British Telecom blues

Whilst Mum and Dad were away I set about decorating two of the upstairs rooms, was in charge of the dog and attempted to transfer our broadband account. None of this was as easy as it sounds.

The combination of looking after the dog and decorating resulted in a tin of 'Teal Tension' being dropped on the carpet in the hallway (oopsy pictures to follow!). Whilst trying to stop the dog from treading in it I was also hosing down the hallway rug and did not notice the pool of watered down 'Teal Tension' gathering on the driveway. Thankfully it rains alot here!

You will be pleased to hear the rest of the painting went well.

The broadband on the other hand has turned in to being a real pain to transfer and that ruined my day before it even begun. I then spent the afternoon fighting with a floor sander.

On the up side of things, there is a Scottish Challenge event being held at Joe's club this week. 150 golfers are taking part and it is all very exciting - especially the bit where Joe drives them back to their accommodation in brand new £70K cars.

Hoping for better luck with the floor sander tomorrow and that I never have to speak to BT ever again!

Back to work

After a brief visit to Tim and Ruth it has been back to work for Liz with four long (12.5 hr) days on the neonatal unit before we drive back up to Moy on Sunday night. It has been an interesting experience as in her absence the unit has returned to the original site after having been re-housed elsewhere for the last six months. Consequently no one can find anything which makes for a high level of stress in what is a fairly stressful job anyway.
Sarah and Joe are now planning to move into the house in Moy in mid August rather than September and Sarah has already set up the installation of broadband so she can work in between painting! (Can't think who she takes after)
We have accepted an offer on our house from couple with no chain so may have unloaded our house in Belmont sooner than anticipated which is great in some ways but means we have lost our base when we come down to visit. If you see a tent pitched in Rosehill Park......
We are looking forward to seeing what progress Sarah and Joe have made with the decorating.

New Arrival!

We welome Toby Rhys as the newest Cooling. Tim phoned us at 18.20 while we were meeting some of our new neighbours to say that they had just arrived at the hospital so we made the decision to drive back overnight. We packed up and had just arrived at Sarah and Joes house to drop off Rhema when we got another call to say that Toby had arrived at 18.36! Tim nearly missed it as he had gone back to get some more things from the car and then no-one answered the labour ward buzzer to let him back in - think they were little busy suddenly!!

Anyway - all is well and we are delighted to be grandparents again.

First fruits

We decided that we really should pick the ripe fruit in the fruit cage even though I wasn't in a position to make jam or jelly just yet. We had already had a wonderful feast of strawberries and raspberries and had tracked down the mushrooms. We will have to do a bit more work next year!!

Moving Day!

Well it wouldn't have have been a 'true to form' Cooling move without a little last minute drama in the form of a wasps nest in the trailer tent which necessitated us putting up the tent while we were waiting for the removal men to arrive!

After that however all went well and the removal team speedily packed us up and left at about 14.30 leaving Richard and I to go out for a bite to eat and then spend a sleepless night on very uncomfortable airbeds before we finally left at around 6.00am.

After a considerably better nights sleep at Sarah and Joes house we picked up the keys from the Estate agent in Inverness and were able to get into the house for a quick look round before the removal van arrived.The unpacking was a bit more eventful than the packing as the Scottish team broke down so it was all hands on deck to help Mark, our removal man, unload as much as we could while waiting for them to arrive.

Sarah realised that we hadn't seen Rhema for a while and finally tracked her to the pond which she had jumped into but been unable to get out of. One very wet and muddy dog spent the rest of the afternoon shut in one of the stables!

A massive thunderstorm caused a power cut for two hours but didn't cause too many problems apart from not being able to make tea for the team. They were well supplied with Sarahs delicious baking tho' so didn't seem too unhappy. They even managed to move Richards fern and palm tree!

Sarah and Joe stayed in the house on Wednesday night and it was lovely to all be together on the first morning and enjoy a cooked breakfast in our new kitchen.

Since then we have been busy unpacking, moving things around and meeting some of those who have been involved with the house over varying periods of time. We bumped into some people who we had previously met in the local pub and are struggling with feeling that we are just here on holiday.

The gardens are stunning at the moment and although they have rabbit proof fencing all round, I spied two rabbits early this morning in the walled garden. Rhema was very excited to see them and chased them away then stood guard over the gap in the fence.

We had a saunter this afternoon down to the loch and found lots of wood which will be earmarked for firewood later on when I have accquired a chainsaw although the previous owners have kindly left a quantity of wood drying for us under cover so we have wood for this winter.

Sarah has already embarked on wallpaper stripping on their floor and we are starting to get organised ready for guests as the first ones will be arriving mid August.

Richard and I are poised to return to Sutton as Tim and Ruths baby was due on 18th so could be here any minute. I will be working in Sutton from 23rd - 27th anyway so will be interesting to see how the commute goes.

The story so far...

Joe and I married in May 2008 and lived very happily in Southampton. I was working for a successful local marketing agency and Joe as a builder in Guildford.

Now, Joe is a modest man but he happens to be a super talented golfer and having completed his coaching qualifications was on the hunt for a new job in the industry.

At this point the plot thickens.

Now my parents (Dad in particular) have been looking at houses in the Highlands for as long as I can remember. Every year there was quick trip to look at a house on the market but never an offer made. My father - not a dim man - was quick to connect Joe's golf ambitions with Scotland and had a Eureka moment. Just imagine if Joe was offered a job in Aviemore, that would be a fantastic excuse to finally move up!

The rest, in a nutshell, is that Joe contacted the Spey Valley golf course in Aviemore and arranged a meeting whilst we were on holiday in early February 2009. By the middle of March we had moved out of our little flat by the sea and were setting up home in the Highlands.

So it was go go go for the parental unit from that point on. They bought the house Mum fell in love with 2 years ago and we will be moving in with them in September.

We have now been in Aviemore for almost 4 months and although we miss our friends and family, I doubt we will ever move back. Joe loves his job and gets to play golf several times a week. The move has forced me to set up on my own and business is going well but most importantly our quality of life has improved dramatically.

It is hard to make sacrifices at the best of times but leaving your jobs, friends and family to follow a dream hundreds of miles away with no guarantees should be terrifying but it wasn't one bit. "Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed." Proverbs 16:3

Still, we haven't moved in with the folks yet!