Ready as we'll ever be

Sandwiches - check
Marshmallow top hats - check
Party bags - check
Present for the birthday boy - check
Sanity - check

Will sanity remain intact throughout a joint 4th birthday party for six birthday boys, one birthday girl and their assorted friends and relations? Answers on a postcard....

Now to check cameras are all fired up and ready to go!

I want your job

Should I be surprised to discover that the Guardian has a 'Head of Blogs'?

The mo' is complete

Movember is over... maybe now I can have a non-scritchy husband again.

Woot! (and just a touch of squeee!)

My Ravelry t-shirt has arrived from the US of A, and in super-quick time - squeeee!

High days & holidays

So, halfway through the second week of my staycation an update is surely in order. I'll stick to the highlights, lest terminal boredom set in.

Monday was Blair Drummond - gorgeous, sunny day and we took a picnic. Hurray! Mr E loved the sea-lion show (although not as much as play-park, natch...) and we took the boat trip round Monkey Island, which we've never been able to do before when it's been busier.
Wednesday was a trip to the beach at Ayr for a wellie-clad sandcastle-building extravaganza, the finished object being resplendent with doors, a path, and both a front and back garden.

Thursday afternoon was Kittochside to see the cows being milked. Unfortunately the tractor was out of commission, so we had to walk up the hill to the farm, but Mr E stunned and amazed us both by walking all the way there without whining or asking to be carried. I'll say nothing of the way back down the hill, however...

This week has been altogether less active thus far, and much knitting has ensued (let's say nothing of the daytime television...) I'm currently working on Arbor (Ravelry link) in New Lanark woodland DK. Poor J's socks are abandoned once more.

Yesterday also marked my lovely dad's 60th birthday, and today was my long-planned present-cum-birthday-treat. We caught a Sleazyjet flight down to London, and had a fabulous lunch at the 2-Michelin-starred Le Gavroche. Of the many cookery books I've bought him for Christmases and birthdays I think the first was an Albert Roux one, so it seemed a fitting kind of place to take him.

The food and the service were amazing (although the cloned waitresses were a tad unnerving!), and chef Michel Roux Jnr was seen working the dining room on a few occasions. Unfortunately lunch took so long that we ran out of time to do anything else before coming home, which was a bit of a shame - we had hoped to take a flight on the London Eye, but would have been in severe danger of missing our flight home had we done so!

Back to work on Monday (boo.) The house has never been so tidy - never will be again either! Expect an imminent return to slatternliness.