Moving at the speed of life

Today at the beach even the rock pools were frozen. (Must check the freezing point of salt water.) Maisie loves running through the rock pools, so today she set off at speed ….. and skidded across on her belly, with all four lags splayed out, her chin on the ice, and a VERY surprised expression on her face. Anyway, taking back what I said in my last post about her being bright, she continued to do it on just about every pool she found. It was hysterical, and she was looked at askance by all the more senior and sensible dogs on the beach.

Came home, made hot chocolate and mallows for Hannah and me, and then she curled up on the sofa (she’s been feeling a bit poorly for the last few days), while I rushed round with the vacuum cleaner, flicked a duster over the place, and stuck dinner in a casserole on the hob.

Bob did a Tesco run when he came home, (still need to get cream and courgettes, both of which were finished in two different supermarkets), but otherwise that’s us sorted for the next half of the holidays. I sort of miss the festive season of my childhood, when there was no obvious signs of Xmas till the 23rd, when the village decorations were switched on, the tree went up on Xmas Eve, and then it was non-stop celebrations for 12 nights. Now it all seems to start at the begining of December, and people are taking the tree down from the 26th.

Rather glad I took leave over the holidays though. With the public holidays being on Thursday and Friday, and with them normally being working days for me, I had to take annual leave to cover them, as of course as a part-timer, I don’t have a public holiday entitlement as such – the public holidays are pro-rated onto my annual leave. I toyed with the idea of working on the Mondays and Tuesdays of each week instead, but decided against it, and it’s been lovely to be off. Bob has also had to take some annual leave to cover the holiday closure at his work (24th and 31st, as well as the PH), so it’s been lovely to have us all here. Its nice to be at home without any pressure to “be on holiday” or go anywhere.

The turkey has reached the final stage, and will be finished tonight, with rostis made from leftover sprouts and potatoes. We’ve yet to tackle the Xmas pudding, but may manage it tonight.

Really frosty here today, it almost looked as if it had been snowing. So we all wrapped up and walked for miles along the beach. Maisie’s recall is getting pretty reliable, so it’s nice that she can get off the lead for long stretches, I hated keeping her on the lead all the time. I wouldn’t trust her in traffic, or near farm animals, but she is fine on beaches/in parks etc. Hannah got a book on agility training in her stocking, and she’s keen to start that with her. I don’t know why I’m vaguely surprised at how bright she (the dog!) is. As we always had guide dogs for their first year when I was growing up, I was used to dogs being highly trainable, and also being working animals, but somehow I didn’t expect it of a POODLE!!  It’s funny as she was really a dog of last resort for us because of Bob’s allergies, and not one I would ever have chosen, but she is such a non-stereotypical poodle. Or maybe I was unfairly predjudiced against them. I suspect that last sentence is tautology. Can one be fairly predjudiced? Anyway, the dog is lovely

We had a great evening skiing on the wii fit last night,  but I was mightly pissed off when we switched it on for the first time. It told Hannah (5 foot 7, size 8 feet, perfect size 10, competitive athlete), that she is “overweight” based on her BMI. Not even a mention that BMI is not a good measure for athletes. She’s robust enough just to laugh it off, and she understands enough about physiology to know that she has pretty significant muscle development for a 12 year old, and also that the muscle weighs a lot, but its the last thing a pre-teen needs to be told. The fitness goals that they are asked for are all based on weight change as well, rather than on performance. At the end of the day, ffs, its a GAME, surely it doesn’t need any quasi-scientific crap? Once I got over my rant about that though, it was fun

And then Bob and I watched another 4 episodes of Grey’s Anatomy, while I had Patrick Dempsey fantasies. Yum.

Bob goes back to work tomorrow for a few days, so we may get back to more normal hours.

We’ve had a rather lovely few days. On Tuesday (23rd), Hannah and I went to John Lewis and had a Bobbi Brown make-over, came away with lots of samples, (although I could never really justify spending money like that on make-up) and then we went to Pizza Express and chattted for a couple of hours. Bob picked us up at the station, and then he and Hannah went off to see his dad, while I did present wrapping.

Xmas Eve we went for a long walk and had hot cohcolate in Beanscene, and really just lazed around. I think Christmas Eve is my favourite time. Hannah sent off to bed around 10pm, and Bob and I stayed up till around midnight. Around 3am the dog went mad barking, which is really unusual for her, and we decided it must be Santa We all slept in till about 9am, and discovered that there were presents

Hannah has wanted a DS lite for ages, and I had been reluctant as her other DS was still in good nick. However, we wanted to give my dad a special present this year as a thank you for doing all the work on the kitchen, so we gave him Hannah’s DS, with Big Brain Academy, Sudoko and Tetris, and Hannah got a pink DS lite She also got a wii fit, and loads of books. She also got a lump of PMC, to have a go at making silver jewellery and an encaustic art set. She had also bought presents for us, without any help, and was SO excited about these. And we loved them Hannah tends to open her presents very slowly over a few days. Its not that she gets masses, its just that she likes to savour it. So the DS did get unwrapped on Xmas day, yesterday was books, and today was the wii fit.

We did have a turkey crown for Xmas day, but around 3pm, after we’d been for a long walk, we decided we couldn’t be bothered cooking, so we had some party food from the freezer, bucks fizz, and later on, bacon rolls. Unconventional, but lovely. So on Boxing Day we had the full works, and watched about 5 hours of Grey’s Anatomy, series 4, which I had ordered from the US for Bob.

Today is really frosty, and we’ve been looking to see if we can get booked into a carvan site for new year, without luck so far, but it would be nice to do something different. The dog has had another long walk, and we are about to do some more chocolate clearing

Because I got a box of chocolate liquers from Secret Santa. I LOVE these, and they just somehow spell 70s Christmas. Oh, and I’m on holiday

…..as no hope of decorating the house in the foreseeable future. We finally almost have a kitchen floor again, having got rid of the rot. So that’s novel, not to have the dog constantly getting stuck under the floorboards. Christmas dinner is likely to be something cooked in the slow cooker, like every other meal for the last however long. I feel really bad, as everything Hannah asks atm, my answer is “no!. Can we have the tree up soon? No. Can I cook something? No. Can I do some Xmas crafts? No. I will never again re-do a kitchen while I’m living in the house. I know this one has been particularly bad, but even so, can never face it again.

Yesterday we went to Edinburgh together for the Christmas fair, and I was shocked at how much we spent. I suppose nearly 50 quid on the train, but even so. She had a hour skating, one go each on the gallopers, the chairaplanes and the big wheel (I went on that as well), plus a hot chocolate each, a burger each, and then waffles before we left, and I left with £100 in my purse, and came home with £15. Gulp.

The dog is spending far too much time in her crate to keep her safe, meaning shes wild when she gets out of it, so everything is stressy. Coupled with massive changes at Bob’s work, meaning he may well end up back on shift, and me working all last week (freelance, so at least it paid for the re-wiring and the new kitchen floor), has been a recipe for lots of grumpiness. I look at Bob and I with our multiple degrees, and I really amn’t sure I would ever overly encourage Hannah to go down that academic route, unless she wanted it for its own sake. When we started out, to have two degrees was seen as the pinacle of achievement, and the route to all sorts of opportunities, and while I suppose I’ve done OK out of it, I look at Bob at 50+, still working 12 hour days, and I’m not convinced it was worth all the scrimping and saving we did to allow it to happen.

Anyway, all that sound miserable, and actually its not really that bad, except for the mess and dust, and never having a day without hammering, all of which is getting to us all. We feel guiltly having a day off, as it means just another day of living in this mess, but I think we’ve decided to stop for a few days over Xmas, and just eat, drink and be merry

Have been trying to organise HPV and a rubella booster for Hannah which is proving challenging as both are only delivered through the school health service. The GP’s receptionist suggested we would need to go private. I think not! So have emailed the director of Public Health at the Health Board, and asked them what arrangments they’ve made for HE kids. Nice to know that someone will be running around trying to answer that one on Monday