Category Archives: Family and Life

Its not all work and play there are matters personal too. In these posts I note those events in my family and life that invite comment.

First Cinema Visit and a Vision in Purple & White

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A busy weekend for me, indeed it was.  After finishing work on Friday I was occupied with the beginnings of my personal Ion Age project and then come Saturday it was all hands to the pumps to get smartened up and ship shape for a wedding to which myself and my good lady had been invited.  So adding the need for clothing and gifts Saturday night was the culmination of a day long build up.  Sunday then saw a family visit to Kilmarnock and the Cinema to see the latest Disney animated film Brave.  This was my youngest, the Warrior’s, first visit to the cinema.  So how did it all go?

Pretty Ladies and Excellent Company too!

Overall is went well but I did find it a long haul.  Basically after a week at work I am not really in the mood for a lot of driving and dressing up.  I have to say congratulations to the bride and groom, Sara & Gary, on a great event and for putting on a spiffing buffet too (you know where I spent a lot of the evening!).  Above you can see a picture of my good lady in her finery along with her brand new hairstyle in a very fetching shade of purple and the bride (for those who do not know my wife is the one on the left).  As an extra fact of interest the evening music in the form of a mix deck and DJ was provided by a family friend of Sara’s one of the founding members of 80’s group Black Lace.  I kid you not.  He was a great DJ and aside from being older looked just as I remembered from the heady days of the 1980’s.  Before you ask, no, I did not dance to Agadoo.  Video link below for those who have no idea what I am on about…steel yourself.

Once I had recovered on the Sunday morning I decided to take the three lads to see the new Disney film Brave.  A children’s animated movie set in a fictional vision of Scotland.  I chose this movie for two reasons.  Firstly what Scotsman can resist seeing what the Disney leviathan has done for his national stereotype and secondly it was to be my youngest The Warrior’s first visit to the cinema.  As you can see below he was not quite sure what was going to happen!

This is gonna be fun, right?

He was not sure at first but when the screen lit up and the lights dropped he was glued to his seat,vastly larger than himself of course!  I have put in a video of the film below if you are interested but my own opinion was that Brave was a good movie.  It had good pace, lots of gags, a plot that had as couple of moments of real peril and emotional pull as well.   While I still think, and most likely will not change this opinion, that the prices of tickets for the cinema is way too high especially for children; I am glad I chose Brave and took the five of us to see it.  In fact the whole movie is worth it for then ten minutes of the clans and the highland games in the first half.  Billy Connelly is a superb talent in person and in voice.

As always I promise to answer the heap of email that awaited me this morning as fast as I can.

‘Ma celtic blood calls fur freedom, but ma airm hulds the sword o’ the clan tay.’

GBS

Boxes and Bags in the Loft of Doom!

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Where was I said the emails at Alternative Armies this morning.  No blog posts over the weekend and few last week too.  It is great to know that people miss my musings but alas I was working hard doing the things that I can later tell you all about here…but wait you say, this only covers the week days since we all know you don’t go to the office at the weekend.  I hold my hands up in placating fashion and by way of reply I say that it is not my fault…I was captured and made to work…on the house.  Yes, those who know me will know that handiman jobs and such make me break out in a cold sweat but it was not that oh no…we were emptying out the attic!

I have lived in Girvan now for nearly eight years and in that time the dark recesses of the attic have seen me only a dozen or so times.  Those times mainly just to chuck stuff into it!  We had managed to file quite a large space with boxes and bags of stuff right to the rafters and my good lady said it was time for it all to go as it was creeping into the spare bedroom.  I did manage to avoid the sorting phase but, and I kid you not, the fifty big bags that went to the tip, the thirty or so that went to charity and then and only then in a drip of sweat the nine boxes of mine that ended up in my own room.  But just what was in them?  They had been sealed ten years ago…

A small look at the piles. There are five in total.

It turned out to be a hundred pounds of papers from my university days (why did I keep them?) and a box of clothes…all too small, and then…yes…the remains of my vintage wargaming collection!

As you can see from the picture (one of several piles out of the boxes) I have quite a lot of stuff from the 1980’s and 1990’s.  I cannot go into detail but I do have among the gems the following:

  • Battletech Boxed Set.  First Edition.
  • Stargrunt II along with a pile of GZG miniatures.
  • Chainsaw Warrior (GW)
  • Block Mania (GW)
  • Mega Mania (GW)
  • Dark Future boxed set (GW)
  • Mighty Empires boxed set (GW)
  • Robotech Miniatures and RPG Books.
  • Cyberpunk RPG books.
  • Centurion boxed set.
  • Every Issue of Valkyrie Magazine.
  • Twenty or more small press RPG titles.
  • Thirty plus small press  Wargame rules titles.
  • Chronopia.
  • Raven.
  • 1st Edition Flintloque, Deadloque, Grapeshotte (bought with my own tin!).
  • Star Fleet Battles boxed set and books.

So a useful job done.  Not at all interesting or productive to me though.  But not wasted time certainly.  I enjoyed flicking though books I had only fond memories of.

GBS

Happy Birthday Double Digits !!

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Happy Birthday my lad.  Happy Birthday my pride and joy.  Happy Birthday and thank you for the ten years that made a boy of you and a man of me.  My mirror and my conscious, my most precious creation and never broken promise.  I stand behind you with a careful hand upon your ever rising shoulder and point the way to take you toward the brilliant light and away from the darkness of failure that is all around.  My firstborn…my eldest, my brilliant son.  Happy Tenth Birthday.

Who says you don’t ever get ‘deep’ from me ‘eh.  Just an expression of a decade of joy and nervous stress at all times.  From a baby that sat in my hand to his own hand almost the dimension of mine.  It’s a lot to take on, but Birthdays are super cool fun and man did ‘The Thinker’ have a good time today!

The Birthday

 We kicked off early with the opening of the pressies.  A grand haul was gotten and again I would like to thank everyone on my son’s behalf for their generosity he was more than pleased with everything.  After this I had to go out for a while but I brought back the annual traditional helium filled balloon!  As you can see he keen on holding it (I remember he used to get hours of fun out of one, but then he was two!).

Got my balloon, its party time!

 This afternoon we all headed out in a small convoy of cars to the Activity Barn for the Birthday Party.  My good lady was totally correct in her assumption that all the kids would want to do was run about madly and then eat themselves silly.  So two hours passed in sweaty mayhem, rebounding footballs and bouncy castle fun.

A small part of the hall taking in the bouncy castle.

Come on people cheer! Huzzah for the Birthday Boy!

He behaved himself well and more kids than I expected turn up.  It was just as well that we catered for forty!

This evening will be spent with a video or two and perhaps a pizza.  I don’t know about the children…but I need a rest 🙂

Happy Birthday !!!

GBS

Moshi Cake Madness

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Happy Birthday Boy!

The grand day is almost upon us.  My eldest, The Thinker, turns ten years old upon the morrow.  I am so proud of him, he is a super lad.  Polite, resourceful and a hard worker to boot.

As part of his birthday celebrations it is customary for us to get him a unique cake that will serve thirty to forty people for his party.  This year the party is at an activity centre in nearby Dailly (a mile or two from Girvan) and the cake is all about ‘Moshi Monsters‘.  As you can see it is a great creation and proves there is a lot of talent in Ayrshire beyond the gaming sector!

I will post about the big day (assuming I do not overdose on Cake, Jelly and Ice-Cream) but I had to just show you all this icing coated treat before it is decimated by a horde of children.

GBS

Girvan Gala 2012

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The annual Girvan Harbour Gala happened on Sunday there and it has taken me until now to do a posting about it.  Despite attending my workload plus a bad bout of heartburn put paid to me doing anything last night.  But lets press on!

The Thinker along with his Granny and Great Aunt (bottom picture, middle and right)

The Gala actually began with a look back at last year when my good lady showed me a page of the current Carrick Gazette newspaper which you can see above.  The picture was taken last summer at the Girvan Gala 2011 during the event and you can see not only my little Thinker but also me Mum and me Aunty too!  This was nice as it was a good day and it brought the memories back to me.  It was also a nice sunny day…not like a lot of the last week here in Ayrshire.  Torrential rain caused a lot of flooding and also other problems.  While I was caught in some of it driving home I found this video on YouTube which gives you an idea as it was only up the road in Kilmarnock.

At the Harbour visiting the ‘Car Boot Stalls’.

So moving on to Sunday there the Gala kicked off just after noon and it went on until four and while the sky was overcast it was warm enough and it did not rain so that was super.  The Gala was smaller than on previous years but this is not a surprise to me since the economy is still down (despite what anyone says) and people have not got as much money to spend.   But a lot of people turned out and there was some loud live music too along with some organised events and demonstrations.  I amused myself with the ‘car boot sale’ stalls and rummaged about while the kids went to look at the pet owls, the slides and other things.

The end of the Fire Service Car Rescue Demonstration

A highlight was a demonstration by the Strathclyde Fire Service on removing a casualty from a vehicle.  The process too about fifteen minutes and involved taking a poor Volvo estate to pieces starting with the windows then the doors then the roof before finally taking the ‘injured fellow’ out on a stretcher.  Very informative and the only time I have seen this outside of watching it on TV.  After this we wandered about and then headed on home but on the way we stopped to watch the Girvan Lifeboat give some lucky people a little ride inside the limits of the habour.  The sheer noise of such a large engine echoing off the boat sheds was intense!

Lifeboat Joy Ride!

I missed the next part of the Gala as I was eating my lunch but I came out again just in time to see the Sea King Helicopter from HMS Gannet near Prestwick perform a sea rescue and then do several fly bys over the town.  Sorry for the rubbish picture but its hard to snap a helicopter in flight even though it is so big!

The Mighty Sea King!

All in all it was a good afternoon  and while not on a par with the Gala’s of 2007-9 it served Girvan well and brought a good number of people into the town.  Roll on next year!

GBS

The Thinker wins more Books!

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Spoils for the Reader!

He is indeed a talent and now even more well read lad.  My eldest son ‘The Thinker’ got a package in the mail today from Random House and their Children’s Book department.  He has won another competition and this time a small bundle of six adventure books are his to own.  Each of the books are a modern re-issue of a classic boys own title from the mid twentieth century  and later by now sadly deceased author Willard Price.

This is the second time in four attempts he has won a prize so either he is very lucky or, and I suspect this to be more accurate and quite sad, he is one of a very few entrants and hence has way more chance to win the books.

Enjoy the read son and before you ask..no we can’t have a pet Crocodile…he might eat my miniatures!

GBS

Girvan Gig on the Green 2012 – Civic Week

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So here we are on an intermittently wet and sunny Sunday in late June.  I had been working on a project and then I remembered that today was Girvan’s Gig on  the Green!

The family headed out to have a look.  Actually I could hear it soon after going out, as we live quite near Stair Park which is where the stage was set up.   I have to say that I was unaware that today was also parade day in Girvan where civic week begins with a procession though the town with lots of people dressed up (this year was an Olympic theme…duh!) but I ran into the parade on the way to the park.  It had only just begun but we snapped a quick picture as it went by led by a piper and with the rear brought up by characters including Super Mario and I think Postman Pat (the kids were very taken with this).  More people joined it as I watched and though we were waved at to join I could hear an electric guitar so no chance of that and off we went.

The Parade gathering pace

Stair Park is in the rear of the above picture so it was not much of a walk to reach the park.  Below you can see a lot of what was laid out in the park including the main stage, several inflatable slides, a bucking bronco, a really lovely and brand new climbing wall along with a lot of stands selling refreshments and also offering face painting, flag making, puppets, balloon modelling and the like. I think there was a couple of hundred people there but it was early as Gig on the Green goes on from noon until after eight in the evening and this was about half past two.

The Crowd gathers under the Clouds

The weather kept changing from bright sunlight to dark and moody grey light.  If you look at the rear of the above image you will see why.  Something Scotland is well known for; low laying mist.  The picture does not do the colour justice as it is ominous and beautiful both sitting right atop the Carrick Hills.

The Stage

I have been to several of the Gigs on the Green in previous years and this year the sound quality on the stage was excellent, no feedback or other haze to interrupt it.  The stage is a purpose built truck trailer with its own power supply and such and it makes a big difference to the performers.  I watched and listen to a good few tunes until the kids got fed up and dragged me away.  The line up included Counselled Out and Escapade but I think I saw Audio Juice (Girvan band in the picture) but in eight hours of live music more than seven bands were listed to perform.

So i was a good couple of hours out for me and I enjoyed it but it was let down by two things I feel.  The first is the weather which is always a risk in Ayrshire as it can be VERY wet and we have had several inches of rain in the last couple of days, but it did stay dry if dark.  Secondly I just cannot help but think that Girvan would get on a lot better that these great little events if they were better advertised.  Not nationally but locally in Ayrshire.  As I said I go to a lot of the events but I was barely aware of it; and I live here!  Perhaps a full page in the weekly paper with a big advert for it, including a free parking notice (as the whole town is) and a tie in with local retailers to offer special incentives on food, drink and other things might do the trick.

Rock on Girvan!

GBS

Graduating your first year at Girvan Nursery

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Well done wee man!

Well done to my little warrior who ‘graduated’ from his first, of two, years at Nursery School this afternoon.  Nursery (or Kindergarden if you prefer) covers every child in Girvan from the ages of around 3 to 4 with most being just under five when they head off to Primary One at the big Primary School next door.  I managed to finish early enough today to get to the Nursery and get a seat in the front row (after being treated to a free drink and Strawberry Tart before the little ceremony started) where I sat as the certificates were given out and then some songs were sung.

I enjoyed it a lot and clapped when prompted and laughed at the antics of the little people as they shot about like a horde of hyperactive Goblins.  While I did not see the point of the ceremony and it seemed like a bit more of the ‘celebrate anything’ culture we now live in; it did seem to matter to the children and that is important to them.  Rewarding good attendance and good behaviour is I suppose never a waste especially when it is for the very young just starting out.  I left more convinced that it was a worthy event and glad I went.

While on the subject of Girvan Nursery school I have to say that my little warrior is now the third of my children to attend it and it is without a doubt one of the finest places for the education of pre-school children I have seen.  It was recently inspected and given very high scores, but it is more than that.   It is a dedicated nursery, which is increasingly rare now, staffed by a group of ladies who are all brilliant at their jobs who honestly care for each and every child there.  These ladies start these kids on the journey to school but also importantly to society.  Lessons in shapes and colours rub shoulders with lessons on teeth brushing and eating fruit.  Children who attend begin school with a big bonus over those who do not.

Well enough from me.  So well done my lad and a big thumbs up to Girvan Nursery too!

GBS

Girvan Primary Sports Day 2012

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Primary One gets ready to race!

This week the rain stopped long enough for the Girvan Primary school to put on its Sports Days for all classes.  While I was unable to see the little Warrior or the big Thinker do their races I did make it to the Poet’s day on Tuesday afternoon.  Taking place in the area outdoor grounds of the school the first three years (Primary One, Two and Three) raced against their own in girls and boys events.  A flat race, a bunny hop race and a ‘tattie on a spoon’ race too.  Good times were had by all.

I had hoped to get a good action picture of the little lad charging for the red roped finishing line but unfortunately I did not manage it due to a lack of crowd control so the image above shows the ‘P1’s’ getting into line and ready to race instead.

We did not get any medals this time but it is all in the spirit of fun and boy do some parents take it WAY too seriously.  I took comfort instead in knowing that all three of my children are happy, secure and especially in the case of the Poet literally top of the class in reading, writing and mathematics.  Well done to him!

GBS

Olympic Torch passes through Girvan

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An event that has seemed so far very far away and often irrelevant to life in Girvan has just passed through our little town.  The Olympic Torch procession made it’s way through Girvan today  just after seven in the morning.  Myself and the rest of the family were up super early and out in the street to see it.

The Crowd Gathers in the Early Morning

Luckily the rain held off and the turn out was very good.  Many of the local children were there and most were waving self made torches and little flags.  The procession began with the normal clearing of the roads and then a number of corporate sponsored vehicles handing out their wares, playing music and generally trying to incite an atmosphere into a slightly damp and sleepy crowd.  It worked well though and by the time the local runner (a man from the village of Mossblown which is up past Ayr) went by everyone was cheering and waving madly.

Cheer the Mascot!

The Torch!

So while the Olympics are happening far away they were, if only for an hour, part of everyone here’s life.  I greatly enjoyed it and the chance to see the ‘torch’ in person and for the children it was the culmination to a week of school based preparation.

The Warrior having Fun!

Oh…and I got a little bottle of free Coca Cola.  Nice and Sporting.

Excellent  🙂

GBS