Down Under 2024

Well, the sickies finally made it to Chris' and Kelly's. We got picked up by taxi (driver - Attila!) at 2:30 pm on Tuesday with further snow threatening. The roads were passable and our driver was canny so no issues and we arrived at the airport in good time for our connection to Heathrow, which, thankfully, wasn't running too late - unlike a number of other services from Aberdeen.

Plenty of time at London too and again the plane was only a little late in departing for Sydney via Singapore. We had been a little confused as we only had one boarding pass each, which said LHR-SYD with no mention of Singapore. Were we going to stop there? If so, do we stay on the plane or get off for a bit? The answer was the latter - we had approximately 90 minutes stop at Singapore - barely enough time to make it to the lounge and back in time to go through another security check.

It was the same plane, same seats - but we'd had to remove our stuff so that it could be cleaned. We survived the second long flight, despite the ever-changing times - was our next meal supper or breakfast? Should I really have a gin and tonic with my breakfast cereal?

We got to Sydney in very good time and were lucky enough to get through passport control, immigration and baggage collection quickly. So quickly, in fact, that we could have caught a much earlier domestic flight to Adelaide than our scheduled 11:10 am departure. It meant a further 3 + hours wait in the airport (no lounge access now!) but we got through that ok and Kelly met us at Adelaide and drove us home to Old Noarlunga. It was now Thursday afternoon - almost exactly 2 full days on the clock since we left Banchory - albeit we were now ten and a half hours ahead.

We both felt not too bad at this point, despite the long journey and our lingering bugs. We slept pretty well in our newly created room in the outhouse next to the pool - call it our isolation ward - but felt a bit rough on Friday. Thankfully, we had no plans to do anything exciting then anyway, but we did manage lunch with Kelly, Miller and Asher at the local Sushi Train franchise.

On Saturday, Jo was still struggling with her cough and I seemed to be going backwards - I now had a sore throat and had lost my voice. Chris and I did manage the very short walk to the main road through the village to watch the Tour Down Under whizz by - but that didn't take very long at all. Here I am watching the start of the peleton go by (red shorts and light top):

The boys were in the pool - again. Kelly and Chris supervising:

We went to pick up beer and throat medication later on and that was that.

Jo had a bad night but I felt a good deal better on Sunday. I sat on the lounger in the morning and took in some rays while watching the boys in the pool. Here's a reflective view:

We all travelled over to Aldgate in the afternoon to view the piece of land that Chris and Kelly had bought to build their new house, but the boys had to be bribed so we paid a return visit to Melba's Chocolate Factory first of all:

We skipped the adjacent cheese factory and headed over to Aldgate to picnic on the bare land, now owned by Chris and Kelly:

Sunday evening now and it's back to work tomorrow for Chris - and Kelly too, although she mostly works from home. It's the final week of the boys' summer holidays coming up - it's back to school for them in just over a week's time.

First post of 2024

Happy New Year everyone! Although it's not been a great time for us - both Jo and I have been ill. Christmas was OK - Gary and Luca made it over to ours for dinner, overnight and presents (Luca loves retrieving them from under the tree and handing them out - especially his own):

Here's Jo in her new cosy jammies:

Gary and a reluctant Luca did get up and do the Boxing Day Fun Run in the morning:

A couple of days' later, Jo had to go to Elderslie to join Mary and Julie at the ballet, so I drove her down - I couldn't stay because I had a hospital appointment the following morning. We travelled on a day when we really shouldn't have - there was a storm forecast. The journey down was slow-ish - especially as we neared Dunblane, where the roads were flooded. As a result, when we arrived at Brian and Mary's, I just had time for a very quick cup of tea and sandwich and then I was off back up the road again.

All was good until I got to Dundee and the signs were saying the main road north was closed, so I decided to head up one of the coastal roads via Arbroath. No joy - they were both shut too, so it was back to Dundee to join the huge queue who were being detoured by the police round narrow country roads. It took 3 hours to travel 10 miles and even when I did eventually get back near Banchory, the main N. Deeside road was closed. I did finally get home - via a dodgy, flooded S. Deeside road - but the return journey had taken over 7 hours.

My morning hospital appointment turned out to be a waste of time as the consultant still hadn't received copies of my MRI scan from the NHS radiologist team - so I could have spent the night in Elderslie after all. I spent some time wandering round Aberdeen anyway, taking my first walk down to the refurbished Union Terrace Gardens lower level:

I visited the statue erected of locally born former footballer Denis Law - my all-time sporting hero:

Near there, I discovered there was a wall of "Everyday Heroes":

Then the following morning, it was back in the car and down to Elderslie again to pick up Jo. Thankfully the journey passed much more smoothly this time. The only thing we may have picked up was Brian's cold.

The following day, I was, naturally, a little tired but it was the start of me coming down with whatever bug/virus I had picked up. On Hogmanay morning we had to cancel our planned trip out to Drumoak for our usual dinner with the Masons and Kilgours. It was the 3rd year in a row we'd had to cancel - not all our fault.

We advised Gary and Luca not to come over on New Years' Day - and Ross hadn't made it either so our dinner was a bit of a low key and lonely affair:

I spent most of the rest of that week in bed. There was a Headbang on Friday night but I had to run it remotely, instead of enjoing the company - and curries - with the others out at Potarch:

I started to feel a bit more human that weekend - albeit still coughing like mad (still am) - but it was now Jo's turn to suffer the same illness. We were due to be having lunch in Dundee with 2 of my old school pals and their wives this Thursday, but that has now been cancelled too. We're due to go over to Inverurie on Saturday for dinner with Gary and Luca, but that must be a little doubtful now as well.

Oh - and my consultant did eventually manage to set eyes on my MRI scan (but not the report) and phoned to let me know. It showed that the arthritis on the medial (inner) side of my knee was more extensive than had showed up on the initial X-ray. (The lateral and rear parts of the knee are in good order). The question is what to do about it? He dismissed injections and another arthroscopy and came down to the conclusion that I either live with it and just avoid the things I do that cause the pain (golf, hill-walking) or consider a partial knee replacement - either private or NHS. Need to think.

The one great bit of news was that little Kendall got through her heart operations OK and seems to be recovering well. Braeden got home for the holidays and was delighted to meet up with his niece.

Can't wait to head off to Australia next Tuesday.

December so far

Well, I got my MMR vaccine on Monday. When I asked if I should expect any reaction, I was told "sore arm, fever, rash". Thankfully, none of those have yet occurred. What I didn't realise, however, is that this was the first dose of two - I have to go back on 3rd January for the 2nd one.

Jo and I had a brief overnight stay in St. Andrews on Wednesday. We stayed at Rusack's Hotel which looks on to the 18th and first fairways of the Old Course and out across West Sands (where the famous race in Chariots of Fire was filmed) to the sea:

It was a beautiful, still clear day - albeit freezing. We met up with Barry, Helen and Dawn who had booked in to a nearby B & B - in fact, they were waiting for us in our hotel when we arrived. We had a light lunch and then set out on a walk out to the clifftop caravan site at the other end of town where Mum and Dad had taken Barry, Dawn and I on holiday 60 years ago.

We walked past the castle, cathedral and harbour on the way:

We then looked for the spot where I took the family photo in summer, 1963:

So we decided that the 3 of us should line up in the same order as this one, taken back in the 1950's:

Not much has changed, eh? Here's some other photos taken on our walk:

This line-up was in height order

On the way back we walked round St Andrews' streets, stopping briefly at Innes' bookshop, which, sadly, is closing after 144 years in business. Coffee and scones followed and then it was back to our accommodations. We met again in the evening and had dinner at Forgan's:

That's all from me for now.

November 2023

Happy St. Andrews Day!

For those on Facebook, there were plenty photos from our recent theatre trip to London, so I won't repeat them here. It was a short (2 nights) trip but a really nice one. We went to Tina, the Musical, the Van Gogh Experience and Cabaret. All were excellent - especially the last-named, although it comes with a word of caution as you have to be fairly broad minded. Like the film, it's set in decadent pre-war Berlin, but it's not quite as sanitised.

Last Saturday, I made my first trip to Firhill for a while to see Thistle comfortably beat Queen's Park in a Scottish Cup tie. Nice day - but a long one, leaving the house before 8 am and not getting home until 10 pm. It would have been even later if Jo hadn't driven in to Aberdeen to pick me - and Ross, who was travelling up from Edinburgh to meet his pals - up. Here's the hallowed ground:

Then, last Sunday, we finally made it along to Craigellachie. We had booked to go there over 3 years ago but the prolonged lockdowns etc meant we never made it until now. We were a little unlucky in our timing as it turned out that they couldn't do one of their themed whisky tastings as their "Quaichmaster" was off on holiday - and there was a double whammy when we were told on arrival that the famous Quaich bar with all the whiskies would not be open either due to staff absences. We were able to get a sneak look however:

It's a lovely room - perhaps another time.

We arrived on Sunday afternoon, checked in then went for a short walk to the old Telford bridge:

My earlier version of this was taken from the beach below but Jo wanted to include the towers at either end of the bridge - I managed to get one of them in this selfie.

In the heart of Speyside - whisky country - we weren't surprised to see this on our walk:

We had a really nice meal on Sunday evening in the hotel's Copper Dog bar. After breakfast on Monday morning we had originally planned to go for a walk along the adjacent Speyside Way to Aberlour and back, but the weather beat us, so, instead, we decided to go for a drive along the north coast. First stop was Cullen, which sits in a lovely rocky bay with a large viaduct as the backdrop. In between the showers there was some really bright sunshine and we saw a photo opportunity as the sun shone on the white waves crashing on the rocks but just missed the best of the light:

Next stop was Sandend where we saw some lovely small shorefront properties. The wind and waves were whipping up the sea foam on to the shore:

We drove on through Portsoy to Banff and MacDuff. By now, we were ready for a coffee stop, but didn't see anything worthwhile so headed south and eventually got a nice cafe for a spot of lunch in Turriff.

Yesterday (Wednesday) we finally got our Hep A top-up in advance of our trip to Bali in February. We'd had the first vaccine nearly 4 years ago, in preparation for going to Bali then, but Covid intervened and we had to cancel. One issue that the pharmacy did raise was the question of measles immunity. Jo's pretty certain she had it as a child but I don't remember having it, so I've now been referred to the vaccine centre as the disease has been growing again in the UK, following the drop off in children having the vaccinations.

That's about it for now. Pickleball for me again tomorrow. I've now set up a group of 17 and we're playing twice a week - it's become hugely popular and it's a great indoor sport during the winter months.

I'll plug again my appearance on BBC Radio Two's Sounds of the 70's show on Sunday - here's the link:

https://soundcloud.com/ian-stewart-911268803/sot70s-26-nov-23-no-music

To close, a couple of Audrey's photos of Kendall:

October 22nd - 3rd post

 More photos:

Lunch in Puerto Banus on Saturday 14th - the day before the boys arrive

We walked right round the harbour and Jo needed a sit-down

Another angle

Inside church in Mijas on Sunday morning (15th)

A little shrine in a cave in Mijas

Disc golf on Monday 16th - before my fall

Bridge in Nerja on our day trip on Thursday 19th

Another view of Jo and Ross on our acqueduct walk on Friday 20th

Our walk passed a hornet's nest and Gary was the unfortunate recipient of a sting

Chill out day Saturday 21st - the day before the boys' early morning departure

View from my sunbed on Saturday 21st

Another post from Costa del Sol

My earlier post this morning must have been a bit grim reading - and there were no photos, so I'm going to put that right now. Here's some recent photos that didn't appear on my Facebook page:

Lynnhurst Hotel, Johnstone where Jo and I stayed

Kendall getting ready for Hallowe'en

Barry and Helen after completing their epic walk round Menorca

Jordon all spruced up for a friend's wedding

View from our villa the day after we arrived

Jo with the little car we hired for the first few days