Apologies for not being around these past couple of weeks, but we’ve been having technical problems with our router. Basically we went away for a few days to Crieff Hydro and our internet was working. We came back and it wasn’t. It’s taken us nearly a week to sort it out and quite frankly the internet connection isn’t that great…perhaps it’s time for a change of supplier??

Anyway, we had a lovely time at Crieff. We stayed at Crieff Hydro, a hotel we’ve stayed at a few times before mainly because they have fantastic creche facilities for the kids and it’s a pretty nice hotel. The weather on the Tuesday – the day we went up – was glorious and it was a lovely drive north. Unfortunately I can’t say the same for the rest of the week as it’s been pretty stormy here since! Anyway, the hotel has loads of stuff to do (swimming pool, cinema, games area etc), so we weren’t bored. I was really just looking for having a quiet time anyway…myself and hubby really needed the break. The only criticisms I would have of the hotel (which was on the whole really good) is our bed was too short (I am only 5’8″, so hardly a giant and my feet with hanging off the end of the bed) and I thought the kids meals, particularly on the Tuesday night, weren’t as good as they should be. They wouldn’t have served a burnt pizza to an adult, so why was it okay to put it out for my kids??

Anyway, as I said, the hotel is pretty good apart from that and our room was lovely. The kids had a ball too.

Since we returned, the fins inside our washing machine have broken off(the ridges inside the drum that help the washing mix) …the machine is brand new. I am NOT PLEASED about this and called the company to complain to be told it was probably a coin that did it. Now, I don’t know about you, but I always empty the pockets of clothes before I wash them, but that doesn’t matter one iota because I have NEVER known the fins of the washing machine drum to EVER break off. My view is that it’s a major design flaw. I will allow them to come out next week to fix the machine. If it goes again I will be expecting my money back. Meanwhile, the washing mountain continues to grow. I feel a trip to the local laundrette coming on…sigh.

Dawn xx

ps am writing this bit several hours later…I nipped down to Dumbarton to use the local laundrette this morning. It took me two hours (and around £20) to wash and dry three huge bags of washing…the quickest time ever to do that amount! That was two hours of blissfully reading part one of The Song of Fire and Ice trilogy (ie Game of Thrones), eating a sandwich from Gregg’s and chatting to the lady who runs the laundrette about this and that. And that was two hours of not having to constantly answer questions and do stuff for other (small) people. I never thought I’d enjoy a trip to the laundrette so much! I need to get a life! ha ha!