Let the challenge...begin!

I think I vaguely remember Isabelle giving me some application forms to sign. She had decided to apply to go on the kids show Raven. Raven is a little man...perhaps not much bigger than a raven...who wields a huge staff that he sticks in the ground and all sorts of magical things happen. He has a team of warriors (children) who have numerous challenges to do including fighting off demons. So with a good Christian ethos to the show I was quite happy for Isabelle to apply!

The next thing we know is she's called up to Glasgow to the BBC for an audition with 80 other kids from Scotland. But there lies the challenge....getting to Glasgow for 6pm on a Friday afternoon when there is also an X Factor gig on. Unfortunately for her, Emma had to drive as I was working. 3 hours later she arrived. For most of the normally 1 hour journey she was in first gear. For the next warrior challenge she had to find something to eat. In the city that probably has the highest population anywhere in the world for fast food, chip eating fatties, and where the production of cholesterol is the main industry, you'd have thought there would be somewhere open. But for some reason the BBC's state of the art facility is in the middle of empty dockland...the sort of backdrop you would expect to see on Taggart. The only food place open was some hotel where a bowl of soup, some chips and a couple of cokes set them back £20!

Anyway the audition was ok it is hard to know what they are looking for. She seemed to enjoy the few activities they did, but most of the day seemed to have been spent waiting around with some whacky kids presenters! Whoop whoop...yeah...cool...fab...types. No John Noakes these days!

Caught Out

I thought you might like to see these pictures I got of Trefor the other day. He has a terrible habit of raiding the bin when we are out, and on this occasion there was nowhere for him to hide his guilt. Despite having a frosties box stuck on his head, he tried to pretend it wasn't there. It reminded me of a bible verse i think I first saw on a train. In fact I am pretty sure it was on a train station platform somewhere on the Festiniog Railway (someone out there can tell me which one). Anyway the message has stuck with me ever since...although I did have to look up the reference.

Number 32:23 "Be sure your sins will find you out".

Dirty Mags!

A couple of weeks ago we joined up in Ambleside with our fellows from St Margaret's in Burnage. There was 100 or so of us staying in High Point Youth Hostel. It was a good opportunity to catch up with everyone over a weekend at a leisurly pace rather than the rush we normally do on visits to Burnage. The building as you will see was huge and so we didn't really see the kids all weekend as they were running around discovering every nook and cranny. I am not sure if we carry some sort of curse, but just as at Grange we had trouble with the plumbing with the minor problem of the water going off. I don't think it was my mum again blocking up the drains, but with a 100+ people in a building with no water it soon began to smell....in fact so did everyone else as there was no showers or flushing water. It brought back fond memories of Criccieth Camps in the early years when we didn't have flushing facilities either, where a visit to the chemical loo included a game of 'who turd is it anyway?' the idea was to guess whose jobbie was sat smiling at you. For a similar game check out this

But despite the odours and pebbledashed loos, we all had a good weekend. Ambleside has gone up in my ratings since I last visited 13 years ago, where most of the shops sold crappy ornaments and stufff like that. Today its a busy little haven for running and walking shops. I managed to pick up a pair of high cut green fell running shorts that are the same colour as Dunbar RC's. I gave them a whirl the next day up a fell. Lots of the people there commented on how skinny I had become. That may be true from my running, but not as worrying as how fat many of them had become. It was moob city in there, and at the end of the weekend the number of empty beer, wine, whisky, gin, vodka, buckfast, whitelightining, Lambrini (the list goes on) bottles gave a clue as to why. I'm no body facist but I know that if you want to enjoy excessive amounts of food and drink you are going to put on the pounds unless you do a bit of exercise. Still everyone seemed happy so that's ok. Anyway above are a few snaps of the weekend. Cheers to our hosts Col & Jane who did a fine job...and jobbie (10 out of 10!)