It's A Dog's Life

We got a dog!! On Monday last week I spotted an advert on Gumtree from someone looking to rehome a ten month old black labrador. I spent the day exchanging emails with her on my phone and organised to go and see the dog in the evening. I met Frazer (because he was borrowing my car at the time) and we came home to pick Isla up first as we thought we all had to make the decision. The only problem was that we had to go to Winchburgh which is quite a long way from Peebles.

The difference between him and the dog we saw last Saturday was incredible. Whereas that dog sat and growled at us and shook for half an hour, this dog came running to greet us, licked us to death and then wanted to play. The decision was made, and we brought him home!

His name is Rocco and, as I said, he's a ten month old black labrador. He's a very handsome boy and has the glossiest coat. He's not been exceptionally well trained, but he is generally a good boy, and he has the loveliest nature. I think his previous owner made the mistake of thinking that teaching him tricks was training him. He can sit and give a paw but that's about it. He does come when he's called which is good, and he's good off the lead, but not so good on it! We're working on that one though!
On the first night he was completely hyper - probably a little bit scared, and he cried when we went to bed. And he's cried every night since! Only for about ten minutes but it's wearing. But tonight he's gone to bed in the kitchen very happily next to the aga. I've given him one of my fleeces so that he has something that smells of me (as he seems to have become my little shadow!), but he has also been for a massive walk in the woods today - we must have walked 5 or 6 miles! And with all his running around he must have done at least double that!

So, our little family is complete for now! It feels like a proper home with a dog here. The cat's nose is put firmly out of joint but we're making it up to him by letting him sleep on the bed with us for now! Spoilt moggy!

I have suggested to Frazer that he takes the dog to obedience classes so watch this space!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Parent's Evening

The dreaded first High School parent's evening took place last week! Isn't it strange that when you walk into a school you immediately feel as though you should be sitting outside the Head's office in disgrace for something! All schools smell alike as well - it must be a mixture of poster paints from the pictures on the wall, and sweaty adolescents!

The first teacher we were meant to see was the French teacher so we searched the corridors for the room he was meant to be in (I have no idea why the teachers couldn't have seen parents in the rooms they normally teach in so that the kids could find them!), only to find that he wasn't there because he had been taken ill at the last minute!

I was very proud of Isla all evening - the techy teacher said she was, and I quote, "the ideal pupil"! The science teacher was impressed by her, the maths teacher was too - in fact all of them were, except the Modern Studies teacher but hey, you can't be good at everything and he was a bit of a tosser anyway!

So, as we were so pleased with her we went for a chinese afterwards, and I gave her an extra £5 to spend at Claire's Accessories with her £10 voucher that she got for Christmas.

Keep up the good work Isla!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

A Good Day

I just wrote a great big post and then I lost it. Pissed off does not even begin to describe it! Grrrr, note to self - remember remember remember to save as you go! You'd think I'd have learnt that by now!

Anyway...to summarise...we're getting a dog! We haven't found the right one yet, we're still looking. We went to see one yesterday but she was too nervy, growly and too little labrador and too much cringing collie. Don't get me wrong, I like collies, just not the ones with a tendency to cringe! What we're looking for is a labrador or a golden retriever, between one and two years old and playful enough and lazy enough! Isla has already agreed to come home at lunch times to let it out and play with it, so it's just a case of finding the right dog for all of us.

After we saw the dog we had to go to Livingston to see a car for Frazer. His crappy old Mondeo finally kicked the bucket last week so we have been car sharing, which isn't an ideal solution! Especially as he's regularly in Glasgow, and is actually away two days next week for a work thingy. So, he's now the proud owner of a gunmetal grey BMW 3 series, and he's picking it up on Tuesday.

The next item on the agenda was the Gyle centre so that Isla could spend her Claire's Accessories voucher that she got for Christmas. She got a nice little necklace and a hat. I hate hats but she really suits them. I got myself a new handbag, because I desperately needed one, and a wee Hello Kitty clock thing that attaches on to the bag. I used to have a similar one with a cherry clossom on it, but I left it on an old bag and threw the bag away. I didn't realise until the bins had been emptied. I was a bit upset as I had bought it in Japan.








That done, we went to the cinema to see War Horse. Now, some of the reviews I've seen haven't been hugely complimentary. All I can say is that's it's a Spielberg masterpiece. Brilliantly shot, excellent story, and it had me crying almost all of the way through! If I had one criticism it would be that the beginning part of the movie could have been squeezed into half an hour rather than taking up a whole hour. In all the quiet bits though, you could hear most of the cinema stifling sobs and sniffs! Even Isla cried!


We've had a lazy day today - it's been lovely. That's what Sundays are all about!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Happy New Year!

Well, that's it all over again for another year. The decorations are put away, the house looks bare after a month of tinsel clutter and there's the anti climax of going back to work and carrying on as normal with the only change being a new digit at the end of the date.


I love Christmas and New Year but it is always a bit of a downer once it's all over and you realise it's another year until it all starts again. And it hasn't even snowed properly this year - I know I complained about it for the last two freakishly cold winters, but it's a lot nicer than never ending greyness and rain. Snow makes everything seem so much brighter, and that in turn makes people so much more cheerful. So what if you've just struggled to get in to work - the sun is shining, the sky is blue and the ground is all white and you're in a great mood! I'm not really being grouchy. We had a lovely Christmas with Frazer's parents. The aga decided to misbehave on Christmas Day and I struggled to get everything cooked at the same time - for some reason using all three ovens at once reduces the heat in all of them so all my carefully timed (well, carefully-ish!) cooking went awry! We ate by about 7.30 so it wasn't too much of a disaster. I have realised why I loved Christmas so much when I was younger - my mum did all the work!! Even when I was in France we did all the work together. Frazer helps, but it's not the same. My mum taught me how to cook, so we do it the same way and work together as an excellent team. They'll just have to come over for Christmas next year, and possibly bring my dogs too once the passport laws have been relaxed. Yes Mother dearest, that is a hint!!!!








Frazer's mum and dad left on the day after Boxing Day, and Santa brought me a late present of a full blown cold! Thanks! Despite that, I had to go back to work on the Wednesday. Luckily it was completely dead at work which, on the plus side, meant that we were getting paid for nothing, but on the other hand was exceedingly dull! We had a lovely New Year - we hadn't really planned much so my friend Ailsa and her partner Brian and another friend Marj all came down to our house. I made a big Chilli, we all had a fair few to drink, saw in the bells and passed out one by one! So Happy New Year to all - here's hoping that 2012 is a great year for everyone!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Peebles,United Kingdom

A Day in the City complete with mini rant!

It seems a bit daft to go into Edinburgh for a day out when I work in the centre of town every day! But, I never actually do anything in town, I get the bus into town, spend all day in the office, and then go home. So, yesterday we decided to spend some time in the city and maybe start a little bit of Christmas shopping.

Frazer had been curling with some mates in the morning so I got the bus up to Edinburgh to meet him - seemed daft to take two cars. We had lunch in a Chinese buffet - tried Saigon Saigon this time and it was excellent. I always think it must be a sign of a good Chinese restaurant when Chinese people eat in there! It was delicious, and, as normal, we had far too many of the startery things and ended up too stuffed! We had a wander through Harvey Nichols - mainly because I had never been in there - and saw the view from the restaurant at the top, which is stunning. Unfortunately, there were people sitting right by the window, so I didn't get a picture. Harvey Nicks was pretty amazing, but you'd need a mortgage just to buy half the stuff in there!





We walked past the protest camp in St Andrews Square a few times. I've looked up why they're protesting, and I do kind of get it, but I'd have more sympathy for them if they wen't just a bunch of immensely middle class students with enough money to buy brand spanking new smart massive tents to be extremely comfortable in. We saw one of the protestors wandering around chatting on his mobile which kind of gives off the wrong signals! I don't disagree with the principle, what I disagree with is that some of the people protesting are people who have quite clearly benefited from rich mummies and daddies and they're basically just looking for attention. Yes it's very unfair that the rich (and the banks) get richer and the poor get poorer - I think that's basically it. However, there are always jobs out there for those who want them - as long as you are willing to do anything to earn a penny. It's constantly in the news how there are so many unemployed graduates now - why are they hanging around waiting to jobs to present themselves to them, and why aren't they doing temping jobs (of which there are many if you look at temping websites) or working in Tesco or somewhere? I'm sure prospective employers would look far more favourably on a CV which states that someone has been temping for a year in a bank than being unemployed for a year claiming the dole. However, I digress...! Go ahead and protest if that's your thing - they do have a point after all - but don't be hypocritical about it and do it just because you're jumping on the bandwagon.





Anyway, from one extreme to the other...we went to The Dome for a drink, although we didn't actually manage to get one. The Dome used to house e head office of the Royal Bank of Scotland, but in 1993 the bank moved all the business to the St Andrews Square building (outside which the protesters are camped) and the building was transformed to what it is now. It is absolutely stunning - on a summer's day when you walk in, you feel as though you should order a Singapore Sling! In the winter it is full of lights and garlands with cinammon attached so not only does it look Christmassy, it smells it too! It is beatifully opulent! It was packed out though, so I just took some photos and we went back to the car slightly disappointed, but we had a really lovely day, just the two of us.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Edinburgh

Isobel's Coconut Slice

I made this today for the first time in years. My dad's cousin Aunty Isobel used to make it, and she would always bring a big tin full of it every time she came to see us. Yummy :-) A word of warning though - blind bake the pastry first otherwise the botom ends up soggy, as I've discovered today!

Under the Weather

I've been feeling a little below par for a while now. Really since the first gallbladder attack at the end of June. I haven't felt well since then, and I'm weary of feeling ill. I just want to be well again.

As you know, I had my gallbladder operation at the end of August. I thought that would fix me - I thought it was just a case of recovering from that and I would be back on track again. But my body obviously had other ideas. Last Friday I was at work, and about five minutes before my lunch hour started I started to get pain in my stomach. I waited until my lunch hour startedand went to the toilet thinking maybe I just needed to go. Within minutes I was again in intense pain, like the first attack, and I started panicking. My team leader came in and I managed to tell her I needed to go home. I told her what was wrong and how it felt, and she went off to get our first aider who, it turned out, had had the same problem herself so she understood every bit of it. I phoned Frazer to ask him to come and get me, but within five minutes an ambulance had been called, so I let him know to meet us at the hospital. Our first aider came with me, and it was a huge comfort to know that she understood everything I was going through.

It took ages to get to the hospital, and every bump in the road (Edinburgh roads are in a dreaful state) hurt as the morphine hadn't kicked in yet. When I got there they stuck me in a cubicle in A&E and left me for a while. A nurse came in to help me get changed, then left. A doctor came in eventually (she was about 12!!!) and asked a few questions and left. Another doctor came in after a while, asked some more questions, and left. I was left on my own, in pain for about four hours, bar maybe three visits of about 10 minutes each from doctors who asked the same questions again and again. Within that time they took me for an X-Ray. Eventually they allowed Frazer to come in - the first aid lady from work had had to leave by that point. The morphine had started to work by this point and the pain had eased a little. They took me down for an ultrasound, but couldn't find anything. My stomach was really hurting from all the prodding.

When I got back to A&E from the ultrasound there were no cubicles free, so I spent the next two hours in a corridor. I was less than impressed. Edinburgh Royal Infirmary has only been open about 5 years, and whoever designed it should be shot. They do not have the capacity to serve a city and they do not have enough staff. The service I received at Borders General Hospital when I was rushed in there was FAR superior. And yet you would think that it would be better in a brand new hospital in our capital city wouldn't you?

They gave me some more painkillers, and eventually decided that it would be better for me to go home, and request an MRI scan from Borders General. They think I still have a gallstone left inside, but it didn't show up on the ultrasound which is why they want the MRI. We waited another hour while they typed a letter for the doctor and a prescription. Despite us saying we had to get home to Isla they still did not stir themselves to get a move on. Unimpressed.

Anyway, I had every intention of going back to work on Tuesday after I had seen the doctor on Monday, but she signed me off for a week. The paramedics had said that I probably went back to early, and the doctor said that because of Friday, and because I am constantly tired and haven't been well for months that she would sign me off to "take things easy"! So, obviously now we have a pristinely clean house, I'm cooking interesting and never done before recipes, and I've made all my Christmas cards! There's organisation for you!

I'm still not feeling brilliant, but mymum and dad are coming over at the end of next wek for my mum's 60th, so I'm looking forward to that. Sometimes all you need is a bit Mummy hug!

Cranachan

This is not the most diet friendly of desserts, but oh my god it is delicious!! Save it for a special occasion!

100 Fun Questions Survey

100 Fun Questions Survey from Quizopolis.com

Do you sleep with your closet doors open or closed? - Closed
Do you take the shampoos and conditioner bottles from hotel? - Yes
Do you sleep with your sheets tucked in or out? - Out
Have you ever stolen a street sign before? - No
Do you like to use post-it notes? - Like is a bit of a strong word but I do use them
Do you cut out coupons but then never use them? - No
Would you rather be attacked by a big bear or a swarm of a bees? - Neither!
Do you have freckles? - Yes, on my back and shoulders
Do you always smile for pictures? - Yes
What is your biggest pet peeve? - Misuse of the apostrophe!
Do you ever count your steps when you walk? - Yes, all the time, a legacy of my grandma teaching me to count by walking up and down stairs!
Have you ever peed in the woods? - Yes
What about pooped in the woods? - Probably!
Do you ever dance even if theres no music playing? - No
Do you chew your pens and pencils? - No
How many people have you slept with this week? - 1
What size is your bed? - Superking :-)
What is your Song of the week? - Don't have one this week
Is it okay for guys to wear pink? - Kind of
Do you still watch cartoons? - Yes
Whats your least favorite movie? - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - I hated it
Where would you bury hidden treasure if you had some? - Not telling you - you'd know where to find it then!
What do you drink with dinner? - Diet coke or pepsi normally
What do you dip a chicken nugget in? - Garlic mayo
What is your favorite food? - Steak
What movies could you watch over and over and still love? - Anne of Green Gables, Love Actually, Mamma Mia
Last person you kissed/kissed you? - Frazer
Were you ever a boy/girl scout? - No, but I was a Brownie and a Guide
Would you ever strip or pose nude in a magazine? - If I was skinny, maybe
When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper? - Oooh, a long time ago
Can you change the oil on a car? - I can check it and top it up, but not change it - that's what garages are for!
Ever gotten a speeding ticket? - Yes
Ran out of gas? - Yes
Favorite kind of sandwich? - Ham or smoked salmon
Best thing to eat for breakfast? - Tattie scones and marmite!
What is your usual bedtime? - Around midnight normally
Are you lazy? - I definitely can be!
When you were a kid, what did you dress up as for Halloween? - I was a vampire once
What is your Chinese astrological sign? - Dunno
How many languages can you speak? - 2 - English & French
Do you have any magazine subscriptions? - No
Which are better legos or lincoln logs? - Lego, cause I have no idea what the others are
Are you stubborn? - Oh yes!
Who is better...Leno or Letterman? - Neither
Ever watch soap operas? - I used to, but I recovered :-)
Afraid of heights? - Yes
Sing in the car? - Yes
Dance in the shower? - No
Dance in the car? - No
Ever used a gun? - Yes, but only an air rifle
Last time you got a portrait taken by a photographer? - Never
Do you think musicals are cheesy? - Nope, love 'em!
Is Christmas stressful? - No, I love it
Ever eat a pierogi? - Don't think so
Favorite type of fruit pie? - Apple
Occupations you wanted to be when you were a kid? - Teacher ewwwww
Do you believe in ghosts? - I wouldn't like to say they don't exist
Ever have a Deja-vu feeling? - Yes, often
Take a vitamin daily? - No
Wear slippers? - Only in the winter
Wear a bath robe? - Yes
What do you wear to bed? - Nightie
First concert? - Never been to one
Wal-Mart, Target or Kmart? - Asda or Tesco
Nike or Adidas? - Nike
Cheetos Or Fritos? - Neither - ick!
Peanuts or Sunflower seeds? - Neither
Ever hear of the group Tres Bien? - No
Ever take dance lessons? - Only when forced to at prep school
Is there a profession you picture your future spouse doing? - Yes, being a civil engineer cause he is one!
Can you curl your tongue? - Yes
Ever won a spelling bee? - Yes
Have you ever cried because you were so happy? - Yes
Own any record albums? - Many!
Own a record player? - Not any more
Regularly burn incense? - On the very odd occasion - it's been a while though
Ever been in love? - Yes
Who would you like to see in concert? - Dara O'Briain
What was the last concert you saw? - None
Hot tea or cold tea? - Hot tea I suppose
Tea or coffee? - Tea I suppose!
Sugar or snickerdoodles? - Sugar
Can you swim well? - Yes, very
Can you hold your breath without holding your nose? - Yes
Are you patient? - Definitely not!
DJ or band, at a wedding? - Band
Ever won a contest? - No
Ever have plastic surgery? - No
Which are better black or green olives? - Neither, they're foul!
Can you knit or crochet? - I can knit, if someone casts on or off for me!
Best room for a fireplace? - Sitting room
Do you want to get married? - Yes
If married, how long have you been married? - Not married but been together 2 years now
Who was your HS crush? - HS? Dunno
Do you cry and throw a fit until you get your own way? - No, not my style
Do you have kids? - Yes, 1, Isla
Do you want kids? - Yes
Whats your favorite color? - Purple
Do you miss anyone right now? - My mum and dad
Did you watch, Next Great American Band on FOX? - No

Take This Survey at Quizopolis.com
http://www.quizopolis.com/survey/4769/100-Fun-Questions-Survey/


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Honey & Lime Marinated Pork Chops

We seem to have a big of a pork chop theme going today!! This one is truly delicious!