Tag Archives: Girvan

Girvan Christmas Street Party 2012

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Last night saw the annual Christmas Street Party in Girvan.  I attend this every year without fail, the kids love it.  This year the weather was excellent, still, dry, crisp, not too cold; trust me that makes all the difference in Ayrshire for outside events!  Now I did not see everything that was going on and I am sure we missed a lot of it but here is a wee account of what the family got up to across a couple of hours.

Some people like to play Girvan down as a town past its prime but last night you would not have thought this at all.  Beginning at the local primary school the smaller children assembled with little lanterns they had made in class, got an electric light in each of them, then proceeded through the town.  My lot were in the thick of this and enjoyed it a lot.  Upon entering the main street the procession halted and awaited the arrival of Santa Claus in full costume with his aides and his sleigh pulled by actual reindeer.  The main road through the town, Dalrymple Street, was closed to traffic and had instead been turned into a little fair with most of the shops open and many trade stands and a handful of kiddy rides and one much larger carnival ride for teens and adults.  As we progressed I ducked out and visited the Inverness Fudge van which makes the trip down here every year.  My coat pockets filled with excellent fudge I went on to the Stumpy Tower at the end of Dalrymple Street.

Santa had set up his grotto in the Stumpy Tower which was an excellent idea as the children formed a very orderly que more than two hundred long (got to love the British ability to que!) around the tower and watched as the town lights were switched on a set at a time ending with the town tree.  While they were waiting my lot got to see the Reindeers close up and to pet them as well which was a highlight for the little Warrior.  Santa himself was in fine fettle and handed out gifts to all the children (at a donation of £1.00 each to their parents which was a nice surprise, big plus to Girvan on this!).  There was then a short interlude before the crowd moved back into the closed road and started in earnest at the stands and rides.  There were also a good half dozen ‘mascots’ dressed up as favourite cartoon characters walking up and down, this was a nice touch too.  Plus several organisations handing out bags of sweets and mince pies and so on freely.

But my lot had a different plan than going back down the street.  We headed for The Roxy bar for its nineteenth year anniversary fireworks and freebies celebration.  My children are big fans of fireworks and of the Roxy too as we go there for dinner from time to time.  It was packed out which was good to see and we secured a good place to watch the five minute show.  I will admit to a sly pint of beer at the bar while the whizz bangs were a’happening.  The Roxy is the best pub in Girvan bar none to me.

Here are some pictures taken by my Good Lady.  I have captioned them to let you know what is going on in each:

I am sure I have missed things out but be assured it was an excellent evening and if you are in Ayrshire or even further away and are passing next year…pop by, we are a friendly place indeed.

GBS

Rain Stops Play – November 2012

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Well no work at the office for me today.  Having started off on my normal journey the weather during the night, high wind and heavy rain,  became more apparent with fallen branches and debris and puddles on the road.  But I was not prepared for what came next.  Up in the hills outside Girvan the puddles got deeper and larger and then…well it stopped being funny.  The river that runs near the road had burst its banks and I was forced to turn back!

As you can see in the images (sorry no picture of the blocked bridge that actually stopped me as I had to turn about for the big truck and other cars to turn about too) the sheer volume of water was huge.  I hope to return to work upon the morrow.  Bad weather is nothing new for Ayrshire and we do get way more than our share of rain but this was rather more than normal even for the winter.  Especially since it only began at 8pm last night.

Anyhow.  I shall work on at home but it does mean that the two dozen or so of you who are waiting for emails and calls from the ‘official email and phone’ will have to wait…since I cannot get to them!  Sorry!

Rain Stops Play

GBS

CarrickAyrshire website launched!

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A brand new and advanced website promoting Girvan and Carrick to the World!

After a chance meeting with Alec Clark this afternoon I learned about a brand new website that has just been launched to promote Girvan and Carrick at large.  You can find it at CarrickAyrshire and it is a very fine and informative read indeed.  Alec runs the excellent ‘Sweetie Shop’ in Girvan which I frequent with the children rather often and we have known each other for about six years now.  I have said to him on several occasions that Girvan needs a bigger online profile (indeed this blog appears top of search rankings for the town quite often) and this website certainly provides it.

CarrickAyrshire has pages on the history of the region, a gallery of excellent images of the region, filterable maps of attractions and services, a rolling list of ‘what is on locally’, a news page with readable content and a contact form.  On top of this there are other extra features such as places to stay and places to eat.  It is all clean and easy to navigate and is an excellent place to plan a trip from or to look for events to attend.  So have a look and a read about the region where I live and work.

I expect to look it up rather often.  Thanks Alec!

GBS

Girvan Festival of Light and Fireworks 2012

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The Fantastic Four!

On Saturday evening the annual Festival of Light was held in Girvan.  I had been building up to this as a big part of the festival is the procession of hundreds of children from one end of Girvan to the beach front and the sea; each child has a self made lantern.  In special after lessons classes in school or at workshops held in the town these wood and thick paper lanterns, each with a candle within to light it up, are assembled and then sent home for the big night.  My eldest ‘The Thinker’ had made a lantern, as he has done since he began school, while my middle and youngest had not.  So after dinner we set out wrapped up to the nines against the cold for a couple of hours of unique fun and community spirit.

The Procession of Light moves out!

Girvan is not a big town but it still amazes me how many children it contains.  As the crowd began to build I lost count at maybe four hundred youngsters plus the same again or more of adults.  There must have been easily a couple of hundred lit lanterns which on top of the ones created by the kids had a dozen or so much larger lanterns in the shape of birds, windmills and other structures.  The weather was kind, dry, no wind and not really even that cold (I remember 2009 when the ice formed on my coat as I stood watching!).  It took about half an hour to assemble the ‘battalion’ to marching orders and to get us under way to the sound of a drum based band.  The procession made good time through the town and to the beach front where a large crowd was waiting for the next part of the evening…the fireworks!

Fire and Light!

It was not easy to get images at the time of the fireworks as not only was it pitch black but the whizz pops and bangs are hard to capture.  The picture above  is fairly good taken by my darling wife.  It shows the fireworks exploding over the water plus the display on the beach.  Each year a series of wooden structures are built on the sand and then to music and video display are set alight.  It is a great show and lasts for about fifteen minutes.  My children loved it and cheered and wooped as the fires raged and drums hammered all to the staccato cracks and booms of coloured lights in the sky.

All in all it was a fine way to spend a couple of hours and in an age of austerity it was excellent to see the town put on a show that is all paid for by the people themselves by donation.  Here is to next year…if you are near, then come on by!

GBS

September Holiday Weekend Fun!

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What do you mean that is all the beer there is?

The September Holiday Weekend happens every year (duh!, you might say) in Ayrshire but most years upon its occurrence I am working so no fun comes my way.  But not this year.  This year I had four days off and I made the most of them with some ale house adventures and late lazy starts to do the say.  Debauchery you say…well not so say I.  Well deserved I say since I do (and many will tell you this) work rather hard almost all of the rest of the year.  The image above is actually a shipment of empty whisky casks waiting to go back to the Girvan distillery but it suits my purpose and implies the copious amount of ale consumed!

First off I have to tell you all about the weather on Thursday (20th September) which came near threatening to drown Western Scotland under what I think was a rather large amount of rain.  Road after Road closed and while driving forging through ‘puddles’ which lapped the very bonnet of the car!  This was not on the scale of the 2011 or this summer’s flooding but it was amazing how fast it came on and just how deep some of the new lakes on the roads actually were.

Friday saw me twiddle my thumbs something awful as I had made a promise to myself that over the four days off I would do NO WORK and while that was obvious in as much as me not being in the office but it also mean no blogging here or on TTWG Blog and no writing wargaming material what so ever.  None.  I had decided to do this after filling out a survey in one of my good lady’s magazines about ‘how much do you work’.  My result was off the top level of the scale and put me in the ‘woman get yourself a life!‘ section.  Ever a lass who listens to tabloid crap I decided that I would give it a try.  So instead of my early morning checking and writing online followed by work preparation and then actual work and so on I sat and watched television (having decided that watching anime for later review here was also ‘work’).  Eve Hallow said he would meet me for a beer (I had already sworn off a game of Flintloque…seemed like it might also be deemed work!) so hours and hours passed.  I walked, I went for a drive…lord help me I even went clothes shopping with my wife.  A long day before an evening of fun which I enjoyed especially the several attempts at the end of it to get my key in the front door.

The weekend was given over to my good lady in preparation for her birthday (see next post) and included more shopping and eating out.  My three little wonders were away with grand parents and with my no work promise it was a wonder of open time and idle speculation.  Many of the little things I observed I have now typed up for ‘idle muse’ postings in weeks to come; all for your amusement of course.  But I do have a visual treat for you below…I believe it to be the only picture of Eve Hallow which exists anywhere.  I broke several cameras and had to settle for the image below since anything with his demonic face shattered the lens and drove onlookers to gibbering madness!

Eve Hallow…as far as the camera would allow!

I cannot recall or recount what actually happened in the darkest hours of the weekend nights but by Monday morning I was truly ready to return to work and put off beer for at least a while.  I may well do a posting about my thoughts on Man’s need for Work or perhaps the Pleasure and Pain of Alcohol but that is for another time.   The holiday weekend achieved what I wanted from it.  A break, some amusement and a change in pace.  And if you are wondering just how much time I ‘wasted’ it is roughly enough for me to have written an entire new USE ME Title.

GBS

The Poet is Pupil of the Week!

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Who could not love that little face eh?

When he finished school and emerged blinking into the sunlight my middle son ‘The Poet’, who you might remember was a couple of  weeks ago moved up a whole grade in a day, handed me another achievement!  This time he had won ‘Pupil of the Week’ at the school.  While this happened last week, just like ‘Senior Student Badge’ I have only just now got around to it as I will go into in coming posts.  To win pupil of the week for his whole year so soon after being moved up is no mean feat let me assure you.  So pride blooms once more in my chest.

Well done my son!

GBS

Senior Student Badge for The Thinker

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The Badge!

The Thinker, my eldest son, was selected for an achievement at school just before the Ayrshire September Weekend Holiday (he also had an adventure over the weekend in the south of England but more on that later).  You can see the badge on his shirt above.  The Senior Student badge infers a sense of responsibility and extra duties in class only given to the most reliable.  Well done lad!

GBS

First Flintloque Game on TTWG Blog!

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Eve Hallow’s Elf Line Infantry on the advance!

A few of months ago on this blog I announced the creation of my own dedicated wargaming blogger place called Tabletop Wargamer or TTWG Blog.  I have made the best progress that I can in creating terrain and collecting miniatures in that I began with nothing having no personal collection left from my ‘ill period’ in 2008-9.   This included getting on my feet with my own Flintloque miniatures (not the thousands of pro-painted miniatures that Alternative Armies produces annually) and I did that with Wyndorc’s Korsucan Rangers section of twelve miniatures.  At the same time fellow Ayrshire wargamer Eve Hallow expressed an interest in moving away from the increasingly juvenile and straight jacketing Games Workshop hobby to games which I had written especially Flintloque and USE ME.  Wargames which are more fun, less serious and more free in their choices of uniform and disposition.  I was happy to oblige.

So on Saturday evening Eve and I got together and faced off over the table in what I think will be the first of many wargames between us.   We played as stripped down version of Flintloque.

If you are interested in what happened and want to see more pictures and story then go on over to TTWG blog and have a read.  All comments welcome!

GBS

Roadway Rock and Deer

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Roads and Hazards

The end of another busy week is upon me so its time for a little muse about life and this time its about driving and the roads here in not so sunny Girvan.  A few of you will know already that I had a very nearly bad accident in the middle of the week but no one yet knows of what happened only a couple of hours ago.  Let me fill you in.

Back on Tuesday I was puttering back home in the car along the some of the same roads I usually drive.  These roads are on the whole winding country roads with many little hazards such as blind corners, steep hills, tight bends, missing verges and the occasional insane tourist standing in the apex taking pictures for the folks back home.  On the whole this is ok as I know the roads and drive with care but on Tuesday as I listen to some Peter Green (upcoming music posting) there was a flash of red and then a bullet like crack before a splash of blood and broken bones shot across my wind shield.  I  did not see what I had hit as it jumped out of the forested verge and its head connected with my wing mirror.  After stopping (I was in the car on my own) I collected myself and after stopping went to investigate.  It was not a person….   I had hit a Deer.  Deer are common around here but I have not see many.  It had been killed instantly, its head obliterated by the wing mirror.  The car was not damaged at all aside from marks on the mirror.  I think myself fortunate for this as if it had been a fraction of a second earlier then it could have been through the wind shield or worse.  The poor animal and I met by fluke chance at that precise moment.

Today as I drove home…on the same road…another event took place.  Not as dramatic but potentially more dangerous.  The road in question is prone to weather related debris and this time as I rounded a bend I saw something in the road.  Small items like branches you drive around, likewise little rocks.  But this was a ruddy great rock sitting in the middle of the lane.  It had rolled down from the slope next to the road.  I could not in all good conscience just leave it there.  So I stopped and put all of my warning lights on; then went to move it.  So in the rain and mud I sized it up.  It must have weighed more than 70lbs and it took some effort to lift.  I pushed it down the opposite slope into the river.  Despite being muddy and wet and the risk of being hit by a mad courier driver or big rig loaded with timber I feel I did the right thing.  A bit of stone that size, in the dark, is invisible, and could easily cause a fatal crash.  If I had heard of this later, having done nothing, it would have been heavy on my mind.

So there you go.  It ain’t all just wargaming and such for me.  Sometimes adventure awaits!

GBS

Eve Hallow gets a Wargaming Blog!

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In a crypt near me a creature stirs from its slumber to emerge into the world of wargaming…that creature is none other than my good friend Eve Hallow.  Now that is not his real name, and it is a he, for apart from his luscious locks he does not much look like a lady. Like some other gamers he likes a ‘handle’ when online.  Eve lives near me in Ayrshire and as a result we can get together now and then for a game or two.  His favourite systems include HOF Fire-Team, USE ME Eldritch Horror and something called Warhammer 40k as well.  In addition to gaming he also is a fine figure painter and dabbles in sculpting too.

You can visit his wargaming blog to learn more about what he and I have been up to in the last month or so.  I have also linked it in my blog roll to the right as well.

We can expect to hear more of Eve Hallow in the next wee while as he has entered his first ever miniature into the SHM range and he has also painted up four of Fjodin’s SHM 15mm Alien Creatures too for use on 15mm.co.uk later this season.  You can also expect some AAR’s as well as we lock horns playing 15mm sci-fi, perhaps MOTH too and if he is brave enough some Flintloque.

Until then Stay Ghoul!  (Terrible pun, but he said it first!)

GBS