Big Wave Day

Every now and then there is a really high tide and a bit of wind to whip it all up at the same time. It happened last week and here are a couple of photos of it. It all very exciting and it brings the crowds out to see what's going on. The bridge is at Belhaven and although it always gets the sea coming up to it, it never reaches these heights. The other is of the East Beach looking towards Dunbar Parish Church. We thought about buying the tall house just behind the wave....glad we didn't now, the washing would never get dry.

Eddy

It was half term and we put our historic Scotland passes to good use by visiting Edinburgh castle. Those passes get you into a priority queue, so whilst all the dumb Americans and Japanese tourists stand in line for 10 minutes...we just walked straight in and only had to pay 80p for our audio guide headset. If any of you come and visit then you can use them. Once inside we had a quick tour of the prisons, looked at the view and wandered around aimlessly for an hour or so. The last time we were there was for Claire's wedding and those 3 were the subject of the tourist photo's. One day I am going to hire Stuart a kilt and charge Germans £1 to have his photo. I was reminded of the panic we had at that wedding when Stuart was walking with us to the castle, Isabelle was a bridesmaid in the hire car and Andrew was supposed to be with granny. Granny arrived but Andrew didn't! As the line of tourist photographed the wedding car arrived with the bride the panic was over. Andrew was sat in the front of the Rolls Royce and he was really excited about not wearing his seatbelt.

Back at Edinburgh 2007 we headed off to the National Museum. We didn't get past the first main room where there is loads of stuff for kids. Andrew and Isabelle got stuck into the virtual formula 1 car and Stuart was an astronaught. This post is becoming a promotion for Edinburgh...but the museum is worth a visit if you go...and its free. We had decided to get the train but realised it was £20 for a family return ticket from Dunbar and they are less than hourly. Sod that! we drove to the outskirts of Edinburgh and then got the local line for £6 every 30 mins. Even better still the conductor insisted Stuart was under 5 and didn't have to pay. 'We get allsorts trying to get half tickets on here mate...last week I had someone with a beard trying to get a kids fare'. I think our honesty to pay had given him some faith in humanity. In the next holidays we are going to put Isabelle's Blue Peter badge to use and hit the zoo.

Scotland vs Wales

Dunbar has got an unusually good sports facility called Hallhill. They are so good that on Saturday they hosted an international game of rugby...women's rugby. Whilst several fools paid lots of money to watch the blokes play at Murrayfield, we paid diddly to watch Scotland and Wales finest roll around a muddy field. I didn't tell Andrew it was women's rugby as he wouldn't have gone...and I wanted to see his reaction to it. 10 minutes into the game he turns to me and says 'I see Wales have got a woman playing for them'. I replied 'yes...and they are all playing like girls'. Another 10 minutes past and the ball came over to our side and it was a chance to get a closer look at them. Only then...and he wasn't 100% sure (as was I) when he said 'Is it girls rugby?'

To be fair on the lad some of the players were quite burley and hairy and to the untrained eye could easily be mistaken for Bill Beaumont. To some extent lots of the cliches about women's rugby were actually true. Butch dykes and ugly (I can spot them a mile off...for all those years working for Stockport Council it was an all too familiar sight). There was however a few posh horsey types who had obviously come throught the ranks of the Edinburgh private schools like Watson's, and one or two slightly more fem looking characters. It has to be said Wales was the better looking team...and they won so better at the game too. however I don't suppose there is much market value in looks in this game. Regardless of image they looked like they were having a good time, and the punch up's were very entertaining. Isabelle came to watch it too, but thankfully she was not that interested in pursuing the sport.

Anyway, we have got another international there on Friday. Scotland under 15's vs Hibs Under 15's football. Andrew's footy coach is also Scotland's U15's national coach and has arranged the fixture. Andrew and the boys are hoping to get picked to be the mascot. We will see.

Snow Time

It's been snowing and as the schools are only in for half days on Fridays, we decided to head off for some sledging. In Dunbar itself it was cold and wet, but only a couple of hundred feet higher and 15 minutes drive away were hill cloaked in the white stuff. We decided to head for Aikengall Farm (former residence of the MacDonald's) as we knew of some good hills. We took our Fife County Council wheelie bin lid that I had found last year washed up on the beach. It was ideal for sledging as long as you didn't lean forward and allow its lip to dig in. Fife'ers don't just chuck their litter in the sea...they chuck the bin in too! After an hour of mucking about I noticed Stuart was now a blue colour and was complaining about being cold. I took his wellies off and about 3 pints of ice cold water poured out. He spent the next 2 hours crying as he thawed out. Trefor liked it all and Isabelle and Andrew made a few poor attempts at building a snow man. Whilst we were there we met the residents of Emma's old house who were unable to resist coming out to nosey at us strangers.

Last night it was the running club annual dinner. Someone decide to have it at one of East Lothian's most remote restraunts...up in the hills at a place called Garvald. Needless to say the snow there was also pretty thick and the journey back was a bit dodgy. Today it's just wet and cold...really wet and really cold. Poor Emma has been conned into running a cross country race and is off to Falkirk to run in the cold, whilst I keep warm doing this. here are a few pictures of the kids in the snow.

Bible Brainiacs

Richard's Club is no more! But it's been rebranded as the Bible Brainiacs and is going from strength to stregnth. On monday we had a record number of 67 children in. I don't know why they come, but they do. On Friday we took 23 of them to Mussleburgh on a trip out to join up with all the other Scripture Union groups in East Lothian. Friday was also the Primary 4's (8-9 year olds) assembly. I have been working with 3 classes on the theme of friendship and playground games.

One did a clappy rhyme song that we made up. It took me a couple of weeks to realise that one of the lads was Polish and didn't speak English. never mind he enjoyed it anyway. The other did a piece of drama based on a skipping game. Remember I have not done drama with P4's and I quickly realised that they are hard work. To add to the pressure I am a youth worker who really is only interested in the process, not the product. Try telling that to a primary school teacher. As teachers go they are the most attentive to detail. Several have confessed to me that they are control freaks and actually malfunction like a robot if they don't have control. Everything has to be spot on and word perfect. What's more, the currency between themselves is 'who has the best control method' (the strap worked ok at my school but probably more for the gratification of the head). It's quite oppressive but well meaning. If you go into a primary school teachers house, everything has a label on it...there are rotas on the walls...charts where you get stars for eating your greens...and everything is boxed in a plastic storage box. It's a strange partnership and its tempting to wind them up....although they do that to themselves. It works well though because I don't really have any control over the little urchins whereas the teacher just needs to clap her hands and they stop what they are doing. There's only one male teacher in the school of 850 kids, so I don't know if this is a woman thing, but I suspect it is. By the end of it i think we all learnt to appreciate our strengths and compliment our practicce. On top of that they slipped in the fact that the children's parents were invited to see it. No pressure?

My get out of jail free card...should all my other stuff collapse, was a video about toilet tig. It's apopular game where you are tigged and can only be freed by being flushed by a pal. Toilet Tig Terror was about the school being infested by zombies going over board playing toilet tig and everyone...including the head, janitor, receptionists and dinner ladies got roped in. My mentor for videoing is DaveTew who always makes it fun and gets everyone he can involved. Look at his camp videos if you've not already. The video went really well and through it a I got speaking to several parents who asked more about what I do. Friday night I was in need of a drink...but I am on a course of antibiotics because i have got a smelly sore infected finger. That drink will have to wait. As for the finger...yellow puss has been oozing out of it for 3 weeks now, so I finally gave in and got some pills to sort it out.

What the papers say

Somehow I managed to get myself into the local rag the other day. I had presented a report of my work to the Dunbar Community Council and I didn't ask for it but they gave me £1200. Whilst that money is not to be sniffed at, I am more impressed with the level of trust they are prepared to give to a Christian organisation. This job has been all about bridging the gap between the community and the church, and this is proof of it begining to bear some fruit at last. Surprisingly the press were not too cynical in their report, where others might have been. However, this is Dunbar and I kid you not, the headline news was how many parking tickets had been issued last year.

Wooler XC

Another Sunday where Eric Lidle would have turned in his grave. Me, Isabelle & Andrew did the Wooler cross country race on sunday around some morland, a quarry and a golf course. The juniors set off first and they both did ok. Isabelle knocked 7 minutes off last years time. Here she is going so fast her hat fell off!



I am still getting over the flu but what really held me back was the need for a dump on the last 2 miles. Not quite touching the void, but tmore ouching the cloth! At the end Andrew and his mate Martin got into a row with rivals from Gala. Lots of finger gestures were exchanged but no harm done. Wooler has the best views of the Cheviot Hills and I may well be doing a race up the one that's in cloud soon.



Only one more in the series to go and it's a really muddy one. Hopefully I'll get some pictures for you.

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.