Sep 08 to Dec 08 moving back to the UK

Yet again it's been a while since I've updated the blog, so here's the start of the story so far.

September 2008
Thinking back to September is bit hazy, filled with leaving parties and house cleaning. It was harder than I thought leaving Cyprus, particularly for Kirsty leaving her friend next door and Stella our housemaid/babysitter, even today she was asking if we’ll see them again.

Friday 26th September saw us UK bound, flying to Heathrow then Glasgow eventually arrived at Paul’s parents. A couple of days later Paul, Maisie and I (leaving the others with Paul’s parents) drove down to Exeter to look for a house to rent.

October 2008
On return from Exeter the next step was getting our Glasgow stored stuff delivered to our house in Milton of Campsie (NE of Glasgow) then having it all delivered to Exeter. After staying with Paul’s parents for almost 3 weeks (they are very patient) we moved into our rented house on the 15th October. On the plus side it was only 20 minutes walk from Paul’s work, on the minus side it had extensive dodgy DIY electrics and for the first month no working shower.

The change of life from Cyprus to the UK brought many funnies from the kids. They think it’s great getting mail delivered through the letterbox, but the temperature change has yet to set in with them all padding around the house barefoot in the middle of winter . . . brrr (Maisie even takes her socks and shoes off in the shops).

November 2008
The beginning of November pasted in a blur of unpacking boxes, educating, grocery shopping and walks. It was nice to see the children get excited over acorns, different kinds of butterflies, toadstools, mole hills and caterpillars (Maisie wasn’t so keen on the caterpillars).

At the end of November we went up to the Isle of Lewis for Mum’s 60th birthday, retirement and Fraser & Kirsty’s 7th birthday. The holiday was great despite the coughs, colds and vomiting bugs we all seemed to catch, except Cameron who says he has the healthiest immune system.

December 2008
Poor Fraser caught the vomiting bug travelling back home from my parents, and then Paul caught it the evening before he was due to go back to work.

One thing I didn’t miss while living in Cyprus was the hype for Christmas, we had no TV advertising so the children were unaware of what toys were “the in thing”. This time everywhere seemed so busy and manic with many toys “out of stock”.

Paul’s Mum and Dad came down to visit in between Christmas and New Year, with the usual activities of walks, playing games and eating lots of nice food (a great family time).