Week 9 of our new life Home and Away

Monday, off to the Bridge Inn, Queensferry today to meet up with |Yvonne, Evie and Harris, took Danielle and Carly along.  Had a lovely lunch and a great natter.  Good to see Evie and Harris, how kids grow is unbelievable and great to see Yvonne also (could not post a photo as did not get a chance to take one, and Yvonne promised to email me one).  From there went to Kirkcaldy to try and get School Uniform, managed to get Danielle kitted out apart from her coat, but poor Carly ended up with one Cardigan and 4 Blouses, nothing else in her size, so possibly need to finish off shopping online.  Then took the kids home and then off to the Fettykill Fox to meet up with Isobel, nice natter again over a pot of tea and some mixed breads, couldn't fit anything else in as had already had lunch, one good meal a day suffices.  After that off to finally catch up with Elaine and Gogs, Claire has nearly moved into her new flat so hoping she will be very happy there, and then some not so good news, Janet (Elaine s Mum) had been taken into hospital this morning with suspected heart attack, hope everything turns out to be OK for Janet.  Received update from Adrian today, kitchen wall is nearly all out, bedroom and bathroom floors have been screeded and tomorrow all the guttering is being taken down, it will be a shell for us going back on Thursday.  Email from Mick and Pauline, they hope we are staying sober!! haha well at least I am, and we will have Piri Piri Chicken waiting for us on Thursday, how good is that.
Tuesday, collected 6 of the grandchildren again today, weather not so good so what will we do? I wanted to take them to Cairnie Maze and they were quite happy to go until it started to pour with rain, not a good idea when everything is outside, so off we all went to the pictures, Monster University was the chosen film so armed with the usual sweets, juice and crisps and of course the 3D glasses, off we went, the film was great enjoyed by all and it seems that Sulli and Mike are the stars of the show and all the kids want to be them.  Only half of the kids wanted to go back to Auntie Katies for tea so drop off for some and then back for tea.  After tea, time to drop the last one home home and then its off to meet up with Richard and April, thought we could grab something to eat have a drink and catch up, this did not prove easy as the first place we went to was totally packed, would have to wait at least 45 minutes for a table, so we tried another place managed to get in there just and two hours later it was off to see Ellen and Diane for a cross stitch lesson.  By this time I was cross eyed with tiredness but managed to take in the basics of what it all entails, left Ellen and Diane at 11.00 with a good few designs to pick from which is going to be my masterpiece, need to pop in again Wednesday just to go through details and collect my kit. (Well if I master this one it will be a miracle, but I will give it a go, whilst I will have so much time to myself back at home!!!).

Richard and April

Katie with the Monsters!

Wednesday, caught up on emails this morning, one from the builder, a new challenge the kitchen wall is coming out BUT!!! Adrian will now need to put in a concrete beam to reinforce the roof for the extension as the wall that is coming out supports the roof, oh well!! tiling has started in the bathrooms and the outside work has been started with everything being power washed and the new guttering has gone up, the extra parts required for the kitchen have been ordered, hold the roof we are back tomorrow so we can have a chat and take it from there.  Then its off to the hairdressers, family time, I am in dire need of having my hair done as it has not been touched since I left, Katie needs a new style and Danielle and Carly want messy buns, 4 hours later, time for Katie and Danielle to go home and Carly and I along with Danny are off to Dundee to see if we can get the final bits of Carlys school uniform, success we managed to get it and just had to order one cardigan and some tights to be delivered to the Kirkcaldy store, which Danny will do when he receives the text.  Time to take Carly home, pick up my car and then its off to see Lynne and Zoe for a quick cuppa and to say goodbye, had a good chat got showed around the garden, which is looking really good and met Norman!!, then off to drop my car of with Richard and he can drop me off at Ellens and Dianes, this was a quick catch up as time was not on my side so I will pop in to collect my Cross Stitch Kit on the way to the airport in the morning, time to then pop in to say goodbye to Elaine, she was that tired she had to gone to bed so off down the road to catch up with Lesa and Danny for a Chinese, finally relaxed with some good banter and food, still a bit of packing to do, all goodbyes said and done, will wait on news from Danny and Lesa on Friday as to what our 8th grandchild is going to be!!!

Lynne, Zoe & Norman

Lesa and Danny

The Bump, Boy or Girl

Thursday, up bright and early, washing to be done, final packing to be done and some cleaning to be finished.  All ready for the off for 9.00am.  Danny arrived to take us to the airport, needed to pop in to see Elaine and Ellen. Lucky to catch Elaine as she had just popped in from work so was able to get the news that her mum Janet was in Edinburgh Infirmary and having a procedure done today and that she will be fine, thank goodness for that, big hugs and bye bye, then off to see Ellen, collected my Cross Stitch Kit, big hugs and bye bye, see you all soon off to the airport.  Danny in his wisdom had bought his luggage scales so that we could weigh our luggage before checking in, OMG 4 kilos overweight, yes at the drop off point we had to sort out the suitcases and redistribute the luggage, Danny went back home with my Decaf T Bags, contact lens solution etc etc, not a happy bunny, cannot get large packs of Decaf Tea over here or Olde English Marmalade and they were my two most wanted, never mind.  Big Hugs to Danny, reminder he must text me tomorrow to let me know what my next grandchild is, on to check in, massive queues, got to check out, Yes we were 2.5 kilos overweight, £40 to pay, good start, then to security, by the time we got through we had to go straight to gate, no time for a cheeky wee morgans for me then, on the plane, arrived home at 4.00pm, searing heat, picked the hire car up and straight off to our house to meet Adrian.  Yes it is resembling a bomb site, but we were not disappointed and could see that things were coming on, luckily we came back today as a couple of changes to be made, a door had been bricked up completely, but should have only been half bricked as a window is going in ooops!! we cant have a false ceiling in one of the bathrooms as there are two windows in it so a ceiling will not fit in, we have to look at lighting for that now, and then a sink in the other bathroom the pipes are too near to the shower so that will need to be moved as well, so a bit of extra double work for Adrian, and we need to go and source the sinks and lights for Monday afternoon, oh its good to be back.  We also need to think about where we are going to locate the Boiler and we need to contact the Gardener to see if he can cut down the honeysuckle and Bougainvillea on the outside wall of the pool so that they can get on with power washing ready for painting.  Not a lot to do then!!  Finally we make our way to Mick and Paulines where we are going to stay for the next month while they are in the UK, finally a few cheeky wee Morgans and Chicken Piri Piri and then so to bed!!!

Kitchen Part 2

Kitchen Part 1

Bathroom Floor

Bathroom Wall

 Friday, Visit to the bank required this morning, then off back to the house for a few more discussions with Adrian, some shopping to do then we are taking Mick and Pauline out for a meal to a lovely Italian in Santa Barbara as a thank you for all they have done for us since we arrived and also for letting us use their house in August, wont be a late one tonight as they are driving back to the UK tomorrow.  News from Danny and Lesa today, we are having a Granddaughter, how blessed are we to have 8 Granddaughters.  As long as she arrives after Christmas and healthy that will be good, she is due on the 22nd December.
Saturday, up early and off to Loule Market, the array of fresh fruit and vegetables, meat and fish is a delight to see, Mick needed some fresh Oregano to take back to the UK, as he was in a hurry we didn't stay long but will definitely visit again next week when we can take a bit more time and make some purchases, this is what I have been looking forward to.  Back to the house so that Mick and Pauline can get the car packed up and then they are off, we cannot do much at the moment as we need to wait in for the man to deliver water, was hoping to get out and do some shopping, but it is now five o clock and no sign of a delivery yet. Still managed to use the pool and swam 24 lengths, felt good after a month of no swimming, the heat is on today so am off back in the pool just now.  Finally the man arrived with the water, after filling up we managed to go out for Pizza in Sao Bras, fresh made on the premises yummy.
Sunday, up early again today as we needed to go out shopping for sinks etc for the bathrooms, glad we went early as by 2.00pm we had finally found what we wanted, so purchased 3 sinks, taps, cabinets and mirrors, the 3rd one we had to order so will now have to wait 3 weeks which will now hold up the master bathroom, guess we will have an unhappy builder tomorrow, also bought the lights for the suicide bathroom, there is plenty for Adrian to be getting on with.  Had a good look around our house and we can see a difference already, sat on our terrace admiring the view. The passion flowers we planted in June are growing and one has 2 flowers on it already, so gave them a good water.  Tempted to have a dip but there is lots of debris in the pool due to the builders, so waited until we got back at 5.00pm, done my 24 lengths and had an hour in the sun.  This has been a good week with half of it in Scotland and the other half home, have not quite unwound yet but am getting there.