The highlights over the past few weeks have been:
- Child #1 making a bid for freedom and deciding that, at the grand age of 16, she is big enough to move all the way to Scotland, share a flat with her boyfriend, and be independent. Needless to say that she has learnt rather a lot in a very short space of time but she's still in one piece anyway!
- I've had 2 lovely but very very busy weeks off and, to be honest, will be glad to get back to work next week for some normality.
- We have a new addition to our family.
So Child ~1 then. Well, I did see this coming, and it's exactly what I did at her age, and I turned out ok. I could have demanded she stay, refused to let her go, shouted, made her feel guilty, told her she was stupid etc etc. That would have been rubbish, and she would have still gone but wouldn't keep in touch. She would also be far less likely to ever come home if it all went wrong. So I am, therefore, being the very supportive mother no matter how much it hurt at first (I am far more used to idea now, and I know she is ok (ish)) So she's moved to Wishaw near Glasgow. It could be worse, she is only 3.5 hours away and very easy drive. We proved that this week by visiting her on a day trip and it was great. It's hard watching her doing things the hard way. She has no understanding of how much harder things will get either but I'm here if she needs me and always will be. More to follow on that in the future I think.
My busy 2 weeks have been really busy. The state of Vivod was really staring to annoy me a few weeks ago. The front room is still a mess and we are awaiting a plasterer who isn't coming until later September/October. The front bedroom, previously child #1's was empty. The landing was a mess. So I realised that despite owning a perfectly big enough house, if not too big for us now, I was only using about 75% of it. Things had to change! I vowed to do something to our house everyday, or nearly everyday, whilst I was on leave for a fortnight. So in the past 2 weeks we have:
- Sanded, repaired and varnished the front bedroom floor.
- Stripped the wallpaper, sanded the paintwork and began painting it all.
- Sanded and varnished all of the landing (I never realised just how big the landing is)
- Moved into the front bedroom and set up the attic room as a useful space/spare room/bedroom for Child #1 if she returns (I have told her this by the way and she is fine with it)
- We intended to restore the fireplace in the bedroom, clean up the hearth, paint the ceiling, replace the plastic windowsills with wooden ones and wall paper.
- Oh, and I also sent the bedroom doors to be stripped too. (Currently awaiting their return - there are no secrets in our house at present!)
I will take some pictures and show you soon but I feel much happier that there is now only one room out of action again and that the landing is also far nicer.
So finally...the new addition. Time for some pictures I think...
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| I thing the word is 'tolerating' rather than 'friendship' at this stage. |
So this is Louis. I was asked to give him a home as a colleague needed to rehome him and didn't want to sell him (he's a Bengal cat). I bought him home on my last day at work so that I could settle him in. Everything was fine for a week and then he escaped! after 48 hours I resigned to the fact that I would never see him again. Until last night, when a lovely lady from a few streets away reported him to the local vet! So happy he is back although Oscar is less happy about this but he will be ok in time.
As you can see...(even non cat people)...he is adorable! He is also off to the vet later for micro-chipping followed by a collar and tag purchase, although he is currently under house arrest for the foreseeable future!
