We've had a lovely quiet week just pottering around at home for our second week of school holidays. Nick has been off since Wednesday too. That meant that Tom could come for a run with me. We set off on Wednesday morning to do my 4 miler (hadn't been out for almost 2 weeks) and I was concerned that Tom wouldn't be able to do it, having never run that distance before. Pah, no worries there. Tom was like a playful puppy gamboling about while I slowly plodded along in the wind and rain...how to make your mum feel inadequate in one easy step. I can't say I really enjoyed it, Tom definitely takes after his father and not his mother in his athleticism. I am trying to turn it around in my head so instead of feeling defeated and a failure Tom should be inspiring me and pushing me to get better. Hmm, we'll see how that goes.
Anyway, today Tom is off to Grangemouth to compete in the SSAA Primary Road Relay Championships. He is competing in the P7 group as he is one of the fastest in the school, so he is competing against boys a year older than he is. We are just about to head over there to cheer him on. Then tomorrow is the Madrascals Rugby Home tournament which he is playing in, so a big sporting weekend for Tom before going back to school on Monday.

Nick & I went out for dinner last night to the Vine Leaf having finally managed to sort out a babysitter. We had a lovely time out together and are looking forward to doing it again sometime soon.
I just finished re-reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in preparation for the film coming out in a few weeks time, I think it's fair to say I am the most excited about it and keep watching the trailer on the internet..Sad or what?

October Holidays

Friday 15th finally arrived and Tom & Lily started their school holidays so I packed them into the car and we started our holiday. I drove until around 8pm and then we pulled into services and booked into a hotel for the night. Saturday so us complete the first part of our journey as we arrived in Bournemouth around lunchtime to catch up with John. I haven't seen my brother for 3 years so it was good to catch up with him. We also got the chance to see Gary & Jack in Bournemouth for a quick catch up as they were playing a gig in one of the pubs in town. On Sunday we spent the day with John, Conor & Nathan which was great fun. The children all got on well even after not having seen each other for 3 years.
After dropping the boys off home and having a very quick catch up with Lisa it was back to our hotel for bed before setting off on to the camping part of our holiday. Yes, you heard right, Tom, Lily and I were going camping...in October...in England! Alabama it was definitely not and our holiday coincided with an unfortunate cold snap and by god it was cold.

Thankfully my parents arrived on Tuesday afternoon with extra blankets and firewood (having been forewarned by me in the morning about how cold it was). The worst part was in the morning before we got the stove warmed up and blazing away. Apart from that we all had a fine time and went for nice walks in and around Church Stretton and Ludlow, including Ludlow Castle.

A scenic view from atop Ludlow Castle.

Tom and I braved the cold and had a shower, this is me pulling a barrel filled with toasty hot water back to our little camp where I hooked it up to a hosepipe and pump system and stood under a tin bucket with holes in it.

All great fun, but perhaps better in warmer weather. It was back in the car on Friday to drive home. At our first stop it felt like such a luxury washing my hands in warm water. We got home around 4pm and found Nick at home with the heating on and the fire roaring in the fireplace, food in the fridge and no laundry to catch up with. It was a lovely surprise as I hadn't realised Nick had organised to take the Friday off work and I had been preparing myself to come back to a bit of a bachelor pad. 3 loads of our dirty laundry later and I am all caught up with our clothes too.

Meant to post this before I went away for a holiday, when I went out for a run I remembered to cut my toenails so I didn't get a bloody foot and all went well until the next time when I went out this happened...
obviously forgot to cut one of my toenails, it looks worse than it felt thankfully.

Big surprise - I didn't get the job, and I haven't got interviews for any of the other jobs I have applied for so I'm a bit fed up again, although that might have something to do with the weather as it's a crappy day here today.
On a more upbeat note, I did go out for a run this morning, first time in just over a month (naughty girl) and have agreed to do a 10 mile run on 7 November so I have something to aim for and progress towards. Hopefully that will motivate me sufficiently to get up off my arse 3 times a week and go out for a run!
Kids about to get home from school so I'm off now, sorry it's such a short post.

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?