Spring is here?

It certainly looks like - and occasionally feels like - spring, but we're told that an Arctic blast is on the way tomorrow with snow and ice forecast - even to lower levels. Not quite the end of hibernation yet then, although Covid restrictions are slowly easing over the next few weeks and with our second vaccinations not too far away now, perhaps we can look forward to a brighter year than 2020 was? I mentioned beore that we'd cancelled all our short trips and I'm guessing it will be nigh on impossible to get replacement bookings for several months as apparently there has been a huge surge in "staycation" bookings. We have also moved our flights to USA again. Originally we were booked to go last September but we then had to put this off until March, then move it to June and now it's September. We'll see how things progress. It would be nice to think it would be safe for us to travel later this year, but we've had so many false dawns that we have to remain sceptical - although hopeful too. Anyway, here's a couple of photos of Jo's 70th that I omitted to post earlier:

Today (Easter Sunday) we'll be popping over to Inverurie to drop off Luca's Easter Egg. Later on this afternoon, we've got another virtual CAMRA beer tasting - this time it's a beer and chocolate matching. Who would have thought of such a thing? We're intrigued - and it helps pass the lockdown days. Here's what we'll be sampling:

The golf season has now officially started but the first month at Banchory has been disrupted a bit by the long period of ice we had on the ground in January/February, as a result of which we only have 16 holes in play and over half of those are on temporary greens. Still, it was nice to get back out there again on a bright Thursday afternoon. When I was away golfing, Jo took the opportunity to spruce up the flower beds out back:

Now for the medical report. Jo's week of recording her blood pressure has resulted in the medical practice now asking her to wear a monitor for 24 hours, starting on Tuesday. She's done this before and they saw no problem then, so hopefully it'll be the same this time. I got my stitches out on Thursday and the wound in my chest looks good and clean and seems to have healed up nicely. I'm due to book another blood test this week, 6 weeks after the last one. Like Jo, fingers crossed that all will be well and there will be no need for any further follow-up. That's all for now.

Septuagenarians

Well, that's two of us in Arbor Court in our 70's now. Despite not being able to go anywhere just now, Jo had a fairly busy birthday yesterday. After her usual long Saturday video call with sister Mary, her friend and former neighbour Anne Mason showed up with flowers and an orchid, then our afternoon picnic box arrived from the Birdhouse:

We managed about half of it - and we've started on the other half today. We toasted Jo's birthday with some fizz - Prosecco this time. Today, Gary and Luca came round after Luca's (non-contact) football practice and we had a spot of lunch out back:

Last night, we sampled one of the cocktails Lucy sent - Pina Colada this time - but we've still to break in to Mary's gift of gin from the isle of Raasay:

Prior to all this we also had CAMRA's Great British Beer Festival Winter on Friday when we attended a (virtual) tutored tasting of pale ales and IPA's. Too much alcohol? Possibly. Back to Luca - his latest football top is Manchester United's away strip:

On medical matters, Jo has finished her week of recording her blood pressures and has submitted them to the local practice. As for me, I attended hospital this morning and had the basal cell carcinoma on my chest removed - a very simple procedure, but as I have stitches in now for the next 10 days, I've been advised not to play golf yet, which is a pity. Otherwise all seems well.

Mother's Day post

It's Mother's Day in the UK today - Jo got a "Slabb" of chocolate from Carole, who, thoughtfully added a lolly for me so I wouldn't feel left out! That's Mother's Day sorted, but what can we do for Jo's big birthday next Saturday? Two years ago, for my 70th, we went on an extravagant, extended holiday, which included a circumlocution of the globe and a cruise, but there's no chance of replicating that this time - we can't even do a short Staycation yet. In fact, we were due to have an overnight at the Hotel du Vin, St. Andrews at the start of this month, but obviously that had to be cancelled - as did our trip to Oban and Mull later this month - plus afternoon tea at Craigellachie. All of these were Itison deals, so they have been cancelled and our account is now in credit. Hopefully we'll be able to do these trips later on. All we can do just now is get out for regular walks - thankfully the weather's been kind to us, as witnessed by this shot of Jo at the former Inchmarlo golf course:

Gary's got a new (to him) car so he returned Jo's car last Saturday whilst delivering a chocolate cake to me for my birthday. We got to see Gary, Carole and Luca in the flesh for the first time in ages - albeit briefly. Of course, Jo's car's M.o.T. was out of date so I've booked it in for this and servicing this coming Friday, which I've since realised is the same day as the start of the Great British Beer Festival Winter (our beers for this arrived a few days ago). Coincidentally, my car was booked in for a product recall and MoT on 1st March, which meant heading in to Aberdeen, so I took the opportunity to take my bike with me and cycled round Aberdeen on what was a beautifully sunny day. I headed over to Nigg Bay first of all to check on progress on the major new harbour project. From there, round the main harbour, Footdee, coffee at Inversnecky, along the beach and out to Brig o' Balgownie again:

That was Monday. On Tuesday, I had my first game of golf this year, with the course finally open after two months of being under ice and snow. Wednesday, of course, was Cade and Audrey's wedding which we were unable to attend in person, but we got some live video and lots of photos as well, which was some compensation. That same day, I had my appointment for blood tests as part of my annual review. I've since been asked to do them again in 6 weeks' time as one of the results (kidney) was (just) outwith the recommended parameters. On Friday that week, we had arranged a Sicilian wine and cheese Zoom session, which we set up in the study/studio/office:

There were Italian meats and olives to nibble on as well, but the biggest hits with us were the white wine (which we've since bought more of) and the olive oil, which really surprised us at how nice it was. Spring feels like it's here already - certainly everywhere on our walks we increasingly notice crocuses, snowdrops and even daffodils are beginning to bloom:

One other, not so nice effect of the onset of better weather and longer days is the return of the gulls. The last two years when we returned from Australia, we found seagulls had invaded Arbor Court and set up nests for their young. This year we had the chance of taking some pre-emptive action before they were properly settled in:

Initial results of these bird scarers were pretty good but we notice the gulls are back again - perhaps not so many and not so close this time, but they're definitely around. It's not as noisy as before but we've had our first "dumps" on our cars as they fly overhead. What are they doing here anyway? I got a birthday box of food from the Milton, courtesy of Lucy:

That kept us going for a few days! Dawn sent us another photo of Avery - apparently it was Ellis who did her hair this day!:

Jo and I took another short drive to Crathes to go for a walk on Thursday and I took this slightly unusual view of the castle through the gardens:

Saturday (yesterday) is sports day for me - football, golf and rugby - and Mary day for Jo. The sisters' online chats often last 4-5 hours! As well as watching the sport in my "den", I took the opportunity for another indoor Wahoo cycle and chose Oregon again - Cow Creek this time:

I've now completed 4 of my new memory shows, which are currently available as podcasts which I provide for the Forget-Me-Not Club in Banchory, but one of my old school pals has also sent it to his local Dementia Support group in Dunblane. So far, I've done this week in 1971, 1963, 1981 and now 1990. I get through a lot of stuff in this 30 minute show - TV, radio, sport, music, books, film and local, national and international events. Here's the link for the 1990 show if anyone would like to listen - https://www.mixcloud.com/River_Dee_Radio/that-was-the-week-that-was-4-we-10-march-1990/

Bringing it up to date

It's been 17 days since my last post so it's definitely time to bring this blog up to date again. When I last posted on 8th February, we'd had some snow but more was to arrive in the following days - probably the best snow we've had for years - it was soft, fluffy and pretty dry - very nice to look at and even walk through - much better than the ice that had remained stubbornly on the ground since late December. I'm glad we bought crampons this year which allowed us to get out for occasional walks on the ice. The snow was much easier to cope with, however and it was pretty to look at, especially as the sun shone a lot of the time:

It got very cold the week of that snow - we awoke to a temperature of -12C and it was even colder the further up the Dee Valley you went, with Braemar again getting the record. Despite all this, we managed to get along to get our vaccinations - Astra Zenica as it turned out. Jo was fine but I did suffer a bit of a reaction - I didn't sleep well that night and for the following 48 hours I was feeling a little flu-like - tiredness, headaches etc - but it soon passed. Surprisingly, 46 year old Gary has now also been jabbed/jagged - not sure why he was chosen at this stage, but he was never going to refuse it, was he? The weather has much improved since those days of snow - almost spring-like this week, allowing us to get out for more regular walks and for me to get back outside on the bike again - with Colin on my (analogue) hybrid and with Keith on the e-bike:

Of course, I've been using my new bike trainer occasionally as well. The software I'm using just now is called Rouvy and they had a route through the Applegate Valley in Oregon, past a number of the wineries we've been to - good fun. Our golf course is open again at last - I think it was closed with snow and ice for 55 days or so - the longest continuous period I can remember. Ironically, unlike England and many other countries, golf is still permitted in Scotland. I've not been tempted out yet, but maybe soon if the weather holds up. We've now passed our Shakespeare jigsaw to Dawn - that should keep her busy for a while. Our follow-up was the album covers jigsaw - it turned out to be a very easy one to complete, but it did provide the benefit of a piece of art for the wall in our downstairs office/studio/exercise room. We used ClipArt to frame and hang it. The big challenge after that was identifying all the artistes and albums - all 214 of them. I enlisted the help of our Headbanging group and we got there in the end, thankfully. An old school photo I hadn't seen for years appeared on Facebook recently:

That was 1964 - the year I turned 15. Can you spot me? Otherwise, to maintain our sanity, although we have regular routines, I have also been looking for occasional distractions. We've already done a few wine tastings and some beer ones too, then last weekend, we went online to Granite Noir - an annual crimewriters' festival that takes place in Aberdeen but this year it had to be virtual. Ian Rankin, Stuart MacBride, Jo Nesbo and Camilla Läckberg were ones we attended, but we missed the David Baldacci one we'd intended to watch. We've got a Wine and Cheese evening next Friday, but 2 days before that it's Cade and Audrey's wedding which Lucy is going to put on live Messenger so that we can watch proceedings as they happen. I've also been putting my toe in the water with a vinyl club, who send me a new heavyweight pressing of an iconic album each month. In view of the ongoing restrictions, I've had to cancel a few reservations we had which were imminent - St. Andrews next week, Mull at the end of March and afternoon tea at Craigellachie. Hopefully we'll have the opportunity to re-book them later on in the year. We had a nice Indian meal delivered to us on Valentine's Day, but what are we going to be able to do for Jo's 70th next month? Facebook reminded me this morning of the world tour we did for my 70th two years ago - a photo of us on Robben Island with Table Mountain in the background:

Tomorrow (Friday) I'm hosting our music group's second Headbang this year, then on Saturday, the podcast of a new show I'm trialling for future broadcast on River Dee Radio will be available on Mixcloud. It's a reminiscence show, covering events of this week in previous years - film, TV, theatre, music, sport, literature, current affairs - a snapshot of all of these in a 30 minute show. It's tentatively titled That Was The Week That Was - a homage to the satirical TV show of that name from the early '60's. Last week it was 1971 and this week it's 1963. It's a show that could also be of use in care homes etc for dementia patients. I think that's me up to date now.

New week, new snow

New post in a new week and we have new show this morning. Proper snow this time. I've just been down to the bottle bank and I had to move several inches of snow from the car - soft fluffy stuff on top, then slabs of frozen snow underneath. It's beautiful outside just now, but it appears there's going to be more snow. Thankfully we have all wheel drive so it's not really a problem getting about - not that we're doing much of that. We're sticking to the essential travel only, including exercising as close to home as possible. I know a lot of people are interpreting this differently - staying within Aberdeenshire but travelling as far as Loch Muick, Dinnet and even Braemar for their exercise. I am making a point of starting and moving the car at least once a week, however, but we don't drive very far at all - just enough to give the battery a little boost and to make sure the brakes haven't seized. Last Monday's drive to Crathes - all of 3 miles - was the longest we've undertaken recently. I can't remember why, but at our Friday night Footballers' Zoom call - and also the previous evening's call with Barry, Helen and Dawn - where Dad and I used to work came up:

I started work there in 1972 - Dad had already been there for a few years. I think the site would only have opened in the late '60's, but not long after we returned from our spell down south, Buchanan's/Distillers/Diageo were out of there - possibly the early '80's? The site and the tower block where I worked for 18 months or so before the move to head office in London, is still there, of course, but it's now a multi-purpose business park. This morning's post brought our new jigsaw puzzle:

I was originally thinking I may keep this one once we've completed it and put it on the wall in the office/studio, but we need to find something to lay it on first. I've just finished another brew with my Pinter kit (https://thegreatergood.co.uk/) so now it's in the garage for conditioning for a few days. The last one I did was a stout and it was good - I'm hoping this IPA works out well. It's kind of cheat/shortcut brewing and not particularly cheap but when the pubs are all shut and there's no real ale available, it's the next best thing. To stave off the continuing lockdown boredom, I've also bought tickets to two upcoming CAMRA (virtual) events: Great British Beer Festival (Winter) - 19-21 March; and Beer and Chocolate Tasting - 4 April

At last

In today's post - 2 blue envelopes. So we're both going to Banchory Sports Centre a week tomorrow (Thursday 11th) to get our first vaccinations and they seem to have co-ordinated the timing for couples as Jo and I are just 7 minutes apart. The envelopes came from Livingston so it's been centrally organised and we can't blame Grampian for the delay. Typically, the Central Belt was dealt with first - friends in Edinburgh and Glasgow got their letters over a week ago. In other news, nothing much else has changed. No surprise there, especially considering it was Groundhog Day yesterday. Surprised the movie wasn't aired anywhere. Same routines for us and the same weather - it remains cold and it looks like it's going to stay that way for a while, judging by the forecast:

The replacement rod for my Kickr Snap bike trainer arrived on Monday so the bike's all set up now:

I've had a couple of (very) brief shots on it, mainly to find out how it all works and how to tailor and pair the various pieces of hardware and software. I've been using Strava for my outdoor bike rides so I've now paired this with the Wahoo trainer. Most indoor cyclists use Zwift so I'm also pairing that with Wahoo plus my Garmin Approach watch. Confused? You're not alone. Anyway, back to the daily routine. We awoke on Monday morning to some fresh lying snow. It was another beautiful, still, sunny day so we thought we'd take a walk round Crathes estate. I posted some photos on Facebook, but here's a couple that escaped that medium:

That's about it for now.

Waiting, waiting

I've been told not to be so impatient - by, of all people, Jo. Every day this week I've opened our mailbox looking for a letter from our NHS telling me when and where to go for my first Covid-19 vaccine, but nothing so far. We were told all the over 70's letters would be out this week and my old school friend in Edinburgh got his on Monday and another old school friend in Glasgow got his on Tuesday. We always seem to be the last in line. I'm not really anxious about it - I'm sure it'll come soon, although we never did get our flu jab letters this winter - the new centralised system in Livingston screwed up, but thankfully our local GP practice recognised this and sorted it out eventually. Of more immediate frustration today was that my exercise plans went awry. It's been cold since the turn of the year and the ice won't leave the ground. I was hoping for a short cycle today but we had to cancel again - too slippy. I've only been out once this year - and that was only for a short - and slightly precarious - ride. Never mind, let's resort to plan B then. I had ordered a Wahoo Kickr Snap, just like Barry's got, and it arrived today:

I set it all up easily enough and put my mountain bike on and tried it out - all OK. Then I thought I'd try and fit my hybrid to see which one was better to train on. That's when it all went wrong. You have to take out the skewer rod on the back wheel of your bike and put in the Wahoo skewer, but when I got near to tightening it, the rod snapped! I've contacted Wahoo support and hope that they can send a replacement fairly quickly. A much more successful day yesterday - we got our jigsaw finished!:

Tricky one, but very satisfying once it's done. I've now ordered another one. Have you noticed that they - like all other lockdown distractions - have gone up in price? Monday was Burns night, but we didn't have a haggis in the house - the Tesco delivery came on Tuesday. Undaunted, Jo made Scotch Broth, Cranachan and shortbread - lovely. We sat in to Janey Godley's (virtual) Burns Night on You Tube and toasted the bard with a dram:

What was it?:

The chocolate orange and the shortbread took a hit as well, as did the latest brew from my new home brew Pinter:

Last week we had the misfortune to have two power cuts, the latter of which was planned. There was a big blowout in the sub-station at Burnett Park east - just a couple of hundred yards away - and we lost power from 4 pm until after 11 pm, so it was candlelit sandwiches, crisps and a bottle of wine for our tea. SSEN eventually brought along a large truck generator to get power back temporarily, but then they had to switch back to main power on Friday - and that's when we lost power again - once more at tea-time, so it was another sandwich meal for us. It was all very localised - only 55 houses were affected:

As I said at the start,temperatures have been low this year and it's been icy, but we've had very little snow and most days it's been bright, sunny and still. The only morning recently that we've woken up to fresh snowfall was last Wednesday - and even then, it wasn't much:

Ironically, Scotland - unlike England - has allowed us to carry on playing golf. If only - our course has been under constant ice all year:

Too icy even for the families that normally use the downslope at the 3rd hole (opposite us) for ski-ing, snowboarding and sledging. An ambulance had to be called last week when some idiot tried to walk over the above scene and fell and broke their leg. Jo and I have been getting out for walks a couple of times per week and it's got much easier since our over-shoe crampons arrived. When I go for my Sunday paper, Jo's doing a church service online so I often take a bit of a detour to get some exercise. Did you know we had a castle in the centre of Banchory?:

(Just above the Derbar Indian restaurant). To close, a couple of photos of some of the younger members of our extended family. First, Miller and Asher on the new "egg" chair:

Then another one of Avery, chasing bubbles at her playgroup:

That's all for now, folks.

2021 starts here

Is it really 12 days since I last blogged? Let's see if I can remember what's happened so far this year. First of all - par for the course - the gas engineer never showed on Hogmanay. We got a message to say he's been held up at an emergency job, but he did turn up on New Year's Day - partly to our surprise. He soon fixed the radiator which wasn't faulty after all - all that was wrong was that there was another valve on the opposite side of the radiator that had been closed. Who knew? Not me anyway - it must have been the previous engineer that did it unknown to me. Hogmanay was a long session for us. First of all we had our usual Zoom call with Barry, Dawn and Helen, which traditionally involves a G & T for starters followed by wine. Dawn showed us another photo of Avery leaving their apartment block:

Then, at 11pm, we Zoomed again - this time with Anne/Leslie and Colin/Johanne, the couples we normally see the bells in with. More wine, of course, then Prosecco at midnight. We finally got to bed about 2 am - not ridiculous, but much later than normal. We both felt just a touch seedy on New Year's Day, but that didn't stop us from enjoying our traditional steak pie dinner - lovely. With Ne'erday falling on a Friday, the weekend passed as it usually does - lots of football on TV, Sunday papers, roll and bacon for lunch, so it was Monday before we were active again when we went for a walk along the river. Despite the cold and frozen surfaces, the outward part was easy enough on the tracks. On the way back, however, we were mostly on tarmac and that was pretty treacherous in places. The Government announcements of further restrictions had been widely forecast and I had acted accordingly, ordering a 1,000 piece jigsaw to keep us busy during lockdown. It arrived on the 12th day when we were taking our decorations down - all except the external lights on the balcony, which Jo insisted should stay there to cheer everyone up. During our Zoom call on the 7th, Helen mentioned a couple of clever photos Barry had taken:

Look carefully at the reflections in the bauble and the drips. Dawn also showed us DJ's new home:

By now, I was suffering from a new back pain. I had consulted our GP last year about sharp pains I was getting in my upper right back - near the shoulder blade. He thought it was probably spurs on the spine that grow with age and nip away at the nerves when you move in certain directions. He offered me some pain medication and suggested I take up Pilates, which Jo and I have been doing regularly ever since. Whilst that had abated, a new pain near my right hip had now emerged and, despite spending hours on Google, I couldn't find anything that matched the symptoms, until our weekly Zoom call with Lucy on Sunday when she instantly suggested it was probably my sacroiliac (S.I.) joint. As soon as I started reading about it, it seemed to me that this was almost certainly the cause of the pain I was experiencing. If you - like me - didn't know where your SI joint was, this may help:

You Tube is very good at instructional videos, so this is what I'm now working on - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNTwuBUtG24. The issue is not yet fully resolved but, at last, I am getting some relief from the pain - thank goodness. Ironically, it seems that it's been the Pilates that has brought this particular problem on, so I'm taking some time out from it for the time being, which means that Jo's doing it on her own now. I was out for a couple of shortish walks at the weekend but it's been too icy the last couple of days and I don't want to risk it just now. I think that's it for now.

Hogmanay

It's Hogmanay morning and it's still cold here. We're waiting for the gas service engineer to arrive - one of our radiator thermostats isn't working and they're going to do the annual service at the same time. It looks like the cold weather is going to be here for a while. The pavements are pretty icy but the forest trails are all clear - in fact, they're mostly soft, so we're still able to get out for some exercise. It's been an incredible winter so far - I can't remember one with so little wind. It's almost eerie - every day is calm and still. Even yesterday when we had a tiny bit of snow as Jo and I were coming to the end of our walk, the snowflakes were falling so gently and slowly down to the ground - it was like a Hollywood movie. We managed our international Xmas Eve/Xmas Day Zoom call OK, which was nice. It was our quietest Christmas dinner ever - just the two of us:

We drove over to Inverurie to deliver the presents to Gary, Carole and Luca, including Luca's 14th birthday present (30th December). We stood outside their back door and had a chat for 5 minutes before the cold set in and it was time to go - but not before Carole gave us 2 slices of her traditional Christmas desert - lime cheesecake. She hadn't had time to fully decorate it with chocolate sauce but Jo added some sprinkles - and it was as good as ever:

My presents from Gary and Carole were cycling related:

Boxing Day was our 48th anniversary but there were no special celebrations or gift exchanges. Our task was to reduce the pile of excess food left over from the previous day - and we made a pretty good fist of it. We had another go on Sunday as well, so when we awoke on a beautiful clear Monday morning, we decided we needed to get out early for some exercise, so I suggested we take a walk up Hill of Fare. Now Jo is well known for her dislike of any hills, but she had earlier asked me about a hill-walk me and my pals had done earlier this year - Tap o' Noth and the ancient Pictish fort at the top - did I think she could make it up there? So I thought - let's try an easy local hill first. The approach to Hill of Fare from the easterly side near Dunecht allows a relatively gentle spiral approach to the top and I was pretty sure this was well within Jo's capabilities - and so it transpired, despite her usual moans and groans. Here's a few of the photos I took:

Looking north towards Bennachie and south towards Clach-na Beinn:

We could see the snow-capped mountains to the west but my camera battery had expired and all I had was my phone camera which didn't have the necessary zoom capacity. The early start to our walk meant we were back home in good time for lunch. Since then, not a lot has changed to our daily and weekly routines. I had my fortnightly CAMRA social last night and tonight we have our regular Thursday evening session with Dawn, Barry and Helen, after which we are going to see the bells in - virtually, of course - with the Masons and the Kilgours, who we normally dine with at this time. Have a good time everyone - and take care.