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Katie in the Plockton Inn
I haven't really had the chance to enjoy a British pub since the No Smoking law came into action, until now. I took the train over to Plockton, a small fishing village on the west coast of Scotland, where I met Katie, my sister-in-law. We spent most of our time indoors, chatting about life, work and craft projects. Katie treated us to a pub lunch in the Plockton Inn [see photo]. The bar had the usual pool tables, dart board and log fire, all without the passive smoking. Time passed too quickly before I had to jump on the train home. The train journey, at a mere 2 hours, was also far too short. I had just got into studying when we arrived in Dingwall. After travelling in China any journey in the UK is going to be a breeze....unless, of course, there are 'leaves on the line'.

 
Edie discovers her talent for complex, fiddly mechanisms
Edie at work
We gave Edie a Tamiya model kit for Christmas. When I opened the box I was quite shocked to see how complicated it seemed to be, but I needn't have worried because Edie is a dab hand at complicated, fiddly mechanisms and her fingers are small and nimble enough to deal with tiny parts. Just as well, because every component (apart from the motor) of this kangaroo ("2-leg jumping type") had to be assembled from scratch, including battery pack, gearbox, switch and the body itself. The gearbox was particularly challenging, with a choice of ratios and lots of cogwheels, shafts, bushings and the odd pinion to keep Edie on her toes as she navigated her way through the instructions (with minimal supervision). We finished Skippy in two sessions. Next on the agenda? Well, there's a racehorse with jockey in the same range, so I suspect some Christmas money will be spent on that.

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Edie with the completed device, ready for a test run.
Visit more videos to see Skippy in action.
 
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We harnessed the Huskies up for some sledge-racing in the forest today. We adults were the hard-working huskies, although BB [pictured below with Freda], did provide some licking services to injured participants.  

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The 'Huskies' discuss pulling strategies.
 
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Remember that Edie was 2 years old when we moved to China, so she may be in for the greatest culture shock of us all as we go cold turkey from China. In her China (if not all Chinese) up-bringing she has chewed on chicken feet.... and almost every other part of the feathered friend... she has devoured duck (Beijing- style is her favourite), picked out pigeon brains, palated proto-eggs, gobbled goose soup and cracked quails' wings, all without the bat of an eyelid. She has never, however, eaten roast turkey. Nor has she even see this plucked bird - only a live one in New Zealand. Christmas dinner is underway, though it's going to be slightly late this year because we'd forgotten just how long it takes to prepare everything. MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone.

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Edie delivers a Secret Santa gift to Grandad David.
After each drawing one other name from the hat, we launched a new Secret Santa tradition this year, starting with the first letter of the alphabet. The A gifts we enjoyed included: adjustable book light, A4 pad, Anaseed pastels and aloe vera gel, (model) aeroplane and Asparin. The general consensus was that A is a tricky letter and B is going to be an easier year. [Further restriction: All gifts must be under £3.]
 
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Thank Goodness It's Family-games-night! We dusted down the ma zhong set for our first game since returning. I ma zhonged with a pair of East winds [that doesn't sound too sociable] and wished we'd been playing for money. We may, in fact, have to insist on gambling, smoking and mobile phone use during matches, just so players can make use of the pocket flaps on each side of the custom-made table cloth. Orders welcome.

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Mazhong tablecloth, complete with pockets and piped walls, to prevent the tiles falling off the table while shuffling. The red ribbons are to make it look at least a little bit Chinese.
 
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According to this photo it is a cold, mid-winter dawn. Freda looks composed while Edie is anxious, possibly at the prospect of entering the large house behind. It is in fact 9 am though still fairly chilly at -6 degrees C.  Freda is incredibly nervous while Edie seems to be taking it all in her stride (expressions are purely for the camera) as they face their first morning at Culbokie Primary School. The building (which you can see in its entirety) houses 109 pupils in total, twenty times fewer than their previous school in China. Pupils are divided between 5 classes, 3 of which are composites. Edie is in Miss Mills' Primary 2/3 class and Freda has joined Mrs Danson's class. While Freda had over 72 classmates in Simao, she now has only 21. Number 22 left for Zambia yesterday and Freda has taken her place. This seems fitting.

Freda woke up today worrying that she would have to stand at the front of the class and recite the 9 times table. She was delighted to be told on arrival, however,  that they would be occupied with Christmas crafts and 'golden time' this morning - the latter being a reward for good behaviour. I await their home-coming for more news. This is the last day of term and after this morning's excersion they will be on holiday until 10th January 2011.

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Wrapped up warm for a morning sewing session.
My first morning for long time without the resonsibility of home school. What would you do? Well, I made myself a cappuccino, danced to my new Maroon 5 CD then got busy making a cushion cover. My sewing machine is one of the few possessions I really missed while in China, despite the nearness of a very affordable seamstress. Our house is now filling up with textiles, arts and crafts from our travels, this small piece of patchwork being one of them.
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I completed the patchwork in China, using scraps from the children's homemade trousers. It's now a fleece-backed cushion cover. A strange expression of nostalgia, perhaps.
 
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The new, intellectual look?
My new spectacles have evoked a number of responses from those around me. Ali was shocked into silence when he first saw them [which I haven't let him forget, of course] while Freda said, "Hey, you look cool!" Edie added that I [finally?] "look like a teacher", which I take as being a good thing.
I have a second pair on the way, brown and understated.

Despite my sight only being out by +.5, it's incredible the difference they make - not so much in terms of increasing what I can read, but more in the reduction of eye strain and headaches. Yippee, I can stare at a computer screen all day long and no longer get sore eyes. Only joking. On the contrary, I intend to take much greater care of my eyes than I have in the past, using better lighting for reading, cutting down on DVDs [being away from our cheap source in China, this isn't difficult]. Most importantly, I shall reduce my computer [that means work] time. Yes, and pigs can fly.

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Maisie thought she'd be quicker doing it herself.
Having horses takes a special kind of devotion, somewhat masochistic in the winter time. At 8:30 this morning it was -11 degrees C, up from the night time low of -17. This meant we had to break up and scoop out layers of ice in the horses' drinking bucket before filling it up with water pumped from containers in the back of the car. David has an efficient and easy system in place so it only took us about 10 minutes. Nevertheless, my hands were numb by the end of it and, five hours later, I still haven't warmed up. Too long in the tropics. Maisie knows she doesn't get her food until the water job is done and often tries to hurry matters along [see photo].

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There are many reasons for our blog-pause this last week - travelling, jet-lag, culture shock, chaos, headaches, house-moving, sadness, more chaos and so on. Today we got back into home school, however, and are now spending the afternoon getting into Christmas. Freda was enjoying making the Christmas cake with Granny until her Santa hat's pompom whacked her in the eye [see photo].

At least some of my headaches are a result of eye strain caused by my near-sightedness deteriorating. Although I can still read small print, it's not with the high definition it used to be. Basically, I need specs, which are due to be delivered any day now for my 'new look'.

I'd like to say I'm settling in to being back in the UK, but that's partly because I'm living a restricted life. Apart from going to the optician, signing-on and making endless phonecalls to get our lives in order (dentists, schools, jobs etc), I've been holed up in our little house. We're very lucky to have the two-bedroom extension to my parents' house to live in these days. It's self-contained and full of our furniture and belongings from five years ago so it already feels like home. If my heart and mind can catch up with my body, which is now well and truly in Scotland, then all will be well. That means going through a certain grieving process for me, at having left our life, our friends and our work in China. It's not about being stuck in the past, or negative about the future. It's simply acknowledging that we developed bonds, put down some roots, and these don't disappear in an instant. Indeed, they don't disappear at all. This is a period of adjustment. 

 
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"Pop your head out the window", isn't as straight-forward as it sounds when you're staying on the 18th floor. Lesley managed to overcome her vertigo, however, for this morning's shot from the dizzy heights of Charlotte's Happy Valley apartment. Until last year she was living on the 25th floor, which may have had us up in the clouds on this gloomy, wet morning. This is, nevertheless, a great time of year to be in Hong Kong as both the temperature and humidity are lower. We spent most of yesterday wandering around the market streets and dropped in to Man Mo Temple, busy with Middle School students praying for good exam results.