A Wedding in Oldhamstocks

We were at a wedding last weekend. A couple of friends of Laura's got hitched in the little village they live in called Oldhamstocks. Lovely little place. Very oldy-wordly. Quiet. Hens and ducks walk freely down the street (there is only really one street.) The couple live in part of the old school house, which has been converted into two houses. Nice place.

The wedding was on the Saturday just before Easter Sunday. It was also the beginning of our two-week 'staycation'. We'd just finished work on a getting a new heating system and kitchen fitted in the house so we decided we couldn't really afford to go anywhere right now. But, we figured we'd have to pay for the kids' nursery anyway (3 days a week) so we could just have a nice break with them at home and use the nursery days as days for ourselves to go into town, catch a film, have some lunch...do things we rarely get to do these days.

I have a suit, but I bought it 5 years ago for my job interview and it's looking a little old and tired, so I thought it was worthwhile investing in a new one. It's chocolate brown linen, and i bought a pink shirt and tie to go with it - sharp.

Me and Seren in our new outfits

The couple had asked if I'd be take some photos for them. I wasn't sure what they wanted but I was flattered that they'd asked me (I am an amateur after all). As it got closer to the day I started to get a little worried about what they might be expecting. I asked Laura what she thought and she reckoned others would be taking pictures too and they probably were just after some casual shots throughout the day. I was a little worried about juggling the kids and trying to get photos so that sounded do-able. I brought my tripod with me, just in case, and plenty of batteries.

The ceremony took place in a lovely walled garden. They'd set up a marque next to the village hall for dancing in the evening. When we got there the groom filled me in on what they had in mind photo-wise. Guests were to arrive and be corralled through a gate in the wall and they asked if I could take their photos as they came through, then whatever else I could get. A little more than just casual photos, but I was fine with that.

'The Gate'

The forecast wasn't great but the rain held off long enough to have the ceremony out in the garden as planned, though it did start to rain a little ways through so the umbrellas came out in force - but it added to the atmosphere. I managed to get folk as they came into the garden, and a few during the ceremony (it was a humanist ceremony - nice) then a few during speeches after the meal in the village hall. The kids were all next door in the marque during the meal, with supervision of course. Seren did fine and seemed to be enjoying herself when we checked on her.

After the speeches we all retired into the marque for drinks and dancing. We hadn't planned on staying late as we had the kids with us, but we managed to stay long enough to see the couple take the floor for the first dance. Somewhere along the line we lost track of Seren. Shortly after the first dance I noticed a bit of commotion in the corner of the tent and saw the couple's daughter getting carried off in tears. One of the PA speakers had toppled over, probably due to the bouncy wooden floor vibrating under the rhythmic dancing. I remember turning to tell Laura to tell her what had happened. Seconds later a friend brought Seren over to us, who was also in tears and had blood on her face - someone said they thought the speaker had fallen on her! I felt sick. She had an egg on her head, but the sight of blood made my heart sink. We rushed the two girls over to the house and lay them out on the kitchen counter top. The couple's daughter had taken a hit to her leg, and it was bleeding. Seren was hysterical...it was awful.

After a bit of cold ice on her head the large egg that had appeared went down pretty quickly and she calmed down. She wasn't cut at all so we figured some blood had squirted onto her from the other little girl! We weren't really sure what had happened - though I thought that if a large speaker had landed on her she would probably have been hurt a lot worse, so I was thankful that she seemed relatively okay. We left and took her past A&E on the way home just to get her checked out. She fell asleep in the car so, rather than disturb her, I went in and described what had happened. The nurses were pretty unconcerned - essentially unless they've vomited a couple of times or have passed out then they're not worried. Their advice was to give her some paracetemol and to keep an eye on her. Advice I'd heard before and had expected. We headed home and all went to bed.

The next day we had planned on going back to Oldhamstocks for a planned Eater Egg hunt, in the same garden they'd held the ceremony. Seren seemed totally fine. We asked her what had happened, whether the speaker had fallen on her or maybe just the legs of the tripod stand. She seemed pretty certain that the 'music box' had fallen on her head! A little worrying, but she seemed okay. We got her dressed (added some fairy wings for that extra cute factor) and headed over.

Our little Easter Fairy

We got there a little late and most of the eggs were gone. But other bigger kinds who had a total stash of them put some back for Seren to find. Nice :). She got four in the end and seemed happy with that. On the way to lunch back at the hall and marque Laura chatted to a woman who had seen what had happened the night before. It turned out that the speaker had fallen onto a straw bale (there were lots around - for sitting on and for kids to play on) which had taken the brunt of the weight, but then had fallen onto Seren and Isla May who were next to it. So, sounded like it did indeed fall on them and not just the stand, but the straw had at least deflected it so to speak. Still awful though. Ugh.

I downloaded the photos. They were okay. Some decent ones, and some not so decent ones. I edited out the bad ones, cropped some and then added some nice effects with a Camera Bag application I downloaded a little while ago so they look better. Here are a few of the keepers....

Laura gave a reading

Ayden Mae

I haven't posted a blog in over a year. Here's a quick one to get things going again - a little video I took of Ayden just after we got home from nursery. Laura was working in Glasgow and wasn't home yet. She's only just taken Ayden off the night time feed, so it's a somewhat new experience for me to put both girls down to bed on my own. Seren fell asleep in the car and I managed to transfer her seamlessly straight to bed without waking her, so Ayden and I had a somewhat rare moment to ourselves.

Ayden's started babbling a lot, which is really cute, so I whipped out my phone and videod this for posterity. Not sure what happened at the end, I guess she was getting tired. :)

n

Hello baby

After an initial blip at the hospital when they first met, Seren's been pretty good with her new little sister. This is a sweet little video I took on my phone, aptly titled "Hello baby". At the end she's asking Ayden if she's 'cosy' :). I think she is in that suit!

There's always one in every holiday snap ...

Laura sent me this. Made me chortle.

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