Home sweet home

This week we had a new turning point,,,Colin came home,,not for good but for lunch,,he arrived by ambulance,,it was amazing,,it was as if he had never been away,,we relaxed we chatted,,we eat fabulous steaks,,thank you papa,,,and all too soon he was going back to the west,,,but this is good it means he will be home soon,,Melissa and Shelley were there for him the weeks i was away,,I am very proud of them,,Colin was pampered and loved,,,we have amazing children and soon enough their dad will be home,,,but not yet but soon.........Our land line went down,,my mobile played up life was back to normal,,,but my birthday treat from Colin arrived my own lap top,,im in love,,so now i can surf at 2am,,i can write emails in bed,,the world has changed,,so for those of you who have stuck by me im back,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Im home,,,,

I headed west,,it was the longest journey of the week,,but COLIN WAS THERE,,,his wandering wife had returned ,,he was good,,he has missed me obviously,,he had worried but knew i would make it.He laughed at all my tales,,he shook his head at all my woes I was home.

gay paris

Emirates were not coping,,people were not happy,,queues formed,,one snappy little madame asked them what they were doing and a glaswegian mama said,,hen we are waiting to put our names for the uk flights,,,aah well it wont open untill 1600,,and then its everyman for himself,,im surprised a glasgow kiss was not given,,this was getting nasty,,,I wondered if i should put on a french accent,,hmm but hey we ran between queues,,we sweet talked agents and yes yes we were on,,the paris flights,,ok not uk but nearer,,,It was a double decker,,weird,,we settled and Louise said watch this film mum you will love it,,,what i sobbed and i mean sobbed all across the arabian gulf,,The time travellers wife,,stewards walked passed with a side ways glance,,and on i sobbed.A chic flick that will do nicely,,jennifer aniston shes always funny,,but no,,Love maybe,,her only saddy,,what there i was again sobbing uncontrolably,,,oh well better out in than out,,,Gay paris,,,what now,,ran between airport to train to train,,no eurotunnell seats for 5 days,,man asking queue if anyone would take 1000 per ticket no takers,,this was surreal,,Calais yes thats a plan,,,sat on case untill departure,,train,next train, bus,,follow the crowd,,queue for two hours for tickets,,we are nearly there,,,Dover,,,There will always be an England,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,I want to go home.What no transport anywhere till 5am,,it was only midnight,,,,Taxi,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,ok it cost me a fortune but dover manchester its a long fare,,and then there was James he came to manchester,,bless,,and drove us home,,,i love home,,i will never go away again,,,well maybe,,,

what happened to paradise

How funny that taxi driver thought he was,,oh yes he has watched the news,,large ash clouds was going to cause chaos,,yes yes we muttered,,silly man we were going home...rep met the taxi,,mrs mitchell im sorry but there has been an incident,,Emirates are taking no resposibilty,,What im going home,,,in the queue,,no we arent taking anyone with connections,,what,,dont they understand im going home,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Emirates guy was summoned,,a crowd gathered,,we want on the flight,,no no ,,,oh yes we do,,men were becoming quite animated,,,he cowered,,our rep said he could find us a hotel in mauritus,,for the bargain price of 240 euros a night,,,what im going home,,emirates refused to pay accomodation in dubai,,,oh for goodness sake do they not understand im going home,,,Emirates man buckled,,we were on,,nearly home.Landed next morning,,oh my god,,the whole world was in arrivals,,no one knew what was going on,,no information ,,i want to go home,,,no flights come back tomorrow,,are you kidding,,,credit card was flexed and we headed to five star Hyatt,,,normaly we would be excited but no we were suffering shell shock,,we sat at pool..ok lets make the most of this,,Mall was sourced,,well youve got to see the place,,credit cards are so handy and we did see the sights on the way.Sky news was watched on return,,didnt look good,,Emirates called,,of course madam,we can rebook you ,,lets see,,aah yes the 2nd may,,what im going home,,phone again tomorrow,,,Sun rise,,sky news,,what is going on,,,panic started,,,reception ,yes madam we can give you room for another night,,,releif,,three times the price,,what,,we are leaving.

So whats the plan,,,I had no idea,,back to airport,,come back tomorrow and then it came our saving phone call,,Monica my step mother had a nephew in dubai,,they would take two refugees,,,beautiful home,swimming pool,,great cook,,and two beautiful children,,thank you isha and simon,,you were amazing,,,,,,,,i began to hate sky news,,how many times are they going to tell me how bad things were...........desperate measures,,we ordered taxi to airport...ok we also had bought tickets to athens,,a ferry to venice and then what,,no lets go to airport,,,

to paradise and back

Is there anyone anyone out there,,,its been a long time,,i didnt mean to it just happened that way,Louise No.1 child and i headed to mauritius for a sneaky week.A week of sun good food and sleep,and thats what we had,,to get there involved two 7 hour flights,,a long time i know but oh so worth it.Glasgow airport,and the first of many queues,,to those from the west i apoloigise but realy,ok i didnt actualy see a shell suit but i felt them,,it was a wiggly queue,,you know the type and there we were,,when the child in the opposite squiggle announced her head was itchy and her mother duly checked her hair and lice were found,,it was like being stood beside a group of monkeys as nits were sourced and squashed and the child was reduced to tears and louise and i backed further and further away from the impending jumping nits,,once through security we felt we were safe,,those little critters could not possibly find us now,,but oh no there they were in costa,,but this time the child hair was up and wet so i assume boots had lice potion,,,safe in the knowledge they were not in the opposite seats,,we were in emergency exits,,no children,,we boarded the plane.Ah peace,,it was going to be 7 hours of movies,,what ,,what is going on some born again hippy was in front of us in my private space doing yoga stretching and holding on to the emergency exit bar,,i fastened my seat belt,,ive seen those films when people are sucked out,,we sat in amazment,,he was definatly a knit your own yogurt greeny,,grey hair grey beard,,which probably now housed nits,,and there he was legs swinging ,,squats,,for god sake we had only taken off,,surely no time for dvt to have taken hold,,,he returned to his seat and the sweetest little boy,,about 2 escapes his seat belt ,,and god damn it there he was,,squatting legs swinging,,he obviously thought it was the in flight entertainment,,Louise just about passed out laughing,,you think things couldn't get worse,,well 5 hours in two spinster types came forward ,,flustered,,they had been sat beside the flight drunk,,who had decided to become amorous,,well the flight hostie intervened and he came lunging forward and went in the loo,,were not sure if she meant it but we are pretty sure the hostie locked him in,,some unknowing soul came along and helped him out,,,peace reigned,our second flight was realy quite boring in comparism,

So here we were in one of the nicest hotels i have stayed in,,infinity pools with only Louise and i,,heaven,,sunshine and food,,pancakes what more could a girl want,Hells teeth i stood on a sea urchin,,who put that there,,i hate the sea,,snorkling forget it,,hotel doctor,,the weirdest guy very sweet but im sure he doubled as a hotel cleaner in his spare time,,hmmm well anyway foot did not fall off and barr the obvious trauma i survived. A week passed quickly and all too soon we were packed and sitting in reception awaiting our taxi,,there seemed to be a lot of people milling about,,iceland. volcanoes,,oh well we were on our way home,,nothing to do with us,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Pop goes the volcano....

Some of you may be wondering why the blog has been so scant recently and why Charlotte has not returned in her delightful way to inform you all of her wonderful holiday and how pleased she is to be back with Dad. The long and the short is....that blo*dy volcano!
Mother, who I am very sure will tell you all of her perilous journey in detail when she returns, is currently trapped in Dubai with Louise. There are worse places to be trapped some may say, like glasgow, but there it is that she is trapped. She has been there since Friday. Luckily she was not left like the match stick girl on the street. After the Hyatt Regency doubling the price of their room right before their eyes, I went to Panic stations with the rest of my family finding people to rescue her.
Our guardian angel came in the form of Monica's nephew Simon. How we can ever repay them I am not sure. They whisked straight into action and located mum and Louise and took them into their home to await the end of this nightmare.

Mums current plan!- if the airports do no re-open for international flight over Scottish Airspace...if not....then she will get on a flight to Athens on Wednesday, then take a bus to the ferry port. She will then take a ferry to Venice which take a day and a half, followed by trying to make her way by train or bus to paris via Milan to get the eurostar home. Fingers crossed for the airspace opening. Mum just wants to get home to us. And by us, I mean mostly Dad.

I would just like to say how amazing all the Border Reiver players are. They have started off this season with a 4 hour course in First Aid provided by the St Andrews Ambulance Service.

Amanda Swanson email-"I wanted to let you know that we started our polo at the weekend and we started it at Border Reivers with a 4 hour St Andrews Ambulance course as those of us who had been with your Dad had been in awe of Geoff and Thom for doing what they did and realized none of us was able to do that, hopefully it will never come to that but at least we now have an idea of what we are doing."

I also live in hope that nobody else has to use their first aid skills but am so grateful to the club for providing their players with the knowledge that could one day save a life, like it did for my Dad. We owe his life to the first aid knowledge, skills and bravery of others.

I will keep you all updated on Mum's progress home, and hopefully the blog will return to its normal daily dose when Charlotte is safely in the UK.

Melissa and Shelley take to the M8...

With Mum and Louise taking a well earned break in the sunshine, Shelley and I have taken over with Dad, and punctuation has returned to the blog. Along with captial letters and full stops.

Dad was on good form today. I battled my way to Glasgow through countless road works. We had a wonderful surprise visit from Gaynor. She brought cheer, gossip and smiles. Always appreciated. With the weather being almost 15 degrees and not windy Dad and I took to the pavements of the hospital to get some fresh air. I do think for a hospital they should have thought better about their pavements, but I guess it is all a bit of a learning curve.

Uncle Charlie drove me West on Wednesday. A welcome relief to the M8. My punto fears the M8 and its traffic jams. It sees the tail end of a jam and the overheating light starts flickering and steam rising from the engine!
On Wednesday Dad was visited by more of his Sykes buddies. I had not anticipated how many of them were coming but it was wonderful to see so many friendly faces. They bring friend news of work and the wider world. Football (yawn), children, christenings and business were the topics of the day. There was lots of laughter. The atmosphere in the day room is wonderful when there is laughter in the air.

Shelley was there on Thursday. Dad was well and helped Shelley through her first solo visit. Once the tea bags were found all was well!

guilty,guilty guilty

I am a bad wife,,the stress has become too much,,o/tS physio social workers,,it has become too much so im away,,i booked it weeks ago,,but i could not talk about it,,i dont want to upset Colin,,but he knows its time,,im leaving for a week,,i need some sun,,i need to sleep,,i dont need to think,,so i have run away,, Melissa and Shelley will be there for their dad,,and I will come home,,stronger and ready to move forward and eventualy Colin will come home and life will be good,,but i will be back,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Thank you from Melissa...

Dear All,

Thank you so much for the donations that you made for my Charity SkyDive. It was very kind of you and I could not have asked for my family to have better friends!

I have managed so far to raise a grand total of £865. I was very touched as my target was only £500!! This is amazing and is greatly appreciated by those at Spinal Research UK!

You have all been very generous!
For those who have not seen the photos they are at my blog www.melissainnz.blogspot.com



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35wi548xFUc

good friends and family,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Saturday and the sun was still shining,,sunglasses on headed to watch semi final of under 10 championships,,,I dont know what they feed these children but they hit a mean shot,,Mair girls and Alexandra thrashed it out for place in final,,all fell into place and final was decided,,both jessica and charlotte playing beautifuly but in the end Alexandra triumphed and the cup was duly won.Headed west ,had not seen Colin for few days,,he was looking good,,always tired but hospital regimes take their toll,,Jo and Rob Easton ,louises in laws arrived and we spent a very jolly afternoon,,they are such fun and Colin and i always enjoy the chat,,,a few people asked where i had been the last few days,,but went on to say how well Coin had been looked after,,his girls had stepped in and massaged and pampered and were now beginning to be known as COLINS HAREEM.He is a lucky man to have the love of his girls,,,i headed east to hear great laughter coming from my kitchen,,Melissa had spent all day cleaning and cooking and all girls Paul and James were sitting round my kitchen table enjoying a roast dinner,,the place was buzzing with chat and banter,,Sorry edinburgh O/T,district council,,entry into kitchen,desirable but not essential,,you obviously dont have a loving family that enjoy each others company and regard meal times as a time to share and tease and laugh,,but my girls will cope and where ever my family is the love will follow.

number 2 late shift and still standing

well thats two lates down,,I SURVIVED,,its not the shifts they are easy,,so much easier than earlies,,its just the not getting to see colin that gets me down,,he probably doent even notice,,got loads done this morning,,watched my niece,goddaughter,,Alexandra,play a real mean game of tennis,,she is awsome,,thru to semi final tomorrow,,i am so proud of her,,she is not even 10 yet,,couple of weeks away,,and she is so focused and shows no nerves and plays like a real pro,,booking my seats for wimbeldon in the next 10 years.And also yet another builder around to quote for work to get Colin home,,so thats good,,,work well it was dire,,Good Friday,,well i think everyone must have been on holiday as i outnumbered the passengers in the lounge,,sat and sang along with julie andrews to Sound of Music,,wonder why i never auditioned for the part,,reckon i could have actualy been lisl,,i am 16 going on 17,,realy i think i have missed my moment,,Eildelveiss,even contemplated the christopher plumber part,,what no definatly Maria,,could see me in that habit,,The hills are alive,,,see how bored i must have been,,emmerdale,,not sure think i might have to be a dingle,,and coronation street,,well hmm maybe deirdre,,i do love my fancy glasses,,,Oh boy thank goodness 2100 came and went and i headed home to an empty house,,all girls out,,having a life,,theway it should be,,but tomorrow is glasgow and colin and maybe we could do a duet,,,The hills are alive with the sound of music,,,hmm maybe its not too late after all.....................

I survived,,

I survived the late shift,,only nearly nodded off once,,not bad i reckoned,,could have been worse,,,but managed to stop from falling off swivelly chair and remained professional at all times.Life goes on,Melissa braved the M8 to visit her dad,,all accounts were given in detail when i returned home at 2200,,hand therapy done,,gym time done,,computer and kindle and all computery/techno gear sorted by my whiz kid melissa,,Colin will be pleased as im sure his paitence is definately tested as i try desperatly to work these alien things for him,Anyway job done,,all well and first Late shift under my belt.One more to do and then i have the whole weekend in the west.We are now in month seven,,,I barely remember a time that i did not negociate the M8 on a daily basis,,but it is worth it and the love of friends and family have kept me going,,A girls got to do what a girls got to do,,but sometimes life work and commitments stand in the way,lates never kill me but they do make me sad,,,but at least my life is full and i have family that help,,cant imagine life with out my girls,,now that is sad.

i blame the electric blanket

Left shelley on her laptop and headed to bed about 10sh,,exhausted,,as usual,,thought id phone my lovely auntie helen so popped under downie,,fully clothed to make call,,suddenly phone was dead,,damn these stupid phones..and now here i am still fully clothed and its 0300,,obviously stopped talking and fell into coma,,the heat of the electric blanket had done its work,,but it didnt last and here i am once again wandering the house,,but its not 3 am and im showering and heading for work,,no im on a LATE,,what i never do lates,,but needs must,,will i be found snoring at desk at 1700,,will i be found in foetal position with thumb in mouth in a cupboard,,who can tell,,I wont be able to see Colin tonight so thats bad news,,but he is aware i have to play the game,and if it means late shifts so be it,,only one thing worries me though,,will i get my electric blanket thru airport security, x