First stop...Old Trafford Football Ground. Andrew thinks he is Rooney so a trip to Old Trafford would help him fulfill his fantasy (one step nearer to our early retirement thanks to his footballing gifting). Surprisingly Isabelle and Stuart really enjoyed it too. I simply told them about the legend of Cantona...the footballer who kung fu kicked a bloke in the crowd, and that was them sat on the video archives for hours looking at footage of him. We also acted out Match of the Day in the tunnel. Here's some pictures of it all, including one of Rooney who was looking out on the pitch whilst we were there!
We also paid a visit to Joddrell Bank where there is a massive telescope and you get to go on a virtual tour of Mars. If you have ever wondered what happened to those geeks who used to present the Open Univeristy, then go to Joddrell Bank. Here they are employed to run the gift shop and do tours. The rest of the week was spent people watching on the streets of Burnage. The ethnic diversity of Manchester is one of the things I miss here. Also the choice of food. Dunbar's Co-op is not exactly well stocked with 'foreign muck' food. It's a choice of Uncle Bens Korma or Uncle Ben's Tikka Massala or pies. Therefore when I went to the giant Tesco's to get a curry I was stuck there for 20 minutes trying to decide which country's curry I was going to choose. In the end I landed on a idea that I think could go a long way. Curry Pizza! Not just curry flavour, but an actual pizza base with a curry on top of it. There has got to be money to be made selling that outside the pubs when they close.
July was the end of the season for Andrew's football team The Dunbar Colts. He had a good season and I think was the top goal scorer. Either way he was given the Players Player of the Year Award which he was really pleased about and got a nice trophy to show for it. The football has been a good way to meet people but they do keep trying to get me to volunteer as a coach or ref. They have obviously mistaken me for someone who knows something about football, can make quick decisions, can take on stroppy parents and coaches and who can actually see what's going on. Here's Andrew and some of the boys.
We get various people coming to visit and in July Woody and Anna came up with Rob & Sarah. We had a BBQ on the beach, dug a big hole and had big fire. We also braved the waters for a swim, but somehow Woody and Rob managed to loose their pants in the sea.
We also went to watch Hearts play Ossasuma at Murrayfield. I think we ended up on the beach every day that week it was so hot.
At the end of July we went on our family holiday to Wensleydale. Because Emma and the kids were going to be missing Criccieth we wanted to give them something similar so we went on the Explorer camp run by CYFA vetrans Derek and Anne Wooldridge. I was not entirely looking forward to a week with a load of 9-11 year olds, but in fact it turned out to be quite a good laugh. I had no particular role except operating the projector and inflating the giant swimming pool. At some point the wind had blown it on to the barbed wire fence and despite several attempts to repair the punctures it kept going flat. By the end of the week I had blisters on my hands from using the pump. Still it was all worth it for the 5 minutes of madness the kids enjoy in the flan fight and throwing the leaders in the pool. We are going back again next year but taking on a bit more responsibility this time...which means delegating the pumping to someone else. It was also good to be able to let our own kids hear about the Christian faith through someone else. They got really stuck into the bible breaks, the songs and quizzes. Our biggest fear is they go to something like that and come back with very negative views of Christianity. It was also good for them to meet kids from different backgrounds. There were kids from one of the poorest estates in England as well as slightly more well off kids from posh parts of Newcastle and London. Anyway here are some photos of the proceedings.
August brought with it my last time running the CYFA Camp at Criccieth. After 25 years or more going to the camps and 12 running it the time had come to hang up my sleeping bag for the last time. A few days before I set off for camp I recieved a very sad letter from a parent telling me that her son and husband had been killed in a diving accident a few weeks earlier. Rhydian had been to the camp the previous year and it had made a big impact on his life. I looked through the photos and the only one I could find was of him rock climbing at the climbing wall and the other of him wearing a pair of Tigger pyjamas, trying to look the part of a Roman gladiator. And there were the highs and lows of running camp captured in one persons life. I discovered from his obituary that he had recently celebrated his 16th birthday by visiting a climbing wall. I will miss the real privilage it is to be part of people's lives in that way, but look forward to the future. The camp itself went really well and you can read a bit about it in my August blog.
Another era ended in August, and that was our Sarah and Rob getting engaged after being 'just good friends' since they were about 11. This means that through marriage I will become related to Woody, who is married to Anna, Rob's sister. The wedding bells will be ringing in October.
I ended up doing the Haddington Half Marathon...memorable for the spooked horse half way round. The sight of several hundred people running at it seemed to upset it and the whole incident added valuable seconds to my time. And August saw the kids go back to school. It just doesn't feel right going to school in August. Stuart started at the Primary school and began to realise that school is somewhere you actually do work and not just play.
September was my first term teaching in the primary school. I was not really looking forward to it, but somehow it all went well and I am in there on a regular basis now.
We were in Manchester for my mum and dad's 40th wedding anniversary which was a goodopportunity to catch up with people. Here's a picture of Sharon, Bungle and my mum at the chinese restraunt.
Finally, Andrew and Stuart signed up for the Celtic FC Community coaching scheme. It's actually exploitation of the community as it is the most expensive local football coaching...the rest is run by volunteers for very little. Anyway it gives them a game and we have discovered Stuart's football skills are hidden...he hasn't found them yet. Here's both Stuart and Andrew with the Scottish Premier League trophy. I think Celtic won it or something!
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