What the fudge?

No posts in over two months? I hate websites that never update themselves......

Well, it's a pretty bad excuse but our small compact camera hasn't been working so we haven't had much media coverage of our comings and goings recently and stories without pictures just aren't as good. here are a selection of photos from my very basic camera phone telling some of the stories over the last few months.......

Katie relaxing at Christmas, the present on the sofa is actually a filtered water bottle.

In a year of unprecedented SNP inspired Scottish-ness I made an incredible Burns' supper

As I hurtle towards my 40's the body is starting to show some signs of weakness with a recent diagnosis of Coeliac disease - although I am still awaiting the results of the truly horrendous gut biopsy to confirm this. And the jury is still out - Coeliac disease might actually be a superhero quality rather than an autoimmune disease.

But it looks like it is goodbye to Pizza and Beer - and I have a farewell party to all my favourite foods the whole week before my gut biopsy.

That meant goodbye to ......................................

Lager, Doritos, Pizza, bread, rolls, sausage, pasta, kebabs, chip shops, horlicks......tons of stuff really. Anything containing wheat, barley and rye. The good news is that there is a lot of alcohol which is gluten free and that gluten free life although expensive is all round more healthy.

As part of being Coeliac you get a prescription for food from the NH of S. ;o) Once everything is confirmed I will be able to collect a prescription for bread, flour, biscuits, rolls and stuff from the chemist. All the companies are competing for this business so they are all sending me freebie packs at the moment of gluten free pasta etc. Good times. To put the expense into perspective a loaf of gluten free bread is three quid and it's only a half loaf. Whether I am Coeliac or not what I do know is that I feel a million times better than I did when I finally gave in and went to the Doctor. Stop eating gluten people - it's bad stuff. ;o)

Other notable highlights over the last few months (which don't have photos so aren't worth talking about at length yet) include:

* Katie and I setting a date (if you haven't spoken to us recently you really should get on the skype......Lorna.) More to follow on this breaking news story.

* Steph keeping his job until May.

* Bungo-rific parking issues at the flat

* Tenants installing their own satellite dish

* Katie on a mission to finish her Masters

* Katie's new car 

* Steph inheriting Katie's old car

* The payout for Steph's crashed car

* Katie's pending pay out for injury when crashing Steph's car

* Steph's bonus from the Taxman

* Katie's bonus from the NZ taxman

* Steph's impending bonus from the NZ taxman

All in all things are going well and I will definitely (now the wee camera is back in action) try to keep this updated. 

Upcoming events include heading to Paris for my Mum's 60th birthday - should be a photo fest.

Au revoir tout le monde, 

Steph

My Car ;o(

Last Sunday Katie borrowed my car to give her Mum a lift into town so she could catch the bus home - Hilary had been with us at the Blair Castle Horse Trials on the Saturday. (Katie's Golf had suffered some minor damage on the Saturday trying to drive through a huge amount of mud at the horse trials.)

Unfortunately, with Katie minding her own business some old decrepit man decided to run a giveway and plough straight into the Clio. Katie is alright but was diagnosed with a mild concussion after attending hospital. The old geezer admitted he was in the wrong and his  insurance company have said they won't be contesting it so that's at least a consolation.

Obviously Katie being alright is the main thing here but to say that I am gutted that my car has been written off by the insurance company is an understatement of the highest order. I will of course get over it but I had just spent £200 getting my car up to scratch to pass the MOT that I had also paid for - only a week before. And did I mention the new tyre that cost £70 that I had put on the car two weeks ago? At least I hadn't paid for new road tax........

My poor car on the recovery van.

Doesn't look like much but the whole front end had shifted over by about 15cm.

I did go to the garage yesterday to strip as much from the car as I could - including my CD changer and floor mats. But in a week I will have the hire car taken off me and I'll get a cheque.....but you can't drive a cheque to work. Major inconvenience.

Summer Holiday 2011

Due to the ongoing uncertainty of my employment status we couldn't plan any big holidays this year - we have had some incredible holiday moments over the last 3 years so we weren't too put out. But we did however manage to get a break down in Carradale for a week. As usual this involved a lot of relaxing, walking, visiting, eating and drinking. All of which we are very good at.

We did decide to spice things up this time with a long overdue trip to Gigha - a community owned wee island reachable by short ferry journey from Tayinloan, not far from Campbeltown. Neither of us had been to Gigha so it was quite exciting - we weren't even put off by the troops of obese Glaswegian families who seemed to have had the same idea as us.

To suggest that there is nothing to do on Gigha would be unfair - there are lots of things to do on Gigha............if you are expecting high octane exciting things to do however then you are going to be disappointed.

I am speechless in the fabulous gardens.

Katie posing with an amazing plant (whose name i can't remember but it looks like a big rhubarb plant)

The most famous thing to do on Gigha is to visit the World famous Achamore Gardens - they apparently have more species of Rhododendron than anywhere else. (Yawn) I cannot get myself excited about plants unfortunately and as such the greatness of these gardens was completely lost on me. I am sure however if you like lots of plants and trees, and possess the ability and willingness to tell the difference between them, then this is the place for you......a kind of Disneyland for Gardners.

Once we had completed the 2 hour walking route (completed in 40mins) we went for a wander around some other parts of Gigha. We were going to hire bikes but the one place on the island that rents them out didn't have any left - how crazy is that?

We went in search of a secluded beach away from the other 6 people on the island and scrambled over some rocks around the coast. We're glad we did because turning the corner we spotted a group of seals on some rocks which is always a crowd pleaser.

We walked a wee bit further, found a beach and decided to go for a swim (we'd brought our swimming gear with us). It was a warm day but the water was freezing...we waded in anyway. We weren't far from the seals and one of them jumped in and swam over towards us - thankfully it turns out it wasn't a killer seal. Quite amazing being so close though.

Katie uses the binoculars to look at the seals.

The seals on the rocks.

Katie returning from her swim and close encounter with a seal.

With the day drawing to a close and the last ferry sailing almost due we decided to head back in. The tide had moved in more quickly than we had realised and it made the return walk a little but more interesting but I suppose that's what going off the beaten track is all about, adventure!

The Gigha Ferry.

We'll be back on Gigha one day I think, it is beautiful but I'll probably take a book. ;o)

Upon our return to Carradale there was a bag hung on the back door handle - it was a full bag of prawns left by Katie's Uncle Alen. Katie was delighted but then had to spend an hour topping and tailing the still live prawns. Seafood doesn't come much fresher than down Carradale way.

Carradale prawns.

Katie and her prawns.

Check out the size of this!

I didn't eat any prawns as the jury is still out on whether I have a shellfish allergy or not. This photo however does show how much sun we got in Gigha, I was a bit burnt.

Aunt Margaret's 90th birthday surprise.

Last weekend we made a whistlestop visit to Carradale to spring a surprise on Aunt Margaret for her 90th birthday.

Margaret had no idea we were coming and Katie had put a lot of planning into making sure things went perfectly. Katie's sister Gill came up from London to join us which added to the surprise for Margaret (and Katie's mum) as the girls aren't home together very often. A cake, a barrel load of food and some helium balloons joined us in the car for the trip to Carradale.

We left at 5pm on the Saturday night and arrived back in Glasgow at 8pm the following night. A flying visit but one that was really worthwhile.

A funny moment happened when I was trying to keep the conversation flowing and said to Margaret, "when was the last time you had this many people in the house?". She thought for a second and said completely deadpan, "my mother's funeral...".

I am available for all types of functions if you need someone to keep the conversation flowing - just give me a call. ;o)

Margaret is a remarkable woman and thoroughly deserved all the fuss made of her.  She's even made it onto the online Carradale news site.

http://www.the-carradale-goat.co.uk/

Happy Birthday Aunt Margaret, here's to many more.