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!

Hapy New Year

Yes, I know it's been ages! I've been a tad busy!

Christmas in France was great, although I did miss out on a UK white Christmas! The recent weather has made up for all that though, with me being snowed in last week unable to get to work! The problem is, that in my wee street the snow that fell before Christmas never cleared up and just turned into ice, so the more recent snow has fallen onto that and made driving pretty treachorous!

F was down last weekend, and we went out on the Monday for a swim and dinner before he headed back up to Edinburgh. I came home, parked the car, and overnight it snowed. I tried to get the car out the next day to go to work, but it was stuck on the ice and wouldn't move! I had to phone into work, and apparently I wasn't the only one not able to get in, which made me feel a bit better. I was off work for three days unable to get in. The only reason I got the car out eventually was because the other day I saw a van in the street with a bunch of men with grit and shovels. They put loads of grit under all four tyres, and it took the five of them to push the car off the ice! The road to Castle Douglas was dreadful, but Loch Ken was totally frozen over and snowed on - the first time in my entire life that has ever happened! It was spectacular!

It is stunningly beautiful at the moment - because the snow has been lying for so long, it's got that crispy crust on the top and during the day it sparkles in the sunshine. Driving home at night with the headlights on, it's like there are millions of tiny fireflies on the ground.





Despite the problems the snow brings, it is nothing compared to the problems they're having down south. Out main problem is a lot of ice, and no salt for the roads. In the south of England they have extremely heavy snow, and there are a lot of people left without power. So I'm not complaining! I spent my days off making soup and casseroles and filling the freezer up with nice, warming food!

My favourite author is coming up to Scotland too, so fingers crossed I can get my books signed! I know, it doesn't sound very rock'n'roll, but I've always been a bookworm, and Diana Gabaldon's books ust suck you in so that you believe you are living them. She's doing a book signing in Edinburgh so I'm hoping that I'll be able to get there. To learn more about her books, visit her website here or visit Karen Henry's brilliant blog, Outlandish Observations, about the books here.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

I know I'm a bit early! In fact, my Christmas tree went up before December even began! But...I have an excuse for it! Throughout December everyone has things planned, that have generally been planned for ages, so there was only one weekend that I could do a full Christmas dinner for me, F, Joocey and her bloke A before I go back to France for a week over Christmas. And I really wanted to do a proper Christmas dinner, mainly because I really miss cooking for other people! It's no fun cooking for yourself.

So, we didn't have turkey, but I did a big roast chicken with all the trimmings, and it was delicious, followed by homemade apple crumble because I hate Christmas pudding, and I don't cook things I don't like! Also there are all these things that I keep telling F that I can cook, and apparently my excuse is generally that I can't because the ingredients/utensils/pots etc are in France! So it was apple crumble - with a Christmassy twist though, with ground cinammon and ginger in the crumble.
We all had small presents for each other to make it feel like Christmas, and ended up a bit pissed playing Trivial Pursuit! Joocey wasn't drinking because she had to drive, but the rest of us did!

So, apart from that, not a lot has been happening. I was off work for a week with gastroenteritis and only went back a week ago. On the plus side though, I did get all my Christmas shopping done while I was off - I love Amazon! I've got everyone sorted out, and my suitcase will have more presents in than clothes when I go to France!

Very little else has been happening in my life, mainly because I have spent a lot of time decorating my hall, stairs and landing! It no longer has a green ceiling and peach walls, and looks great! It is about 100 times brighter in there now!

Will try to blog before I go away, but the next post will, in all likelihood, be either from France or be after I get back! I've not been great at it recently!

So, if I don't get back to you before then, have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Even Older Friends

I got back to the UK, as I said, on the Thursday, and I had my housewarming planned for the Sunday! So, I had to do last finishing touches on the bedroom before Saturday! F came down on the Saturday evening, and I met him at my house after work. Did a lot of catching up, and ate sweet n sour chicken – the recipe for which I will post later – I’ve been very lax about posting recipes recently – I’ve got a few beauties! Anyway…everyone arrived on the Sunday, Joocey brought a great big tin of Roses, which disappeared very quickly, we had pizza and oven baked Camembert and French bread and had a great laugh! F had brought some sparklers with him, so we took L’s kids outside and they played with sparklers for the first time, and by the time they left they thought F was the greatest thing since sliced bread!!

They all left at about 6 because L had to get home with the kids, and Joocey had to get back to Carlisle to do some studying – she’s doing her PGCE at the moment. We had a quiet night, and the next day went to Ayr for the day. It was cold, but sunny and we had a lovely time wandering about. F had a flat tyre, which turned into a car maintenance lesson when he showed me how to put air in my tyres and check the pressures!! Been driving for 14yrs, and only just learned that one! Next lesson is changing a wheel!
So, the last few days have been quiet ones! I decided to have an easy week. No decorating, just chilling out between my shifts at work. I’m off today and tomorrow and today I’ve just sat quietly playing about on Facebook and watching rubbish! I’ll have another lie in tomorrow morning, and then go into Castle Douglas for lunch time and get a couple of Macaroni Pies and go to see some friends. Then it’s up to Edinburgh next weekend to help F do some decorating in his flat! My life is a constant round of excitement!

Old Friends

The weekend before I went to France, my friend that I stayed with in Tewkesbury came up to see me. She had a hellish journey up due to weather, roadworks and accidents (I don’t believe the accidents bit – there are signs on the M6 saying accident but I can’t imagine there was an accident in exactly the same place two weeks in a row – I believe her, just not the roadsign!!). We spent a very lazy morning on the Sunday, and then went out and about and I showed her the house I grew up in, the house where my cousins lived, and took her to Castle Douglas to have a look and meet my best mate J, who wasn’t in!! But his wife L was in so we saw her and their wee girl who is extremely cute! So, my mate got to meet a couple of genuine Scottish people and I had to translate for her! Although the weather was a bit crap, she was bowled over by the countryside, and actually said she could see why I love it here and wanted to come back. The next day was better, so before she left we went into Dumfries so I could show her about, she bought a couple of souvenirs, and we had lunch in town. She thought the town was gorgeous too! So, all in all, it was a successful trip despite the weather! It was brilliant to see her and to catch up, and hopefully we’ll be able to do it again soon, and for longer so I can show her more, and take her to Edinburgh etc and meet up with some friends in town and have a night out. Is she ready for a night out in Dumfries I wonder? It’s certainly not what she’s used to!

Back and Forth

I was in France for 5 days. The only flight we could find was from Bristol, so I had to drive down there. I had to leave at 5am, drive though the torrential rain most of the way, and eventually arrived at Bristol with about an hour to spare. I stopped at Tewkesbury for fuel, mainly because I knew Morrisons was only a spit from the motorway and I wasn’t willing to pay ridiculously inflated motorway prices! My mum phoned me a couple of times during the morning, and F phoned too which was great because they kept me awake! By that point I was seriously flagging! And before anyone says “oh but you shouldn’t use the phone when you’re driving” I was on Bluetooth!

France was great! When I got to the airport, Isla came rushing up to me on her roller blades, so she could roll straight into a massive cuddle! There wasn’t much time to relax while I was there – the first day we went shopping and had a party in the evening. All the usual suspects came, and it was brilliant to see everyone. They all seemed genuinely interested in what I’ve been doing, where I live and what I’ve been up to since April. God, is it really that long!? I didn’t get to eat much food, but drank a lot and ended up going to be feeling quite pissed!

The next day we went to Spain for the day! The mountains were spectacular, the weather was clear and chilly with blue skies, and we bought some cheap cigarettes in Spain, and some booze for Christmas!On the Wednesday I went to another party at a friend’s house, and saw some more people and had another great night! And then I flew back here on the Thursday. It really wasn’t long enough, but it was great to see Isla and get loads of cuddles! It did make me realise though that I don’t miss France at all – I miss the people there, but not the place. And it was brilliant to see everyone.

This is my current favourite recipe! In Dumfries we have a great Chinese restaurant called The Pearl Palace (lovingly known as the Pearl Necklace!). I've eaten there a couple of times with F, and they do a great Sweet and Sour chicken. I decided to research the recipe to try to come up with the one most like it. This is it in it's entirety.

However...I have made certain time saving alterations!

In my head I have totally dispensed with all that time wasting chicken tenderising and battering - to be honest who can be arsed when Cap'n Birdseye does lovely Chicken Dippers! So, what I do is to make the sauce up first thing in the morning (without cooking it or adding cornflour) so all the flavours can intensify throughout the day. Then, when it gets to dinner time, I stick the chicken dippers in the oven - about six each - until they are nice and crispy. I then stick the sauce on the heat, add the pineapple, carrot (which I use a cheese slice to cut so you get nice slivers), and bit of onion and a few bits of green pepper. I use arrowroot istead of cornflour (two teaspoons to a bit of water, mix it up and chuck it in while stirring). When it's nice and thick, take out the crispy chicken dippers and put them in a bowl, put the sauce over and serve immediately with rice. If you're really lazy you can get microwave rice! The taste is great - it's like that really sweet sweet and sour sauce you get in crappy chinese restaurants whch we all scoff at but secretly love! By the way, F loved it!

Make and enjoy!

Another Award

It's very remiss of me, but I haven't yet told you I got another award at the end of August from Karen over at Outlandish Observations. If you like Diana Gabaldon books - in particular the Outlander series, then I suggest you check out her blog. I haven't loked at it recently, mainly because I haven't read the new book yet, and I don't want to ruin the surprise! I'll be back over there though once I've read it!

Apparently I need to share three things about myself with you, and then pass it on to three other inspiring bloggers.

Hmmmm, here goes...

1) After nine years living in SW France I am finally living back home in Scotland and loving it.

2) I'm a big fan of I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here - I don't care how z-list the so called celebrities are - it's a fun show!

3) I have just discovered Fruit Bread - it tastes like slices of Hot Cross Buns, and I have it toasted for breakfast every morning! I love this country! The food is fab!

Sorry it's not hugely exciting, but I couldn't think of anything else right now!

1) Home Is Where The Marmite Is
Another returnee from France - reading her blog made me realise that other people felt similarly to me living there, rather than just waffling on about the "perfect french lifestyle"! It's also her first award on the new blog so yippee!

2) Bring The Rain
Because Angie, the writer, is a truly inspirational woman. I'm not a religious person myself, but her blog has reduced me to tears more times than I care to mention.

3) Drover's Run
Because girl geeks are cool :-)

Getting My House In Order

I’ve had a really busy few weeks, and I am shattered! For the last week I have done no decorating or anything, just taking life easy – in between going to work, which doesn’t half get in the way of relaxing!! My days off this week are being spent in the pursuit of doing absolutely nothing, nada, niente!

Since the end of August I’ve been working really hard at work, trying to make my mark there, as I’m still in my three month probation period there. I don’t forsee any problems, but still you do tend to be on your best behaviour for a while to start with!! I’m enjoying the job actually –it’s far more interesting than I thought it would be. Unfortunately I can’t really tell you any details about it – Data Protection and all – but all I can say is that the company I work for is Hospedia and they’re the people who deal with the personal TV and Telephone units by patients’ bedsides in hospitals across the UK. It’s nice to have a job that I quite enjoy, it’s not physically taxing, bar the hours, and I don’t have to wear my scruffiest clothes as I did when I was decorating, it’s not physically demanding like cheffing, and there’s not as much responsibility as dog sitting! I turn up, do my job, and go home again – it’s what I’ve wanted for a long time – just to be a wage slave for a while. And I have to say, I don’t miss the shagging lovebirds at one of the house I used to dogsit at!!

I moved into my wee house at the beginning of October, with the help of some of my favourite people! Since then I have been constantly on the go, first of all decorating the bathroom, as you saw in the last post! I’ve also decorated my bedroom now. It was pink before – dusky pink ceiling, different shade of pink on the walls, white cornices and old white skirting boards. The painting on the walls only went part way up – it stopped about six inches from the cornice. Obviously the previous tenants were going to put a border up but never got around to it! Anyway, I decided I couldn’t leave it, so decorated! The ceiling and cornices are white, the walls good old magnolia and the skirting boards dark purple – almost aubergine. I got some black silk (well, faux silk!) curtains from the B&M store (my new favourite shop as we don’t have The Range up here!), a new purple satin bedding set (which looks gorgeous but is slippy as hell – you lose your pillows overnight!) and hung some pictures on the wall and the room is now transformed! I can’t do much about the carpet right now unfortunately, but I can live with it. It ties in ok with the colour scheme! It’s a big room with very little furniture in it, but I’m still waiting for my stuff to come back from France. It will feel more homely eventually.
So, in the middle of decorating, I went to France for a week! I always set myself impossible tasks – one of them was finishing the bedroom before I went away, which didn’t happen! I had to do some last bits and pieces when I got back!

Back Home

Well...where do I start? It's ages since I last updated my blog, and I'm sorry if you've all been desperate for news! I know you haven't been really, but it's a nice thought!

The last time I updated I hadn't been back up here very long. Everything has changed hugely. Within the first week I was back, I had an interview for a job in a local call centre. To be perfectly honest, I had no recollection of applying for it, so when they phoned me to invite me for an interview I was surprised to say the least! I've figured it out now - I had applied for a call centre job through an employment agency in Cheltenham - never realising it was actually up here! What's for you won't go by you and all that! Anyway, I got the job, and I've been working there for nearly two months and surprisingly I'm really enjoying it!

For the first few weeks I stayed with one of my best mates, Joocey, whose parents were brilliant and let me stay in their house. After a few weeks, I moved to one of my other best mate's house, Lara. She was also brilliant letting me stay there. I had a look at rentals, and the council and there was really nothing nice around the town where I could see myself being happy. Another friend phoned me one afternoon to say that he knew of a house being rented, in the village where I went to primary school. I went out to see it, met the landlords and really loved it. It needed a bit of TLC, but certainly nothing beyond my abilities. The only problem was that I didn't have the deposit. My mum and dad said they could manage to come up with it, but not until the end of the month, so I seriously needed to think about it.

I went up to Edinburgh for the weekend, which I've done quite a bit of...and talked it over with another friend. Joocey was off back at uni by then - she's studying to become a teacher - and Lara and I were like ships that passed in the night!! With both of us doing shifts we actually rarely saw each other! So, I needed to talk to someone about it just to get another point of view. Anyway, F, the friend in Edinburgh, said I'd be daft if I didn't go for it. I got a call while I was up there from the landlords saying that they had other people interested, but if I could come up with half the deposit up front they'd hold the house for me until the end of the month. I then didn't have a clue what to do, until F said he'd lend me half the deposit until the end of the month.


So...to cut a very long story short, I now have my own wee house! It's an ex-council house, right on the edge of a small village. Like I said, the house needs a little TLC, but I have made a start! I don't have any of my furniture from France here yet, but my best mate J and his family have lent me a few bits and pieces, and his mum has a furniture shop, so I've bought a few bits and pieces too. I have a lovely king size bed! I have already decorated the bathroom - it was definitely the most drastic - dark blue dolphin wallpaper! Looks much better now!

While I really appreciate everyone's help over the last couple of months, it is so nice to come home every night to my own wee house. I keep falling asleep on the couch though!!

The one downside is that I still don't have Isla here yet. I'm working shifts, and until I can sort out regular hours it's not do-able. She's really excited about coming over now that I have a house for us. I think she had visions of us living in a grotty little flat somewhere in a town with no garden, but instead we have a three bedroom house in a village surrounded by fields! She's starting to look forward to it, instead of dreading leaving France. I'm missing here like mad though.

It is amazing to be home. A fellow blogger recently had an article published in the Daily Mail - I know some of you read her blog too so have probably seen it. The comments that were left on the article by readers were incredible - people really have no idea of tongue-in-cheekness or humour, or even what expat life in France is really like. People have this Peter Mayle vision of delightful locals who'll welcome you with open arms and fawn all over you, but it's not like that. Life is hard - if you're working it's pretty much a hand to mouth existence. Something normally comes along when you need it, but you can't rely on it. There are some truly lovely people there, expats and French both, but there are also some real oddbods. There's a massive "arty" community down there - people move to places like that and totally reinvent themselves. They may have been an office manager in UK for example, move to France and suddenly become an "artist" - by the way, that little example is based on no one as I don't know any ex-office manager artists, so if it's you, don't sue me because I don't know you!

It is so refreshing being back in the UK, especially up here. Not down south so much, because a lot of people have too much to prove down there and they work too hard to have fun. But up here, generally with people what you see it what you get. I'm living in a village about three miles from where I grew up and loving it.

I really feel that I've come home.