One word? When seven would do…

It’s all been a bit samey really. Ady’s been working down in the village on the SNH hostel in the mornings which means he doesn’t get back until a very late lunch o’clock. By the time that is finished we only have 2 hours at most of daylight left. We have been using them for stuff like chopping firewood, chasing sheep about, putting in some trees. I’m a bit fed up generally, must be my November funk. I’ve done lots of gift making, on the final Secret Santa / birthday gifts / Christmas presents / commissions for various things just now. Pretty good going for not even December yet. I’ve also made a good start on the kids blankets which is a nice project.

On Saturday we went up the opposite hill to the croft and chose Christmas trees. We found two suitable ones so on Sunday Ady, Scarlett and I went and cut them down and brought them back to the croft. Still not sure which one we’ll use – we’ll find another use for the second one, either give it to someone here, donate it to the village hall or bunkhouse or just stick it in the sheep pen or pig pen for festive animals! We could almost do a live nativity here this year!

That’s about it. Not much to say really. Blah.

No idea what happened on Friday – it wasn’t a boat day, we would have eaten pizza, other than that anything could have happened. Well not anything, obviously there was no alien invasion, zombie apocalypse, no extreme weather or other such memorable events, so quite probably some indoors stuff like crochet.

On Saturday I know we went down to the village in the afternoon to take a couple of the ailing Muscovy ducks down to Lesley. They have just been dying almost daily. I think we took five adults and 11 ducklings from Muck so 16 birds in all. We lost a couple of ducklings just after we let them out of their pens so re-penned them, a couple of the adults died when Jen was croftsitting and then they have just been struggling ever since. I think they just can’t cope with the mud and wet on the croft despite us offering houses and plenty of food. We have one left who seems to be coping and has got in with the other ducks but two of the others were looking really sad so we boxed them up and took them down to the village to live in Neil and Lesley’s garden where there is more grass and less mud. So far they are doing OK.

We also put on the jacket potatoes for later in the village hall and *thought* we’d put on the heating and hot water although it turned out later than we hadn’t and Trudi managed to sort that out later in the evening as it needed resetting.

We came home to feed animals and get changed and then went down for the community meal. The theme was American Diner which was fairly loosely interpreted by everyone I think but we managed a really good collective effort between us – there was sticky pork and loaded cheese and bacon potato skins from us, spaghetti and meal balls from Fliss, bagels, cream cheese and a collection of pretend cold meats (as in quorn versions) from Trudi, nachos from Young David, onion rings and chicken bites from Lesley & Bad Neil then to follow we had some crumble, some cookies and some cookie dough. A decent turn out of about 14 of us too including a couple of volunteers who are here just now. It was one of the rowdier nights with lots of drinking, laughing, silliness and sore heads the following day. I fell over several times on the way home and was in a high state of hysteria when we finally got back to the caravan a few hours after the kids 🙂

I need a night like that here once a month or so, I find it really affirming to have fun and remember what I love about living in a community. It’s obviously very drink fuelled fun but it is also about a shared space, about in jokes and knowing each other so very well, laughter, the post mortem-ing the next time we see each other. It’s about bringing food and sharing and eating together, it’s about the working the table and everyone ending up chatting to all sorts of people as we all sit down in different places and move around over the course of an evening.

Sunday – a necessary quiet day. None of us were up very early and I was feeling particularly delicate. We did get out and do some tree planting in the afternoon though, a small start but a start nonetheless.

It was a freezing cold evening / night and the gas valve / pipe froze which meant the hob and the hot water weren’t working. Ady managed a tepid water bottle rather than a hot one for me but I was asleep pretty early regardless…

Monday – the most gorgeous morning probably ever seen here. Ady was off to work at the hostel and he woke me up leaving to feed the animals. I looked out of the window and without contact lenses it looked amazing in the sunrise. Later after I’d put my eyes in it was still fantastic as the sun was higher and catching all the ice but not melted it yet. I walked down to the post office to send a parcel and get some shopping, finish tidying the hall up from Saturday night and take some photos along the way. I had a chat with Ady and then came home. He was pretty late home so by the time we’d had lunch there was not a lot of daylight left. We went out and relagged the gas bottle, valve and pipes, ensured the water pipes were all covered, put extra straw in the animal houses and chopped up more firewood before it got too dark though. I rang my parents from the Baltic bedroom.

I made dinner and we watched Sherlock.

Today – Ady went off to work again this morning. I made a tam o shanter for a midge for Trudi who is giving it as a leaving gift to a volunteer / visitor who has been here a couple of months, made the mincemeat and cranberry sauce for Christmas, made bread dough and made a start on a blanket for Scarlett. Ady came home with the Co Op which had been delivered, we had lunch and then he went back outside while I watched nature programmes with Scarlett and brushed her hair after she had a shower. We all watched Planet Earth 2 once Ady had come back in. We watched the last Sherlock – we’ve been rewatching the whole thing in preparation for the new episode due in January. Some of them Ady and I have seen three times now, some just twice and this last episode was only our second watching. They really are very good. Hopefully the next Supernatural will arrive (we’re on season 2) from LoveFilm tomorrow and we only have a few days before Christmas film watching begins 🙂

Ady was working at the hostel again this morning. The sun was shining and I needed to collect some midges and bags from the shed so I decided to make a start on removing the netting from the fruit cage until the sun stopped shining and then come back inside. I found a duck in the ditch, barely alive, so hoiked it out and thought it might be ok, another one was looking iffy but moving around quite well. I went into the fruit cage and made a start unstitching the netting from three sides of the cage and then rolling it all back to one side and tying it on. In the end I managed to do the whole thing, which was good as it’s one of those jobs you don’t really want to leave half done anyway. It took a couple of hours and it briefly rained once and hailed twice but nothing too dire. It was mostly sunny and very still. I thought about putting music on but actually the peace and the sound of the river was lovelier than any music so I didn’t. Sadly I discovered one dead duck just outside the cage in the corner. Then I saw a duck madly flapping which I know from experience birds sometimes do just before they die so I thought that was probably the case – it was not the one I expected to find dead though, it was the other one, lying next to the one I had expected to be dead, also dead. So three dead ducks, two of them dying while I was actually there. They simply cannot cope with Rum I think. It’s our second try with Muscovy ducks and I think the cold, wet and mud just is too much for them. They have a river along the bottom of the croft, various houses they can go into and plenty of places they could shelter around the place but they seem to just sit there and die. It’s very sad 🙁

I finished that off and Bonnie had gone down to the fork after Ady so I decided to walk along and get her, not realising it was time for Ady to get back anyway so I met him and we walked back together with me collecting the bags and midges on the way.

We all had lunch and watched some Junior Bake Off and then Ady went to move firewood around while I created a mini set of crochet bagpipes to add to a spangly gold midge for someone who had been in touch to order one with a santa hat and a Scottish twist. I’ve also listed all my bags on etsy as I’ve not sold any through the shed but have managed to sell two online from putting them on facebook so there is clearly a market. I know I’m not selling the online stuff for enough really but it’s good to be getting some custom, particularly on things I actually really like making. Several friends have made blankets for their kids and I have a plan to do similar for Davies and Scarlett – real work in progress labour of love type things. I tried to create a Welcome to Nightvale square tonight but it didn’t really work, I can see how it would though and have this idea of one for Davies with loads of squares and motifs of all the things he’s been into over the years – so TV and film stuff I guess. And then one for Scarlett with loads of animals, a sort of blanket of their childhood type thing… Need to work on that a bit more but I want them to be very much my design rather then something I find patterns for I think. Sadly no chance of them being a surprise living like we do! I love the idea of having a next big project like that though.

Ady cooked dinner, venison steak – yum. We watched Sherlock.

It’s been really windy so loads of wind turbine power which makes for lots of internet. I am almost looking forward to winter if it means lots of inside time with radio / internet / plenty of artificial light and time to craft and read. I realised this evening that I probably haven’t properly read about half the books on our bookshelf so now I really want to.

Yesterday morning we went to the shop for some bits, then to the pier to meet the boat as we had an animal feed delivery come off. Rat invasion in the Rangerover and the Jeep 🙁 Bastards! This means not only is there a risk of them chewing electrics and causing damage plus it’s really not nice having rat urine and shit in the cars but also we can’t use them to store anything this time of year like animal feed deliveries as we (I mean Ady mostly) wheelbarrow them up to the croft from the car. Arses.

Home for lunch and Ady did the wheelbarrowing while I sorted out the last of the stuff in the bedroom. All wool stash is now in vacuum bags either under the sofa or under the bed and our bedroom floor is now clear and the wardrobes shut properly 🙂

I emailed the TV researcher to say no to the show.

The kids had showers and I brushed Scarlett’s hair while we watched a wildlife documentary narrated by David Tenant (being Scottish).

Today Ady was working in the morning down at the hostel which is rapidly being dismantled – the first unit leaves the island tomorrow with the others following over the coming weeks. Scarlett made chocolate orange cupcakes while I supervised and then she iced and decorated them. I spent some time online ordering various bits and pieces for her birthday. Ady came home and we had lunch and watched Gareth’s choir then Ady went to do some rat deterring in the cars while I went down to Fliss’ for Crafternoon. A nice couple of hours down there and then home for dinner. It was my turn and I made potato gratin and pork chops with a ginger wine sauce – the kids are both suddenly showing an interest in how their dinners are made at the moment – nothing more than a passing ‘what are you doing to make that sauce then?’ or ‘why are you adding that?’ but it’s good to know they are curious. Open plan living is something I would not want to move away from even if we left here and went back to a more conventional house set up.

Having finished my ten crochet midges for Mairi and made the first of three secret santa gifts this afternoon I had a facebook message ordering a festive midge with a Scottish twist (she suggested mini bagpipes or something tartan – Ady reckons a miniature bottle of whisky, Davies suggested a kilt!) so that is on the agenda for tomorrow morning as Ady is off to work at the hostel again.

It’s pretty much rained for 48 hours straight. The trees are still sat in their packaging waiting to be planted, the sheep are still at the bottom of the croft waiting to be moved up. Ady’s been out, togged up in orange waterproofs to do twice daily animal feed / welfare checks and he did a dash to the village yesterday for various bits and pieces but the rest of us have not left the caravan. There has been plenty of wind power which has meant all day internet though which is a handy distraction. I have finished my ten midges for Mairi and started thinking about the three different secret santa gifts I need to make. I also made a tiny santa hat to fit on the midges and might try and sell some festive midges too.

In other news I decluttered one of the lounge cupboards which has held Flora and Philadelphia tubs for pretty much the whole time we’ve lived here. It is obviously commendable to wash plastic lidded containers out and reuse them for all sorts of reasons. In a cramped for space set up like we have it is not sensible to take up a whole cupboard with them, particularly when you can’t actually remember the last time you used one… so they’ve gone. I’ve also gone through our wardrobes and under the bed and sorted out two huge bags to go to the charity shop of clothes. Some are too big, some are too small, some I simply will never have occasion to wear in this life on Rum. If I lose loads of weight I can celebrate with new jeans, if I put on loads of weight I can console myself by buying new jeans, if we leave here and I need new clothes for a new lifestyle then that will be part of the new lifestyle preparation… in the meantime there is very little room to spare for ‘maybe one day’ type things. The last thing to sort out is a stash of wool which should all fit into vacuum bags and fit under the sofas. Hurrah!

The Fogle show aired again in Australia – I had an email from a woman who watched it saying how much she had enjoyed it and asking what we are up to now. Someone on a UK Home Ed facebook group was also asking for an update having seen the show. A journalist from an economics journal has been in touch, via my friend Miranda with a list of questions about the financial feasibility of self sufficiency. Then a TV researcher got in touch about a channel four documentary which has been doing the rounds on social media looking for home ed, particularly unschoolers to feature. I had a phone chat with her this afternoon. I would probably be up for it, despite the disruption and possible back lash from these things I am really proud of what we’ve done and would love to think we may help others to consider doing something a bit different. Ady and Davies are up for it but Scarlett is against it so we are unlikely to go any further with it. It was funny talking to the woman on the phone – she had a set list of questions she was asking having read the blog and seen some of the Fogle show and she asked whether I was happy with the way Home Ed and our parenting choices had panned out and whether I would change anything if I went back and did it again. I monologued for a bit saying about how I felt it had been the greatest joy and privilege to have shared these precious years with two amazing individuals. That I could not claim to be proud of them as such because that would be taking credit and I felt they were their own, rather than my success stories but that I felt I was leaving behind a legacy and had done something fulfilling, worthwhile and amazing. She listened and then said ‘wow, that was amazing, you are so inspirational, you should… you should….tell people about it’ before realising that was exactly why I was talking to her, because she was trying to persuade me to go on telly! 😀

Watched the latest Attenborough, listened to lots of Desert Island Discs, watched lots of Supernatural.

Yesterday was a continuation of Davies’ bedroom, shelving units and wardrobe. We got rid of about three bin bags full of stuff, a further bin bag full of clothes for the charity shop (previously not a valid choice for getting rid of things living here but now we have the car it’s feasible), Ady de-moulded and Davies put stuff back in again. Predictably by the end we were getting bored so it became a game of lobbing balled up socks from one end of the caravan to the other but the job got done 🙂 Earlier in the day Ady had gone down to the village and done laundry, he and I walked back down after Popmaster to collect stuff from the freezer for the next few days of dinner. In summer we struggle to keep food fresh as the fridge doesn’t really work and it gets so hot in the caravan. This time of year we struggle to get stuff to defrost and go from taking stuff out on the morning of the day we want things for dinner to the day before in autumn and are edging close to two days before now winter is approaching, certainly for lumps of meat like roast dinners. I did much crochet. Midges bodies all complete.

With dinner we watched The Apprentice from Thursday night and a couple of silly short things about The Apprentice off iplayer which were quite funny.

Saturday – I got most of my treasured Saturday morning with Graham Norton and peace 😉 Ady went to meet the boat to send a cheque to Muck for Toby for some venison and game birds we’d bought off him. I did all the midge’s eyes, drank tea and enjoyed the sunshine shining through the winters and the view of the snowtopped hills. I woke Davies and he finished the final cupboard. Our bedroom is next…

After lunch Ady and I went down to the village to join in with the hall kitchen clear up. Quite a few people came along and we were done pretty quickly, empying all the cupboards, washing out defrosted fridges and freezers, washing all the manky stuff up and reorganising to create more space. Next is a hall clean up. We had planned to be down there til the shop opened as we needed a few bits but we were done by 330 and the shop doesn’t open til 5 so we came home. We’d been invited to both Ali and Fliss’ to wait but decided to come back and feed the animals in daylight instead. Then we went back down to get the few bits. LoveFilm had arrived with the final two discs of series 1 of Supernatural so we watched that tonight.

Tomorrow is sheep moving day, maybe some tree planting and wings on midges.

Monday – after some time away and some time back I’ve began to edge back into Rum again. Not the full on politics but the stuff which first attracted me here – the chance to be in on the start of exciting projects, in making a difference, in being the change. I’ve also been trying to retain focus on what we want to achieve here on the Croft but confess to being less inclined to outside tasks for a while. I’m enjoying the bread baking, cake making, crocheting side of autumn. Ady remains focussed on outsideyness though and is working on sheep and pig moves.

Ady was working at the hostel in the morning, while I did some crochet at home. I walked down to meet him from work, we swapped over Debs car battery for her on our way to the pier to meet the boat as we had a game order coming from Muck (duck, pheasant – yum!) Ady headed for home while I walked along to the bunkhouse with Development Officer Steve who had come off the boat and Margaret, a rep from Voluntary Action Lochaber come to do some training with IRCT directors. I had a meeting with Steve after the training so hung around for it, it was quite interesting actually. Also there were Jed, Bad Neil and Fliss. Then Lesley came along and she, Steve and I had a meeting about trying to set the ball rolling for getting a cafe / shop / village hub project off the ground. Loads to do, that will be a years in the making type project but really good to feel like we’re working on something really positive.

Home for dinner – venison burgers and chips.

Tuesday – I decided that the kids bedrooms were totally out of hand so had declared this week every single item had to be taken out of their rooms, all rubbish chucked, all unused stuff donated to charity and everywhere totally cleaned and de-moulded ready for winter. Scarlett’s was first and it took two days to work all through it – wardrobe, cupboard, floor space, desk space, storage under the bed. We got rid of loads and it is so, so much nicer in there now. While I was supervising that I also made soup for lunch and pheasant pies for dinner for Wednesday. Ady and I also nipped down to the boat to collect our butchers order, move the venison company mincing machine from the hostel into the workshop and Ady’s 400 trees he got from the Woodland Trust arrived too so we collected them. Ady has been desperate to made hassleback potatoes for ages having seen them in a potato recipe feature in a magazine so he did those for dinner.

Wednesday – Scarlett and I finished her room in the morning and then I went down to Fliss’ for Crafternoon in the afternoon. Ali and Deb were also there. Initially conversation was pretty tedious centering around Ali’s kitten (seriously, it is ALL she ever talks about!) and school stuff (Debs is the teacher, Fliss and Ali both have a daughter in school there) but after Ali left we had an interesting conversation about politics. Home to find Ady had made hassleback potatoes again to go with the pheasant pie. I had a salt mishap (as in I unscrewed the lid and about a fifth of the pot went in rather than screwing the grinder) into the sweetcorn which rendered that part of dinner inedible but it was otherwise well received. Apparently venison pie is nicer though…

Thursday – Davies’ room. We cleared his floor, under his bed storage and the first corner of one wall, probably about a third of the way through. I carried on midge making while helping him, both kids had showers and I brushed Scarlett’s hair, made lasagne for Ady and I, bologanise for Scarlett and meatballs for Davies. I guess we all had venison mince and pasta and at least I didn’t do the washing up! We had planned to go to the village but rain and Davies’ bedroom meant we never got there. Ady did some outside stuff though.

Friday was spent recovering. Sleeping, catching up with the animals, settling back into stuff. I can’t actually remember what we did beyond having tacos / fajitas for dinner. I know it was really good to be home.

Saturday – Clare, James and Elinor, friends from N.Ireland arrived on the ferry. It’s their third visit to Rum and the first time they have actually got here when they were supposed to! The first year the weather had been iffy and Calmac had been on amber alert, Clare has listened to some random bloke in Mallaig the night before who assured her the ferry probably wouldn’t run so had not bothered getting up to try and meet it.  Ady had gone to meet the boat and accosted some other visitor to the island who had the right colour hair and had agreed she was called Clare when he asked her (she was, just not the Clare he was looking for…). The second time, last year, the ferry actually had been cancelled due to bad weather despite this time Clare firmly believing it would not be. This time the ferry ran, they got on it and it brought them to Rum for the whole of their planned trip. Yay! Ady took their stuff along to the bunkhouse while the rest of us walked and we settled in for tea, chats and the rest of the afternoon really. Ady came home as he had arranged with Bad Neil to catch and dose the sheep for the various things they needed dosing for pre-winter (ticks, fluke, flystrike etc.). I came back up a bit later to have a shower and get changed and then we went back down for dinner with Clare at the bunkhouse. There was a Halloween disco happening at the hall so about 9ish we all wandered along there. Clare and Elinor left around 11, Davies and Scarlett headed home but Ady and I stayed as it was a good evening finally getting home around 130am ish, but the new 130am having had the first 130am still down in the hall dancing.

Sunday – The kids and I headed down to the bunkhouse after lunch while Ady stayed behind on the croft to get on with a couple of hours work and feed the animals before coming to join us. Another nice dinner with Clare and the kids, chatting to the other bunkhouse guests (Dr Kev the worm guy and a couple of his research assistants). Then Chainsaw Dave and two of his visiting mates – Rum regulars Dougie and Spraytan Paul along with Bad Neil’s brother Ewan came along with guitars and shakers to do some singing with Clare and I. It was fab. Another late night home.

Monday – we’d arranged for Clare and the kids to come up to us to see the croft but they managed to miss the bottom gate, attempt to negotiate the previous thigh deep pig pen mud and then retreated to the trail again before Scarlett rescued them and guided them in from the top gate. Poor James had a bit of a sense of humour failure about the whole business particularly as the rest of it found it rather hilarious. He recovered though… Elinor stayed up at the croft carving pumpkins with Scarlett while Clare and I went to meet the ferry as we’d ordered steaks from the CoOp for dinner.  We got our box and offered a lift to the bunkhouse to new arrival Roller Clare – a woman who had come with stacks of rollerboots for a few days to run roller discos in the hall (it was pre arranged, she didn’t just randomly arrive, although we do get a lot of Clares…) but I couldn’t get the car started again as the immobiliser had triggered itself so we walked back and left the car there (Ady went back later and collected it). We chatted to Roller Clare for ages and then the kids came back with their pumpkin, Ady arrived with the car and we had dinner. The girls were really keen to visit the roller disco so the adults and girls went along leaving Davies and James at the bunkhouse as they were not fussed. Scarlett, Elinor and I all had a go at rollerbooting, some folk already there were really good – funny what skills you didn’t know fellow Rum folk already have… I did a bit of roller discoing when I was very young and am not bad but not amazing either, Frazer was really good and had proper inline blades and other gear. We walked back through the starry starry night with some aurora showing and I sang nursery rhymes really slowly to freak the girls out as it was Halloween and apparently that is really creepy… It was Clare’s last night so Ady, Clare and I played cards and Roller Clare joined us when she arrived back after the disco had finished. Another late one…

Tuesday – We’d arranged to do a castle tour for Clare and the kids and when we arrived to collect them Clare had told Dr Kev, his assistants and the family of one of the assistants who had arrived on the first boat about it so they all came along too. We’d found a really old photo of the first time the four kids had met at our friend Cally’s in about 2008. None of them remember each other but I have a couple of pictures of them all sitting on a swing seat together so we got them to line up in the same order and took some more photos. No swing seat available as a prop. We walked along to the pier with them and waved them off and then came home. It was a very early night in comparison!

Wednesday – felt like my first real day home and after three weeks away or entertaining I was knackered and in dire need of a day of not much. Ady was working for a couple of hours in the morning so I made some pumpkin soup, bread rolls, bread, toasted pumpkin seeds and made venison pies for dinner. Scarlett and I watched a nice relaxing downloaded programme about the Lost Gardens of Heligan and I crocheted while the cat sat near me and purred. It was blissful.

Thursday – Ady and I went to the shop in the morning and bought ingredients for Christmas cake. We watched The Apprentice and I did some more crochet in the afternoon watching stuff with Scarlett and brushing her hair after she had a shower.

Friday – In the morning Ady and I went to the campsite to help build the bonfire. In the afternoon I made the Christmas cake and helped Scarlett make some pumpkin cupcakes. We had pizza for dinner in what felt like the first time in months! Nothing is as good as home made pizza – fact.

Saturday – Ady and I spent the morning in the old hostel mincing up 19kg of venison from the beast we processed a few weeks ago and had frozen. You can re-freeze it after having minced it as it changes the structure of it. We chopped, minced, weighed and bagged it all – another for 30 dinners, that’ll keep us going for a while. Debs and Bad Neil both called in while we were there and stayed for chats. It was not quite the Saturday morning I was planning, usually I listen to the radio on a Saturday morning and enjoy the peace, we did have the radio on but the mincer and people talking meant I didn’t hear any of it! Good to get it all done though.

Home for a late lunch, pumpkin cake decorating for Scarlett and then we all headed down to the campsite for the bonfire and fireworks. We’d taken mulled wine, hot chocolate and the cakes as our contribution. There was a barbecue of venison burgers and sausages, venison steaks and various other nice stuff, the bonfire roared and the fireworks whizzed and banged! It was a good couple of hours despite showers of rain. We went back to the bunkhouse for a cup of tea afterwards and were home around 930pm. It was really, really cold, 5 degrees in our bedroom and freezing. I had to keep swapping which had I was holding my book outside of the covers with to warm them up.

Today – a lazy Sunday. I stayed in bed reading for hours as it was finally warm and cosy under the covers after a nights sleep! The first snow had fallen on Hallival – the peak we see from the croft. Hallival is the second tallest peak on Rum with the tallest, Askival just behind it and snow had fallen on that yesterday but now Hallival has some too. Winter is coming! More crochet for me and Ady and I walked down to the freezer at dusk which was nice, getting back just before we couldn’t see any more. I do love that time of day to be outside in. A lovely roast dinner – our own pork – followed by some mainland ice cream brought back last week and stashed in the freezer – hurrah for a car meaning a trip to the frozen food store in Fort William is feasible in winter on the ferry directly back to Rum as it’s less than 3 hours from there to our freezer in an insulated bag in the boot.

I’m just getting cold so I’m hoping the electric blanket will have helped prewarm the bed even if the genny did go off 3 hours ago…

Two weeks ago today I was feeling about as knackered as I am right now. Tuesdays seem to be a day for that….

Tuesday – that one, two weeks ago, we were up and out of the holiday cottage just after 5am on the road to Stornoway to catch the ferry. We’d been told by Calmac to be there for 6am for the 7am sailing and based on our regular but admittedly limited sailing experience from just the one port (well two if you count both Mallaig and Rum I guess..) that seemed ridiculous. But sure enough, on their flagship boat taking well over 100 vehicles and carrying hundreds of passengers that was essential to get everyone on ready to sail on time.

We thought we’d bagged good east facing seats but then the ferry swung round once it had started sailing so we were west facing. We moved around the (huge) boat a bit and finally decided outside on the top deck was the answer. Davies was a little reluctant and Ady went to get he and I a cup of tea each so it was just Scarlett and I who spotted a pod of dolphins splashing way below us bow riding as the sky just began to lighten with the sunrise. It was special 🙂

The drive south to Fort William felt really long, still not entirely sure we shouldn’t have taken a different route but we’d allowed plenty of time so it was tedious rather than concerning. We’d decided to have a McDonalds for lunch so that none of us would need hot food later in the day so we did that and then walked across to the station to get Ady’s train ticket. We realised there was an earlier train which he could actually make if the dentist was running appointments on time and Ady went first so decided to head to the dentists early and see if that meant we could be seen earlier. It did indeed. I was actually a bit cross with Ady as both Davies and Scarlett wanted a parent in with them at their appointments – Scarlett had her dentist check up first and then went in to the orthodentist while Ady then Davies went in for their dental check ups. Ady was panicky about not getting his train so left Davies despite him being nervous, and actually ending up having some treatment. It was only some sealant paste on his back teeth but is the first treatment he has ever had at the dentist and I was in with Scarlett. As it happened we were all out of the dentist, me included and I had had a scale and polish and Scarlett had had her palate expander taken out and her train tracks tightened and rewired with time to get Ady to the station but he was already on the train so we didn’t bother going along to wave him off. Probably for the best actually, I might have been wobbly as it was the longest he and I have ever been apart. Maybe that’s why he legged it…

All that done the kids and I headed south. We had a room booked in Glasgow for the night, having changed our original plans to all stay in Fort William for the night and part the following morning. We arrived around 7ish I think, pretty tired and ready for a bath, our picnic food bought earlier in Morrisons in FW and some crap TV. As we arrived and sorted out the car a bit so we registered an alarm going off but didn’t realise until the manager met us at the door and told us to go into the car park and assemble with all the other evacuated guests that it was the fire alarm for the Premier Inn. So a very unwelcome half an hour standing around with our rucksacks and about 50 other guests in various states of dress, sobriety and disgruntlement. This included a couple of very righteously indignant men who were quite possibly the culprits for the alarm going off in the first place. Two fire engines duly arrived, checked over the building and finally we were allowed in. The alarm did go off a further twice during the evening but not for any length of time so we didn’t bother to prepare for evacuation. I had a lovely bath, caught up on The Apprentice and the kids plugged themselves into the wifi which was way better than the holiday cottage’s rather patchy offering.

Wednesday – a rather stressy day, despite plans for it not to be so. We had been on a shoestring budget for the previous week waiting for the rent to come in which it always does without fail on the 19th of the month. I had checked the bank account in the morning to ensure I was ok to fill up with petrol on the drive only to find the bank account balance at £4…Ady rang to say his planned trip to the CoOp for food supplies to take home for his week alone had not happened either. My phone kept crashing on the banking app so I had to unpack my rucksack and get my laptop out to connect to the wifi and reset my password for internet banking and take a phonecall from the bank to confirm that I was really me. Then I got an email from Calmac to say that they were moving to winter timetable so my booking for a vehicle returning to Rum the following Wednesday wasn’t possible – would I rather come back on Tuesday, Thursday or go somewhere else on the Wednesday instead?! Argh…. I made the decision to drive until I had half a tank of fuel and then check the bank or make a new plan, Ady got on the ferry as we had cash at home for him to spend at Jinty’s instead.

The drive down continued in that manner. I borrowed the last of the family cash which was £20 belonging to Scarlett to put more fuel in when we arrived in England and then rang my parents as the rent was still not in. Mum then set off trying to track Dad down – not sure why, I did explain that she could just go to a branch of our bank and pay in some cash… Dad rang back to say he had paid in some money by the time we reached Lancaster so we were able to stop, buy some lunch and fill up with fuel again and that got us all the way back to Sussex. The car may be a snug fit for four people and all our stuff, even more so once we’ve been shopping but it is super economical. Some really good chats with the kids on the drive, I do miss the days of the three of us, off on daily adventures and talking about all manner of things, somehow that just doesn’t happen so much any more.

We got to Mum & Dad’s about 8ish I think. I can never quite get my head around the idea that for 15 years that house was my home, it just doesn’t feel like it. Frazer had my bedroom after I had left, I think for possibly longer than I ever did actually so although it’s the room I’ve slept in when we’ve stayed the last c0uple of times and I am sleeping in the bed that Ady and I bought I still feel like a guest rather than someone coming home. I did sleep very well though, despite Mum putting Scarlett in with me as one of their spare rooms has no curtains and a street lamp outside the window and the other is completely unfurnished and a huge and cavernous space which would be like sleeping in a village hall! Scarlett is usually my least favourite bed partner as she is really hot and wriggles a lot but actually the bed is so big she didn’t bother me at all. On the plus side once we arrived I checked the bank again and the rent was in. Ady was home safe on the croft, I’d had a lovely message from Croftsitter Jen and all was well at home.

Thursday – Dad and I went up to Halfords in the morning to try and sort out the fan belt for the car which was squealing and check the price of roof bars and boxes. The roof bars were too pricey and they don’t do fanbelts at that branch. I rang a couple of local garages back at Mum & Dad’s but failed to find anywhere that fitted in with my plans. I also failed to get Davies an appointment for a haircut but did learn that it was a turn up and wait and that Saturday mornings (my planned window for it) was their very busiest time so we re thought that plan. So we drove into town and went into Kwik fit. That worked out perfectly as they kept the car to look at which meant we only had a 10 minute walk into town and no parking issues or costs. We had a failed shopping excursion mind you as we had a list of various clothing items required for the kids. Instead we bought a load of tat in the two pound shops as it turns out there sort of aren’t many clothes shops in Worthing any more… Kwik fit rang to say they could order the part and we arranged for the car to be booked in on Saturday.

We had enough time to whizz along to a Tescos on the way to meeting Julie so got some lunch and ticked a couple of the more banal shopping items off our list. We arrived about 15 minutes before Julie which pretty much was always what happened when we met there for years and years so felt very comfortable. That was probably where the comfort ended as the rest of the afternoon was a bit odd really. Julie is now calling herself Jay and if she didn’t look quite a bit like a (much slimmer, wearing make up and very different clothing) version of the Julie I have always known I may well not have recognised her. Her speech patterns, language, behaviour and what she had to say were fairly unrecognisable from the Julie I’ve been so close to for nearly 20 years. We had a nice walk, saw the pumpkins at Slindon, walked Jay’s two dogs very comprehensively and the kids / teens / cousins all got to hang out and catch up while Jay and I chatted.

Back to Mum & Dad’s where drama continued apace with some insight into the world of Frazer and Kat and Robin followed by some nonsense about what to have for dinner. Ah, how things never change with my family. Infact, I think I may well not even bother typing out all the nonsense with both sides of the family – Davies snr, Davies jnr and Goddard south…. it rather shaped the Sussex part of the trip suffice to say.

Friday – in the morning Davies and I walked up the road and got his hair cut. He’d found some pictures of the sort of thing he wanted online so we showed them to the barber and he did his barber-y thing. It looks great, Davies is really pleased with it and despite him insisting that I talk to the barber and show the photos which probably marked me out as rather controlling to the pair of very camp and slightly fabulous barbers running the shop I think it was a good all round experience. Hopefully when he needs a trim or further hairdressy attention he will feel happy to do that himself.

Then off to Katie’s – a local (Sussex) HE or who I first met about 11 years ago when she arrived at one of the groups I ran with her 8 month old daughter in a car carrier and her mum, on maternity leave from her high powered economist career debating whether actually she might not go back to work at all and might even keep her daughter at home rather than sending her to school. Katie is now a mum of three and an unschooler, a million miles away from where she thought she might be all those years ago. It was great to catch up with her for an hour or so, despite me having always been convinced that she lived in the next door village to the one she actually lives in so arriving about half an hour late as I tried to make sense of her directions in a location about five miles away from where she actually lives…

From there we headed across to Lewes via some posh charity shops (as in a posh area so a better class of clothing donated) and spent a couple of hours with Ali and Freya. Really lovely and so great to discover that while the children may have become teenagers and gotten taller than us actually none of the five of us were much changed…

We left Lewes and drove into Brighton. It had been my intention, having been admiring Brighton beach at sunset pictures and starling murmuration pictures from Brighton friends on facebook for the last few weeks to head for the coast, park up and enjoy sunset at the beach but a diversion to Asda and a later leaving Lewes time than planned meant we arrived after darkness had fallen and a queue for the Welcome to Nightvale show had already formed outside the venue despite being a full hour before the doors opened and two hours before the show actually started. We drove round several blocks several times peering at the various signs declaring what parking options and resrictions there were – all very confusing with residents permits, payable parking and all for different times and days. Finally we found a space in a location where you could park at the time we were there. I then rummaged around for ages in the car trying to find change to pay at the machine, couldn’t find enough so had to pay on my phone. This entailed setting up an account and giving my card number so there I was, in the dark, standing in the street with my phone in one hand and my debit card in the other ringing the number, dealing with an automated switchboard and working all that out. Finally sorted we headed to the church which was the venue and the queue had only doubled in size since we’d last driven by. We joined the queue – various of the folk were in cosplay. Then Davies casually said ‘Look, there is Kat and Granny’ and sure enough there they were. Please take as read drama and nonsense from Davies families junior and senior along with a slightly inappropriate sense of what might constitute a surprise.

The show was great – watching Davies and Scarlett’s faces as their  podcast heroes strutted onto the stage and began talking was excellent. The music performed was haunting, the venue of a church was amazing – beautiful, amazing acoustics, very appropriate for the surreal nature of the show. I had a vague notion of what it was all about and Davies had assured me the live show would be fine as a stand alone and indeed it was.

The kids and I then had an epic 25 mile round trip excursion to find a fast food joint open and selling what we wanted to eat with parking and not so many drunken Friday night folk around as to make us feel uncomfortable. Sort of like geocaching but with a car…

Saturday – Dad and I took the car to Kwik fit to have the fan belt replaced, call into the tip to get rid of some garden waste and have a good chat as we waited for the tip to open. Then the kids and I walked into the nearby village to my parents where we used to go fairly regularly and visit the old fashioned sweet shop run  by a bloke I went to school with. I’m not sure he remembered us but we chatted for ages about Scotland and sweets before walking back to Mum & Dad’s. We also walked along to the Pet store and Boots. Scarlett wanted to look at the hamsters and rabbits, Davies wanted some hair product. We saw two people I knew – one from the library and one from Home Ed groups. Very odd to be recognised still over five years after I left.

Kwik fit rang to say the car was ready so the kids went back to Mum and Dad’s and Mum ran me down to collect the car on her way to pick up Kat and Robin.

Family friends – I’ve known them since I was about 8 – he built both my parents loft conversion when I was 13, but then Ady and my loft conversion when we had Davies – came over and it was lovely to see them. She is recovering from breast cancer operations and treatment and is doing well but looked very haggard by the whole experience. He looks just the same. Kat and Robin, then Frazer, then Ady’s brother Chris all came over and suffice to say family drama from all quarters. I was exhausted by the end of the evening. There were tears, strops, walking out and all sorts. Davies and Scarlett had previously been oblivious to all of that so it was quite an eye opener for them to witness it all going on.

It was our last night with Mum and Dad and despite no one really feeling like it we decided to go out for a meal. The taxi driver recognised us from the TV when we said where we lived so that was nice chatting to him. Predictably Mum’s food was not to her liking so that added to the ‘everything bad happens to me’ vibe but it was more or less a good evening nonetheless.

Sunday – A final dose of family nonsense meant we left slightly later than I’d wanted but it was probably only appropriate and customary 😉 A straightforward drive to Babs house arriving just after Kirsty & James, and Jonathan, Catie and Jasper. So very lovely to see so many people – Babs and co obviously, Merry and some girls, Michelle, Helen and Chris with girls and niece and nephew. The following day LovelyEm came too with Os.

As over the years we fell straight back in and although we all had lots of catching up on detail of each others lives it was so comfortable to fall into the same in jokes, topics of chat, laughter and support. I’ve always known how very lucky we are to be part of this particular circle of friends but I’ve physically been absent for such a while it was lovely to be reminded anew.

Monday – more of the same 🙂

Tuesday – we left Babs and headed to try and finish off the very last of our shopping. We did just that in an out of town retail park and would have been feeling really smug about our successes had Davies not managed to leave his phone in the changing room while trying stuff on. He realised half an hour later and ran back but it had already gone. The security footage was checked showing just one person entering after Davies. It was really upsetting but we decided there was nothing to be done and headed off for our next stop.

This time Northampton train station for Davies to meet up with K, a 17 year old girl he has been chatting with online for nearly 2 years. They met on a Doctor Who forum but have since become facebook friends and speak pretty much daily. They headed off while Scarlett and I got some food, some ice cream and wandered round the shops before all meeting back up again. It was so fab for Davies to manage the meet up – the real win of the whole extra day off Rum being sprung on us by Calmac.

We left there and sadly hit masses of traffic. We finally reached our travelodge in Carlisle around 9pm when I’d been hoping it would be more like 7pm. I was so exhausted I didn’t feel safe to drive any further so we bought dinner from whatever was in the garage shop attached to the hotel (no services) which was cup of soup and bread for Scarlett, microwaved paninis for Davies and I. We ate, I had a bath and then I slept. A deep and blissful Sussex and most of the driving now behind me type of sleep with Ady just one more sleep away.

Wednesday – a slightly later start as I woke at 9am rather than the 8am I had been getting up at and then we had a really good sort out of the car before we hit the road again. We’d decided to do the hot lunch picnic dinner thing again and the kids had requested one last KFC before we left the mainland. I thought the last motorway services had a KFC but it wasn’t so I remembered the way to the one we used near the hospital in Glasgow when Ady was there in January and managed to get us there instead. Really proud of my remembered navigation and really weird to be sitting in there without Ady again all these months later. We had lunch, hit the road and were in FW by about 230pm. We checked in to the hotel, did our Lidl, Morrisons, Poundstretcher etc shops, got picnic food for dinner and then went back to the room for last baths and crap TV and wifi for the kids. It was another early start ahead so we were asleep fairly early.

Thursday – up and away, a quick diversion to the frozen food store on the way out of town and then arriving in Mallaig in plenty of time to reverse onto the ferry. There were various Rum folk and friends of Rum type folk on the boat. It was a really rough crossing – I can’t believe Scarlett wasn’t sick, but she was fine plugged into watching a film. I chatted to Ali and willed the time away.

Amazing to be home, back on Rum. The kid got into the Jeep with Ady while I brought the wee car home to the fork then Ady and I wheelbarrowed everything up. It took two trips each, both of them in the drizzle and wind. A proper Rum welcome home…

while is where, as I am knackered and still have a whole weekend and visiting friends chapter to write up I will leave it for now.