I'm up too early this morning.
I know why. My mind Is telling my body that it can't afford to sleep any longer because the deadline for going to Australia is looming large.
We'll be leaving home about 3.00pm tomorrow afternoon to catch a flight at 5.30pm from Aberdeen airport to London and from there onto Sydney.

My suitcase has been packed for days. I've got lists on the iPad of clothes to take, clothes to wear on the journey, toiletries and medicines to take, stuff to remember for Kelly and Chris, cables to remember that connect this to that and that to whatever, jobs that need done in the house before I go, what's to be packed in my rucksack to go onto the plane - even what compartment in the rucksack to put things in for ease of unpacking at security . . . the lists go on and on!

And now just to complicate things.
I noticed the other day that the white shadow that appeared a few weeks ago on my toenail has grown bigger and when I googled the appearance of it, I was informed that it might be a fungal infection. Yikes!

I popped into the chemist on Tuesday, thinking all I had to do was buy a bottle of whatever that stuff is that was advertised on the tv.
However . . .
the chemist said, go to the doctor and get a prescription because the medication is very expensive.

Ok.

But then I thought, is that really fair to take advantage of the NHS like that? So I didn't contact the doctor.

Yesterday, I googled again thinking I might be able to source a cheaper supply of the drug only to be confronted by dire warnings about self medication especially when the condition hasn't been confirmed by a doctor. They talked about liver damage and unsuitability of the drugs for those with heart problems. Aargh!

I need to see the doctor. . . of course there isn't much time left, is there?

Let's change the subject.

Luca went home with Daddy last night after spending the first few days of the week with Granny and Grandad seeing as the schools have been closed for the long week end followed by two in-service days.

One of his favourite songs to sing at the moment is The Bare Necessities from Jungle Book . . .
Sing along:
Look for the bare necessities
The simple bare necessities
Forget about your monies and your stripes.

To be remembered, yes? : )

Friday evening

The house is quiet.
Ian has gone to the pub, Ross has gone to see Thomas and Carole and Luca headed back to Inverurie about an hour ago.
So here I sit . . .
Want to see some photos I took today?




The shot above was set up by Luca who had created the two Lego robots to the right of him. Pretty good, huh?




The creation you can see being proudly shown off in the photo below is a car! A masterpiece indeed with it's multi levels adorned with flowers.
He was so proud of it!




The roofers finished their work on the balcony yesterday and the other workmen have completed their stripping off of the harling. All great, but now the work has ground to a halt : (
Who knows when it'll start again.







And this is what our balcony looks like just now.

The roofer, yesterday, was an awful nice man from Alford. We had a wee chat over a cup of tea and a Crunchie. Him standing outside on the balcony and me inside standing at door. He wouldn't come in.
His tea was in our mug with a picture of Braeden and Cade on the side so I boasted only to be trumped by eight grandchildren to three :(
But it wasn't a flat playing field! One of his daughters has triplets!

Right, I'm off to make a cup of coffee and head off to bed.

Lunch time on Thursday

The roofers arrived this morning first thing.
The truck backed up onto the drive and parked. Then nothing . . .
I did wonder after a while why the truck was still sitting there but nobody had got out.
Oh well, I thought. They're probably phoning somebody to see if there's another job they can go to, seeing as the rain is really quite heavy.
So I just got on with my bits and pieces.
Turns out, they were just sitting waiting for the rain to go off because now they're busy lining the balcony : )
Need milk so I'm off to the shops.



There is a reason why I've included these photos.
Kelly was telling me she had been up to this Bierhous with Chris the other day and at first, it turns out, I was imagining the wrong place . . .
But this is the right one now, I think.
The food was really unusual and delicious to boot.
And isn't it so lovely to be able to dine al fresco.

A time of change. At last!

By Friday, the old house will no longer have a leaky balcony! The rotten wood will have been replaced and a waterproof surface will have been laid under foot : )

As we speak, builder 1 is lifting all the tiles that were down and builders 2 and 3 are giving him moral support.

The downside?
Well so far, my Christmas tree has had to go : (
It's now sitting atop the builder's truck.
I usually try and keep our tree on the balcony till Easter . . . Well, real trees aren't cheap are they? And why throw away a perfectly good tree? That's what I say!

The chairs that sat on the balcony turned out to be so rotten that they fell apart when they were moved . . .
Positive spin would be to appreciate the narrow escape 'somebody' has had - they won't be sitting on it in the spring and collapsing in a heap on the ground as I did last year!

And my body is in shock from having bounced out of bed stunned and only half awake, to stumble round the house trying to find two sets of car keys to clear the drive.

Car number 3 - The Mercedes? I'm afraid it's still there.

Oh, here we go, builder 2 has now stepped forward with the circular saw. The railings are coming down!

Let's hope they don't land on the Mercedes!! A rusty old bashed up car on the drive is even worse than just a rusty old car . . . Derek!! Take that car away!
(for those not in the know, Derek has promised umpteen times to move the offending vehicle)

I'll report on progress later in the day or possibly tomorrow depending on how long things take.

Location:Wednesday 8th February

Thursday

I wish I had a photo to show you what I saw this morning.

There I was sitting up in bed having my coffee when all of a sudden a wee red squirrel appeared on the windowsill outside of the window. Bear in mind that my bedroom is on the third floor. The little chap had climbed up the drain pipe!

I noticed a wee red squirrel had moved into the neighbourhood a few weeks ago. He (or maybe he's a she or maybe there's more than one of them!) lives in the wooded area facing the the house.

I wonder if today was my first visit or just the first time I'd noticed?

Anyway, I sent a little iPad message to Lucy - had to tell someone straight away - it's not every day a squirrel comes to visit and to answer Scott's question (relayed through Lucy), he never said a word: )

Thanks Gary!


This is a photo I took of my new wee Christmas tree with my iPad.
And now it's on my blog. . . Hurrah!
I said to Luca, "Which Christmas tree do you like best. The big real one in the front room or this little artificial one in the back room?"
"This one!" he said, pointing at the wee artificial one.
What can I say?

Trying out blogging on my iPad

Ok. Here we go.
Ross and I have just finished eating our tea. He's away down the stairs to work on his imaginary football teams and I'm sitting on Ian's chair with The One Show just starting, poised . . .

I've downloaded the app that Lucy suggested, Blog press - hence this entry on my ipad, and another - Best album, that Gary recommended that should let me include photos!

Hmmm . . .
Stuck Gary. How do I do this?