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).

Back in Cyprus, Aug 2008

We flew back on Sat 9th (6 hours delayed this time), it was Maisie’s 3rd birthday on Mon 11th we had a small birthday tea for ourselves and got the Nintendo Wii for Paul’s belated birthday, he wanted a drum kit but that’s on hold until we move to the UK.
It’s all go for the move now, we had our pre march out last week, just minutes before the man arrived Fraser thought it would be interesting to find out what Maisie would look like with hair full of liquid had soap. Our car gets shipped in just under 2 weeks, the removals come in 2 weeks and we leave in just over 4 weeks.
We’ve managed to get to the beach a couple of days and also to the waterpark.
We won’t miss the summer heat but we will miss all the wonderful friends we’ve made. Also I love the Cypriots attitude to family and children, having 4 children is regarded as a blessing, makes a change from hearing "4 children, you must be crazy."
I think the children are a bit unsettled at the moment with everything getting packed up round about them.
We’re planning to go to Theos Villas again once the removals have been. We had hoped to go to Israel, but it’s going to be too rushed, so hopefully we’ll go next year. It’s not really anymore expensive from the UK.
We’ve been looking into the Charlotte Mason home educating method and feel drawn to her philosophy. However the home educating during the next month will be a bit paired down, once the bulk of our stuff is shipped back to the UK.

I was sent this homeschool video from a homeschool forum I'm a member of, it made me giggle.

“Oh, the misconceptions and realities of homeschool life," from comedian (and homeschool dad) Tim Hawkins.

UK holiday July/August, a few days in Devon

On Monday 4th we headed south, on the way stopping at the Trafford Centre in Manchester and watched Wall-E at the cinema. We stayed overnight just South of Birmingham to break the journey.
The next day we eventually arrived at our hotel in Exeter, making an unscheduled de-tour via a farm in Ottery St Mary (Paul accidentally keyed in the wrong postcode in sat nav). After dropping off our luggage we went to the campsite Mum and Dad were staying at outside of Oakhampton.
Wed 6th Paul’s 40th birthday, we spent the day with Mum and Dad at the Eden project.
Devon seems a really nice part of the country, with plenty of rural areas featuring lots of very narrow roads and tall hedges. I think we’ll enjoy living there.

UK holiday July/August, week in Crieff

On Sat 26th we headed back to Crieff, seeing quite a bit of rain through the visit, but it didn’t stop the games of golf. The children played quite a bit with the children in the cul-de-sac. Trips included the Safari Park, the Falkirk Wheel, the Museum of Rural Life and into Perth to see “Kung Fu Panda” at the cinema. The boys also got in some golf and Kirsty went horse riding.
Ivan, Caroline, Zoe and Connor (Paul’s brother and family from the USA) were in Scotland at the same time and we got together on Sat 2nd at Corrieries, Stirling (at the foot of Wallace’s Monument) for Zoe’s 10th birthday, it was lovely to see them again.

UK holiday July, week in Lewis

On Wed 16th we flew back to the UK (3 hours delayed) overnighting in Manchester, and Harry & Mary’s before going to my parents up in the Isle of Lewis. The weather was mostly sunny so we managed to get out and about quite a bit, spending most days with Stu, Angela, Helen, Annie, Shonnie & Hector (my brother and family). The children love getting together with their cousins. We went for a walk in the castle grounds, visited beaches, play parks, and had days out in Ness and at the black houses in Gearrannan where you can now holiday in the cottages.

July 2008

On Wed 2nd Cameron went for his first scuba diving lesson at Cydive in Paphos. Initially they were taken to the classroom and told all the safety regulations and how to use the equipment. They all looked a bit nervous after this. Then it was wet suit on and straight into the sea (shallow water) with their equipment to practise equalising their air space, using their regulator, hand signals, inflating and deflating their jackets, sharing someone’s tank in case yours failed, retrieving your regulator if it came out your mouth. The equipment looked really heavy not only do the have to carry the compressed air tank, they have weight belts too. Once they were confident enough with the gear it was out to the open sea, they dived to 5 metres for 20 minutes.
Cameron said “walking on the bottom was really rocky, with lots of seaweed I saw a mixture of different coloured fish, and they were all about the same size. It was scary and fun.”
We said goodbye again as more friends moved away from Cyprus.

Lastly we gave the children an old broken DVD player which they had days of fun taking apart.

June 2008

At the beginning of the month we stayed at Theos Villas for a couple of nights, in the far west of the Island. We always enjoy ourselves there, out in the middle of nowhere just swimming, reading, playing games & sleeping,

Towards the end of the month we decided to look after the crèche hamsters, Bubble and Squeak for a weekend. The children loved having them, but Kirsty and Maisie didn’t like holding them, finding their feet too sharp. They were quite cute but managed to chew through our telephone wire.

One of the days while Paul was at work and the children were helping me with the dinner Maisie was very keen to join in so I asked her to wash the broccoli. I turned round to find her squirting liquid hand soap on the broccoli and making it nice and bubbly.

I finished the last module of my leadership qualification in Guiding and became a fully qualified Guide Leader.

May 2008

We’ve been studying ancient Rome, below are some photos of our Roman creations.

April 2008

A time for firsts, with Fraser trying his hand at go-karting while Maisie rode a horse. Both of them had a good time.
At the end of the month I went for a Guide leader training weekend in Troodos(for all the leaders in BGIFC Cyprus), a good time was had by all.

March 2008

We found out we were moving to Devon at the end of September.

Maisie has started joining in at our family worship time her prayer usually goes “Dear Lord pray Fraser be happy, Kirsty be happy, Cameron be happy, Daddy be happy and Mummy be happy Jesus sake Amen.” It’s so cute.