Christmas

I did a few Christmassy things in Edinburgh but didn't take any photos. 

The trip back to the west Midlands the weekend before Christmas was a nightmare. I had every weather type (rain, snow, brilliant sunshine, hail and fog) and then broke down just north of Lancaster. My windscreen wipes died while I was int he middle lane, overtaking a lorry, in torrential rain. Of course. I managed to get to the hard shoulder. And then the battery died. Thankfully the RAC got to me within the hour and replace the battery so I was only 3 hours later than planned.

I worked right up until Christmas Eve and we headed over the Kerry and Craig's on Christmas eve to spend Christmas at theirs. 

Obviously we spend lots of time greeting and playing with Finley.

Tired him out

Christmas morning was spent opening presents and playing with Finley. It is so much fun teasing him with paper. He loves it too and very much liked all his presents. (I gave him some treatments wrapped in old socks and wrapped up. Doesn't sound like much but he loves it!)

After some breakfast we took Finley for a walk over the Chase Common. Though it seemed like he was taking us for walk given how much he ran. He is nutcase. 

The Finley blur.

I tried to get a photos but mom and Finely were too busy amusing each other. I did get Finley to look at the camera. I failed with mom. :/

Dad and Craig playing with Finley.

Finley loves water, even though it was not very warm. And he went in every chance he got.

I meant to take photos of my sisters lovely Christmas dinner but forgot and just dug in. We spend the rest of the day watching movies and napping. Exactly how every Christmas should be. 

I managed to get some more photos of Finley on Boxing day morning before we came home. After playing/fighting/throwing him around for a few hours, he was a bit tired (though it never lasts long), and being super cute so I managed to get some photos.

We haven't done much else over Christmas so far. Another walk and some admin. It has been a nice break from work. 

Spa Weekend

At the end of November Caroline and I went for a spa weekend at Dunkeld Royal Hotel near Perth. It was very posh. We need got a whiskey or sherry upon arrival (which was needed as we drove there in torrential rain and through more than one flooded road). 

I thought I had booked our treatments for the Saturday but I got it wrong and booked for Sunday, so we had all day Saturday to chill out. We sent some time by the pool and using the spa facilities.

The view form the pool

We didn't really do much while there, though we did take a bit of a walk around the hotel. To be fair, it didn't really stop raining the whole time we were there. 

The Dunkeld Royal Hotel

The river was quite high

After the walk before our dinner, we found a side room with some comfy chair to read out books.

We had our spa treatments on the Sunday morning. While Caroline was having hers, I had a hot stone massage, which was pleasant, and a seaweed bath. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it turns out it was a really hot bath with some seaweed in it. It was an ... interesting experience. 

It was a good weekend and nice change.

Edinburgh Skyline

In November I got to go a training event at the Edinburgh Amazon office. The course was good but one of the best bits was the trip up the roof to see the views over Edinburgh. It had been raining all day but there was a lovely break in the weather and some great views.