September
News, 2013.
Now I’m
going to try a new “news technique”!
I’ll jot down, through the month, happenings and then add comments
before posting. So here goes….
For some
time Ian and Alison have been in the wars.
Not long after they got home from their round the world tour, when they
spent time here – lovely – both were hospitalised, Alison with two successful
operations to remove a lump on her cheek and Ian to have a pace maker and
defibrillator fitted before treatment began to deal with a cancer found in
blood tests done to do with the pacemaker.
Alison is,
I’m so pleased to say, fighting fit again and back to work. Ian is, as I write, home from Brisbane, where
his blood has been thinned over some days.
I await the next stage anxiously….
Right at the
end of August my cousins Morven and Iona popped in en route from the north,
home to Glasgow. That was lovely! I got first hand news of Aunt Isobel, my
remaining aunt. She is very well, I’m
pleased to say. At ninety, she’s
wonderful.
The sailing
season was meant to end on August 31, with the postponed Jubilee race. Yet again the weather intervened but this
time it was that the winds were far too strong!
The race is scheduled to go ahead on Sept 7 – we’ll see. After that the local boats all clinker built
and much loved will be taken out of the water and kept safe and dry till next
season. Saranna C will likely come into
the workshop again (though that means there is very little space to move around
there), but she’ll be covered by the house insurance. The Bodach’s (old man’s) boat, a bit smaller
than Saranna and built by the original boat builder on Skye, will go back to
the barn. I’m hoping the rowers will try
her next year, so she is in the water for a purpose.
It is now
September 27 and the sailing has finally drawn to a close. The AGM, at which next year’s commodore is
elected, is on October 5.
The rowing
trophy was won by Neil MacRae this year – four rowers and cox must row round a
mark called the Perch. Good teams can do
it in around twenty minutes. The boat
used must be clinker-built as they are our original club boats and they were
first built for rowing, not sailing.
Ian has now
begun a regime of chemotherapy, weekly.
As he is driving again, this trip to the hospital in Toowoomba is easy
now. We spoke at the weekend and he
sounded much more like his old self and he is well into his weekly treatments.
Alison, bless her, always sounds just like Alison!
I’ve had
some long awaited good news. A final
scan was clear, so I now am officially cancer free – after three years eight
months. My first thought, and that too
of my oncology specialist and scan operator was that travel insurance will
return to manageable figures!!!
Sam’s into
more exams next week, but he remains cheerful, on the phone at least! He’s beginning to think of what far flung
destination he may apply to, for his elective, which is at the beginning of his
5th year, I think. Two of my
guests have offered to be of help – their places of work, Australia and New
Zealand! I could hitch a ride on his
back……. It was extremely kind of both
gentlemen to offer help – thank you.
Now, at the end of September, I am still busy with guests from all over the
place. Last weekend the Clarks were here
– heading home to Kent after here. Valerie and Gordon Barnett, from Scarborough,
Western Australia, arrived for three nights – the weather was a bit dreary for
them.
David and
Dana came for a couple of nights – they travel from Iowa in the United States
of America. I wonder what hire car they
will roll down the drive in this year? Last year I teased them about their “little”
Mercedes! I have been warned that it may
be a Cadillac Seville – I’ll take a photo and share with you! Actually I did not as their car was a
sensible Kia!
Now the
Forsyth family are here for the weekend!
Ticia is a cousin, one of the Hunter Clan, as of course am I. Little Jack, by far the youngest, is happy
with Ruah and Amber……
And the
Forsyths are here now, enjoying very mild sunny weather. Jack is nine and a little livewire. He was up first today and on the go every
minute of the day – including swimming in the loch, just in front of the house
and not appearing to feel the cold at all.
The family goes home to Kirkintilloch on Monday.
Next week is
quite busy and then it is the school’s autumn holiday. I hope I may have Catriona, Sean and Daniel
here for some of the time. I may go to
Edinburgh for a few days, to see everyone and do a little early Christmas
shopping. For the first time ever I have
my calendars ready to post abroad, before the deadline for surface mail!
If you are
touring in the late autumn in our area, please do pop in!
Ann
