After leaving Ella we had a rest, and some of us fell asleep. Then we drove down the South Deeside Road to Balmoral and up into the hills, where we read for a while and then went for a short walk down the Corgarff path, retreating when rain seemed imminent. Back at the house we watched Poldark (not brilliant really) then the Canadian Grand Prix, which meant we were late in bed.

Today we decided not to take up a picnic invitation from Ella and instead drove  first to the  Lochnagar Distillery (briefly), then on to Corgarff, where we had lunch and I looked at the graveyard. Then up to the path leading to Amy’s Bridge. Despite unpromising weather, we walked down and then on into the wilderness, taking a track that ran halfway between the road and the ridge. After finding the source of the stream that leads to the bridge, we turned back and reached the car just as rain was setting in.

We drove down to a parking spot by an old bridge  not far from Gairnshiel  and Dot read while I wrote a poem. Then we returned to Ballater and bought fish and chips. I have lost a filling yet again and booked an appointment with the dentist on Wednesday. We are now relaxing after doing a bit of packing and tidying up.

Breakfast at the Bean again yesterday, but I restricted myself to a doughnut. The forecast was for a grey, damp morning with sun in the afternoon; so we walked up to Larks Gallery and had a chat with the sitter, resisting temptation on the whole – though if we’d been coming home by car I might well have bought a picture.

After buying a loaf and having lunch at home, we headed for Glen Muick. But the weather was not as forecast: there was very low cloud and a chilly wind. After a bit of shilly-shallying, during which I walked down to the river, we drove back to the junction with tthe Birkhall  road, which was blocked off.

We decided to walk down it a bit and had only gone a hundred yards or so when to our surprise we found that the river had washed away a whole chunk of road – just as had happened on the A93, but this wasn’t the mighty Dee, just the Waters of Muick, flowing out of the Loch. We walked a bit further, finding that the actual bridge had survived – just.

As the weather seemed to be improving we drove on to Cambus o’ May, where the sun came out and it was really warm by the (still broken) suspension bridge.  So warm, in fact, that Dot did some sunbathing, until a woman with a dog came along, the dog went into the river and then shook itself in her vicinity.

We drove back in time to watch Scotland v England, which ended 2-2 after Scotland threw it away in the dying seconds. We then tried to get into the Deeside Inn for supper, but they were full; so we went round the corner to the Alexandra Hotel, which is unprepossessing (bar, not restaurant) and I had a steak, which was excellent.  Back at the house we watched a very good rugby game (England v Argentina) and then England beating Australia at cricket. Australia were thus knocked out of the Champions Trophy without ever having a complete game. No result at all in two of the three. Doesn’t seem fair, somehow.

Today we went to church again and found Jenny, our landlady, in the next pew. What are the odds? Afterwards we went to see Ella, who has rented a house in the next road. After a cup of tea we all went to the Brown Sugar cafe, where I had an egg sandwich, then back to Ella’s for a glass of wine.

Yesterday concluded with an Indian meal at the Lochnagar Brasserie, which we’d never been to before, and it was very good. One of the waiters had worked in Norwich at the Merchants of Spice in Colegate.

Both of us had a bad night afterwards, not knowing that lots of other people did too. We woke to the rather surprising Election result, and lots of people saying predictably silly things. So it goes on.

We had breakfast out today – at the Bean for Coffee. I had a full Scottish with too many beans. We then decided to drive to Pennan. The weather was spitting with rain at first, but at Pennan itself it was quite warm and the rain stopped. The tide was in, and we walked around, dodging a few flies, until the house martins ate them all.

We popped into the Local Hero hotel for a very nice cup of tea and took some pictures before heading towards home. We called at Crovie, just a couple of miles further west, where it was unaccountably  very cold and windy, then at Gardenstown, which we drove round but didn’t stop at.

We did stop briefly at Huntly castle (very pleasant spot) and then at a road accident on the A97. We turned round, and Dot navigated a successful alternative route.

After a cup of tea and snack in the house we walked up to the Hilton bar and had cocktails. Quite a trek. We got back in time to see Lethal Weapon on TV, which made slightly more sense than anyone on the news programmes.

And here’s the rain again. Totally overcast, steady and inescapable. We’ve just been down to Rocksalt and Snails for lunch. Appropriately, I had a winter salad, which was quite tasty. Before that we went to the Burn o’ Vat and did a walk described in the Ballater Eagle: very pleasant, but tiring towards the end as it started to rain and the finishing post seemed to retreat into the distance.  Most of it was great, and we only saw one person  – a young female cyclist bombing along at a fearsome rate of knots.

Yesterday was beautiful, though a bit chilly. We drove to the Linn of Quoich and encountered a weatherbeaten South African (I think), who said last night had seen the second worst conditions he had experienced in the area. (The worst was Storm Frank, when  Ballater was inundated.) He was in charge of a group of lads camping in the hills and said three groups had had to abandon their expeditions because they were cold, wet and hadn’t slept.

We later saw him with a group at the Linn itself, after we’d climbed over, done a bit of exploring and been pretty impressed by the force and quantity of the water. You couldn’t get near the punch bowl, but the bridge had been repaired and we walked across and up on to the track heading towards Bheinn a’ Bhurd. Got some distant views of snowy Cairngorm peaks.

Afterwards we went into Braemar and had some sandwiches and tea in a cafe with music we liked but the waitress didn’t. Went into the tourism office and another shop, then drove up to Glenshee, where Dot had a hot chocolate and I didn’t. We decided not to go for another walk there but headed for home and immediately walked round the golf course. Both the path and the river were unrecognisable, but of course the river was in spate and not as it would normally be.

Back at the house we decided to eat in, so emerged again to get supplies from the Co-op. We also had a chat with the owner, Jenny, who said we could have stayed the extra three days. We assumed it would be rented on a weekly basis. Theoretically we could have cancelled the hotel, but we decided to stick with our arrangements. Dot wrote a long e-mail to the head of the school where she’s a governor, which is having a SIAMS inspection next week, and then we watched Fargo, which is wonderful.

Have now cancelled hotel  after offer from Jenny we couldn’t refuse.

Interesting day yesterday. It’s not often it rains absolutely all the time. We lingered in the house all morning after waking up late, then drove to the Riverside Inn, where I had eggs benedict (or more accurately egg benedict).

We then drove to our favourite spot by the Dee (after missing the right turn at first) but found it occupied by anglers. Did manage to spot a couple of salmon jumping. Then into town where we visited several shops. Dot bought a handbag in Byzantium, and I bought a book from A B Yule. We also had a chat with the Tourist Information lady on the mysteries of flood water.

After a cup of tea at the house we drove to the hill near Balmoral where there is normally a great view of Lochnagar. There was a great view of cloud, and some very heavy rain. We also sent some postcards from Balmoral.

In the evening we had a lovely meal at Glen Lui, walking there and back in thankfully lighter rain. We then watched Wolverine on Film4 (where is Netflix when you need it?), in which the female Japanese actresses were much better than the male lead, and the whole concept was absurd. Ah well.

Before we got up to bed a gale got up and two windows blew open. One of them proved very hard to shut again, but together we eventually managed it. The phone rang at this point – just before midnight – with a flood warning. Don’t you love it when that happens? I woke up once in the night when the wind was still high and I was worried that a window had blown open again. But it hadn’t.

Started off grey and quite wet; so we didn’t emerge till late. Had lunch at the log cabin then drove to somewhere unpronounceable and unspellable between the Well of Lecht and Tomintoul.

The weather had improved; so we did a walk of just under four miles up to the top of a nearby hill,  which had a mast on the top. It also had a viewpoint just below the summit, and we lost enough cloud to make it worthwhile  – we could see Cairngorm, Ben Avon and Bheinn a’Bhurd, all with snow.

Saw no one at all on the hill. Very quiet. Four young deer ran across the path as we neared the summit.

Pretty tired by the time we reached the car, so we drove straight home. Road works and traffic lights on the Lecht road! After a cup of tea we went out for a short walk in view of the appalling forecast for tomorrow and found the house Ella is using next week. Also saw lots of damage from floods.

Returned home for makeshift tea and watched a couple of TV programmes we’d seen before. Earlier wrote s couple of poems.

Our first full day in Ballater started with a beautiful ecumenical service at the Church of Scotland (brilliant talk to children on Holy Spirit) followed by a performance by the local pipe band afterwards. This was also the opening of a festival, at which Dot bought a necklace. There were showers all day, but also quite a bit of sun.

After lunch we drove down to Loch Muick and walked to the boat shed, where we sheltered. While there I walked out on the stones as usual but overbalanced and put my foot in some water about 18 inches deep. Unfortunately Dot was too worried to get a picture, but I amused three very nice Germans who were standing there.

On the way back to the car we encountered a herd of deer crossing the path – something similar happened once when the Murrays were with us. Later we had fish and chips: very nice but far too much as usual. I fell asleep afterwards, then we got the wood burner going. It’s warm now.

Have just come to bed in our rented house in Ballater. It’s 10.30, but being June in the far north, it’s still pretty light. We arrived just after 1pm, which was a bit too early, as the wife of the owner wasn’t quite ready for us. We went for a wee drive until she was. She was very nice. After unpacking we rested for a bit until it started pouring with rain. Then we waited till it stopped before we walked round the town and bought some food. Later we went for another walk, taking in some of the golf course.

We have a diesel Ford Focus, which drives very well. After carefully doing everything the small print said I should, like taking a paper copy of my licence, two utility bills, my passport and the code obtained from a Government website, all the rental guy wanted to see was my photo licence. Very frustrating.

We spent last night at the Premier Inn at Aberdeen airport, which was excellent in every way except that it was a long walk from the airport and you had to guess where you were going. The flight from Norwich was good, though it had started to rain at almost the exact moment we had to board. Nevertheless the plane was only part full and we got free drinks. The taxi drive to the airport went well too.

Just before reaching Ballater we stopped at the Riverside Inn (formerly Crannoch) and had ham and lentil soup, which was surprisingly good. The accompanying bread was brilliant, but that wasn’t so surprising, because they make their own.

The chess simultaneous went pretty well, considering that I lost. I was one of the last three to finish (out of 19) and played pretty strongly. I had a good position when lots of games were being resigned, but I wasn’t able to calculate sufficiently in the time available and lost in an endgame where I was for a while a pawn up. Here is the game:

White, John Nunn GM, Black Tim Lenton 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e5 7. Nb3 Be6 8. f3 h5 9. Qd2 Qc7 10. Nd5 Nxd5 11. exd5 Bf5 12. Bd3 Bxd3 13. Qxd3 Be7 14. c4 Nd7 15. O‑O O‑O 16. Rfd1 b6 17. Nd2 f5 18. b4 Bf6 19. Rac1 Be7 (wasted time with my bishop) 20. Nb3 e4 (This got me some good play) 21. fxe4 Ne5 22. Qd4 fxe4 23. Qxe4 Ng4 24. Bd4 Bg5 25. Rc3 Rae8 26. Qg6 Qe7 27. Qe6+ (forced: I was threatening Qe1+, mating) Qxe6 28. dxe6 Rxe6 29. Bxb6 Re2 30. Rf1 Rxa2 (Probably should have avoided the exchange of rooks with something like Rb8) 31. Rxf8+ Kxf8 32. h3 Ne5 33. c5 dxc5 34. Nxc5 Bd2 35. Rb3 Nc4 36. Bc7 Be3+ 37. Kh2 Ra1 (h4 was better. I did see it, but was not getting much time between moves) 38. h4 Ke7 39. Rc3 Bg1+ 40. Kh3 Bxc5 41. bxc5 Ra3 42. Rxa3 Nxa3 43. Kg3 Ke6 44. Kf4 Nc4 45. Ke4 Kd7 46. Bf4 Kc6 47. Kd4 Na3 48. Bd2 Nb5+ 49. Kc4 Na3+ 50. Kb4 Nc2+ 51. Kc3 Na3 52. Kd4 Nb5+ 53. Ke5 Kxc5…

… and that’s where I stopped writing the moves down, annoyingly. I am still trying to reconstruct the last few moves, but he managed to stop my a-pawn advancing while breaking through on the kingside. In the end it was like playing him one-to-one, which of course is pretty hopeless considering he’s not only a grandmaster but a world champion at solving chess problems.

Afterwards I had a brief chat with him, and he said it was difficult for me to hold the endgame because the bishop was stronger than the knight and it was hard to advance the a-pawn. Still, I’m sure it should be a draw with best play. He also said he repeated moves just before the final position above while he waited for other games to finish so that he could give it his full attention.

{PS I have tried to reconstruct the final moves, but I lost a move somewhere, and I can’t work out where. It must have gone something like this: 54. Ke6 Kd4 55. Kf7 Kc4 (Don’t know why) 56. Kxg7 Nc3 57. g4 a5 58. gh a4 59. Bxc3 Kxc3 (Thought about resigning here) 60. h6 a3 61. h7 a2 62. h8(Q) a1(Q) and resigned without waiting for Kf7+ winning my Queen.}

Needless to say, I couldn’t sleep that night (Monday) because my brain was still whirring round and round. That’s the main reason I gave up competitive chess a couple of years ago. Very frustrating, because I enjoy playing.

I was pretty shattered the next few days, of course, which sort of affected the DCC meeting on Tuesday, which passed in a bit of a blur. Very long blur. We’d also just had our haircuts. Don’t even ask…

During Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we took some stuff to the tip, and some old clothes and things to the age UK shop on Plumstead Road, which is more convenient than Break, on Unthank Road, where we usually go.  We also went to Morrisons, and in between all that Dot repainted the small loo/cloakroom, and everything in the room. Looks nice.

The Hendersons came round last night for drinks and nibbles, which went pretty well until Maryta got a bit het up about the country going bankrupt and all the prominent politicians who hated the UK. She was in a minority, but a very vocal one. Ho, hum. Dot and I sent off our postal votes, and Dot’s DNA is on its way to the US. Hope Trump doesn’t get hold of it.

This morning we got a text message to say our flight had been cancelled. We’ve been rebooked on an earlier Eastern Airways flight, which is tremendously reassuring. I’m sure there’s a good reason for it. Thunderstorms are forecast.

I’ve been getting around: Warwick, Bacton, Stowmarket and Old Catton in the last four days, and mostly the weather has been good: warm and mainly sunny.

I hesitated a bit about going to Warwick but in the end decided it was worth it, because I won’t be seeing Andrew again for at least three weeks, which would have made it two months without a visit. For all that he loses track of time, I think he still notices when I haven’t been for a while. He was not as good as last time I saw him – he apparently had a stomach upset – but still much better than when he first went in there. We talked for about an hour, and I took him into the garden for a while.

The journey went quite well. As I hadn’t been feeling so good, I decided to go first class, and it was a good decision – even though the Chiltern Line appears not to have a first class. There were not many people on the two trains between Marylebone and Warwick, and it was very comfortable. I walked from the station to the hospital, which was about a mile. I had intended to take a taxi, but I would have got there too early.

The whole journey went slightly quicker than I had anticipated, which meant I had to hang around to make sure I got an off-peak train out of Liverpool Street. I had a quick snack at Marylebone (Upper Crust), watching the many, many cyclists taking their bikes on to the trains, then waited a while at Liverpool Street.

There were no seat reservations marked, and when the train had almost filled up, a couple decided that I and another guy were sitting in their reserved seats. It was too late to move, because the train  was pretty full; my companion pointed out that no reservations were marked, and they went off quite quietly. I have a feeling that train seat reservations should be abandoned altogether, because they cause so much trouble. People with reserved seats often sit elsewhere, and it’s easy to remove reservation cards and dispose of them (not that I would do this, but I bet some people do).

There should no doubt be exceptions in the case of those with special needs. On the way down I gave my seat to a woman with a disabled child because apparently her reservations hadn’t  been marked (or had been removed). This is not as heroic as it sounds: I was able to sit elsewhere quite easily.

On Friday the Paston Heritage Society had arranged a visit to Bromholm Priory, and I was due to act as guide for a couple of women while Lucy looked after a group of schoolchildren. However, when I arrived there was no sign of anyone. The school had cancelled because of an organisational problem, and only one of the women turned up. So Lucy, with her greater expertise,  was able to guide her, and I waited by the gate in case the other woman turned up. She didn’t, but a random couple named John and Jane did; they were about to turn away because the priory is private, but I suggested they join our “group”. They did – their lucky day. Peter was also there taking photographs, and we were all able to have a good look round.

The next day Dot and I went to Stowmarket to the Suffolk Poetry Festival, where I was reading on behalf of the  Seagull group. So was Dot – she and I did a selection of tanka that I am writing with Joy McCall. It was sunny and warm when we got on the train, but by Diss it was unexpectedly pouring with rain. Happily by Stowmarket ( a quarter of an hour later) it was sunny again. We got a teacake in the Lime Tree Cafe and then nearly got some shoes for Dot – but not quite– before the afternoon session started.

The poetry went well, I think. Dot and I started, followed by Sue, then Ollie Watson and ending with Kaaren. Quite a good balance. We listened to some other groups, then took a break, watching some students recite in another building while eating tea and cake. Following that we decided to go home, arriving in time for the Cup Final, Arsenal beating Chelsea 2-1, I’m glad to say. Good game.

Yesterday we had a rather distracted Communion service, partly because we heard just beforehand that Chris Fiske had had a very bad night and might have to be rushed into hospital. She didn’t in the end, but is not at all well. Then Dot got a phone call in the middle, went outside to take it and spent some time comforting Elvira, who was upset over recent family tragedies. Afterwards I spent some time trying to fit too many things into the too little space afforded by our replacement cupboard.

In the evening Dot was playing in a concert at St Margaret’s Old Catton, and so of course I went along. It was pretty full, and an  enjoyable evening. David Archer turned up at the last minute. As we left, there were a few spots of rain, and it rained harder overnight, though not so far today, despite the forecast. This evening I’m playing chess against a grandmaster. So are quite a few other people.