the dreaded lurgy

You can crochet your own bacteriophage virus (why not?) using this pattern from Ooh Look, It's A Rabbit.

My horrible day of puking at the start of the week turned out to be the beginning of some horrific virus-type thing rather than a short and not-sweet stomach bug.  It lulled me into a false sense of security, making me think I felt better apart from one insanely hot cheek, and then it gave me some innocent-seeming cold symptoms and then...it destroyed me!  Ugh.  I've pretty much been sleeping since Thursday evening.  Surely it must be over soon?  Here's hoping.  Poor Dulcie has had it too (her first ever experience of vomiting - how sweet) but she seems more resilient than me and quite happy NOT TO SLEEP AT ALL if last night is anything to go by.  Yawn!  Graham has not succumbed, claiming it only affects the very young (Dulcie), the very old (not him) and the "infirm" (me).  Cheers, Graham...

So not much else is happening, obviously, but I'm hoping another afternoon in bed will shake this off and then I have a couple of days of annual leave booked and maybe I'll actually manage to do something with them?  Probably not anything that blog-worthy, but certainly more blog-worthy than snoozing.

Hope I haven't breathed in anyone's general direction this week...

story teller

Part of Dulcie's new and improved bedtime routine now she's settled in her own room is listening to stories as she falls asleep.  I still have to stay in the room with her, but, since the introduction of story CDs, I am allowed to sit in a chair rather than kneel by the bed while she clings onto my hair!  If she wakes up in the night, I put the CD on for her then too and am trying to encourage her to do this herself.  We're getting...maybe not THERE, but SOMEWHERE.

A year or two ago I found a bundle of old Story Teller tapes in a charity shop and bought as many as I could carry, even though they weren't that cheap and I know from bitter experience that tapes from charity shops don't always work.  (Yes, I'd been burned by Story Teller tapes before!)  Anyway, these tapes did work and my dad, in his retirement, started transferring them onto CD for Dulcie and my sister's children.  The project got kind of out of hand and he ended up scouring eBay for the missing volumes.  We now have them all and my dad is still busily transferring volume two.  He even records a little message at the start of each CD, some of which are most amusing and occasionally inappropriate...in the way only a grandfather can be.

Since starting the great Story Teller tape conversion project, we've discovered some kind person has actually uploaded all the stories to YouTube already.

The Great Big Hairy Boggart (shared at the top there) is one of my favourites.  I also love The Shoe Tree.  But really all the stories are great and told so brilliantly.  You just don't get voices like that these days!  None of your squeaky James Corden types here!

My sister and I used to listen to story tapes every night and I can still remember sections of some Story Teller stories word for word.  Putting Dulcie to bed is a great nostalgia trip now and I love sharing some of my childhood with her and the fact that she's getting so much out of listening to the stories.  She often picks up on little turns of phrase and asks me questions about things.  She's going to be a linguistic genius at this rate!

The other CD we've been loving, also transferred from an old tape, a dodgy copy of one I borrowed repeatedly from our local library in the late '80s/early '90s, is The Furry Haggis Stories.  They are bloomin' amazing (and so Scottish) and Dulcie LOVES them, but I can't find any reference to them anywhere on the internet.  If my memory of the tape's cover serves me correctly, they had originally been broadcast on radio (BBC Scotland I thought, but maybe not?) but I have no idea who they're by or where they've disappeared to.  Does anybody else remember them?

aberfeldy 2014

 Just to prove we are not totally heartless parents, abandoning Dulcie at the first whiff of a weekend away, here are some pictures of the week we all spent in Aberfeldy earlier this month.

We were in the local charity shop so much we realised Dulcie thought this shop WAS Aberfeldy.  Dulcie loved it in there - they had loads of toys on a bottom shelf, so she played happily for ages while we browsed the rest of the stuff.  I don't think we made any amazing finds this year (we usually do) but we all got some good books.

 Most of our time was spent hanging out at the swimming pool and play park, or drinking delicious coffees and eating cakes, but we did manage to make the most of the scenic circular bus for a day trip to Auchingarrich Wildlife Centre near Comrie.  We all had a fantastic day and I couldn't recommend it more highly for a day out with a small child in tow.  There was so much for Dulcie to see and do and plenty in place for entertainment had it not been such a glorious day.

 The setting of the place is absolutely beautiful and it was great to lunch surrounded by such gorgeous scenery...

 ...and crisp-loving peacocks!

There was a great outdoor play area - fun for all the family, as you can see!

 Aw!  See?  She loves him really!  (She doesn't always like to show it.)

 There was a giant sandpit and tunnels to explore.  Poor Dulcie came a cropper while trying to join in with the big kids, tripping over a slightly bigger little girl and landing face first on the pavement.  She had a gigantic bruise and graze on her forehead and skint bits by her eye and on her chin.  She was a brave soldier, certainly braver than her dad about it!

 After a brief recovery spell, she was all set to tackle the soft play area and we had to drag her kicking and screaming to the last bus home.

Animal highlights included tickling a lemur's armpit, seeing a surprisingly cute baby goat, holding fluffy little chicks and explaining what that appendage on the horse was...

 Here are some snaps from our wanders around town.

We like these fish.

 I convinced Dulcie this golfer was Cruella de Vil.  She's never seen 101 Dalmatians but we like to sing the song and realised we could get Dulcie to move much faster (when tight for time for a bus, for example) if we pretended we could see Cruella de Vil following us.

 On the Saturday we bussed it to nearby Logierait to visit the monthly market.  Dulcie had been wanting her face painted for weeks (after seeing it on TV) so we were happy to pay £2 for the experience.

 Dulcie chose to be a ladybird and was very pleased at first...

 ...turning into the bad-tempered ladybird shortly afterwards!

Dulcie has been going through a contrary phase lately and it really reached its peak while we were on holiday.  Oh, the screaming...  Every choice she made caused a huge strop, with Dulcie allegedly wishing she'd chosen differently.  And screaming.  And screaming and screaming.  She screamed and screamed about wanting the face paint off (this was after screaming about wishing she'd been a clown instead of a ladybird) and then screamed and screamed about wanting the paint back on once I'd caved in and set about her with a baby wipe.  Ugh.  But this was less than a fortnight ago and, touch wood, a lot has changed since then.  We've made some major progress with her sleep issues and, possibly connected, the screaming seems to have taken a back seat again.

Last but not least, I finally found and read this message from past-Graham in the Watermill guest book.

Ah, the joys of holidaying in the same place every year, a la pensioners!

Berlin, baby, yeah!

Something exciting is going to happen soon.  Graham and I are going to Berlin for a long weekend!  Dulcie is spending the weekend at home with her grandparents!  Can you believe it?   This is big wow!

Graham and I are not really a travelly couple and have never been abroad together except to visit my sister.  And we've only ever spent one night away from Dulcie before, when we went to Newcastle in January.  But some genius put a giant map of the world on the wall of the kitchen at my work and it gave me itchy feet and made me realise how close all of Europe is to us, so I went on Easyjet's website, found destinations for direct flights from Glasgow and gave Graham the choice of Paris, Amsterdam or Berlin.  Within days we had booked flights to Berlin and soon(ish) we'll be offski!

I spent a few days in Berlin many years ago and LOVED it, but wouldn't say I know it at all well.  Graham has never been.  I was wondering if any of you had any tips of must-see attractions or nice places to eat or just meander?  We've already got a place to stay - Singer 109 "where four of Berlin's most fascinating trend districts - Mitte, Friedrichshain, Prenzlauer Berg and Kreuzberg - meet."  Apparently!  Beyond this, we haven't got anything organised and I'd like to have some sort of skeleton itinerary in place before we go so we can make the most of our short time there.  So, please, hit me with your Berlin recommendations!

time-travelling tuesday (part 16)

Sorcerer's Steps, apparently.  I don't remember this game.  It would have been on the Spectrum.

2nd May 1988 One week till birthday

[lots of scribbles]

Ecuse the squiggles.  Granny invited us out to lunch.  I made a robot.

3rd of May 1988

I was playing Sorcers Steps on the computer and I was playing scrabble on the computer.  Tonight is the last night I am slep slep sleeping up in the spare room.

5 5 5 rock rock 4th of May 1988

1 Oh no the terror tomorrow we

2 have to go back ba back

3 to s sc school.  We decided

4 that on Saturday we are

5 going to get a car instead

6 of the jeep.  Tonight I was

7 using the word prossesser.

8 Metro car is Metro car.

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

5th of Mayke

I went to brownies.

I went to school.

6th of May 1988

Today I worked hard today at school and at dancing.  It's very hot.  I discovered I love Alan.  Well sort of.

7th Maybe 1988, 7th of May maybe

Today I got two birthday cards.  I went to a Brownie revel.

8th May 1988 Tommorrow is my birthday

Today I wrote a story on the word prosseser called Polly the Wally.  Kerry and Mum made my birthday cake.

ugh... green...

This is how I look today.  To be fair, I always look quite like the Wicked Witch of the West with my pointy chin and triangular eyebrows.  Today is different, however, for today I am also green.  Dulcie woke me up at 2.30am, from a lovely snooze, and I realised I felt slightly squeamish.  I couldn't get back to sleep and, by the time I'd got up and showered for work at 6ish, I had a full-blown dodgy stomach and had to phone in sick, thus ruining some poor English colleague's bank holiday, no doubt.  Urgh.  Oh yeah, and we had no toilet roll in the house, of course.  Graham said he felt like Richard Gere, coming back from the Spar with a four-pack of Andrex.  What a guy...  Here's to feeling better tomorrow.

greetings from moscow!

Greetings from Moscow!  No, not that Moscow.  Dulcie and I are in Moscow, Ayrshire,* visiting my mum and dad's new house for the first time.  We're having a lovely time.  We've been spotting wildlife in the garden, mainly - frogs and butterflies and bees (and bees and bees and bees) and a hedgehog who's been so close to us all weekend that he's just been taken away by the SSPCA for investigation, the poor wee thing.  Other than that, I've been reading my book in the conservatory and exploring nooks and crannies and going for a lovely walk down a country road.  I've also had tea and a scone at a wee farm shop/garden centre/tea room.  Dulcie's two favourite stories at the moment are the one I tell her about the time the goat ate my mum's skirt (because it had tasty-looking flowers on it) and The Billy Goats Gruff, so she was very excited to get up close and personal with some real goats before eating her locally made ice cream, although she was a little worried they might eat her clothes...understandably.

There's something so nice about being in my parents' house that was never my house, it feels much more like a real visit/holiday, somehow.  Plus it takes minutes (30-odd minutes) rather than hours to get here.  And do you know what's even better?  While we're relaxing here, Graham and his dad are busy wallpapering our hall at home!  Hopefully (touch wood x 100) that will be done and looking lovely by the time Dulcie and I get back.  And I won't even have lifted a finger :)

* I'm told the "lonely cottage" where the infamous murder took place is, in fact, my mum and dad's house!  No ghosts are apparent and last night I had the best sleep I've had in years, so I think it's OK.  That said, a somnambulist murderer was suspected, so sound sleep may not be such a positive thing...