It's a glorious day today and I have a job interview in an hour and a half. Yikes, I was very surprised last Friday when I got an email requesting I come for an interview for an administrator job. What a boost to my confidence.
Tom & Greg have been busy collecting conkers and so far have managed to get over 500. Not quite sure what we are going to do with them now though.
I drove through to Glasgow on Friday night to meet up with friends for another 40th birthday party, I collected Frances and we went off into town to meet up with Ross, John, Adrian and Murray who I hadn't seen for at least 12 years, so it was lovely to catch up with them. The beauty of going through on my own meant that I could finally take 'my' chair from mum & dad's

and make it my own. I have been after this chair for years and now I finally have it. The plan had been to get it re-upholstered (as you can see there is a spring bulging up through the seat pad) however now that I have the chair I am loath to get it done. If I upholster it, it will lose its smell and the smell is part of the chair and I love it just the way it is. I have noticed Tom sitting in it a lot this week so I wonder if he is going to pinch it from me 20 years from now.

This cheeky bugger reappeared in the kitchen sink yesterday so I chucked him out the back door again. He really is enormous and I don't like him.

Got a new battery for my camera and it appears to have fixed the problem so as you can see I am back taking photos again.

Since moving back home we have discovered fish in our pond, at first I thought there was just one lonely fish swimming around, but then I discovered there were at least 3 in there and then the other week when my parents were here, my dad and I counted 6 of them plus there is a baby one which I see occassionaly. They're not quite the pets that Lily & I had in mind but there you
go, I'll take what I can get. I just thought I'd post this picture of an anemone which I planted

a couple of weeks back, it looks very pretty at the moment and the hover flies are certainly enjoying it.

Nick's parents came up for a visit this last weekend and Nick took Tom and his dad on the chain walk while Lily & I stayed at home.

We reckoned it would have been a bit too difficult for Lily at the moment.

I went out to a business networking lunch with Angela yesterday and I had great fun, and Angela got a couple of new business leads which is what it was all about. I made another great first impression though - as the room was very hot I went to take my cardigan off and there hanging from the label was a massive cardboard tag that I had completely forgotten about! Classy, very classy. It reminded me of the last time Ang & I did some business socialising together. I knocked over a glass of champagne upon arrival at an art gallery and Angela and I started laughing loudly and then we got into trouble from the sensible people...I think I did mention that in a blog post a few months back.

Today I have been around to school as I have volunteered to help with the gardening again (when we lived here previously I helped set up the original garden and planted a hedge which looks great now). The first project is to be something to do with the greenhouse and I have just discovered that I have to actually build the greenhouse which is currently in pieces in a shed! Not quite what I had in mind but I do like jigsaws so I shall have to think of it as a very large 3d jigsaw challenge. I'll keep you posted on my progress.

After another fairly uneventful week mum & dad came through for the weekend which necessitated baking lemon muffins. Tom decided they were a bit dry! Thankfully everyone else said they were lovely. Do you like my cake stand? It's a birthday present from Angela,
and I love it. It matches a mug she gave me when she visited us in America.
It was the Leuchars Air Show on Saturday so Nick was away all day. We took Tom to his rugby practice in the morning and then went to the beach for a couple of hours in the afternoon to watch the airshow and play in the sand. Then on Sunday after dropping Nick off at work to clear up then head off down to Shrivenham for the week I took Tom through to Cupar to play in a rugby match. I hadn't realised it was a tournament so we had to leave after the second match as Lily had a party to go to in the afternoon. Tom played well despite having to pull his socks up all the time, they seem very large around his calves - a pair of elastic bands might come in handy next weekend.
I have had a very dull week so far and am very fed up with things. I have applied for jobs but not surprisingly am getting nowhere fast. Who wants to employ a 40 year old who has been on a 10 year career break and has no up to date skills? No one, that's who. I also looked into getting onto The Childrens Panel but that is for a minimum of 3 years and I know I won't be here in 3 years so that put an end to that idea. Who'd be a forces wife?

Thought I'd better update you all on what's going on here at the moment. Truth is, not a lot really. My camera appears to be broken hence the lack of photographs. I'm hoping it's a battery problem (it got coffee spilt on it a while back and has been temperamental ever since) but I think I might just need a new camera.
I went to my first ever Bunco evening last Wednesday - Bunco is a dice game with no skill whatsoever. So I got to meet a few of the other wives whose husbands are based at Leuchars and I won a prize (£6). Lucky me. On Saturday Tom had his first taste of rugby at Madrascals before we drove through to Lenzie for Frances's 40th birthday party. Nick & I left Tom & Lily with my parents while we went to the party and I got to catch up with some old friends (most of whom I hadn't seen for at least 12 years!) Scary how time passes, thankfully nobody had really changed very much and we were all able to recognise each other.
Yesterday I updated my cv and registered with the University for casual staff work and I also sent my cv off to an agency, so fingers crossed something will come out of that. As today was Tuesday I was in helping Angela with a bit of marketing. It all got very exciting mid morning when the road outside the office flooded and we had to shove cardboard under the door to stop the water coming in. We got off lightly, as the hairdressers next door flooded and lost their electricity. Next stop Travis Perkins for some sandbags! I got home just in time for Lily getting home from school closely followed by Tom whose football had been cancelled. Children nowadays are obviously not allowed to get wet or muddy.