Kiwi Company

We have been very happy to have a tame Kiwi in the house, Romy joined us from WECNew Zealand to help out for a month and she has been great company. Not only did she help in English chat groups but she washed dishes, sanded woodwork and peeled over 3 stones of potatoes! We will be sorry to see her leave and look forward to her return!

Good news with old friends

So last week I was back in the UK for the tests planned for the end of my first year post surgery. I was in Aberdeen two nights for mammograms, check ups and various consultations all of which went well. Had an evening off to celebrate with old friends who traveled down from Orkney to see me and with my bridesmaid Wee Ali as well. So good to catch up over good news after the poor souls had to listen to me moaning for the previous 10 months! And to celebrate we went to the Scottish Ballet, it was not Swan Lake as I have ever seen it before but it was enchanting and the ice cream was fantastic! Thanks lasses!

If life gives you lemons..

Big mistake in our most recent flit was to dump all empty glass jars. OK the satisfying crashes as I hurled them into recycling was worth it but later that evening our dear friend Pako turned up at 10.30pm to deliver a crate of oranges. And enough lemons to make 20 jars of marmalade. Didn´t see that one coming obviously! PS It tasted fine, being in plastic tubs never hurt it en route to conference.

A life without luggage.

What are your dreams, ambitions, plans?  I can no longer dream of retiring having already been awarded my pension but at the moment I dream of a life without luggage.That might sound odd for a person who has over 12 suitcases, scattered round the world but, as to using them, I have had enough.

For today all dreams on foreign destinations are gone. I just want to know where my socks are and keep them there. I want to wake up and recognise my bedside table, know where the loo is etc..


My travel journal of 1000 places to visit before you die has 75 entries covered. This is enough. (Remind me please when I tell you I quite fancy Botswana.) While I am moaning here, can I also point out that this is my last housemove in Spain. I have to record this here in case I am ever tempted, evicted or bombed out to set up elsewhere. This really is enough. "Taxi for Cowan!"

Dirty detox..

So here we are with some alternative treatments. To be honest there was nothing good or enlightning to say about the Chemo months, hence no photos or posts. The month of January was spent in Aberdeen however having radiotherpay every morning and the rest of the day to experiment with other therapies. Most of them were a bit new-age for my tastes but I did try Aqua Detox. The theory is that salt water conducts a positive and then negative charge from the electric device through your feet. Red blood cells have a negative polarity and after the treatment are less likely to cling together and better blood flow results in improvements, removing the toxins from the chemo. (You can tell I didn't do physics!)
  However the toxins do rather turn the water murky. Better out than in
                                           

Radio killed the radio stars.. and rogue cells apparently

Beam me up Scotty! This was my feeling every morning as I lay beneath the radiotherapy machine, while it whirred and buzzed around me. Very clever kit. Installed, I think, by WEC colleague Viv Whitton before he retired. 20 minutes under this every morning and that is you cooked. They treat 100 patients every day in three machines at ARI. Very grateful, even when it hurts.

Boy Sprouts

Christmas day with the boys was like old times, playing with toys, Andrew getting distracted in some deep thought and forgetting to take his turn opening his stocking. Donald getting up to daring do and flying his drone into a loch and later the sea, muddy jeans, then what is this? Exploding sprouts?