Made by Mojo
When you change, people either change with you or they leave your life forever
Thursday, October 23, 2008
School reunion...scary stuff!


You go back home for the school reunion...




You look around at where you came from...



You look at where you are now...



You know you wouldn't want to relive it...

But it's nice to check it out...

Plus it helps when you know you've aged better than sooooooooo many others...but that's called "being bigsy" back home :-)
posted by Maureen @ 4:25 pm   2 comments
Monday, October 20, 2008
Findlay Farm, my house, is for sale...

It's taken a wee while, to say the least, but I have finally got round to putting my house on the market. The "For Sale" signs from Stronachs went up at the top of the road and outside the house this morning and I already had one woman turn up who had been just driving past and decided to come down the road on the offchance! I do know she's unlikely to be my buyer as she hasn't even got her own house on the market yet but at least it gave me a chance to show someone round.

So who wants a tour of my humble abode...here we go! In case you hadn't guessed...here we have the front of the house. Cracking spot on a sunny day, south-facing, and the bit you can barely see at the end of the garden (to the left in left hand photo) is the sunken patio - complete with firepit for the boys to play with!

Come into the hallway and then settle yourself down in the sitting-room. The wood-burning stove is awfully cosy on a winter's night and throws out a fair heat. I have a tendency on leaving the door open and letting it throw the heat out into the rest of the house. It is a lovely spot to sit and knit on the sofa.

What else is downstairs...well my carefully designed kitchen for a start. 12 years in the hospitality trade mean I'm pretty damn fussy when it comes to what I want out of a domestic kitchen. I needed a good layout, loads of work surfaces to enable the use of all my kitchen toys (and I have many...my Kitchen Aid food mixer is my favourite...especially as I got for a 1/3 of the price and brand new - the guy selling it didn't know the true value!) and lots of storage. I also didn't want wall units cos they hem you in and I'm too short to get stuff out of most of them without using a step-ladder!

Then we have my rather good-sized bathroom...followed with a nice and cosy dining room...and the room that is classified as bedroom 4, though I use it as my home office at the minute...

And then we go upstairs to the bedrooms...1, 2 & 3...one of them I use as my craft room...well more of a craft storage room really but they don't use that picture as an advert for this. They obviously don't know about the power of knitting as a selling tool!

And what else do you think people would want to know...well, Aberdeen is the oil capital of Europe and my house gives you an excellent location to make a bit of revenue out of said oil monies as it is next door to the AECC - the location for Offshore Europe, an exhibition which takes place biannually in Aberdeen. The next one is due here in 2009.

I'm in a real golfing spot as the field to the east of the house borders the Royal Aberdeen Golf Club for most of it and then blends into Murcar Golf Club at the other end. Both of these courses are only a few miles away from the proposed super-development of everyone's favourite bad hair tycoon of Mr Donald Trump...anyday now that planning permission will be coming through for his new place! (Ed. And now his permission is through...who knows what this will mean!)

I must admit that my only use of the golf courses is as a way to access what I classify as my own private beach. You launch yourself off the high sand dunes and run at full pelt down onto the actual beach. I tend to "surf" down the dunes. That didn't work so well one Christmas Day when the sand was frozen solid. A bit of a shock as I tumbled down to the bottom!

I'm going to be sad to leave the house as I've known the place for a long time (owned it for 6 years, knew it for 5 years before that as friends used to own it) but life moves on. Once it's been sold I'll trip off down the road to wee Laurencekirk to move in with my honey and his assorted menagerie (4 kids, dog and a cat - only 2 of the kids live there!) and I get to start the house thing all over again as his house is an homage to 1984...avocado ensuite anyone?!

I've been in Aberdeen for 17 years come the 1st of November this year - purely by accident! I arrived here with long-term partner number 1 and stayed on here with long-term partner number 2. I went back to University here. Had 10 different jobs while I've been here. Been ill and got better. Found someone who means absolutely everything to me and off to join him in defining and putting our dreams into action. Even more amazingly they involve the same dreams.

It may take a wee while (credit crunch and all that shenanigans...but then Aberdeen is very different from the rest of the UK when it comes to financial ups and downs) but I'm prepared to wait for a decent return on my investment. Need to fund a future after all...especially if it involves an awful lot of wool, a cracking house and my own alpaca herd!
posted by Maureen @ 4:04 pm   1 comments
Thursday, October 16, 2008
London...part 2!
And here's what happens when you go to Alexandra Palace! I set myself a budget of £250...carefully saved...honest...no credit cards were hurt during this expedition...cash only...once it was gone it was gone!

I was left with £3 at the end of it all. It was bliss! I made sure that I had plenty of space in my suitcase for my flight back up the road to get all my new stash back home.
posted by Maureen @ 8:01 am   1 comments
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
London...part 1!
Last weekend meant a jaunt to London to visit Ally Pally. I still have to photograph all my goodies from that but that wasn't the only thing I did while I was there.

There was lots of emphasis on just wandering about...

Then there seemed to be an obsession with photographing food - especially in cakes!
And then there was the most amazing Japanese meal at Abeno near Covent Garden. It was fantastic!!! I am now totally in love with Japanese pancakes. Learning desperately how to make my own now because I'm a greedy wee sod!
posted by Maureen @ 8:54 am   0 comments
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
And my baby did well too!

And my honey got over the finish line in 1:02:44. It may not be a championship time but I was really proud of him. He still humped loads of other folk..he he!

Just wondering when the legs get back to normal. Thank hivvens its raining loads here today so we have a fantastic excuse not to run anywhere.
posted by Maureen @ 1:20 pm   0 comments
Sunday, October 05, 2008
My first one...

...5k that is!

This Sunday, for pleasure (!), I ran my first 5k race. It was part of the Loch Ness Marathon weekend but I do know my limitations. Next year might be a different matter!

Now we can't say it was the best time in the world but since I did no training whatsoever in the last month due to various reasons (loads of work, house going on market, just stuff!) then the fact that I got round the course and ran the whole way is doing alright I reckon.

Made it in 33 mins 44 secs so just over 6.5 minutes per km. Does make me wonder what I'd do if I actually trained for it!
posted by Maureen @ 6:01 pm   2 comments

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On my needles

  • 1940's lacey jumper: 50%
  • Flicca: 60%
  • Ogee Lace Skirt: 10%
  • Wavy Scarf: 20%
  • Blackthorn: 55%
  • French Wraparound Gilet: 10%
  • Paton's Aran Cardi: 25%
  • Strawberry Hill: 15%

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Name: Maureen
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