Tag Archives: Family

Happy 5th Birthday my little Warrior

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Way back when with the Warrior dead centre!

Today is your birthday and now you are five.  What a little terror and delight you have become my son.  Mercurial and unlike your brothers you are the most testing and often the most rewarding of the trio.  I see your mother and myself in you and your temper…well that is all me.  Enjoy the presents and the cake and the birthday party too.  It’s your day and now you are five.

As an aside there is an important member of the family not here today and he is missed.  The picture above is from 2010 and shows the trio at Girvan Rail Station plus another….Uncle James. See you soon!

GBS

GBS and AJS 2014!

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Twelve Years ago today I got married.  I snapped this picture a few days ago and it sums up my feelings.  I love you my lady as much today as I always have and no work, no money, no people and no damned nonsense of the world will ever come between us.  Anniversary Day once more and while this is a short post it makes the point!

Now…Champagne Cognac or Botanical Gin….hummm…

GBS

Happy New Year 2014 and a Happy Man

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Happy New Year to all.  Yes, to all.  All those who are a little mad, a little sad, a bit deluded and those who are hanging on as well.  I am a happy guy, but why?  Well I have just about all that a man might want out of life. A woman I adore, smart and sharp children, my own home, a free mind and the intellectual liberty to reject chaining nonsense along with great friends and a job quite unlike any other in the world.  These are the true things of happiness to me.  So no new resolutions for me.  Its the same as every year with a straight back and a keen eye.  Be a good person, help people, bring light to darkness and have fun.  Oh…and type a hundred emails a day to keep everyone enjoying the input of ‘GBS’ across the world.

Big events coming up this year for all here in Scotland

The 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.  Not much on this from me but something maybe.

The 180914 Referendum for Scottish Independence.  Expect some posts on this as well as what I actually decide to vote on the day.  Biggest choice I might ever make in politics.

Enjoy the Winter!

GBS

Children in Need 2013

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Today is the annual Children in Need event on television and I, along with the rest of the family have done my part.   I enjoy watching the televised event and I do not donate money by phone.  I donate money by hand held boxes, by boxes in shops and by way of Girvan Primary School’s events.  Today’s event was a ‘wear your pyjamas to school’ day which mercifully it stayed dry for.  After what has been a hectic week at work (see the Havelock ESO results over on the Ion Age blog) I finished up a bit early and picked the three offspring up at the school gate.

There are a lot of charities out there…a whole lot.  In fact I have got to the point where I ignore almost all of them as the feeling of guilt at not dropping coins into every hand that reached out was getting me down at a deep level.  This does not make me a bad person.  In fact I am a ruddy good person as all who know me will point out but my resources are limited.  So I choose which I support and Children get some priority in this as does the UK so Children in Need is near top of the list (after Sense).  It is a very worthwhile cause.

So have a look, have a read.  Have a watch if you can.  Give them some money too.  If you live in the UK and you walk home after work, sometimes the child you see in the street needs your help more than you might know.

GBS

Wigtown Book Festival 2013

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Sally Magnusson, Horace and The Poet

Yesterday I attended the 2013 Wigton Book Festival and I had an excellent time.  The weather was warm and sunny and there were a great many events and readings taking place across the pleasant little town of Wigton.   This was not the first time I had been, in fact last year I attended and posted here about it.  This time my prime reason for attending was once more Sally Magnusson and her creation Horace the Haggis who was out and about promoting his new book for the kiddies.

My middle son, The Poet, was literally vibrating with excitement to get into the large tent where the reading was to take place and he enjoyed it greatly.  He even got his copy, being held up proudly above, signed by the authoress who remembered him from the previous year.   My eldest went to a talk being held by Robert Harris who while discussing his new book is also the author of Talisman a board game from the 1980’s by Games Workshop which was a firm favourite of mine.  If Mr Harris was distracted by being asked about it rather than his new work he seemed delighted to discuss the game!  The smallest of the wee chaps went to a talk on Dinosaurs where he put forth his theories on evolution and asked if birds would turn back into T-Rex’s any time soon.  A picnic lunch was spread and the drive home was very nice too with the choice of music being two albums by The Alan Parson’s Project.

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Books from the Book Festival

I trawled the book shops in the town and managed to find three gems among the literally thousands of volumes in each and every shop.  You can see these above.  There is also a flyer for the special exhibit for ‘Wigton 2113’ which sadly I could not get into as it was booked out…sci-fi denied!

Fantasy Wargaming edited by Bruce Galloway is an excellent find as books about wargaming, what I do for a living mainly, are thin on the ground.  No training manual for my profession no.   I have several of these titles about different periods and genres and they are all very useful.  This one pre-dates the whole modern fantasy wargaming movement but it does give solid grounding in what is to be expected.  I look forward to reading it.  The other two are a pulp science fiction art and story  book made for children in the 1980’s in a series which if you can believe I own the others but have never seen this one missing volume EVER before.  Awesome!  Lastly a heavy weight academic text on Three Tomorrows examining tropes in sci-fi from a British, American and Soviet perspective.  Yes, Soviet.  Its not new but it dates from the same period as Terminator and Blade Runner.

If you can get to Wigton for next year’s festival then do so as it is an excellent day out.

GBS

Happy Birthday!

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Happy Birthday my darling wife.  Light of my life and inspirer of work and devotion unquestioned.  My adoration of you knows no bounds and your beauty is unsurpassed among all of nature’s creatures.  Is that enough….good, she put the cricket bat down.  🙂

Seriously though today is my good lady’s birthday and I have done my best to please her with gifts, food, attention, flowers and so on.  My last gift is this short display of public affection here on the blog.

Thanks also to everyone who visited today, who phoned, who sent cards and gifts.  Its nice to know friends are thinking of my good lady as she spends a lot of her time caring for children and doing favours for others.

GBS

A Present from Vegas and Boston USA

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Give them Dice and Gummy Lobsters!

The Syme family got a gift in the mail this morning all the way from sunny Las Vegas by way of Boston Harbour and then back to England.  Within its cardboard walls the package contained three bags of bright red (the kind of red that only American candy customers get as those ‘e’ numbers are banned in the EU) Gummy Lobsters along with three silver metal dice.  Each of these dice filled with delicious Salt Water Taffy (something else that you cannot get with any ease in the UK).  Very kind to send these things in three’s it means that the three little Symes will not have to duel to the death over a share.

It always makes me smile when I get a gift like this.  It proves that people are good and that trying to be nice to everyone makes the world a nicer place.  Makes up for the potentially near fatal car crash I nearly had this afternoon with a primate who had both eyes on his phone and no hands on his steering wheel but…that is enough about that.

So.  Thanks Uncle Steve and Aunt Lesley!  Kisses from us all.  Expect a wee pressie from Girvan later this week or next.

GBS

Getting Ready for School…less affordable now?

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The summer holidays are over and the rain continues to fall in Scotland (well it was actually a good seven weeks all in for weather this year) and my three are going back to the land of education.  Aside from this being the first time for the youngest, The Warrior, it also means the need to buy yet more school uniforms and supplies.  So off I went and bought what was needed.  I looked for bargains, for special offers, for value and then bought it three times over.  I got all that was needed and it took most of a day to do it.

Well what can I say.  Despite looking for the best offers and making a killer saving on the older two boy’s shoes the cost was more than last year.  I know there is a third child now but its more than that.  The cost of everything was up.  I ain’t moaning, I am just saying as the song goes.  I am glad I don’t have to do this more than once a year (but items do need replaced regularly!).  Above you can see most of the pile, not all of it but it gives you an idea spread out more than six feet across.

Is the new gear for school starting less affordable now.  My opinion is that despite the claims of major retailers it really is.  I won’t say how much I spent but it has left a sizeable hole in my pocket.  What do you do if you have four, five or more children…share shoes or hope the government aids you is all I can say.

Moan over…back to the positive once more! 

GBS

Parliamo Glasgow – Stanley Baxter

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While live is mighty fine by the sea in sunny Girvan, Ayrshire I do sometimes miss the city of my birth; Glasgow.  Following a recent conversation with a friend who has never been to the city and in trying to explain to them that when I was a ‘wean’ the dialect spoken there was often impenetrable not only to non-english native speakers but also the majority of the other residents of Britain!   While I speak reasonable ‘Glasgow’ I am long out of practise (except for creating Joccian dialect in Flintloque!) so I directed myself and friend to YouTube and Stanley Baxter.

Long, long ago the great Scottish comedian Stanley Baxter did a series of sketches, quite hard to get these days it seems, where he acted out typical scenes of the city and then after delivering the lines in ‘Glasgow’ he would then switch to a proper RP English accent to give a translation in the style of a travel programme.  Have a look and enjoy…even if you have to run it back a couple of times!

Oh and yes all Scottish people can speak proper English when they want, but what would be the fun in that.   Differences and diversity make Britain the great nation it is today.

GBS

Cuddly Alien gifts from America

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Huggable Face Hugger and Comforting Chest Burster

A while back my good lady wife got a package in the mail from America from our good friends the McAlisters who came to stay earlier this year.  Yes, I know, its been a while coming but while my good lady opened the box and took this picture on the day I have only just gotten to this posting now.  Honestly you would think I sat about doing nothing eh!

I have always loved the Aliens franchise and particularly the second movie Aliens which to me is the best one.  As a movie it has entered the popular conciousness and been borrowed from countless times and its also had a massive effect on wargaming too being sourced for LOADS of science fiction systems.

Thanks McAlisters!  These might not have acid for blood but they do have the stuffing for hugs a plenty.  🙂

GBS