Midsummer update

Midsummer and the temperature is rising - we're in the 20's (70's) at long last and it's predicted that the next week will be pretty hot. Fingers crossed.

MAINTENANCE

A few small jobs completed recently - re-varnished the bench in the back garden, put back the half tiles at the front of our porch, put covers on the exposed radiator pipes and repaired, repainted and varnished the (very) old bench at the front. It's been on its last legs for a while but I'm hoping we can get a few more years out of it yet. The iron framework is sound but the wood has suffered badly from the weather and woodworm. Here it is from above:

The saga of the fence at the rear continues. As predicted, our neighbour cut the cord that I had put on to stop the fence from falling against our shed. I have now propped it up with a pole. Our neighbour (Irene) has been away for the last couple of weeks so hasn't yet seen this. Sod's law, she'll probably arrive back tomorrow as we have a man coming back to re-felt our small bit of flat roof. She's also missed her neighbours at no.2 having solar panels fitted to their roof - there's still scaffolding there.

This morning we had a meeting with Neil Gray to look at what we might do with the crumbling wall between us and Paul at no.5. He's going to give us quotes for a couple of options.

GOLF

I managed to play 2 days in a row last week, albeit the 2nd day (at Edzell) was in a buggy. Because I can't play as much as I used to (and would still like to), the standard of my golf continues to deteriorate. My golf handicap has soared and is now 18.7 but still doesn't fully reflect how bad I am. The heady days of when I was in single figures (8.6 the best) are but a distant memory. I think the only reason I still try to play is because of the social side - I'm particularly looking forward to our annual trip to Balmoral this coming Monday.

CYCLING

This remains the only activity I can now do that doesn't cause me pain. I'm only cycling once a week usually but perhaps I need to increase this?

WALKING

The time has come for our walking group's annual weekend away - we head off to Northumberland next Thursday for 4 days. How much I'll be able to do, I don't know but our organiser (Ken Black) is good at arranging a variety of options. For our first walk next Thursday we are going to circumvent Lindisfarne - the tides are in our favour. 

BARRY, HELEN & DAWN

In a repeat of last year's trip, they all arrived together last Friday. After lunch, Barry and I went for a cycle, including a quick ride on one of the new Banchory trails. We then cycled out to Drum, via the castle and met up with the girls for coffees and cakes. We went to the Derbar for curries etc in the evening, arriving home afterwards to briefly watch our national football team getting humiliated by our German hosts in the first match in the 4-yearly Euros tournament.

On Saturday morning, Jo went to church - one of her friend's husbands had just died. Dawn, Helen, Barry and I went a walk round the local trails and met up with Jo again at Mamma Mia for coffee where I took the only team photo of the weekend:

On Saturday afternoon we took a drive out for Dawn and Helen to see the winner of the North East heat of Scotland's Home of the Year which has featured here previously. Helen, Barry and me then took a walk up Scolty:

It was strangely flat calm and warm at the top. Dinner was at the Tor-na-Coille and it was excellent - nice environment in the recently redesigned dining room.

Sunday morning was a washout so our planned cycle was cancelled, but Gary and Luca arrived for lunch and Father's Day, after which everyone returned home.

LUCA

For those who haven't yet managed to trawl Luca's Instagram account, here's a few more of the photos he posted from his school prom:

ROSS

I forgot to post this one, taken at the Italian restaurant where we had dinner recently:

HOSPITAL

My pre-op assessment has been brought forward by a month and I go to see the surgeon and the anaesthetic nurse on Tuesday (25th). This is exactly 10 weeks before our flights to USA, so I would need to have the operation before about 23rd July to leave a clear 6 weeks before our long haul flights - possible but highly unlikely given the NHS Grampian waiting lists. Dilemma.

Barry & Helen's 30th Anniversary

Happy 30th anniversary to Barry and Helen today. They seem to be celebrating with lunch in Oban but what were we all eating 30 years ago?:

Our trip to Edinburgh went well - lunch at Miller and Carter in Frederick St with a couple of old school friends and their wives, followed by drinks and supper with Ross at Mia Italian near Haymarket. The rain that day was truly torrential - Jo and I took the tram for just 2 stops to avoid the biblical downpour for a bit but we were still soaking when we got to our hotel - and we hadn't brought changes of trousers. Still, that was a small problem when compared with Ross'  - the ceiling/roof of his flat has still not been fully repaired and water is pouring in to his living room and kitchen. It must have been especially bad that day.

As if that weren't enough, there's a problem at his work too, with sewage overflowing from the flats above, down in to the small office next to the coffee shop.

Better news is that the weather has finally improved - not before time too - it is officially summer now and only 3 weeks until the longest day. Everything is growing rapidly and very colourful, including our small (former) rockery at the front:

Not so pretty, however, is the state of the small wall on the other side of our driveway, which has been crumbling away for the last few years:

It is over 40 years old now so it's hardly surprising really. I've contacted Neil Gray at G & G Gardening Services and he'll have some ideas of what we can do. I know we can sort this but I'm far from confident that the back garden fence can be resolved. 2 of the 3 remaining panels have now fallen so far that it's only our shed that is holding them up:

The disagreement with our neighbour does not look like coming to any kind of conclusion any time soon. I have today tied the fence to the lone pole on the right to prop it up and stop it falling further in to our garden. I suspect this tie may not survive long.

We've now got a new weather vane on our shed:

I've been repainting the bench in our back garden but the remedial work following the installation of our air source heat pump (which included replacing the piping throughout our house) is still ongoing. We'll need a painter/decorator soon.

We also recently had some work done to the flat roof above one of our rear bedrooms and they're coming back in a few weeks to replace the felt.

I had 2 pieces of bad news recently on my partial left knee replacement operation. I had earlier been asked whether, as the waiting list in Grampian is so long, I would be prepared to travel to the Golden Jubilee Hospital in Clydebank to have it done (robotically)? Naturally, I said yes and furthermore, I would take a short notice cancellation. That made me feel there would be a reasonable chance I would get it done this summer.

However, I was told this week that NHS funding has been withdrawn for the Golden Jubilee so I have only one option now and that is the long Grampian list. I was offered an appointment for a pre-op assessment but this is not until 23rd July and only if the surgeon doesn't go on holiday then. The letter says that I have to keep 12 weeks clear after that assessment but there's only 6 weeks until we fly to USA - a holiday that includes a road trip from Chicago to Detroit, Cleveland and Toronto before flying over to Oregon to see Lucy and family - and meet our great grand-daughter for the first time. It's all booked and paid for. Additionally, I am advised not to fly long haul until at least 6 weeks after the operation.

Even when we return from USA late October, it's only just over 11 weeks until we fly to Australia to see Kelly and family - again all booked and paid for. I can't cancel these 2 big holidays so it means the earliest I can have the operation done will be summer next year.

Sorry to finish on such a downer. 

Last night

We made it over to Inverurie yesterday evening in time to pick Luca up from his work and take him home. Gary arrived back from work a little later and we all then headed off to Rajpoot, one of the local Indian restaurants for an excellent meal.

Back at Gary's house he posed with the Partick Thistle hat I bought him - with Luca at his side:

On the way home, I took a slight detour to show Jo the recent winner of the North East of Scotland's Home of Year, which I'd cycled past on Tuesday. It's outside of Banchory on a back road heading east:

It's a little underwhelming externally but you have to remember the BBC show is called Scotland's Home of the Year (#SHOTY) - not house. It's really about the internal layout. The owner has done as much as she can in such a small space but, frankly, we were astonished that all 3 judges gave it maximum scores of 10 when it was shown on TV a couple of weeks ago. It's not the prettiest spot that it sits in, with pylons and a work site nearby - and the garden wasn't the tidiest either.

I forgot to mention that we've now booked our flights to Australia next year. We've reverted to flying with Emirates again from Glasgow, which means one less flight and one less airport, security etc to deal with. Strangely, they fly the big Airbus 380 on the shorter of the 2 legs, from Glasgow to Dubai (7 hours +). We then revert to Boeing for the second leg from Dubai to Adelaide (12 hours +).

Today I'm playing my second golf game of the week - the first time I've done this this year. I hope my knee doesn't bother me too much. Next week, we're going to the Tivoli theatre to see the Searchers on Tuesday, then, on Thursday we head off to Edinburgh for a lunch with a couple of my old school pals and their wives, followed by dinner with Ross, then back home on Friday morning.

Summer is here

No question mark after my heading - it really does finally feel like summer is here. The weather has been superb this week - long may it continue. A few dry days - at last - at the start of this month allowed us to complete the replacement of the roof felt on our shed which now looks like this:

Last week was chaos in our house as we had the place ripped apart - floor coverings and floorboards up, drills and saws hammering away - what a noise as our central heating piping was upgraded and our air source heat pump was installed:

We'll be on our way over to Inverurie in the next hour, meeting Luca and Gary for a meal to celebrate Luca having finished his exams - and school forever.

Post Marbella

It's 2 weeks tomorrow that we returned from Marbella/Malaga. We managed to empty our fridge before leaving and, as we were leaving at silly-o'clock to catch our Ryanair flight on Saturday morning, we decided to have a mid-afternoon late lunch/early dinner on Friday at the on-site restaurant El Med, washed down by a nice white wine:

We'll be back there - probably next year. The resort is immaculate and mature. We were reminiscing about our first holiday there after we bought our time share. It was 1999 and Ross and Jo's Mum were with us:

At that time, only one "leg" - on the west of the resort - was complete:

From this October, 1998 archive photo I found on the web, you can see that construction had started on the next leg in the middle of the resort but I don't recall us being much troubled by any building work when we were there in 1999. This year, we tried to identify the unit we stayed in 25 years ago but were unable to agree which one it was. I guess some changes have been made over the years.

It has obviously been a wet winter in the UK (and it hasn't been much better since we've been back). The roof linings on our shed had started to break up and the shed roof was damp in places when we returned from Australia - it was definitely time for some remedial work. I started to remove the tacks holding the roof felt in place and we then lost one of the 3 strips of felt (on the apex) in the wind, so I had to borrow a temporary plastic cover for the time we were in Spain:

I've since returned this cover and have replaced it for the time being with our car cover until we can get a run of dry, warmer days to allow me to re-felt the roof:

I've got all the materials now so I'm hoping I can maybe start on it later next week. As you can see from the first of the 2 photos above, the issue with the fence has still not been resolved with our neighbour, so it will be tricky trying to work on that side of the roof. Incidentally, we think she may now be planning to do something independently. We await developments.

Next week our new Air Source Heat Pump arrives and the following week is when the installation takes place - we're replacing the existing narrow bore pipes and virtually all the radiators. It's going to be a week of chaos.

We've had our annual blood/cardio checks and, by and large, we're OK. Jo's doing some more blood pressure checks at home and the results seem reasonably good so far.

I've played 2 games of golf since we got back - I had to come off after 16 holes the first time and was in agony when I got home again, but I managed 18 holes this week - painful but manageable - just. In between those 2 rounds, I walked up Scolty last Friday. Going up was OK but coming down I was in terrible pain and only just made it back home. My left knee is beginning to feel increasinly like my right knee did before I got it replaced.

I'm now officially on the NHS waiting list for a (partial) knee replacement. It could be a long haul but I've indicated I would accept a cancellation and also that I'm willing to travel to get it done. Clydebank is one option, the other is Inverness. If it gets done in Aberdeen or Clydebank, the operation is done robotically, but Inverness is still old school. It's affecting my lifestyle and limiting the amount of activity I would like to take but I'm not ready yet to go private - that would cost £14K. I just hope I get the call from the NHS before the pain gets too much.

Keep the Family WhatsApp group going - stories, photos and videos.

Down Under addendum

We finally made it back home to Banchory and the first sound we heard when we were driven in to Arbor Court was the squawking of the gulls - they're back again! It was only 9 in the morning and we had no provisions in the house, so I whipped the cover off the car and we drove over to Tesco to get some essential groceries.

It's now early afternoon and Jo has succumbed to sleep on the couch. I've resisted so far but I have to try and stay awake as we're waiting for our bags to be delivered from Aberdeen airport. We had a fairly tight connection at Heathrow and while we were able to make the flight up to Aberdeen, our cases didn't. They apparently were loaded on to the next flight so I'm hoping they'll be here soon.

That apart, the journey pretty much went as planned. It was a long haul - the elapsed time from Old Noarlunga to Banchory was almost 38 hours. Everything was on time or earlier. The extra domestic flight from Adelaide and the subsequent 5+ hours wait at Sydney for the start proper of our international journey didn't help, and having to pay over $A18 to get from the domestic to the international terminal there rubbed some salt in the wound.

I did get a major shock, however, on the eve of our departure from Kelly's and Chris' home when I checked in on the BA app for our international flights. I got a message that we couldn't check in because the flight had already left! Oh no - did I make a mess of the bookings? I hurriedly opened my laptop to enquire further and there on my BA account were 2 separate bookings - one for Sunday departure and another for Monday - same route and times but I noted they had different booking references. I still have no idea how the first booking got there but it was a great relief to see the second booking - and to know that I hadn't made a mess of things after all!

I never reported our close encounter with a large brown snake on our morning walk on Thursday. It slinked across the path just a few feet in front of us. Ironically I had been joking with Chris' brother Matt a few days before that I had seen more snakes in the wild in Scotland than I had in all the times we'd been to Australia. This was my first ever encounter Down Under with one of these creatures:

Although it was a large adult, Chris told me this was far less dangerous than encountering baby brown snakes. The adults have learned to save their venom for occasions of real danger to them, but the youngsters haven't learned  this yet and attack randomly. Wouldn't you know it, but the day after this, when Jo and I were at the Fringe in Adelaide, a nasty baby brown snake was spotted in Chris' and Kelly's house. Chris eventually managed to shepherd the snake out of the house but it was snapping away at him all the time.

Incidentally, we did eventually make it to the "Wheaty" - on Friday for a pre-Fringe show beer. We also had our first 40 C degree day on Saturday. Just before dusk, Chris went up the hill opposite to get a view from on high of the sunset out to sea. After he'd gone, I thought it might be a good idea too. It was the first time I'd ventured over the river since my nasty fall a few weeks' previously and I must admit I felt a bit nervous, even though I wasn't going anywhere near where I'd fallen:

To close, a shot of Matt and Asher (underwater) in the pool on Sunday when he was child minding, plus one of the 4 of us at our lovely lunch at the Currant Shed (which is now my screen saver):

- and I've just had a phone call from the courier to tell me he's on his way with our bags - hooray!

Down Under (8)

We returned from Carrickalinga last Sunday (3rd). On Monday we decided to go shopping for some clothes replacements. The plan initially was to drive to the big shopping centre at Marion - which we did - but we didn't get everything we needed so popped over to Glenelg to complete the shopping - and we took the opportunity to have an ice cream and a walk along the pier:

In the background are the apartments we stayed at when we first came to Australia 13 years ago.

We took the boys to school on Tuesday. On the previous Friday it had been Values Day. I wondered what the 4 values represented until I saw these explanations on a wall at the school:

Wednesday was my 75th birthday and as we hadn't yet been to the "Wheaty", one of my favourite pubs in Adelaide, we thought this might be a good time to go there. I double checked the opening times on their app - 7 days a week, 11 am to 11 pm - good. So we caught the train in and then the tram out to Thebarton, only to find the place closed with a notice on the door saying that they didn't open until 3 pm! Bah humbug. Back on the tram after a short wait:

Our next target was the Malt Shovel behind the station. Closed on Wednesdays. Strike two. Next target was Lady Burra brewhouse and thankfully it was open, albeit we arrived there via a circuitous loop:

We then headed back to Old Noarlunga. Chris was working late but Kelly took the boys plus Jo and me to the beach, stopping first at a "bottle-o" for beers and Barnacle Bill's for takeaway fish and chips - all of which were consumed on the beach. The boys had a boogie board and I tried to pull Asher on it but he soon get fed up with that - I think I was going too slowly for him - so he decided to make me chase him in the water. It was hard work but Kelly soon came to my rescue. A lovely day in the end - and we had cake too.

On Thursday morning with the temperature rising daily, Jo and I decided to try and beat the heat and head out early for a walk round the local river park and take in the boardwalk over the "wetlands" area there:

A bit of grocery shopping and then the pool - and that was the day over.

On Friday we had another Fringe show to attend - this time in the city centre. Like the Edinburgh Fringe there are venues all over the city but two of the main ones are at Gluttony - where our show was - and across the road at "The Garden":

Loads of shows at both venues but the one we went to see was https://adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/simply-brill-the-teens-who-stole-60-s-rock-n-roll-af2024. It was excellent but definitely for those of a certain vintage. Once the show was finished and after we'd said hello and cheerio to Holly Mullins, daughter of a friend of mine who was working at the Fringe, we took in a bit of the lively ambience of Rundle St and found a nice Italian restaurant for dinner. Kelly met us at Seaford Meadows train station and drove us back in the still oppressive heat of the evening.

It was another Fringe show on Saturday. This time we took a car up to the Star Theatre on Sir Donald Bradman Drive. It was a musical play this time - https://adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/the-shoemaker-of-havana-af2024 - all about the Cuban revolution and the world missile crisis of the early '60's. Another good show.

Sunday is our last full day in Australia. In the morning we headed to the beach again:

Chris' brother, Matt, came over at 1 pm to child mind whilst Kelly and Chris took us over to McLaren Flat for lunch at the lovely Currant Shed. Chris' Mum and Dad popped over to their house to say goodbye to us and they gave me a little gift:

So that's it - we're almost fully packed. We leave here at 5:45 am tomorrow (Monday) morning local time, flying domestic initially to Sydney before the big flight - Sydney - Singapore - London and then up to Aberdeen.

Down Under (7)

It's Sunday afternoon here in Old Noarlunga and we've just returned from a brief stay down on the south coast at Carrickalinga. We - Jo, me, Kelly, Chris and the boys stayed in the Beach House and Chris' parents and brother hired a cabin in nearby Normanville.

But first to last week's activities. Kelly's trip to NZ seemed to go well - Chris picked her up at the airport on Thursday evening.

With Kelly away for 4 days, and Chris occasionally having to travel to the city, suddenly Jo and I were in charge! On Monday, we took Rufus to the local dog park:

On Tuesday morning we took a drive up to Hallett Cove Conservation Park where we'd been in previous years. Lovely place - lots of photos on FB and WhatsApp already.

On Tuesday evening Jo and I drove over to Glenelg to attend possibly the worst Fringe show we've ever been to - in Adelaide or Edinburgh. It was certainly the worst Beatles' tribute band I've ever listened to. They tried some of the more technically challenging songs and fell flat on their faces. The event was held in a typically high ceilinged church and the acoustics were pretty rubbish.

And to worsen my evening my iPhone suddenly stopped taking a charge. The cable worked when I connected my phone to my laptop and transferred data OK but it still wasn't charging and there was an error message in the settings on my phone. I had no option but to book an immediate appointment at the Apple Store in Adelaide.

So on Wednesday morning I took the train to the city. It turned out that both my cable and my phone were faulty. The battery was running at below recommended capacity and would continue to degrade from now on - I could either replace it now or continue to use it as it died away. I didn't really have time to wait for them to replace the battery today so opted for a simple cable replacement for now. I'll either replace the battery or the phone when we get back home.

While I was away, Jo was having fun and games with Asher when she took him to school. His water bottle that day was a soft flexible one and Asher decided it would be good fun to use it to "skoosh" some of his classmates. Jo told him to stop, whereupon Asher turned the water on her! Jo managed to get the bottle off Asher eventually but he was not best pleased and did a runner, heading straight back home again. Jo followed him all the way but Asher was definitely in a foul mood. Unfortunately, Jo never had time to explain to the school what had happened and had no means of phoning them to explain as her phone doesn't have international roaming - and I was away.

The school had observed that Asher wasn't in class although his school bag was there so they immediately tried to contact Kelly (who was in NZ) and she contacted Chris (who was at work). The head teacher and a classroom assistant eventually walked round to the house and Jo was able to explain to them what happened. By now, Asher had forgotten all about it and was perfectly calm and happy to go back to school. It was all over in an hour thankfully.

On Thursday, we went beach exploring - Seaside, Aldinga Bay and Sellicks. At Aldinga Bay, we found this nice shaded spot:

We took a longer walk along the whole length of Sellick's Beach after which we were both ready for lunch:

For tea on Thursday, Chris, Jo and I took the boys round to the "Oldy" - the local Old Noarlunga Hotel. Chris eventually had to disappear to pick Kelly up at the airport - an opportunity for the boys to indulge a little:

Everyone was at home on Friday. It was "Values" day at school:

Asher chose Respect and went to school dressed as a red-bellied snake.

Meanwhile, I had now fixed the puncture(s) on Chris' gravel bike so I took a ride out to Christie's Beach and had a nosey round the local vinyl records store. Nothing doing this time but at least I got back without any punctures - or falls:

Later on Friday afternoon we took both cars down to Carrickalinga. Photos have already appeared on FB and WhatsApp but here's a couple of others:

That's about it for now. Just a week left of our holiday now.