Ross's visit

To catch up where Iff left off...

The wedding day was absolutely fantastic. Afterwards, we had about 3 hours of sleep before we got a bus from Cambridge to Heathrow airport. We got there only to find out that Ross's flight would be 2 hours late. Och, well! We had some Krispy Kreme donuts (tough life) while we waited, and then the boy strolled into the airport in shorts and a t-shirt. Shocking!

We then had a really great week. We spent the first night in London and got to see Wicked, which we all loved. Also, while Ross had a jet lag-inspired nap, we battled the London public transportation network to meet William, the newest Noden. Thrilled!!! The next morning we just got to the train station in time to collect our tickets, only to find that I didn't have the credit card I used to book the tickets. We couldn't get our tickets in time, so we had to shell out for full-price tix on the next train, which was packed to the gills. Never mind, we made it to Edinburgh and chilled there for a night. While we were there, I was reminded that Wee bowling is a LOT easier than real bowling, and Chris managed to scare me again by sneaking up right behind me while I waited to see if any pins would fall down. Cheek!



After that, we had two nights in Aberdeen which included a gorgeous meal at Christos Greek Taverna (any excuse!) and plenty of dog-stalking. In fact, we managed to stalk lots of dogs in each city we visited! Then we were in Aviemore for two nights, including my birthday. We stayed in a gorgeous flat owned by Amazing Annie, a family friend (and her amazing dog Tig). We visited the Highland Wildlife Park, where Ross got to watch his seemingly favorite animals, red pandas, frolic about. But beavers were not to be seen! We took a funicular to the top of Cairngorm Mountain and saw a wild reindeer while we were there. We spotted ospreys guarding a nest and ate cake while watching lots of wee birds and a cheeky red squirrel help themselves to free food. Genius.



Then we had another night in Edinburgh, mostly to make sure we ate at every vegetarian restaurant there. Then we made our way to Macclesfield, where Chris was born, to watch their football team play their last home game. We were 20 minutes late, but we enjoyed the rest of the game, and our team won! Woo-hoo! Then Chris drove the rest of the way to Heathrow, where we stayed in the very "cosy" Easyhotel. All part of the adventure! Ross managed to beat me THRICE at Skipbo while Chris slept. Monkey!!!

Then the next morning we returned the car to the hire placey and Ross to the airport. I didn't want to see him go and nearly pulled a Miss America by bursting into tears. Nonetheless we all had a great time. Come back, Ross!

1 wedding and no funerals...

4 months has passed since the last major update and so a little catch up is probably required. Sine the last update:

1. We are now both gainfully employed. I am indeed working for the NHS. My job basically involves answering phones from people whose computers don't work and logging a job for someone to go and fix it. Not the best but it keeps me off the streets. Tracy is working for Aberdeen University. She's an administrator for postgraduate courses in one of the schools there.

2. We now live in a flat in town which means that we can both walk to work of a morning and don't need to patronise the expensive bus too much - although it's still handy for getting over to the Hill.

3. Tracy and I have each had a birthday. Although I'd like to think I'm a year wiser I'm not sure this view is commonly held.

What, you may ask (please note I wrote MAY and not DID. For those who did ask the question I am about to pose, I shall enlighten you. For those that didn't, feel free to stop reading here... although I guess you'll need to read as far as the question itself to know whether you asked it or not), has prompted this sudden glut of blog activity? Well, I suppose I could probably have managed to avoid passing comment at the wedding of a family member (after all, this is the second such event and it's now old news) but if that wedding coincides with the a new addition to the family - and that event happens almost concurrently with a member of Tracy's family paying us a visit, then the combined blog-worthyness reaches a level that cannot be ignored. I will, however, break from current blog etiquette by ignoring, completely, forty-something TV singing sensations who may or may not be from Scotland - no matter what their previous romantic experience may be.

So - to business!

Libb's wedding went unbelievably well I thought. She may have her own opinions, but I was well impressed. Everything seemed completely hitchless and good time was had by all. Hopefully, this will soon all be borne out by the photos which were taken, but in the meantime you'll just have to take my word for it. The day itself was blessed with good weather - meaning that the umbrellas which had been gathered by the better prepared guests were not actually required in the end. I represented my adopted homeland by donning the kilt but made a few concessions to compensate for my lack of orange beard and nationalist sympathies - namely by wearing a tartan which can no way trace its roots to any particular clan which may have inhabited any area north of Hadrian's Wall. One of the main reasons I chose it was that it tied in with the wedding theme colour (purple) and the colour of the rest of my get-up (black). But it was also in an ex-rental kilt sale and was cheap. I think the kilt was generally well-received - although I'm pretty sure I got a few funny looks parading around the middle of Cambridge in it. I even got my picture taken by some Japanese tourists. Nice! We had a pretty full turn out, though. We had 4 out of 5 Swarbricks (& 2 from 3 spouses of those present) as well as 4 of 5 Noden kids (1 of whose absence would have ruined the occasion) and an excellent 100% attendance of spouses (i.e. Trace). The one notable absence from our family (Nick) was rather understandable. Why? Allow me to explain...

The night before the wedding we got the news that the Noden family was larger by one: William Anthony James arrived at 11:30pm on the 16th of April. He's got all 20 fingers and toes (10 of each) and at 8lbs was a touch on the heavy side, but not close to breaking my family record (for which I'm sure Sarah is quite grateful). We've since been lucky enough to be in London twice (more later) and were able to drop by to see Nick, Sarah and William. He's such a wee cutie, the little guy. He's definitely got the Noden ears (i.e. 2), but as for the bandy legs, we'll have to see...

So this rounds off this edition of "Iff's blogging hour". Tune in next month for 'massive catch up number 2: what happened next...'. Can't wait until then? Give me a phone and I'll tell you!

Greetings

A very happy welcome to the world goes to (in date order):

Mr William Anthony James Noden (born 16 April 2009)
Mrs Elizabeth Alice Cecilia Hanlon (married 17 April 2009)

And many congratulations to all the parties involved!!!

Precious!

Howdy to wee Benjamin Theodore Goudy! Congrats to Nadine, Jon, and Aspen!

Weekend update

A week is a long time in politics...

This coming week will probably seem pretty long to one particular politician, however. I guess January 20th won't be able to get here quickly enough for Barak Obama.

This past week has been pretty productive for us in a few areas. First up, paperwork has come and gone for my upcoming NHS job. References have been asked for (and provided - despite my referees having to ask me what my dates of work were) and assurances provided that I'm not suffering from any horrible ailments or contagious diseases. I'm now waiting on them to get back to me about when (or perhaps 'if') I'll be starting next week. I also went for an interview with Anderson Anderson Brown who are a local accountancy firm. I figure I may as well keep looking in case the NHS pull the plug (maybe not the nest choice of words, but you know what I mean) on the job before I get started. The interview went well enough I thought, but they won't be making a decision for a few weeks so I'll probably have started work for someone else anyway.

Tracy got a couple of phone calls with offers of temp work and will be working at Aberdeen University all next week. It'll be in the department of modern languages - the same department as Tom's girlfriend - so that should be interesting. Unfortunately it does mean getting an early bus into town again. In the meantime Trace has been keeping her hand in with freelance proofreading for RGU. She's had a couple of assignments to proof-read and although it's plenty of work, she's had them both done on time.

The big news of this past week, however is that we've managed to find ourselves a flat (or apartment for those American readers - or piso for any Spaniards or Latinos). It's a top floor flat in a small street just off Rosemount Viaduct called Baker Street. While it would have been cool to live in 221B, the numbers only reach 60 or so as it's not a very long street.

It's quite similar to the flat in which we were living in Edinburgh, but a little smaller and one floor closer to the street. It's also fully furnished so we don't need to lug huge items of furniture up the stairs - or bring them back down again when we move out. If all goes to plan we'll be in there on Wednesday.

So much to do - so little time...

2k9

Alright folks!

So 2009 has arrived and brought changes a-plenty already.

First up, Tracy's job finished. They tried to keep her on, but unfortunately they could only offer part-time work, so she's now back in the job market. I went for an interview with the NHS and they decided to offer me a job in their IT department (more fool them!) so I'll be headed off to work as soon as the paperwork's done.

All this has meant that we need to find ourselves a place in town. We're off into town later on to look at some places up for rent. It's not a great time to be looking for a rental apartment - as it's FREEZING cold right now - but if we can find somewhere that's good enough (and we can afford it) then we'll be moving in.

So other news from "The Hill" is fairly sparse and involves cats, chickens and suchlike, but I won't get too involved except to say that everything is pretty much OK and life continues as before.

Anyway, better go. Got to go get ready for some serious flat-hunting!

Major Catch Up

Having been under pressure from various sources (i.e. Tam) to update the blog I figured that there was no time like the present - so here goes...

Not much has happened since the last update.

The end.



OK I can see that it won't be that easy, so here goes...

Christmas time has come and gone with many mince pies, chocolatey things and glasses of various alcoholic concoctions consumed. This festive season has been a particularly cheesy one (and for once that doesn't refer to Tam's choice of Christmas songs) with a wide variety of interesting fromages appearing from various sources - including the best stilton I've ever had. Yum.

This year has been marked by Trace's willingness to try anything veggie which has meant that she has joined in with the mince pie consumption for the first time this year - meaning less for everyone else. This has obviously been a mixed blessing.

We managed to get everything done that we'd intended to do before Christmas. This included buying presents, carols by candlelight and getting down to Manchester to see the Mighty Boosh. We first saw the Mighty Boosh when they were playing the Edinburgh Fringe Festival - just the two guys on stage with very few props and a sound and light guy to a crowd of 100 max. This time they were playing the MEN arena, which seats thousands, with special effects and costume changes a-plenty. They did most of their characters from all 3 series and were supported by a band. We managed to get all the way down and all the way back in time for Christmas Eve evening which was a bit of a stretch but we made it. On the way down we stopped in Edinburgh which meant we got to stop by all our favourite places one more time.

The candlelight carols went pretty well. There were just a couple of slip-ups and they were fairly minor. Only one of these was located in the tenor department and noone noticed except for me (or maybe us) so all was well. We were rewarded with mince pies and mulled wine, so I guess it was worth it. It's a good job the mulled wine came after the performance because otherwise things may not have gone so smoothly. Anyway a good time was had by all. We did attend other Christmas carol concerts too, but none was quite so good. In my opinion.

Anyway, Merry Christmas dear reader(s) and Happy New Year when it arrives.