Seren's Photo Shoot

We decided to get a professional photo shoot of Seren done a few months ago. It was a little expensive, and we couldn't help but go a little over our budget, but it was worth every penny. Here are a few of the shots. We don't have them all, that would have cost a small fortune, and unfortunately we didn't even get a full set of proofs, but I've scanned in the ones that we did pay for. They're copyrighted so strictly speaking I shouldn't be posting these.

A Week in Argyll Forest - Days 2-7

The west coast of Scotland is renowned for being wet. Glasgow, which is an hour or so south of Argyll, has the nickname 'rain town'. We'd had a look at the forecast for the upcoming week which predicted heavy showers for the first couple of days....and so it was.

We had a relaxing morning, mostly this holiday is about just chilling out - too often we spend a lot of time on the road when we go on Scottish holidays. Mainly because when you vacation in rural Scotland you have to drive to get to places of interest, though there are often plenty of scenic walks nearby. This week we were determined not to drive to much and to concentrate on relaxing. So the rain didn't matter too much. Having said that, it would have been nicer if the sun had been out!

Forest Holidays had scheduled an introduction talk at 10am at the 'Forest Retreat' building, which had a shop and small cafe. We headed over to hear what they had to say. Whilst there Seren kept sitting in a fold up chair with a cow's face on it. It was pretty cheap so we decided to get one for her. She loved it.

.............several weeks later...........

Okay, I'm not going to finish this as a daily post, it's been too long and it's just not going to happen! Basically it rained for the first three days or so, there was a landslide so the road heading north got closed for another three days, but the rest of the week was great! I even got to use the hot tub a couple of times.

Check out the pics from the rest of the week ------------------------------> top right. Cheers.

Bubbles....bubbles

A Week in Argyll Forest - Day 1

Last year we had a really enjoyable week staying in a cabin in Strathyre. So much so that we wanted to go back this year. Unfortunately there weren't any cabins available when we wanted to go but Forest Holidays, who run the site, had opened up two new sites in Scotland. One in Argyll and one in The Cairngorms. There were cabins available in Argyll so we thought we'd give it a go.

The site is in Artgartan, about 2 1/2 hours drive north west of Edinburgh in the Argyll Forest, at the head of Loch Long and just across the water from a little village called Arrochar. Loch Lomond is a little further east.

We weren't able to check in until 4pm so we weren't in any hurray to get there. Plus we'd put the car in to get serviced and it wasn't going to be ready until 1 so we had to wait until then to take off. We packed in the morning and decided to head over to Tiso for lunch. Tiso is an outdoors store which has a small cafe that serves good food. The soles on my Merrils which I'd bought for our USA trip in 2006 had finally worn through so that they were letting water in and getting my socks wet, so I thought we could combine lunch with a little shopping trip to buy some new walking shoes. I got some but I guess I got a bit carried away trying on different styles and sizes and lost track of time. We didn't get back to the flat until around 1.40 and by the time we packed up the car it was 3pm. But we weren't in any rush so it wasn't any big deal, though I hadn't factored in trying to avoid rush hours leaving Edinburgh and driving through Glasgow to get up to Argyll. Oh well.

Laura's brother Nathan had recently sent us over his second hand Tom Tom sat nav. (Very generous of him to do so.) We'd given it a couple of trial runs somewhat unsuccessfully, mainly due to my programming of the route, so I wanted to try and get it right this time. I'd hooked it up to my laptop the night before and updated it. We'd heard that you could get funny voices for it and we'd joked about getting Mr T's voice. Sure enough it was available (for a small fee) so I downloaded it. When we hooked it up and turned it on as we were setting out Mr T's voice came over telling us 'Hey fool! At the end of the road, turn right!'. It cracked us up. Simple pleasures.

Through our previous experience I'd come to distrust the Tom Tom a little. So, whilst Laura was driving, I followed our route on the map. I noted that there was a junction we should take once we hit Glasgow to take us directly onto the next road we wanted to be on, off the motorway. Unfortunately Mr T. thought differently and we managed to completely confuse him by turning off too early (he'd wanted us to stay on the motorway a little longer and take an exit further along.) We relented and eventually found our way back onto the motorway - you don't argue with Mr T.

An hour or so later we arrived at the site. The site opened in July this year which means that the cabins are pretty much brand new! The downside though is that the landscape isn't at all established and as a result the cabins felt pretty exposed, especially compared to the Strathyre site where you're surrounded by fully grown trees. But the new cabins were of a much higher standard than the ones in Strathyre, which more than made up for it. They were nicely furnished and 'architect designed' (ooh!), had an en-suite shower room, flat screen tv on the wall, underfloor heating and were tastefully decorated. They were also all on one level which meant that we didn't have to worry about Seren climbing / falling up and down stairs. Perhaps best of all though, and the thing I'd been looking forward to the most, was that these cabins had a hot tub. Sweet.


By the time we unpacked and gave Seren her dinner and put her to bed there wasn't much of the evening left. We watched a little TV and hit the sack.

A Wee Adventure

This past Friday I took Seren on her first trip 'sans sa mere' on a train up to Aberdeen to see her Grandparents. It was just for one night but kind of a big deal...for me and for Laura! Seren took it all in her stride.

Anyway, we had a great time - but I made sure to keep her mum updated along the way by picture messaging. Here are some of the highlights (along with the message I sent as a caption...and yes, I put a kiss at the end of every message.)

We're off! :) x

Got my own ticket mummy! x

(The ticket inspector printed her a ticket which she
immediately put in her mouth...for safekeeping.)

Look mummy, I'm a suitcase! x

Just crossing The Tay x

(As in The River Tay in Dundee)

Success! x

(After a bit of a grizzle I found a spot to put the buggy up and got her off to sleep.
She woke up about 50 mins later just as we were pulling in to Aberdeen. I read my book.)

That's us here x

(My parents met us off the train but my Dad didn't have a car seat so
Mum, Seren and I headed into town to look for some new wellies.)

Back at mum and dad's, no luck with the wellies. :( x

She loves it! Actually it's a bit cold, we're inside. x

(My mum and dad have a little car they've had since
Bran's kids were young. It was a huge hit.)

I have a bike too! :) x

(It warmed up a bit so we ventured into the back garden!)

Seren and Grandad

I like this shot.

Morning mummy, are you up yet? :) x

(The next day. She slept well - from around 7 until 6.
This was taken around 8 - she's on her second breakfast.)

On her third breakfast x

(A girl needs to eat!)

On the bus! x

(On our way back to town to get the train home.)

1st class is ace mummy! :) x

(I managed to get a 1st class ticket for the trip back - which was
bizarrely cheaper than standard on the way up.)

Bless...bliss x

(I sat at the designated disabled table so I was able to wheel her straight in in the
buggy and sit opposite. She slept for the first 50 mins or so. Another nice thing
about 1st class is endless cups of free hot tea / coffee. Sweet.)

Crossing the Tay the other way! x

At the beach x

(Actually, I sent this one to my mum. after Laura picked us up from the
station we made a quick turn around and after lunch headed over to see some friends
and stay the night. This was an excellent beach.)

Learning to Fly

Sometime last year, I forget precisely when, a friend of ours, Dave, celebrated his 40th birthday. He threw a big bash - combined with a belated wedding celebration with his new wife Barbara. I've known Barbara and Dave for about 8 years now, (I used to work with Barbara and now I work with Dave) in fact I wrote about their wedding in an earlier blog some time ago...

So, it being a special birthday, some friends and I collected together to get him something he'd remember...a flying lesson. Last weekend he was all booked to go, flying out from Perth which is an hour or so drive away. A few of us were heading there in the same car so I made a CD of inspirational songs about learning to fly for the trip. But rather than just burn a few songs on a disc I decided to go all out and make a proper cover, and try out my CD printer which I've been wanting to test. Pleased to say it worked great!

Here's the cover.


I found the image on the internet and stuck his head on it. Here's the original.


And here's the track list....

Come Fly With Me - Frank Sinatra
One Vision (Iron Eagle Soundtrack) - Queen
Highway to the Danger Zone - Kenny Loggins
Learning To Fly - Foo Fighters
Who's Driving Your Plane - The Rolling Stones
Fly Like An Eagle - Steve Miller Band
Eight Miles High - The Byrds
I'm Leaving on a Jet Plane - John Denver
Flying - The Beatles
Jet - Paul McCartney & Wings
Back in the USSR - The Beatles
Learning To Fly - Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
Fly Me to the Moon - Frank Sinatra
I'll Fly Away - Elvis Presley
I Believe I Can Fly - R. Kelly
Let Him Fly - Dixie Chicks
Watching Airplanes - Gary Allan
Eagle - ABBA
Fly - Nick Drake
Learning To Fly - Pink Floyd

I guess a lot of artists have been inspired to write about flying.

Unfortunately the flight was postponed due to bad weather, but it's been rescheduled for 1st August.

Father's Day in Eilie

Today was my second Father's Day so far. Seren made me a lovely mug with her hand prints and her name on the bottom. Sweet. I also got TWO cards - a bought one and one she made at nursery - bonus!

It was a pretty sunny day today so we decided to take a drive up the coast to a little village called Eilie. It was a lovely little place, full of character - narrow little streets, amazing houses, stunning views and a beautiful little beach. We'd never been but had read good reviews of a little pub there called the Ship Inn. We stopped in by for lunch and weren't disappointed, though unfortunately they wouldn't allow high chairs out in the garden out front so we had to stay indoors. No matter though, my fish and chips were excellent, as was Laura's fish pie and Seren's sausage, beans and mash followed by ice cream!

After lunch we took a stroll through town to the beach. Lovely sand, clear water, blue sky - a bit of a breeze but a lovely afternoon. The kind of place that would be great to live in.

Thanks for a wonderful day pumpkin. (And Laura too ;))

The Beach

...some really nice houses like this one

Seren making a break for it

I Like to Singa

One of my favourite cartoons. I was singing this to Seren while changing her nappy the other night. Stick with it...

The Ceramic Experience

Last Friday we took Seren down the road to a place called The Ceramic Experience to make some gifts for her grandparents. It's a place where you create your own personalised ceramic mugs, plates or what have you. You can also get your baby's hand and foot imprints done. Laura had one done of Seren as a nice little Father's Day surprise.

The Ceramic Experience is like a big messy art room, full of tables covered with paint pots. You can choose from any number of pre-made clay pieces to paint yourself. They clean them up and do the rest. You pick them up a few days later.

Besides just painting them you can get your baby's hand and / or footprints put on them. So that was the idea - Seren's hand prints on some mugs. Good fun. We pick up the finished items on Tuesday. Here's some pics of the process...

Seren's First Birthday

It seems hard to believe that Seren was born almost a year ago. It's crazy how time flies. She started nursery last week, Laura goes back to work next week and not long after that Seren will be having her first birthday.

We don't want to make a huge deal about it, but we've decided to invite some friends and family round to mark the occasion. It's a busy time of year, and a lot of people will have other plans or be away, so there might not actually be that many that can make it, besides our family of course. At any rate, I put a little invite together and thought I'd share it with you. (I've blurred out the address - I just don't like posting those kind of personal details on the internet.) If any of you can make it we look forward to seeing you!

Swinging in Balmedie

Geez, I haven't blogged in ages. We drove up to Aberdeen to visit my folks this past weekend. Here's a little clip of me and Seren my mum took with her camera at the play park at Balmedie Beach (near where Donald Trump will be building his new mega-plex golf course). It was a little chilly.



...and here's a nice pic my mum took of Laura and me walking along the beach.

Home cinema

I borrowed the projector from work over the weekend so we could hook it up to the laptop and watch some movies. Worked great! Last night we experienced the home cinema experience in full glory, complete with yummy home made pizza and beer. Makes me want to get one of our own.

Knight Rider Myth Busting

It's true, see for yourself!

Baby on the move

Not long after we got back from our week in Kylesku Seren stated crawling properly. It's very cute. She's starting exploring the flat and often makes her way from the living room down the hall to the kitchen, her little face appearing around the corner of the door. Adorable. Here she is in action...


Seren crawling from Steve Malone on Vimeo.

It has, however, opened up a whole new world of required baby-proofing. We've bought the obligatory socket covers, coffee table rubber corner bumpers and a fireguard. We also decided to tape some padding (pipe insulation foam) around the edge of the marble hearth, which could give her a nasty bump if she hit it with her head.

She just started kneeling up last week so even the surface of the coffee table, which we used to dump all sorts of potentially dangerous things on, is off limits.

A week in Kylesku – Day 8: The journey home

We had to check out by 10am so we didn't have much time this morning, just long enough to pack up our stuff and get it into the car. I did manage to make a quick video of Seren with her favourite toy, a Polar Bear hand puppet some friends gave us. she loves it, though it maybe doesn't show particularly well in this clip...


Seren and her Polar Bear from Steve Malone on Vimeo.

Before we left I wanted to have one more look for the remote for my camera that I'd dropped the night before. Although I hadn't been clever enough to take a picture of the rock before I'd ran off in an insane swarm of fury, I did find one shot where I'd accidentally gotten my hand in the frame, pointing the remote towards the camera.


I though this might give me some clue to help me pinpoint where I'd been standing. Unfortunately, it was too dark to really make anything out, just the silhouette of one of the cabins in the distance, a bit of grass and my hand, but that was about it. Luckily though I'd brought my laptop with us for the week so I was able to alter the image in photoshop to bring out some of the detail...

Armed with this clearer image I carefully made my way back out to the hill I was on the night before with my laptop in hand. I walked a little bit, opened the laptop and checked the image. Not quite right, the angle of the cabin was a little off and I didn't recognise the rock. I walked a little further out and tried again. Still not quite right, but I was getting close. A couple more times and I found it, the exact rock I'd been standing on! Everything checked out, the angle of the cabin, the grassy knoll and the rock all matched!

I was pretty pleased with myself, using technology to conquer darkness and retrace my steps! The next step was to figure out where I might have dropped the remote. I looked at the picture of my hand and tried to re-enact taking the picture. I leaned over, mimicking what I'd done the night before - taking the pic, jumping down onto the grass and dropping the remote. I figured I knew approximately where it might be. I'd also ripped a bit of grass up in a vain attempt to find it the night before, so I was hoping I might find some bits of torn up turf - but it wasn't immediately apparent, and the heather was just so damn thick! I tried going through the motions again - still nothing. About 15 mins had passed since I'd started to look and I knew that I couldn't spend all morning looking for it. I thought I'd try one more time - but this time I changed my technique and tried brushing the top of the heather with my foot. It seemed to work better and I could see right down to the grass underneath the heather...and there it was! I found it! I let out a triumphant cry and returned to the car, waving it in my hand. Success.

Just outside Kylesku on our way back we stopped by Ardvreck Castle, a little ruin which we'd been wanting to take a closer look.

We called in on some friend of Laura's who live on a croft just north of Inverness, to say hello and break up the journey.

A few hours later we were home...after a long trip and a great week.

A week in Kylesku – Day 7: The Old Man of Stoer

Today is was our last full day in the Highlands. Our plan was to head west of Kylesku to see The Old Man of Stoer. It's about a mile and a half walk from the lighthouse at Stoer, so we were going to be putting the backpack to the test.

We drove out through Drumbeg, a sweet little place on route, and stopped at the local shop which apparently had won an award for 'The Best Village Shop' in 2006. Sure enough, they had some very nice food and the bread we bought was still warm. The shop keeper seemed a little stand-offish though, which wasn't what we expected from an award winning shop. We expected some cheery chat and a bit of local gossip, at least a comment about the weather. The shop was for sale and he said they'd bought the house next door and were in the process of fixing it up, so maybe business wasn't good. Anyhoo.

We continued on along the windy single track road towards Stoer, stopping at a Passing Place to take in the views and a quick snap back across the mountains / hills on the way.


Barbara and Dave had done the same walk the week before and told us that there was a great burger van at the foot of the trail that sold venison burgers and cups of tea. Sure enough it was there and open when we arrived so we picked up a couple of burgers, some tea and some tasty lemon drizzle cake to keep us going for the long walk ahead.

It was a good walk, a little steep in places and along a the cliff edge, but far enough away to be safe. The sun was out again so we were even forced to strip down to our t-shirts. Great views out to sea and back to the lighthouse.























A short while later we could start to make out the tip of The Old Man of Stoer - a large jagged piece of rock that sticks up out of the sea, isolated form the rest of the coast through erosion. It was pretty impressive. We could make out little coloured dots on it form a distance and were amazed to see when we got up close that some crazy mo-fo's were climbing up it! Bonkers.























After taking in the view for a while we made our way back to the car. Before too long we were back at the lighthouse. We took a quick drive up the road for a closer look before starting to head back.


we stopped in past Lochinver to stock up on some pies from teh Lochinver Larder on the way home. It was a beautiful evening and I was hoping it was going to be a good night to get some sunset shots from the lodge back in Kylesku. I'd tried heading out the night before but it'd been far too cloudy. Tonight the sky looked perfect.

Sure enough not long after we got back it was looking promising and even a few of the other lodgers were out taking pictures as the sun started to set. Determined not to be outdone, I ran back to the car to get my tripod and new remote control to get the optimum shot. I crossed over the rocks, up onto the top of the hill to get a good vantage point. It was still pretty warm outside so I felt comfortable in my t-shirt. I found a good spot, and set up my tripod perched on a rocky outcrop which was peaking out of the thick grass and gorse. The sun wasn't quite down but already the sky was looking pretty, filled with beautiful pinks, blues and oranges, reflecting off the water in the loch. I smiled smugly to myself, balking at the other lodgers trying to get a shot - without the 'right equipment' and a great view like mine. Amateurs I thought to myself. I snapped off a couple of shots with my remote, to stop the camera from shaking and potentially blurring the shot.

Then, I started to feel a couple of bites on my arm, and then my head, and before I knew it I was being attacked by a swarm of gnats, or midges as we call them. There were suddenly hundreds, possibly thousands, nibbling on my naked flesh! Determined not to miss the sunset I persevered and tried to fight through the pain barrier, but it was overbearing! But then disaster! In the midst of waving my arms around in an effort to swat them away I dropped my little remote control, down into the thick gorse! I thrashed around in vein to try and find it but it was hopeless, and the bites were getting more infuriating! A beaten man, I ran back to the lodge, tripod and camera in hand and explained what had happened to Laura, who found the whole episode hilarious.

The sun hadn't completely gone so I slapped on some bug balm and a long sleave jacket and headed back out with a small flashlight to try and find the remote. I was fairly confident I could remember the rock but when I got back up on the hill I realised that there were at least 30 other rocks which all looked the same. I searched for ages but eventually gave up, defeated. I thought that maybe I could try again in the morning. The sun was just starting to disappear so I quickly fired off a few shots...without my tripod and my remote control. But you know, I was pretty pleased with them after all.