Rub your eyes, then rub them once more to be certain - we do indeed have pictures posted at last. For those among you who find reading the relentless waffle of my paragraphs a bit of a dirge this will come as a blessed relief. Indeed, I write this entry rather forlornly as I know you will simply skim over it in order to get to the next photo. However, just in case you're still with me, today's first picture was taken last Saturday at the maritime centre in Macduff (about an hours drive from us). Nick, Jane, Carole, Max and Luca took a trip up there, and by all accounts seemed to have a great time. I've only posted one picture as the lighting and atmosphere within the facility didn't appear to lend itself to producing concise camera images. I unfortunately missed all this due to a combination of work and football, but was filled in over dinner that evening of the highly descriptive looks of wonderment that adorned the boys faces as they processed this new visual information. Luca's always been fascinated with fish (I had to eventually drag him away from the tanks at the pet shop on our last visit), so I can imagine his fascination during this excursion.
The above four pictures were taken on Sunday, albeit the latter one of Max taken later in the day. The former three were taken at Haddo House, which is an enormous estate half an hours drive from our house. We'd decided that this would be a great experience for the kids, as every year the estate hosts an Easter event which encompasses egg rolling, face painting, ornamental egg hunts, etc, etc. Again the quality of the pictures isn't great (my fault this time as I was the cameraman), and the above four are the only ones of even reasonable quality. Indeed, the majority appear to feature the back of Max's head, taken as I chased him down the hill as he rolled his egg faster than Obama's pre election promises evaporate.
The ones I have features are very indicative of the day though. The first shows mum and son enjoying watching the ducks and swans together as they basked in the spring sunshine, the second shows Luca after having hurled his egg down the hill for the first time, the third is an upset Luca as his dad rather naughtily runs away from him, while the final image shows Max in artistic mode. In fact, he rather kindly wrote my name at the top of that picture (Garee!!) before presenting it to me. I very gratefully now hang it on the door of my computer room "cubby hole".
We also had a minor disaster averted over the weekend. On Saturday night Max and Luca took a bath together. However, the bath took objection to two young 'uns bouncing about in it, and proceeded to spring a leak, which started as a drip, but quickly threatened to take down the floor beneath, which sits atop the roof of the utility room. The drip rapidly became a flow. However, after a battle getting the side of the bath off (we think the original plumber decided he'd done such a good job that he'd make it impossible to detach) the problem was quickly identified, and after getting buckets and bowls in place, along with puring all bath water down the sink, chaos was averted.
On Sunday morning (before the Easter extravaganza) Nick and I took a drive to Aberdeen to visit B&Q to buy what we needed for repairs. After the purchase of these overpriced items we headed back to make our repairs - and I'm so glad Nick was there. It was a two man job, and frustratingly so! However, it was completed in due course, and it also appears the damage to the utility room roof has not cracked sufficiently to enforce the need of a plasterer, indeed a simple paint job may suffice. As such events can usually cause so many problems, I'm delighted that on this occasion issues and outlays have been relatively minimal - with much credit and thanks to Nick.
Luca's not been too bad since they left, although when I picked him up from nursery the other night he asked if we were going "home" to see "Max". Despite the occasional roughness between the pair (usually initiated by Luca....) they get on really well, and similarly to his time with Cade and Braeden the experience appears to have aided his development, as well as provided him with so much fun.
I was late-ish home again last night (after 7pm) and as such didn't see Luca for long, but again, in common with much of this week he's been exceptionally well behaved and good humoured. Long may this continue! Caroles also decided that although she loves her fitness classes, she's going to cut back to just one weeknight session per week. This is partly so dinner times to be re-organised to a more sociable hour (eating at 9pm is never good), but mainly so she can put Luca down at night. She's really been missing this aspect.
After Luca went down, we ate tea whilst watching "The Apprentice" on I-Player. It was great, although the final result was of no great surprise due to Dad's spoiler yesterday on his blog! Tonight we'll hopefully have time to watch a horror movie I've got called "Frailty", so hopefully fingernails will be gnawed and pillows will cover our faces - if it's any good!
**Useless fact of the day - "Frailty" scored an impressive 7.3 out of 10 on credible movie website IMDB, all the more impressive considering horrors invariably score very low**
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