Has it really been a week?

End of the first week back at work after the holiday. It wasn't too bad, actually - particularly as I am now a part-time slacker. I find that you can cope with even the most boring of jobs if you know you are leaving at lunchtime. The post-Canada withdrawal symptoms are manageable for the most part. Although I did see a car drive up to our little corner shop over the road this morning with a Canadian flag sticking out of the window. I pined, slightly.

The boys for their part are enjoying some heavy-duty slobbing. They have re-established their love affair with their XBox and, inexplicably, with watching the odd episode of "Judge Judy" on TV while eating porridge in the morning. Bizarre.

I meant to say before that one of the best parts of this year's holiday was taking the boys to Hennigar's in Greenwich for ice cream. Now, we have been going to Hennigar's for ice cream for years but this is the first year that First Born has been able to truly participate. His dairy allergy is on the retreat now to such an extent that he can eat ice cream. And (on this holiday alone) cheese, pizza, whipped cream from a can, yogurt, chocolate mousse and frozen chocolate mousse (we all had a taste of that when he ordered it and frankly he is lucky the rest of us didn't wrestle him to the ground, sit on him and eat his dessert while ignoring his pleas for mercy. It was THAT GOOD). Oh, and donuts in Tim Hortons.

The joy of being able to take FB into any restaurant we like (except one that serves vegetables, obviously - he still has standards) and let him order whatever he wants off the menu without having to cross examine the staff on the ingredients - it was wonderful. Of course, it means he also wants to try EVERYTHING now and no food in my possession is safe. I used to be able to protect things I wanted to keep to myself by claiming they "may" have milk in them and I wouldn't want him to be ill. But no more. Now if he sees it, he wants to try it. Unless it is green and leafy. Anyone have a recipe for spinach ice cream?

Did you miss me?

Just back from the wonders of Canada. We had the usual grind of having to negotiate Gatwick and London on our way back so will take a day or two to recover from that (hurry up someone, and reinstate direct flights to Nova Scotia from Glasgow - this is getting tiresome). That said, I would go through a great deal to get to the Maritimes for our annual break. Staying in a cottage with a view like this from its deck is priceless
Those two not-so-little blobs on the beach are First Born and Second Born off to frolic in the surf. I was on the deck coating myself in SPF 60 sunblock and snapped a photo before I left.

Also, wonder of wonders, my curse is broken! I am no longer known as "The Whale Repellant" We went whalewatching from Brier Island and.......I SAW WHALES!!! We encountered a female humpback whale and her calf and they stayed and played around the boat for over an hour. (In fact the captain of the boat tried repeatedly to leave but was thwarted by the whales playing and rolling around the boat - he couldn't start up the engines without risking their injury and they wouldn't leave!!) These photos don't really do justice to how wonderful the whales were and how close they were - we got thoroughly sprayed from their blow-holes every time they surfaced ("Aargh! Whale snot!!!" yelled my children, much to their own amusement.)
More soon once brain is functioning. Meantime, congratulations to Isabelle and K on becoming a grandmother and mother respectively. Pop over to Isabelle's blog for some lovely pictures to coo over.

You know........

............. that it's Midsummer in Edinburgh when it has been raining without cease for a week, the tourists all look like they want to cry and you have just taken the winter weight duvet out of the cupboard and put it back on your bed.

Oh, hi. You're still there?

Wow. Almost a month appears to have passed since I last blogged. This is partly due to a certain amount of stuff that was going on that I couldn't really blog about and partly (mostly) due to my laziness/devotion to playing Scrabble with my Mum on Facebook. And now there is so much to talk about that I am reduced to bullet points. So: Stuff That Has Happened Since I last Posted

• I turned 44. It wasn't too bad.
• We discovered that bunnies and not slugs are munching all our vegetables down at the cottage.
  
• We discovered you cannot buy Bunny Pellets at the garden centre.
  
• Noted that Internet recommends scattering human and/or dog hair all over your garden to discourage the furry munch-monsters without actually harming them. Wondering (a) how much hair will I get if I shave the children? or alternatively, (b) where can I lay my hands on supplies of dog hair without upsetting my dog-owning neighbours?
• Went into mourning as our friendly neighbourhood butcher over the road retired and went off to play golf instead of slicing bacon and making steak pies for our delectation. His shop has been taken over by a dog grooming business. Oh, wait.......
• Covered a very hilly 6 miles in 1 hour 45 minutes with my Mum as we participated in the Race for Life last Sunday. Enjoyed embarrassing my Mum on Facebook as I told everyone how she left me with the bags after we crossed the finish line and went off to use the loos, and how she then got lost on her way back to me and had to go and ask the nice man on the stage to put a call out for me on the PA to come and get her. Said nice man then announced to the assembled masses (the 5k race was just getting ready to start) that Mum had been claimed by her daughter and suggested I should either put a leash on her next time or get one of those chips put in her ear.
• Realised we leave for the annual Loth Family Canadia Jamboree in about a fortnight. That sound you can hear is the entire whale population of the north Atlantic getting ready to decamp the minute I set foot on a whalewatching ship. I don't care! I still can't wait!
  

I've remembered my name again

Husband has finally got around to setting up our family e-mail using a groovy domain name he bought a couple of years ago (I presume if you are married to a plumber then your house may be full of cool taps and nice showers. We have cool e-mail addresses.) This has necessitated lots of headscratching on my part as I realise quite how many things (Facebook, Google Reader, Gmail, Blogger....) I run using my e-mail address and which therefore require a bit of tweaking if we are going to start using the new one. It's been like a test on how much I really understand the internet and social networking sites. I suspect I may have failed.

Incidentally, I am told by Husband that he has set up the whole email gubbins using Google Apps. No, I have no idea what that means or how it works. I just know that I can still get my email from the old account even when I log into the new one. It's like alchemy.

I did however forget about Blogger to begin with and then when I remembered and went to log in, I had forgotten which email address I used to access it and which password and then I got distracted by a bit of fluff on the carpet and days passed. However, as you can see, I have now remembered it. Haven't figured out how to move the account over to the new email address but I am going to not think about that for a while because having to remember and manage more than one address is beginning to make my teeth hurt.

On a more positive (if no less mundane) note, I am getting my hair cut tomorrow for the first time in about.......ooooh.............11 months (if you don't count the times I cut my own fringe with nail scissors because it was annoying me). I have for years had a very distinct streak in my hair - an area where all my grey hairs have gathered together, and fortunately it usually lurks underneath the brown hair and is not visible to the casual observer. However as I approach my mid-40s, the grey is spreading slightly and making its presence more obvious. I am therefore considering letting my hairdresser have her wicked way with my wee streak. She has been threatening to dye it for years and Second Born has given me permission to let her. SB is suggesting bright purple. What do you reckon?

How did that happen?

First Born has exams next week. At school. Something I gave birth to will be sitting proper exams in English and Chinese in just a few days. I spent this afternoon passing on my wisdom about revision schedules and exam techniques. To my baby.

I'm getting old.

Well thank you for that help with the tree identification. Especially you, Katney. Don't know what I would do without you. No, really.

In other exciting news, some new energy saving lights have been fitted in the quasi-government-y office where I work. They turn themselves off when no-one is around and then turn on when they sense your presence. My office is at the end of a long, long corridor full of said lights, so every morning as I walk down there the lights gradually turn on as I pass them. My question is this: is it okay that I hum myself a little fanfare crescendo as the lights come on? Or is that a bit sad?