Tuesday October 19th

Ian has gone up to see Joan - the physio. The appointment was made to check on his knees but Ian is going to ask her advice about his back as well. That boy is determined to get his money's worth!

I mean to say, who else do you know would take the chance of falling off a bike a week after knee surgery . . . :)

The surgeon put him on Ibuprofen double strength for his knees and the doctor at A&E has put him on co-dydramol for the back.

Aberdeen A&E department at dawn

Ian leaving the A&E with badly bruised ribs. Thankfully not cracked or broken!!
I took these photos as we left to come back home

He was so pumped full of painkillers after our visit to A&E, he kept dozing off on his chair . That's when he wasn't sitting there bug eyed with just a little dribble of saliva escaping from the corner of his mouth! - only kidding about the dribbling :)

I found some heat pads from Boots this morning in the back of one of the kitchen cupboards, so Ian's going to ask Joan if he should use them. They were left over from when I had a sore back ages ago.

Remember Lisa, my hairdresser, gave me one of her's to try when I turned up for a hair cut walking like a large plank of cardboard!

On the subject of Lisa. Her computer needs fixed again and when Ross came back from seeing it, he said she had offered to trim his hair for the wedding!!
How much do you think it would cost to bribe her to take her big shears to it!! :)

Saturday 16th October

So you thought I was never going to write again!?
I know, I thought so too.

But then, the other night when I was fast asleep, the computer fairy came and gave me a new keyboard!

It's a joy to use. You can read the letters on every key :) and it doesn't drop a leg every five minutes and have a wobble. Look under your own keyboard, they do have little legs, you know!

So here I am.
What has happened since I last wrote? Let me think. . .

Carole's Hen Night.
The theme being 'Horror', take a look at these three goulish girls !


Centre stage we have the 'vampish' Carole.
"It's a dream come true. I've always wanted to dress up like a vampire," said the unusually blue eyed Carole. "True I'm a vampire with a lisp. It started when I put my teeth in, but I still think I would scare you if we met in a dark alley. And the pvc cat suit will be infinitely useful in the future!"

On the right is Jenny: partner of Kevin (Gary's pal).

You'll meet Jenny at the wedding as herself but for the Hen Night, she had chosen to be a bloodthirsty vampire complete with blood trickling down from the sides of her mouth - very scarey. Unfortunately as the evening wore on, the blood wore off and the teeth, bought especially for the evening, were a disappointment as they kept falling out! I think we can all agree, however, that the hair was a resounding success.

On the left of the photo is Annie: a bridesmaid on the wedding day, a wicked witch for the Hen Night. You can just see the remnants of black lipstick at the corner of her mouth. It lasted, oh probably till . . . after the second or third cocktail had been consumed.


Here's a photo of cocktail number one in the process of being produced. This one - the name of which slips my mind - was probably the most dngerous as it tasted like mango juice but had three shots of alcohol in it.

"The cocktails were scrummy yummy weren't they," Annie commented, "especially the After Eight!" The cocktail Annie is referring to was a mix of Bailleys Cream and a mint liqueur. It tasted like melted mint choc chip icecream!!

The bartender also constructed a Mohito and a Cosmopolitan and having consumed glasses of these too and designed our own trully dreadful coctails, the party relocated to Tapas Joes for something to eat and then onto Soul to sample their wares before I exited stage left and came home, courtesy of little Ross who came into Aberdeen to pick me up.



The award of the night must surely go to Dot - who will be a the wedding, who arrived by bus dressed as the corpse bride.

A vision dressed in black and eerily pale due to white face powder she acquired in a Halloween make up pack, she sported a white nylon, curly wig and clutched a rose with a skull sticking out! The other passengers on the bus had given her a wide berth! I wonder why?

Just home from the hospital

What a day. . . heavy rain and high winds!
The roads are starting to flood in places.

But we made it and I even took the chance and reversed Ian's car up the drive so's he was near the door. Neither of us were dressed for the weather and with his great big bandages round his knees, sprinting to the door was never going to be an option!

He's sitting downstairs with his legs up just now, having a cup of tea and chancing his teeth on the last of Ross's ginger biscuits.

How did he get on?
Very well!

We were in the hospital by seven and he was off down to surgery just after eight, having happily told the nurse he'd had nothing to eat since his dinner last night and only a drink of water this morning!
Crumbs, I thought. He shouldn't have had anything at all. I worried. . .

But it was OK. The nurse asked the doctor and the doctor told her it would be alright and she came back and told us it wouldn't be a problem.

So adorned with thick black felt tipped arrows on his shins, pointing up to his knees and a very fetching identity bracelet round his left ankle, he was whisked away.

My was he grey when he came back.

"Put the golf on," he said when the porters left the room.
"No," I replied,"go back to sleep."
"I can't sleep," he countered and closed his eyes.
Out cold.

Every fifteen minutes, the nurse appeared to take his blood pressure.
"I can't sleep," he would say after she left and promptly fall asleep again.

He still looks grey but the physio who came to explain his exercise regime and walk him along the corridor etc, was very impressed by his mobility so soon after the operation!

"My goodness, you must be very fit!" she exclaimed.
It's the golf, you know :)

No photos I'm afraid. Yes, I did take my camera but the battery was flat.
But watch out for the photo of the fetching leg bracelet and the black felt tip arrow, though. I took it with Ian's phone!

Tuesday September 28th

Hello again!

And how is everyone?
It seems ages since I wrote anything to you - this won't be a long entry because I have a lot to do today, including a big wash and a mountain of ironing, but it's been so long, so here I am!! :)

I've set the browser to download some photos so I'll stay here for as long as it takes to download them and then I'll need to go.

What are they?

Well, there's a set of photos recording the departure of the Jaguar from our drive.

Y'know, Scotty arrived out of the blue with no warning, whatsoever.

Luckily I was in and I could remember where our jump leads were (the jag's battery had gone walk about ages ago)!

Now the fact that I could put my hands on the jump leads, just like that, was definitely serendipitous! My memory not being the most efficient part of my brain :(

So here's the eyewitness evidence you have all beeen waiting for:

Hurrah. We are so happy to have a space at the top of the drive, again!

Now we need to get rid of the other one and I am hopeful. For the first time, the other day, Ross said we couldn't take the car away till he got all the working parts salvaged - now that's progress. Up until now he has maintained that the beast would once again ride the highways. All it needed was 'blah, blah, blah'.

My other thought was to include a couple of photos of my wedding outfit. Not all of it because the dress is with the seamstress being altered. To fit my hips, it was too big for my bust so it's being taken in.

But the outfit has a scarf which is made of the same fabric as the dress and I've included it in one of the photos.

I know it looks black, but it's not - it's very dark blue. And I'll probably take the wee flower off after the wedding so's I can wear the jacket with my jeans.

The dress is a shift with some frills and I think it'll do fine for my summer holidays .

Right! That's it! I need to go.
I got your bumph about compression tights, Lucy. So thanks for that.

Will try not to leave it so long till the next enrty :)

Birthday photos!

OK! We've eaten the sausages and the mashed potatoes and it's now time for cake!
Chocolate cake.
Let's move on! C'mon Uncle Ross get those candles lit. . . spoons at the ready. . .

Excellent, well done. . . and the smile?
Nice one.
Cake's looking good. . .

I'm blowing as hard as I can.
There's still some candles burning?

Now, you want a photo of the boys ready to eat the cake?
We can do this.
Smiles good enough?

The flash didn't go off?
You want to do it again?
Losing it!
Can't hold this smile much longer!!

How much longer before we get to eat this cake!!

Saturday morning

A flower in my garden.
It's here just to cheer the page up!

Two minutes while my towelling dressing gown dries me off.

I've had my shower, and am heading off to the supermarket when I'm dry.

Sitting flicking through 'Stowe of Somewhere in England' - help me out here - I can't remember the name of the company. They sell bedlinen and furniture and bits and bobs.

Anyway, I noticed they had a weather proofed wicker set for the garden. Two basket chairs and a little two seater couch and I just said, in a casual way in the passing as you do, that I quite fancied buying it. We could use it in the back garden in the summer and put it on the porch at the front door in the winter. . . just mentioned it. . . that's all.

The set we had in the back garden gave up the ghost this year when I fell through one of the chairs and discovered the table and two of the chairs were rotten all the way through!

So
. . . now I know the house is a mess! It's cluttered and full of 'stuff'!
And a certain person is not happy about more coming in till a great deal goes out.
This same person reminded me of a comment I made when Mary last came up. . . you know the one about seeing your house through somebody elses eyes and getting the shock of your life.

Hmm. . . Is this a time for action?

Mental note: The Box Room (the local charity second hand furniture shop) has set up a collection point at the tip.

There's a big wicker TV cabinet in the little bedroom .
Then there's that very uncomfortable fouton.
Should I consider letting the old dining room table and chairs go?
There's the kitchen wall units in the garage still.

An initial foray through the house is called for, yes?

That's me dry. I'm off to get dressed and head for Morrisons.

Wednesday 1st September

Well. . . what a disaster yesterday turned out to be!

As I collected Luca from nursery, he asked if he could run to the car. It was safe - or so I mistakenly thought - so I said to go ahead.

Big mistake, he took off, only to trip over his own feet!

And as I watched helplessly, he flew forward, scraping along the ground as he landed, like a plane that had forgotten to put down its landing gear :(

A scraped cheek, forearm and a big stone embedded in the palm of his hand.
Oh poor wee Luca.
At this point, I was occupied with the thought of getting the embedded stone out of his hand without too much distress. . .

It wasn't till we'd been home a while that I began to notice that he wasn't using his right arm and was keeping it close to his body.

So after a bit of humming and hawing, he and Ross and I ended up at ARI Children's A&E, having left voice and text messages for Mum and Dad!

Reassuring, 'just in case' messages!

And so the tragic story unrolled.

Although from the following photos, you wouldn't think so.

I took the photo above first. So then Luca says, "Let's do one this way!"

". . . and this way,"

". . . and now, this way!"

Luca agreed it was a really nice place and apart from when the doctor prodded him and when his mum had to work hard to reassure him that having a bone photo would be good fun, he enjoyed the whole experience.

It was quite obvious when the painkillers started to work!

In fact when it was all over and three emotionally shattered adults were ready to go home, little perky was all ready to play 'tea times' in the little kitchen area at reception !!