going to scotland

Everything's official now, so we can let people know that we're moving back to Scotland. We're going to miss living in Binfield, and I'm definitely going to miss working at 3M, but now that we have michael we're keen to live closer to our families, and for michael to be able to spend more time with them (otherwise known as babysitting!). Also, we don't think it would have been affordable to have stayed in berkshire with sarah not working, and it was more important for us to let her spend time with michael.

I've accepted a job in Stirling, so Sarah and I have been up looking at houses in the surrounding area for the last couple of days. Our house is currently on the market, so if anyone is feeling generous, and has some spare cash, we'll throw in the white goods too!

there are a lot of lovely houses in the stirling area, and we think that sarah has been to see most of them over the last few days. Let's all hope that interest rates don't get any higher. we even went to see the alloa ward (church) on sunday, and it was really nice. a lot of people came up to us and talked about where to live. for me it was particularly satisfying, as I'd been talking the day before about not looking at a house as it was right next to the river, and could flood. sarah thought i was being ridiculous (and was pretty much correct), but i felt justified the next day when some people at church warned us about some houses being on the flood plain.

We've been in edinburgh and glenrothes (fife). despite being afflicted with horrible insomnia for the few days before, i drove up on friday after work. it was good to see edinburgh again, and i'd really missed michael and sarah. it was funny to see him with sarah's mum and dad in the flat in edinburgh, where sarah and i had spent so much time (after only planning to stay there for 3 months we stayed for about 15!).

Today I took michael for a quick tour of where i grew up (see pictures). There was an ice cream van in elgin drive (tanshall in glenrothes), so dad treated us to an ice cream (i couldn't resist a double-choc wafer). i had a quick chat with the woman working in the van about how much you can get for a 10p mixture nowadays. not much really, but now you can get a 50p mixture! that would have kept me going for weeks as a kid. the photos are of the house that the blacks lived in between 1982 and 1992. it's still got the same curtains! it also needs more than a little bit of attention. sarah wasn't overly impressed with the area, but was fascinated by me telling her stories about every nook and cranny (honest!).