Saturday 24 April 2010

Well, what can I say???

Well the dog's almost recovered but hubby go stuck until Thursday, that meant he was around to help with my mum when she fell ill on Tuesday. We just went round with her shopping (Mum's 79) in the morning and found her dreading another upset tummy - she gets these quite often always attibuted to a chill, or food that she shouldn't have eaten which is all nonsense, she has casually diagnosed IBS but nobody's every bothered to do the proper tests until she got really bad on Tuesday night and phoned me on Wed am to say she still felt bad - the doc did do a housecall and I was there to make sure she told the truth *oh I'm much better now* is the usual refain that she wasn't getting to trot out this time.
Sure enough the doc wanted her in hospital to stop the bleeding and to get everything investigated, so hubby was around to drive us and drop us off at the right doors, yay!
They've found out it's warfarin thats caused the problem so she just stops taking it and is careful about problems again, and she should be fine:)
The rest of the week was spent visiting her with my wee bruv but I'm going in tonight with my kids so they don't worry anymore about granny - they're other granny went into a different hospital and never came out 18months ago, so they were understandably very upset about the one they had left being in one but things have been dealt with differently and her treatment would appear to be easier so got everything crossed it stays that way!!
Got back to the gym this morning and did 3000m on the rower and 500m swimming so feeling like life is getting back to *normal*, however long that lasts:):)

Tuesday 20 April 2010

Poor doggie's feeling better!

The dog's feeling much better these days and is jumping up when youngest comes home from school again, we get a lovely welcome too now, whereas just after the attack he would cower in his bed to see who was coming in and sniff round later when he was sure nobody else was coming in.
We've also had another distraction, hubby's still here, he should be on a survey ship in the Gulf of Mexico but the Icelandic ash cloud has stopped his travel and he's now 2days overdue, with very little likelihood of getting there anytime soon -  he's just phoning the office now to see if he can get any answers and also to show willingness to try to do something from over here if needed. The travel folk might get shirty but he's willing to try anything to get there, he likes his job:):)
The result of this on the rest of us is the kids think it's *great* and I'm enjoying the extra treats of having lunch out in quiet restraunts with no kids (they're back in school/college), but it's playing havoc with my schedule for the gym - just don't feel the urgency to get there at all! To combat the aversion, I packed my new gym bag with all the things I'll need tomorrow this afternoon and no matter what temptations are on offer - I'm gymming first!!
I normally love going and the buzz afterwards but my routine has been stuffed with our trip to Islay, the dog being attacked and now hubby's delayed departure, so I'm looking forward to dragging my sorry backside there tomorrow and getting the sweat running:D

Thursday 15 April 2010

Poor doggie

Our week has been pretty messed up as our dog was attacked by two Great Dane dogs on monday morning and he had to have stitches in various places and has several leaking wounds that can't be stitched or they would go septic. The poor soul has been wandering around with a plastic cuff round  his neck to stop him nibbling his wounds and he clunks around the place trying to do normal stuff but he's absolutely terrified of going out just now, and quakes at the smallest dog - even the wee thing that lives next door.
My husband had a few scratches and bruises from being knocked to the ground by the first dog, and jumped on by the second, so he's suffering badly from flashbacks and trying to *get on with things*, but needing some tlc every now and again!
The rest of the time I've been catching up with washing, cleaning and cooking - the gym's a distant memory but hoping to go tomorrow for a swim and get food back in control over the weekend, then onto the hard grind again next week. Got a couple of fitness magazines and they have some exercise routines, so I'll get my diary done for next week with food and gym stuff, and just get back to *normal*:D

Monday 12 April 2010

Found them!

Here we go,,,,,,,
Port Charlotte Lighthouse House just tucked in behind the main feature!!

This shows what a fab house it was, and for some of the time we did bask in sunshine 'cos we took these photos:) There were only two bedrooms upstairs as the original 3rd one has been converted to a bethroom and store(for the family) but there's another bedroom down stairs that youngest bagged, with an en-suite as he made sure everybody he talked to knew all about it, very impressed he was but the whole house had a lovely relaxed atmosphere to it and the sunroom on the front was high enough to give views all through 180', the house I used to live in when we first moved to Islay was the manse which stands half a mile away and I used to see this house from my bedroom window, so it was very strange - in a nice way - to stay there!

Back to basics

We had a lovely Easter break on Islay and saw lots of rellies and friends, as well as chilling out with some walks!
The adventure really started before we left, mum was coming with us and suggested we stay somewhere closer then her son/my bros in Dumbarton, so we phoned a few hotels and found one that had 3 bedrooms, 2twins - one for the boys and one for her(mum) and daughter to share, and a double for us! We were driving down in 2 cars, I was driving ours and hubby driving hers so she would have wheels on Islay and could visit or just 'go for a drive' like she used to when she lived there. So we stopped at bros for a wee break, after they picked up eldest in Greenock, they we all set off for the Tarbert hotel.
We took the Loch Lomond road and swept up past Luss thinking everything was going fine, then the potholes started, the roads in Scotland are dire just now and they're are only some that have escaped the pot-hole fairy! With a little more caution we approached Arrocher and drove towards the 'Rest' with caution. The rest's full name is the 'Rest and be Thankful' because the old cars used to get to the top of a very steep, winding road and 'rest' at the top to let the engines cool. When my mother first travelled to Islay in 1939, just before WW2 was declared, they had an old Humber and her adopted brother George (a hungarian refugee) didn't listen to 'get a cloth' first, and took the radiator cap off - thus burning his hand, well he didn't do it again and his name lives on in family folklore:) You can still see the original road in the bottom of the valley from the 'new' one constructed in the 40's or 50's I think!
We swept down some of the other side, then realised the pot-hole fairy had been busy and preceeded with caution onto Inverary which stiil looks the same as it did the first time I saw it 34yrs ago when we stopped there on our way to our very first ferry trip to Islay!
Quick pit-stop there for coffee and loos, then off we go for the next bit down to Lochgilphead, Adrishaig, lots of wee hamlets and into Tarbert, a few dodgy patches but straighforward journey and doing it early evening meant most of the trucks and delivery vans were parked somewhere - bargain!
The hotel was lovely and the journey to the ferry was 10mins instead of the original 3hrs, fab, the ferry itself was uneventful bar the scruffiness we noticed on deck - the winter had been hard on the West of Scotland too and they hadn't had their usual painting weather!
The house we rented was this one, need to find the photo and come back to this!
We had a lovely relaxing week, with very mixed weather. I got some walking in on various days but the best one was Wednesday when I got dropped off at Balimony, walked over the ridge to Octofad Farm and then kept going until I got to Port Charlotte, brief comfort break at the Port Mhor centre and off to the Lighthouse House on the other side of the village! Sunshine all the 5.8miles I walked in 2hr 5mins, it was fabulous, hadn't done the walk from Octofad to Port Charlotte since I was a teenager, so it was good to take my time and admire all the changes to original houses and the new ones which had been built in sympathy with their surroundings. It was lovely to go back into the past but tempered with new things, it wasn't a maudlin journey but an uplifting one that I was really glad my husband was happy for me to take, he had to drop me off and leave me with 14 heifers shouting at me for their breakfast!! (beasts of all sorts approach vehicles hoping/thinking a meal's in the boot/back, quite scary until the 'townie' remembers they're usually more scared of us!)
Anyway, off to find the photos that seem to have gone into the wrong place - ie where I can't find them, lol!