Burns Night

We went to the church Burns Supper last week for a feast of neeps & tatties and of course haggis. Once again the entertainment was hilarious....not least because Dunbar has not yet heard about women's rights and sexual discrimination. All the jokes in the 'toast to the lassies' came straight from the 1970's comedy shows. I was expecting Bernard Manning to walk in. Anyway the innocence of it adds to the occasion. Warning! Excessive consumption of 'neeps' (turnips) leads to very smelly farts...for several days!

Here is a couple of pictures of the haggis being piped in and carried by Mr Twaddle the minister at the church.

Clan Gathering

The annual family gathering of Taylor's or those connected to them took place in Alston, North Cumbria. Boasting the claim to be the highest market town in the UK this sleeepy backwater became the venue for a weekend of excess food, drink, walks and karaoke. Apart from being high, Alston doesn't reallly have any highs (although Jane and Andy bumped into John Snow from Channel 4 News whilst we were there). We did get to go on a long walk through some really muddy fields. The kids loved it and Andrew was acting out the McDonalds advert....'Dave, Dave' as his wellies got stuck in the mud. Here is a picture of Isabelle, Luke and Andrew mucking about on a wreck we found in a field next to an old Roman road. I never realised the Romans were so advanced.



Saturday was rounded off with the karaoke challenge. I think Sarah won it. I was humiliated. Emma Beddow who can't read and therefore just makes a noise beat me. Some think I let her but I was genuinely trying hard and she still beat me on a Rick Astley song. Jane wasn't much better either and if Trefor had been there he would have beaten her.

Sunday was all a bit sad and traumatic. Sarah & Rob had gone for a drive around the miles of countryside and came upon a car on fire. On closer inspection they discovered a woman on fire too and it later emerged she had attempted to commit suicide. Sarah and Rob had the ordeal of extinguishing her and getting help and as you can imagine has left some fairly unpleasant images in their minds. The woman, aged 53 died the following day with 90% burns. Not wanting to miss a scoop, Woody (Rob's brother in law who is a journalist) put this article in the York Evening Press.



Apart from that the weekend went well and surprisingly the highly explosive combination of the Taylor girls together under one roof for 48 hours or more passed without incident. Here is a happy family photo to prove it!

Harold

I had to pay a visit to the vets again this morning, this time with Harold. He seemed to have had a stroke which left him unable to walk and without control of his functions. Basically he was destined for a life of lying in his own pee and having Trefor biting his ears constantly. In fact he did manage to give Trefor one last bark and nip before I took down to the vets. Once at the vets he did the longest wee ever all over the floor. It even went under the door of the surgery into the waiting room. Like Frank he left one last mark for us to remember him by. So there we go, Frank and Harold who have been with us since we were married...in fact before...are now longer. An end of an era, but Trefor marks the start of new one. I suspect it will be several months before the traces of white dog hairs around the house disapear as they seem to stick to everything. Here are some of the last pictures we took of Harold last week where surprisingly he had a spurt of life and even gave Trefor a chase.

July to September 2006

July was the start of the school holidays. In fact they finished at the end of June and the long holidays were ahead of us. Fortunately there were plenty of things on offer locally to give them to do, like tennis lessons, surfing lessons, football coaching, basketball coaching and hanging around street corners. Despite all that was on offer here, we went on a return visit to Manchester to see the family. This turned out to be a tour of all the places we never bothered with when we actually lived there.

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!

2006 April to June

In April Andrew was 8. Mum and dad came up for a visit and purchased us an Historic Scotland card. This gets us in to all the castles around here. We visited Direlton Castle and Stuart may as well have been in Disneyland as they were having a demonstration of kights in shining armour. Stuart got to have a sword fight with one and later with some little kid in the audience and decapitated him!






I've started entering an online photo competition through DigitalPhotographyChallenge and this one of my mum and dad did ok.




May was an interesting month. Stuart was 5 and we had a party at Junglee Fun, Dunbar's answer to Whacky Wharehouse. It's the same idea where you feed the kids loads of sugary foods and then let them loose in a cage full of balls, slides and most importantly padded walls. The 3 of them did the Edinburgh 'Run for Life' race in Edinburgh.



All of us go to Dunbar Running Club and the Junior section is strong and gives the kids loads of chances to race and make some wee pals! May however was dominated by Emma's mum being taken very ill with what is commonly known as the flesh eating disease. Within hours of getting it she had to have substantial parts of her leg removed...her organs packed up and yet remarkably she pulled through. I won't put any pictures here because it's grim, but if you want to see how grusome it is then GoogleImage search 'necrotizing fasciitis' and have a bucket to hand.

June continued to be dominated by Emma's mum who eventually came out of her coma and began to make a speedy and miraculous recovery. Loads of local things were happening like Dunbar Civic Week. Basically they have a parade and crown the gala queen. Here's Andrew having a fight with the fire service on the parade.



I was asked to speak at the Dunbar Churches Together open air service down at the harbour. I was accompanied by the Salvation Army band and I was pleased to do the whole thing because I had recently been teaching children about John Wesley who often preached in the open air in Dunbar. So much so, the first ever Methodist Church in Scotland was formed here and still exists. I did feel a little bit vulnerable and wished I had brought an umbrella when I noticed the seaguls flying overhead. Our Jane and Andy were also up visiting in June and they were staying in a cottage down the harbour.

Dunbar is one of those places where they still do traditional stuff like gala's. I had the pleasure of opening the church fete...at the same time England had their first game in the world cup..it was a quick opening and I managed to catch the second half. Andrew had his flag hanging out of his window and despite reports of English kids getting beaten up in Edinburgh he kept it there. Only a couple of neighbours complained, but that's probably because Kellie Place is like little England full of us no good incomers! Another local tradition was the Sunday School day out to Carberry Towers. It was as traditional as you can get, with egg and spoon races, sack races and stuff like that. The church here has played a big part in helping us settle down. Here's the kids in some of these events.




Emma went on a flying visit to Manchester to see Take That and came back the same day. Apparantly Take That are staying here in Dunbar as I write this. A new posh hotel has opened up and rumour has it they are stopping there for a few days. Emma started to help out in the church youth club. It's mostly kids that don't go to church who are involved.

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.

Football gone crazy

Andrew scored two cracking goals again today against old rivals North Berwick. His football skills are very good and when he gets to play with like minded players it makes for good football. Today he got his first taste of the unpleasantries of football when some posh little gobshite from NB went to give Andrew the ball for a throwing and chucked it into his face. A split lip didn't put him off winning.

On Wednesday at training I also encountered the dark side of the 'beautiful game' when I got kicked out of the sports hall where I have always gone to watch him train. Apparantly club rules now ban parents from watching the kids train in case they are some sort of perv who will entice them into their lair. There goes years of proud parents supporting their kids...turned into an act of suspicion and political corrrectness. Grrr!

Frank's Farewell

Sad events closed the week. Our suspicions that Frank's limp was something more serious were confirmed. The X-Ray showed a huge bone cancer which was casuing him pain. 'I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this' said the vet, 'you should be thinking about having him put to sleep'. We took him home for one last night and at 10.50am today he departed. However he did leave a little reminder of himself on Dunbar High Street before he went in. I managed to scoop most of it up, but I left his pee on the lamp post for all other dogs to remember him by. As dogs go he was a good one, and the hunt will soon be on for another...watch this space! Picture: Frank with Isabelle a few weeks ago

XC Running

We did our first cross country (XC) run on Sunday. Isabelle and Andrew did the juniors race (nearly 2 miles) and I did the seniors. Andrew beat Isabelle much to her annoyance and I beat a couple of rivals from Haddington. It was icy cold and running through the river tested the insulating properties of my scrotum to the limit. Here's the results

Poor Frank

Did I mention that my two Labrdors are named after my uncles Frank and Harold. Well Frank (the black one) has developed a limp and the vet reckons it could be cancer causing it. He's off for an x-ray at great expense, and if they find one then I am afraid Frank will be off to the big kennel in the sky. At 12 he'll be dead in a year or so anyway so why allow him to suffer? My financial suffering as a result of it is not an issue at all in these weeks approaching Christmas. He may however just be nursing a pulled muscle and may be ok. We will know on Friday.

Holy Huggable

This 'Richard's Club' thing has got me searching the net for resources to use with the little munchkins and belive me there is some pretty dodgy stuff out there that sells itself in the name of God. However some of it is just entertaining for its cheese factor and the naievity of it producers and buyers that their product will actually help their cause. Take for example HolyHuggables where you discover Jesus and Moses and Esther were all American and required chest compressions before they spoke. Amazing, but I want one. Unfortunately Jesus has sold out...of stock that is. The slightly more upmarket version is still available and rumour has it, he healed Action Man's old war injury the other day. On a similar theme, my five year old son Stuart has discovered those novelty keyrings that have recorded messages from 'D' class celebs. His favourite is 'Mr T' and I found him wandering around Borders saying 'I'm not getting in a plane you crazy fool'. Unfortuantely he found a Catherine Tate one and was trying to work out what 'facking' meant in HMV.