Wednesday 29 February 2012

Afternoon

Well, the wind has eased since yesterday. I judge the strength of them partly by the noise made around doors that lead to an open window and partly by how easily the birds are flying.

Today the birds are flying easily enough, so I'm going to label the wind flying friendly. Yesterday the gulls and big black birds (possibly crows, not sure yet) were hovering. Last week, some of them were going backwards.

Mixed sun and rain today, passing grey clouds dump a bit then get blown over.

I was brave today, I booked myself in with the dentist. Turns out she's only on the island for the first week of each month, so if I'd left it any longer it would have been April to get things done and, alas, I need things doing again. On the plus side, the Scottish government set the costs for NHS dental treatment up here and they are far more reasonable it seems. A check up is entirely free for starters, now how sensible is that?

The planes have been today, I just saw the postie deliver to next door and Weds is a no-ferry day. I think I must have slept through the plane landing though, or been up already, I don't remember hearing it.

Tomorrow is recycling day, I love the list of things that can be recycled up here! We get a whole wheely bin just for cardboard and paper and a stack of bin liner sized bags for tins, plastics, tetra-paks. Then we get another smaller wheelie bin for all the glass. I'm not sure how anyone can fill one of those in a month, but apparently it's deemed the average household can.

Food waste isn't collected on the island, but compost bins are suggested. I'm going to look into those today with a mind to get one, store it in the garage to beging with, and then install it on a calmer day so it doesn't take off. Our wheelie bins are currently tied to the fence with rope to prevent those flying off and the waste bin lives in the garage, mainly because the biggest component of our non-recyclables is now ferret poop-scoop and plastic wrap packaging.

We're still not entirely sorted in the house yet. But I have some dongles to make for Dad this week so the study will be getting my attention this evening in an attempt to reach my desk. That also means the spare room will get a little attention because that's where my chair has been placed.

The living room is pretty much there. All the furniture is where we want it and the seating can be cleared quickly (it's currently covered with things to prevent small dogs taking a shining). The bedroom is done. I found the castor cups in the curtain box (after Jo claimed they weren't there ;)) So we assembled our bed frame for the...sixth time, we also taped up some of the slats that were looking cracked. The curtains are installed and work, our bedside clocks are in and my electric underblanket is in the room incase I get cold.

I reorganised the back porch bit, there's now a mat down to collect water off doggy paws and boots that come in and the few boxes we have left are stashed out of the way. You can even get to the second toilet, although the cold tap needs a bit of a wrench to turn it off all the way.

The kitchen is definitely done. Everything has a place. We do have atleast one mouse though. I think the reason it's not gone into our humane trap is the design of the trap, it has a little see-saw arrangement and I think the mice are spooked by it. Might have to Google a better trap.

Whew! I thought this was going to be a quick weather update, apparently not. Anyway, that's all for now. I'm going to check a bank transfer has worked, look into compost bins (not literally) and then maybe do some embroidery.

TTFN.

Tuesday 28 February 2012

nearly forgot!

The box tour.


Night night all :)

More photos!

This time, these are ones taken by my Dad while he was over.

Our humble abode
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Huge flock of starlings taking off outside the window
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Just before that
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More beach, can you see the dog?
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the Parish church
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Sunrise on Tiree
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Boats
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A very daft dog
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Queen of the rock
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Tilly the turbine
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Sheep and cottages
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Tiree museum
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Tiree post office
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Older posts

Thursday 2nd February 2012

Hello from Tiree!

I'm currently writing this in Openoffice as we only have a very basic GPRS connection (mobile internet, dial-up speed) so getting to my blogger is impossible but I want to say hi anyway.

So, we've landed. Monday morning saw the last of the stuff being packed by the removal guys, us filling a Transit van, putting ferrets in their little cage on top of the dog's crate (yeah, she loved that...not!) and heading off. Preston is now a long way South and East. We did find a huge patch of mould under the fridge freezer that had grown over the year, but the landlord knew the mould was still growing so we're not going to lose the deposit over that, or we better not anyway.

Monday afternoon was driving with a few stops. We stopped at a services over the border that has a big lake, and gave Pippa time for a trot and some air. Bit cold and damp though, so it was a short trot. We came up lots of motorway to a bit past Glasgow then it was A roads the rest of the way. Got to Oban a bit past 6pm. Did a bit of shopping on the Co-op, had a lovely dinner (I highly recommend the lemon cheesecake from Piazza!) and spent the night in the hotel.

The hotel was dog friendly so Madam got a night in her crate with us and the ferrets stayed in the van. I was a little worried someone might break in to it but it was fine and the ferrets were all fine too.

Tuesday morning was ferry morning. 5am is not an hour I like to get up at, so waking up at 4:30am was ugh. But, we got up, packed up, checked out and managed to get out the door without too much issue. I knew it was early when I went to get our tickets and boarding passes, the door had a handle that lifted to unlock and said “pull to open” I obviously wasn't awake because I pulled the handle up, then PUSHed the door. After trying for 2 minutes I knocked on the door and was told to “pull the door!” Oops. So, we had passes and tickets, I gave Madam a morning walk around while we waited to board and then, on we went. I had planned to take Madam's bed out of her crate to sit on the ferry with, but they packed us all so close together there was only just enough room for her to squeeze out the door. She did okay though, so long as all three of us stayed in sight. If Jo or Dad went to the loo she had to be fussed or she would cry. The journey was fine, there was a slight roll but nothing worthy of sea-sickness. The ferry has stabilisers, they look like airplane wings on ball joints and come out the sides to counteract the roll, great things!

The views were great! I think Jo snapped a few photos. There was a good breakfast to be had too, and Dad treated us to a nice filling wake up. 11am we docked at Tiree. What a gorgeous island! Beautiful white beaches, blue sea and open land. The local cows aren't too inbred, it's actually a case of looking carefully to spot the females from the males, their udders don't hang between their knees and they're fluffy too (the cows that is). The sheep look lovely and fluffy, I admit to coveting a few fleeces as we passed them.

There was a bit of a farce with paying the deposit and first month's rent. Mainly the fact that there's no 3G internet on the island so trying to get to banking websites using dial-up speed took aaaaaaages. At this point I must say: well done Co-operative for making a dial-up friendly online service! It may look simple, but it means we can get to it. In the end Dad kindly paid using the business account and then we paid him back via Co-operative. By 2pm we had the keys!

The bungalow is lovely. Considering we rented it pretty much blind, 3 photos on the website and no measurements, it's surprisingly roomy. There's a built in wardrobe in each bedroom, a huge kitchen (with room for a dishwasher!), a spacious living room, a bathroom and a second toilet, and a back 'porch' kind of place. Oh, and a big, DRY garage. The ferrets are living in their, along with the chest freezer. I let them out for a romp yesterday and there was lots of dooking and wardances, happy fuzzballs. Rumble did show me the flaw to my blocking off the back of the freezer, but it was only a small flaw and easily fixed. Playtimes will have to be supervised anyway as the only way in and out is via the large door at the front and I am not playing try to keep the ferrets in while getting out.

We had a tour of the island yesterday (Wednesday). Dad drove us about in the van and we saw the sights. We also went to Scottish Hydro and bought our first cooker, it only took about 2 minutes, we said we wanted a cooker, we had 40A and a wide gap, went for 60cm and the Beko she had in. You know you're an adult when you buy your first cooker. We've left a message with the electrician's partner and are waiting to hear back. I could connect it, but I'm not certified and this is a rental property, so we'd rather not set it on fire.

There was a *huge* patch of mould in and behind the drawers next to the cooker slot. This worried us a bit, so we rang the landlady and said we'd be happy to clear it with her permission, she granted it and Jo and Dad went to get some bleach and other bits. After a serious spray with 50/50 bleach/water mix, a soak and then a scrub we're actually happy to use the unit. The wall is stained, but it's half behind the cooker and half behind the drawers and we don't care so long as it doesn't grow back.

I love this house! I just hope all out stuff fits.

Oh yes, the guys were meant to come on the same ferry as us, but even with a month's notice they couldn't get a space on the ferry, on the whole it's proven useful. Yes, sleeping on the futon isn't exactly wonderful, but having 48 hours to plan which room will be which, clean any little messes and generally get to know the place is very useful indeed. The complete lack of curtains and curtain rails has meant some undressing in the dark and hiding inside cupboards to choose clothes, but the curtains are coming today.

We found a place called Skinners (I think) that stocks just about everything, including curtain rail. We bought their last two strips and will be popping in tomorrow to see if they have had any more. Our bedroom has a rail now and will have curtain by tonight. Skinners is also a short walk down the road and has veggies too, so I can trot down to get onions and leeks and whatever else takes my fancy.

So now I'm sitting her blogging and Jo is doing a last little bit of washing up. We've cleared the floors and surfaces so the guys can unpack. Now it's wait and guide. 10:48am Not long to go!



Saturday 4th February 2012

Weather today: Cold, windy and wet.

The weather has been very kind to us this past week, it's stayed dry and was distinctly less windy on Thursday when the Pickfords guys unpacked our stuff from their van. The driver was amused, there's a long single road across the island that's plenty wide for a transit van or a tractor, but a big removals van straddles the tarmac, he could feel the wheels going over the edges.

Unpacking is going well, the living room is almost there, so is the kitchen. The bedroom has the mattress on the floor because we can't find the castor cups to protect the carpet. Alas, we will be registering a complaint about one of the packers, he packed the study boxes and we've had breakages. The monitors survived, even though they weren't padded in any way, but my big digital radio isn't turning on (I'll have a poke later), some of Jo's Warhammer models were damaged and things were just bundled in boxes willy-nilly. Not impressed.

Plus today: The cooker is finally connected! Managed to misplace the manual already but that's normal with us.

We had a visit from the BT man yesterday, he had a look outside then drove off, possibly going to be a tad complicated?

Jo's planning to cycle to Scarinnish (think I spelt that right) today and do a bit of shopping at the Co-op. Rather him than me. I think I shall make a dash for the garage and put the big ferret cage back up for the fuzzbums while the bike is out of the way. The ferrets are doing well, they did well on the move and are settled in their new home, even if the light is still stuck on 24/7. The electrician is going to be back later in the week to change that.

Pippa is happy too, she's not being my little shadow this time, she's happy to stay on her bed and leave us to our doings. This is fortunate as we've been moving furniture and things which is a lot easier if there isn't a small canine under your feet, plus it's less stress for her.

So, yeah, lots of unpacking still to do, and deciding where things will live and ack. This weekend is getting the study usable. Jo needs to be able to work and we need to be able to get dressed, after that I can take my time with the other rooms. The kitchen will probably be next. Now everything that's meant to be plugged in is plugged in I can see what spaces we have and adjust accordingly.

We took a little video on Thursday evening. The guys had just finished unloading the van and we hadn't really started unpacking in earnest, there were piles of boxes everywhere! So I held the camera and followed Jo as he led us around the house, video coming soon.

That's about it really. I'm going to sit here a bit longer and then persuade myself to go help unpack the study.

Sunny day photo walks

One of the 'ladies' as I call them, stood on the hillock near us:
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Jo giving the tricycle a go, with Madam in the basket:
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Pippa/Madam says it's alright, bit noisy.
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Pippa watching my Dad and Joseph going past the living room window:
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All our stuff!
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The airport next to us. At most there are two planes in one day.
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Crossapol beach
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Madam and I headed to the sea
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"don't care about the sea, look at all this running space!"
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"WHEEEEEEEE!"
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Some local dogs, Pips decided she preferred to just run on her own.
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It's a snail's life
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More beach
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Giant kelp
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With dog for scale
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Did I show you the beach?
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The Tiree golfball
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and now, I shall go start up the laptop and grab my first Tiree post and some photos my Dad took.

Internet!

Actually, we got our internet installed about a week ago, but I've been so busy I forgot to start the blog.

Today is our 28th day on the island. So far there have only been about 6 sunny days, according to the locals that's lower than normal, so we can hope for more.

Today started sunny but windy, the house warmed nicely without any heating on and the dog got to sun herself on the rug. It seems the weather is paying great attention to our garage door. At 3pm it was still lovely and sunny so I popped out to the garage to open it and air the ferrets, I came back in and it started to mizzle. Honestly, opening the door should not mean I want it to rain!

Jo's cycled over 100 miles already, he's developing some very serious leg muscles. The tricycle is great, doesn't care that it's gotten rained on repeatedly, almost blown over, not a problem. I even cycled down to the shop with Jo in the basket. He pedalled us back and I got to ride in the basket, it's not a bad ride and the gearing is brilliant, there are 8 gears with 8th being the "hardest", I happily trundled down on 8th. The handling takes a bit of getting used to and you have to untrain the wobble you do when riding a two wheeler. No need to try and balance on a tricycle!

Anyway, I'm now going to spam our blog with photos.

Sunday 5th February 2012

Jo starts work tomorrow. I admit to being a bit worried he'll come home completely at a loss and stressing but I hope not. Deep down I'm sure he'll be fine, he seems confident after all.
I've just been settling the ferrets properly. For the past...12 days they've been living in the little cage with only a hammock, two bowls (food and water) and their litter pan. Fortunately ferrets will happily sleep the day away if nothing better presents itself so they weren't overly concerned, but it can cause weight issues and it's boring. So today I took my stereo and a Bon Jovi CD and spent an hour and a bit putting the big cage back together, equipping it with its tubes, pans, bowls, hanging basket and various beddings. All the time being 'assisted' by said furballs.

'Assisted' means different things according to each ferret. For Fred it's trying to climb my legs, or going up the inside of my jeans to attempt sock thievery, it's also running around in the newly assembled cage while I'm still installing shelves and tubes. David is getting old now, so he does the old-man potter and just checks every so often that I'm doing what I should be. Barry spends the time trying to get into the boxes I'm unloading for bits or making a mad dash across the garage. Nushu does a mix of climbing bits of cage (assembled and not), war-dancing around my feet and pouncing my boots in exchange for a belly rub and a play. Rumble is the most helpful assistant, he climbs the bits of cage, runs into the tubes I'm trying to fasten to the cage walls and generally gets under my feet.

Still, the ferret cage is now done and David has buried himself in the fleece lined hanging basket for the day. Well, he had buried himself in the fleece in the hammock in the small cage, but I just picked it up, ferret and all, and transferred to the basket.
Jo has organised the kitchen, we had the cooker connected yesterday so it was time to unpack those last few boxes. I removed the dessicated skeleton of a mouse that had been caught by a trap long before we got here, cleaned the cupboard, washed up then left Jo to it. He's done a great job and there's still lots of space in our lovely roomy kitchen.

We really have bought everything for a house now, all the white goods, all the furniture, we're even buying curtain rails this month.

I have plans for sorting the living room tomorrow, I have the house to myself so I'm going to sort the corner behind the door and all the other little piles, I may even try to make sense of the pile that is my desk. Or...I might spend the whole day sitting at my PC and relaxing. I do intend to ring Pickfords though, I need to find out if we keep broken things for claiming on the insurance or what. I also need to register a complaint against one of the packers, he did a good job of packing the crockery, but he just swept all the Warhammer models from my desk into a box and put all my trinkets, including glass and pottery, in the top of a box with no protection. The trinkets are unharmed, except one glass piggy, but the models all scraped each other's paint off, so now they all need patching, so much of my time! He also tipped the boxes that had Jo's models in and put them in the packing boxes sideways so those all got disturbed. Not happy.

Welcome

Welcome to Tiree Living.

This is the online journal of Jacqui and Joseph who moved to the Isle of Tiree in Scotland on January the 31st 2012.