What a Night

Midnight
I go to bed. There is a dog barking in the distance. I lie for a while trying to decide if I should close the window, but it’s far too hot. A new noise starts. People are shouting on the street outside the front of the house. And that dog is still barking.

3.30am
I wake up with Andy asking me to switch on the light. The cats have brought home a mouse and are playing with it on the landing. He gets up to put a stop to their game, the rules of which are to knock the mouse down the stairs, then race each other to see who can catch it again. Poor mouse.

6.30am
I wake up with cramp in both legs. I try to remain as relaxed as I can, slowly stretching out each leg. It gets worse. I roll over, and suddenly my side of the bed collapses! The slats under the mattress have slipped out of place. Ten minutes later the cramp has gone, but the bed still needs to be fixed. Andy has to fold the mattress back and hold it in place as I try to stack the slats back up again. The job finally done, we settle back down in the hope of a final hour or two of sleep.

Seconds later
I become aware of people shouting, this time at the back of the house, directly outside our window. It’s a large group of kids and it sounds like they have been out all night. Over time the group gradually disperses, but one particularly foul mouthed bloke remains. His words drift through our window and I wonder if, when the baby is born, we would be justified in calling the police?

7.50am
The alarm goes off. Time to get up. Urrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh. Three boys still remain outside. And then it hits me. When the baby is born I’ll probably be delighted with the amount of sleep I’ve just had!

Catherine

Jealousy, DIY and An Evening with Christian Zacharias

A Green-Eyed Monster

My mum’s off to the States! I can’t believe it, it’s simply not on. I’m about to explode with jealousy – two whole weeks staying with my auntie and uncle in New York State and no invitation for me!

There is, however, a plus side to my mum’s disgusting selfishness; my dad is now at a loose end. I have therefore hatched a cunning plan which involves my dad coming to Inverkeithing to help me with some DIY. Actually, he offered, which I thought was very nice of him – he clearly doesn’t know what is in store for him! Remember the bedroom that C and I were going to decorate? Well, we never quite got round to finishing it. If fact, we never even nearly got round finishing it. The truth is that with C’s baby bump growing at an ever increasing rate, we need to get the room back to a habitable state a.s.a.p. and my dad’s offer of help was too good to turn down. He arrives tomorrow, hopefully armed with some plasterboard and some quick-setting plaster.

I figured that after a couple of days of hard graft on Friday and Saturday, that my dad would want Saturday evening off, so as a thank-you for his help I got tickets to hear Christian Zacharias in Crail Church. The East Neuk Festival has a growing reputation, Zacharias is meant to be a World-class pianist, and Crail church is meant to be a nice venue – so l’m hoping we’re in for a night of great music in lovely surroundings. Whatever happens, it’s bound to be better than a stinking two week break in America!

Zacharias plays Chopin

Andy

Simple Pleasures

I don’t think I ever posted about the fact that our washing machine gave up the ghost a few weeks ago. It had been threatening to do so for quite some time, and would make a horrendous noise during the spin cycle. So horrendous in fact that I tried, as far as possible, to only have the machine running when we were out of the house. I knew we would have to resolve this problem before the baby was born. Either that or give up all hope of the baby every sleeping during the day, or wear dirty clothes for the next two to three years!

The day the machine actually broke, it made an even worse noise than usual. It was so loud in fact that when the Tesco man arrived with our grocery order he and I had to complete the entire transaction through lip reading and the art of mime because even though we were shouting at each other it was impossible to hear what we were saying. I managed to work out that his parting words were ‘I THINK IT’S BROKEN!’

Shortly after he left the noise got even worse so I opened the cupboard door to have a look, just in time to see the washing machine bouncing up and down off the ground, the detergent drawer flying open, and the top of the machine shooting off! I grabbed hold of as many parts as I could and clung on for dear life while jabbing at the power button. I honestly thought that the machine was going to explode or go up in flames – it really was quite scary! Eventually it switched off and slowed down to a halt. Time to buy a new machine …

Now I am the proud owner of a lovely quiet Indesit washing machine. It is such a novelty to be able to do more than one load of washing a day, not to mention hold a conversation in the same room as it is being done. I’m sure this novelty will wear off soon enough, but for the time being it makes me very happy!

Catherine

Long Weekend in ‘The Schnek’

Mum and C in Ardclach

C and I took a couple of days off work and headed to Inverness for the weekend to see the family. Friday evening was spent with both sets of parents. C’s folks were stopping in Inverness on their way from Thurso to the north of England where they’re holidaying, so we all had a meal round at my parents’ house and talked for hours.

My dad is currently marking biology exam papers, so we decided to leave him in peace and took mum out a drive to Nairn and Forres on Saturday morning. She wanted to go to the Logie Steading Visitor Centre and since she mentioned that there was a Cafe on site with a good selection of cakes on offer, C agreed that this was a good plan!

C and friend at Logie Steadings

Actually the place ticked all the boxes; C was happy with the cafe, mum was happy because there was a clothes shop, and there was a large secondhand bookshop to keep me entertained too! After we’d eaten, mum suggested we go to the nearby cemetery where her great grandfather was supposed to be buried. I think mum had been there years ago, but we still managed to get thoroughly lost, and somehow ended up in Grantown-on-Spey before turning back and eventually finding the place.

James McDonald – my great great grandfather apparently

The graveyard was in the middle of nowhere in a beautiful and very secluded spot in Ardclach. Most of the gravestones had quite lengthy obituaries printed on them praising the person’s character etc. The headstone of a former minister of the church stood in stark contrast to these. All it said was, ‘Here lies Rev Alexander MacDonald. He preached Christ’. Fantastic.

On the way home we stopped off at Dulsie Bridge. When I was in school a few of the guys used to skip class and head here to chill out. I, of course only heard about this on the grapevine and never, ever, ever did it myself!

C at Dulsie Bridge

The rest of the weekend is a bit of a blur. We read, slept, went to Smithton FC, read some more, met up with my cousin for the first time in about 10 years, and then slept and read. Oh, and we ate lots too!

Right, that’s it. I have studying to do for exams and this is me just procrastinating.

Andy

Some more PHOTOS

Out for Breakfast

In anticipation of more house clearing and DIY today, we decided to head to Craigie’s Farm Deli and Cafe for breakfast. We’d never been before but had past the sign for it hundreds of times when driving to and from Edinburgh. I’d checked their website a couple of weeks ago, and was instantly attracted by the mention of pancakes and maple syrup on the menu!

Because it was such a nice morning we were able to sit outside and enjoy the views across the Forth. And while Andy tucked in to a cooked breakfast which included bacon, sausage, mushrooms and Stornoway Black Pudding, I savoured the delicious pancakes drenched in syrup. We were entitled to a free re-fill of coffee, but the original cups we had were more than enough for us.

I’m sure it won’t be long before we head back to Craigie’s. Unfortunately the pancakes are only on the menu until 11.30am, but there are plenty of other treats to be had, including a great selection of home baking. I think when I’m on maternity leave I’ll probably spend a lot of time there, and most of Andy’s student loan on cakes!

Catherine

Poor little kittens have lost their … sofa

We’ve been making some changes in the house recently – mainly so that we can accommodate Baby Pearson when he/she arrives. This has involved changing ‘The Green Room’ into a study, and moving our TV to the bigger living room where we used to keep all our books. As you can imagine Andy didn’t particularly enjoy shifting 4 bookcases across the house. (Due to my current ‘condition’ I just had to help by watching!)

These changes have come at a cost, not so much to our wallets, but to the other creatures who live here. Last night we cleared a few old bits and pieces of furniture out onto the street for the Council to come and collect. One of these items was a small sofa that has really only been used by Dylan and Jay Jay for the past 6 months or so. As much as we love the cats, a whole sofa to themselves did seem a bit ridiculous (especially as it was taking up half of the room that will eventually belong to Baby Pearson!)

Of course, without their sofa and beloved green cushion, the cats were at a bit of a loss last night. I was woken up 3 times by Jay Jay who was trying to scratch his way in to the linen cupboard looking for something soft to lie on. And today, they really didn’t look very comfortable perched on the hard wooden window sill:

I have temporarily solved the problem by making a nice cat bed out of a pile of old blankets. The cats seem happy enough with this solution for now, but a long term solution will need to be found. (Especially as this pile of blankets now takes up a considerable amount of floor space in the room that will eventually belong to Baby Pearson!)

Catherine

Crafty Moments

Seeing as we were going to be in Aberdeen a few weeks ago, I saw it as the perfect opportunity to get my hands on some of the beautiful cards made by Judy Laing. I have admired her handcrafted cards for some time via her blog, and decided it was about time that I actually bought some.

Judy was able to provide me with a couple of cards for new babies, and an engagement card too – and they were all amazing. Below is a photograph from her blog of one of the baby cards … incidentally she has comments from 27 other people who also think it’s fantastic!

If you ever need a card for a special occasion then I would recommend heading over to Judy’s Crafty Moments where she has a link to her online shop. You will not be disappointed!

Catherine

Webchat

Macs are awesome, there’s no getting away from it. Both C and I are now on googlemail, which means that we can video chat on our Macbooks instead of having to email each other. So, if I’m at work and starving and want to know what feast C is going to prepare for me that evening, I can just ask her – face to face!

Chatting to C on my Mac

Amazing.

Andy

P.S. Beans on toast apparently.

Child 44

Last time we were up in Inverness, Andy’s dad gave me a couple of books to read. Child 44, and The Book Thief. I chose to read Child 44 first, but now I wish I hadn’t, mainly because it was so good I wish I still had to read it!

Set in Stalin’s Russia, where crime is no longer believed to exist, a serial killer is on the loose, murdering children up and down the country. The story follows MGB Officer, Leo, who gradually becomes disillusioned with the State system. Eventually denounced and exiled, he sets out to solve the murders …

I really didn’t know what to expect when I started reading the book, but was quickly hooked. At some points it felt like reading an episode of 24 it was so fast paced and gripping. It wasn’t until I got to the end, and read an interview with the author (thirty-year-old Tom Rob Smith) that I realised that was exactly the sort of book he had set out to write. Well, he succeeded! It was also really interesting, not to mention completely shocking, to read about how Russia operated under Stalin’s rule.

The good news for me is that a sequel, The Secret Speech came out at the start of April, so I will need to get my hands on a copy of that. And as far as I can make out, Ridley Scott is planning to start work on a film version of Child 44 in 2010. We’ll be looking for a baby sitter when that comes out in the cinema – just to give plenty of advance notice!

Catherine

An Air-Brushing

Your wish is our command Mairead! Here’s the new air-brushed version:

The ‘After’ Shot

A