Yoohoo - I'm back from holiday :o)

Dear me. Where do you start? It's been about ten days since I've written anything, and if you manage to get through "war and peace" that is following you'll find out why.

The holiday started with the dog packed and the boot filled (thank God I managed to get a smaller dog cage, but why I bothered I don't know because hubby decided we'd take the big one anyway...) and off we went. 

It was a long drive up to the land of hills and we only managed to overtake two cars that didn't exist... something that needs to be kept an eye on I think. When we arrived, after a picnic on the roadside (you can't say we're not classy lol) we found the house to be mahoosive. Sticking the fat bird in the furthest away room upstairs was a genius plan even if I do say so myself. We had issues with a smoke alarm that was integrated with about another ten smoke alarms that went off twice, and you need to find the one that's gone off before you can silence any of them. You would have thought that the house was under attack from air strikes the noise they made, but at least they would have woken you up if needed. The washing machine was something you would expect to find in the Krypton Factor. It might wash, it might tumble dry, it might even do nothing, but occasionally we got it to work (what is it about me and washing machines?).

We walked, went swimming, ten pin bowled, celebrated Biggey's birthday, walked some more, played in the river, climbed Ben Nevis (well... the last third of the way, we cheated and took the cable car the first two thirds - thank God.) Hubby took a photo of me at the summit. When I asked why, his response was "Well no-one will believe you made it without photographic evidence". What a sweetie he is...

I decided to have a bath. It was the olympic size of baths and seeing as we haven't had a bath since before Christmas I thought it would be nice to have one. How wrong was I. They waited until I was submerged in the oasis of baths before telling me the lock on the door was dodgy. Hmmmmpf. So out I get to struggle with the lock. I wasn't bothered about being locked in this room. I was happy for them to send me sandwiches through the bathroom window, but hubby wanted to get it sorted. I managed to unlock the door. Got back into the bath and then nearly died of fright as hubby waltzed in waving a butter knife and a bottle of washing up li"cue"uid in the air. All he was missing was his cape billowing behind him. What he was going to do with either was anyone's guess, but doing it whilst I was in the bath with the door wide open didn't endear me to it. He finished his proceedure and then went "oh - you're naked". D'huh. So needless to say, with my wobbly bits now getting wrinkled (not pretty by any stretch of the imagination) I resolved to stick to showers from then on in.

We had a lovely time and came home to no internet and another broken washing machine. The no internet was due to the phone bill not having been paid - do you remember that scratch card hubby "won" on a little while ago? Well that scratch card cost £48 on phone bills and turned his "free watch" into an expensive gift when you take the bill and the returned direct debit fee into account. Grrrr was all I could say to that. Internet restored and we're all happy bunnies. What was the first thing he went onto last night? Gumtree. Dear God. I don't know what his next purchase of choice is going to be, but restrictions are going to have to be made me thinkst. The washing machine was old, it got me out of a bind, but it's now been replaced with a new one, with a guarantee - hoooya. Washing machines seem to come here to die, but it's spinning away like a good'un as I type - hopefully the rain holds off just a little bit longer.

Ooohh - you remember how Biggey fell at camp and hurt her wrist? I took her back to the hospital for her follow up appointment yesterday, and brought her home in a cast... Thinking I'm up for "Crap mother of the year" award - I'll let you know how I place lol.

All in all, we've had a lovely time that has had it's stresses and tantrums (his not mine) and ups and downs, but you know what? It's going to be those things that we all remember and laugh about and it is another memory for us to store away and think back on with a smile. It just goes to show you don't have to spend a lot to have fun and a good time, and sometimes the things you do that cost nothing are the ones that are the most fun.