The traffic woke me this morning just after 7am. It really is very noisy here! I’d gotten so used to it but having not really slept anywhere trafficky all year (with the exception of one or maybe two badly chosen laybys during the wild camping near Inverness) it was enough to rouse me. Then I needed the loo and a drink and then I was coughing for ages and needed to blow my nose. I could tell from Scarlett’s breathing and snuffling that was she was coming down with the cold too. I laid awake for a while debating making a cup of tea and waking up properly but then dozed off again.
I woke up quite a bit later and Ady was already Ady machining – he’s certainly making up for lost carpet cleaning opportunities this year 😉
The ground by the chickens was very hard with frost so after some discussion and drawing up of a job list for the week we decided we’d focus on the inside of the house this weekend and start on the garden next week. Dad is planning to come and do the painting next week so it makes sense to have all the carpet shampooing, general cleaning and clearing done prior to that so we can be out of his way. Ady carried on vaxing and I made a start on the first loft void in our bedroom. There is one long void that runs the length of the house and is accessible from both Davies’ and our room. In Davies’ room it had several boxes of toys and a few sacks of cuddlies which the kids had already pulled out to look at. In our end it had two sacks of clothes – Ady now has a full collection of Pompey tops again :), a few pairs of shoes (hurrah! had forgotten my gorgeous green oxygen shoes and my yellow London DMs) and a couple of boxes of loft contents type stuff including photos, diaries and a big bag of greetings cards. When I was at Clintons they used to regularly change the ranges of cards carried and the reps would come and write off all the residual stock in each branch. Technically they should have gone in skips but staff were always allowed to take them home so I’ve had a stash of those for about 15 years but never kept them somewhere sensible. I sat for an hour and matched up all the envelopes to them and we now have a lifetime supply of birthday cards 🙂
We had lunch – crumpets 🙂 We are building up a list of things that are worth trying to dig out and bring over here from Mum & Dad’s and I think the toaster makes it onto the list. The grill is just too faffy. Davies started to get all achey and shivery and went from just fine to down with the cold. He does fall fast that lad.
Then off for my patch testing appointment. Scarlett came in with me as I realised after her interest on me telling her what had happened at the skin prick testing that she would find it interesting. She did :). She asked loads of questions and watched with great interest. It was very quick – I took my top off and sat with my back to the nurse who just fixed 9 pads to my back which have about 8 spots each of various things on. I’m being tested for over 100 different things including what is know as the ‘standard’ – common allergens and cosmetics too. I have to go back on Tuesday to have the results read. I can theoretically have a bath aslong as I don’t submerge my upper back but the irony of being denied it after so long is not escaping me 😉
Several places are pretty itchy and the patches are generally uncomfortable – I am aware they are there. They are not very well fixed so I am worried they may move about between now and Tuesday and I’ve been told not to do any strenuous physical activity, incase that peels them off.
We left there and went to a garden centre to collect chicken feed and bedding and Asda for dinner stuff. Our plan is to use the car as little as possible and combine journeys where we can so that worked well as it wasn’t too much further on from the clinic.
Back at home we had a drink and then carried on with the lofts. I found such treasures as the appointment card for my driving test (12th June 1991), a load of albums and 12 inch singles including Now 7, Now 8, Now 17, Phil Collins But Seriously and a Rick Astley album. Also singles including Snow, Informer, Arrested Development Tennessee and rather randomly Please Don’t Go by KWS which I remember not even liking as a song back when it was playing in clubs so I have no idea why I owned or have retained a copy! Scarlett loved looking at the old pictures of me and Ady and was enchanted with a very early cordless telephone :). She went through a bag of cuddly toys sorting them out for the charity shop, discarding the couple of dolls, anything pink or sparkly. There is a newborn baby doll with male genetalia which is naked and she said ‘we can’t give that to a charity shop, it needs clothes!’ to which I replied ‘oh it’ll be fine, people often knit clothes for dolls in charity shops’. She replied ‘really, that should be illegal?!’ which took a few seconds to register before I questionned her and realised she’d misheard me and thought I said ‘nick’ instead of ‘knit’ She was most entertained that I had waited so long to ask her why knitting should be illegal! 😆
Davies had a long hot bath with eucalyptus oil in it and despite being cold and not eating much dinner seems a bit brighter. I think a decent nights sleep or three and some good food will do him the world of good – everyone is happier here than we’ve been for a long time, despite all agreeing we don’t want to be here again permanently. I read to Scarlett today from her new hamster book and then spent time with her going through the loft – it’s stuff like that we’ve not had enough of recently, small meaningless pockets of time that add up to a relationship without even trying.
I made dinner – pasta bake and we all ate together, sat on the floor infront of the fire watching Tom & Jerry cartoons on video :). We’ve all commented on how much like being back in Willow this feels, sleeping in one room, just the four of us, limited entertainment other than radio, reading or a very small collection of videos watched on a little portable TV. Of course Willow didn’t have a flushing loo, bath, washing machine and constant electricity 🙂
Tomorrow we have a man coming from Northwood to take details for the website and print off particulars for the house to put it on the market. I will sort out a second agent just for balance but that can wait til the end of the week once we’ve done some more licking it in to shape. In the meantime I am impressed with Mike moving so fast 🙂 Also on the agenda tomorrow is loft clearing and scraping peeling paint off walls, and collecting a few bits from my parents – we’ve decided my big clock is an essential 🙂
I’ve booked a travelodge for our stay in Inverness while I’m at the crofting course, paid for said crofting course and tentatively booked a B&B in Mallaig for the night before the interview. So our bank account is deplete once more but we do at least have addresses of where we’ll be for the next month, albeit ones at various ends of the country!
I had an email from Jill and a text from Johnny today saying they miss us 🙂