So yesterday we went to Linn of Dee. It is one of my most favourite places on earth. We walked for a few miles, but as Hannah had been a Stacey and wouldn’t take a decent jacket or walking boots, she was freezing, so we turned back before we saw any deer. Lots of nice photos though, which I can’t upload on the power tv.  Came back via Braemar and had a mosey round the outdoor shop as Bob split his climbing boots the other day, but didn’t see anything he liked. May try to get the others repaired, as he loves them. Bought mealy puddings for lunch time, to have with home made lentil soup. I can make these myself from scratch, as my Gran taught me as a kid, but given we only ever eat them once a year, we buy them from the Queen’s butcher in Braemar! You serve the soup (has to be lentil) in a bowl with the lip, and you put the oatmeal all round the lip, and put some on your soon before you lift some soup. The wikepaedia picture of it served fried for breakfast is a very English way of eating it lol, just done for the tourists

I went for a walk in the late afternoon, while Bob and Hannah wii-ed and then in the evening we were still full, so had toasites and popcorn with a movie night. To make up for no pool, the hotel had reduced all the inhouse movies to 50p, so we watched Nancy Drew and Wall E. While they were doing that, I sent out a newsletter for the business.

Today, we went back to Aberdeen, Bob and Hannah swam, I walked and then spent a couple of hours using Costa’s wifi and a decent mobile reception to respond to the thirty requests for a place on the taster day as advertised in the newsletter. Going to have to find another venue, as mine can only cope with 8. Eek. Think I have sorted out a room in a HI Express. Bob and Hannah now movie viewing again, and I’m about to use the in-lodge jacuzzi and sauna. Bliss.

Actually, probably frostbite. Weather is just fantastic, freezing, but fantastic. Lots and lots of light

Bob was at a Javelin coaching course on Sunday, half way here, so it was decided he would travel by public transport in the morning to his course, and I would pack and pick him up on the way. Best laid plans and all that, when we discovered he couldn’t get out of town on public transport on Sunday morning befor 10am, so at the last minute he had to go on Sat night. Sunday morning, we got up and the dog was in season. Shit. My mum had offered to have her, despite me saying I would put her in kennels, but she was not at all happy to discover she was in heat. I phoned the kennels, and her being in heat wasn’t a problem for them, but they need to have had kennel cough immunisation 7 days before they go, so that was out. Decided we couldn’t go, but my mum did agree to have her in the end. Dog meanwhile looking confused and sorry for herself (its her second season, but the vet said in a dog her size we could expect 9 month gaps, but this was 6 months to the day). Shit shit shit. She would have been spayed, but the vet will only do them between weeks 8-16 of their cycle, and we missed the window the last time as we were distracted by the kitchen saga.

Then discovered that with the dog stuff, and no back seat to use either (as the dog travels in a harness), I could NOT get everything into the car. Started randomly saying we couldn’t take things and the wii fit, the slow cooker, my memory foam pillow etc, the skiis, all hit the dust. Hannah in the huff about the wii, and it was blowing a force 10 gale and pissing it down all the while I’m dragging stuff in and out to re-arrange. FINALLY got it in, Hannah decided we were ok for room for the first 50 miles till we picked Bob up, and would be OK again for the last 50 after we’d dropped the dog off, so for the couple of hours in the middle she would sit with the wii on her lap. So that was sorted, off we went, and 40 miles from the house, in a sleet storm Hannah asked in a small voice that if it were ME, and I was going away for a week, and thought I’d left the hair straighteners plugged in, what would I do????? FUCK!!! Calmly (!?) turned the car round, drove 40 miles back, discovered (of course), that she had switched them off, and set off again. Finally got within 10 miles of Bob to discover the road closed due to flooding, so the AA directions were no longer valid. Drove around lots more in the sleet, car steamed up, dog crying, etc, and eventually by more luck than judgement, found him. Then realised that Bob had a big rucksack, as he had taken a sleeping bag etc, as he had only gone to a hostel. Unpacked car again (Bob: you had lots of room if you had packed it efficiently. Me: Fuck off, you tosser. Hannah: I’ll need therapy soon). FINALLY set off for my mums, dumped the dog, who pissed my mum off as she ignored her in favour of slopping all over my dad. (To be fair, he lived with us for 8 weeks during the kitchen saga, so she is used to him). Mum: well, if you like HIM so much, he can clean up after you all week. Us: thank you and good bye!!

Bob and I reunited in harmoney over missing the dog, and set off over the glen to the Cairgorm National Park. Checked into our lodge, and was told that as they had suffered a burst pipe, there would be no swimming pool, no spa, and basically nothing that we come here for in sodding January. Then discovered that they’ve installed a power TV since we were last here (which I’m currently using to access the internet), and it had no socket for the wii. Had pizza, another argument, and we all went to bed.

Monday things looked up, and we all had a bracing talk about being in a lovely venue, shouldn’t let one thing spoil it, no one could make us miserable without our permission (sodding NLP, lol), and we had a long walk in lovely sunshine, a great roast dinner with some nice wine, and I discovered that the portable tv in the bedroom had the right sockets. So bob brought that upstairs (the lodge is upside down for the views), and we all played wii ski till after midnight.

Today we drove into Aberdeen, about 50 miles away, and Bob and Hannah spent about three hours in the tropical leisure pool, with flumes, waves, rapids etc, while I walked for about 6 miles. We met up for coffee in the afternoon, and took a brief trip into the city centre to get some more reading material, since we are more reliant on entertaining ourselves, and headed home to a casserole which had been in a low oven all day. Now having some local whisky which you can only get direct from the distillery along the road, they only make it for the export market, and feeling no pain

Barely back at work, and off on holiday again. We are off up North for a week, to a nice lodge with jacuzzi, sauna etc (in the lodge), and all the other amenities in the main complex. No snow, so probably no skiing, but looking forward to a week of R+R. Although having a bit of a breakdown tonight, as my parents are coming to dog-sit, so attempting to conceal the muck of months for my mother’s benefit. I really wish we could take Maisie, but no dogs allowed, but we will miss her a lot, and it would really be dog paradise.

Hannah hasn’t been well, but feeling a lot better on some anti-virals.

Today we walked the dog for about 6 miles, as my mum won’t let her off the lead in case she won’t come back and then Hannah bathed her, so is looking very cute. Her coat is quite shaggy just now, as we let it grown a bit for winter. Bob has been going through a process of having to re-apply for jobs, and has just been made an offer, so that is a relief – very much the same as he is doing, and it isn’t going to require him to go back on shifts, which we had been worried about, and also means I am spared from having to go back to work full time. The business isn’t really relaible enough to sustain us without one of us working full time, so that was a relief, as its just really starting to take off, and I would have been gutted to leave it to go back to full time employment.

So – I have a dongle, but can’t guarantee it will work in the Cairngorm National Park, so if not, back in a week

Hannah in the woods

An altar to Dell?Just because I like it.

I'm much younger than HIM

Bob says he find it hard to believe he is above the dog, but certainly believes he is below the computer!

Hannah and I were up at the crack of dawn to blag a GP appointment today. Given they’ve been closed for 5 days, I thought it may be impossible, but I finally got past the engaged tone at 8.10, and got offered an appointment at 8.25. This has happened to us before, so I was already prepared with us both dressed, dog crated, car defrosted etc, so we made it.

Wandered into town afterwards, and Hannah spent some book tokens in Waterstones. Annoyingly, two of the three books she wanted had a buy two get one free sticker on it, so I chose one for myself to make up the third, and told her I would give her the money. I sent her off to pay herself, and it turned out that all of hers were on offer, even though one didn’t have a sticker, so I ended up buying something I hadn’t been desperate for rather needlessly. Oh well.

Came home, and took down the tree etc. I always feel ridiculously maudlin taking down the tree, and wondering what we’ll all be doing by the time it goes back up again. Maybe a hangover from pre-Hannah days when every Xmas, we would say “maybe next xmas, we’ll have a baby”. Anyway, sniffed my way through that, and it’s all waiting upstairs for Bob to put in the loft when he gets home. Realised we had some chicken in the fridge that wasn’t really enough for dinner for three, but had to be eaten, so we had cold chicken, with olives, cherry tomatoes and brocilli stirred through it for lunch. Hannah asked if I wanted wine since we were having a posh lunch, lol. (I declined, in case you are wondering!)

Hannah curled up on the sofa, and I took the dog for a woodland walk, which was lovely. We saw several herons, and a funny bird I haven’t seen on the river before. It looked like a huge duck, with a white body, and a black head. Came home, realised that the last place we had photos lurking was on the cameras, which I had forgotton about, so dealt with that, did some business paperwork – I’m thinking about running a course in Aberdeen, so needed to find suitable venues to look at when we are up north on holiday next week. Tackled the ironing basket, and Hannah listened to some music on her ipod.

And its only 5pm, and everything is done, AND I’ve blogged. PLUS I’ve taken down the blog tree as well , and replaced with something to match the weather. What a difference getting up early makes.

I rarely use flickr, as it has always seemed a huge faff (which may indicate I’m not doing it right), but I realised that all our photos were scattered all over the place, and not backed up. So today I went round all the computers in the house, and gathered them all onto an external drive, and have set them up to upload to flickr -there wasn’t as many as I thought, (about 1000, maybe), but they are taking forever, its been three hours already, and only 17% are done. I suspect it’s going to be a long evening!

We’ve done the usual beach walk, gathered up (a theme developing), all the food that was lying about in various fridges, cooked it all, and froze what we won’t use quickly.

Hannah has been excited all day waiting to the announcement about the new Dr Who, we’ve been talking about the kinds of things she might want to do over the next few months, thinking about MOTB (Ros, are your lot going this year?), planning where we might go in the caravan, and generally waiting for real life to re-start on Monday.Its been a lovely couple of weeks

Today for the first time ever I made the highly recommended Nigella Ham in Coke. I’m sure I have eaten something as disgusting before, but I would be hard pushed to name it. It was sweet, revolting and had a horrible chemical aftertaste. What a complete waste of time, money and effort that was. In the end, none of us could eat it, and we zapped some frozen chili in the microwave instead.

Culinary disasters aside, we’ve had a nice few days. Weather has been fantastic – rarely above -5c, and really still and sunny. So although its been FREEZING, there has been enough light to make this time of year bearable, and already the light is begining to creep forwards in the evenings. I sometimes can’t bear the greyness in mid winter. So we’ve done lots of walking, relaxing, wii playing and dvd watching (still don’t have a tv). Having heating again is such a novelty though, that sometimes I just go and watch the lights flashing on the new boiler

Today we drove to Carlisle to get me a new laptop. My desktop is about 10 years old, and is really unstable now, and needs regular tlc. My laptop, although newer (about 5 years), was fairly low spec, as it was what I could afford at the time, and it was never intended to be the main PC in the house. With the desk top being unreliable, and us only having heat in the living room for the last few months, its been used more and more and had ground to a halt. It also doesn’t like working with the projector, which isn’t ideal when I’m doing pitches. Hannah does have her own, and I’ve been mainly using that, but its not really fair, and I’m scrupulous about not using my work one for the business.

So, I decided what I wanted and was about to order it direct from Dell, when I quick google showed it was £150 cheaper in PC World. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a line they were doing in Scotland, nor were they selling in online, but they had them in Carlisle, so I ordered it for Collect in Store, and off we went. Had a good drive down, just over two hours, went for lunch, then picked it up, and stopped in Dumfries on the way home to let the dog run about for a while.

So now I’m setting it all up It’s FAST.

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.