Saturday 28 July 2018

Project 365 week 30

A frustrating week as well as rather stressful. Phoned the sales man who sold us the car during my break at work yesterday and told him all the hassles we have had. He said he would email the service manager at his branch and get him to deal with it.

Sunday

An evening walk round the fishery. Three very cut baby peacocks/peahens walked across the path in front of us with their mummy.

The reflection on the pond was just beautiful.No enhancements, just as it came off my phone.




Monday

Went into trading standards to see how we stood legally with the car. I know we can reject for any reason in the first thirty days, we are getting close to that thirty days I wanted some accurate information on where to go next. Turns out that the thirty days pauses from when you report the fault until you are satisfied that fault is sorted, so seems I have plenty of time left. Really don't want to be rejecting it because I like it and it creates masses of hassles if I do.

The Service Manager at Kilmarnock phoned us just after lunch and asked us to take the car in for him to smell it for himself, so we did and he could smell it as well. Promised us a courtesy car so he could hold onto ours until it was sorted properly. But all he had on Monday was a manual car and I only have an automatic licence so was no good to me. He promised to get us one for tomorrow.

Took the dog for a walk up to Failford to check on our caches as one had been reported missing in the evening and got bitten on my arm.




Tuesday

No phone call to say courtesy car in for us, so I phoned them at 5pm to be told they had not got it back as there was some emergency had cropped up. A phone call would have been nice as I have other things to do that wait on a call.

Took the dog a walk up to Auchincruive and picked up a couple of geocaches while we were there, really want to get back into doing some. I put on a long sleeved cardigan to protect from bites but something manged to get my hand which swelled up. Fed up with being bitten and the nasty reactions.

geocaching



Wednesday

I was suppose to be going out with a group for a bike ride this morning, but still do not know what is happening with the car. I have other things to do this week, and my mind would not have been on the ride. My arm and hand were both sort and itchy and I was feeling rather fed up. So as I had promised DD1 I would go with her to Ikea one day this week I decided to tick that off my to do list instead.

It is too much agro for her to get the big stuff with all the kids in tow, so we played in the park while DD1 shopped, Then we went to the cafe and had a snack before heading down to buy the little bits she wanted. I picked up a 4tog quilt for our bed for when it cools down.


The garage phoned late afternoon to say the courtesy car was there for us.

Thursday

Went to pick the car up and drop ours off but nobody told me to bring my driving licence with me, so a quick call to DVLA for them to find out I do have a clean licence, signed some paperwork and off I went. This means I do not need to worry about them having my car as I can get to work at the weekend with this one. Hubby did not come with me so he not insured to drive it.

Phoned the surgery when I got back to see if they had any appointments for tomorrow to see if there is much else I could get for the bites. Had none for tomorrow but offered me one for about an hour away so I took it.GP changed my antihistamine and prescribed a low dose of steroids for three days every time I get bitten to see if by taking them we can stop the reaction being so violent. Here is hoping. I need a shed and some pieces of keep fit equipement then I would not have to go walk!!!!




Friday

Garage phoned to say that due to the adverse weather down south the parts for my car had not got up. I am not bothered, would rather hold onto this one and get mine sorted right rather than get it back quickly. They are telling me the new gasket that was fitted in Ayr last week was faulty.....really???  and nobody noticed on the test drive??? I am left wondering if they even bothered to even change it.

I am glad I am not needing to do to many miles in the car as a) it would not pull you out of bed, you put your foot down and it crawls along b) it drinks fuel like there is no tomorrow, getting approx four miles to the £.

A walk round the fishery before the rain and storms started. Both the rain and the storms were impressive.



Saturday

When daughter bought stuff in Ikea part of it was for her utility room, and to fit it in she had to move the shoe rack. So we acquired it until we can find one we really like for our front hall. Hubby stipped it down and varnished it. This may well still be here in a few years time.





Friday 27 July 2018

Two Wednesdays of fun.

DD3 and I were joking on Facebook the other week along with DD1's MIL that she must be making up some of these hospital appointments just to get a break from the three wee ones and goes and sits in Costa, surely nobody has thirteen hospital appointments with one child in one month?
Anyway sadly she did so she tries to spread the babysitting out as best she can. Obviously it is much easier for me to get them from nursery and hold onto them for half an hour or less than for the other grandparents to drive across for that short amount of time.

So the other Wednesday when Bob was away at an appointment I held onto the three wee ones and we went to the park across the road.

We spent a lot of the day on the mushrooms. We were sat on them and driving them to Glasgow or to the supermarket. We had to remember to do our seat belts up before we drove away, I was the seat they sat on and my arms were the seat belts, and sadly Minky crashed a few times and fell off his seat as he did not do up his seat belt.....naughty naughty.....all good fun and produced a lot of laughs from the children and smiles from  people passing by.






I have to say life is much easier now with them than it was a year ago. The gruesome twosome can move the swings and seesaw and such like by themselves now Minky goes off and manages very very well with the sip wire, being that bit bigger now he can do all of it by himself.




Spud still requires more watching on the higher pieces of equipment like the slide as she is still only two.





Thye were also having fun jumping across the mushrooms and dancing on top of them.




So we went home via the shop and got a sweet. a great afternoon was had by us all. Poor Spud did end up with sore knees as she tried to hold onto Minky's hand while they run, Minky just runs at his speed and she gets dragged over. Dinky is that bit more careful and tends to run at Spud's speed.

Then the following Wednesday DD1 had to go and speak to Bob's new specialist that he had seen last week without Bob so she could fill in on a lot of the background and Bob's early years. So I had the four of them. I decided as it was nice that I would get DD1 to drop us off at Rozelle Park as they have various children's activities running through the holidays and we decided to go and do some rock painting.


These were Bob's two




Dinky's



Mine



Minky's




Spud's



So while the rocks were drying we went for some outside fun and a picnic.

Bob went on top, Minky was not allowed to attempt to follow him. 

Add caption






Digging for dinosaurs 





Then we went back inside to pick up our rocks and then went off to hide ours and see if we could find some of the others that would have been painted and hidden in the park. 


finding red leaves 

Minky spotted a squirrel and tried to catch it.





Bob found a poke ball 

Dinky found a butterfly 






We also went round the duck ponds to see the ducks




Then DD1 phoned to say she was back at the car park




They went home happy and rather grubby, that says a good day out in my book.
Country Kids

Monday 23 July 2018

Feeling Frustrated Trying To Find The Perfect Gift?


anniversary, birthday, blue


When it comes to buying gifts, there seem to be two types of people in the world.
One type of person loves nothing more than going out and shopping for things for the people in their life.
They love to dig around looking for that one perfect gift that they know will make someone really happy. The
other type of person can think of nothing the world that they would rather do less than look for a gift for someone.
It's not that they don't want to get something good, in fact, quite the opposite is true. This kind of person wants
to make give the people in their life the best possible gifts. They just struggle to figure out what those gifts might
be. The different options leave them flummoxed, and they find the whole process of shopping for gifts incredibly
stressful. If you find that you fall into the latter category, as I do, don't worry, all is not lost! As stressful as you
might find the process of finding someone a gift, there are things that you can do to make it easier. With that in
mind, here are some things that you can do if you're ever stuck for gift ideas.


Think about who you're giving it to


The first thing you need to think about when you're trying to find the perfect gift is who exactly is it that you're
giving it to? Now, that might seem like an incredibly obvious question, but a lot of the time people get so wrapped
up in trying to find something, that they forget that it's for someone in particular. After all your six year old niece
isn’t going to want an old dusty book any more than your pretentious intellectual cousin is going to want
dolls house accessories Make sure that you never lose sight of who you're buying for. What do they like? What
kinds of things do they need? What matters most to them when it comes to gifts? Being able to answer these
questions can make a huge difference to how easy you find gift shopping.


Do some digging


Of course, trying to give someone a gift that they'll love can be difficult even if you know them really well. After all,
just because you think they'll like something, that doesn't mean that it's the one thing that they really want at
that moment. In order to make sure that you find the gift that they really want, it's a good idea to do a little
digging. Ask around to see if you can get an idea of what kinds of things they want. Whether it's friends or
family members, other people may well have plenty of great advice for you. You can also try and drop hints and
listen out for clues when talking to the person for whom you're trying to find a gift so that you can get the best
possible idea of the kinds of things that they really want.


One of the most important things to remember is that, as much of a cliche as it might be, the phrase "it's the
thought that counts" is 100% true. If you put the effort into trying to find a gift that someone will really love, that's
always going to show through. Even if you're not sure if that it's exactly right, the person that you're giving it to
will be able to tell how much thought and care you put into it. It might not seem like it when you're in the middle
of actually trying to find something, but that's what really matters.

This is a collaborative post.

Saturday 21 July 2018

Project 365 week 28 and 29.

Sunday

Bitten on Friday night when out for a walk. A visit to the Emergency department yesterday afternoon with a blue line drawn round it by the doctor and a high dose of antibiotics to take for a week. I took this picture and I drew the red line Sunday morning after speaking to the doctor again to see if it came up much more. Thankfully it did not, but did take about five days to go down.





Monday

Hubby needed rid of the unused old washing pole that is in the way of the wall he is building.





Tuesday

Bob was away for a hospital appointment so I had the three wee ones to look after for the afternoon, so we went to the park.





Wednesday

The new car has a couple of issues so this morning I dropped it off this morning, had it walk and bus it back, and typical the first day of rain we have had in weeks. DD1 ran me in to pick it back up.

Ziggy and her mum were down for a few days. Here is one rather warm Ziggy with granddad.




Thursday

We had a visit day to Stirling and then in the evening a walk down the woods with the dog.

Here is Mia talking to the dog next door.





Friday

DD1 was away again to the hospital, this time for standard eye tests for the twins, so she had asked her sister if she would babysit Bob and Spud. So I got the easy job.....babysitting a sleeping Ziggy with instructions to wake her at 3.30 pm. Here we are enjoying a snack in the garden with a seat and table granddad fashioned her from some of the bricks for the wall,





Saturday

Something different to take to work for lunch time. Some red, white and black quinoa cooked in almond milk with added sultanas and dates.






Sunday


No overtime today so a walk round the fishery tonight. The lack of rain is having a big impact on the water levels in the pond. It is usually up beyond the level of the grass on the LHS of this picture.




Monday

Took the dog a walk to Auchincruive, she likes to run around the open fields here. Decided to see what was at St Quivox, a small hamlet, with a strange name that is about a quarter of a mile away from the entrance to Auchincruive. The answer is not a lot, but we walked round the graveyard as I love reading headstones.





Tuesday

The car went back again to the garage, booked in and dropped off as requested in the morning. When I phoned at 1.30 it had not even been looked at so fed up of hanging round the town I went home and then had to bus it back in again to pick it up....they did not have the parts for two of the three things needing done so booked back in for Friday morning.I was not at all amused with them, could have worked my day much easier had I dropped it off at 1.30 instead of 9am.






Wednesday

DD1 had an appointment with one of Bob's specialists today to discuss a new treatment and which way they are going to take it.  Was no point in Bob going as it would have been above his comprehension level so DD1 went herself and will explain it to him for him to be involved on the decision making when she gets home. So I took the four of them to Rozelle Park to do some rock painting, have a picnic, pick up their painted rocks to hide and see if we would find others to move on.



Thursday

Was going to go and do some geocaching round somewhere we have never been before but the sat nav took us up a farm road that at the end of it had a sign saying no vehicle access to where we wanted to be, so guess there must have been another way in. So instead we went to Dean Park and walked miles round there with the dog instead.
Picked up our first geocache in about 18 months while there.This is one of our many stops for a drink. Try to stay under tree coverage as is cooler there.





Friday

Car went back in this morning. One of the issues is the fumes coming into the car when driving it, so having to drive with windows open and air vents shut. Well it came back out with a very very smelly air freshener in it, and time I got home the fumes were building up inside the car again. How do you get a so called reputable family run business with garages in more than one town to do a job properly?????? I suppose my husband could sue them once the build up of fumes kills me!!!! Have to say this whole thing is stressing me out. I like the car, lovely to drive so don't want to reject it as I have a right to do but if they cant sort it then I will have to. Going to phone the after sales team on my break today and see what they suggest.


DD1 brought the grandkids up for a visit. Played some games and they played in the garden as well.

The dog seems to have issues with Bob so he spent the time sat with him and granddad and feeding her biscuits as well. She is very nervous round him despite the fact he has never done anything to her.


Saturday

Made some blueberry and sultana cakes with some left over cous cous to add goodness and used wholemeal flour for a change.