2006 January to March

It's the end of the year and rather than let everything that happened fade away into distant memories, I thought I would make a note of them here in case I bang my head and get amnesia and forget who I am and what I have been doing for the last year. Here's January to March.

January was our first time in Scotland celebrating Burns night. The local church put on an impressive feast of haggis, neeps and tatties and accompanied it with various people reading Burn's poems. I didn't undersatnd a word but it was all very cultural and helped me understand the natives. At the kids school the whole school celebrated living in Scotland (as opposed to being Scottish which would have excluded half of us now living here). Isabelle (pictured below) got to do a song and dance at the Scottish Evening which was torture using the repeated reciting of Auld Langs...and Flower of Scotland using out of tune instruments and tone deaf children.


February according to my diary is an uneventful month and none of us can remember anything of significance happening. We got roped into doing a clean up in the local woods. Earlier in the year we had seen a bigcat in there. Not a domestic type..a proper wild one...a panther we think. Secretly we were hoping to find its lair, but instead all we found was a load of rubbish. Still it was good to get involved and this photo of us all appeared in the local paper.
We were still doing the Cross Country races and here is a picture of Isabelle at Berwick on Tweed on a cold and frosty morning and me in the river at Peebles.




March was the start of spring and the changing landscape is impressive. I was away for a week with Isabelle's year group to York. This meant spending a week with 100 9-10 year olds touring all the sights of York. I have been a regular visitor to York through camp stuff. We used to have the reunions there but rarely have I bothered to see the sights. The attraction of the pubs on Micklegate usually outdid the need to visit the Minster and after a pint of Theakstons OP I never did manage to see the York walls. This trip made up for lost time and by the end of the week I never wanted to see a museum shop ever again or hear about Viking toilet habits. Whilst we were there camp and Dunbar made a connection through Chris Wooldridge who is in charge of opening the walls and at camp collecting rubbish. The teachers had heard Chris on the radio on Radio 4's Home Truth's and to our amazement we actually bumped into the local celebrity the next day. Click the link to hear more about Chris. Here is a picture of us on the Ghost Walk in York....oooooh!

Goodbye Christmas

Well it's all over for another year...boo hoo! I hope you all had a great time opening your presents. I really spent a lot on Emma this year and without wanting to show off my generosity here are some of the items I purchased.
Franks X-Ray £96
Franks Lethal injection £75
Trefor £400
Trefor's worming juice and first round of injections £46
Trefor's lice spray £15
Trefor's second round of injections £35

We hosted the festive dinner and somehow ended up with 4 Christmas puddings and 2 stalks of sprouts that were surplus to requirement. All went well and managed to feed 15 of us all at once, although this did involve having to take apart the kitchen table and reassemble it in the living room. It was that or the pool table. However after a few slurps of champers I think Emma's dad would have lost his sprouts down the pockets.

It's great the way Santa buys kids the same sort of presents that mums and dad like. MP3 Players, Fifa 07' for the Playstation, Battleships, Cluedo, giant tin of Celebrations and a dart board in a cabinet to go in the garage. Stuart got a rifle that fires pellets. It's unlikely to have passed any health and safety tests as it is very powerful for a 5 year old. We had great fun shooting Christmas cards and ornaments and when we are better at it we can move on to the big game of Harold and Trefor. Well I must go for now and read the numerous Round Robin's I have been sent. Send us yours if you have one, I think they're great.

Christmas Gardens

I've noticed that this time of year people have gone mad decorating their gardens with Christmas lights and ornaments. The price of lights has plumetted and so you can now make your row of terrace houses look like Blackpool for under £100 and not have to suffer the smell of onions and the company of fat Glaswegians and be held up by the Wombles (old people). Here's a picture of the Burnage Illuminations sent by it's vey own tour guide Colin Jones. I will try and get some up of Dunbars illuminations. Yes they really do have them and quite impressive if that's your thing.


Trefor has decided to do his festive bit for our garden too. He likes the Christmas tree and keeps pulling the tinsel off and shredding it to pieces. What goes in has to come out! i discovered this the other day when I noticed something glimmering in the winters night. There was more than one of them scattered around the garden. On closer inspection I discovered Trefor had left his own Christmas parcels...fully loaded with tinsel all around the garden. How kind of him

William is here

10 days late and even then only after the midwife gave him a prod...William has arrived in this world. Our Sarah and Beck had decided to leave their visit to see us until this weekend so they didn't miss his arrival. But within 15 minutes of arriving here William decided to come out with his hands up 260 miles away. All are doing well and apparantly Cath was on the blower to people to break the news whilst he legs were still in stirrups. It's not the sort of image you want to think about whilst you holding a conversation with someone. I personally find the thought of someone talking to me whilst their innards are on display quite off putting. It also puts into question the rights of women who work in call centres the right for maternity leave.

Anyway here is a picture or two of our William in all his splendour and Cath without her stirrups on.

Late arrival

Watch this space....Cath & Richard's baby is due any day now! In fact it is already 4 days late. As you can see from the photo Cath has bought a couple of special maternity outfits to give birth in.

Clever Trefor

I don't want to give undue air time to a dog on this Blog. That's the sort of thing a 12 year old girl does. However I should explain how it has ended up with this name. As you know I have been involved in the Criccieth Camp for over 20 years, and in the summer I gave up running the camp. Those generous leaders had a whipround and gave me a meaty cheque that I have been trying to think of things to spend it on....something that was of significance. Well with Frank's departure the obvious thing was to put it towards a dog. Criccieth camps have always used the local bus firm Clynogg & Trefor. Trefor is actually a little village with little to it, but the buses are legendary with camp. For me the sight of those burgundy and cream buses at Birch Services was the start of camp. Those itchy seats woolen and the travel sickness of going through the back roads near Bala are etched in my mind. So Trefor got picked...and when Harold (the yellow lab) snuffs it then guess what the new mut will be called?
I did think of other camp related names...Derek in recognition of the great things he has done for the camps. However the slight sense of pleasure in telling him to lie down or sit would be unfair. Mark as in Marquee...but I would sound like my mate Mark Livingstones mum whose squeeky voice used to shout 'Marky' to him even when he was 19 and trying to impress the ladies! Gwyn as in Gwynnedd, Dynion as in Gents loo and Eggy as in Eggy Bread. I wonder if you shouted Eggy to your dog in a public place if you would find people shouting back 'Bread Bread Bread'?

Anyway, for those who used to enjoy Clynogg & Trefor before they went into luxury coaches, here is a picture to remind you of them.

Trefor

Just over a week has passed since Frank popped his clogs...and Emma has been grieving badly. So much so that she decided we should get a replacement hound. Off we went today to Selkirk to buy one. A pedigree chocolate labrador called Trefor. Here is a picture of him and I will explain the name later.

Peregrine Chum

Yet agaian the wildlife here makes a big impression. As a kid I was a member of the RSPB before I grew into bird watching of a different type! In those days, and it still is, one of the rarest birds and most protected was the Peregrine Falcon. I could not believe my eyes when I saw a pair of them nesting in a location very near here. Obviously I can't say where as those weirdos that nick eggs will be on to it in no time...oh ok go on then...it's on top of the police station! Also spotted this week...seal cub on the beach....and the illusive white squirrel (not together though...the seal is not very good at tree climbing).

Thin on top

Hair loss is not something I fear...as long as it looks good. Unfortunately I need my hair cutting and I always know it needs cutting because if it's long then it reveals how thin it is. If ever I needed a wake up call to pay a visit to Sheila's the barbers, then it was the sight of David Gest on 'I used to be a celebrity get me out of here'. Emma was quick to point out the likeness of his failed hair transplant to my thinning mop. Here are some photo's to illustrate my point.






I don't think I can go for the shaved head look though because I would just look like I had escaped from the psychiatric ward because my head is full of odd bumps and scars. My dad used to have a bald patch, but it looked like a chimps bottom so I don't want to go for that. There is only one option and that's to bring back the comb over. But how do you grow your hair long just on one side of your head? I will have to ask Alan Pugmire for some tips.