Scottish Gold.

Less than 24 hours in and I'm already frustrated by this property search! M and I have decided we'll rent a place, as we need to be moving out fairly quickly now M will be onshore all the time (our place is a bit small) and we don't want to feel rushed into buying anything. We'll keep an eye out for anything nice while we're renting, hold onto our deposit for now and perhaps spend it on a holiday cabin in Norway instead of a property here. I spotted two lovely places today and rang up to arrange viewings, only to find out they had already been taken off the market (in both cases, this morning). I have no idea how we're meant to give notice and be able to find anything new that will still be around when we're released from our current flat - it seems almost inevitable that there will be a period of paying two rents. Still, at least there are two incomes going into it, so it's not the end of the world.

To distract me from the property search this lunchtime, I headed up to Castlegate to see the postbox that had been painted gold in honour of Aberdonian rower Katherine Grainger's Olympic win. I got a few funny looks, but carried on taking photos anyway. One lady even said to me that she hadn't noticed it until she saw me taking a photograph - I'm not sure how she missed it!

Home this evening for a lovely meal with M's Mum and Dad at their house. M's Mum cooked us some lovely chicken with vegetables and a mustard and maple syrup marinade - apparently a Weightwatchers recipe but it tasted far too good for me to believe that! M's Grandparents were over at the house too and we spent the evening watching family videos of when M was small, and the Great British Bake-Off. I laughed until my sides were sore over the family videos - one in particular at one of M's sister's parties: imagine a room-full of girls in sweet Laura Ashley party dresses and frilly socks, eating chocolate fingers... Suddenly, from out of shot, all you hear is M's wee voice yelling: "I'll get the hot-glue gun"! A fixer-upper from an early age.