Rabbit Holes in Scottish Meanderings

Does anyone else constantly go down rabbit holes because of technology? Nikki and the kids have just come back from a week's holiday in Salou and it made me think of the villa we stayed in way back in 2004, about half an hour's drive out of Salou. Tried to find it on the Internet and thought I had but it was looking very run down. When I showed Nikki she said no way was that it so I thought I'll go and find the photos of the holiday to check.

Tried my photo albums first - they ran out in summer 2004! So waded through the drawer of photo wallets I had of 'spares' but there seemed to be hardly any of that year or subsequent years which I found a bit weird until I remembered we had started getting photos on CDs by that point and sure enough, I found a folder full of lovely CDs, unable to be seen because I had no CD reader on any device any more!

Then I thought hang on I would surely have written about the holiday in my diary which of course would have been Open Diary at the time so I opened it at the relevant entry but the photos weren't visible because of course they were all from Photobucket before it had gone down the route of charging an arm and several legs for its service.

But guess what came to the rescue? When OD went down I spent 2 weeks printing out every entry I'd made, comments and all, terrified I'd lose the whole shebang so I got out the folders, waded through 2004 and there they were.

Nikki was right. It's not the same villa.

2 hours it took me to figure that out.

And I'm no further on because I can't remember exactly where the one we stayed in was and have no info to go on because the e-mails organising it all are buried in some old computer somewhere - and now I want to know what else is on all those Kodak CDs I found so I'm busy researching CD readers - which will no doubt be another rabbit hole!

The kids had a great week away - Nikki made a video of it which I've uploaded here. Because of the song she's used it's been blocked in 2 countries but I notice you can view it on YouTube so I'm hoping you can see it. Let me know if not.

A real shame coming back though - their plane was delayed for 3 hours but they had to take the transfer bus from their hotel at the pre-arranged time which meant they were in Reus airport from 10 in the morning. They finally boarded the plane at 2.45 and got into Aberdeen at 5.30 p.m. I was keeping track of it all on the airport website and was keen not to park the car until the last minute in the short stay car park because prices are astronomical so I got there at 5.20. Saw the plane come in and land and got all excited to see them.

TWO HOURS later they emerged!!

A holdup getting off the plane (4 planes had apparently all come in around the same time), a holdup at passport control then a final massive hold up with the luggage carousel which stopped completely for almost an hour. So it was 7.30 p.m before they were very wearily coming through the arrivals door, enveloping me in hugs - and then, in what literally couldn't have been better timing, as we began to walk out, 2 airport therapets appeared as if by magic in the shape of Orla, a black lab and Rita, an adorable long haired Dachshund and immediately the tension and stress of the day was eased with lots of pats and smiles!


I wasn't smiling quite so much when I got back to the car part - THIRTY quid I had to pay for those 2.5 hours I was there and I never got a receipt when I pushed the button so I don't think I'll be able to claim it back (Nikki is applying for compensation as they're within the right delay timeframe). Oh well - just glad they made it home safely.

And now it's off back to school this morning - they all look so grown up in their uniforms.


Ruari's first day of school so big day for him - he was just in in the morning to start with and loved it! He was so chuffed with his smart long trousers - "I look so handsome!"😁


Lily starts secondary school today so big day for her as well but she was looking forward to it. They did the whole integration thing for a few days before the summer holidays and she enjoyed that so we were very relieved. The good thing is my niece, Catriona, works in the school she's going to so at least she has a family member there which might help. She won't get her as a teacher as she deals with learning support but it's good to know she's there if need be.

I was trying not to leave Lilah out of the excitement but Nikki and I were both struggling to remember if she was going into Primary 5 or 6 and had to ask her to check!! We had both thought it was Primary 5 but because she's 2 years younger than Lily we thought surely it should be P6 and we'd got it wrong but it's P5 right enough. No wonder she has middle child syndrome!! I asked her what she was looking forward to and she said "I get to go in the field!" On enquiring further apparently the P5s and upwards are allowed to spend some of their lunchtime in the grassy area/skatepark at the side of the school. This is a Very Big Deal in Lilah's 9 year old world!


I haven't really made much more headway with the house but I have had a look at carpets for the stairs/hallway and floor tiles for the bathroom. Also wallpaper for the stairs and landing area but that's tricky - there's plenty choice online but not much in the shops and wallpaper can look totally different on a roll than on a wall - as I've discovered from taking samples home! The carpet on the stairs and landing is really depressing me so my inclination is to do that first but I'm thinking wallpapering might be better done first in the sense of protecting a new carpet. But I feel finding wallpaper might be easier once a carpet is actually down and you can check colours etc against it. What do you guys think?

And I'm trying to slowly declutter as I go along. I couldn't figure out why I was having such a hard time getting rid of Nikki's baby clothes - I thought it was just because she was my only baby and I was finding it difficult to part with the memory of that time. But as I got them all washed and they were drying on the clotheshorse I realised it was more than that.

This is when they were all waiting to be washed.


And about a quarter of them ready to go to the charity shop.


Trying to figure this out, I realised it was something to do with the amount of work which had gone into them. Most of them had been knitted/crocheted by Boyd's mum and sister, Beryl, in the months when I was pregnant and there was something poignant about that. It was Boyd's mum's first and only grandchild and she wasn't a demonstrative woman - found it hard to show her feelings - and I think this was her only way of showing her love and how excited she was at the impending birth. She's passed on now and I felt like I was getting rid of something more than just the clothes somehow - it was a wrench when I handed over the last box in the charity shop.

But I was really glad I had chosen Homestart, a charity which helps young families who are struggling with the basics - they had been a lifesaver for me when I was getting rid of the stuff in the shed - it literally filled my sitting room and they virtually took it all apart from a few things - it helped me out so much. So it was nice to be able to give back to them and to know the clothes would be appreciated and go to a good home.

I had a spell of knitting myself for a while. I had this weird urge to just knit for ages - it wouldn't go away - and while decluttering I'd discovered my box of knitting needles and some wool. I knew I didn't have the capacity to follow a knitting pattern at the time so tried to think of something easy to do and decided to try a scarf. I had 4 large balls of multicoloured wool but it ended up not being enough for a long enough scarf and I couldn't find any more of the same wool. I'd also made the mistake of knitting stocking stitch thinking that would be easiest but not doing a border stitch to stop it curling so it was a bit of a disaster.

Lilah decided it might make a good scarf for Hoppy, her beloved cuddly bunny but it was a bit big for that - however I realised if I sewed the edges up, it might make a wee sleeping bag for her. The whole thing turned out very rough and ready and went all squint in the bargain but I'm happy to say she loves it and Hoppy goes to bed in it every night!


And my wee Micra has stayed in the family! Don't panic though - no-one is driving it. My nephew's son, who lives in Aberdeen, is doing mechanics at college and needed a car to practise on so when he heard I still had it, he got in touch and I passed it on to him - he was delighted to get it. It's nice to think of it not being crushed or taken apart - it's ridiculous that I felt like that about a car but like I was saying in a previous entry, it wasn't just a car - it was a pivotal part of helping me so much in my withdrawal journey.

The new car is a joy to drive - it's been fun personalising it. I got some snazzy car mats with a purple trim for it the other week and had bought a beautiful crystal one day but couldn't find anywhere to hang it then realised it's perfect hanging from the car mirror - so pretty when the sun's on it but isn't distracting at all.



Healthwise not much change - still decreasing the Mirtazapine slowly - still a lot of bad days but I plod on - nothing else for it! Occasionally there are flashes of the old me coming back - last week I was able to edit a piece of writing I'd had published years ago to fit a newsletter of a Society I'm part of - so I hang on to stuff like that as evidence there's healing happening and I'll emerge like a Phoenix from the ashes one day, back to myself again!😊