Life As We Now Know It

So, since then life has been just me and Isla. I’m at work, she’s at school and life is good! She's settled in at school brilliantly, has made a few friends, and is finding the work easy! We’ve been out for a couple of walks when the weather’s been good and seen friends. Last week was Mother’s Day, and our plan was to go to the fair. I’d also had a text from F the night before asking us if we wanted to join him and his mum at the cinema to see Alice In Wonderland. We got into town and the fair was shut, so we had chips, and met them at the cinema. The movie was pretty rubbish, and F kept falling asleep and starting to snore! Isla and his mum enjoyed it though, and afterwards we went and got a coffee (well, diet coke for me and Isla!) and had a chat for a bit. It was Isla and F’s first meeting, and they hit it off almost too well! Within minutes they were ganging up on me!! In a good way though!

After that, we went home via the Cat Protection place and got a pussy cat! He’s about 1 or 2, they’re not quite sure, and he’s gorgeous. He’s called Milo – not massively keen on the name but he seems to know it and no one has come up with a better alternative so it’s going to have to stick! He’s a bit nuts, but I think it’s the first time he’s lived in a house. He is lovely though, and since the second night he has slept on my bed and purrs louder than a steam train!
This weekend was meant to be a weekend of intense relaxation but it didn’t quite work out that way. I got home from work on Friday night, made dinner and fell asleep on the couch. Joocey phoned – she was in Edinburgh staying with her sister – to tell me that they had picked up a waif and stray (F) in the supermarket, were having a party and I should come up. F shouted that he’d pay my fuel – being the end of the month I’m a bit skint! – and so within ten minutes we were on the road having packed a bag, sorted out the cat and got going! We got up there eventually after a massive diversion that took us through all the highways and byways! Isla stayed up for a while playing Nintendo with F and whupping his ass! I mainlined the first vodka, and within an hour had caught up with all the others! I’m a lightweight when it comes to alcohol which is always god as it makes a cheap night out, and means I can arrive late at a party and be caught up with everyone really quickly! Isla went to bed, and after that it turned into a pretty raucous evening with motown music, dancing, learning how to throw bottles and juggling lessons! It was a brilliant night. F and I went back to his flat at about 4am – I woke Isla and we got a taxi and she went straight to bed when we got there. We stayed up another hour or so catching up, and then went spark out! The next morning we were both hungover but I got up and made breakfast and we all slobed on the sofa watching Fantastic Mr Fox, which was crap! We went across to Joocey’s sister’s to collect the car, Isla went into town with Joocey for a bit of a walk around Edinburgh, and F and I went back to the flat for a while.

I collected Isla around 7 last night, and we came home. I saw a shooting star over the Dalveen Pass which was pretty amazing. I’ve seen loads of shooting stars in France, but never one here.

And today we’ve managed to do some heavy duty relaxing. Although I’ve got a couple of jobs done too. I have birthday cards made until the end of May and managed to fix my coffee table so it no longer wobbles!

The next thing to look forward to is Easter weekend. We’re all getting together again and going bowling in Carlisle which should be a laugh. And then I have some time off work which will be fantastic!

Settling In

February was spent decorating! My mum and dad came over at the end of the month, so before that I had to get Isla’s room decorated and the spare room, so most of my spare time was taken up doing that. Had another weekend in Edinburgh and went bowling again, and on the Saturday we had a great touristy day wandering around the old town and happy snapping which was great.
We had snow again though which wasn’t so great, as on my way to work one day, the day my parents and Isla were travelling up through France, I had quite a bad accident in the car. I hadn’t even got a quarter of the way there, got caught in a skid, couldn’t control it and went into a really deep ditch going into the back of the car who had got caught in the same skid about 10 minutes before me. I knew it was going to happen for about 30 seconds before it actually did and did this pathetic little scream as I was descending into the ditch! I then had to struggle to get out of the car as it was at such an angle in the ditch, and then had to stand around in the blizzarding snow waiting for my best mate and his dad to arrive to rescue me.We managed to find a farmer to pull the car out, and J drove it back to Castle Douglas while I went in the car with his dad. J took me down to their house, fund me some dry, warm clothes and I had a hot shower because I was totally freezing through to my bones. By 9pm tht night, the car was driveable home as they ordered the parts in the morning and got it done straight away. I don’t know what I would do without them.

And two days later, Isla arrived! She has settled in brilliantly! She and my mum and dad arrived on the Friday, we had Joocey over at the weekend, and Isla started school on the Monday. My mum and dad were here for a week, and during that time we got the kitchen decorated and my dad completed the list of jobs I had for him! It wasn’t really long enough though, as they had to get back down south to see Grandma for a little while before heading back to France.

Long time no see!

I apologise for being a useless blogger over the last few months! Things have been pretty hectic and every night when I sit down on the couch I fall asleep, hence the reason the blog has been neglected!

The last post was New Year – a lot has happened since then!

January started off ok but we had loads of snow and I got stuck at home for four days as I couldn’t get the car out of the street! I was seriously bored! It’s fine being at home when you have the choice, but when you’re stuck it’s not exactly fun! It took 5 big, strong men, with sack loads of grit to push the car out of the ice patch it was stuck on! The problem was that the snow we'd had before Christmas hadn't melted and had just turned to ice, and then it snowed again on top of that! I love snow normally, but you can have too much of it!I had a great long weekend in Edinburgh staying at F’s and we went to see some comedy at the Stand which was good. The car broke down on my last day up there and I just fell apart! It wouldn’t start and F arranged for a garage to come and pick it up but it hit me really hard. My problem is that the small stuff gets to me…I can cope with big problems, but it’s the small ones that are the last straw. It turned out that it was just the spark plugs, but it really got to me for some reason.

I went bowling to in Ayr one weekend, got thoroughly beaten by F, who’s practically a flipping pro, but I hadn’t been since I was about 14! Oh, and on one weekend in Edinburgh I also got the chance to get a book signed by my favourite author, Diana Gabaldon, which was pretty cool. I only saw her for about a minute, but I have my book all signed! Went with a rotten hangover too so it was a struggle, but I was determined to get there! It's not every day you get to meet your favourite author!