Tag Archives: Life

Girvan Primary Sports Day 2012

Posted on by

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

Posted on by

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

Ray Bradbury a master of Science Fiction dies at 91

Posted on by

Normally I do not comment on the news but I just learned that Ray Bradbury author of more books than you could carry has died at the age of 91.  He had been ill for a long time, that I knew, but in a career that lasted seventy years I came across his work again and again.  From the classic Fahrenheit 451 to lesser known works he always impressed me with the skill and touch of his writing not to mention his boundless imagination.  My personal favourite has to be the collected tales in The Illustrated Man.

If you have never heard of Mr Bradbury then get out from under the rock where you live and get informed.  An excellent author who will be greatly missed.

GBS

Carrick Lowland Gathering 2012

Posted on by

It is June now and that means time for the annual Carrick Lowland Gathering which takes place around the same weekend each year at the Victory Park in the middle of Girvan.  The Gathering as it is known has been a fixture of life in Girvan for a long time and it encompasses a lot of fun and festivity.  This year was no different on that score but it was an improvement on last year.

Throwing the Hammer at the Lowland Gathering!

A sunny Sunday lunchtime saw the Syme clan arrive and while I trotted about and had a few chats my good lady took some photos, the best two are in this posting.  The Gathering has a highland games event that includes hammer throwing, Highland Dancing and it has a Pipe Band championship too.  Alongside this are other smaller events and charities and a number of fairground rides and many stalls selling everything from traditional sweets and clothing to local wares like tartans and curling stones.  There are also workshops on how to dance and play the drums and pipes.

The Poet enjoying the Trampoline! (He is jumping, it just looks like he is tied up in the ropes)

Unlike last year it was dry and sunny which I think increased the turnout to more than two thousand all in and it meant more traders turned up too; there were no spare pitches left.  The pricing of everything was reasonable too and as always it was great to see the town busy and the children having fun.

Good Times!

GBS

Goodbye Grandmother

Posted on by

This has been a sad week for me.  A week of loss and of reflection upon the passing of time.  My paternal grandmother has died and with that a permanent and towering fixture in my life has gone.

My grandmother was a quiet woman who held herself with a lot of dignity even in her declining years when she left her city of Glasgow and came here to Girvan to be nearer the family so that we could look after her.  That was nearly five years ago and in that time I saw her most days and got to know her far better than I had as a boy.  It also meant she got to meet her three great grandchildren and see them regularly as they grew from tiny babies.

Cathy Syme and Gavin Syme in the 1980’s

I will remember her as a strong person who held my hand all those years ago and learned me the manners that helped make me the man I am.  From her vantage point of a birth in the year 1919 she had seen the world change almost out of all recognition from when she was a girl in the roaring twenties.

Goodbye Grandmother Syme.

GBS

Sunshine Superstar

Posted on by

Blazing Sun and Sand...Spain...no Girvan!

Come to Scotland and see the verdant green, the deep blues and the slate grey skies of a celtic land.  But not this week!

Due to a coincidence of  weather fronts the normal warming of May has given way to a much more intense heating that has given South Ayrshire, Scotland and actually Girvan in particular (my town was named the hottest place in the land at one point on Friday and I could believe it) temperatures of 25c to 28c across the middle of the week to this weekend.  While this temperature is not unknown here it is rare and it is even more rare to have happened in May.  In fact while attending my children’s school fete yesterday afternoon two of the kids actually fainted from heat exhaustion.

From the Promenade to the Beach on Tuesday. Volleyball Tournament on Sat 26th, see the net?

Promenade looking to the south at the Carrick Hills back on Tuesday afternoon

So the play park, the beach and the sea.  I took a few pictures so you could see what I mean.  Some people say to me ‘why live in Girvan, it is so cold and icy in the winter’…well its cold and icy anywhere in Scotland in the winter but in good weather…well you don’t get scene’s like this in Glasgow or Edinburgh!

The above images were earlier in the week when I took some time to walk the prom to have a thinks and a ponder on certain things while the kids played.   But moving on!

Today was also the Volleyball Tournament on the beach and it had a really good turn out.  No, I did not play in it but I did sit and watch for a while before heading home…bare foot…across the roasting tarmac.

Volleyball on the Beach!

A hundred plus cars and coaches in the beach facing car park and not a space left anywhere.

I just have to get all of the sand out of my pockets and put some aftersun on now. Scorchio!

Oh, and the tiddler in the top picture…that’s my little warrior!

GBS

Five Pounds for a Week – The End

Posted on by

Well that is it.  Five Days on a Pound a day for food.  It is now over…

For the last five days I have had, to start with, a little bundle of golden pound coins in my pocket and nothing else.  No other coins, no bank notes, no cards, no cheques.  Refer to my last post.  I think I managed my aim which was to ‘feel’ how it would be to have so little to spend on food but I will be the first to admit that a week was not long enough for a proper experiment.   I find myself feeling hungry but more used to it.  However knowing that it would end made today easier and knowing it would end meant it was not ‘real’ either.  Plus the sheer amount of heat here today put me off eating!

Custard for 17p Excellent!

Bread is very expensive compared to other staples

So in conclusion my previous post on this gave my thoughts on how I felt eating a lot less with the short answer being not good and also having to spend a lot more time and effort finding affordable items and getting to the reduced items in the evenings in supermarkets.  However it can be done assuming you can put about ten pounds aside before you start to get bigger value packs of eggs, grain and so on.  Also it assumes that you do not need alcohol, cigarettes or caffeine as these are just too expensive.

Oddly enough though overall I actually feel physically better after doing this.  Lighter on my feet so to say.  Detoxed and Trimmer.  It could be the heat talking though.

Taking back to the start the notion that in this day and age working families and children in Scotland are going hungry is just not funny and its just not on.  I think now I can identify with that a little more and it makes me just a little bit more angry too.

GBS

Five Pounds for a Week – Half Way Point

Posted on by

This week I am trying to live on five pounds for a week (monday to friday) for food.  You can learn about this by going to my previous post.  We are now at the half way point so what am I thinking.  Well mainly I am thinking…hungry, hungry.

I have managed to stick to the budget but I do have some thoughts about this which you should be able to hear over my rumbling tummy!

46p for a week's cereal choice

  • Finding and choosing food takes quite a while.  Instead of a bank note and ‘give me that please’ it is a matter of scanning the shelves looking for the tightest price you can.  This often means really bad value as the only packs I can afford are the smallest ones so I can buy something but the amount I get is tiny compared to what  could get if I had more money for the same item such as Pasta.
  • Variety.  I am already bored of a meat free diet of mainly bread and pasta.
  • Vices.  I do not smoke or drink much alcohol which is great since I can afford neither.  The lack of caffine is getting to me too.
  • Size Matters.  I am not a small fellow, at about six foot and two eighty pounds in weight it needs more fuel for my engine!
  • Reduced Rack.  Major supermarkets reduce the cost of food in the late afternoon and evenings and you can get some really good deals with items dated that day for consumption being some 80-90% off their normal prices.  I just have to time it correctly and get in first!
  • Work and Temper.  I am starting to feel a bit cold while sitting at the computer and I have a lot less desire for complex tasks than normal plus my mood is not great as I am constantly hungry.
  • Avoid the urge to eat once a day.  Spread the food, do not eat it all at once.  Made that mistake!

Jamming for 35p. Taste's fine!

More on Friday…roll on the weekend!  🙂

GBS