Monthly Re-Caps – June's Jottings

Long overdue life update

September 2, 2024September 2, 2024 June L

Well, as the young folks say these days, it’s been a “hot minute” since my last blog post but much has happened and I have not had time, nor the inclination, to be online.

House things

After ten very frustrating months of, initially, no viewings and then a sudden spurt of strangers stamping through our home, we eventually sold our home in Peebles and have moved back to the city. Selling houses is not for the faint-hearted and both my husband and I have decided NEVER to do it EVER again. All of the viewers loved the house but it was either 1) in the wrong town, 2) not falling down so didn’t warrant renovation (that much was evident from the photo in the estate agents’ window, to be honest), 3) had too small a garden (it wasn’t *that* small), or 4) was too far out from the town centre (it was half a mile out. It took me 12 minutes to walk, and I am not a fast walker). We received an offer in December for it then to be withdrawn by the family for no reason at all (much to our estate agent’s – and our – anger). We were outbid significantly on a ‘project’ house we wanted to buy nearer to Dave’s work. We got pretty fed up, pretty quickly. Short of putting the house on Ebay, we thought we were stuck with it. I mean, it was a beautiful house which we had spent a lot of money on over the years but people just seemed unwilling to compromise on anything. Not that we could have picked the place up and moved it to the “right” town. However.

Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE my teas so the first thing that I did once we had moved in was to set up my tea wall. I’m a huge Bird & Blend fan!

And then came our sale quickly followed by our offer on our current house being accepted. Champagne was consumed. We had eight weeks from our former house going under offer until move-out day, so things had to happen quickly. As the property we have bought is an older house which needs a lot of TLC, there were a lot of snags regarding paperwork for extensions which had been carried out in the 80s, another one about where our land boundaries actually are, and more about the garage and safety checks. It was a bit touch and go as to whether we would actually be able to pick up the keys on the day we moved out of our old house as these checks were taking forEVER to do. However, to cut a very long story short, the missives were signed the day before move-in day (phew!) and the move went very well. The removers did puzzle over how they were going to get our three-seater leather sofa into the house – at one point, they were talking about taking it over the garage roof! – but, thankfully a couple of them managed to squeeze it through the side gate. Doree Bonner – you did ever so well. If I were ever to move home again (which I’m not) I would engage your services again (sly recommendation, here).

The Forth Bridge and Queensferry Crossing from our back garden

We absolutely love our new home. It is at the top of a hill which means we have the BEST views which range from the Forth Bridges (seen in the back garden), sweeping round past Corstorphine, Murrayfield, Inchkeith (an island in the River Forth), the Fife shoreline, to Edinburgh Castle and the Braid hills (seen from our study and main bedroom windows). I could sit at these windows for hours! The garden is very large, much larger than we thought, and is pretty overgrown. I am not a fan of slugs and snails but have come to tolerate them as over the summer we have tried to make the space more useable and less of the jungle that one would expect the late David Bellamy to have appeared in. Suffice to say, it is going to take us years to get the place as we want it. At the moment, there are two sparkies drilling and hammering in the dining room and living room next door to where I am sitting (in our library/morning room – I finally have a home library!) as the house is undergoing a complete re-wiring. Next up will be the central heating rehaul. And then the new carpets and wallpapering. The new kitchen will have to wait a little longer! It does seem endless, but things are getting there slowly.

The useable third of our back garden after much work. Two thirds more to work on!

One more amazing thing about moving back to the part of the city I grew up in is re-joining the library that I loved so much as a child. My Mum would take me there after picking me up from school (it was only a short walk away) and I would spend ages in there picking books to read. I have always had happy memories of that place. When I went in to get my new library card, I was pleased to see that – like a lot of this part of town – it has barely changed. I haven’t got any books out on loan yet, but once things are back to normal, a walk there will be a regular thing.

Talking about books – I had to have a massive book-cull once we moved in and got all the boxes out of storage. Now, I only have the books I love and I know I would have regretted losing (viz my bookshelves are now mainly 19th- or early- to mid- 20th century novels, golden age crime novels, and Terry Pratchett!).

PhD

With all of the house malarkey going on, it quickly became obvious that I could not effectively work on my thesis while packing up, organising removers, doing all the admin, speaking to our solicitor about all the issues listed above, so I took a 3.5 month break from my research. Today is my first day back at it. The sparkies choosing to come this week to hammer and drill really isn’t helping, so this week will be preparation for mega chapter writing next week. I just want this finished now, as does my Supervisor, I am sure. Once I get my head back into Bohemian London in the mid 20th century, I’ll be fine.

Hobbies

My work in progress. I’m not kidding when I say that this picture is HUGE!

To combat stress, I have been spending random moments doing some more cross-stitching, have taken up knitting (for the first time in decades), and piano-playing (badly!). Being creative really helps me to keep my cool and so output of arts and crafts has been abundant! I started cross-stitching a massive picture last August, and then left it for a few months while I took up knitting again (my daughter was learning to crochet, and this reminded me of how much I used to like knitting the kids their jumpers when they were babies). Progress on this massive picture is VERY slow – who knows when it will get finished. Because it is so large, it is getting in the way at the moment especially with rooms having to be emptied for the electricians and, shortly, the heating rehaul. But, I am enjoying doing it whenever I have a spare hour or so.

My son bought me a booknook for my birthday which I was thrilled with. I had coveted some for my bookshelves for a while, so this idea was excellent. Not so much the putting the thing together. It’s very, very fiddly! Way back in my nursing days, I had enrolled on a (now extinct) Nurse Surgeon course – now, trying to stick tiny pieces of wood together, makes me realise how shaky my hands have got. Maybe it’s just as well that I didn’t end up following that career path! I have almost finished my booknook; I have left it out in case anyone wants to finish it for me…….

General

A highlight this summer was going to my daughter’s graduation from the University of Dundee. She had been studying biomedical science, switching to Physiological Sciences in her last year. She hadn’t had an easy time at Uni – COVID meant her whole first year was online, then losing both of her grandmothers within 6 weeks of each other didn’t make the middle of second year any easier. Third year brought a mouse infestation in her rented flat in Dundee which had my daughter and her flatmate hurriedly seeking alternative accommodation. Then, she won the chance of an internship in a laboratory which is investigating diabetes treatments – this was the making of her. In June, she found that she had passed her final year with her best grades yet, allowing her to graduate with a First Class Honours and three academic prizes. We had a lovely day in Dundee celebrating with her, even though the post-graduation garden party was a washout thanks to the random monsoon that decided to hit us that afternoon.

Our daughter’s online motivational post.

She is now back staying with us for a year as she prepares to sit her UCAT in the hope of applying to study dentistry at either Dundee, Aberdeen, or Glasgow University (sadly, Edinburgh Uni dropped their dentistry degree several years ago, who knows why!). She did receive three biomedicine-related offers for Masters degrees at Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and Dundee but she feels that dentistry is the way she wants to go. So, it’s a wait and see for her.

Our son has just secured a new, high-flying software engineering job in the Edinburgh office of a very well known company. At least our offspring have their lives more or less sorted out. Wish mine was as clear-cut!

I re-start my English tutoring for high school students at the end of September. Last session, because of the move and upheaval, I only took on two students – one for N5 and one for Higher. Both found English challenging last year and narrowly missed passing their prelims. However, they both pulled their skills out of the bag for their exams gaining an A and a B respectively. I’m so proud of them! I do love seeing youngsters click with English; it’s such a great subject and when they ‘get’ analysis, it is priceless! I’m looking forward to re-starting with another small number this year – my priority is to get my thesis finished.

So, that should explain my absence. I can’t promise regular blog posts, but will do my best.

Oh, and on a personal note, I made a big decision this last month. I have decided to stop colouring my hair and am resigned to living with my slowly growing wisdom glitter. I have been colouring my hair since I was in my mid-20s, when a doctor I was working with helpfully asked if I had been “painting ceilings” (I won’t forgive him for that!). I am a brunette naturally, but decided to live the blonde life for 20 years, only going back for a drastic dark brown colour during COVID. However, I’m not tolerating hair dye very well any more, and have decided to save the £200 I spend at the salon every 7 weeks to use for other things (it is a bit ridiculous, really, when some people are struggling financially. Instead, I want to put the money I save into different charities). I cancelled my appointment at the salon last week, and am proud of myself for doing so. My rationale for doing this isn’t just about the hair dye; I am 53 years old – after my medical history, I’m lucky to have made it this far. And anyway, hair colour is not an indicator of age! I am still the same stuck-at-21 me despite the growing wisdom glitter. So, for a wee while, I’ll look stripey, but I’ll rock the stripes! A post I read on Instagram recently said “I want a face and body that says I honour the time I have been given and the life I have lived. Shame will not have a home here”. I like this sentiment. Since I had chemo in my mid 20s, my hair has thinned drastically; my more recent cancer treatment has really punished it even more. Add onto that the regular dyeing and it can’t be good. Maybe not putting harmful chemicals on my tresses will help it recover? I guess I have wanted to stay young as long as possible to make up for not having the fully-packed life that my peers (and now my kids) had/are having in their 20s due to my cancer battles. But, I’m ready to kick the fake colour and be my true self – older but not in any way old. Now I have to hope that I will keep strong and not reach for the phone to make another appointment when I doubt my decision.

July Re-Cap

August 1, 2023 June L

Once again, I have neglected my blog over the past month. Not out of desire but more of necessity. July has been another weirdly busy month where nothing has happened (if that makes sense). I hope to rectify things and return to my usual blogging schedule as soon as I can. In the meantime, here is a re-cap of my July:

House selling

Sadly, our house is still on the market as I type up this blog. None of the family homes around here have shifted, and more are coming onto the market every week. Since my last blog post, we have had no viewers at all; indeed, at times I forget our house is even on the market. It’s really demoralising. The “one viewer” that everyone talks about is strangely elusive and we wait on, clocking up more fees for storage and gaining more and more grey hairs and worry lines. There is a fairly big (I’m told) cycling event happening in nearby Glentress Forest at the end of this week and our agent is hoping that with a lot of visitors in the town we may pick up some interest. But, I am not holding my breath. I’m usually a positive person – optimism is my default setting – but this whole experience of trying to sell our lovely home is chipping away at that bit by bit. Maybe I’m just tired. I know I’m impatient. Both my husband and I are so keen to move back to the city as soon as possible and it’s frustrating when the ability to do so seems to not be happening imminently.

We are also in great need of a holiday away but because of the shenanigans this year with house-selling, that isn’t going to happen. Instead, it’s a case of trying to chill at home.

Anyway, maybe next month’s blog will be different (I’m sure I also said this last month…..).

PhD thesis

I have been trying to chip away at this over the past month. I have definitely left the most tricky chapter until the end. I’ve found some very useful background information, but Powell’s pubs, clubs, and restaurants are described minimally in his Dance novels. From these minimal descriptions, and from his journal entries and memoirs, I am trying to piece together subchapters which maintain the theme upon which my thesis is based. It is far from easy. Maybe I’m finding it more challenging with all that is going on (or not) with the house, but I’m keeping on going and am determined to have this finished next summer at the earliest.

When I was a child, my parents used to drag me to swimming lessons (which I hated!). The swimming teacher always used to tell us to “keep kicking” so that we could complete lengths, even when we wanted just to float or take a rest. That “keep kicking” concept has been very much in my mind, and – no matter how hard I wish this was all done so I can take a wee break – I have to keep going. If I don’t “keep kicking”, it won’t be finished for ages. And I (and I’m sure my supervisor) want this finished.

Reading

This month, when I haven’t been reading articles and books about Fitzrovia and Soho, or Powell’s novels (for the umpteenth time), I have been reading the first in the trilogy of Peebles-based novels by O. Douglas (actually named Anna Buchan, sister of John Buchan who wrote the Hannay books). I’ve only lived here 23 years and am reading them just as I’m about to leave! It’s easy-reading but a lovely escape as I try (unsuccessfully) to identify the locations of the houses that appear in Penny Plain (the first book in the ‘Priorsford’ series). Published in 1925, this novel paints a very different town to the one I live in, particularly in this description:

“I often wonder why Priorsford is so unlike a story-book little town. We’re not nearly so interested enough in each other for one thing. We don’t gossip to excess. Everyone goes his or her own way. In books, people do things or are suspected of doing things, and are immediately cut out by a feverishly-interested neighbourhood. I can’t imagine that happening in Priorsford”.

One just needs to look at the town Facebook pages to see that this isn’t the case any more! And gossip….. well, let’s just say when I was sick 11 years ago, I learned from various people “through the grapevine” that I had been at ‘death’s door’, or re-admitted for yet another operation among other falsities. I guess this is the ‘joy’ of a small town.

TV/Netflix/Streaming

I haven’t had much time to watch TV (as usual) except for the Sewing Bee (which I also mentioned last month). I can’t be bothered with TV, to be honest. I’ve been in a more creative/reading mood this month.

General

Unlike May and June, July has been cool and wet here. I don’t think there has been a day, since the schools broke up at the end of June, when we haven’t had rain. I’m not complaining though; the heatwave we had in the spring was more than enough summer for me. And, I’d rather have what we have now than the excessively hot temperatures seen in many parts of the world over the past few weeks. I’ve tidied out the garden in the drier spells but have been spared the watering – God’s done that for me! Perhaps when the schools go back in a fortnight, we will get summer again (even though I am looking forward to autumn!).

Talking of which, yesterday was so wet and cold that I decided to make gingerbread. I felt autumnal and I wanted to make something to enjoy with a cuppa tea. I found an old recipe in a book my late Auntie gave me for my fifteenth birthday, and the end result is amazing. I’m going to make that again!

Our son was 23 last week, so he and my daughter came from their respective flats to stay for the weekend. It was lovely having the house full again. Now they have both gone, I really feel the vacuum they have left. Mind you, I have a lot of tidying up to do in their wake!

I’ve been chipping away at the cross-stitch picture that my Dad gave me for Christmas. It’s hard finding time as I usually feel guilty that I’m not writing my thesis, or doing my SST emails, or doing something else. However, I have done short bursts at a time and am two-thirds of the way through it. I think I have mentioned it before, but sewing – and art and craft in general – is my go-to de-stress activity. Also, there is a quotation in a book I read a few years ago (in The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams), which says:

‘”I clean, I help with the cooking. I set the fires. Everything I do gets eaten, or dirtied, or burned – at the end of the day there’s no proof I have been here at all”. She paused, kneeled down beside me, and stroked the embroidery on the edge of my skirt […]. “Me [sic] needlework will always be here […]. I see this and I feel….well, I don’t know the word. Like I’ll always be here”. “Permanent,” I said’.

That’s how I view my numerous cross-stitch pictures which will one day belong to the kids. They are lasting proof that I have existed. Does that sound sad?

Ooh, and also the new Karl Jenkins CD was released at the beginning of July; the CD for which our choir provided two songs: ‘Let’s Go (Babel)’ and ‘Savitur’. They sound a-maz-ing! Even better, the album reached number 1 in the classical charts, so now I can say that I have sung on a number 1 CD! The names of my husband and I are on the inlay slip as proof! See if you can see my name below…. (names listed alphabetically by first name).

So, that’s been July. I’m hoping August will see the changes we are seeking. Who knows?

Monthly Re-Caps

Long Overdue Catch-up and June Re-cap

June 27, 2023June 26, 2023 June L

Well, it’s been a long while since I wrote my last blog post so I thought it was high time I brushed off the dust that has accumulated on this website and write an update as to what has been going on chez nous during June. Buckle up, it’s a bumpy ride.

House Selling

In my last blog post, I mentioned that we had had an offer accepted on a house we bid on in the city, and our current abode was about to hit the housing market. As it turns out, we are having major problems selling our current place; the demand for family homes in my town went from boom to bust in literally two weeks. And our house is still on the market. We had two months without any viewers; last week saw our first two groups of viewers since the end of April! The demand for family homes in this town is that bad. This is really baffling, as the town is not only beautiful scenery-wise, but it is a wonderful place in which to bring up a family. Plus, properties here tend to be much cheaper than their equivalents in the city. We have heard of other sellers who had got offers and have had to put their homes back on the market again, which is a comfort that it’s not just us that is going through this. But it’s all a bit of a mess as a result of recent hikes in interest rates and mortgage rates. As a result of our house not shifting, we have lost the house we offered on (someone else swiped it away from us a fortnight ago – grrrrr) and are effectively back to square one. We daren’t look for houses yet, but I have seen one which isn’t far from the original place (looks much better too) but we aren’t arranging viewings for places until we get an offer on this place. Which is goodness knows how long away!

All this has had a bit of a roller-coaster effect on my mental health. In week 1, when we had three viewings, I was so hopeful that we would be on our way up the road and nearer to my Dad (who had had a fall and was subsequently admitted to hospital for tests), and then two months of nothing dipped me into despair. My town suddenly makes us feel like we’re livin’ it up in the Hotel California – once you’ve checked in, you can’t leave! The viewings last week again brought the hope back, but one couple didn’t want the place (not enough storage, apparently, which is perplexing as we have quite a lot of it!) and the other couple has gone quiet. As has the estate agent with further bookings. So, to avoid the despair again, I’m trying to keep myself busy, but it isn’t easy trying to live in a pristine showhouse all the time – and I’m beginning to need some of the stuff we put in storage (we thought we would be in the new place by now). Trust interest rate increases and mortgage rate hikes to happen the very time we decide to sell! I am an optimistic person, though, and I know that we will sell. Although if someone else comes at me with the phrase, “it only takes one viewer/buyer”, I may swing for them!

So, we wait. The estate agent reckons it could be the end of July before we see things picking up again. To me, that is too far away. But, patience has never been one of my strengths and this whole experience is teaching me to be patient, so maybe I will be a changed person afterwards. One thing I do know is, our next house will be our last house – I’m not doing this again!

PhD progress

Flowers, tea, and some freshly-baked custard cream biscuits. Will make some more for returning to work next week…….

When we put the house on the market, I took a two month break. Time which, we were initially assured, we would have sold and probably moved out. That two months ends on Sunday; I am back at work on my PhD on Monday. I have pondered about extending my break, but literally what is the point? I have no idea how long this place will take to sell so maybe I should just concentrate on work as a distraction. The break has been really beneficial for my mental health though; selling is enough of a stress without adding on the fear of falling behind. I’ll just do what I can, when I can until we settle into our new place. I am forever thankful for a supportive and patient supervisor, and a really obliging university faculty. They’ll be glad to see the back of me next year!

Reading

I’ve been trying to read to keep myself distracted during the past few weeks, but it has been hit and miss in this aim. I’m currently reading Patrick Hamilton’s Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky, a novel which is set in London’s Soho and which I am reading as background for my thesis chapter. But, as I say, I haven’t felt like reading a lot and so this book is taking ages to get through (it’s also 580 pages long which doesn’t help either!).

Oh, and I gave up on Finnegan’s Wake. I’ll come back to that another time.

TV/Streaming

Again, I haven’t watched much TV other than The Great British Sewing Bee on Wednesday evenings. It’s one of my must-see shows. I have a sewing machine, and made myself a couple of tops when the children were small, but that’s as far as my dress-making goes. The programme always inspires me to make some more things; I wish I had asked my Mum to show me the basics when she was alive. She was a brilliant dressmaker.

Other than that, and old Neighbours re-runs on FreeVee, I haven’t watched much TV. Again, I haven’t felt like doing so. Bah to the mental turmoil of selling the house!

It’s been very hot here. Photo taken when it was a balmy 27C and before another fortnight of heat turned the lawn brown. The dogs sought the shade under the apple trees as much as they could.

General

It has been very, very hot here right since the end of April. By mid-June, it was 34C in our back garden (we have one of those geeky weather stations so our weather is personalised!) and it remained above 28C for nigh on a month. Our lawn slowly turned from its lovely green colour to the burnt colour of a cricket pitch, both in the front and back gardens. The dogs were not fans of the heat, and – to an extent – neither was I! I was able to take some of my sewing outdoors to work on, which was a treat now and again (before it got too hot and I scuttled back indoors again, closely followed by my sidekicks). Our back garden seating section is a suntrap so in hot weather you can only be out first thing, or last thing at night.

Work in progress on a summer’s day in the garden, with a sleepy dog guarding me.

The same work-in-progress as of Saturday. Progress is very slow.

However, over the past couple of days, we have had some much-welcome rain. The flowers have been loving it (as have I as it spares me yet another round with the watering can!) and the grass is loving it. I stood out in our back garden as the rain hammered down the other day, with distant thunder rumbling, and soaked in (pun intended) the scent of petrichor and the sound of the large raindrops hitting the bone-dry ground. I don’t think there is anything nicer than the first rainfall after an unrelenting heatwave.

So, I think that is about all that has been happening here over the past few weeks. Not a lot, but yet weirdly it feels like it has been a lot. My Dad is doing well again after that little health scare at the beginning of May, and I am hoping he stays well for a long while! Maybe by the end of next month, I will have better news to share on this blog in regard to our house sale/move.

One piece of good news we got was that my husband has been promoted to a Professor in his university faculty (or Schools as Edinburgh Uni calls them). He has worked so hard for this, and we are all delighted for him. In other family news, my daughter starts a clinical internship in the labs at Ninewells tomorrow. Over the summer break, she will be focussing on diabetes research. These internships were very competitive and she did very well to secure one. She is very excited to get going. Just the encouragement she needs as she prepares for her last year on her biomed degree. My son has also had a promotion in his workplace and now is responsible for the interns who have recently arrived there. I need to get my last chapter written to complete the ‘full house’ [June tries to muster up some enthusiasm and discipline for next week, but decides she needs a cup of tea first].

I’m now hoping to re-start my usual blog posting days again of Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. I’ve missed not spilling my brains out on this platform! Thank you for bearing with me during my absence.

My favourite flower. One of the surviving roses in our garden which has been providing the most beautiful scent during these last hot days.

Monthly Re-Caps

April Recap

April 26, 2023April 26, 2023 June L

First up, many apologies for my blog absence over the past few weeks. Things have ratcheted up several notches in hecticness since my last blog for reasons which will soon become apparent. Although, for the short term, my blog posts may be sporadic, and happening on days I don’t usually blog (such as today) normal service will be resumed soon.

Our house situation

On my March re-cap, I mentioned that my husband and I were going to be viewing a house in one of my two favourite areas of the city. Well, we did and we kinda fell in love with the house. It is an older property which needs a LOT of work done to it, not only maintenance-wise but also decor-wise (it is currently stuck in the 1970s and so we need to bring it kicking and screaming into the 21st century). We have viewed other properties, but we kept circling back to the first one. After a second viewing, where we sussed out more practical things, and on hearing that several other people had also been viewing this house in the previous week, we submitted an offer for it. After a tense overnight wait, we learned the next morning (funnily enough when I was at the dentist!) that our offer had been accepted! So, we are very, VERY excited although, at times, we are wondering what on earth we are doing taking on an older house which needs some work. [Actually, I make it sound worse than it is – it is very much habitable, but we will need to take out the Baxi back boiler – I had never heard of this before – and get rid of the Anaglypta wallpaper which is e-v-e-r-y-where: on the walls, even on the ceilings! And wood. Wooden ceilings and walls? Not my taste!]. However, I love older houses and their character. Whether or not this will remain the case once we have moved in, is anyone’s guess. Our current house is modern, and so it will make a nice (?) change. Somehow, older houses seem to be built much sturdier…..

My old infant school, now a nursing home, which is only a few steps from our new home.

So, we have this new house in our clutches but we need to sell our current home in one month in order to secure it. Fast forward the estate agent appearing, a survey being done, and photographs being taken and finally – finally – our house went on the market on Monday. Already we have three viewings booked; 2 for this afternoon and one on Friday morning. It’s a weird feeling though: our little private, safe haven which has seen the making of many memories, is now public property open for strangers to walk in and critically appraise. Thankfully, our estate agent is doing the viewings; I don’t have to hear or see the reactions of those who are viewing! I love our home – I always will – and I know I will be very sad to leave it. At the same time, though, we are excited to return to the city and, for me particularly, to return to my roots (the suburb we are moving to is the one in which I was brought up until the age of 10, so it holds extremely special memories for me). New adventures await, not least those which we will experience as we do the house up. I am certain that we will make our new home look amazing; it will certainly be very well loved. I can only hope that our new neighbours are as tolerant with our two barky dogs as our current ones have been.

Our kitchen from where I am writing this blog and consuming lunch. Hoping our viewers love it as much as I do.

PhD progress

Over the last month, this has been woeful. Mainly because my husband and I have been prepping our home for selling. As my husband has a senior position in his workplace, he isn’t able to devote as much time to this as I can, so my writing time has been replaced with tidying/decluttering/clearing out and such like at the detriment of getting my last chapter written. So, I have requested a two month break from my thesis so that we can get our move out of the way without the guilt I have been feeling about not having the time or energy to spend on my work. It’s so frustrating – I am nearly finished – but we can’t wait a further year to move, when I have finished. We need to get nearer to my Dad as soon as we can so that, on my days off (I am part-time), I can spend time with him and help him a bit. I hate asking for more time off, but in this case it seems the most sensible thing to do. Particularly galling is the fact that I went through my Masters degree with no time off, despite receiving cancer treatment at the time. This PhD is a challenge in more ways than one. Maybe it is easier to do when one is in their 20s/ early 30s. However, I plod on…… it will be finished next year!

Reading/ TV/ Music

I have had no time at all to spend reading, nor watching TV/Netflix, nor even listening to music. This has been a really busy and weird month. I haven’t even had time to write scheduled blogs, let alone live ones! Looking forward to things eventually calming down.

Other things

My little English tuition job is drawing to a close for the academic year. Only a few of my students have taken up my offer of continuing with revision sessions up until their exams in a fortnight’s time, but I have – on the whole – enjoyed teaching this past year. It has been remarkable in the fact that this is the year when most students have failed to turn up unannounced for their tutorials – usually this doesn’t happen. However, I am taking a break from this little earner for a year so that I can concentrate on my thesis and get some of the jobs done in our new home. It has been a joy to see my students do so well over the years and I will miss them.

So, that was April, in a nutshell. Everything was focussed on our new house, the marketing of our current one, and lots of stress. Where will we be by the time I write my May Recap blog? I guess we’ll have to wait and see……. Just please keep praying or keeping everything crossed for us that one of our viewers this week will put an offer on our home….

Monthly Re-Caps

March re-cap

March 30, 2023March 30, 2023 June L

I cannot get my head around the fact that, at the weekend, it will be April. Maybe it’s just me getting older but the years seem to fly in at an ever-increasing rate. So, this being the last blog post of mine in March, it’s a monthly round-up post.

House Sale

Last week we finally, finally got the main bathroom (which we ordered at the beginning of August last year) fitted! It was the last renovation that needed to be done before we put the house on sale. It does look amazing – I only wish we had had the funds to do it years ago! So, now we only have two rooms left to paint (my daughter’s room and the corridors (upstairs and downstairs) and the garden to tidy up (which I have been told is my job, even though I balk at slugs and worms!) and then we are good to go. After providing the workmen with banana loaf and cupcakes along with their tea and coffee during our main bathroom refit, they have agreed to do any renovations for us in our next property. They were a very good team of workers and just got on with the job to a very high standard.

We are, however, going to view a property in the city on Saturday morning. It’s in one of my two favourite areas of the city and I am really hoping the house goes down well with my husband. I cannot stop thinking of the place! It’s a much older property than that in which we currently live (ours was built in 1999 – 2000) but it is my ‘favourite’ age of house. I know the area really well too as I was brought up in that area of town until we moved to another part of the city when I was 10 years old. So, the area holds a lot of very happy memories for me. My piano teacher used to live around the corner from where this house is situated and I have fond memories of my Mum walking my brother and I to piano lessons after picking me up from infant school (I started piano lessons at the age of four). I am praying so hard that nobody puts an offer in on the house before we get to see it on Saturday – I am literally obsessed with it! It would involve sacrificing a few things from our ‘wish list’ but beggars can’t be choosers, and I can see so many ways in which we can make our own alterations and improvements on the property……. I better not get too excited in case it doesn’t happen. Watch out for next month’s round-up for the outcome.

My late mother-in-law’s flat in the city is also on sale now. In just a week four viewers have been scheduled and we are hoping that it sells quickly. It is a beautiful bright flat; if it hadn’t been mother-in-law’s old property and if we didn’t have dogs, then we may have considered it for ourselves (even though my husband says it is completely the wrong side of town for him to get to work).

PhD

This has been progressing very slowly due to works in the house and general clearing of things into storage. I now have a clear direction for my last chapter and am shortly going to be submitting some work to my Supervisor. Life appears to throw things at me during this degree: a pandemic, bereavements, and now moving home! I’m getting there, though. I’m beginning to love researching again.

Books I have read

This month I have had an Ireland-heavy personal reading theme (well, it was St Patrick’s Day this month). On talking with one of my tutees who was going on a trip to Dublin, I had the (mad) idea of reading Finnegan’s Wake as a bit of a challenge to myself. I downloaded it on my Kindle and have got to page 75……and then kinda got stuck there. I will take it up again, it won’t defeat me. It’s a bit bonkers though. To offset the mental obstacle course of deciphering Joyce’s language in that novel, I am also about halfway through Edward Rutherfurd’s Dublin, a mammoth book, but one which I am really enjoying. I previously read his novel Sarum (about the history of Stonehenge and Salisbury) and have the rest of his novels (New York, London, Russka, The New Forest, and China) in my bookcase still to read. Life, however, often gets in the way – I need to set aside guilt-free time to read for pleasure more (see last Thursday’s blog!).

I’ve also read Barbara Pym’s Excellent Women this month. I try to read a Pym a month, or every other month. I like her characters and it is a bit of easy escapism.

TV/Netflix/DVD

This month, I haven’t watched anything on the TV – the programming seems to get worse. Instead, we have been enjoying the 1967 version of The Forsyte Saga on DVD which I got as a birthday present last year. We are still only at the beginning of the series but we are really enjoying it so far. This was quite a popular series back in its day – apparently 18 million people tuned into the final episode of the re-run in 1969!

Other than that, re-runs of Neighbours on FreeVee have helped pass the time during insomniac nights (when I can’t sleep for thinking of the house we are going to view!).

Choir

This month, we have been working on Christopher Tin’s amazing song Baba Yetu (the Lord’s Prayer in Swahili and also the theme music for the video game ‘Civilisation IV’ – have I told you how much I love the Civ games?). Our submission date for our parts is this weekend, so I am just finishing rehearsing my soprano part and then will send my offering in. Hopefully, within the next couple of months or so, it will go live on YouTube. It’s been a great song to sing – mastering Swahili has been a lot of fun. [Our projects all feature on the Stay At Home Choir Youtube site].

Other events

My Dad celebrated his 90th birthday a couple of weeks ago. He is doing well, despite all that he has been through over the past few years in watching my Mum deteriorate and then adapt to life without her. He sadly caught a virus (thankfully not Covid!) and so we had to cancel his birthday meal, but we will hold this very soon.

Today is also Furboy’s first birthday. We bought him a toy cactus to chew on, which he absolutely loves. And a replacement blue ball (see last week’s blog). Dogs are so easy to buy for!

This week also sees the end of my ‘formal’ tutorials for my S1-3, N5, Higher, and Advanced Higher English tutees. Over the next six weeks, I offer tutorials for exam candidates on a request basis so that they can easier schedule and prioritise their revision. I have also taken the decision to take a year out of tutoring next year (in saying that, I am keeping two students on: one is the daughter of one of my best friends, and the other is a young lad who has never missed one of my tutorials and who, I think, has bags of potential to do extremely well). I have been tutoring for seven years now and, although it is rewarding, it is hugely demanding of my time. I tailor every student’s work to their texts and abilities and when I have ten students, like I have this year, that takes up a lot of time (and which becomes increasingly frustrating when the tutees don’t turn up for their tutorials without letting me know – an all-too-frequent occupational hazard). Also taking into account reading and providing feedback on essays, sourcing articles to adapt for RUAE practise etc., it all eats into my own PhD time. It has been a great wee money-spinner for me, but I think a year or two out once we have moved, will allow me to get my thesis finished and basically get involved in church evening activities more, or community/volunteering events. I so desperately want to go to dress-making classes and potentially some of the University’s language classes too. And to take up tennis again. So many things which are impossible to do when I’m tutoring every evening!

So, that is more or less March in a nutshell. Busy as usual but much nearer the start of the next chapter than we were a couple of weeks ago. The daffodils and crocuses are blooming here, the buds on the trees are preparing to burst open, and there is a sense of new life and optimism in the air. These are some of the reasons I love Spring and which are very apt for the stage we are at in our lives just now. New opportunities aren’t far off.