I miss my Music!!!

I just got back from the most wonderful evening. I have a friend of mine from Music-y stuff while I was growing up who is amaaazing at the cello... his name is David. We played some string quartet stuff together and used to go to youth orchestra on Friday nights with some other friends. Tonight he was playing with his new quartet in a village hall nearby, made up from people he has been studying a Music Masters with a the Royal Northern College of Music. They were sublime!! And he even got me in as a concession! Really, if you ever hear of Caecilius String Quartet, you have to see them. They played Haydn, Mendelssohn, and Bridge. Then, at the interval I thought I'd blow all my pennies on a bit of cake, so I picked the biggest, most chocolatey piece... and it was free!!! And (wait for this!) when I tried to return my plate to the kitchen when I had finished, the lady gave me another piece of delicious orange and pineapple cake!! I decided it would have been impolite to refuse :)

But really, it just gave me cravings to listen to AND PLAY good music... and regret that I've left my viola alone for so long!! When we move I am really going to turn a new leaf with it.

Our new house and other news

Look at our new house!!!

We just got back from a wonderful time in Aberdeen, house hunting and exploring our new surroundings. I loved it, and the scenery on the drive up there was incredible! 

It has a garden, nice furniture etc, two bedrooms, it's in a lovely quiet Crescenty area with a church, park and community centre nearby and it is just lovely and the right price!! Hooray!! We're moving in on 10th Sept.

In other news...

We stayed with friends on the way home- Emily and Widge Guy - which was just fab since we haven't seen them for over a year which was very sad!! They were wonderful hosts and we had a great time with them and look forward to seeing them again soon. While we were there OLIVER SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT for the first time in his life!!!!!!!!!!!!! He went to bed at 9pm and woke up at 7.45am, with no milky in between!!!!!!!!! Wahoo. Last night it was back to business as usual and I fed him twice, but at least I now know that it is possible!

And Oliver is getting more impressive by the day, because yesterday evening I felt his first tooth! I can see it poking through and everything- it was a bizarrely emotional moment :) His cousin Seb has 8 teeth and he is only two months older, so we are glad our little Squeaker is starting to catch up!

And here is a sad piece of news from Ben: he had an intense medical for going offshore with BP (which he passed, by the way) and they told him that he has a " mild irreversible hearing impediment" in one of his ears, or something along those lines, probably from listening to loud music?? We don't really listen to any so I'm not really sure what caused it. Either way, I tease him by speaking in his other ear and nice and slow, but we hope he won't need a hearing aid before he's 40...!

Ben= "Master of Dad's Allotment!"

Look at this!

We have already had a lot of stuffed marrows recently, so now I'm moving on to courgette bread and I just found a 'chocolate courgette cake' recipe! http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/6186/chocolate-courgette-cake.aspx

Back to The Isle of Wight- with Ben this time!

We spent last week in the I of W with my sister Jaz, her husband Tom and 10 month old Sebby. We had a fab time! As often seems to happen, our camera ran out of battery as soon as we got there, so we've only got a few pics taken on Ben's phone. Here they are:

At the Model Village, Godshill

I LOVE this picture! :)

Giant Baby Attack!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At the Needles, a few chalky stacks off the coast

We took Oliver on the CaromlLineBreaks=true