A New Year and a new regime.

So back to work for me on Monday and I will certainly miss hanging out with my two favourite girls but I think we have all turned a huge corner over the last 4 weeks.

Sophie is now drinking milk from a sippy cup three times a day and eating a LOT of solid foods -  last night we had her go through the night without an additional feed which means she is close to sleeping through the night on her own and being solely fed at the table along with having milk drinks from a bottle, which is tremendous progress. She is also having very defined naps during the day and although we know this will change at a moments notice it is great to feel that things are settling down for everyone. Katie and Sophie already had a great routine but with Sophie a little bit older and more interested in solid food etc.. hopefully things will be a lot easier from now on.

Sophie is also desperately trying to start crawling - watch this space but she's not far from zooming around under her own steam. She also starts her swimming lessons on Monday - she'll be unstoppable from Tuesday onwards.

We had a great New Years Day, a long walk followed by a really lovely dinner at our house with Gran and Grandad - it was a great way to start the year.

"Is Gran really letting me do this?"

Today we had a wee family day out to Pollok park and the Burrell Collection on what was a really nice sunny day. I have also managed to get my camera out a wee bit more recently in what I hope will become a more regular feature - personally and professionally.

"I've just eaten a huge amount"

"Mum - what on earth is this?"

"Oh, I see - it's a new game!"

You can tell me which you prefer of the next picture (black and white or colour) in the comments section below, it would be good to hear some opinions.

We have had a great Christmas and New Year together - next stop Easter and Uncle Paul's Wedding. Here's to a non-stop, full on, action 2015!

"If you look closely you can see my wee teeth"

Christmas 2014

There are lots of photos to share from Christmas - and still  lots more we'd like to take. Check back soon but for now Merry Christmas xox

Grandad's birthday and a change to the plans on Sunday.

Family selfie on the floor  

It was Grandad's birthday on Saturday and we paid him a wee visit (his first birthday as a Grandad by the way). Sophie tried to steal his nose and his glasses but he was too quick for her. 

"Almost - I'll get them next time."

"Happy Birthday Grandad x"

The plan on Sunday was for Dad to be out in Edinburgh at a rugby thing but due to unforseen circumstances it was decided that he should take the day off and look after the girls - he has had an awful lot of late nights lately and he's out again working late this week. In the end it was the best for everyone.

We went for the longest walk ever, saw Darius fae off the telly, visited a new cafe in the town and even caught some live music before getting a takeway to bring home for dinner.

Sophie continues to be spoiled in the bedtime story department - she gets at least 3 books every night, read to her at least twice. Her favourites are "Can you find your nose", "I wrote to the zoo" and "Sophie La Giraffe Peekaboo".

Sophie also received a very nice letter from Santa Claus which I have photographed and added to the blog. She's starting to get very excited about Christmas - either that or it is just the solids to blame for the extra movements.

Thought would finish with a couple of extra shots from the week - she is getting so big so fast but remains, cute, funny and beautiful all at the same time, quite a skill.

                          

And in a final piece of "breaking news", it was discovered today that Sophie has a wee tooth peeking through on her lower gums. She'll be ripping her toys apart in no time I am sure. Pics to follow and toothwatch progress updates when we get a chance.

Daddys arms

I am honestly struggling to type at this present moment as I have spent all weekend trying to get adhesive from polystyrene tiles off of the hallway ceiling. It is thankfully all done and the plasterer is coming tomorrow to make it look all shiny and new. Unfortunately my arms aren't feeling like new but I am looking a bit shiny from all the steam.

If anyone is ever thinking of doing this job I would seriously advise you to either a) think again b) give yourself more than a weekend.

Anyway - for those who are interested in the house progress as well as the cheeky wee girl - we're having the hall plastered tomorrow, decorated next weekend and then getting someone in to lay a floor next month. Then we should just about have a hallway we don't need to hide from visitors to our door.

Anyway - while all the work goes on Sophie continues to be a hundred miles an hour and as cheeky as ever.

She's been rolling around the mat and this week rolled from her front to her back expertly. She also managed to get her toes into her mouth and she is at the stage where everything needs to get grabbed and thrown away.

We wrapped her up last weekend and took her out for a long walk. She had a great time as usual even though the weather wasn't very good.

"ready to go yet?"

"Is the giraffe coming as well?"

"loving my new clothes"

Sophie and Katie have had another busy week of visitors - this week it was Noan and Hazel. Noan joined Mum and Sophie for a wee swim down the pool and then they met Hazel out and about for a bite to eat.

Sophie has had a really spectacularly busy week this week and over the next few weeks Dad is going to be spectacularly busy but we'll try and keep the pics coming.

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

200th post

Well, here we are, the 200th post. We've not been the most prolific blogging team in the world but hopefully even if one or two of our blogs have interested you or made you laugh then we have done a good job.

Without getting all Dennis Norden about the best clips ever, I think the best received blog post to date is still the one about my shave in Nha Trang, Vietnam. If you are one of those people (copyright D. Norden) that likes shaving stories, then click on the old posts link and immerse yourself in the story of one man's bravery in search of a shaving nirvana. (and his subsequent disappointment and mental scarring)

Anyway, the 200th post is going to be a short one with some brief updates.....

1) We're still in the same house, have been for a year now which given our track record when we were away is some sort of record. The flat we are in though has just had the shower ripped out due to the fact the tiles were falling off, we can't park on our street for the next 5 months and there is additional extreme disruption due to all sorts of repairs. (a few months ago they resurfaced the roads, they have now had to dig a lot of it up again to pump concrete into abandoned mines.) read all about it on the Bungo Blog. http://www.bungoblog.com Which Katie also recently posted onto about the recent spate of bin raiders - quite the community champion ;o)

2) The car crash saga continues, no more crashes thankfully but no settlement cheque yet or anything. The insurance company of the hire car have of course been efficient enough to already deduct the excess from my account.

3) I am still working up in East Ren but that job may not last forever, there are a few other jobs just been advertised but we'll see how that goes.

4) This next bit should really have its own blog entry but due to lack of photos I am just going to tell it here.

We met up last night with Adrienne and Vicky, who we have known for a long while now but whom we stayed with whilst in Melbourne. You may remember that we attended a Neighbours night? Well they were the ones that dragged us kicking and screaming to it - only joking, I think it was the other way around. It was a hugely funny night though.

In fact, we had some great laughs with those two even though we only stayed with them in Melbourne for 10 days. They also visited us in NZ for a short while so we had lots to reminisce about.

We didn't have a camera this time though and Stefan Dennis wasn't there, so the only photo I have is of me with an NZ beer called Steinlager Pure - it really was my default beer of choice for the last year in NZ.

A good night was had by all though and hopefully we'll see them again sometime soon.

So, it's over and out for another post - hopefully we'll have some more exciting things to write about soon.

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.