First visit. Subsidence and some good news for once!!!!

We made the very brave decision to drive for six hours to Stuart's parents in Essex. Alice did very well on the journey, was very bored with about an hour to go and said she wanted to go home. However, that wasn't an option. She gets very excited when she sees Nanna and Grandpa.


Aunty Catherine, Uncle Simon and one of Simon's daughters, Jasmine (Lily was at her best friend's birthday party) also came for a couple of days. They kindly bought her this fairy outfit and wings. Alice has been asking for wings ever since she saw the Red Arrows flying over for the end of the Great North Run. So was very happy to receive them.


A funny photo of Nanna wearing Alice's hat.

Alice and Fraser bear watching In the Night Garden.

Alice and Grandpa at the park.

We then drove the six and a half hours home again and again Alice did very well on the journey.
She really enjoyed seeing everyone where Nanna and Grandpa live.

Alice drew this picture. She drew the large shape on the left and said "lady", then drew the smaller shape on the right and said "man". Her drawing abilities are already better than Stuart's and mine.

Whilst I was putting the tree together, Alice and Stuart made this garland for the tree. It gave her something to do whilst I was pulling out all the branches (no we don't have a real one).

Alice was really impressed with her new large "sock" and so took hers off and put this on both feet. Not particularly effective if you want to get around. She's sulking about something or other here.
She really enjoyed helping to put the baubles and little glow in the dark angels we had made together on the tree.

Regarding the subsidence. It's all a bit sensitive, since we have had it proved that the trees in the council owned playing fields behind us are the cause of the subsidence. So can't say too much about it right now, particularly on a public forum like this. It is moving along and I need to contact the insurance company this week to find out what happens next.

I also had the most wonderful news the other day. As most of you know I go twice a year for a blood check for the thyroid cancer which I was diagnosed with 8 years ago. One of the levels has been stubbornly remaining just above the level they deem me cured at. However, it has dropped dramatically below that level and so they now deem me cured!!!!!!! We had actually resigned ourselves to this never happening and had discussed in June what would happen if it never went below 100. It had actually started to creep up a bit and they said if it rose again I would have to have a challenge scan, which means coming off thyroxine and going on a no-iodine diet (no dairy or anything with salt in it) again. So that is what we were expecting, when I rang the nurse the other day for my blood results, that they had risen again and I would be going for that scan. I have my appointment in clinic next week, so will see what they want to do next. They will probably call me back in 6 six months to make sure it is staying below 100 and then hopefully move me to yearly appointments. We could not be happier. We cracked open a bottle of bouvrage to celebrate (a sparkling Scottish raspberry drink, our favourite) and tonight we are having a celebratory take-away. After this horrible year, it was just wonderful to speak to the family with some good news for a change.

Been a while since the last post

As I haven't posted in a while, there are quite a few photos.

The first couple are of my (Pauline's) friend Helen's hen-do in September. My chocolate fountain was requested and there were loads of yumminess to be eaten too, not just the chocolate being sucked through a straw. It was a really fun day.


We bought Alice her winter clothes and when they arrive (as I order them all online from Vertbaudet, being a French company their clothes sizes tend to be smaller and therefore fit Alice better), she loves trying them on and giving us a fashion show.

My birthday this year was very difficult and particularly so as it was two days after my parents' wedding anniversary. Stuart and Alice tried their best to make it as special as possible. So they made scrumptious cupcakes and decorated them beautifully too. I think when you have the death of someone very close to you, the anticipation of these occasions is worse than the event itself. I didn't feel as bad as I thought I was going to feel, however, I did still feel very sad indeed.


We had some visitors a few weeks ago. Oliver and Alice. Alice is one of our god-daughters and it was lovely to see them all, as the family have moved out of the area now.

As Alice's hair is so curly, it is difficult sometimes to realise just how long her hair actually is. When I was plaiting it, it just kept going and going. This was for her first birthday party at a soft play centre. She really enjoyed it, although it was too late in the day for her and she was just exhausted by the end of it. She also kept the bow in for the whole party!!!!

Yesterday was Helen's wedding (from the Hen-do photos at the top). This was the outfit Alice wore. Trying to get Alice a wee dress that had sleeves and was pretty, was very difficult indeed. We found this and had to have it altered as it was huge on her. Alice did very well during the service, to sit and play with her puzzles. We did manage to get half a service out of her until she exclaimed to everyone "I'm fed up", much to the amusement of everyone sitting in front of us. She then lost it a bit and Stuart had to take her to the car for the rest of the service.
Helen's mum, Helen, Simon, Simon's mum and Simon's dad. It was a beautiful service, the highlight being, just after the vows, Helen was asked to go and sit down as Simon had a few words for her. He crossed the church, picked up a microphone, the piano was struck up and he sang her a song that his mother used to sing to him when he was a child!!! It really was a very touching moment.

Back at the village hall for the reception and there was a wee play room upstairs. Alice really enjoyed playing and went straight for this polar bear suit, saying "I love bears". She wouldn't put the head on, as there was only a small hole for her face and she didn't like that very much. We were glad of this room, because otherwise we would've been taking it in turns to stand outside as she walked up and down the steps in the rain. What is it with toddlers and steps??!!

Today we decided it was harvest time. So we went outside and picked all the apples from the tree. Alice has been asking to do this for months. So today she got to do it. She really enjoyed picking the ones she could and then holding the ladder for Stuart for the ones she couldn't.



We haven't had any apples from this tree for about 3 years, so it was great to have so many this year. This is the second lot from this tree, quite a few fell off at the beginning of October in the wind, so all in all we've had about 120 apples this year. Alice then made her first crumble (or scrumble, as she kept calling it). She was very good at rubbing the flour and butter together between her fingers with her thumb. She was also very patient waiting to eat it after dinner too.

There are quite a few different things in this video. The first, is one of Alice's tantrums. Amazing how they turn from this wonderful wee placid thing into this monster trying to assert their personalities. Really hoping this phase doesn't last too long, but realise that it could go on for quite some time yet!!! I thought about cutting the tea party short, but I liked the whole clip. The bridge is in one of favourite places, Plessey Woods. She starts by chucking a twig over the bridge, because we had been doing Pooh-sticks at a bridge earlier on. The song Alice is singing is Mousey Brown. He doesn't "roast" at the top, the song is about a mouse climbing to the top of a wooden candlestick and he couldn't get down, it is actually a very odd song indeed. Ending with the apple picking from today.



Think I will update on the subsidence in a separate post another day. Just to say that the investigations have been done, the holes dug and the samples sent off to the lab. It'll take about two weeks for the results to come back and our engineer to write the reports to send off to our insurance company.

update on the subsidence

Just to let you know that our insurance company got the report today from the bloke who came out nearly three weeks ago. They are accepting that it is a genuine claim for subsidence and they are happy to pay for everything that needs to be done from now on. They are also happy for us to use our own structural engineer.

So it looks like next Thursday I'll have some builders in and they'll be digging big holes around my house to do site pit investigations!!! So hopefully not too long after that to find out what the cause is!!!

Obviously keep you posted.

Alice playing and subsidence stuff

Alice got this farm at Christmas and has been playing with it a lot recently. It's like her imagination has just taken off and all the characters have wee chats, they all stand really close together and go in and out of the farm house.

Alice decided that she would fit herself into the sheep pen. She had to curl her toes under to fit in, but she managed it and closed the gate behind too!!!!

We weren't quite sure why all her toys were being tipped out of the toy box. It soon dawned on us though as she was making room for herself.
Regarding the subsidence issue. We had the insurance bloke here last Monday. We are still waiting for his report to come through to us. He said the movement at the back is likely to be due to clay soil shrinkage and most likely cause of that are the trees. So agreeing with our structural engineer. Anyway, we have noticed quite a few cracks around the front of the house too now. He said they were all due to thermal movement at this time of year. However, Stuart and I are not convinced. The temperature hadn't started to change when all this started. So we're going to get our structural engineer out to have a look at the front of the house too and get his opinion on that.

This photograph is the outside of the house. The is where the extension "joins" the original house. The grey stuff running down the middle of the gap is some kind of foam, which you can just pull away. It isn't doing anything structural and if you were to take it away you would see the full extent of the gap behind it. The extension isn't attached in any way to the original house.
We are now just waiting for this report to go to our insurer and for them to decide whether they are going to accept the claim for subsidence. Once they do that, we can get on to our structural engineer and start the site tests. Then we'll know if it is the trees and also which tree is causing the problem. I think I'm going to have many head-aches over this over the next year or so.

The insurers are being a pain too. When I phoned them yesterday to find out where this report is, I was told to send in the report from our structural engineer. I told her I asked if we needed to send it in three weeks ago when I contacted them originally and I was told no. Their right arm does not know what their left arm is doing at all!!! Anyway, we are just waiting at the moment.

Subsidence Issue

As some of you may know we have discovered this week that we have subsidence on the house. The back of the house has moved about 2 cm in about 2 weeks. The back extension (which is about 30 years old) is not actually attached in any way to the original house. I got out a structural engineer who confirmed movement in the house and suggested the culprits are more than likely to be the trees at the bottom of our garden which are owned by the council!!!! So we have contacted our insurance and they are sending out some of their people to do an initial inspection and then hopefully we can continue to use the structural engineer we have employed (the insurers have said we can). So he will then do a pile of tests, which will involve digging a huge whole down about 6 feet outside the house at the back. This will determine whether it is the trees which are the problem.

Basically he reckons that with having a dry winter and spring the trees have needed to get moisture for the roots somehow and so take it from the ground. Our soil is basically clay and so with the dry whether it is already contracted and taking more moisture out of it contracts the soil further, resulting in our house moving.

If he can prove the trees and the soil are the problem, then it will mean going to the council (via the insurers) to get them to do something about them. I have been to the four neighbours either side of me and they are noticing different things in their houses too, from new cracks to doors not closing properly etc... (all within the last two weeks). If the council don't want to do anything then we will need to underpin the house around the roots. None of us want to lose the trees, but another solution is taking all trees down and then putting other trees in place which won't be as bad e.g. silver birches.

Here are a couple of photos.

This one is the extension at the back of the house, just outside the kitchen. The gap goes the whole way through to the outside, this gap is about 1 cm, but it is about 2 cm on the outside.

This is the ceiling at the back of the house, you can see it looks like the back wall has moved away from the ceiling and the ceiling has remained in place.

This is the other side of the back window (on the left looking into the garden), the gap on this side is not as wide as the other side.

The whole thing is going to take about a year, as they need to monitor how the house is moving over the winter with more and less moisture in the soil. What a pain, but hopefully it will get resolved without too much of a legal wrangling with the council!!!! Will keep you informed.

August Bank Holiday

A couple of weeks ago we took Alice into Newcastle to buy new shoes. So she now has beautiful new red shoes. £32 for new shoes every three months or so is a lot of money. Why do children's shoes cost more than adults' shoes?

The new shoes.

Monday was a bank holiday. So Stuart and Alice made crumpets for lunch. Stuart had never made them before and so we weren't too sure how they were going to turn out. They were so yummy, really soft and light and not heavy like shop-bought. Very impressive indeed.

Alice is giving the crumpets the "thumbs up". She did eat 4 and a half of them!!!!!!!

After her nap we went to Tynemouth Metro station, where there is sometimes a farmers' market. On Monday they had a Green Seaside Day at the Station. We walked past this lady making balloon shapes quite a few times and then we stopped to wait in the queue to get Alice one. She watched the lady very patiently, for ages and then asked "can I have one too please?". She hadn't realised we were in the queue to get her one. So I said, "Alice, for asking so politely, of course you can have one". So she chose the bear from all the different shapes and animals. It was amazing to watch her make it.


Alice was so pleased with her new bear.

He rode in the pram the whole way home. She wanted him to meet Fraser bear and when we got home, she introduced them and they sat and had a chat. However, last night one of the arms starting deflating. This morning Alice said it had a funny arm and looked all disappointed with the bear and wanted us to take it back to the lady to mend it.

When we got home Alice and I did a bit of sticking. I've been putting together bits here and there for a wee making basket. So we got out the yellow crepe paper, a loo roll, the pritt stick etc. Alice spent ages sticking on the yellow feathers the whole way round the roll.

It took her about half an hour to stick the feathers on. She just sat patiently sticking away.

Here is the finished chick!!! Art is not my strong point, but Alice liked it and she really enjoyed making it. Must get on some websites for some inspiration and instructions.

This video is of Alice being able to ride her trike for the first time. She got it for her birthday, but her legs are now long enough to do a full cycle round on the pedals. The rest are just funny wee videos of her playing.

What a big girl!!!!

About three weekends ago we decided that Alice's room was finally Alice-proof. After putting locks on her drawers and a make shift stopper on her under cot drawer, covering all the plug sockets, we were ready to put Alice in her bed!!!!

Here she is pretending to be asleep in her cot. She pretends to snore, which is what she is doing here.

Alice's last time in a cot!!!

Thankfully we had a cotbed and so all we had to do was take off the sides and lower the bottom end and she was all ready. With a new pillow and duvet she was all set to see how she would fair in her bed.
This wasn't her first attempt at escaping which resulted in terrible injuries. She was trying to get off the bed hands first and did a full tumble off the bed. She wasn't too sure at first, but when I just laughed and laughed, she did too. We do have a bed guard which clips on (you can see it leaning up against the wall in the photo above. She's had no problems sleeping in it and actually seems to be sleeping better in it and seems to like having a pillow.

Last weekend was the kite festival. We went along with some friends and Alice had her first taste of ice cream. "Nice"!!!!

Alice had her first ride on a merry-go-round. I think Daddy was feeling a little bit sick as he doesn't too well with being on things that move. She kind of enjoyed it.

On Sunday we had some visitors from Manchester. Mark, Janette and Sam were up our way for a wedding over the weekend and called in to see us too. Stuart and Mark are friends from Essex, so it was great to catch up with them.

We also had Aunty Catherine and Uncle Simon visiting on Monday. They are on holiday near-ish where we live. Alice enjoyed aunty Catherine reading her new book, which they bought for her. Then it was off to the beach.

The weather had been quite cold in the morning and so we thought it was going to be windy and cold at the beach. Nope, it was beautiful and hot too. Aunty Catherine made a little trail for Alice to follow in the sand and at the end there was lots of cheering.

Then some circles were drawn in the sand for Alice to jump into. Alice loves jumping!!!

Alice, aunty Catherine and uncle Simon enjoying the sea, all wishing we'd brought a towel with us, so that we could all go paddling.

Alice really enjoyed having them visit and particularly uncle Simon hiding behind the door when she was having her bath later.

Just a little video of Alice singing to Old McDonald (the book was bought as a present for Alice's thanksgiving service, so the batteries have lasted nearly two years!!!) and then jumping with aunty Catherine and uncle Simon.