The cottage

Weird place to start the tour, but that is Blogger for you. Here are the stairs - 270 degree turn. Typical of this kind of house, and lovely!

This is the single room under the stairs which the EFG claimed. She was very content in here, and spent some time reading in here everyday.

This is the YFG's room - twin beds. It is upstairs at the front of the house, overlooking the street.

This landing is just superb - lots of room for the bookshelf, another wee cupboard and a wide window ledge at the window which overlooks the street at the front. The door on the right is the bathroom, the other is the YFG's room and the corridor between them leads to the master bedroom.

This is the fantastic window in the master bedroom - we just didn't draw those curtains much at all!

So here you can see the bed and can imagine how one could wake up, fetch a cup of tea each morning and then sit in bed drinking it, watching the waves and the boats!
And the sofa meant that there was somewhere for me to escape if the others were watching TV and I wanted to read.

Well-equipped bathroom - a good size - all those lovely white towels, too!

This is the extremely handy utility nook in the kitchen.

The lounge - the FH's elbow as he was watching TV.

We love the kitchen - it's got everything we need - dishwasher, washing machine, microwave, fridge freezer - and the table is great. We sat here every afternoon with a cup of tea and read the paper or a magazine when we got in from our day's outings.

Very handy downstairs loo

The two gorgeous cats who came to visit most days - we called them Harry and Sam! They are huge and very friendly. Apparently they belong to the postman, so he must live somewhere nearby. They spent hours sitting on the doorstep, on the wheelie bin and on the garden seat in the sun.

Burghead

The girls took this photo down on the seafront.

This little ornamental garden is down on the seafront and testifies to Burghead's fishing past.

This boat looks old, and is slowly disintegrating, by the looks of it!

One of the sea views - looking north - from the bedroom window.

We went to sleep on Saturday to the sound of the sea, but it being dark when we arrived, we did not realise how the house was situated. We opened the curtains of the huge picture window in the master bedroom on Sunday morning and were delighted with the sea views! On inspection, we can actually see the sea in three directions. When we looked at the map of the village this morning, we could see that the village is built on a promontory and does indeed have the sea on three sides.

Apparently Burghead was an ancient fisher village that was demolished and gradually rebuilt between 1745 and 1845 in a grid pattern. It was hoped that some of the families evicted in the Highland Clearances would settle here. There has been a settlement here since Pictish times. The girls have been out for a walk to explore a little and returned with photos of the sea, the primary school, ornamental gardens and some fishing boats. They are now watching a DVD - Get Smart - with Anne Hathaway, and the FH has been resting his foot and inspecting the insides of his eyelids........

Saturday 23rd October 2010

Sometime on Thursday afternoon, the FH trod on a large stone in the gravel driveway and hurt the underside of his foot. By Friday morning, his foot had swollen and was causing him a lot of pain, so at 6.30am I was fetching paracetamol, a cup of tea, and crutches so that he could hobble to the bathroom. He stayed in bed, resting it, until the late afternoon.

During the day on Friday, the YFG and I went to the little coffee morning at the chapel. It was quiet, as it was not intended as a big fundraising event. We wanted to provide somewhere that the older people could come and enjoy a drink ad a piece of cake for a small donation, and that is what we did. We'll probably continue it on a monthly basis after Christmas. It was also useful for eating up the leftover cake from the Cook-off the night before, and between the raffle and the refreshments, it raised £30 for the chapel, which was a bonus.

After coming home, I had some emails to send, paperwork to finish and hoovering to do, and then we had to spend a very focused hour finishing up UJ's room, but hurray, it was done!

At 2.30pm I left to go out - I had to go to the school where I have been running an after-school gym club. I received a cheque from them but my name was not spelled correctly so I had to nip in there to exchange it for one I could actually pay into my account. Then I went to gym for the evening. The girls didn't come as they still had packing to do and pieces of homework to finish before going on holiday.

There was an 8 year old in the second class who was particularly on form, RB, and she mastered a handstand forward roll with straight arms, and a backwards roll to handstand, neither of which she had been able to do before, but they both just clicked for her - we were both so chuffed!

After gym, I had a quick dash around Tesco for some food for the journey and to leave here for UJ - he does enjoy some bacon for breakfast and I had run out.

Eventually, I went to bed. It was late. On Saturday, the foot problem was worse, and the hobbling around was getting more difficult. The FH thought I would have to borrow a wheelchair from some neighbours, but I said I couldn't possibly cope with him, a wheelchair, the girls and four suitcases -that was just going to be the final straw!

We arrived at the first station well in advance of our departure, and the lovely lady in the ticket office was able to phone through to Peterborough, where we were told the FH only had to manage about 10 yards and no steps between trains. She also got through to Aberdeen, where they laid on a chap with a wheelchair, which helped enormously.

The first train was a nightmare - we only just managed to get on as it was jam packed and we all stood in the doorway with our stuff for the short ride. We perched the FH on the sturdiest suitcase for that journey. We were relieved to get into Peterborough and know that we definitely had seats booked on the next train all the way through to Aberdeen. The suitcases were the problem on that train as it seemed that everyone else had one too!!

The girls were keen to know when we crossed the border but we weren't really able to say. There is a huge sign when you drive up, but we didn't see anything on the railways. Despite being well prosisioned with Nintendos, ipods, new books and puzzle books, the YFG spent most of her time looking out of the window. The EFG was plugged into her ipod which made communication difficult: every time anyone spoke to her, she ignored us, then we would tap her to draw her attention and she would look at us blankly! She was reading as well. The FH found it hard to put his foot in a comfortable position as the space under the table was cramped but once we got north of Dundee, a lot of people got off and there were space seats so we spread out and he had more room.

We finally arrived at Forres station at 8pm and met the hire car people there. It was easy to find them as the car is decorated with advertising. It is a great car - a silver Ford Mondeo and it goes well. We quickly found the supermarket, bought a pizza for tea and some other provisions, then we got out the sat nav we had been lent, and headed out to find the cottage. The directions led us straight to the street, and having seen a picture of the cottage on the website, we soon found it. There is an excellent parking space at the back, and we soon explored and the girls claimed their rooms.