Wednesday 27th February

Yesterday, found the pick up from school very pleasant!
Instead of pulling layers of clothes tighter around us and lowering our heads to battle the cold wind and rain, we had the joy of striding out in the warmth of the sun.
I think Spring is just around the corner!
Here's the evidence...



"Follow me, Granny!" Luca calls back over his shoulder.
"C'mon, let's run!"
Groan...
I lift the leaden weights I call legs higher and crash them down again with as much power as I can muster. My speed increases ever so slightly. The increased momentum lasting for all of 30 seconds.
It's enough. Thank goodness!
We slow down and role play takes over. At least there's no more running:-)
Role play, you may think is a doddle.
Think again.
After an hilarious confession sharing with Carole last night, I have discovered that I am not alone in finding role play with Luca mind numbingly boring!
Luca's last visit to Granny and Granda's involved my getting into
character as a variety of different cars to meet up with Luca's characters - also cars, and pass the time of day. Luca would lead the conversation and it would go something like this...
"Hi, how are you?"
"Oh, I'm fine. How are you?"
"I'm fine, thanks. Would you like to go for a walk?"
"That would be lovely! Yes I would."
As we move off...
"It's a lovely day, isn't it!"
...and so on and so on.
No deviation from the Luca led script was allowed.
We would replace these cars in their appointed space in the line and take out the next two ...
I thought this was as low as it was possible to go till Carole confessed to recently having played the part of the seaweed in an underwater scenario at bath time!
What can I say? :-)

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Monday 25th February

Time for bed :-)
Ian has already settled down for the night, so here I am with nobody to talk to :-(

We separated earlier this evening. Ian watched the football upstairs. My choice was 'Law and Order' followed by 'Penguins -Spy in the Huddle' downstairs.
Loved the penguins! The filming was brilliant and the commentary at times was hilarious! Aren't penguins just so cute:-)

Anyway, since Ian is dead to the world, I'll just spend a wee bit of time with you instead.
What can I talk about?

How about personal current affairs...



Here's a photo of our tree felling operation, a couple of weeks ago. That tree was leaning so far forward, it was likely to uproot and clatter down!
Graeme - the tree man - cut back quite a lot of dead wood while he was up there. I think it makes quite a difference. Maybe I'll put in a few wee steps to make access to the embankment a bit easier...put a few more plants in. Maybe.

If you look bottom left in the photo, you can see where the cavity wall has started to fall down. I thought of getting a big sheet of plastic to put on the ground so's I could empty out the wall. Then I could rebuild it but I'm worried I'd be out of my depth. I've never built a wall before. Maybe, I'll think a bit longer.

I've been looking through my photos for something to share. Ian says I take loads of photos but no-one ever sees them...






What do you think? Worth publishing? I came across this Ladies loo in a pub in Adelaide. Island wash hand basins! That was a first for me.

Enough? Yes, I think so. It's quarter to midnight now and the light is disturbing poo Ian's beauty sleep.

Sunday 16th February

"Maybe there are sharks in there," suggested Luca, excitement shining in his big brown eyes!


The puddle was definitely big enough!

This was King George V park last Monday - the only dry day we had while Luca was sleeping here during his school break.

From Sunday till Wednesday evening when his daddy came to take him home, his Granda and I regressed to childhood as we constructed Lego transformers and brick castles, played Ludo, snakes and ladders and every other game we possess, crawled around the carpet creating dramas using cars, not to mention finishing the metre long 'colouring in' of the ocean which we gave to Luca when we got back from Australia.

Each morning, I was wakened by a little spindly legged mop head standing at the side of my bed, his eyes shining with excitement as he called, "Come on Granny, let's go downstairs and have some fun!!"


One of Luca's creations - it's a castle.



Here's the wee guy on one of his favourite spots. He loves to climb up and then run back down the hill

Evening of 1st July

That's Ian home from his week-end away to see his buddy in London.
The football final between Spain and Italy for the World Cup is just about to start so I've retreated up to the bedroom.
It's been a quiet week end. Friday was swimming. Just Gill and I. Elizabeth is off on her holidays just now to Italy and Myra is still in Australia.

Ross was working Friday night in the Douglas so I treated myself to a bottle of wine and a rack of spare ribs courtesy of Costco and watched tv.

Saturday,I took a trip into town to Jewson with the intention of buying rockwool but came home with a new pair of jeans instead.
The lad in Jewson suggested I buy glass wool instead because it has a government subsidy on it at the moment and would cost me a lot less. Hmm.
Dan had said rock wool.
So we priced it. £202.00, if we were to infill all four walls completely!
Then we had a discussion about the merits of recycled Kingspan which are foam boards with foil on both sides. It's very effective and the shower room is very cold but it's solid boards so you need to saw it into appropriately sized pieces.
Are you following this?
If you are, could you let me know which direction I should go in!

Lucy joined Ross and I at teatime. We sat her on the table and chatted while we ate our cottage pie. FaceTime is a wonderful thing!




While I'm on the subject of food, can I just say I'm enjoying using the new induction hob : )
Induction seems to be as good as gas in that it cools down as soon as you turn the heat down and so far has been easy to keep clean - I spill and splash a lot when I'm cooking but with this hob, I can wipe up spills with no danger of burning myself or setting the dishcloth on fire!

Today, I went with the girls to the GardenCentre after Mass for coffee and a scone. We took little Freya with us today as she's staying with her Papa and Granny while her mum gets ready for their flitting tomorrow.

They're just back from holiday in Majorca. All four of them went to celebrate Laura's thirtieth birthday.
They had a lovely time but their journey over was marred by a large stag party who were on their flight and were throwing back alcohol at 7.00am in the morning. They got very rowdy on the plane. They wouldn't sit down, took to standing on the seats to shout backwards and forwards amongst themselves and they got abusive when the stewards refused to give them more alcohol. Anne said that Freya was clinging to Lesley, terrified by their antics.
What a shame.
Maybe something to keep in mind if you're travelling - avoid Fridays if you're going to the more popular Stag week-end destinations in Europe!

Just one week to go before Ian and I head out to The States to spend some time with Lucy and Scott and the boys : )
It'll be a busy day at Aberdeen airport.
As well as us, Sri and Peter are flying out. They're heading down to London - Maya's baby is due.
And Johanne and Colin are flying to Paris for their summer holiday.
Happy days!

A little later . . .

Luca's official Sport's Day had been cancelled because of our very wet weather recently, but when the sun had appeared on Tuesday, the school had taken advantage of it and rushed outdoors to have an impromptu Sport's Day : )
I don't think P.I. really comprehended what was going on but Luca has a winner's medal.
After interrogation, I know everybody in the class got one except Tyler who had his withheld for laughing when another child fell over in the middle of a race.
Poor Tyler.








Luca obviously didn't laugh and nor was he first in any race, he said.
The medal?
With a sigh because it's so plain, Granny, it doesn't need explanation. . .
I was in the middle, three times.




Do you understand?
I'm none the wiser.

D'you remember me telling you about Tyler's wobbly tooth, last week?
Well, the inevitable happened. The tooth came out while he was brushing his teeth at bedtime!

Gary hadn't been privy to the tooth fairy story and was unaware of the wobbly tooth so when in the middle of brushing his teeth, Tyler began to spit out blood, you can imagine Gary's immediate thoughts, can't you.

However, on closer inspection he saw the tooth in amongst the the bloody froth and scooped it into a bit of tissue.

"So you wrapped it up and put it somewhere safe for him to take home?"

"No," said Gary. "We put it under his pillow and after he was asleep I crept in and replaced it with a £2.00 coin."

"Crikey Gary! Two pounds for a tooth. That's an expensive precedent you've set!"

To which he replied. . . "It was that or a twenty pound note!"
Point taken.

Wednesday evening 27th June

Monday evening was gorgeous. The sun was slanting down our road while I potted up the last of my plants for the front of the house.
Trish from next door appeared out about nine-ish and we sat on the wall and had a good old chinwag.
The midges eventually appeared and that was the end of that but it was good while it lasted : )
Yesterday followed Monday evening's example and as Luca and I walked up the lane that connects the school to the car park at the wee local shops where I'd left the car, he told me it was too hot!
Says it all. Doesn't it. It must have been all of 20 degrees : )
But that's it gone for another wee while.
The rain started yesterday evening and we got up this morning to yet more mist and rain ; (
Ian is through in the back room watching TV just now and I'm in the kitchen with the rhythmic churn of the dishwasher in the background keeping me company.
While I'm on the subject of the kitchen, Johanne and I took a trip along to Drumoak kitchens to see their kitchen tables, this morning.
Disappointment.
They don't carry any in stock!
Lots of kitchen displays if you're looking to install a new kitchen, which was very scary.
"Oh I hope I don't see one that I like better than the one I have!", is the worry, isn't it.
But lovely as they were, it's ok. Ours is just as pretty.
Phew!
So to get back to the story. . . The man I spoke to asked me what I was looking for and said he could make one for me.
He'll draw a plan and then give me a quote.
"Would you want drawers?" he asked.
Oh joy of joys!
Exactly what I wanted but couldn't find!
Now we need to wait and see. I've given him my email address. . . nothing yet - it's been seven and a half hours! : )




This is the lino I've chosen for the kitchen. Mock slate.
Not an easy decision. We tripped over sample books laid in strategic places on the kitchen floor, all week-end.




And this is one of the sky photos I took the other day when I began to notice some little chinks in the clouds : )
A glimpse of Heaven.

Wednesday 20th June

7.10am - Looking out of the window at sunshine on the trees wondering if this is just another glimpse of sunshine or the promise of a summer's day. There have been few enough of them this year so far.

So much rain!

Ian came home early last night from his 'Midsummer's Golf Outing' not only soaked yet again but with a tale of thunder and lightning! Not a happy situation to be in when you are sheltering under a tree with a bag full of metal golf clubs, oh no!

On a cheerier note, Carole has been keeping us up to date with her experiences at Bootcamp on Face Book and Gary has taken the afternoons off with a half nine start in the morning to cover the school run for Luca.

I bumped into Gary - not literally, on the dual carriageway heading for Inverurie, yesterday. We were both heading for the school to pick up Luca!

"I was driving alongside you for ages before you noticed me," Gary said when we were seated in the supermarket cafe with Luca and his wee buddy Tyler.

I had noticed there was a car there but in the minutes before I looked, I thought, "There's a car overtaking me."
Nothing unusual there. Happens to me all the time.
Then I'd thought, "Jings. This guy is trying to overtake me and his car engine doesn't have the power to do it."
Then I thought, "Why doesn't he just slow down a wee bit and tuck himself in behind me?"
Then it dawned on me. Gary's car is silver, the car to my left that's keeping pace with me is silver. No it couldn't be, on the other hand maybe it is. . . him!
And it was!
I turned my head and there he was waving away like mad : )

Tyler, Luca's little buddy was a last minute addition to our merry band. Problems at home had been solved by Gary's offer to take him home from school and keep him overnight.

He's a lovely wee guy!
"I've got a wobbly tooth," he told me with some pride. Luca's are still holding fast.
"Oh, let me see," I'd responded enthusiastically. You have to, don't you. It's a big thing after all.
So we got onto talking about the tooth fairy and then the pair of them started sharing the story of the film, it being apparent that nether realised that it was fiction!
". . . and then the boy grew wings!"
I haven't seen the film but I think the boy must have caused the fairy to have an accident and was obliged to take her place till she was better - at least that's what I think the wee ones were telling me. It's not easy translating 5 year old speak into intelligible story lines.
Anyway, Tyler looked at me across the tea table and said, "You look like the tooth fairy!"
Has anyone out here seen this film?
I'm betting the tooth fairy is a wee old woman with curly hair.



To finish off, here's the photo I took at Potty's on Sunday where Gary treated us to our dinner for Father's Day.
A totally male environment. Would you be surprised to hear that the conversation strayed several times onto the subject of football!

Ian, Luca and I ate dessert. Ice cream, sadly not chocolate for Luca, Eton Mess for Ian and I can't remember what mine was called but it was a long narrow plate with three little dishes on it. The middle one was vanilla ice cream, to the left was a shot glass filled with Amaretto and the the right, a shot of expresso. Lovely!

Don't feel too sad for Luca. The restaurant had run out of chocolate ice cream and yes, that was tragic, but Grandad had been given a box of Thornton's Chocolates by Gary for Father's Day and Luca got first picks when we got home.

Ian said I can eat as many of them as I like and I don't need to ask! : )
That's love isn't it!