I think I have reached a certain level of peace… finally.

I slept like a log last night.

We’re sleeping with just a duvet cover rather than the 10.5 tog duvet in its cover and it’s much more comfortable

I’ve had a good day at work. There’s lots to catch up on and I’m enjoying getting everything back on track. It’s been sunny but not scorching but that’s definitely helped my mood.

Nothing beats a bit of invoice reconciliation on the system to plod away at! 😆 yeah I know, I hear myself…… #rollseyes

I still feel quite anxious driving…. Which is creeping up on me a bit these days. I have the fear at times but the noise in my head is at an acceptable level. Finally.

There have been no dramas. Just straightforward day to day.

I am going to spend a bit of time this weekend, thinking of things to fill some of my weekend’s off. I genuinely think I have too much time on my hands. When I try to think of things to do, my head just empties….. that’s what causes the stress and goes round and round in my head.

So for now I will take this new almost calm, and relish in it.

Also this….. this was my view as I dried my hair this morning 🐶🐶🐶🐶

Stay safe everyone ♥️♥️♥️

I slept like a log considering it was my first day back at work today. Usually that has me awake all night, filled with dread that the holiday is over. Instead I was filled with gratitude that I had something to do today.

Yeah I hear myself, how ridiculous does that sound?!?

Anyway, regardless… maybe this was a test to allow me to truly appreciate the day to day…

I got up early to take the dogs for a walk before work, as Craig had to get Khaleesi back to the Vet Hospital in Stirling, for 9am.

Today was meant to be a scorcher… I wore my shorts.

IT ACTUALLY RAINED!

That was not forecast!

I didn’t want to get up early but I made myself do it and I felt so much better for the walk.

My head is still sore and still full of noise but I am looking forward to the routine.

I feel really calm about work, I’m not worried about it at all.

I do still feel pretty rotten but I end up taking paracetamol after lunch and it actually helps. I kinda wish I’d done that earlier. 😆

Craig had Khaleesi back at the vets today for her final X-rays.

The vet is pleased with her progress and said the bone has fused very well so far, but disappointed to see she’s not putting more weight on it yet. He thinks there may be an infection around the pin. So we are the proud owners of 21 tablets that cost us £60!!!! A whopping 35 pence a tablet. Craig looked them up on the website he used to buy her doggy tramadol and they are £16. I appreciate their expertise but that’s one area where I find the cost incredibly difficult to justify.

She’ll be on them for a week. I recognise them as ones she had for the first 10 days after the operation. If that doesn’t make any difference we’ve to call back on Monday and he may prescribe something else…. Then if that doesn’t work, she may need the pin removed once the bone has fully healed, maybe around December time.

She’s a wee sorry soul tonight, still a bit drugged up. Here she is proudly showing her leg off!

Of course as I take this one, her lord and master walks into the room and takes all the attention.

So we’re really pleased that she’s healing well.

In other news, my Grandpa would have been 100 today…. He was a handsome man!

He always used to say “don’t be cheeky to Charlie” and then tickle us for ages.

Here we are with Gran and Gramps at a wedding down in the south of England. The Scottish contingent 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

He suffered ill health towards the end of his life and I was amazed at his funeral to hear he had been ill for 16 years. I can still see him sitting in his chair as he got me to try and help him fix a phone line round to his side of the on. He got so cross that I didn’t do exactly what he asked me to do. I told him I’d be doing none of it if he didn’t start being a bit nicer to me. 😆

I suppose after 16 years of being sick he had a right to be a bit grumpy.

Don’t be cheeky to Charlie!

Stay safe everyone ♥️♥️♥️

It’s 1.33pm and I’m sitting out in the sunshine. The sun finally broke through the clouds and it’s lovely. I might actually have a wee snooze.

I was in tears when I woke up this morning as I felt really down. It was about 4.40am and I didn’t get back to sleep.

I didn’t want to go out for a run with the girls. I went to message them to tell them several times…… but I did actually go. It wasn’t my fastest run but I felt good.

It’s funny when you expect it to be tough, it’s a lot easier than you think. I’m really glad I went.

Here we all are! Just the 3 of us this morning. Elly, Gillian and I.

I came home and got showered and decided to take the 3 Borders out for a big walk.

It’s really mild but still no sunshine.

This poor old gate is now redundant and replaced with the modern fence at the whisky bond.

I loved the shape of the clouds.

They were desperate to get into this field for some reason. Little did I realise that the rain was about to hit.

The heavens opened.

We got soaked!!

It was really lovely just plodding about in the rain.

It was really dark and dramatic.

That big cloud just hung in the air for a while.

I tried to be arty with this next shot but ended up with a bit too much road and not enough sky.

This one is much better, being less arty. 😆

The clouds were so heavy.

These were my therapy trees when I used to drive round this way to my counsellor when I was off work sick. They always made me smile, upon the hill.

The blue sky is coming.

We passed lots of cows.

I then got dive bombed by a huge flock of birds we disturbed…. Their poo came like pellet fire! Actually only two bits hit my hoodie.

There were loads of them.

The pups were knackered when we got home. 😆 they kept looking back at me, as we walked, wondering what on earth was going on but I told them the exercise would do us all good!

I then headed out to Lidl in Dalry to get a food shop. I’ve been eating rubbish all week and I don’t think that’s helping at all.

The sun came out when I got down there and folks were at the shop in shorts! I think we’ve maybe been under a cloud back home. Oh the irony.

I’ve had a lazy afternoon. We were meant to be out at a 40th tonight but I’ve apologised and declined. When you feel like this, you assume you’ll be no fun… when actually the night out would do me good…. But I’m going have a quiet one. The “I’ll be no fun” has won.

Craig’s been working today and is adding another bit of fence on to the bottom of the garden. He’s being very industrious!

I’m gonna read a book for the rest of the day and jump only when called for spirit levels and the likes 😆😘

Have a great Saturday night and rest of weekend.

Stay safe everyone ♥️♥️♥️

I woke at 5.10am…. Didn’t get to bed until about 11.15 last night…. Not late for a holiday but late when you have a 5.45am run!

We had a lovely evening with Holly & Kenny. Holly made 4 curry dishes! There was so much food and it was soooo good. I felt like a beached whale by the time we left.🫣

By default the run was a tough one. I eased into it, about half way round but slowed again towards the end. There were no records today.

It was still a really good pace for 6.5kms!

I love this pic of Rachel. She looks super fresh and bouncy! I feel very lethargic.

Here we are at the end.

I had a freezing cold shower for a good wee while to cool down after that. I love that I can breathe through the cold water now. the first 20 seconds are a bit panicky but I keep breathing until my body relaxes. It does really help cool me down.

I then headed out with the 3 degrees. It’s mild but no sun today.

I love this heart shape at the bottom of this tree.

Look at this poor old gate, it’s literally hanging by a thread. If you zoom in, you can see the metal work has holes in it.

Really randomly we nipped out to Mocha Jaks for brunch… we were off to a farm shop in the Clyde Valley and realised we didn’t have time to get there and back, as Craig had something on at 12.45.

I had a lovely oat milk iced latte. This photo is an awful angle.

It turns out today is Mochas 3rd birthday in this premises. We got entered into a £20 prize draw just for being there today!

I had the Avocado Stack and Craig had the Mama Mocha breakfast. The Avo Stack was so good as they have added way more avo than before. I really enjoyed it….. even though I’m still full from last night. 😆

I spent a bit of time doing some instagram reels. I have so many videos that never see the light of day…. I finally managed to get them to post on The Rambling Sloth FB page. Went into instagram this morning and immediately found the bit to link my FB page. How random. I didn’t even have to try and find it… it was just there. 😆

I enjoyed looking through some of my videos.

I’ve also sanded down the spare bedroom. It used to be Craig’s office and he had loads of things on the walls. He filled all the holes the other day…. Now I’ve sanded them.

I created some amount of dust and had no idea until I turned round in the room… the sander dust catcher was sooooooooooooo full. It was just blowing everywhere. That’s when Craig went to find me a mask!

I’m now having a wee rest. Be rude not to after 5.5 hours sleep!

Stay safe everyone ♥️♥️♥️

I woke at 5.30 today…. Read a book on my kindle app and then fell back asleep until 8am.

I can’t even think what took up the morning… oh yes, I phoned some tradesmen that we’ve been meaning to call for ages. A guy came out to look at our back door lock and will be back this week to fix it. Craig took the dogs out and I must have just done housework. I never sat down.

We headed for the train to Glasgow just after 12.

We can’t remember the last time we were in the train together. I got my Club 50 discount. 😆 someone doesn’t qualify for that yet. 🥱

We headed to the Bavaria brauhaus in Bothwell Street in Glasgow.

Now you all know by now, I’m not really a fan of a pub much, these days, but this one was stunning inside.

Obviously for a Monday afternoon it was quite quiet.

The sun had come out and we decided to sit outside which ended up being really lovely.

There are big umbrellas up but they put the one above us, down, after the sun came out.

I had two really lovely alkoholfrei beers….

Schneider Weiss for the first one… they said this was their best selling alcohol free.

I then had my favourite Maisels Weiss.

I had two of these… not sure how I’ll manage to eat!

It was really nice to sit and people watch and remind us why neither of us want to have office jobs anymore. It’s so nice to not have to wear a suit and work in the corporate world anymore.

I liked this photo… despite the fact it looks like I’m holding a beer… she who doesn’t drink. 😆

I’ve changed a lot since the girl that used to love a good day out in Glasgow. Now I look at the buildings….

Looking down at Central Station.

The city centre is a lot quieter now that we have the ULEZ zone.

We were heading to Stereo… a vegan restaurant in Renfield Lane.

The building is covered in tiles. It’s up one of the not so nice side streets…. It’s a really rustic restaurant. More of a student style haunt…. But the food was out of this world.

Me and ANOTHER alkoholfrei beer… this time Bud Lime, which was really refreshing.

So back to the food…. Craig had the Buffalo burger with double fried chips.

I had

We also had two sharing plates.

The potato dumplings were amazing!

I seem to have some dreamy setting on my phone but the buffalo cauliflower was so tasty.

The best compliment ever, is that Craig thought the food was exceptional. He’s never eaten vegan in his life.

We really enjoyed the meal and felt so full afterwards I couldn’t even manage the Cranachan, which I really wanted.

We went for a wee walk around Glasgow…. It was a very wee walk… we could hardly move and walking wasn’t helping at all!

Here’s Central Station again. I don’t think I’ve ever noticed how lovely the building was.

We actually got home by 5.30pm.

We’d have stayed out longer if we weren’t so full!

We’ve had a nice first day of holiday… the forecast looks better for Tuesday and Wednesday too!

Stay safe everyone ♥️♥️♥️

I’ve asked Craig not to read the blog today as it’s mostly been around his birthday planning…

I woke up at 4.15am… of course I did… and managed to fall back asleep until 6am…. That was my long lie.

I got up and headed out with the dogs. The borders… jeez the country roads are busy at that time.

It’s dull and overcast but at least it’s not raining. Turning left we have a smell…..

I had to keep stopping as all the works vans passed. That’s no mean feat trying to get 3 dogs into the weeds at the side of the road every time a van passes…. Careful, careful, mind your bottoms, mind your tails… are the words that I used. It made me smile this morning.

So I have to be honest and say, despite the smile…. The 10 day holiday was opening up before me like a big giant hole in the ground. I am not good with time off and no plans. My passion is to go exploring and investigating… that’s where I get my buzz now.

I know that I need to fix this attitude today, otherwise I will look back a week on Sunday, and realise it will I ruined a perfectly decent holiday, just because it didn’t go according to my planned idea of what a holiday should be.

So I showered and headed out after 9am to get some last minute birthday gifts for Craig.

Of course I planned this in such a way, that I could get to my favourite Curiosity coffee shop. I had to get ground coffee beans for Craig.

Of course I had to get a decaf oat milk peppermint latte…. It’s exquisite. Alongside a Raspberry Ruffle which was a big bigger than this but I took the photo after a few bites. 😆

I had 45 minutes before I went to meet the lovely Shelagh for a walk and lunch!

So lovely to have a catch up!

We met at Lochshore and went for a walk around Kilbirnie Loch.

Look at the difference between the above and below photo… what a difference some sunlight makes.

The colours are amazing.

We were so grateful to get some lovely sunshine for our walk.

It’s 18°C so it’s very close.

This part of the loch is very calm. It’s windier on the other side.

The trees have very dark bark.

It’s very close to the local whisky bond.

There were loads of thistles! I was in thistle heaven.

We went into the Lochshore cafe for lunch. It’s really cheap food. Shelagh had soup and I had a toastie.

It was so lovely to spend some time together. 💜💜

As if I hadn’t eaten enough, I then headed down to Kilmarnock to Craig’s favourite, The Forum Cafe.

I bought their famous frozen vanilla to bring home for tomorrow, as a surprise, but I had to have my own wee tub of Turkish delight, outside in the car…. It would have been rude not to!

I feel a lot better than I did this morning. Spending time with Shelagh is always a massive boost to the positive energy (she was my Kinesiology Health Practicioner for about 3 years…. She’s been through a lot with me)

I may not be heading abroad to the Maldives this week and enjoying turquoise seas and white sand but I am soooo lucky to have another 9 days where I don’t have to get up to work.

That is something to be truly grateful for.

I should say here… the Maldives was never the plan, we were meant to be in Wales in a cottage with a hot tub and the 4 puppers, but that was not meant to be this year and was postponed.

I’m off next door to the pub as Craig’s birthday starts tonight he says. 🫣

Stay safe everyone ♥️♥️♥️

Wow what a day…. It literally went at 100 miles an hour…. But I’ve already had dinner and I’ve collapsed in a heap on the couch with the dogs. That’s me on holiday. Craig doesn’t finish until lunchtime tomorrow.

I had the best sleep thankfully, despite the speed with which my head was running. I felt really refreshed when I woke up.

I went into work a half hour early to try to get ahead of the game. Just as well as the phone hardly ever stopped. I have to admit to laughing most of the way through the day. It felt like we had more calls and visitors today than we’ve had in ages.

I’m sure I missed some things off my perfection list… it was impossible to do anything with any order but I spoke to some lovely people today.

I do really enjoy that part!

How lovely is this….. 💕

So I have a whole 10 days off with no real plans and a fairly shaky weather forecast.

🫣

I’m looking forward to some time for rest.

And relax….

Stay safe everyone ♥️♥️♥️

Up at 5.30am to go running with Claire and Lynsey.

I found it fast… and hot…. And quite hard on the hills…. But I did still really enjoy it and I’m so glad I did it. I really lost my pace on the hills.

Jeez I say that and I still did 8.01 on the section I had to walk…. AND it was my second fastest 5k.

I took my phone this time and took some photos. Not many…. I was too busy trying to breathe. 😆

Very bad jogging selfie!

Here are the girls running through Beith.

Claire got some lovely action shots of me! The colours are so dramatic!

And we are finished!! We’re super colour coordinated…. Except I have the most red face.

I had a cold shower and couldn’t cool my face at all…. I was still steaming up my glasses half an hour after the run!

I drove to work with the air con on in the car and while it cooled my body, I still couldn’t cool my face. It was beaming for most of the morning. 😆

It was a really close day today. It hit 20°C but wasn’t scorching. Ellison and I sat out at lunch which was lovely.

I’ve been a bit more stressed than usual today but I know it’s fine well because I finish up tomorrow for a week! I’m just trying to clear my feet so I can leave everything perfect… which I won’t, no matter how hard I try.

I’m shattered so I cancelled the crochet hookers tonight then ended up really busy with lots of other things.

I took a pizza out the oven, came through to the living room and found a dog had been sick, I had to deal with that…. Moved the pizza at the same time… then my neighbour came to the door…. So went out to speak to him…. Then I finally ate the cold pizza and had a lovely surprise visit from my sis in law and niece and nephew!

Everyone saw me in my jammies!!

I’m going to get an early night…. holidays after one more calm and collected day 🫣😆

Stay safe everyone ♥️♥️♥️

Can’t believe it’s day 1550 already it feels like no time since it was day 1500.

I’m glad I didn’t believe the forecast today.

I got up early to do some of my “inspired action” this morning was around some budget stuff…. And when I looked outside it didn’t seem to be a day for work shorts.

I was correct! It rained all morning.

I had a good day again at work but it was really busy and I never did any of the things I planned to do. I have 2 days left until our week off and you know me, I have things that I want to get done before I go, so I don’t leave anything half done.

I like the thought that I have invisible friends… this made me smile though not sure I’m happy at calling myself an old soul.

I was moving around the kitchen earlier and I suddenly realised that I remembered my Nana in shorts and a vest top when she was just over 50…. And she seemed like an old lady… suddenly I felt very old.

This goes against all my positive mindset mantras just now.

I guess I feel a bit irritable today. I was a bit anxious about something at work this morning… it was so irrelevant that I can barely remember the exact situation, but I did feel a bit off.

Anyhow, I think I’m maybe just tired.

I’ve had dinner, unloaded the dishwasher, put the washing away and put on a fresh load and I think I might curl up to watch something before an early night.

I have a bite on my leg that’s trying to match my nail polish and my Haviana’s

It happened on Sunday when I felt something sharp, brushed a “fly” away and blood came out my leg… nasty wee beastie! I may have scratched in a square round about it 🫣😆

I love this…. It brings me some peace when my mind is overactive.

Stay safe everyone ♥️♥️♥️

That sounds like a bit of a dull title but you know that during the week way where nothing much happens, but I do write a daily blog and feel I have to try and think of something 🫣 it’s one of those days. that was a long assed sentence!!

I actually had a really good day.

I slept ok but was up twice through the night.

I wore shorts to work for the first time this year. 15th July must be the latest ever work shorts outing ever. I’m not certain it was warm enough but I survived!

I spotted this wee thistle right behind my parking spot at Tartan HQ.

I had a good day at work today. I started some new jobs today which I really enjoyed. A bit of a change from the daily… I’m going to do some FB posts which I love.

I was thinking about this a lot today…. I talk a lot to people. I chatter away to everyone because that’s where I get my buzz from. It no longer comes from alcohol. It comes from random chatter, cheering people up and trying to make them smile. I will fill any gap of silence and sometimes the things that I say are pretty pointless. I was aware of that today. I’m not saying I can stop that chatter but I’m certainly going to think more about what I say and why I feel the need to say it.

I wonder where that came from?!?

I had another call with the Bank of Scotland tonight. They talked me through different current accounts they have available. They showed me how to use the banking app…. To check for payments pending and also insight into my spending which was very interesting. I’ve really enjoyed taking the time to look at my finances and focus on them.

Sit that’s all from me for a Monday.

I sat outside for a bit after my bank call, until it clouded over.

Stay safe everyone ♥️♥️♥️