From Perth Austalia to the Isle of Lewis

Well, what a contrast.

2 weeks ago we were swimming with dolphins at Monkey Mia in Australia (see previous post) with the temperature at 36C, today we wake up in Ness on the Isle of Lewis, its blowing a gale and yesterday it was snowing and 5C.

Our move from Fife to Lewis went surprisingly smoothly, the ferry was on, the weather lovely , in fact the crossing was so smooth it was like a summers day We made our way to the house and the van followed with our wordly possessions.

Hit our first problem the driveway, the lorry trying to back in got stuck in the peat and had to be towed out by a local farmer on his tractor, the weather was beautiful though , blue skys , no wind we finally got all possessions into the house by 10pm except our big American fridge which was not going through the doorWe had a local guy Kyle on hand who managed to set up the beds, ours immediately got covered in boxes, but Francesca & Rory (our children) had a relatively normal nights sleep in their own beds.

Ron & I ended up on the sofa, next morning was a different picture , a howling gale , heavy rain, no coal for the fire and the floor of the kids bedroom flooded from an unknown source.

Again a local to the rescue , Richard the plumber and rayburn mender, sorted out the central heating pipe causing the flood in the bedroom. Ron, I and the kids headed for Stornoway, to buy new fridge freezer, and vax to restore the carpet in the kids room. A week on we have mastered the rayburn, I have successfully cooked on it, there are no boxes left in the house, the shed is still packed solid with boxes though, Ron has wetted the new house at the local social club and more importantly put his first seeds in the poly tunnel and the strawberry plants. Recovery- my understanding is improving every day.

Its been an expensive week though, anyone wanting training we still have two weeks free in May and June!!!!

Lol Karen