Girl's Weekend Away

Saturday 13^th December 2008

10.45am

we’re sitting in the hotel in Billington, Clitheroe, Blackburn, we’ve been to breakfast and now we’re sitting chilling out. There are 4 of us here – myself, Catherine, Susan and Katie and we’re in 3 rooms between us. There was supposed to be 6 of us but Katie hasn’t heard anything from Jen and her friend Hannah so they’ve been written off as far as this holiday is concerned.

Katie had said to us to be ready for 5.30pm yesterday but my dancing lesson wasn’t supposed to finish until 5pm and then I had to get changed afterwards so I pretty much expected to get home just in time for Katie to collect me. I got home about 5.40pm and thankfully Katie didn’t get to mine till about 6.20 so I had time to get ready to go out and sit for a few minutes before I left. When we were driving along Catherine said I could thank her cos Katie turned up at her house at 5.20pm when she had literally just got home from work and wasn’t ready to go yet.

As is usual for us we got to very near where we were supposed to be and then got lost. Katie stopped at Clitheroe Golf Club so that we had a good landmark and then she rang the hotel for directions. She got directions and we headed off, another 20-25 minutes later we were still driving round aimlessly so we stopped at a petrol station and I went in to ask the man if he knew where our hotel was. He was very good, he knew exactly where the hotel was and gave me directions which he helpfully wrote down for us. The only bit that we didn’t quite get was the very first instruction – we had to turn right just before a roundabout and we weren’t sure if it was AT the roundabout. Once we’d found that correct turning all of the other directions were accurate and really clear :-)

When we got to the hotel we went and checked in. We didn’t get here till about 9.15 so the lady on reception told us to go for dinner as soon as possible. We basically just dumped our stuff in the rooms – we’re in 102, 103 and 105 and as happened in Blackpool I’ve got the room furthest down the corridor.

When we went to the restaurant we weren’t sure whether we were supposed to just go and sit or we had to wait to be seated so we sort of loitered in the bar area. Eventually a grumpy bloke came out and mumbled that he had no cutlery and told us to sit down. He then gave us the menu and we found that there were certain items we could have on the deal but we didn’t really want any of them so we asked when he came back if we could pay the extra and he (apparently) grudgingly agreed. We ordered our meals and he asked us if we wanted drinks, I checked with Katie if she wanted diet coke cos she was on the phone but the man took it as if I was ordering it 8|

When we went into the restaurant bit we were seated at a big table and the man brought our starters. Because we were chatting as we were eating we took longer to eat than the man would’ve liked. Where I was sitting I could see when he came from the kitchen area and a few times he’d look over and when he saw we were still eating he’d roll his eyes and go back. The meal was very nice and we went back to the rooms at about 10.30 I think, and it was obvious that he wanted us to have gone earlier.

We went back to Katie and Susan’s room to chat and basically just lazed around for ages. At about 11.30 I decided I was going to bed but then got into another conversation. Catherine was falling asleep on the couch and at about 1.15am she got up to go to bed and I went out with her. Breakfast was served from 8.00-10.00 and we decided to set alarms for 8.45. I woke up a couple of times and went back to sleep but when I woke up at 8.30 I decided I might as well actually get up and have a shower.

At about 9.20 I went and knocked on Katie and Susan’s door but got no response. I was considering going for a wander but then decided to knock on Catherine’s door – she was ready so I went and sat in there with her for a bit. While we were chatting Katie sent me a text to say they’d meet us at breakfast. Catherine and I went down for breakfast then Katie and Susan joined us about 10 minutes later. It was standard breakfast fayre but unfortunately not much steal-able food ;-D

After breakfast we just went back to ‘the’ room and lazed around again for ages. I went out to the vending machine to get drinks for myself and Susan and we also had hot drinks as well.

5.05pm

I’m now back sitting in the room with Katie and Susan, Catherine is in her own room we think she may have fallen asleep.

We were trying to sort out the telly so we could play DVDs through Katie’s machine but when we plugged the player into the telly, the picture just kept scrolling sideways :-( We tested it on both the living room telly and the bedroom telly but both were the same so they’ve obviously been rigged so you can’t attach DVD players >:-( We also realised we had no TV remotes so we Katie and I went to enquire at reception – it seems they’re kept at reception and you have to request them :-S I wonder if they get stolen :-S

While we were there we noticed on the CCTV screen that the pool was empty so I decided to go to the gym and the pool and to see if the others wanted to come too. Catherine and Katie said they’d come and swim but Susan decided she was going to chill in the bath instead. Eventually, after much faffing I finally got round to actually going to find the leisure centre. I was going to ask at reception but there was no-one there so I went exploring instead.

I found it and then realised I needed the code so I went back to the girls and got the code, I then went back to the leisure centre and spotted the sign that said you need to get towels from the hotel reception so I decided not to bother and went back to my room to get my own (hotel) towels. When I went back I realised housekeeping hadn’t been round yet so the towels I originally wasn’t putting in the wash I took with me and put the others all in the bath for washing.

When I finally got to the leisure centre I found the gym – one tiny room with 5 machines in. There was a cross-trainer, 2 treadmills, a very small multi-gym thing and a stepping machine. I got on the cross trainer first and if you do the quick-start thing it times down from 20 minutes. I’d only been on the machine about 7 minutes when Catherine came in. She had a go on the stepper machine and said it was really hard work, she then also had a little go on the multi-gym before going to get changed and join Katie in the pool. Once I’d finished my 20 minutes on the cross trainer I did about 5-6 minutes on the stepper and didn’t find it too difficult.

I then got in the pool with Katie and Catherine and started swimming in my normal style – quite splashy, but, as I thought, quite fast. Catherine was busy telling me I was too splashy and was drowning everyone around ;-D She was then trying to tell me a better way to swim so I was trying out her suggestions and she said it was better. We also explored the sauna and steam room for a bit.

At 3.15pm Katie and Catherine got out of the pool but I stayed there till about 4pm. When I got out of the pool I sat in both the sauna and steam room for a little bit before going to get a shower. First of all I tried the shower in the changing room but it was freezing so I tried the one by the pool – that was freezing too!!!! I decided not to bother and went back to my room for a shower instead. I threw on my shorts and t-shirt over my swimming costume – so obviously they were soggy by the time I got back to my room.

Once I was showered and changed I went back to the other room where I found Katie and Susan – Catherine was (and still is) in her own room. We’ve just sat round, chatted, snacked and drunk (non-alcoholic) things (that seems to be pretty much a theme of this weekend!)

7.20pm

X Factor has just come on the telly (which we’ve managed to work) so I’m in Katie’s bedroom with Goodnight Sweetheart on the DVD player. Catherine came in to see us about 20 minutes ago – she’d been in the bath.

11.10pm

Katie came in to chat to me and I was commenting that the series of Goodnight Sweetheart was one of the later ones and I didn’t like the newer actors. We chatted for a bit and I decided to change discs and watched Father Christmas instead ;-D By the time Fr Christmas had finished it was more or less the time we’d decided to go to tea. I went to get changed and while I was in my room Katie came along basically to tell me not to hurry cos the other 2 were in no rush 8|

We went back to the other room and Catherine and Susan were still not ready or in no mood to leave X-Factor 8| X-Factor got sooooo bad I literally walked out cos I knew Katie was ready to leave as well. We went down to the bar / restaurant area and ordered some drinks for all 4 of us and looked at the menu. The other 2 eventually came down and when we’d been sitting there a short time we ordered our food and it was almost the same meal 4 times – we all had the same starters as yesterday and for the main course the other 3 all had pork and I chose the lasagne, when it came I wished I’d ordered the pork too cos their meals looked really nice and mine was dried up :-( I sorted it out with lashings of tomato sauce 8|

We had the same waiter as last night (apparently he’s the duty manager) but he was a changed person. He was amiable and even commented to us that Liverpool won today :-o

We went back to the room when X-Factor had just re-started, we were talking about it on the way and some ladies at another table heard us and commented that they had planned their teatime around X-Factor as well ;-D

Because the girls were going to watch X-Factor again I went back in the bedroom and put The Snowman DVD on – I figured I’d had Fr Christmas so I might as well have The Snowman too ;-D Once that film had finished the others were still watching rubbish so I put on To The Manor Born – felt like some memories ;-D

Once X-Factor had finished the others wanted a DVD as well but I needed to take my lenses out so I went back to my room and also put my pyjamas on as well – and then wandered down the corridor in my pj’s and slippers ;-D ;-D

We then put “Watching” on the telly but before we got settled Katie went down to the machine for drinks for us – and that’s where we’re up to now!

7.40pm

I’m now back at home – and have been since about 2pm.

I went to bed last night after 4 episodes of “Watching” and got to sleep more or less straight away.

I set my alarm for 7am but didn’t actually get up till about 7.30. I got dressed and went down to the leisure centre. I planned to do 20 minutes on the cross trainer then 10 minutes on the stepper then about half an hour swim. My plans were thwarted when I got there cos there was a man already using the cross-trainer ggrrr. I just swapped the order of my first 2 activities cos he’d finished on the cross trainer before I’d finished on the stepper.

After I’d been in the gym I sat in the steam room for a very short time before going in the pool. When I got out of the steam room, out of curiosity I tested the shower and it was really warm :-o Yesterday it was freezing – and today I hadn’t brought my shower stuff with me, I’d planned to shower back in my room 8| I had planned to be out of the pool by 9ish so by the time I got in at 8.45 I only had time to do 50 (very short) lengths.

I went back to my room, had a shower and was ready by 9.35, when I went into Katie and Susan’s room Katie was ready and Susan was nearly ready. By 9.45 the 3 of us were ready but there was no sign of Catherine – even when Katie and I went to knock on her door. We went back to the other room and Katie rang Catherine – she was still asleep!! We headed off to breakfast and told Catherine to meet us there.

Once we’d finished breakfast we stayed sitting chatting in the restaurant until about 10.30 – they were clearing up around us. We then went back to our rooms to pack our bags ready for going home. Thankfully we had a late checkout so we had till 12pm to relax and chill out.

We checked out at 12, while Katie did all the paperwork we loaded the car and then I asked a random lady to take a photo of all 4 of us ;-D

We came home and got back without incident and didn’t get lost at all. We took Susan home first, then it was me followed by Catherine and obviously Katie went home after that.

Dogs Trust Charity Ball Weekend

Right, i know it's tuesday but this is the first time i've felt awake and alive enough to do an update from the weekend - i was away in a hotel in Leeds and shock horror i didn't do a real-time blog hehehe.

There were all sorts of complications with the arrangements for us going to Leeds - we were booked in for tea but in the end we realised we'd have to skip the tea at the hotel cos the last complication was that Katie had an appointment in Southport at 6pm so we couldn't leave here till at least 7pm or later.

Katie texted me to say she was on her way to mine at about 6.45 but i had just put my tea on :-o Thankfully my tea only took 20 minutes and Katie's journey here took 45 so i was finished by the time she arrived. When she got here she said she'd left her paper with the route on at the place where she'd been so could we print another. That was fine except i had to actually turn the computer on etc. I also rang Karen while Katie was here and she asked if we could pick them up on the way to the ball on the saturday evening - of course Katie said it was fine so we printed out other routes for the next day.

We left here at about 8pm i think and set off for Leeds. Because we were leaving that late the roads were really easy and there were no hold-ups along the way. Infact we had to do M57-M62 and they have VERY recently opened a new slip road leading from one motorway to the other without having to go down and round the roundabout - we were very impressed LOL

When we got to the hotel Katie went to check us in while i stayed in the car with the stuff. When she came back she said we were on the 2nd floor and there was no lift :-o Not very disabled-friendly then!!! And not only were we on the 2nd floor, getting from reception to the room was a right trek - as you turned left from reception there were about 4 steps down then a bit of corridor then another 4 steps down then another corridor then another 4 steps down. After that it was up a double flight of stairs along quite a long corridor then up another double flight of stairs then along another long corridor before we got to our room :-o

When we finally made it to our room we basically just settled in and watched Children in Need for quite a long time before we eventually went to sleep - or at least tried to. It was after 2am when we stopped talking intending to sleep but when we got up the next day neither of us had slept very well :-S :-(

We went down for breakfast which was standard hotel breakfast - hot and cold buffet. I also remembered to take quite a large bumbag and some food bags so we could take food from breakfast to eat at lunchtime.

After breakfast we collected all the day's newspapers and took them back to our room. We mooched around a bit and Katie found a couple of funny / interesting articles in the paper - The Times i think. One was a full page article about public toilets ;-D ;-D It was saying how there aren't enough of them, and especially there aren't enough female toilets - some professor or something reckons there should be a ratio of 2:1 female to male toilets LOL He reckons men don't go as often as female and also take half the time - this was a proper study which had been carred out hahahaha. The other one was 10 things you should know before becoming celibate LOL I can't remember the details of that!

We did consider trying to use the hotel's wi-fi and doing my tax-return online but when i went on it said it wasn't a secure connection and things could be seen by others - we decided it wasn't a good idea!!

We decided to go down and see what the pool and possibly gym were like but when we got in we discovered the pool is really small - i could swim across the widest part of it in one breath! And it was only 1.2m deep all over! We messed around a bit and then decided to get in what we presumed was the jacuzzi pool although the bubbles weren't turned on :-( That was nice, it was quite warm but only tiny. We'd only been in there about 40 minutes when other people came in - with 3 children who it looked like were there for a swimming lesson!!! We chose that time to get out and go back to our room. When we went back to the changing room there were only 2 showers, they were in cubicles but the one i went in the door didn't lock 8| I had intended to have a proper shower but decided i might as well just do my normal and shower with my swimming costume on. There was only one changing cubicle so i let Katie have that, the rest was communal changing and i'm able to get changed and stay decent haha. Also the cubicla had a chair in it and was a smaller space so everything was more compact for katie.

While i was getting changed another lady came in from the gym for a shower and she took her top off and just wandered round like that :-o The most indecent i was was wearing a bra over the top of my towel hahaha.

Once we were changed we headed back to the room for a while and had something to eat.

When we were on the way to the hotel we'd seen a sign for Christmas World so we decided to go and have a look round that. Thankfully, once we'd turned right off the roundabout by our hotel it was just a straight route and it was signposted all along, the only problem was the last sign was basically "turn NOW" Luckily there was no-one behind Katie when we saw it so she was able to brake a bit sharper than she would've liked.

Christmas Worl was basically a large garden centre with a considerable section dedicated to christmas paraphenalia. We had a good look round although we didn't buy anything cos it was all over-priced, stuff we saw for £3 or £4 we reckon we could probably get at home in somewhere like Poundland.

We got back to the hotel at about 3.30pm i think and just lazed around for a while, because neither of us had slept well we were both really sleepy and i know i wasn't really fit for anything. Graham rang me at about 4ish to arrange picking up them and also Karen's boss from Dogs' Trust allong the way. Grajam is great at giving directions, he seems to know all the roads round Leeds and gives you direction with Road nu,bers rather than names which is really useful cos it's numbers you get on the signs :-)

Anyway Katie and I started getting ready around 5ish and we both had to help each other into our dresses hahaha Katie needed help with her zip and altohugh i can actually get into mine without help it was easier if she helped.

When we were both ready we set off on our trek through the hotel - literally dressed up to the nines - and we got quite a few comments from other residents as we went down :-$

When we got to Karen and Graham's house Katie said she was staying in the car rather than fighting with her dress again haha. I went in to the huse - and the door was actually open :-o I went in and called hello, Graham said they were upstairs but i said i wasn't going up - didn't want to fight with my large dress up the stairs, especially with the dog gate at the bottom LOL. When they were ready to come down their dog came down first and obviously wanted to play :-o Had i not been in a ballgown i'd have been happy to play but i was trying to get him calm - what a joke!!

Once everyone was ready we set off and had to pick up John from the actual Dogs Trust place but luckily it was on the way, although we did have to sit in the driveway and wait a while for him 8|

When we got to the hotel where the ball was we got the best parking speck ever - literally right outside the door!! It was a disabled space and as Katie's got the crutches and the blue badhe she might as well use them!!

Just inside the door people were milling around and there were 2 photographers there, the official portrait photographers and also a lady from Yorkshire Life magazine. The press lady got 6 of us lined up for a photo and took our names so you never know i might be in the magazine hehe. THe porttrait man also took our photos - one of each of us seperate and one of Katie and I together, he also took a photo of karen and graham. We all decoded to buy our photos although Katie and i didn't bother with the one of us together, just the separate ones.

We all had tables allocated to us and the tables weren't numbered, they were named after one of the dogs at the centre. As luck would have it we were on Toppa's table - the dog i looked after at Open Day :-D :-D And Karen said he'd got a home just 2 days before :-D :-D :-D

On each place setting there was an envelope for a donation and also you put your name on and it became your raffle ticket for the draw later in the evening. When the draw was done both Katie and I won a prize but i didn't keep mine - it was a day pass for 2 at a Harrogate health Spa, there's not much point me keeping that as Harrogate is a bit far to travel just for that - i gave my prize to Karen, she can enjoy it with someone :-) Katie kept her prize cos it was a bottle of whisky - although she doesn't drink she said she might use it as a christmas present.

While we had dinner there was a jazz band playing and we weren't very impressed with that! We also weren't very impressed that one of the guests at the BALL was wearing JEANS :-o :-o :-o >:-(

Dinner was ok altough it (and the rest of the evening combined) wasn't worth the £45 we paid for it!! Starter was carrot and orange soup which was nicer than i expected actually; mains was chicken with potatoes and veg; and dessert was profiteroles flavoured with Baileys. Originally i was forgotten about for dessert, i was sitting there for ages with no pudding and when it eventually came i think i got normal profieroles rather than Baileys ones cos everyone seemed to be pulling faces and saying they were really strong - i couldn't taste anything like that :-S I wasn't in the least bit bothered though cos i think i got the better end of the deal :-D

After dinner they did the charity auction but that wasn't very successful. Most of the items were signed celebrity items and the starting bids were around the £200-£300+ mark, very few people were bidding at those prices and at least 4 or 5 items he couldn't sell at the prices that were being offered!!

The tables all had helium balloons on and instead of the normal weight wrapped in shiny paper or something, the weight for these ballons was a cuddly dog - awwww. After we'd had dinner and we werwe sitting chatting i pulled the dog to me and was sitting cuddling and stroking it LOL Apparently there had been cuddly dogs to buy but by the time we thought about it they'd all gone so Graham told me to just take our table dog home :-) :-)

The last part of the night was the disco. The first few songs were a bit naff then when the first decent song came om Karen and I got up to dance and we requested all the cheesy disco favourites - YMCA, timewarp, macarena, locomotion, S Club 7, Steps Abba - etc etc. Well we thought we were on to a winner cos we gpt YMCA almost straight away but then the rest of the night he spent filling and emptying the floor 8| Most of his song choices were rubbish then on occasions he'd get it right and ourt on a great somg that filled the floor, usually the very next one was dire!! And instead of finishing the night with a good rousing song like New York New York he put on slow, miserable 'slit-your'wrists' music (i can't remember exactly what it was) - what a way to finish the night!!!

Once the disco had been turned off we were getting ready to go home but we had to wait for John to finish his drink 8| He had a glass of cider then discovered he also had a full bottle as well! :-o Thankfully he decided to take the bottle with him so we just had to wait until he'd finished the glass. In the end Katie and I went out to the car, Karen and Graham followed shortly after and then we were waiting for John (again!).

When John eventually appeared we headed off to Dogs Trust but i was sooo tired i actually sat with my eyes closed half asleep. When we got John home he had to climb over the gate to get in and he was well-sozzled, we all thought it would be hilarious to watch him get over the gate but he actually did it really easily :-o :-( LOL

We dropped Karen and Graham back at their house then made our way back to our hotel - it was actually pretty much a straight run from theirs to our hotel so that was good (although Graham had given me directions earlier in the evening)

When we got back there were no disabled bays left but we got a space as close as we could and headed off to bed. I had to ask Katie to help me out of the dress again, i can do it on my own but it's really awkward. I put my dress back in the wardrobe before getting in to bed and thankfully i actually slept pretty well :-)

We were planning on leaving the hotel at 10am so i set my alarm for about 8am ready to go to breakfast at 9ish but it didn't go off 8| Luckily i woke up at 8.15 anyway and was ready by 8.45 so it didn't matter. I sat and watched the telly for a bit before I woke Katie at 8.55 - she literally only needs about 5 minutes to be ready :-o :-o

Once we'd had breakfast we came back up to the room to get ready to leave. Lucky we were watching out for each other and each other's stuff cos Katie had left her glasses by the tea and coffee so nearly forgot them she also left her books on the bedside table but she spotted them herself; I nearly left my phone charger and Katie spotted that when she was sorting her own stuff on the other table.

We got ourselves sorted and were checked out and on the road by about 10am as planned. Because it was sunday morning the roads were pretty clear so we had a nice easy run :-) When the M60 turned back into the M62 i texted my mum to say we were about an hour away and i was bring a dog home with me hehe I told her he was house trained and he sits and stays on command hehehe. Her return text went along the lines of "WHAT!!! i hope it's a toy" She knows me too well ;-D ;-D

We got back to mine at about 11.45 so i got my stuff out of the car and came in. Once i'd been in about 15 minutes i realised i'd left my dress in Katie's car 8| It had been on the back seat in her mini portable warddrobe with her dress so it hadn't been really obvious which is how i missed it 8| She'll bring it back when she's next in this area.

I then spent the rest of the day actually being quite productive :-o I did some piano practice (not that you know it from how i performed in my lesson lkast night!!!!), i made my bed and i'm sure there was more but i can't remember now - that's how great it was LOL

Anyway, that's it for this entry! Well done if you've got this far!! LOL

remembrance weekend

Ok so i haven't done my blog every day as i intended to but never mind - it's 2 days to update this time.

SATURDAY 8th NOVEMBER

* had a mini lie-in

* didn't go shopping :-o ;-D (as planned)

* the rest of the day was pretty normal - Learn Music for 3 hours

* One unusual bit, finished LM at 12.30 so did Sainsbury's shopping before going to Anna's

* taught Anna then Lucy

* dancing lesson

* home for piano practice, tea and early night ;-D

SUNDAY 9TH NOVEMBER

* Got up at 6.30 and put my clean clothes away after breakfast before going swimming

* did my 64 lengths. Mrs Annoying Yellow Cap got in towards the end of my 64 but i managed to avoid having to come into conflict with her

* went home. Was home by 9.35 and as i was going home i realised it was a good job i'd planned to not go to church cos they were just preparing to close the roads for Remembrance services and if i'd been going at my normal time i'd have hit the chaos!

* was useful for about 20 minutes before taking my mum to Asda to do the weekly shopping - for some bizarre reason she wanted to come with me ;-D

* got a trolley that wanted to go sideways - AGAIN !!!

* 11am came while we were in Asda and we all had to stop for 2 minutes' silence for remembrance day - some people kept on wandering round ;-@

* got back to my road, there was a space outside the huose but i thought it wasn't big enough for me to get in. I parked further down then looked when i got out and decided i could get in so i gpt back in the car and got in fairly easily (With the help of my beeper ;-D)

* Put the shopping away and had my lunch

* did my beginner reports - still need to print them :-(

* chopped my 2 pineapples and made yorkshire pudding batter

* did some piano practice (not enough though :-( )

* sorted out my paperwork for my lesson observation tomorrow - argh!

* had a de-fuzzing session, i'm now fuzz-free in the places i want to be ;-D ;-D

* sorted out a christmas list

* had tea and made lunch for tomorrow

lots of days

FRIDAY 31ST OCTOBER

* still in pain from dentist

* crabby with kids all day

* dancing lesson as normal

* private teaching as normal

SATURDAY 1ST NOVEMBER

* shopping at new Asda - not very good :-( Hardly any other shoppers but many items not there :-(

* teaching in LearnMusic - did a grade 6 piano lesson :-o One of the other teachers at the school, entered for exam in December - nowhere near ready :-o :-o

* no Anna, sat in car ate my lunch and chilled

* Lucy as normal then chatting to Juliet for ages afterwards ;-D

* Dancing as normal

* went for tea with CSO picnic society. Pub in Bispham green. Followed TomTom but it said to keep left and bear right, couldn't quite work out what it meant so i missed the M58 turn, just ended up following A59 instead. Was nearly there and got a call from Sue - knew it would be her without answering or even looking at the phone. Got into the pub and practically got a menu thrown at me ;-D They were just about to order so i had to quickly decide on what i wanted to eat by the time the waitress got to me ;-D Had duck, then bread & butter pudding for afters. Was a great night - really nice company, chance to chat and laugh and was good to be with like-minded people and chat about music-type stuff. We've also almost sorted out a christmas 'do' and maybe going for a beach walk on new year's day :-D

SUNDAY 2ND NOVEMBER

* swimming - 64 lengths :-)

* put new photo in my keyring - 'before' so now carrying before & after pics of my weight

* church

* sainsburys and fuel. stupid cash machine not working, had to go BACK into main car park to go to other machine

* rest of day boring

MONDAY 3RD NOVEMBER

* swimming, 64 lengths

* weighed myself but not believing machine. It said i put 2lbs on, maybe i did - BUT it said i lost 18 inches in height :-o ;-D

* no school number one, came home did piano practice and chilled out

* went to school number 2 but they not it :-o What a waste of fuel to go to Formby and back!!!

* school number 3 as normal

* piano lesson great fun :-D was high as a kite, kept chatting loads ;-D ;-D


TUESDAY 4TH NOVEMBER

* no hell-hole school :-D got there but normal teacher not in. other teacher said could leave it or go in with supply teacher - not prepared to do that - kids mad enough with proper teacher would be 10 times worse with supply!!

* went to garage with Jen to drop her car off for fixing.

* staff meeting went on quite while

* took Jen back to garage for her car

WEDNESDAY 5TH NOVEMBER

* all schools more or less normal

* music centre, got crabby with kids - nearly all forgot music!!

* went to baths after work, got there and discovered no swimming costume 8| just got changed into slobbing-about clothes and went to Katie's for fireworks. I hadn't paid so i didn't need to be embarrassed by asking for money back

* went to katie's. Andrew being a pain!!

* 3 of andrew's friends came for fireworks - all messing about, i spent my time shouting at the kids 8| 8|

* No noisy fireworks so no jumping by me to entertain others ;-D

* kids taken home about 9.30pm

& i stayed chatting till about 11.15pm

THURSDAY 6TH NOVEMBER

* all schools normal

* 1st thursday of month so agape mass. went to P&T's house as normal. someone rang their house about 7.45 - P not off phone till about 7.55 (mass starts at 8) we were about 15 minutes late for mass :-o We'd missed 2 great hymns at beginning and i didn't know many of th others

* went to pub for quiz after mass as usual - only got 17/40 questions right ;-D ;-D

FRIDAY 7TH NOVEMBER

* schools 1 & 2 normal

* school 3 loads of kids out on trip. Did flute and recorders together. only taught for 40ish minutes, spent a while usefully doing paperwork.

* quick nip into tesco on way to last school

* at last school found out the world's getting smaller. a few weeks ago one of my mum's friends who she hasn't seen for 20 years turned up at our house well i found out today she's the auntie of a teacher at one of my schools apparently after she left here she went to see the family and she was telling them where she'd been and when she was talking (mainly about me) Hannah twigged and asked her was it me (at that point she hadn't said my name) i need to ask her next week which of the auntie's brothers is her dad cos my mum knows one of the brothers quite well but not the others

* went dancing, told Ann i'm not there next saturday but REALLY want to be there on the friday if at all possible - she said it's like i'm addicted ;-D ;-D

---------------------------------

* i've currently got what i call 'dragon-skin' at the moment and the strange rash on the inside of my left wrist. I'm slathering hand cream on my hands and ointment on my wrist

* think i might have to go back to the dentist :-( Been in pain since i was there last week :-( First of all i thought it was just as a result of what she did but that pain has gone now and it seems it's now in a tooth in my bottom jaw - which she has already filled in the past :-( This last week every single day i've woken up in pain cos obviously i haven't had painkillers through the night. I've bought some 12 hour painkillers today so if i take them when i go to bed hopefully i'll be ok in the morning

half term - sort of

oooohhh dear 3 days this time :-o

Well yesterday i was at work, came home did a bit of piano practice then went for a swim - ok wednesday done ;-D ;-D

Tuesday

* went swimming as normal

* came home and did piano practice - again, as usual

* mum and i went to explore the new asda - predictably it was pretty chocka with everyone doing the same thing 8|

* we went to collect Lynne, and as it turned out Claire.

* went to toxteth annexe to collect my new log sheet and memory stick. confused marie by telling her i wasn't really there cos i was on holiday. Liverpool is back in work but everyone else is on holiday this week!!

* went to brewers fayre for lunch - we ended up at the same table as last time me and mum went there :-o ;-D

* at first Claire was worried about her diet but by the time we were ready for dessert the diet had temporarily gone out the window and she had chocolate indulgence along with me and Lynne ;-D

* after that spent the rest of the night slobbing about - was too full to do anything else LOL ;-D

* today has been a not so good day

* went swimming, did my 64 lengths as usual - that was ok :-)

* did my piano practice when i came home

* had a nurse's appointment at 10.40 when i got there there was only 2 other people in the waiting room and of the 3 of us i was the first to go in :-D That was fine - all normal but what surprised me was that she asked me to demonstrate my inhaler technique to check that i was using it properly and efficiently. She's never asked me to do that before :-S

* had an opticians appointment to check my contact lenses, again that was fine. What surprised me about that is that i didn't have to pay for it :-o :-D

*went to do a bit of fun shopping after the optician's, bought a few bits and pieces, including a subway sandwich for my lunch.

* when i went home i intended to do some more piano but by then the effects of the flu jab had kicked in and my right arm was heavy and painful so i gave up on that idea. i just ate and watched telly instead LOL ;-D

* went to the dentist at 4.10pm I'd decided to ask if i could pay beforehand while i still felt human - they laughed at that description ;-D Went up to see Jenny and she offered to do a scale while i was there so she did that after she'd stabbed me while it was taking effect. She then got down to the nasty stuff and because one of my teeth was actually broken i had a weird contraption strapped to my face so she could rebuild the tooth :-o When she'd finished i felt pretty shaky but was trying not to let her see cos she'd make me stay there to calm down LOL She was asking if i was ok and she could tell but she said just take a few deep breaths and take it easy - be careful. Thankfully because i'd already paid i was able to go straight out to the car to come home. When i got back in the car i felt quite shaky and weepy so sat there for a few minutes before i set off. While i was driving home i still felt shaky and weepy but held it together while i drove home.

* since i've been home i've not done much. I've drunk LOADS of water, done a very small amount of work for tomorrow and basically just chatted to friends on msn.

* 3 1/2 hours after i'd got home from the dentist my mouth was thawed out but now is sore :-( I'm hoping to keep off the painkillers till bedtime.

sunday monday

oops a daisy - 2 days' entry again hehe

Sunday

*went swimming and was very energetic. did 80 lengths in total - 60 lengths crawl normal speed, 10 lengths what i call power-crawl and 10 lengths breast stroke :-)

*was out too early for church so went for a short walk along the prom - the wind was howling and my ears were freezing :-o

*went to church. Fr Gerry looking for volunteers to put on blonde wig and get photographed for some display or something to do with the Christmas play - "Scrooge meets Abba" so i said i'd do it LOL

*after church did an hour piano practice then spent most of the day sorting through CD tracks in order to create an ideal aural CD - big job

Monday

*swimming again first thing as normal - didn't feel quite so energetic just did my normal 64 lengths ;-D

*more piano practice. Was wishing the other day that i had a lesson today - really looking forward to my next lesson cos i feel as if i've improved since last time :-) I was wondering if any of my pupils ever feel like that :-/ Probably not 8|

*was going out to town with mum today via her work to put her pay claim in - i actually saw the inside of Hugh Baird hehehehe. We also met a few of mum's colleagues so i got introduced

*got the train into town, went to see the crystal spider at exchange flags - was most impressive when you stand right undereath :-D

*went to explore new bit of Liverpool 1, not very exciting cos a lot of the units still aren't open yet 8|

*we then went to rapid for my mum to *price* some stuff for a new kitchen - she actually ended up buying a sink and new taps cos they were in the discount section. We left them in the shop to collect later.

*went to find the chinese buffet place for lunch. It was really obvious but somehow we mised it last time we were in town :-S

*was pretty busy but we still got seated quickly and the service was excellent and very efficient :-)

*went shopping round the 99p store then to the market. mum wanted a new handbag - which she got but i also got a new bumbag and a new silver handbag to go with my ballgown :-)

*went back to collect stuff from rapid and got taxi home. Taxi was 2/3 price of the delivery charge from the shop :-o

*got home really tired

*did some more CD cataloguing

*Had tea of soup with potatoes and one piece toast

oops missed a day

oops i need to do entries for 2 days now ;-D

FRIDAY

* swim 50 lengths, first 41 at normal speed then all odd-numbered lengths at power-speed :-)

* went to Colin's, just as i got to his house he was taking in his recycling bag - not sure who was more shocked, him that i was standing there or me that he'd come out just as i was about to knock on the door ;-D

* chatted and did a tiny bit of piano playing before going out to class

* walked down to 'town', i was wearing my new boots. it was the furthest i've walked in them and they were fine

* went to pay for room, library diary gone missing - just write it on paper

* went up to class, a few people were already there

* did colouring-in for nearly the whole 2 hours LOL ;-D ;-D

* sat next to Joan, was catching up also with Lynne, Jean, Margaret, Moy and later Jo

* Joan asked did i have my flute with me - no. It seems now i need to have a flute piece ready for 'calligraphy' class too

* back to Colin's after class

* eating lunch but talking too much, Colin had to go back out before i'd eaten it all ;-D He wanted me to play some piano before he left so i put my lunch away

* while Colin was out i did LOADS of practice - about half an hour of flute and nearly 2 hours of piano :-o

* didn't even go back to my lunch

* Colin got back about 3.15ish i did more piano and played "Danse de la Chevre" on flute for him

* went to teach Suzanne, almost couldn't be bothered leaving :-$ Got there a bit late but was ok

* didn't do much when i got home - had tea, relaxed doing computer stuff and sorted dishes

SATURDAY

* had a lie-in till 8.30

* went to Post Office Sorting Office to collect 4 parcels for mum :-o One was liquid - i could hear it sloshing ;-D

* did the shopping - spotted Asda's diesel was 106.9p p/l

* went to sainsbury's for other little bits - Diesel there was 106.9p p/l :-D That's the same price as it was in January - if it goes below 105.9p p/l it will be the cheapest it's ever been while i've had a diesel car :-o :-D

* also went into Sainsbury's shop and Instore next door. As i was getting back in the car afterwards i clonked my head with the car door :-o :-(

* nanna was here when i got home but mum helped me put the shopping away

* my head was sore so i got an icepack from the freezer, wrapped it in a teatowel and strapped it to my head with a dressing gown cord - looked a bit like rambo ;-D

* knew there was a match on at Goodison and wanted to know if i was safe on Queen's Drive at 1.15ish so i actually went to the everton website to get the kick-off time :-o Thankfully kick-off was 12pm so they'd all still be in the ground when i was going past

* had lunch, got changed etc went to teach Anna.

* overestimated the time it would take to get to Anna's so sat in a car park for a while to kill some time. There's no point going early cos she only gets home from dancing just as she's due to start clarinet with me. Their burglar alarm was sort-of sounding cos an engineer was working on it. Anna was in a great mood - really happy and lively :-D She's so easy to work with when she's like that :-D

* went to Lucy - she was in "I can't" mood 8| But one of her pieces was really good - except for the missing slurs!

* went to dancing - no Kate again. Was intending not doing wings but at one point my feet forgot, i did the action and really hurt my foot again :-( Just as it felt like it was getting much better 8|

* Ann said she spent 8 hours doing her accounts yesterday :-o She said she was very crabby by the end of it ;-D

* Came home did another 1.5 hours piano practice :-o Had my tea then chilled out in front of the computer before doing the dishes.

* will be going to bed soonish - need to remember to put clocks back tonight!!!

still going

* Swimming as normal

* As i was walking across the carpark they put the car park lights on - makes a change usually no lights at all.

* in, 40 lengths, showered, dressed, hair done - all in less than an hour :-D

* 1st school easy

* 2nd school gates closed when we got there, Jen was just in front of me, she opened the gates and i'm in the road indicating waiting to turn in - blocking the road as i wait :-$ Nothing i could do though

* got into school, half our kids not available so we end up with loads of little people too - as usual very little samba done :-(

* 3rd school, easy again. Clarinets VERY good - got stickers, flutes not so good - no stickers "That's not fair" Tough!

* 4th school - nomadic music teacher again. 1st lesson in teeny room ONLY JUST room to move. Next 2 lessons in an empty classroom - much better :-)

* 5th school children already in room waiting for me - moved tables etc out of way - :-D 2 lessons fine. Going out met mum of one of my pups with a clarinet asking me to check it for her daughter. Took her into staff room for me to test the instrument - seemd quite nice. Think i got a few dirty looks from other teachers in the office-type bit of the staffroom - oops!

* went fun shopping afterwards - got few bits and pices

* did just over an hour piano practice - Elegie coming along nicely :-)

* done a machine load of washing tonight - 6 swimming kits ;-D

* fish in parsley sauce for tea - very nice :-)

* been wearing my new boots today - surprisingly comfortable :-)

Lots of swimming

* did my 64 power-lengths at the baths as normal

* Came home and did some piano practice

* Had lunch

* went out and bought new boots

* went to pick Neil up

* drove to pool

* got to changing room, found had no 10p piece for locker, went back to reception - neil did the same

* got into pool to find neil had done 5 lengths already

* did a few lengths, was discussing length of pool, asked lifeguard - it's 100ft or approx 31.3m - 6m longer than my normal pool

* water was lovely and warm

* got chatting to some bloke

* bloke kept chatting for AGES

* got fed up with him, i started messing about doing handstands, rolls etc then started doing lengths. Eventually he decided to swim too - he was doing butterfly and i got a free butterfly lesson from him :-D He got out and we were messing around doing widths of the pool - seeing could we do a width in a single breath. Both of us could :-) Neil suggested / wondered would it be possible to do a width upside down in one breath. I tried quite a few times but couldn't manage it :-(

* we did a few more lengths before getting out - i made my total to 30, not sure what Neil got up to

* got out went to get showered and changed. The showers were pathetic! Not much more than a little dribble so it took me ages to wash my hair! GGRRR

* went to Morrisons on the way back to Neil's. I got a smoothie and some milk, Neil got a smoothie and some yoghurts

* went back to his house, sat chatting for a while before i came home

* had to do some paperwork :-(

* had my tea - grey pasta with yellow bits hehehe ;-D

* sorted out dishes and stuff for swimming / work tomorrow. I've decided i need to do a load of washing tomorrow night - purely just swimming kits :-o There's already 5 sets of swimming gear and there'll be another by tomorrow evening :-o

day 2

* swim 50 power-lengths ;-D

* heard on the radio there was a crash on M57 where i was intending going so went to school a different route and was there at 8.45 :-o :-)

* school was doing practise SATs so could only have my first group for 15 minutes and the other yr 6s not at all :-(

* next school was total chaos - music room blocked off, community room in use, ended up in the "creative room" which looks more like a store room with 2 photocopiers and a long work-table down the middle 8|

* Last school = hell-hole school, no more needs to be said!!!!

* went back to the office afterwards to get a clarinet fixed and Jeni had asked me to take a violin back too

* Came home did some piano practise, sorted out bag for thursday

* rang Colin about friday

* sorted out lunch for tomorrow

* helped mum make tea - savoury bread and butter pudding with bacon, tomatoes, mushrooms, onion, and a small amount of sausage - currently eating it, very tasty :-)

first post of new regime

* Normal monday morning - swim 50 lengths :-)

* 3 pupils in 3 hours in my first school - situation normal although the lessons are only meant to be 20 minutes each! Did sort out new timetable for next half term.

* Dinnertime, Mary had a bit of a go at me about registers - my system is not good enough for them - their system is not good enough for me so i guess i'll be doing double records!

* 2nd school - only one pupil but she did very well

* 3rd school only 1 group - first pupil no instrument and last group out on trip - left school at 2.15ish, was home by 2.40.

* had a power nap LOL

* did some piano practice

* Had tea

* went to my piano lesson - was good fun, no wobbles and mostly ok. Helen says i need to be more "body-aware" and learn to relax more - all the time, not just when playing the piano.

* home for chillout then bed

Wow, I've found my way back!

Right, it's SUCH a long time since i updated in here i've decided i'm gonna try and do at least a very short entry every day - some days may be literally just a line or two, some may be bullet points and others may be longer.

I'll try and remember some of the high and low points since my last entry before i get onto the business of doing (almost) daily entries

Right, bullet points for now and i may expand on these later - doing this is also for me to be able to remember things i've been up to as much as telling other people.

* Pat and Frank came to stay for the weekend

* Katie and I went to Blackpool to see karen & Graham, Beck and Dan. I fell outside the hotel and BADLY bruised my foot (we're 3 weeks down the line and it's still quite painful)

* Frank wanted to push me round Asda in a wheelchair - i was having none of that!!!!!

* One Tuesday all the knowsley peri staff were helping with Celebration of Acheivement so we spent the day (or evening, or both) at the Phil - was very pleased, easy day and didn't have to go to hell-school that day! Afterwards i went music shopping then went to give blood.

* A couple of weeks ago mum had an appointment at the hospital and she's been given the all-clear from the cancer she had 4 years ago and has been signed-off from the hospital books :-D We went out for sunday lunch to celebrate and we too Kath with us.

* Last night one of my colleagues had a 50th birthday party and the first half of the night was ceilidh dancing - i had great fun :-D After the food was a jazz band - wasn't impressed while they wer playing proper jazz but after they had a break they started playing normal stuff that you could dance to - that was much better :-)

* Mum's old schoolfriend Val who she hasn't seen for 20+ years turned up on our doorstep today. She lives in Germany but was over here visiting family and found herself with a couple of hours spare so came to see my mum.

* Been out for tea with Katie and Catherine tonight - very nice :-)

End of the holiday

I decided to do another update before i go back to work tomorrow cos after that chances are i won't be updating very often at all.

Let's see what's happened since my last update? Well there are 2 obvious things to write about - the first happening the day after we got back from Scotland and the other all week!!

Last saturday (23rd) it was Katie's 21st birthday ball with a winter wonderland theme - yes in the middle of august!! In fact it was mainly because of this that we came back from Scotland a day early.

Because i was wearing a large ballgown for the party we got a taxi up there cos i couldn't drive in it. When we got there Katie was greeting people with drinks and we went in to sit with Beck and Dan who had already arrived before us. There were 2 people doing live Entertainment, one was a pianist and the other was a Frank Sinatra tribute act. The piainist was excellent (although for the first part of the night i thought he was a bit lifeless). The other man was good but rather too loud really. He also annoyed Beck cos he kept fiddling with his sound desk - even while he was singing!!

Dinner was supposed to be 8.30pm but Katie said she'd had a power cut earlier in the day so she was behind time with everything so we didn't eat till about 9.30. The food was lovely - she did a hot buffet, carvery style with 2 different meats and lots of vegetables. The desserts were lovely as well - right up to Katie's very high standard :-D

The following day i woke up with my throat like sandpaper which signalled the start of a bad cold which has blighted me since then :-(

I have been swimming evey day even with the cold but the first few days of the week i only managed a few lengths (compared to my normal), i did 40, 40, 50, i managed 64 on the thursday then it was back to 40 on friday cos i had to be out of the water at 8am and i didn't get in till 7.20.

I had my piano lesson on monday evening and although i was full of cold it was still fun. Helen also said that Lisa has just bought a new piano and is thinking of selling her digital piano so Helen asked was i interested as i've been complaining that mine is temperamental. I've decided i'm interested but i haven't committed to buying it yet - she's taking me to Lisa's tomorrow evening to see it.

My mum and I had arranged to go to Haigh Hall for a day out on Tuesday but on that day i was particularly snotty / cabbaged and in the end we didn't go. I spent the day basically vegging in front of the telly and the computer - i even only did about 20 minutes piano practice :-o

On Wednesday i had a busy day - i went swimming in the morning of course then i went to town then we went out for a meal. I was going to town to collect my flutes from the music shop cos i'd had them serviced. When i went for the train it was just pulling in at the station as i got to the ticket window so the man told me to pay at the other end to save me missing it cos the machine wouldn't print my tickets in time :-o I was quite concerned if an inspector got on what would he say. Thankfully none did and when i got to the other end they were fine with it - i just had to go to the ticket window and i was concerned it might cost more, luckily it didn't :-)

When i got into town the music shop was shut but i had the very last bit of my lambanana hunt to do and also buy a few bits and pieces so by the time i'd done that the shop was open - and it's right opposite the train station so that's ok. When i went into the shop the man who actually serviced them was there so he was telling me about what he's done with them and he said if there's anything i can't get used to after a couple of weeks to go back and he'll re-adjust for me so that's good.

When i got to the station to come home there was a man with his dog but the dog wasn't on a lead and kept wandering round all over the place. I was scared it was going to jump onto the tracks cos it got close a couple of times :-o I was glad when they got on the train that came before mine.

We were going out for lunch with Lynne and a daughter so i didn't have that long to sit round before we were going out again.

I'd decided we were going to Southport for our meal and i thought i knew where the restaurant was but i overshot it - oops. In the end i put the sat nav on and it turned out the restaurant was in a bit where i'd stopped to look at the map but it was on the opposite side 8|

We had a nice meal and a nice chat - it's always good to get together.

The rest of the night i spend lazing around and i did some piano practice.

On Thursday i went bowling with Neil. This is the first time we've been and actually been able to take advantage of the 6 games for £6 offer. I knew i was bad at bowling but i didn't realise quite how bad ;-D At one point i got a run of about 4 shots where i didn't hit a single pin ;-D ;-D After 3 games my right hand was getting a bit sore so i decided to swap onto my left hand - strangely enough, even though there was hardly any power in my left hand i seemed to be doing better - i even got a strike with my left hand :-o ;-D

Once we'd been bowling we wanted to do something else so we decided to go to a park. Initially i decided on Stadt Moers Park cos i've never been there either but then i decided we'd go to Croxteth Park instead. I've been there before but i know Neil hasn't

When we got there we found something going on but couldn't work out what it was - there appeared to be some kind of arena set up and there was something indistinct coming from a PA system. We didn't really hang round, we went for a walk and when we got back to that area they were starting again after dinner. It turned out it was the Cross Country section of the Iron Dog competition - part of the World Firefighter Games. We stayed and watched for a while but it wasn't that interesting cos they had to do 2 obstacles in the arena and then they went off round the park to do a 1 mile run with more obstacles. While they were out in the park we were just standing round waiting for them to come back though the commentators were telling us stuff so it wasn't just total silence. One of the last parts of the competition was for the handler to pick up the dog and run 25yds with it. There was a lady with a newfoundland dog, the dog was so big she couldn't pick him up :-o Though her husband went after her with another newfoundland and he managed to pick up the dog and run - all 12.5 stone of it :-o

We went for a look round the shop before we headed off to the other park. Neither of us had been to the other park before so we didn't know what to expect but we reckone it would be pretty big as it had a visitors' centre marked on the A-Z. Initially we went to where it looked like the entrance road was on the map but that turned out to be a red herring - it was tiny little road that didn't appear to lead anywhere :-S We then decided on plan B which was to find the entrance where the visitors' centre seemed to be. Luckily that was more successful and we found the small car park. We headed into the park and discovered it was just loads of trees and paths. We enjoyed ourselves just wandering round and discovering where the various paths led to. Afterwards i dropped Neil at a bus stop to go home.

Friday and Saturday were more or less normal and therefore boring ;-D ;-D

On Sunday evening Sue had arranged a picnic on the beach for CSO members et al but the weather was nasty so one of the other members said we could go to his house instead. I looked at the map but couldn't work out where it was so i put the sat nav on instead. Sue had told me that Chris lived in number 17 but the tomtom didn't believe there were 17 houses in that road - it told me to enter a number between 1 and 16 :-S I figured i might as well just programme number 16 and sort it out when i got there. I got to the road no problem and saw Sue's car so at least i knew i was in the right place. I looked around but couldn't find a number 17 so instead of embarrassing myself by potentially knocking on the wrong door i rang Sue instead, she came out to meet me and said it was actually number 14 although it's on her database as number 17 - i was glad i hadn't knocked on random doors ;-D ;-D

Chris's house has got large french windows in the dining room so in effect the whole wall can open out into the garden which is what he did - we had an inside / outside picnic :-D Alison had brought her dog with her but left him in the car until she'd checked whether it was ok to bring him in. As it happened it was fine for him to come into the garden and he was really nice - i think he was a black labrador :-/

While we were there the weather had dried up and was pretty nice so the vote went out did we want to go for a walk anyway. The general consensus was that yes we would all like to go for a walk. We set off and the group split up unintentionally, i was at the front with a few others - the lead people didn't even know where they were going ;-D

We got to the beach / sand dunes area and kept going. The sun was just setting and it made a very nice picture - i had my camera with me but only by chance, it just happened to be in my bag. We found a stepped 'thing' which i decided was for taking photos from so we did group photos and then kept walking :-) We stopped at a large square thing which we were led to believe was the roof of a sewage treatment works and from the smell we tended to believe it.

We sort of headed back towards the house and the question was asked could we cope with sand on the way back. We all agreed and so the way was led along little tiny paths - often the grass was so high i almost disappeared ;-D Sue was behind me and was laughing, partly at how i was struggling on the paths and partly at how i was disappearing ;-D ;-D I was laughing along with her. Sue also had a torch with her which was very useful and one of the men was laughing saying only she would have a torch ;-D It wasn't until much later i realised i'd also had a torch with me on my keyring but i'd forgotten about it 8|

Unfortunately as i was (still am) full of cold my breathing wasn't particularly easy :-( I'd been just about coping but as we were getting back to the road there was a large sand hill we had to climb up and it was like the straw that broke the camel's back. My breathing got quite noisy and difficult, Sue who was behind me was asking was i ok, at that point i'd got to non-verbal communications :-( Once we were back on the road and the flat i had my inhaler and was able to talk properly again a few minutes later.

Where we came out onto the road was actually really near to Chris's house, in fact i was surprised at HOW close we were. When we got back we all had to take our shoes off and leave them outside cos they were all full of sand ;-D

Once we were in the house, the fact that we were in a musician's house became obvious. Chris started getting loads of different instruments out ;-D It began with swanee whistles and progressed onto train whistle, nightingale whistle, crow call, thunder maker, recorders, panpipes, a strange fife thing, a jingle stick and there may have been other things too, ended up with everyone having an instrument and we did an inprovised piece of music based on the theme of our picnic ;-D ;-D ;-D It was great fun and we didn't end up leaving until about 10.30pm.

Unfortunately Chris lives in the middle of nowhere and country roads that had been good fun to travel along on the way there were distictly less fun on the way back. One thing was though that it was the first time i'd used my main beam headlights on this car ;-D ;-D

On Monday morning i went for a drive to see if it was feasible for me to go swimming before work and also to see if i had enough time between school 1 and 2 to drive AND eat. It seems that both of these things will be possible :-) The only problem was that i couldn't find the first school - i found something at the place where that school is marked on my map but it wasn't what i was expecting to find :-S

The only other thing apart from my piano lesson which i did yesterday was to hoover the car out - how exciting 8|

And then we get to today. I've been swimming again this morning and was intending to do the same as yesterday and go and find my first tuesday school to see if i could do swimming before work. Unfortunately it came on the travel news that there had been a big accident with the related traffic chaos near where i was heading - i decided not to bother!

And that's that for now!!!!

Coming Home

11.05am
When i woke up this morning the sun was cracking the flags and i thought it was sooooo unfair!!! I got up at about 9.20am and had my breakfast before going for a shower. Obviously we haven't done an awful lot today and we're not going to do an awful lot before we leave. I did have a rather strange phenomenon in that everything seemed to fit into my backpack easier than it did on the way here but i realised my slippers aren't in it - and now i'mnot going to bother putting them in, i'll just put them in a carrier bag.

It sounds really awful but the weather has gone dull now and i'm really glad ;-D It makes things feel less gauling in terms of rubbish weather while we're here and good weather to go home.

I've worked out our route to go home - one A4 page of intsructions for my mum to read at strategic points on the route home.

Now i need to sign off and pack the computer away to go home.

9.35pm
Well we're now back at home in Lambanana Land ;-D

We left the cottage at about 2.20pm, mum knocked on next door where the owners live but there was no answer so she put the key through the door and left a note too.

I had to go and get fuel first so i did that and then we wre off to the motorway. I'd written some directions to go home and we did surprisingly well - didn't need the sat nav at all :-)

We stopped at Annandale Water as intended and we went out to feed the ducks :-) We had 3 ducks who decided they'd get more food if they came and stood on the side of the pond bit so i was feeding them by hand and my mum was feeding the ones in the water ;-D We then went and bought a few bits in the shop before heading back to the car.

We then carried on and stopped again at another services a while later. As we were heading into the place we saw a family coming out and the girl had a cat sitting on her shoulder ;-D The cat had a harness and lead on so obviously they'd taken their cat on holiday with them ;-D We just wandered round there for a bit and didn't actually buy anything.

After that we were on the final leg home and i thought we were home and dry. I got to J26 on the M6 for the M58 but the sun was actually shining brightly in my eyes at that point :-o :-o :-o It was so distracting i actually made a hash of the 2nd roundabout to get onto the M58 and i ended up back on the M6 heading in the direction i'd just come from 8| 8| Obviously i had to go back for one junction and then go back again - and do it right!!!

Once i was actually on the M58 i knew where i was and we went for tea at a pub that i've driven past many times but never tried. It was ok but not great, we probably won't be going back there!

We got home at about 8.50 and unpacked the car and obviously we've not much much else since, apart from sorting out all our mail.

Busy Day

7.55pm
Well we've finally had a day of nice weather!!!! It also means we've had a good day out! :-D We've just got back and i've put our tea in cos i'm ravenous!

It took me ages to get to sleep last night but i kept my window fully open and my blind partly open - i figured the light would wake me up early so that hopefully i will sleep well tonight so that i'll be fresh and alert for the drive home tomorrow.

I woke up at 8.20am and got up and had my breakfast before my mum got up at around 9am. We had a relaxed morning and went out at around 10.30am.

When we got to the city centre the first thing we did was go to the tourist information centre cos we'd seen stuff in there the other day that we wanted to buy. I bought my bagpipes and a few other bits - including a daft dragon hat ;-D ;-D My mum got a whisky cake for my nan and also a few other bits including a pair of scottish pattern earrings.

After that we went and did a bit of shopping along Princes St, we bought a few gifts and also went into M&S to buy stuff for our tea.

We'd planned to do 2 city bus tours, one before lunch and one after lunch so we made our way to Waverley Bridge where all the bus tours start and finish. There was a red bus at the start ready to go ahead so we decided to get on that one. It was a guided tour but the tour was on tape with headphones which you plugged into the side of the bus. It was good because there were 9 channels to choose from, each one in a different language or channel 9 was a kids' one - it was
Horrible Histories ;-D

The tour was really good, we were able to see different views of places we'd already seen and we saw new places that we hadn't seen before :-) We actually saw where the Greyfriars Bobby statue was :-) We'd walked right past it the other day, not realising where it was 8| I did say that we were doing things back to front cos we should've done the tours first to see what we wanted to go and see in more detail but the weather has been so dismal over the past week we didn't want to do any bus tours :-(

For lunch we went into Princes Mall to go to the Food Court cos there were many different food outlets to choose from. I went to Subway and my mum went to KFC.

Once we'd had our lunch we went back out and went to a couple more shops. We also went to another shopping mall that we spotted while we'd been on the bus tour that we previously didn't know existed. As it turned out the shopping mall was just like St John's centre at home but it had one very interesting shop in it - Hawkins Bazaar. That's got loads of interesting things so we went in for a wander round and a good look :-)

After that we went and did our 2nd tour, we did the majestic tour and it went a totally different route to the other one, the only thing was that there didn't seem to be as many photo opportunities :-S We did go past the Royal Yacht Britannia but stupid me had the camera on the wrong setting so i managed to miss a very brief photo opportunity 8| 8|

While we were going round on that tour i decided i really wanted to go back and see the Greyfriars Bobby statue so we figured we could go on another tour that went past that point ;-D ;-D When the 2nd tour had finished we went back into the tourist information centre cos my mum had seen some mugs she wanted to buy, unfortunately when we saw the price of the mugs (£6.99) mum decided there was no way she was going to pay that much for a mug!

We then went back to Waverley Bridge for the 3rd tour ;-D We initially sat downstairs cos we were getting off part-way round but the live tour guide was so good we decided to go upstairs. At one point the bus was having to go on a diversion because of the road closures due to the Tattoo. It was as if he got thrown off his train of thought slightly cos he commented "there's a crane" ;-D Someone near must've commented it was a green crane cos he then said something to the effect that "yes it's a green crane, we have to be specific" ;-D ;-D

When we got near the statue we stood up to get off but we went quite a long way round before we actually stopped, thankfully we'd just done a big circuit and we actually landed really near the statue :-D We took some photos and made our way to the bus stop to catch the next bus to continue the tour.

When the next bus arrived we got on and went upstairs but this guide was really boring and you could hardly hear what he was saying :-( At the very least he needed the volume on his microphone turned up 8| It was also quite late when we were on this tour and we got caught in crawl hour 8| That meant we had longer to endure Mr Boring 8|

Once that tour had finished we went on a hunt for the floral clock which my mum had read about and we asked one of the bus tour operators where it was. We found the clock although my mum wasn't certain if it was the right one cos it was commemorating 100 years of the TA (1908-2008) and the book where mum read about it is far older than that :-S I was saying there surely wouldn't be more than one floral clock in a single park. We came to the conclusion that they must just alter the edge of the clock each year, re-planting new things for whatever is being celebrated that particular year :-/

We found a bus stop on Princes St where our buses stopped and as it happened there was a 25 bus just pulling up :-) While we were going looking for the clock my mum said she was cold and as i got on the bus i realised she was right - in fact i could feel my fingers were going fuzzy - oops, i didn't realise it was cold enough to trigger Raynaud's.

When we got home i immediately put the oven on for tea cos i was so hungry. We've now had our tea and we're watching telly for the evening.

Soggy Tattoo!!!!

10.30am
It's raining AGAIN!!!!!!

If you want a guaranteed way to get soggy go and watch the military tattoo for an hour and a half in torrential rain!!!!

We've decided we don't really want to get wet again so we're having a boring day indoors before going out for tea later tonight - we're hoping the day might be drier tomorrow - some hopes!!!!!!

Right, now i've had my rant i'll start with the entry proper!

As we were going to be out till late we stayed in the cottage till about 2pm yesterday afternoon when we headed out to the Park & Ride station again for a bus into the city centre. I decided i wanted us to get a 25 bus instead of a 34 that we got the day before cos at least that way we could see where the 25 went so that we would know where to get it from after the Tattoo.

Both of my pairs of trainers let water in so i had a brainwave and decided to put plastic bags on my feet over my socks ;-D Unfortunately one of the bags was destroyed really quickly - and by the time we got home last night i found the other was destroyed too 8|

When we went over to the P&R station it was a lady serving and we got chatting to her, there was also a model tour bus on sale for £5 and we ummed and ahhed about whether to get it or not. Initially we decided to get it at the end of the week but while we were waiting for the bus we changed our minds and got it then instead. We were telling the lady we were going to the Tattoo so i asked her did she know what time it finished. She asked us what sitting we were going to as if there was more than one show :-S She said technically it finishes at 10.30pm and sometimes there's about 5 minutes of fireworks afterwards.

When we got into the city centre we went first of all to the tourist information centre to get more leaflets to replace the ones i'd destroyed in the rain ;-D I also got some money out from the cash machine just outside. I was re-tempted by the bagpipes and i also saw a silly dragon hat that i'm considering buying if we go back tomorrow ;-D ;-D

From there we headed up towards the Royal Mile cos we wanted to see Greyfriars Bobby and the display of historical musical instruments which were up that end of town. As we were walking up that way the heavens opened (again 8|). We went into a shop for a while and then as we got to the top of the road we spotted the Museum of Scotland and as it was free we decided to go in to escape the rain for a bit.

We began by wandering round the normal bits of the museum, which, to be honest were quite boring 8| As we went past the cafe bit i spotted a sign saying there were lockers available so we decided to get rid of our soggy coats - even though it meant there was absolutely no chance of them drying at all!!

When we came out of there we spotted the interactive bit of the museum ( the kids' bit really ;-D) but we could resist going in for a play on all the toys ;-D ;-D ;-D There was a robot that you could tell it to spell any word with blocks and it was able to do it - we made it do Jemima and Elizabeth cos i said our own names were too easy for it ;-D

By the time we'd finished playing in there the museum was actually closing so we had to go out, thankfully by then the rain had gone off slightly so it was more pleasant to wander round.

We set off to find Greyfriars Bobby, we found the kirk where it was supposed to be and we found a headstone saying Greyfriars Bobby was buried there but there was no statue of the dog :-( We'd seen pictures of the statue so we figured it must've been taken away for some reason :-( We were not impressed!!

There was supposed to be a display of historical musical instruments up at that end of the city as well - in the university. I spotted a building where i thought it might be but there were no signs and we couldn't tell exactly on the original map where it was supposed to be. We found a girl and my mum asked her did she know where this display was. Typical of my mother she asked a Japanese girl who had trouble understanding what she was asking 8| Another girl came out of the building so the japanese girl asked her and the 2nd girl knew exactly what she was asking. The 2nd girl told us directions where to go so we sort of headed in that direction but then we found an undercover bit so we stood there for a while trying to escape the torrential downpour 8|

Time was marching on so we decided to find somewhere to go for tea. There were a few eating places but they were all expensive and not that inspiring. We found one restaurant, which, like all the others was expensive but at least it had some decent food choices in so we went in there. Initially the service was ok, we were seated quickly and our orders were taken. After that things got progressively worse :-( First of all they got my drink wrong - i asked for diet coke and got normal coke. Our meals came quickly but because we'd both got fish & chips we asked for vinegar but when i put it on my tea it looked like soy sauce rather than vinegar so when my mum questioned what he'd brought he was quite patronising in the way he said it was 100% vinegar. They then took forever to clear away our dishes and bring the dessert menu. When the desserts were brought to us they brought the wrong one for my mum and then tried to say it was what she'd ordered - she should know what it was she ordered!! The waiter was also quite arrogant and we didn't like him at all!!! We weren't going to leave a tip but decided it was easier to because our whole bill came to £28.85 so in the end he only got £1.15 whereas we'd normally leave £1 each.

As we came out of the restaurant it started raining yet again - it was as if it had waited for us to come out before it started again 8| 8|

We headed up towards the castle for the Tattoo and it turned out we were actually closer to the castle than i realised :-O When we turned the corner leading up to the castle there were loads of officials directing people to use the pavements rather than the road and also were selling official programmes. We decided to buy a programme but i got myself in a ravvle and managed to drop the bottle of water and then i also dropped a £10 note 8| Thankfully i got both back :-p

We continued wandering down towards the castle and had to join the back of the already long queue. We got talking to a couple from Lancashire in the queue and they were telling us about the Greyfriars Bobby statue - apparently it's outside a pub just opposite the kirk so we'll go and investigate that tomorrow.

As the queue moved forward we had to have our bags searched :-( Luckily they only wanted to search big bags and shopping bags, not handbags.

When we were into the castle and in the queue to get to our seats i decided to go to the loo before it started and my mum wasn't too pleased 8| I don't know why seeing as there was still half and hour before the start of the show. While i was in the loo queue i was talking to a man and we were bemoaning the weather, he said he'd been before a couple of times and "it always bloody rains" 8| When i got back to my seat i discovered my mum had started panicking cos she said i'd taken so long - there was a queue, what did she expect 8| 8|

From our ticket numbers we thought we had really good seats but it turned out that we were actually pretty high up and also we had a large man to the right in the row in front had his camera and kept blocking our view :-@ He was really annoying :-@


Before the show started (and at this point it actually wasn't raining :-o) the compere was going through different things, including welcoming people from all different countries in the world - and i was surprised at just how many countries were represented :-o :-D

The show was really good and there was plenty of variety in the performers. The biggest problem was the weather - about 15 minutes into the show the heavens opened and we were treated to an absolute deluge for the rest of the show :-( I felt sorry for the performers but they were absolutely brilliant!!! The weather didn't put them off at all!!! There were many pipers as you might expect, there was an american marching band, there were indian dancers and highland dancers, it was absolutely excellent!! The only 2 things that would've made it better were dry weather and not that big man sitting in front of us. Because of the weather and our seating position i wasn't able to take very many photographs but in the bag with the programme was an order form to get the DVD so i think i'm going to do that.

After the show it obviously took ages for the people to clear out but it seemed that our section of seating was taking far longer than everywhere else to clear :-S We were looking at the equivalent section opposite us and they were empty while loads of us were still standing in the rows waiting to get out. Once we finally got out we joined the loo queue again and while we were standing there everyone was chatting and commenting on how soggy we all were but one family were very sensible and were wearing waterproof trousers!! There was a group from a Canadian university or something standing nearby and instead of doing a head count they had obviously all been assigned a number in the group and they were all shouting out their own numbers to check the whole group was present - i thought that was a very good idea :-)

When we were actually out it seemed we were nearly the last to leave - again the officials were directing everyone to use the pavements instead of walking in the road, although with soooo many people around it was very difficult to use the pavement 8| We got to one road that we had to cross where there were traffic lights but they were switched off, an usher in a flourescent jacket stopped us from crossing the road and police were directing the traffic. We seemed to be standing there for ages when the traffic lights got switched back on and then obviously we had to just follow the green man. That's one thing i should say, although the city centre isn't actually pedestrianised there are loads of crossings and most people do actually wait for the green man - probably cos they're like us and don't know where the traffic is coming from.

As we were walking down to Princes St for the bus a lady stopped us to ask did we know our way round Scotland ;-D I had my map but that wasn't much use cos she didn't know the name of the road she wanted. It turns out there were 3 ladies together who had been to the tattoo as well and they'd been on a coach and lost track of where they got dropped off so didn't know where to go back to. We felt a bit sorry for them but there was nothing we could do to help them :-(

When we got to Princes St we were just approaching a bus stop and a 34 pulled up so i checked he was going to our stop and we got on. Once we got home the first thing we did was get changed into dry clothes then we had something to eat before going to bed.

I didn't sleep very well last night, i think i slept for about 3 hours then tossed and turned until i finally got up at around 9am.

It's 2.30pm now and we've decided we're NOT going out today - we're both fed up of getting wet!! But we are going out for tea tonight to a pub that we've seen just along the way - at least we can drive to there and stay dry!!

9.10pm
Well we've done something productive today - we've been out for tea. We went to the pub we'd seen and it was ok except for the fact there was a football match being shown on the big screen TV 8| Even though the footy was on it wasn't as bad as it could've been, the telly did get turned up but once we were used to it the noise level wasn't too bad. And even with the football, the atmosphere was still nicer than last night's restaurant!

This afternoon, literally all we've done is watch telly and slob about, in fact i think we both fell asleep briefly this afternoon :-o ;-D

I've just written my postcards to post tomorrow, i bet we get home before they do!!

11pm (:-o)
For the rest of the evening i've been playing minesweeper om the computer - it seems to have become tradition that every time i go on holiday with my laptop and without internet that i play minesweeper and try to get better than my last score ;-D i haven't managed to finish the "expert" level tonight and my hand has given up now.

Hardly Anything

10.05am
I'm getting up later and later every day this week :-o ;-D I got up at 9am today :-o ;-D We're going to the Tattoo today but the weather is awful - again!! :-( It's not going to be the most enjoyable thing in the world :-(

Last night there was a programme on telly about geniuses which i told my mum i wanted to watch, so didn't she decide to try and sort out today's plans while it was on! 8| At one point she got a bit of a cob-on cos i was more interested in the telly than the plans - she knew i wanted to watch that particular programme!!!

City Centre

7.10pm
We've been out today and got back about 6pm ish

My mum was actually up before me today :-o I was half-awake / half-asleep from about 7.30 but i didn't actually get up until 8.45 when i went down for breakfast and a shower.

We went out at about 10.30 and walked over to the park and ride place. We got a load of leaflets, mostly about the buses - logically as we were in a bus station. We spotted people who appeared to be buying bus tickets so we decided to buy ours as well. When the bus came and we watched others getting on and we read the leaflets it turned out it was a good job we'd bought our tickets at the station. We didn't have the correct change but if you pay on the bus you do need the right money cos you put the money in a machine then the ticket comes out of another machine.

When we got into the city centre my mum decided she wanted a new pair of shoes cos she only had sandals with her so we started off (in the pouring rain) heading for a shopping mall that was on the map and we spotted the entrance for it. As it turned out the mall wasn't very good really, there were quite a few empty units and the shops that were open were really expensive :-(

Once we'd exhausted the limited possibilities of Princes Mall we went into the tourist information centre and that was a successful excursion! We got loads of different leaflets, including city centre street maps :-D :-D We also had a look through the things to buy and i was very tempted by some bagpipes ;-D ;-D

While we were in there a lady with a clipboard who said she was with the tourist board asked us where we were from and when my mum said Liverpool (!!! :-o) she said they'd had so many people from England today that we weren't eligible to take part in the survey ;-D ;-D

We then continued on our hunt for shoes with a few distractions into other shops. We went into The Works and got quite a few Scotland souvenirs - i bought 2 t-shirts for myself and one of them was in a child size - age 12-13 ;-D

We then found some trainers for my mum in Barratts at a price she was prepared to pay. We then went into the BHS restaurant for lunch.

After lunch we headed towards the Royal Mile which, according to the map has quite a few attractions we wanted to see. Unfortunately the road we ended up going along also included a huge flight of steps which my mum wasn't very pleased about :-(

We found the Royal Mile via a little squiggly road with quite a few interesting shops on - not that we bought anything ;-D

One place i really wanted to see on the Royal Mile was the Museum of Childhood - it was free to get in and it was really good :-D It was on 5 (smallish) levels and there were plenty of arifacts to make you go "awww" ;-D ;-D I also took LOADS of photos ;-D

Once we came out of there my mum had decided she'd had enough :-( We did need to get some bits from a supermarket so we headed towards the area we'd been in yesterday - it was further away than i realised :-$ Also as we were walking along, the rain started LASHING down again 8| We found Sainsbury's again and got the bits and pieces we needed.

We then had to discover where to get our bus home from. We knew we were on the right road but not sure which side of the road we had to be on. We found the correct side of the road but the first bus stop didn't have our bus number on it :-S I had a theory that it was too close to the right turn as we'd just seen a 34 bus so we wandered down to the next bus stop and thankfully that was the right place to get our bus - and we just missed a 34 bus again 8|

Since we've been back we've basically just sorted out our stuff that we bought, had our tea and watched telly - and that's what we'll be doing for the rest of the night.

Got to Edinburgh

9.30am
Well i'm sitting in the living room in the cottage in scotland watching telly. I've been up just over an hour, had my breakfast and got washed and dressed.

We were intending leaving home at about 10am yesterday but by the time we'd packed the car and everything we didn't actually get out until 10.40. It wasn't a najor deal cos we weren't in a real hurry.

I was intending only having one stop after about 2-2.5 hours but after about an hour and a half i decided to have a brief stop for toilets and a quick snack cos i was hungry. The secretary in one of my schools had said to me that Annandale Water services was really nice but it's quite a way into Scotland so i didn't think i'd get to there :-( Because we'd had a stop earlier than i intended i looked at the map and decided we'd aim for our main stop at either Gretna or Annandale - depending on how we felt at Gretna. When we got to the Gretna services it said it was another 22 miles to Annandale and we were both feeling fine so that was where we headed to.

When we got to Annandale Water we sat in the car to eat lunch before we went for a wander. After we'd been to the toilets we found our way outside which was the main reason for stopping at that particular services - i'd been told it was some kind of bird sanctuary type place. When we got outside there was a little pond leading down into a waterfall with ducks in :-) I had some pastry from my sausage roll which i deliberately kept back for feeding the ducks and they were all very appreciative - especially the one by my feet which was taking the pastry straight from my fingers ;-D

There was a white duck with a clutch of ducklings and there's one bit by the water that hasn't got a fence round it so we could get really close :-) There was a girl nearby and she actually picked up one of the ducklings - awww :-) My mum and i went for a walk round the lake generally enjoying relaxing before we went round the shop. I only bought an A-Z in the shop and then we went out to make our way for the final bit of the journey.

I put the sat nav on for the last bit but he was really annoying at first cos there were 3 roundabouts to negotiate before we got back onto the motorway. I was slightly concerned that we kept passing the signs for Edinburgh and ignoring them :-o I trusted the satnav and thankfully it was correct until nearly the end. The directions we got from the cottage owners weren't very clear in that it sounded like from their directions we'd go straight from the M74 to the M8 but there was a bit of ordinary road (A8) between the 2 motorways. Once we were on the M8 the instructions were pretty clear, in fact they were better than the sat nav - mr tomtom was sending me towards the city centre but the cottage directions were directly opposite. i decided to ignore the satnav and the directions got us to the cottage fine.

The only problem was that my mum had read the very last bit wrong - she thought it said we had to knock at number 16 opposite for the keys, we went past nuber 16 and they were outsude anyway but they didn't seem to know anything about any keys but thankfully one of the men knew which cottage it was and told me where to park. We rang the owners from outside the cottage and it turns out they live next door.

The lady (Evelyn) took us all round the cottage telling us how to work the various things and then we basically settled down to do nothing for the evening ;-D Basically all we did was have tea and watch telly, oh and i played on my mum's Nintendo DS for a while. I went to bed at about 11.20pm and i actually slept a bit better than i often do on a first night n a strange bed :-)

8.50pm
We've been out to the city today but we haven't really done that much in the grand scheme of things. We decided to drive into Edinburgh cos Evelyn had said we'd probably be able to find somewhere to park cos it's sunday.

I programmed mr tomtom for a car park in the city but when we actually got there there were loads of roadworks and in the end i just headed for any random car park cos they were all signed. Unfortunately when we got into the car park we discovered the steep parking charges - £4 for up to 2 hours :-o We decided then we'd only stay for the up to 2 hours!! The car park was a bit strange, it was a multi-storey but that wasn't obvious from the road - you went in and then went down the levels rather than up as is the norm. As we'd been driving along we realised we'd left all the street maps in the cottage but as we found ourself at street level there was a map machine - unfortunately it wasn't working :-(

We headed off in a random direction but we really didn't know where we were going :-S We only really wandered round a bit, we went into Sainsbury's and a little newsagent. We'd seen a craft fair as we were on the way in and we came across it so we went in as the entrance was free :-) It was just a load of stalls but it was like a maze going up and down all over the place ;-D All we bought was 3 fridge magnets that were prints of paintings done on feathers - a cat, a scottish bagpiper and a pair of owls.

After that we realised we were at the other end of the street where the car park was so we waled up that way and it turned out we were really close and we'd simply done a large circle round the outskirts of the city 8| When we got back to the car park we had to find a pay machine - that was a job in itself. I actually asked at the enquiries office and it turned out there was a pay machine just at the top of the stairs. There was also another map machine there but i didn't have any more pound coins to get a map :-(

When we got back to the cottage we had lunch and then we played a game of Edinburgh Monopoly which is in the cottage - it was fun to see which places in Edinburgh are considered to be good or not so good ;-D There is also another game in the cottage but it's far too complicated to play :-S

We've had another lazy day since then, watching telly, eating, playing on the DS.

We've decided over tomorrow and tuesday we're going to do 2 of the sight-seeing tours, go round the museums and do the general touristy stuff in the city centre. Over Wednesday and Thursday we're going to choose some things to do which are not in the city centre. We've also decided we're going home on friday afternoon instead of saturday morning so that we're fresh and relaxed for going to Katie's party on the saturday :-)