Flan'tastic

We all got back from Wensleydale yesterday having served on the CPAS camps there. Once again I spent a week with a load of squeaky kids but the joy of this camp was we got to cover them in flans in a massive big flan fight. It was a good week of catching up with old freinds from Criccieth. Having gone to Wensleydale worried about the state of the toilet after my experience at Scripture Union camp, I was even more concerned to discover i was sharing a cabin with Woody and Pete Hale. Combined they have the potential of causing a bio hazard in the toilet. Fortunately they have both gone all sophisticated and Pete is a wine and whisky connessieur and Woody is an evangelist and is known as 'Matt Woodcock' on the Christian conference scene.
I ended up running anmation workshops as I have discovered how easy it is. I am now sick of the smell of plastercine as I seemed to have spent all week playing with it, helping little kids make their own movies. I will stick them on Youtube for you to see. Our kids had a good time too but disgraced the Taylor family by entering the talent competition with a burp off. This was bad enough, but Stuart beat them all by playing the recorder through his nose. Still these holidays are ideal and if you have kids their age then you would be foolish not to send them on one. Anyway back to work for us all now Booo!

Boys will be boys

I've been away for a while on a Scripture Union camp so Iv'e not had time to post anything. The camp was actually in dorms, although we did get one night of camping out under the stars and in the company of midgies. Despite coating myself in Superdrugs extra strength midgie repellant...which is highly flamable and toxic, the little buggers kept going for me. It was hardly a fun night out as I was in the company of 16 under 11 boys who all had annoying squeaky voices. In a poor attempt to get them tosleep I told them that the game keeper was on the prowl and we had not got permission to be there. It shut most of them up one kid was nearly crying in fear. I was then woken several times throughout the night by a kid sniffing. It got worse and worse and eventually I had to go into his tent an give him some bog roll to blow his nose on. Nothing could be worse than this...that was until I went shopping with them in Perth.
I hate shopping...but with 8 lads my patience was being tested. First stop was the 99p shop where they bought loads of junk for their mums...but later gave it to the girls in an attempt to woo them. They also bought guns with rubber bullets. Guess who was being pinged by them all day? The rest of the day was spent touring sweet shops and toy shops. One kid downed a bottle of Lucozade Sport and Red Bull before my eyes. Needless to say he was climbing the walls for the rest of the day. Another had a flumpy foam sword. It was actually a giant kebab stick with marshmallows of all shapes and sizes stuck on to it to make it look like a sword. I had to confiscate it as he was lying in his bed eating it at lights out. And whilst we are moaning about kids...you should have seen the toilet. Their aim was well....piss poor! So poor that rarely did it make it to the loo and the puddle around it got bigger and bigger, forcing you further back. I think it was around 12 ft away from the actually toilet at the end of the week.

Anyway all that said we had a good week and our kids enjoyed themselves. Check Stuart's tree climbing pictures out. What a lot of these kids lacked was the space to muck about without some health and safety witterer jumping on them. We tried to do as much of it as we could and at the same time talk to them about God...a happy balance i wasn't expecting from SU. meanwhile Isabelle went off on another SU holiday in Crieff. She also had a great time without her annoying brothers. next week wer'e all off to Wenslaydale for another camp of a similar style. I think I will take my wellies for the loos this time. Here's the highlights film 2007 and also killershoes

Here kitti kitti!

Emma thinks I am a geek because I spent Saturday morning watching some birds. Dunbar is home to 'the most accessible Kittiwake colony in the uk'. I was passing it on my bike and saw all these real geeks photgraphing them. I went for a closer look and they were very 'accessible'. In fact you could spit on them, although it is more likely they would pooh on me. Anyway the little kitti chicks have hatched and are all fluffy. There was loads lying on the ground. Obviously not good at flying and the big seaguls eat them. I saw a herring gull swallow one whole after it had killed it by shaking it violently. So I went home and got my camera and anorak and snapped some shots myself for your pleasure. If you are really interested you can watch Kitti Cam....live footage of them on Dunbar's Castle. http:// Kitticam