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!

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

Jolly Holly's

Whoo hoo! The schools break up on Friday. 7 long weeks of 3 kids getting bored in the house as summer is not happening. Tonight I have the end of year prom to go to at the primary school. Yes even the Scottish schools have latched on to the American way and have prom nights...but for 11 year olds? I am told some are arriving in stretched limo's. I won't be, i will be on my bike but I might put a shirt on or something for the little munchkins and do my Basil Fawlty impression in the ceilidh.

The end of school year also points to how old I am feeling. Isabelle only has one more year in Primary school. Many of you will remember her birth...so you can join me in feeling the bite of age.

I expect my children to be good swimers by the end of the summer. Dunbar pool is free for kids all summer holidays. That's my activity programme sorted....send them off to the pool. Next week is my first Scripture Union Camp and first camp since giving up Criccieth. I really hope our worlds don't clash as they sometimes do in Christian youth work and I frequently found people squirming at some of the stuff we did at Criccieth. Later on in the summer we hit Wensleydale to be reunited with Criccieth leaders of past and present to run a camp there. I am quite looking forward to it al, but will be missing camp at Criccieth. By the way...there's still places so if you know any 15-19 year olds who fancy a good holiday get them booked in.

Fantasy Football

Andrew has got over the disappointment of not being given the player of the year award again at footy. On Saturday he played in the Under 9's Soccer 7's tournament all morning. It's ok for him running around keeping warm...but what about the parents who had to stand in the freezing cold rain all morning? Anyway he knocked up 12 goals and I was ready to go home and warm up when the coaches approached me asking me if he could play in the afteroon too. One of the teams in the Under 10's tournament had dropped out so Andrew and the other good players were entering as underdogs. They beat Dunbar's own Under 10 team 5-0 and got a couple of other victories that put them in the final. The winning streak stopped there losing 3-1 but they were applauded by the Under 10's eating humble pie and came away with medals they had worked hard for.

Photo: Andrew in his early days of football.

My phone stinks

I had a little mishap with my mobile phone the other day. I got up 1 minute before my phone alarm was due to go off so I took it with me for a pee as it was far too early to work out how to change the settings. There I was in mid flow of early morning dew when I dropped it. Trying to juggle a phone and keep an aim is very difficult, easpecially in the dark. There was a loud PLOP! I looked down just in time for the splash to reach my face...and there was my phone in the loo. Instinctively as if the phone was a drowning child or something I reached in and rescued it. It was a race against time but I knew it was touch and go when the only sound it made was a slow hum as it slipped permanantly into vibration mode in slow motion. Before long the lights faded and the phone was dead....I had a face full of pee and my arm had just been down the toilet full of warm yellow stuff. Anyway 1 day later after being put on the life support machine of my airing cupboard, it's working again. Everything is fine but my ear smells of wee!

Up the Law!

I did my first fell run yesterday up the local hill called Traprain Law. It was 6 and 1/2 miles, 724 feet climb and descent. This is a hill that is rich in archaeology. People were being buried there 1500 before Christ and at points in the race I thought I was going to join them. There is one bit where you have a rope (or if your a mad Scotsman barbedwire) to pull yourself up. To your right is a big drop into a quarry that the Victorians made. On the way down I lost my footing and narrowly escaped landing on my backside. We also had to wade through a river and climb through a barbed wire fence. This is all done for fun believe it or not. Anyway I did it in 47 minutes and I was cheered on by the local kids who I had taught earlier in the week. These fell runners are like goats the speed they run up hills. But look how skinny they are. I am stood next to them looking obese compared to some of these Lowry characters. I think I might go on a diet!

What a load of bull!

Went for a run last night in training for the Traprain Law race on Saturday. It's a hill so I headed out to the hills near here and ended up in a cow field with cows and calfs. I know they can be a bit moody (no pun intended) when they have their little ones beside them so I gave them a wide birth. Unfortunately this brought me into the path of a frisky bull. I had no option but to run as fast as I could as both the bull and the cows were making a move on me. Fortunately I am better at jumping fences than they are and i got away. Still the sprint was good training even though my shoes are covered in pooh (bulls not mine).

Missing Links

I have put a couple of links to my Flcikr photos and my Youtube films so that you can get even more bored. I decided that it cost nothing to put them up, so why not. They are on the right on 'My Profile' bit.

Knickers

I forgot to mention the funniest thing at the palace was seeing this woman walking back from the toilets with her dress stuck in her knickers. Sadly Emma had the camera at that point so I couldn't capture it. Some old biddy ran up to her and pointed her problem out. 'Better me telling you than Prince Andrew' she said.