doing 17 miles inland? Perhaps they've been scared away from the tip? Anyway, they're a real pest, squawking away, scratching at our rooftops and defecating wherever they like - especially on top of our cars:

I had a bit of a senior moment on Thursday. I had arranged to get my bloods done as I've recently been suffering from some pain in my back when I move - roughly in the kidneys area. I cycled down for my appointment with the phlebotomist only to be told that my appointment is this coming Thursday! Doh!

I think that's it for now. I'll be heading down to the chemists (pharmacy for our American friends) soon to get some Beconase as we're in to the hay fever season now.

Still waiting

and so it goes on - the long wait for a proper British summer, that is. We get brief moments of promise - like yesterday (Sunday) morning, but, before you know it, the clouds roll over again.

Still, our Decades Challenge golf match and dinner went pretty well - 24 golfers and 32 diners all seemed to enjoy the occasion and the weather didn't intervene too much. We also dodged a few bullets last week when we were up in Ross and Sutherland playing Tain, Brora and Golspie. It was cool and windy but at least we missed the heavy rain that most of the rest of the country seemed to experience. Here I am at Golspie, suitably attired:

Not a lot else to report now - I saw Gary and Luca briefly yesterday - they popped over for Father's Day - just before I had to head off to the golf course for our "Decades Challenge". The spoils - chocolate cake - are being enjoyed today, however.

No word back from the Council on my campaign to resurrect the Corsee Road corner - "Bonnie Scotland" etc - but the gardeners have been busy filling all the adjacent flower beds. This one is in the War Memorial section:

Waiting for summer

The weather still hasn't picked up in Scotland - it's been another pretty dreich week and the outlook for next week isn't much better. Our strategy of combining our Australian and US holidays into one, missing the high heat of their summers, worked up to that point, but, so far, staying in Scotland all summer long doesn't appear to be working as well as we'd hoped. I've been warned by Jo, however, that we can't go on holiday again until we've lost the weight we put on when we were away. Could be a long wait.

Despite this, one short break I did book this week was our annual trip to the Edinburgh Fringe. It's only 2 nights and we've cut it back to just 5 shows this time:

Another holiday thing I stumbled across - we get Air Miles (Avios) through our Amex cards and once we've spent enough, we get a "Companion Voucher", which means Jo goes free. We've been using this for a number of years but I have been blindsided a bit this year, probably due to our big round the world trip, and I've suddenly realised one of these vouchers is due to expire on 29th October, 2019. It would be a great shame not to use it, but how could we possibly fit anything in at this late stage?

So this week I attended the Cardio Clinic at our local medical centre. As I indicated previously, cutbacks have reduced the effectiveness of this service and the gap between appointments has stretched out from annual to 18 months. The cholesterol check is now every 3 years - as it happens, I'll be due one next year. The bloods they take are to check on kidney function - to see whether they are being affected by the statins we take - and glucose levels. Unless I get a phone call in the next week, that'll be me until the end of next year then.

The bowel cancer screening results both came back negative for Jo and I. They have made the sampling a lot easier now with the new kits - I'll spare you the details.

Barry and Helen had their 25th wedding anniversary last weekend and they took a trip up the west coast to Mull and Inverary, amongst others. Barry sent me their "match report" and it seemed to be a pretty damp break for them, with the added problem of the infamous west coast midges. Here's a few of their photos:

Got a CAMRA branch meeting in Braemar this Saturday, then, on Monday, I head north for 3 consecutive days' golfing at Tain, Brora and Golspie - don't know how I'll get on with that. I have played 3 times this week - Sunday, Monday and Wednesday - but at least there was a rest day on Tuesday. The following Sunday - Father's Day, 16th June - I'm joining up with 2 golfing buddies for what we call a Decades Challenge match. Harry Salter will be 60 soon, I was 70 in March and Syd Freeman was 80 a few weeks ago. It looks like there will be 24 of us golfing and a few more for a buffet meal afterwards. It would be nice if the weather was kind to us.

Enough for now - going to finish off preparations for tonight's live show on River Dee Radio - hope you're all listening at 20:00 hours BST!

Another week, another birthday!

Last week it was Kelly and this week it's Lucy. Unlike her younger sister, it wasn't a notable "big" birthday for Lucy, but there was a significant change in her family circumstances this week - our eldest grandson has left home. Boy, that's another thing that makes Jo and I feel old.

Cade has rented a property in Grants Pass and he and his girlfriend Mel have now moved in, leaving poor Shelby behind. I guess that means that Scott and Lucy have now officially "adopted" her - Shelby that is, not Mel! They'll make sure that Cade and Shelby still see each other, however, even if it means driving Shelby out to Cade's work:

Anyway, happy birthday Lucy. We always remember with affection this photo of our chubby little one in her early days, resplendent in gingham:

Nothing much else to report now. We're going to St. Columba's on Saturday night for the French Night (which used to be the Malaysian Night). The organisers either weren't football fans or probably didn't realise it would clash with one of the biggest dates in the football calendar for a while - the meeting of two English teams in the Champions League final - Liverpool v Spurs.

Next week I've got my local visit to the Cardio Clinic. It used to be annual but they've stretched it out to at least 18 months now - and they've cut back on what they check - no cholesterol, liver count, PSA etc any more. I'll always attend any check-up anyone wants to do on me but there's no doubt the usefulness of the clinic has been diminished. Still, I've got my (private) cardiologist to see early August. I've kept this going even although I don't have any private health insurance now that I'm retired.

We're getting nearer the more intense period of the golf season now - June tends to be the busiest month and I don't think it will be any exception this year. So far I've only been playing once - maybe twice - each week and my knee has been coping OK. I stopped doing the intensive overseas holidays (6 days in a row) over a year ago and I seemed to cope at Boat of Garten recently when we played 2 days in a row, but, coming up soon - June 10th-12th - I've agreed to go on our Summer Tour to the Highlands and that means 3 days' golf in a row. Wonder how I'll manage then.

Wish the weather would heat up a bit though - it's been pretty cool and mixed so far this year. This is our first full summer in Banchory for a couple of decades and we were kind of hoping it might be a repeat of last year's scorcher, but no sign of it so far.

Kelly 40!

It's a slightly belated happy birthday - Aussie time - for Kelly, who is 40 today (Monday). Kelly was born at 44 Caldecot Way, Broxbourne, Herts EN10 6PH (yes I can still remember the postcode!) - the only home birth we/Jo had. Jo has more detailed memories of her being born in our bed upstairs in our little semi and the midwife, towels and hot water, but I'm afraid most of the details are a blur to me.

We don't have many photos of Kelly when she was newly born, but this was her christening party:

It's very sad to see how many of this group are, for one reason or another, no longer in our lives.

I also remember this wet caravan holiday when Kelly was still quite young:

and this one from a camping holiday with the Hansons in France when she was ill with chickenpox:

Coincidentally, just yesterday when Jo and I were driving down to Blair Atholl (more of that later), I wondered out loud whether we should take a trip back to Benodet in Brittany where we spent a couple of camping holidays in the mid-late 70's? Need to mull that one over.

For those not on Facebook, here's Kelly celebrating her birthday on holiday in Bali:

So, what else is new since my last post? Well, Braeden turned 15 on May 8th and immediately sat - and passed - his written driving exam which allows him to drive as long as there is an adult over 21 sitting beside him:

Solid built like his Dad - we noticed the difference in him this year.

Two days after that I travelled down to Perth to meet up with some of my old school chums again. We'd previously met in Edinburgh (twice), Glasgow and Dundee - initially just the 3 of us, but this time 6 of us managed along. Here's the original three:

Next meeting will probably be in Stirling in autumn.

The day after this meeting, I took a drive up to my old stamping ground of Fraserburgh to attend a CAMRA branch meeting. I'd obviously missed a few when we were on our world tour so felt I had to attend this one even although the timing and location were far from ideal. It was a Saturday so there was nobody in the offices at the factories where I used to work, but I drove round there anyway to take a look. I was a little shocked at the entrance where new steel gates and turnstiles had been erected - they are obviously having some security issues. It was a pleasant enough afternoon but it reminded me that I didn't miss the 110 mile return trip.

That Saturday evening we had dinner at Anne and Leslie Mason's new house in Drumoak - very nice. The following morning, I was off to Grantown-on-Spey and Boat of Garten for the first of our twice yearly golf outings there. This was our 67th outing there:

Despite a few relatively younger ones joining in in recent years, the onset of time is all too obvious in the photo above - particularly when comparing with photos from the early years in the mid-80's. At least we're still here however - three of our group have now passed.

Continuing on the ageing theme, here's some of our walking group on the hills round Ballater last Friday:

A little bit younger - but not much.

After a week of beautiful dry, sunny weather, it was a great disappointment to travel down to Edinburgh on Saturday to watch the Scotland - Sri Lanka cricket match only for it to be rained off. We didn't even see one ball bowled.

On Sunday, Jo and I drove over to Blair Atholl to meet up with Barry, Helen and Dawn who were all camping at Blair Castle Caravan Park. We had dinner at the Atholl Arms Hotel, after which we took a team/family photo outside the hotel:

I am getting all too aware of my ageing body which hurts after every activity now it seems. Just this morning (Monday) I drove back down the road again to Blairgowrie to meet our IFA and play golf. As soon as I was home, I was nodding off on my chair. Last week, I applied a couple of coats of treatment to our new shed/summer house - thankfully that little chore, although a little awkward due to its location, didn't also immediately render me horizontal, but that's about the extent of my pain-free activities now.

Continuing on the nostalgia theme, Jo and I both recently joined the Banchory Heritage Facebook group. There's some interesting stuff posted on this group and I've used them to start my campaign to resurrect the flower beds that used to be on the old railway embankment at the corner of Corsee Road. Remember "Bonnie Banchory"? The displays would change from time to time - this one's "Scotland's for Me":

The old railway line that crossed the North Deeside Road closed in 1966 and the bridge over the road was taken down soon after this, but we discovered from the Facebook page that the bridge wasn't quite high enough and they had to lower the road underneath it to let some of the taller vehicles to pass under the bridge. This, however, had the knock-on effect of creating a mini-pond whenever there was heavy rain, viz:

To close, another look back to the past - specifically to our early married life. We didn't have much money and meals were pretty simple and basic, but we always looked forward to a Friday night when our treat would be a Vesta packet curry bought from Grandfare in Glasgow:

We knew how to live.