On The Road Yet Again (Almost)

It only seems like five minutes since we arrived here in Scotland and today we’re packing up in preparation for the drive back to Suffolk tomorrow evening. It’s been very much a family week and we’ve seen a lot of Sarah, Rose, Melody and Duncan.

The weather has been a bit grim in the main but we did manage to get out on our bikes once. The St Andrews area is perfect for cycling and we visited all the familiar landmarks that help to make it such a fabulous place. We’ve been out for lunches with the family at Kellie Castle and in Dundee and to Zizzis and Balgove Larder here in St Andrews and this afternoon we’re going to head down to the new Hotel Du Vin on the seafront to see what that’s like. I’m not expecting any miracles in the football so won’t be seeking out a bar showing Liverpool’s game but if by any chance West Ham take a miraculous lead in Manchester I may be tempted to change my mind.

We won’t be back here until July so I imagine that there will be more huge changes in Melody by then. She’s changed so much since we were last here just a few months ago.

Here’s a selfie she took on my phone.

The playground here at the caravan park is perfect for little ones. Perhaps when we return in the summer one (or even both) of the girls will be able to sleep here for a night or two and give their mum and dad a well earned rest – they certainly deserve one.

We’ve another busy schedule ahead when we’re back in Suffolk. We’ve got a bit of babysitting to do in Rochester on Wednesday and then we’ve got the FramSoc supper at the college on Friday and friends visiting us for the weekend too. Their last visit in May 2013 was aborted at the last minute due to a crisis – let’s hope that we can enjoy their company this time and that the weather allows them to see our new home county at its best.

Life In Fife

After a bank holiday weekend that saw almost every caravan here at Craigtoun Meadows full and the park echoing to the sounds of children at play, we’re alone again now. I don’t want to sound like an anti-social old man but I prefer it this way – peaceful. Another advantage is that there is some vestige of an internet signal although even now I have to write this in a word document and upload it when we go to Sarah’s.

It’s been a nice couple of days with the family. I’ve said it a hundred times but buying the caravan was such a good move and has meant that although we have not seen our daughter and family as much as if we lived around the corner we are at least managing to see them for a good couple of months each year; life is so complex in the twenty first century with families spread hundreds (and thousands) of miles apart resulting in so many grandparents missing out on their grandchildren’s childhood so we’ve been lucky.

Little Melody is now almost eight months old. She isn’t crawling yet but she’s extremely interested in everything that’s going on.

Her big sister Rose is so grown up. She’s almost three and we’ve had a great time with her. On Monday she helped us to cut the rhubarb in Duncan’s vegetable plot and yesterday I looked after her while Marion and Sarah did some shopping in Dundee. She was very good while I read to her but she also enjoys exploring and when she decided to run around and explore the shopping centre it was quite hard to keep up with her and, loaded down with a colourful rucksack full of baby paraphernalia I became a bit of a cartoon granddad chasing her around the displays to make sure I didn’t lose sight of her. Oh well, I needed a bit of exercise.

A Week Up North

I said that it was going to be hectic when I last blogged and I wasn't wrong.

We drove up to Southport on Saturday and spent a nice evening with my mum, my brother and his wife Val.

On Sunday we went to Liverpool where Dave Haworth, who worked with me in Barclays many moons ago and has been a firm friend ever since, had arranged a private lunch at popular restaurant 60 Hope St (above) to celebrate his 60th birthday. It was a fabulous lunch, with excellent food,great service and lovely company and it was extremely generous of Dave and his family to cater for such a big group of people.

From Liverpool it was back to Southport for a quiet night in front of the telly watching Sherlock (after waiting two years I can't believe it's over already) before heading to St Andrews at 6.30 in the morning to do a spot of babysitting for Sarah.

Sarah is the only Birthlight™ trained Baby Yoga instructor in East Fife and has just started her business Warm Hearts Yoga Babies running yoga classes for parents and babies. At the moment she's holding classes in St Andrews but if it takes off (and everyone seems to love the classes) she hopes to expand further afield within the East Neuk of Fife. It's a pity that we aren't always on hand to look after Rose while Sarah is taking her classes but that's one of the perils of today's lifestyle - so many families are spread across the country (or even the world). In February she's taking a further course which will qualify her to do yoga with older toddlers and enable her to expand the sessions that she can offer. Check out her website here.

We've loved seeing our granddaughters Rose and Melody. Yesterday Rose went to the hairdressers for the very first time. She quite loved all the attention and made no fuss at all as the stylist trimmed back her curls. 

Melody is growing too and it's good that we've had this opportunity to see her again before the caravan site closes for its annual February shutdown. Next time we're in St Andrews in March she will have changed massively.

As for the caravan. I worried that we might have some bad winter weather but it's been unseasonably mild and, although it hasn't been sunny like this very much, we've managed not to freeze. 

Still Waiting

There's still no sign of "Bob" so Marion and I remain at the caravan waiting to be scrambled when he or she finally decides to make a push for the outside world. It's been quite relaxing. We don't want to stray more than a few minutes drive away, so a cinema trip and bike rides of any distance have been out of the question. We have busied ourselves with visits to Sarah, taking Rose to her library book session and, of course, I've filled in time by doing some detecting just down the road.

  
I haven't found anything quite as nice as the medieval pendant I found a last week but I did find this great little medieval thimble on Sunday. The hole in the top signifies an early date and it's very rare to find a thimble like this in such good condition - they are usually crushed or broken by ploughs or combine harvesters. My contact at the Treasure Unit in Edinburgh is on holiday but I've emailed her with details of the finds (as per the law here in Scotland) and will post them to her when she is back. I imagine that they will return the few copper coins and the silver penny I found but will want to keep the pendant and the thimble along with other old pieces that I found in the same field last year. Although I would love to have them back I would rather they were on display for a wider audience.

I am having to write this from the caravan site laundrette as the WIFI in the caravan is so intermittent. It's sometimes excellent but often disappears completely. Laundrettes eh. I'm really living it up aren't I? 

Nothing else to write about apart from the wonders of converting Tesco points into Pizza Express vouchers (four times face value) which has resulted in us enjoying a surfeit of pizza over the last ten days (low calorie Legera mind). We've still got another sixty pounds worth of codes but you can have too much of a good thing and we may well save them for the future.

Waiting For Bob

We're up in St Andrews again after almost two months away. We're here waiting for the arrival of "Bob" - granddaughter Rose's name for her soon to arrive little brother or sister. We thought that we'd left the glorious weather behind us in Framlingham but, as you can see from this photo, summer is still lingering on here in Fife too and this afternoon we spent a pleasant afternoon at nearby Allan Hill farm shop and children's play area which overlooks the town.

Rose is really growing up. It may only be seven or eight weeks since we were here but in those few weeks she has grown taller and her talking has developed in leaps and bounds  - we thought she was doing well stringing eight or nine words together in July but she can now converse fully.

I am pleased with this iPhone photo of her at play.

When we got back from the trip out Rose demonstrated the new double buggy to us. This is where she'll be sitting with "Bob" next to her. As for "Bob" - there's no sign of him or her just yet but we're ready. We're like a couple of firemen waiting for a call or two RAF pilots waiting to scramble. It means no drinking when we get back to the caravan in case we have to drive to look after Rose so perhaps we'll lose a bit of weight if Bob doesn't arrive on time at the weekend.

(Not Quite) King Of The Mountains

Inspired by the magnificent efforts of Froome and his Sky colleagues across the Channel over the last few days, I dug the bike out of the shed this evening and went out for an hour’s pedalling. Instead of one of my long scenic routes I decided to put myself to the test with another three circuits of the hill between Craigtoun and Denhead – my own personal Mont Ventoux.

Don’t laugh. I know that Froome and his Tour De France crew wouldn’t even consider this a hill let alone any sort of challenge but, within touching distance of my sixtieth birthday, I can assure you that the gradient of this slope is enough to get my lungs to the point of bursting as I reach the summit. After reaching the top of the slope the hill continues at a gentler gradient and is then followed by an exhilarating descent to where I start the climb again. I am aiming to get up the hill in higher than the lowest gear but on the third circuit I only managed to stay upright by moving the front wheel left and right to give me momentum. It’s a good job there was nobody around to hear my embarrassing efforts at self-motivation.

I’ll never be in the peloton but I love cycling and can’t wait to get another bike to keep at home in Suffolk and explore some of the local scenery.

Earlier in the day we did a walk around St Andrews. It has been the hottest we’ve experienced in Fife this week and the crowds were out in force on the famous sands. We found a couple of places we haven’t been to before and looked around two private gardens open to the public. Each had spectacular sea views. The scent of the roses in this garden was beautiful and almost overpowering. 

Another Milestone

We passed another milestone in our retirement yesterday (or possibly two days ago depending on if we ever get a WIFI signal again here at Craigtoun Meadows). Yes, on Saturday 6^th July it was our first grandchild Rose’s second birthday and, although I suppose you could say that it was more of a milestone in her life than ours, it prompted a good deal of reminiscing on our behalf as we thought back to the second birthdays of both Paul and Sarah way back in the 1980’s.

In the same way that Marion and I spent hours preparing special cakes for the events all those years ago, Sarah made a huge effort and came up with this super dog. She may not be in the league of our old friend Jan Harbon just yet but the fact that many of the visitors to Rose’s party asked where she had bought the cake spoke volumes for her hard work.

Rose had a lovely time at her party. All the kids who came were well behaved and happy and everything ran smoothly giving Sarah and Duncan (and Marion) just rewards for all the hard work that they put into arranging the day. There was plenty to eat and drink and nobody went home hungry or thirsty.

It only seems like a few months ago that we raced up to Dundee to see Sarah in hospital when Rose was born and yet two years have flown by and we now have a little girl who is a million miles from being a baby and who greeted Marion today with “you’ve got a blue dress on Nanny”. “Coochie coo” and “gaga” are distant memories and I imagine that she’ll be interested in reading soon. With hair like this Einstein’s "Theory of relativity" perhaps.

Phone signals are as elusive as WIFI signals here at the caravan. This is how Marion had to stand to take a phone call from Paul recently. It’s the caravan’s hotspot – move an inch to either side and the calls disconnect.