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 We received an offer in December for it then to be withdrawn by the family for no reason at all (much to our estate agent’s – and our – anger).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.
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).
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.
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
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.
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.
June's Jottings 