Aboyne Weekend - Orienteering and Bike

A long drive up to Aboyne for SOUL 2. This was a fast and easy "urban" orienteering event through the small town (village) of Aboyne. Running felt really quite good with no heel issues over the 30 minutes of the event. 1 big stupid error that cost around 4 minutes. Not a big crowd out for this event so probably didn't make any difference on placing or points scored.

Stayed at the Boat Inn which was pretty nice and well worth considering for future stays. Wet on saturday evening so just staying in and enjoyed an OK dinner and a couple of glasses of wine.

On Sunday has an overly large breakfast which wasn't the best start to the day. Then cycle to the far side of Banchory and back. Around 37 miles with 800 m of climb all off road. Following the Deeside Way - a cycle trip from Aberdeen to Pools of Dee and back seems like a definite plan for the future. Stayed dry but not sunny for the duration of the ride. 

Drove home late enough in the afternoon for a clear drive over the bridge.

 

Orienteering - South Achray - Aberfoyle

First run in almost three months after taking some time off to let heels recover. Not Plantar Fascia this time I think but achilles problems but all supposedly linked to weakness in calf muscles as the root cause of the issue. So I've been doing 3 times weekly heel raise exercises to try to strengthen the calf muscles.

A lovely day out to Aberfoyle. Great location on a sunny day and just unfortunate I had a Sunday afternoon work meeting that meant I had to head home fairly early.

Orienteering was very tough on rough ground with quite a lot of brambles. Felt I was doing OK for the most part but 1 control proved very hard to find in spite of navigating tyo roughly the right place. Heel was fine for around 75 mins before it started to feel a bit. Total running time was around 1 hr 45 mins.

Nice coffee and cake reward at the end of it.

 

TES Sponsored Walk v2

Another walk round the route with fellow trustee Tricia. This time the weather was fabulous.

Manchester Moving

Cherry & Colin drove down to Manchester with Hannah's large coffee table in the boot of the car for a weekend helping Hannah with a move to her new home on Oswald Road.

A long drive and quite a few long jams as still a bit of a school holiday - worst bit was road works on M6 near the Lake District.

Friday night we had dinner at the Bowling Green pub where we were staying for the 3 nights. Hannah and Caitlin joined us for dinner which was very nice.

Lots of moving to do on Saturday and a trip to Dunelm. Good progress made. Dinner at Casa de Moor in nearby Beech Road.

Sunday was a last trip and help with various admin moving tasks. Lunch and shopping in the new home area. 

Colin & Cherry had dinner on our own on Sunday evening at the Jane Eyre leaving Hannah some recovery time on her own.

The journey home was relatively smooth on Monday with no traffic issues.

The Bowling Green Hotel was very good and a suitable spot to stay if we are in town again.

The High Life at the Festival Theatre

With many of the original cast this was a musical revival of the old TV show which I have vague positive memories of having probably seen some but not all of the original series. Struggled a bit with the accents. Not great.

 

TES Sponsored Walk v1

The original date of the walk was postponed due to bad weather so this was 1 week later with a reduced crew of just me and fellow trustee Lynn Davidson. We set off in nice weather and found ourselves in heavy rain, wind and snow at the half way point going past the Royal Infirmary and Craigmillar. After lunch and warming up at Bridgend Farmhouse we continued in better weather and finished in sunshine again. A speedy walk this time as Lynn was a super fast walker.

 

One Day at Royal Lyceum

One Day - the musical version - following quite closely previous book, film and TV versions - very good. Interesting set as well with transformation of the Lyceum for the long run of the show.

 

Lads Trip 2026 to Malta

Saturday 28 February - Departure very early for a 6 am Ryanair flight. All went smoothly. Bus from airport with a drop off just minutes from the hotel the Noru. After some drinks at Andrews bar in St Julians we got a bus into Valletta for an initial wander around the city centre.

Sunday 1 March - walk along the coast to Sliema and then boat across into Valletta where we spent the afternoon at the Fort St Elmo and the National War Museum

Monday 2 March - fast ferry to Gozo and bus to Victoria for a wander around the Ciutadella

Tuesday 3 March - Uber to and from Mdina and Rabat. Fabulous location. Terrible traffic on the way home.

Wednesday 4 March - Visit to Valletta for a leisurely wander and then a visit to the Lascari War Tunnels (which weren't very good). More slow buses on the return journey to St Julians and a Thai dinner out and a visit to the Dubliner Irish pub.

Thursday 5 March - Visit to St Pauls Bay - more bus problems on the way back

Friday 6 March - flight home

We Will Rock You

Our second trip to the Festival Theatre to see a show by the local amateur theatre group The Bohemians. Again very good with an enormous cast on stage. Not quite the costume extravaganza of last time but the enthusiasm of all players was infectious.

 

A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong

At the Festival Theatre.

 

Avignon Holiday - Day 9 - Avignon

Avoided any travel today and instead visited the covered market, went on a short canal walk and had a nice lunch out at Premier Edition - three very nice sensibly sized courses.

 The next day was homeward travel. We did both Avignon - Paris and Paris - London in the same day with a lunch and walk in Paris in the middle. Pizza Express in London and then train home the next morning.

Avignon Holiday - Day 8 - Orange

Lunchtime train to Orange (delay 50 minutes) and a wander to the Roman Theatre the main site in the town. Very impressive scale and condition. The audio tour was pretty good.

Not too much else of interest in town but we did find some nice cakes. 

And then spotted a coypu by the side of a canal

Avignon Holiday - Day 7 - Rhone River Cruise

A river cruise on the Rhone today. Arrival in the boat at midday. Departure at 12.30. Three course meal and music. The weather was a bit rubbish throughout and apart from around Avignon the views were pretty poor with not much around the banks of the very wide river. Got back around 4 pm. 

Avignon Holiday - Day 6 - Nimes

Bargains on the trains today with 3 return tickets to Nimes for €6. We wandered in Nimes to Les Jardin de La Fontaine and climbed to the top of Tour Magne for views over the city. The water gardens which dated in some form to Roman times were great as was the short hill walk through gardens to the tower.

We visited the Maison Carree - the Roman Temple on the middle of the former Forum.

Dinner back in Avignon at Pomelo where the wine was very nice but the food a bit disappointing.

Avignon Holiday - Day 5 - Arles

A short train ride of about 20 minutes to Arles and a nice wander around the lovely town. We visited the Roman Arena and the Theatre plus the L'Espace Van Gogh and the Van Gogh Foundation. Lots of lovely old buildings everywhere. 

An excellent pizza or salad at Colloseo.

Avignon Holiday - Day 4 - Avignon

A day for exploring Avignon. A lovely town which is very quiet at this time of year. Visited the Bridge, Musee Angladon and the Musee Lapidaire but otherwise just wander the lovely streets of the city.

Lunch at La Civette Bar Brasserie.

   

Avignon Holiday - Day 3 - Avignon arrival

An unrushed start to the day and a wander to the Gare de Lyon to catch the TGV to Avignon. Taxi to the apartment. Shopping. Cheese, ham, eggs and bread for dinner. 

Avignon Holiday - Day 2 - Paris

The morning Eurostar to Paris and then a walk to the hotel. We stayed at Le Boudoir des Muses which was very nice especially with our upgraded room. Recommended if we are in Paris again as a very nice central area.

We walked from the hotel to Notre Dame and quickly got inside with our free reserved tickets although queues were pretty small.

Then onwards to Shakespeare & Company English bookshop for a browse and a sit in the upstairs reading room.

Then a Kir or coffee or tea.

And dinner at Le Petit Chatelet next door to the bookshop. An old fashioned crowded restaurant with steaks cooking on the open fire. The food wasn't that great though.

And a wander back to our hotel.

Avignon Holiday - Day 1 - London

The first day of a holiday in Avignon with Colin, Cherry & Hannah with eco travel by rail. Colin & Cherry travelled first class LNER from Edinburgh to London whilst Hannah took the train from Manchester. We all arrived just after 3 pm and checked into the Pullman Hotel.

Dinner at the Brasserie Zedel with its fabulous 1930's era decor. Nice food and good service.

Then just across the road to the Piccadily Theatre for Moulin Rouge which we all enjoyed.

We said hello to Caitlin on the walk back to the hotel.

 

Circuit Walk from Gracemount

What felt like the first sunny day of the year and went out for a walk round the planned sponsored walk route for TES at the end of March. Start and finish in Gracemount Walled Garden. Very nice route especially on such a sunny day. Lunch at Bridgend Farmhouse. Around 11 miles over 4 hours. 

New Oven + New Security Light

A long overdue refresh of the oven with a similar model of AEG oven and a new Collingwood Security Lamp for the front garden which seems to be working well.

 

Christmas & New Year 2025/6

Oops no photos this year. Hannah visited us from 21 to 28 Decembers sleeping over at Max and Kasia's place. Max and Kasia were away for Christmas in Poland returning for the New Year.

On Christmas Day we were Colin, Cherry, Hannah and Les. Les is much deteriorated now with very little mental or physical capability remaining. Just getting as far as the car is a struggle for him. After previous years organic turkeys arriving with a little bit too much still attached we went for a pre-prepared 5 person chicken with stuffing from Sainsbury which proved to be very nice and just the right size. 

Colin had a cold from Christmas Eve for about a week and Cherry picked it up after Christmas and through the New Year. 

Overall a quiet period and Colin had to drop out of any running events due to his cold.