WE MADE IT TO SCOTLAND ............

We were all very relieved to see Inverness Airport on Wednesday 17th May 2006 after two days of (thankfully) uneventful flying. We were delighted that Calum was exceedingly well behaved on the flights and didn't seem to have any pain in his injured ear.

John met us at the airport with his newly purchased 'family' car and told us that his old car was up sale at a very reasonable price. Needless to say it was the quickest care sale ever!!! We are now the owners of a turbo diesel VW Golf.

What a flash car.......

Off we zoomed to Skye where there was huge excitement seeing Granny and Granpa again, and also meeting Emily (John and Susie's new addition).

We stayed on The Isle of Skye for 4 weeks which gave us enough time to sort out a rental house etc.. As usual we all ate far too much due to Granny's great home cooking.

The weather was mixed but we did manage to have a few fine days amongst the wet ones. One was spent at Morar (on the mainland south of Skye) which was lovely as it was hot and the sandy beaches are amazing.

Finally it was back to reality and Darrel started working at Dingwall Tyres. After a great deal of searching we found a wee cottage to rent just outside Beauly. It is only two bedroom and has no dishwasher (shock horror!!!) but it has a great big garden for the kids to run around in. It was needing quite a bit of work done to make it habitable but finally it was ready and we all moved in.

Beauly is a lovely wee village with a great coffee shop and Deli which is very unusual for villages up here. It is about 10 miles west of Inverness and only 10 minutes drive to Dingwall and has a population of about 1000. We are living about one mile out of the village which is nice as it is lovely and quiet.

July was a very slow month with Darrel working big hours and us not knowing anyone here. Thankfully the weather was fantastic and lots of time was spent at the beach at Rosemarkie (about 15 mins away).

We finally accumulated some furniture as one beanbag between four of us wasn't really ideal, although I must admit that it was very cosy!

I found a great car boot sale in Dingwall and bought some great toys for the kids, as they were starting to get a bit fed up with all their toys still being on the ship.

Just before I went totally crazy due to not having a computer our gear finally arrived - YIPPEEEEEE..... It only took eight weeks for the ship to get in but then it was held in a warehouse in London for 4 weeks in order for them to work out where Beauly was!!!!!

Laura was totally delighted to see Emma and Molly again (her favourite dollies) and Calum was pretty happy to be reunited with all his trucks and diggers.

Darrel was especially glad when our kitchen stuff arrived as he was starting to waste away from the lack of crock pot meals - or so he reckoned!!!????? He is still whinging though as you can't buy corned beef here......