I am in the news today

Today I appeared on the news twice. Well not me exactly, but people with my name.

1. Richard Taylor father of Damilola Taylor the 10 year old murdered in London several years ago. He was commenting on the problem of gun crime and how this nations young men are getting caught up in it. The tragic outcome as we know is more deaths like Rhys Jones.

2. The other is a memorial to Richard Taylor skate boarding legend who snuffed a while back.

Missed Camp Moments No2

My birthday. Apart from one year when for some reason the school holidays finished really early, I have for the last 20+ years always celebrated my birthday at camp. So Saturday was a strange experience waking up in a bed, in a house and not having to worry about what lay in the marquee. If I am honest I hate birthdays. I hate the unwanted attention they bring, I can never really think of anything I need and so what, I am a year older than last year. It is something we can't control and what are we celebrating?...not being dead?
That said I can remember some of my birthdays at camp. My 18th was spent in the Castle in Caernarfon. The castle pub that is. How times of changed...the leader of camp Steve Mathews bought me my first legal pint in there. I remember the journey back to Criccieth being a struggle after spending several hours in the pub. My 21st was a much more tame event. I spent it visiting the Bunny Farm in Llanstumnwy the resting place of David Lloyd George. (just as an aside he was actually born in Manchester but the Welsh think he is one of their own). The most embarrassing brithday had to be the one hung from the marquee with climbing ropes, along with a table to eat my breakfast on. The pull on my 'town halls' made it all a bit uncomfortable and looked even worse. For many years I shared my birthday with Rich Church. Big and Little Rich's birthdays. He must be in his 20's now. I wonder how he is doing?

Missed Camp moments No1

The camp bonfire (last night). Wet feet from walking accross the long dew soaked grass, the mating rituals of campers trying their hardest to get a snog, the strange sensation of a roasting hot front but a freezing cold back.

Trefor's lost something

Has anyone seen Trefor's wart. He had it on his eye lid the other day looking like a chocolate raisin....but now its gone and just a little scab is left to show for it. I am going to have a look in the cocoa pops to see if its fallen in there.

Dunbar the place to be

Just in case i ever doubted being in Dunbar is a good thing, a recent survey has proven it to be a fact. The East lothian Courier picked up on this last week.

Goodbye summer

Yesterday was officially the end of our summer. The kids went back to school. Whilst it has been a good summer, I shall be glad to get into some sort of routine. Isabelle is the worst for getting up. It takes her about 3 hours to put a pair of socks on, so half the day is gone before we can do anything. Then it rains and then it is time for something to eat....and so the day can drag on.

Despite the crap weather we managed to have a good summer. Isabelle did 3 Camps, taking advantage of my 60% staff discount with Scripture Union. We all went to Wensleydale to help Jonny out running the camp there. Lots of flanning and irreverant behaviour. Me & Emma & the boys did a Scripture Union camp. i thought it was going to be a bit boring and old fashioned, but it was suprisingly entertaining. I had a room full of lads to look after who were mainly unchurched and a little bit out of place on an Su camp. The rest of the summer was spent working on various projects and just mucking about locally. The other day we went up to Whiteadder where Andrew tried his dinghy out in the river.

It is the flower show season and on Saturday we went to the village of Oldhamstocks for theirs. Stuart entered various races like the sack race, I did a 1.3 fell run (except it was on the raod because the hill was too wet) and came 4th, and we had considered entering Trefor into the dog show but we were too embarrassed as he keeps getting his knob out in public.

So there it goes...another summer gone. Bye

Pictures:
Andrew in his boat at Whiteadder
Stuart on a tree climb at SU Camp in Kinross
Isabelle making a fire on her survival skills day with the country ranger
Andrew's ridiculous teeth. One of them fell out yesterday!

Let it go

Well it barely seems like yesterday when I faced the misery of leaving Criccieth for the last time in 2006. A year on and I am in the strange position of being here at home whilst this years camp starts without me and under a new leadership. This experience is like a parent letting its child leave home for the first time...hoping it will work out ok and trying hard not to take away their independence. Rory who is leading it has already been on the phone with questions that make me gasp...'do we have to have a leader in the minibus?'.....'we might move the marquee'....(have they spotted that embedded gas pipe where they are about to sledgehammer in some metal stakes?) Throughout the weekend I have been clock watching...4pm Saturday: The campers will be arriving any time now....6.30pm the first meal will be finishing and the teenage campers will be learning how to wash up....9pm evening meeting....Sunday 11am campers service....and so it goes. Yes I am missing it, but then here I am in Dunbar with no regrets at all. The countryside here is looking very good and life in this small community is different. I shall look forward to hearing how the camp went via Facebook and hopefully Youtube and hopefully not via the national news reporting a marquee being blown up, or a minibus full of campers being being stranded in a slate quarry because their minibus driver had a mishap with a bit of loose slagg.
Picture:
Criccieth Camp many years ago. I think the person in the picture is Ellen Millar
North Berwick Law in a sunset last week. It was one of the 2 volcanic formations in East lothian I ran over the summer.

North Berwick Law Race

Last week I did another hill run up North Berwick Law (first picture of the bugger...with Andrew missing a sitter playing against their local team). I had every intention of running it, but as soon as I got on to it I realised I would be walking along with everyone else (2nd & 3rd picture). Anyway, it was more fun coming down than going up it and I got a reasonable time of 25:07 and a medal. The good thing about these hill runs is that they are short and allow for more time in the pub afterwards. The downside is cramp and breathing difficulties all in the name of sport.

Poor Kitti's

An update on the Kittiwakes at Dunbar Harbour. A few weeks back I posted some lovely pictures of fluffy little chicks. Unfortunately for them the Danish have been fishing in our waters and have nicked all the sand eels and other small fish that Kittiwakes depend on. As a substitute they have been eating pipefish...a small fish with a long skeleton that is very bendy. When the chicks swallow it, it gets stuck in their digestion system and prevents it from functioning. Consequently they die. The consequences are that at the start of the season there was around 52 nests and 30+ chicks on Dunbar Castle. Last week it was down to around 15 chicks as all the others have snuffed it. I don't know what you can do about it, but thought you should know!

The 3 Amigo's...amen!

We go to Belhaven Parish Church and they have started doing communion every 2 weeks. They bring the bread and wine to you in these little thimble size glasses. In fact not unlike tequila glasses. Therefore despite it being a very meaningful part of the service and for many a special part, I found myself being reminded of the 3 Amigo's...that great 80's comedy classic. Here is a clip of the 3Amigos in the scene at the bar where they have a drink of tequila. Be warned...once you have seen it you might find yourself tempted to go in to a spasm a few seconds after you take communion wine from one of those little glasses....whatever you do...don't do the 3 Amigo's salute!