Sunday afternoon

That's Ian home.

No summitting of Lochnagar today. . . not that there would have been a view at the top anyway because of the cloud.

To be honest, it wasn't really a day for it. The weather has been very blustery and changable. We've had lots of downpours today and I put the heating on when I got back from church because it was so cold!

The priest this morning, said that some of the parishioners in Braemar were saying to him that it was cold enough for snow.

"Oh dear," I thought. "Ian!"

Anyway, he's home safe and sound, if a bit tired. He came up to have a bath which I've just run for him because when I came up to write this entry, I found him parked on the bed in front of the golf!

Am I a caring spouse or not? :)

I think he's a bit achy and tired so I've emptied my bottle of radox into the water. That should do the trick!

Yesterday, Ian and I took one of our infrequent trips to the cinema - 'The Girl who played with Fire', based on the second book in the 'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' series. I haven't finished reading the book, but I will. There's a lot more detail in the book.

Mind you, I'm not sure I'll be able to cope with it. By the end of the film, I was definitely in shock from all the revelations about Lisbeth Salander's past. She's the main character in case you don't know.

Gee what that poor girl had had to endure in her short life!!

I'm not sure how much more I can take!!

So why have I taken a photo of Ian driving into Aberdeen yesterday?

Just to let you see that Granda Ian takes his responsibilities seriously.
Can you see, Lucy! he's wearing his Pop Warner football top for luck, as promised!

And just to finish off. . .
Here's son number two. I bribed him to get out of bed with a bacon butty. The smell of which I encouraged downstairs to his bedroom by swinging doors back and forward :)

He's working just now on a computer that he picked up yesterday.

And he has arranged to see an old customer on Wednesday who's giving up teaching and setting up his own business!
Sounds promising, don't you think?

Time for tea, I think :)

Friday afternoon

Well, that was a bit of luck!

As I opened this programme up, I noticed the wind getting up and darkness descended!!
All of a sudden the heavens opened and to the accompaniment of thunder, a shower of great big hailstones crashed to earth. They came down so thickly that, just for about a minute, you couldn't see a thing!

So what was lucky?
Well, having been alerted by the wind, I went down and took in my wee washing! :)

At this point before I forget, can I just thank Lucy for taking time out to update her blog. I've saved the photos onto my computer, Lucy :)

That shower of hailstones turned to rain and now it's gone off and the sky is getting light again. We're probably going to end up with the sun shining again!

Here's the photo I took as the hail turned to rain!

Home alone just now.

Ian is on a golf course in St Andrews just now, and Ross is out and about. He left about three to go to the helicopter place in Peterculter and then onto Nigel's at Finzean.

"Should be home before seven," he said.
Well, I hope so.

We're supposed to be having a curry tonight seeing as it's just the two of us for tea.

So, I'm keeping my points intake down to the bare minimum till then.
Because as we all know curry is very high in points, units, calories and everything else you can name - no matter what 'healthy eating' regime you choose to follow.

And, having eaten cauliflower for lunch with raspberries to follow to save up points for tonight, my resolve to abstain from further intake will begin to crumble pretty early.

Wedding news, Julie has sent her apologies. she won't manage to get up for the wedding but, she is talking about coming up on a wee visit, with Leo, on Friday September 24th. So that'll be nice.

Photo of Julie and Leo - 2007. Julie looks similar but the wee guy has changed considerably - well he would have wouldn't he?

I'll need to talk to you, Carole, about how to handle the visit. It would be good if you could meet her while she's up. Would you be able to take a couple of hours off work?
And Luca too.
Maybe even Gary could manage to organise an early finish that day? What do you think, Gary?
We'll see :)

Staying on the wedding theme, the Hen Night is officially being held October 9th and the theme is 'Horror'!
Carole says dressing up is optional. Phew!
Her suggestion for me is a little subtle something. And what does that mean, Carole? :)

Anyway, I'm going to give the pub crawl a miss but I'm up for the 'coctail class' and the tapas afterwards :)

Don't worry, daughters, we'll organise a meal out for the girls when you get home :)

Found these photos in the 2007 file, as well.

Happy campers in Oregon

And slightly damp campers in Cornwall :)

Wednesday

I've been searching on line for something to wear to the wedding. . . so far without success. I can't even make up my mind what type of outfit I want to wear!

Apart from, it's not going to be a knee length skirt which rules out most of what I've seen so far.
Oh and it has to have sleeves to hide my curdled batwings -

So not knee length and with sleeves - no mean feat, I can tell you!!

Anne left me a couple of catalogues before she went to sunny Majorca yesterday. One for Kaleidoscope and the other for Marisota and there are quite a few outfits I like in them but. . . not sure if what I like is appropriate.

Marisota has lovely jeans with sparkly back pockets which I am seriously considering getting.
But I don't think they would look good with the hat that I intend wearing! :)

Plus, it's hard to feel the quality off a page in a catalogue and I was stung many years ago, when I was only about sixteen, by just such a situation.

I used my hard earned usherette's pay to buy a brown smock top. . . it had a square neckline which had swiss braid around it in shades of orange (OK . . . it was the sixties, afterall!). It was gathered at the neckline and came down to about hip level. I remember it well because I had to wear it forever :(

In fact I think I wore it as a maternity smock when I was pregnant with you, Lucy. Probably got a photo of me wearing it, now that I think about it!

Anyway, the fabric was cheap and nasty and I was very disappointed.

In fact here we are! The very top!

Off to do some ironing now. I think I've got an episode of Wire in the Blood recorded. Brilliant :)

Monday evening . . .

. . . and it's still 'chucking it down'!

It's been raining on and off since lunchtime, but not any old rain - torrential downpours, and gloomy? - I've needed the lights on in the house all afternoon!

Y'know, we've been having a lot of this kind of weather recently. Not our usual quiet, persistant rain. More the noisy kind that startles you when it start, making you look out of the window to see what's going on.

Enough! I hear you cry. No more weather talk!

So, guess where I was for lunch today?
The golf course!
Irene, of Ken and Irene, phoned last night to see if I was still joining the golfing girls after their game this morning. My joining them along with Annette, another non golfer, had been discussed at Saturday's outing but to be honest, I'd forgotten all about it. Anyway. . .

I duly arrived, spent a couple of hours very pleasantly and came away having arranged to play golf with them next Monday at 11.52am! Yikes !!

Ian has agreed to help me organise which I am very relieved about.

Just found Kelly on line there!!
She's streaming UK radio while she gets ready to go out to her body pumps class. It's quarter past five in the morning over there!

Well wasn't that a lovely wee diversion!


I'll sign off with a photo Kelly gave us of a race she ran along a Cornish beach!

Ten to ten on Sunday night

. . . so it'll be a short entry again seeing as it's so late.
Yes, I know that this is a matter of opinion and to Ross, for example, his ten to ten won't come till about, let me think. . . five oclock tomorrow morning! But to me? it's bedtime.

The reason for this entry is to let everyone see Luca modelling the new bed!

And here he is!

But while we're at it, here's a photo of him taken as he arrived at Granny's having been released early from nursery on friday night.

Friday's weather was nice and warm. That's why he looks a little damp at the hairline! :)

I thought I'd pop in another couple of photos from Friday bedtime. Just to let you see one of his favourite books of the moment.


We go through it again and again choosing different places to live and things to wear. Each double page is filled with pictures of lots of different choices.

This page is about deciding where you would like to visit.
The desert, maybe. Or perhaps a city?
'You choose'.
That's the name of the book.

I bought the same book for Cade and Braeden many years ago but, correct me if I'm wrong, Lucy. Didn't we lose it somewhere?

Saturday. . .

No time to write because I spent too long on Ancestry.

Had a lovely chat with Lucy last night and heard all about her camping trip last weekend. When I get back from the barbecue, I'll visit Facebook to see the photos she's posted there.
Lucy said she finds it easier to post on Facebook so her blog is majorly unattended!

Luca slept in the new kangaroo bed last night and has assured us that it's comfy. I've taken a couple of photos but haven't transfered them onto the computer yet so they'll have to wait till my next entry.

Gary came and picked the wee one up just before lunchtime, so once I'd waved them off, I sat back and had lunch in the quiet - that means minus 'Ben 10' in the background.

When I picked Luca up from nursery yesterday, his first words were, "Look Granny! I'm wearing my Ben 10 top today!", proudly stretching it out to it's best advantage!

So he went home wearing it again today - it was still clean. . . enough :)

Just checked. . . my coffee cup is empty and I have 20 minutes left to wash my face and change my clothes before three oclock (our departure time), so I'm off!

It's Monday morning...

. . . yet again. How did it manage to come round again so fast?

I'm really tired today.
My legs and feet are aching and my eyes are burning! I feel totally wabbit after our weekend in Edinburgh at the Festival. Is that how you spell 'wabbit', Ian?

I checked 'The Concise Oxford Dictionary' to see how to spell it and it wasn't there. So I then looked it up in 'The Scots Dialect Dictionary' and it wasn't there either!

Have I imagined this word?. . . or, could I be feeling 'wappit' rather than 'wabbit'?!!
Now I'm not sure.
I suppose I could compare my use of 'wabbit/wappit', if indeed I haven't imagined it, to Luca's 'liffyvoom' (livingroom) or indeed Lucy's 'tug a tiggy' (cup of tea)!
Maybe, I've just got the word completely wrong and have never realised my mistake!

Can anyone help?!!

Good news, by the way, for any of us who are related to Old Granny Sowerby! :) Her great grandad left an estate worth £11.001.12s 8p. in1880, (I found this out courtesy of Ancestry.com who've just opened up a new section on probate records).

Now all we have to do is find out where all the money went! My mother always maintained there was money on that side of the family!! :)

I need to get cracking with the housework pretty soon. It's almost lunchtime and I've done nothing yet.
No swimming today unfortunately. The swimming pool have changed their timetable and it looks as if it'll be Thursday swimming till October at least. Maybe even Christmas.

I thought about going out for a walk but to be honest, I've done enough walking over the last few days so I'll hoover instead. Oh, and I've just remembered I have a trip to the tip to do too! I need to get rid of all the cardboard from the bed delivery amongst other things.

I haven't touched on our visit to Edinburgh - apart from complaining about the walking. But to be honest, I enjoyed walking around Edinburgh. It's such a pretty city with so many interesting little streets and vistas and we saw some really enjoyable shows and ate in a couple of well chosen (completely by chance) restaurants but I have no photos, I forgot to take my camera!! So I'll let Ian tell you all about it.

Well, I might chip in the odd little bit that he leaves out but that'll be all :)

Must go! The tip is waiting!!