A stirlingshire update

Apologies apologies for my hopelessness in writing regularly for this blog, which I hang onto for my sanity and yet abandon without grace for months on end. We have moved to Stirlingshire and are settled in yet another abode, but hopefully this one will be permanent. This is James's fourth house in his 3rd year of life, and Patrick's second, but as I say, we're hopeful that this is it. We live up a dirt track, farm land surrounding us, mountains behind and an escarpment in front. We are on the edge of the Loch Lomond national park and the beauty of this area really does take my breath away.

So, I'll do a quick ditty of what we've been up to because typically I've left it til the last minute and I really need to get patrick out of bed and take the boys to toddlers in about 2 seconds flat.

March: I quit my awful job!! Woooo WOOO No more moaning about one eyed hunchback engineers who never do what they say they are going to do, and no more moaning about awful Ben!

May: stood for Parliament representing Clydebank and Milngavie for the Conservatives. Came third, got c.10% of the vote so maintained my credibility (and deposit) and decided to file that experience away in a bomb proof locker, to be reviewed at such time that I had regained some energy. The idea behind standing was for me an opportunity to get my brain working again after so much time looking after small children and feeling frankly rather under educated.

(Example: ((although please note that given this happened on the 2nd May and the Scottish Elections were 5th May, this was not the conversation that decided my intention to stand for Parliament, I'm merely using this as an example of my brain-inert-ness.))
Hugo: "so, they've captured Bin Laden! Did you see that? An end at last for all those people caught up in 9/11"

Me: "They caught him ages ago, what are you on about?" (thinking about Saddam Hussein)

Hugo:"What are YOU on about? Bin Laden was captured this morning in Pakistan"

Me: "OH (as realisation dawned that there were two seperate baddies throughout the 2001-2011 period) Right. yes, Bin Laden. God that's amazing."

So, I stood for Parliament.

Then we went to Italy for our annual holiday, two weeks of supposedly glorious sunshine (actually three days of thunderstorms rocking the appartment and filling the sea with deadly timber and flotsam, jetsam...)but it was a wonderful time and the boys loved the icecreams, mini train rides, hiking in the mountains, along the coast, swimming etc.

July: just as I started freelancing again we moved house, and this wasn't without complications in that I had to pretend airily that we were all sorted and no problem me interviewing surgeons in Canada (of COURSE I had a phone line and internet connection) when of course we didn't have a phone line or indeed a telephone, and when I got a phone it didn't have a speaker button, then I had about 2 hours to race into Stirling to swap it, and the next issue was the ethernet cable which I'd needed to extend my washing line outside with, was in fact a very necessary part of receiving broadband as for some reason Wifi didn't work in this old house with thick walls. Explaining to Ashish in India why I had to go outside to retrieve the cable was a somewhat uncomfortable experience, but perhaps James whacking Patrick repeatedly with a ruler and both yelling in the background masked this.

Now it's September (end of) and yesterday was so warm and balmy the boys were running about (yes, Patrick now bipedal woop woo) naked in the sun. We have a cat called Thea who'se just popped 2 kittens (that's a story unto itself but I really do have to get Patrick up now), and Hinba can you believe it is still limping along malting happily and I must admit, I find life much easier with a dog in the countryside. My moments of hating her and wanting to lay biscuits across the nearest motorway have ebbed away entirely and she is like a comfy old teddy bear which I couldn't be parted with.

So, that's a quick summary of my year so far...next blog soon I PROMISE

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