Tag Archives: cars

Warm, spot-on, and thankfully.

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1) I washed our bedding yesterday, and exchanged our summer-weight duvet for our lovely snuggly winter-weight one.  This morning I was so warm and cosy I didn’t want to get up.

2) After searching through several shops further afield, I went to a local fabric shop this morning.  When I spotted one particular bolt of fabric, I knew instantly that it was the perfect one 🙂 .

3) A few days ago I went to the shop to buy a new bulb to replace the rear brake light on our car.  I was looking through the book to work out which bulb I needed, when one of the shop assistants came up and took over – he handed me a bulb and assured me it was the right one.  As I thanked him, I remembering thinking that that was a lovely thing to do.

I was less pleased this evening to discover that, when K went to fit the new bulb, the bulb I’d been sold was actually the wrong one!  Thankfully, it turned out that we needed the same type of bulb as the ones we’d used in the old car, so we still had a spare bulb kicking around.  That said, I imagine I’ll think twice before accepting help the next time!

Pancakes, peaceful, and sunlight.

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1) Fresh pancakes, with raspberry sauce for breakfast = two satisfied children, and two satisfied grown-ups.

2) The afternoon wore on, quiet and peaceful, after a busy weekend.

3) The colour of the sky, in the half-hour before sunset, reminds me of the colour of our new car – silver-grey, with a hint of gold. It’s far prettier in the sky though! The lovely light soon transformed into the mauves and pinks and golds of a stunning sunset.

Helpful boy, new car, and doing stuff.

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1) The new star charts are working well. As I’m getting organised upstairs this morning, I hear K coaching A in the art of vacuuming the floor. So proud of my big boy 🙂 .

 

2) After dinner, the kids get ready for bed… and then we all pile into our new car, and take it for a night drive up the Forth Valley towards Stirling.

3) I’m tired, but filled with the need to do something.  So I defrosted both freezers, and make a batch of polenta and blueberry cupcakes.

3BT from last week.

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Last week was probably best left in the past, but here are Three Beautiful Things from last week…

1) We bought a new(-to-us) car last week – a silver fern coloured(who could resist!) Toyota Avensis Tourer. We’re having to contain our excitement though as we don’t get to pick it up until Wednesday…

2) The kids have been awesome this week. Just awesome 🙂 . Culminating in them walking home from school together, on their own, for the first time. They did exactly what they were told to do, and we couldn’t be more proud of them.

3) Friday night was our quarterly so-called Games Night – I think we were all too tired for that, but good friends, comfy sofa’s, relaxed chat, fabulous food and delicious wine all made for a wonderful evening.

Normal service will resume again from tomorrow…

Rainbow effect, library, and experimental baking.

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1) I love watching the way that oil disperses when a few drops of washing-up liquid are added. (Into that you may read the history of the last couple of days, which included the discovery of oil on the driveway!).

2) A has spent the last few days creating a database with details of all of his books. He intends to line up all his books in numerical order on the shelf, and has painstakingly written out a ticket for each book.

3) Nanaimo bars – today’s baking experiment. Two dark chocolatey layers, separated with a streak of creamy orange-coloured filling. I don’t know how it tastes yet, but it certainly looks pretty!

Free, uncaring and chat

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1) I took the car to the garage this morning, as the heat shield was trailing underneath. Ten minutes later the car was fixed, and they told me I could just go, no charge… customer service at its best 🙂 .

2) I re-erected my storm-damaged bird table this morning, and reaped the benefits for the rest of the day as, uncaring of the damage, clusters of birds flocked around it to eat.

3) We lay on the bed, relaxed and talked. A was really open, and we were able to have a really productive “worry time”.

Today might have been…

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a really bad day, after something under the car went bang this morning, were it not for:

1) The lovely RAC man who came and towed my car to the garage;

2) My lovely parents who don’t mind lending me their second car;

and

3) A lovely friend who came and picked me up from the garage and took me to lunch.

NB I’m off to pick the, now fixed, car up from the garage in ten minutes, so all’s well that ends well 🙂 .

Crazy days

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I’m not quite sure where to begin this post! It’s been a crazy few days – and not really in a good way either 🙁 .

For the most part, life has continued on its merry way – Aidan’s been at school, and has been moved up a reading group at last 🙂 . Megan’s had ballet, and gymnastics, and kindy and was moved up a level in her swimming class last week 🙂 . We had the next-door neighbour’s children round to play after school yesterday – they have a boy and a girl ages with our two, and the four of them had a wonderful time playing in the back garden!

We attended the Deconsecration of the old St Chad’s church building on Sunday morning. It was built 80 years ago, and after plans about 10 years in the making, they are finally ready to start knocking the sanctuary, church hall and vicarage to the ground, and build new ones on the same site.

We’ve found their attitude to be refreshing – not clinging to the past, yet at the same time not devaluing it. They want to build on the work done in the past, and build a new physical building which will allow them to serve the community in a new way. Sadly, while we will be here to witness the destruction of the old, and all going well, the beginning of the construction of the new, we will not be here to celebrate the opening the new building – scheduled for Christmas time. But it is exciting times for the church – and an exciting time to be part of the church.

Our own personal lives have been tinged by the stress of having our borrowed car taken away from us permanently at almost no notice. It’s too far into our stay here to make buying a car a feasible option, and although there is a possibility of a replacement from elsewhere, there are a number of obstacles in the way.

The long and the short of all of it is that it is looking increasingly likely that we will be unable to do both a long weekend away with the Auckland part of the family, and our tour of the North Island – something we must do to catch up with family and friends who we will not see otherwise on this trip 🙁 🙁 . There are only two timeslots available to us to do the long trip – one which includes the holiday weekend, and the other – for which now, short of a miracle, we will not have a car…

Earlier this evening I was seriously wondering if being here was worth all the stress… A glass of wine has restored my calm, but a good night’s sleep would help even more. Anyone like to try to convince M that night is for sleeping, and waking Mummy up for between one and three hours each night isn’t really the best long-term game plan?

Still, only two sleeps to go and help will be on hand 🙂 🙂 🙂 (in the shape of a Grandma who hasn’t seen her wee ones for a couple of months…!)