Merry Christmas

Winter weather

Were nearly at the Christmas Holidays again and we have been having some proper wintery weather up her lately. Its all disappeared now, which is a shame, would have been nice to have a proper white Christmas for once. Anyway, I though I would share a few picture that I took over the snowy period.

The Loch

The Broch

Our road

Down the Loch, can you see where the Loch is frozen?

Another view down the Loch

The main road

Halloween toddler party

As I mentioned in the last post, I have not had much time to post up here and this is a prime example of that. Here are a couple of picture from my local toddler groups Halloween party.  The party itself was a great success, although a little messy, as you'll see in the second picture! We decided to go for a very hands on type of affair this year again, as we have done in the past but it seems that every year we get a little bit more adventurous. I didn't get any picture of my shakers that I made, of which I was rather proud. There were several glitter ones, red, green and gold, plus two rice shakers and a pasta one, all with small Halloween shaped in them. They seemed to go down well with the bairns there and have since resided in my playroom at home, after a good wash mind you. 

Some proper dedication by one of the mums. Hand carved and arranged, there us another one just visible at the top of the page. They didn't last long in this shape, the kids soon demolished most of the fruit and nicked off with the googly eyes. 

The party mat, with homemade Halloween playdoh, Halloween jelly with spiders, eyes and other nasties, gooey pumpkins and spooky spaghetti. Just off to the left was the pool used for bobbing for apples, not that much bobbing happened and just out of shot below the picture was the craft table for making spider hand prints and the "sand" pit, filled with pasta, lentils and rice, plus spider, worms and bugs, all plastic of course!

There were many incidents through out the party, including most of the spaghetti ending up on top of one of the toddlers heads, thanks to the actions of his big brother, rather messy although it was very cute, as he sat there looking slightly confused in his vampire costume covered in spaghetti. The other  incident of note was that the apple bobbing seemed to go well over the heads of the children, as several, the young lady included, decided that the correct way to bob for apples was to strip off naked and climb in to the paddling pool. They had great fun playing in the water, eating chunks out of the various apples that were floating around in the water. I'm not sure how hygienic it was, but they were having a great time, laughing away and splashing, plus they all survived, so it cant have been that bad. The final incident of note was related to the Halloween jelly, which gradually disappeared over the course of the party, as more and more of the bairns discovered that it was jelly and decided to have a little snack as they played. The spaghetti, which was cooked, didn't seem to disappear at all though, strange, I cant imagine why all the jelly would disappear but not the spaghetti? 

Also, if anyone ever says to you, "I have an idea, lets fill the sandpit with pasta, lentils and rice, that way it would be as messy", look them square in the eye and say "sounds excellent, we'll leave the tiding up to you then" and then run. I would never have though that replacing sand, which gets everywhere and we seem to be sweeping up for weeks afterwards, with the three items mentions above could actually produce more mess! There was stuff everywhere and when you stand on sand, nothing happens, yet when you stand on pasta it shatters and causes about 10 times the amount of mess, not to mention it really hurts when your not wearing shoes! As does rice surprisingly, although lentils seem fine. On the plus side, when the kids try and eat it, its a lot easier to deal with, mostly as they tend to spit it all out, which is a lot harder to do with a mouthful of sand. 

We have also had the Christmas party already, which went down mostly without a hitch, although the reaction to Santa was mixed as always. I love how kids start bouncing off the walls when you tell them Santa is coming for a visit, but run away and hide when he actually turns up! Still the young lady loved her Disney Princess doll. No more toddlers until next year though, so I need to find something to entertain us for two mornings a week now, although the young lady seems to be enjoying going to Crèche at the moment, so that an option as that's on 3 morning a week.

Christmas Tree

So its been a couple of weeks since I last posted up here. Life has been moving forward as always and finding time to post has been a little difficult. Partly due to real life getting in the way and partly due to the fact that I have been busy over on one of my other blogs, as there has been a lot happening on that front.

Anyway, I've got a lot of posts currently sitting in the draft folder, enough to keep me going until the New Year, provided that I can actually find time to post that is! Hopefully I'll get some time over the next week of two to get things written up and scheduled but time will tell, especially as there is quite a bit of bad weather up here at the moment and the schools have been closed a few days, meaning that I have two little ones to try and keep entertained when nothing is open and you can go and play outside!

One thing we have got done though is the Christmas Tree. We actually put this up way back on the 4th, as my wife was away south on the 1st at a conference in the capitol. I am one of those people who firmly believes that Christmas starts on the 1st of December and that's when the tree and decorations go up, no earlier, even if its a weekend the day before. It has done my head in this year that the local supermarket had there Christmas stuff out on the shelves BEFORE Halloween! I mean, they had to move the Christmas stuff to put out all the Halloween costumes! Really? Next thing you know, they'll just leave them out all year round, to save having to take them down after Christmas and put them back out in Feburary! Anyway, rant over, here's some pictures of out tree this year:

Two stars on the top, one for the little man and one for the young lady, mostly to stop them arguing over who's star went on top.

Sitting in the corner of the room. Most of the decorations that you can see on the tree have been made by the bairns at one point of another and I have no doubt that they will be joined by many more over the next couple of years.

Lights. And no, they don't just go halfway up. The top set are multifunction lights and are actually flashing, I just seemed to have managed to capture the photo just as they all flashed off!

Tried again later and still failed!

The cats have taken quite a liking to the tree or rather the baubles on the bottom of the tree. The bairns think that this is great fun, I just keep wondering if they could possibly pull the tree over! 

Battle proms

During the summer holidays, just after we had been away on our family holiday, we called into the in-laws for a few days to catch up with the wider family. While we were there, the wife and I decided to take our usual trip away, well, I say we, but in actual fact it was really the wife's idea, as she brought me tickets to see the Battle Proms, down in Warwickshire.

Now, the name doesn't really tell the whole story, but if you can, imaging the last night of the probs at the Royal Albert Hall, transported to a field at a country estate, then add in a bunch of cavalry and a shed load of cannons, 193 to be precise. Ok, so i'm not sure there are actually 193 cannons, they may fire some of them twice or more, but there are a lot of cannons. Why? Well, that's simple, Tchaikovsky 1812 overture and also Beethoven’s 'Battle Symphony', both of which use a lot of cannons! But that's not all there was, there was fire works, as any good out door show should have and the Red Devils dropped in for a visit (don't know who they are? Check out this).  As good as all this is, its still not the best bit of the day, no, that went to Grace, a Sipermarine Spitfire MkIX, ML407, but more on that later.

First up the Cavalry.

All were dressed in replica Napoleonic era dress, although at least one of the swords carried by one of the riders was an original.

Jumping flags, a period training program

Jumping a fence while taking your enemies head off or popping a balloon with a smiley face

Stabbing (flaming) tent pegs with a lance

The Horses. Do you see the little one in the middle? Pure nutcase that one, literally, on more than one occasion the rider had to drop what she was doing to avoid the horse either dumping her in the lake or charging off somewhere random. It wasn't that I didn't like doing the display, quite the opposite, it could wait to get stuck in and got a little bit carried away.

There were various cavalry displays though out the evening, some to music and some just being talked through and while I have to admit, it was all rather amateurish, nothing like watching the Household Cavalry displays at the Horse of the Year shows in London, it was still rather impressive and fun to watch.

Next up are the Red Devils. I've seen a few parachute displays over the years, from various civilian display teams and also from various military ones, but I still think these boys are the best in the world at what they do. Ok, i'm gonna be slightly bias but that's life and these guys are awesome.

Coming in close, looked amazing

Obligatory Union Flag

Battle Proms Flag

And the Red Devils own flag

The highlight, cant remember what this is called, but basically, they link up and then plummet down to earth at some ungodly speed before splitting up and landing. Whatever its called, its look amazing and bloody scary. 

Next up, is the highlight of the evening, taken in the fading light of early evening and performed to music, it was a really moving display. Its not often you get to see a Spitfire flown in such a manor these days and especially not such a historic plane. This plane is credited with the first allied kill of the D-day landing at the hands of a New Zealand Pilot, a certain Flying Officer Johnnie Houlton DFC.

Its at times like this I wish I had borrowed the father in-laws zoom lense

My favourite shot of the night, lacking detail but, to me anyway, it feel very emotional.

Another shot

Loop the loops

As darkness fell, the tempo of the night changed. This was where Tchaikovsky and Beethoven's masterpieces really came to life, plus there were fireworks, which is always cool. With all the cannons and flashes and bangs that they produced, plus the smoke and flares lighting up the farside of the lake, it was all very atmospheric.

The glow of the flares.

The reflection on the lake was pretty cool as well, you can just see it in this picture but it was clearer in real life.

The firework finale.

More fireworks

The firework finale was not some 30 second affair either bit was a good show, longer than most of the final firework displays you normal get at these sort of things.

I have to say that while it was not a cheap night out, it was amazing and well worth the money. Just remember to take a picnic with you, as the food there is, as you'd expect extortionate. And when I say picnic, I don't mean a couple of ham sarnies and a packet of quavers, oh no, were talking picnic tables, candelabras and champagne. If you think I'm kidding, think again, we had a couple of folding chairs, a picnic blanket and a bag with some food in, plus we forgot to grab the cups or a knife to spread the butter and pate, but we looked like we were slumming it. The table next to us, a group of older couples, had table, chairs, table cloth, candles, wine glasses (with wine) china plates and cutlery, the works and all in fancy looking picnic hampers.

I loved the whole thing, from the displays and music to the atmosphere and friendly nature of the whole event. I highly recommend the Battle Proms to anyone looking for a summer night out.

These are the links if anyone is interested;

Battle Proms
http://www.battleproms.com/about/about-the-battle-proms.aspx

Red Devils
http://reddevilsonline.com/index.php

Grace Spitfire
http://www.ml407.co.uk/

Starting School

(Warning: Rant ahead!)

If you haven't guessed by now, most of the post on this blog are somewhat out of sync with the real world. This is mostly due to finding time to actually write about things. Some times I get lots of time to write, other times I have to grab a minute here and there when I can. The little man started school back in August (were in Scotland) but I've only just had time to really sit and write about it, even though the blog post has been sitting empty in the draft folder for weeks.

So, getting on to the actual topic of the post, the little man has started school. For most people in the UK it will seem a little late, as he is almost 6 and over a year older than many starting school in England and Wales. This may seem odd for a lot of people but for me it really makes sense. The little man was in no way ready for school this time last year, when he would have been starting school at just over  4 and half. Now, we have friends in England, whose children are the same age as the little man and they are reading and writing far more then the little man is but he is progressing so quickly and is really keen and interested in letters and writing, something he showed no interest in at all last year. Sending children off to school at 4 just seems so wrong to me, they are so young at that age and the little man was defiantly not ready at that age.

Given the choice, I would like to see things go further, more towards the Scandinavian system, where formal education doesn't start until 7 or so. Many may say that's too old but when you look at the system and results, they have some of the best education results and establishments in the world. In also not very keen on the Scottish proposal for nursery to run all day and especially not from 2 years old. Granted I understand how this does help a lot of people who work and will cutdown on child care costs, but I don't see how it puts the child first? I also think the whole "no child left behind" thing doesn't work properly. Ok, every child deserves a fair chance, but children are so different, each has their strengths and weaknesses and some children will be left behind academically, to potentially hold other back for the sake of one or two makes no sense to me. Anyway, its a few years off before we will need to worry about that sort of thing and these things always change, who knows what's going to be happening in 10 years time.

I seem to have go a little off topic during this post! Oh well, its done now.

Dinosaurs!

Over the summer, while we were away on our holidays, we also visited the in-laws in the lakes and while we were there, the Natural History Museums Dinosaur Exhibition came to Rheged, the local exhibition centre. It was perfect timing as the bairns, especially the little man are really in to dinosaurs, and it was also good for us, as it meant we could pack the bairns off with grandma and granddad for the day and relax. 

I don't have many pictures of the actual exhibition as we stayed outside, however they did have one of the models outside for all to see, this awesome T-Rex and hopefully the video at the bottom will play properly, so you can see the animation!

crabbing

One of the highlights of the holiday for the kids was going crabbing off the pier with some of the other kids. We went crabbing twice in the end, once with a big group of kids, about a dozen of them and once a couple of days later with just our kids and one of the other children there, a young girl who the young lady had take quite a shine too.

Crabbing for those that may not know, which until last years holiday would have included me, is basically fishing for crabs, using either a small net on the end of a line or a basket type thing, also on the end of a line. Now there are various types of kits out there, but there are the best kits I think.

There simple and effective, even if they do take a bit more practice to lift out of the water while keeping the crabs attached. Now there was also a lot of debate about what bait to use but on this topic there really is only one answer as far as I'm concerned and that's bacon. Doesn't matter what type of bacon, but bacon is king of the crab bait. Stick it in the pouch and lob it in the water and away you go, as long as there are crabs in the water that is!

With out bacon filled net, we managed to catch more than the others using a basket type affair, and we caught some woppers as well!

The kids really enjoyed the crabbing, although it was yours truly who actually had to deal with the crabs! No-one else would touch them, although they all had great fun watching me chasing the dam things all over the pier when they escaped! Don't worry though, we did release all the crabs back in to the wild after we were done and as close to where we caught them as possible.

If your ever get the chance to do some crabbing with the bairns, go for it, its cheap and great fun, just be careful how you grab hold of the crabs! I'd recommend keeping away from the pincers at the front!

Oh, and have you ever seen a crab drawing?

Now you have!

Millport

While we were on holiday in Millport we managed to see some of the local sights, both in and around Millport and Cumbrae in general but also across the ferry in Largs. Now, Cumbrea is also known as the Island of a Thousand bikes and its a truthful name, there are hundreds of bikes all over the place, in town, on the only road around the island, all over the bloody place! Now, I am not a fan of cyclists, if they had to pay road tax like I do to use my car on the road, I wouldn't mind, but they don't and they still act like they own the place, well, Cumbrea is a hundred times worse, as its not just cyclists but cyclists on holiday! I must have spend several hours crawling along behind cyclists meandering along the centre of the road at a snails pace, completely oblivious to the the fact that there was a car behind them. I think if I ever go to Cumbrea again, i'm taking my car, at least then they would have no excuse for not hearing me!

Anyway, rant over, the island itself was beautiful and peaceful, the local shops had everything that we needed and the kids were more than entertained. We did see some pretty special sights while we were there as well, the main one for us, being merchant navy people, was the PS Waverley, an old paddle steamer, build 1946 and was the last sea going paddle steamer build in the world. The day we saw her, she stopped at the docks right by the FSC centre to take on passengers and that meant that we got a good look up close at her. She looks in pretty good nick for a 70+ year old vessel, better that some of the newer ships we sailed on!

Quite a majestic shot of the old girl

One for scale, that's a kayaker just in front of the paddle.

We also spent some time of the beaches of Millport and if anyone has ever been to Millport, there are a couple of attractions you have to go see, the first being the monster on the beach. This is really just a painted rock, but its pretty well done and does actually look like a monster, at least when its not swarming with children anyway.

Upclose

Wider shot, showing the bay in the back ground

We also visited Largs one day, taking the ferry across the Clyde and while we didn't spend a lot of time there it seems like a nice place, a lot busier than Cumbrea, but that's to be expected. We mainly went across to go to the swimming pools and the Viking exhibition, which are both in the same place at the leisure centre, along side the theatre and pitch and put as well. A bit of an odd combination, but its a small town, so not surprising. I know what your thinking, we live in a place surrounded by Vikings, and we go to a Viking experience when on holiday! Well, the bairns enjoyed it, they also enjoyed the swimming, mostly I think because the little man got given some water pistols by another family who were heading home that evening and didn't have room in the suitcase for them! While we were in Largs we took in one of the other famous sights of the town, Nardinis Icecream. Now, i'm not sure what the real story is, but there are several Nardinis in the town, one in a big building that is also a restaurant and one that's is just an icecream parlor, but apparently, according to a friend who grew up there and also supported by what the icecream lady told us, its the one by the ferry that's the proper one, Nardinis at the Moorings, the other is just named after the building. In reality, I don't actually care, what I do know is that the icecream was very nice and the bairns loved the bright blue bubble gum icecream, which was good as I don't fancy eating it when they decided they didn't like it!

For anyone looking for a little get away from life and civilization, I can recommend Cumbrea and Millport, there isn't much there and not many people, perfect for getting away from it all.

Real Familly Holiday

This year we went down to Millport, on the island of Cumbrae, for our summer holidays and as with our holiday last year we stayed at the Field Studies Councils Centre (FSC Millport). The FSC Real Family Holidays are becoming our go to yearly family holidays and for good reason. There reasonably priced, all inclusive and there are always a number of other friendly families there to chat and play with. Of course the other big draw is all the activities that they do there for the kids, from mini-beast hunts to treasure hunts to shelter building. Each centre is different and while there were some elements at this years holiday centre that were not as good as last years, there were also somethings that were better but overall I couldn't tell you which one was better. The kids enjoyed both holidays and we're planning on going back next summer. 

Millport accommodation and centre (from FSC website) 

One of the highlights of the trip was going hunting for wildlife, as part of the mini-beast hunt. We set some traps overnight to see what we could catch and two people were lucky enough to catch something. I've only got a picture of one of the mice below as the other mouse made a (successful) break for freedom as soon at the trap was opened. The kids were super excited by the sight of the mouse bouncing this way and that as it made its way back in to the  bushes. 

The field mouse (the one that didn't escape)

There were lots of other activities from team games and orienteering to rock pooling and beach art and with there being an aquarium onsite, there was also a guided tour of that. Probably one of the other highlights for the kids was the camp fire. These seem to be a hit at each place we go, although I suspect its more to do with the food on offer that the camp fire, last year it was toasted marshmallows and cinnamon sugared apply slices (toasted to melt the sugar) and this year it was popcorn, popped on the open fire in a proper popcorn popper thing. The only downside is that they keep on insisting on stupid camp fire games, I hated these things when I was a scout and I still hate them now!

Handeling starfish on the guided tour of the aquarium

The great thing about the Real Family Holidays though, is that you don't need to take part in any of these things if you don't want to, its completely up to you. We have know people who have just used the centre as a base for their own holidays, joining us for breakfast and dinner and disappearing out during the day with their pack lunches. When you have young kids its a great way of holidaying, as you don't have to worry about getting home each night and cooking dinner or shopping for food, or worrying about where your going to eat or whether the pub you've chosen will do something the kids will eat. Plus, when you want a little quiet time, you can just send the kids off to the games room or the TV room with the other kids and have a nice relaxing cup of tea from one of the numerous tea station that are around.

If anyone is interested in the Rear Family Holidays, you can find all the information you need here;

http://www.real-family-holidays.org/

and the FSC info here

http://www.field-studies-council.org/

Construction projects

Well, it looks like the little man is starting his career already! The during the holidays there were a number of events at the local park and games hall for the bairns, mini football and rugby, tennis, volleyball and badminton, plus mini diggers and tractors, giant jenga and connect four, that sort of stuff. One week though it was raining and so they moved inside and got out the softplay stuff at one end of the hall and the football stuff the other end. While we played for a while, the little man spent quite a while building this:

Its a pretty good den, his just putting on the chimney here, not sure why it needed a chimney but apparently it did. Ill admit to helping a bit, the roof was made of mats that folded in the middle and he kept trying to put them o the wrong way up and they kept folding in the middle and collapsing, easily solved by flipping them over.

I was quite impressed with his construction skill while he was building it, although it lasted a lot less time finished than emit took to build it! But hey, that's kids for you!

More cats

Another quick post about the cats, as I was amused by spot the other day. Of all the places in the house she could have curled up to go to sleep, she chose to sleep on the tray containing the kenitic sand! 

Not sure how comfy it must have been but she slept there for quite a while and slowly turned green as well, as all the sand attached itself to her fur! Silly cat!

Also, herds a picture of the little man sleeping. I'm not sure whose maneuvered around who? Have the cats moved around the little man or has the little man moved around the cats?