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.

We had a very quiet weekend last week and then a reasonably busy one this week. Julie was up with Isobel & Charlie visiting so they came round on Saturday along with Angela and the girls and then I went back to Ang's with them to have a few glasses of wine and a sleepover! I don't know when I last did something like that. We sat up until around midnight catching up with each other's news and then eventually went to bed. On Sunday I had to whizz home as Tom was going to Madrascals Rugby for the first time and I wanted to be there for that. It was a really cold and blustery day so imagine my relief when we got there to be told we were a week early, so it was off back home for coffee and a biscuit. Nick took Tom & Lily off to the castle to meet up with Jason and his children before all coming back here for a late Sunday lunch. The castle was holding a fun day with actors dressed up as soldiers etc.
Looking at the photos I reckon everyone had fun.

Lunch was a partial success, the beef was done to perfection, the mash was fine however I forgot to put the veg in the oven for roasting early enough so they were 'al dente' which was a bit disappointing especially since they are normally overly roasted and caramelly. Never mind, we still had a nice time and the day had brightened up enough to sit outside with our cups of coffee to end the meal off.

Nick had today off work as it was an English bank holiday so he came out for a run with me, which improved my time - no slacking with Nick around! Then I did a very minimal bit of gardening and some laundry and baking while Nick did a few odd jobs around the house too. Later on we are off to Pizza Express to see Julie one more time before she heads off back down south tomorrow. Yay, no cooking dinner tonight.

Well, we ended up with chocolate mousse for pud on Wednesday, an oldie but reliable goodie.
On Thursday I went off to Dundee to help out with Angela's business for the day and will be doing so regularly from now on. So go and visit http://www.dundee-printing.com to see what she does.
Today, Nick officially took over as OC Ops Leuchars so we probably won't see much of him for a while as he is going to be BUSY.
I managed out for another run this morning and ,thankfully, did better than on Wednesday but my legs are still very sore, I'm looking forward to getting rid of that feeling once I get used to the exercise again.

Well, Nick started work properly on Monday and Tom & Lily started school today. Think Tom was a bit nervous about it but Lily was fine, you could drop her anywhere and she would be happy
making friends, unfortunately Tom is more like me and struggles with that. I left him looking a little bit forlorn in the playground, bless him.
Well, with everyone out of the house there were no excuses left and so I went out for a run. Bloody hell, you could tell I hadn't done any exercise since May, I was knackered but managed my 4 mile route (albeit very slowly - in fact I looked at my running log and it may be the slowest time ever!!) Lots of work to do there then, at least I can only improve.
Right, now I need to go grocery shopping as we have one of Nick's work colleagues coming round this evening for some supper, lamb casserole and then some sort of pudding which I haven't decided on yet.