For auld lang syne

Headed into Glasgow this morning. We took Jamie in with us and dropped him off, only to bump into him again after we'd parked and decided to walk up Sauchiehall St in the rain. He soon went off shopping and we had a browse in Waterstones followed by morning tea and Irn Bru in the Willow Tea rooms.

We then managed a bit of shopping in the new Buchanan st shops before eating oor pieces and heading for Merrylee. We parked in Burnhead Rd and went for a walk past my grandparents houses. We went down Brunhead rd and then doubled back and along Laggan Rd, past Merrylee church and along to the school - was really upset to see that Merrylee school has been demolished!!!! Good work :-)

We stopped in the newsagents by the ex-school for sweeties and then walked along past grandad's bowling club and down and along Cathcart road past Safeways (now Sainsburies) over the railway line and back to the car.

Then we headed to Barbara's house and caught up with Susan waiting for Barbara to get home. It was fantastic to see them both and it was a lovely reunion. As we (I) was feeling nostalgic, we decided on the New Turban Tandoori at the Eastwood Toll for tea, luckily Graeme had finished work early, so we all met up and headed off for a fantastic night of curry including haggis pakora - magic!

A great day, so nice to spend time with the Kernohans, Greer and Bridie are very excited about their afternoon with Barbara on saturday, and the rest of us are all excited about our afternoon at the football - I have only a few days to make sure everyone knows the words to 'flower of scotland'!!

and some more photos...sorry these jump about a bit

Steam railway trip at Bo'ness

Linlithgow Palace

Irn Bru at the Willow Tea Rooms

Raucous crowd at the Eastwood Toll for curry

Photos

Roman fort at Housteads on Hadrian's Wall

Lovely cheese

Foulstone Farm, Yorkshire

Fish, chips and mushy peas before we shot through at Blackpool

Premiership cup @ Old Trafford

We get Ash back from Man U...

Bridge of Allan

Everyone slept in which was great. You do not realise how tired you are till you stop.
The girls played quietly in their room. Which was great and helped!

David, Lyn and I went for a much needed run. Lyn has a 1/2 Marathon on Sunday and is feeling a little under prepared. David took us towards Sheriffmuir on a defunct local road then off road beside a 'burn' and over some wet and boggy tracks. A short but picturesque run.

Breakfast of cereals including porridge and croissants. Lovely. Lyn and Debbie made a picnic lunch with some minor assistance. We left for Bo'ness Steam Railway.

Had a lovely Steam Engine drawn ride on rail, watched the engine refuel with water, reconnect to the carriages and a few photos. Lunched on the train. It was all run by a local steam rail enthusiasts society, all volunteers. Good fun and interesting.

After this we went to Linlithgow Palace. It is a ruined 14-17 century palace of the Scottish Monarchy. It was fantastic. It is a ruin but is well signed with room information, and you can get to the tallest tower which made your knees wobble to the subterranean well room. It would have been magnificent in its day had it survived Cromwell and other political events. It was fun to explore.

David then took us to a park for an ice cream before the trip home.
Jamie won the International swing jump competition from Ash, Greer, Hannah, David and Lyn. Warren and Debbie were judges.

Home, Chilli con Carne for dinner. Bed.

Warren

The Road to Scotland.

Sunday 28th August- my mother Joans 70 th birthday. Happy Birthday.

We left the centre of Britain for a museum and Roman fort ruin- Vindolanda. What an amazing museum- coins, clothing, carvings, glass, jewelery etc- well and interestingly presented and tied into the bigger roman picture. Clever those Romans! Well worth a visit. We spent about 2 hours in total with ruin, recreations of crofter houses and roman houses and shops and temples. The museum and its shop.

We then headed for Carlisle and then on the M6/74 for Scotland with a stop at a services for lunch.

Straight to Bridge of Allen and were met by David, Debbie and Jamie.Very nice to be here.
They have a lovely house- large high studded ceilings, an ex doctors surgerey, with many rooms on 3 levels. Stone exterior. Great view too. We caught up before Alasdair, Iain and Clare arrived. The girls were having a great time re- establishing relations.
Corrieries for dinner. There have been some changes, the restaurant looked very nice and there is a new Juke-box. Pizza/ pasta for tea and then home for kids to bed. We didn't last long after.

Warren

Man u soccer school

Last sunday Mum, Dad and my sisters droped me off at denston collage for my soccer camp. Denston Collage is massive, they have three tennis courts, astro turf, about twelve football feilds, a running track, swimming pool, basketball court and their main building is about four hundered years old. First we had to sign me in then we got my kit and went to my room. 

The boys in my room were Harry, Alex, Lenon and Thomas. I didnt know anybody so it was quite hard. Today we only had one session which was jut a game so we could get to know some people. For the next week our day went like : Get up at 7:30, breakfast 8:00, first session 9:15-12:15, lunch 12:30, activitiy 1:30-4:00, free time 4:00-4:45, dinner 5:00, seccond session 6:15-8:00, bed 9:30.

The activities were ither basketball, tennis, fun zone (which is on the astro turf) or swimming. On the last day we get to go on a tour of old trafford. We had to get up at 6:30 then we had a one and a half hour drive to old trafford. When we got there we went on a tour. In the tour we got to go in the players lounge, changing room, walk out the tunnel and sit where sir alex sits. After the tour we went to the museum and the mega store. In the mega store i bought a man u kit. Then we had a closing presintation and a photo with the premier league trophie.

Ashlen

OK, another bulk update as the Wi-fi had been patchy again.

Thursday the 25^th we spent the day with Kate in Chester. We had a slowish start and the girls worked on their journals, then we all headed into the city and parked near just outside the wall. Starting at Bridgegate (I think) we walked around the walls in a clockwise direction. The girls did well and it was a nice walk. Chester is a very pretty town. We really liked the look of the racecourse which has almost no straights and is on a tiny piece of land, it is (possibly) the oldest racecourse in England, and it’s possible to see the entire track without binoculars.

We stopped about half way around for a late morning tea/early lunch snack, and then made our way the rest of the way round the circuit, ending up back where we started.  We spent the rest of the afternoon having a proper lunch and meandering through the shops. Chester has a great shopping area with lots of quite random shops in a tiered and ancient shopping arcade.  We headed home to rescue poor Leigh (Kate’s dog) who had been shut up waiting for us all day.

On Friday, we said good-bye to Kate who headed off to work while we finished packing ourselves up, then we headed to Manchester to pick up the Son and Heir from the Man U Soccer School.  It was a pretty boring motorway run into Manchester but we got there in good time and parked up outside the Imperial War museum so that we could walk along the canal and across the foot-bridge to the Salford Quays. We made Warren buy some new clothes before heading to Old Trafford to see the closing presentation for the camp.

The boys were all brought into the stadium through the player’s entrance. The announcer was the Old Trafford ground announcer (he does all the matches) and he had all the parents yelling and clapping trying to sounds like a full stadium.  The coaches then did closing speeches and congratulated all the boys.  Warren and I were really impressed by the positive and encouraging mentoring the boys received. They were very strong on doing everything ‘The Man U way’ – and kept repeating their values about giving your best, working hard, winning and losing with the same dignity etc. Of course they managed to mention that Man U have won the Championship 19 times about a million times in the afternoon as well!

The final treat for all the boys was for them to have their photo taken with the Barclays Premiership Trophy  which they had out at the far end of the stadium, so they all walked around in their coaching groups and had a lap around the pitch with a stop at the far end for a photo with the cup.

We then went out to the players exit to pick Ash up and say goodbye to his roomies.  After that it was another trip to the Megastore (Ash had been earlier), Hannah wasn’t going to miss out as she’s decided that she’s a Man U girl and is now wearing a no 14 Chicharito shirt everywhere she goes.

From Manchester we headed for Blackpool as that had been our plan…no bother getting there, but I think we were all taken aback by just how trashy the place was, not in a fun tacky way, but in a yukky sleazy way. Fortunately, the place I had booked had stuffed up our dates, so we walked along the Prom, bought some rock and had fish and chips, pickled onions and mushy peas for tea before heading out of town.

We headed north on the M6, thinking that worst case we’d head for a hotel room at the motorway services, the first place was full and so was the second….not good…it was getting on for 9pm, but fortunately the second place we stopped gave Warren the name of a B&B just off at the next junction, so we phoned and managed to get rooms. Well, Blackpool’s loss was our gain as we arrived at Foulstone Farm. Mary and Ian got us set up in 3 rooms in their 1655 farmhouse – it was a great end to the day to snuggle up behind the thick stone walls!

Lyn

We woke early as usual - 6.30 and Bridie arrived soon after in our room. The view from the bedroom windows was fabulous - rolling dales, with stone walls and grazing sheep. The weather was showery.

The house was full of character and was well presented. Our hosts were lovely people and knocked up a nice breakfast.

We hit the road and meandered via back roads for Haltwhistle- the centre of Britain and gateway to the major ruins of Hadrian’s Wall. Went via Ingleton- kids too young for caves, via Dales backroad to Hawes and sampled some Wensleydale cheese - and purchased. Then on to Cumbria and Northumberland via the Pennines, there was a lot of purple flowers on the fell tops.  A nice drive that beat the M6. Visited the best outdoor Roman fort ruin in the wall at Housestead’s - Lyn bought us a guide book and conducted a very professional tour. Clever those Romans, latrines everywhere.

It should be noted that although still summer here the outdoor temperature ranged from 11.5 to 15.5 degrees all day. There was a cool north westerly at Housetead’s that chilled.

Looking forward to heading to Scotland in the morning after a visit to a Roman ruin museum.

Warren

More updates

Monday was a duty kind of day, with a long drive to Birmingham to visit my old workplace. It was a big drive and I had forgotten what a hard commute it was.

We found the PDSA OK and it was all much the same as I remembered it, with twice the number of staff crammed inside!! Ian was the same as ever and we had a cuppa with him and then drove around and about to find Di's house as she doesn't work monday's these days. 

Great to catch up with Di, she is retiring in Sept after 37yr at the same job - the mind boggles!

We headed north again and took the girls for a nosey at Tutbury Castle. A great ruin and we found the foundations of the house that Mary Queen of Scots was held captive in. It was a beautiful afternoon, and a wedding was about to get underway in the castle, so we headed back to the cottage and chilled out in the sun and let the girls play in the garden.

Tuesday we headed off on our way to Kate's place near Chester. We were determined to take our time and have a relaxed day after all the driving about of monday. We avoided Stoke and headed to Market Drayton for morning tea, then doodled around the countryside looking for castle ruins that were marked on our map.

We finally managed to find Beeston castle for a picnic lunch spot. This was a great find with woodland all around, great for a walk, lots of cool ruined towers where the girls pretended to be archer's and then an impressive ruin in the centre up on a rocky crag. Amazing views for miles and miles and more ruined rooms for the girls to pretend to be princesses.

We drove on from there for a short way, stopping at the Cheshire Ice Cream farm for......ice creams! From there it was a short run to Kate's village and we met her in the pub and came home for a lovely big walk up the river and tea in the garden. The village she lives in is wholey owned by the Duke of Westminster, so is very quiet and uniformly pretty!

Today (wednesday) I managed to get a run in - up and down the river again. Beautiful - I disturbed a squirrel but didn't see any other wildlife. We took the girls to Chester Zoo, which was good lots of good displays but a scary scary number of people!! We had lunch and finished up there about 1ish, drove to Llangollan to meet Kate after her her morning of teaching famers how to do AI's....

Llangollan is a beautiful wee town on the Dee, we had a wee wander and had a trip on a horse-drawn canal boat. Saw a steam train and the kids had ice cream (again!!), then we headed to the Corn Mill (now a pub) for a fantastic meal. 

The kids are all ready for bed now after a bath. Hoping Ash is still having fun at Man U, we're going to check out Chester tomorrow morning, walk the old walls, check out the shops and have fun.

Lyn

Some photos

Alf, Marge and the crew

Marge, Warren, Ash & Alf

The girls

View from Kelvins Office

Plane family

Dining Hall at Dentsone College - Man U soccer school

Man U Soccer school

School chapel at Denstone

Denstone College

Update

Friday 19^th August

We were up and organised pretty early, car packed up we walked and drove Kelvin to work and Helena  to school. We all reassembled in the foyer of the Citi tower and Kelvin took us up to his office on the 29^th floor. We shocked a few engineers with our presence as we walked round the floor looking at the amazing views from the tower and then went up to the 36^th floor café for morning tea.

We farewelled Kelvie and had a quick whirl around the shops below the tower with Kat – picking up a few essentials – SIM card, toiletries and Nike mercurial turf shoes for the boy wonder. Then another sad farewell and we went off on our own in the mighty Vauxhall. We felt very inadequate in the Citi tower carpark as Ash counted 1 Lotus, 2 Ferrari’s, 6 Maserati’s, and too many porches to count on our level alone.

We drove out to Harold Wood and had a great catch up with Alf and Marge. They were looking very well and their garden is beautiful, Alf obviously still spends a lot of time working out there. We went with them to a pub for lunch and then came back to their place for numerous cups of tea before heading to the Brentwood Guesthouse for a light tea of chicken sandwiches and salad and extremely early bedtime as we all seriously hit the wall.  Ash and I were the latest ones up – we managed to hold out till 8:30 watching a doco about bears!

Lyn

Saturday 20^th august

A nice slowish morning, we had our brekkie in the Guesthouse dining room. Eggs all round and a Full English breakfast for Ash. Then off to the park to meet up with the Gordon’s. We had a lovely morning chatting with Brian and Stephanie and meeting wee Andrew. The kids enjoyed having a blast around the swing park and ice blocks. Brian was an absolute LEGEND and brought us a packed lunch for our day ahead travelling north.

Our drive north was pretty uneventful, good roads, no traffic issues. We arrived at Villa Park with plenty of time to spare and dropped Ash and Warren outside Villa Park.  I planned to take the girls to a museum in B’ham, but the ring road got the better of me and we looped around a bit before finding it, then it looked closed, so we headed for the shops in the Bullring – which had me cursing the roads in B’ham all over again. What a bloody disaster!! I remembered why we didn’t go into the centre of B’ham much when I was working there.  There were an amazing number of head scarves and Burqa’s inside the mall in Birmingham.

We all perked up after a visit to Next and H&M and then went back to pick up the victorious Villa supporter and a random Spurs supporter from the park. From there we drove off up the M6 and up via Stafford to Uttoxeter. Marvelled at the changes (not all good – lots of big roads and shops),  stocked up at Tesco and found our lovely cottage near Tean – just off the A50. Great accommodation, garden, plenty of space all in an old barn/farmyard.

Lyn

Matchday! Arriving at Villa Park we made for the Aston Villa shop and initially joined a quick moving queue. Inside Ash was very decisive and made 3 quick purchasing decisions- A new shirt, beanie and scarf. We aborted the queue for printing and headed for the stadium, grabbed a drink and went to our seats. What a fabulous spot 5 seats from the Aston Villa dugout and 2 rows from the pitch. The pitch was perfect, like a bowling green. The ground was ¾ full 32000 fans there. Great atmosphere but actually very little chanting.

Villa were dominant with great passing football and although Blackburn had their moments were 2-0 up at half time.  We missed the goals as Alex McLeish was standing in our way in the coaches box- I asked him to sit down but he did not listen! The second half was similar – Blackburn looked to be back into the game getting an early goal but a great third goal sealed it.

3-1 final score: we nipped out before the final whistle to queue for the shirt printing and were still 5^th in the line!

Met the girls and back on the road.

Warren

Sunday 21 August

Well it wasn’t the best night for me waking with a migraine and some nausea so not overly energetic this morning. Got to doze in for a bit- thanks to Lyn. Breakfast and some chores and a fine day and out to Uttoxeter to get Ashes final things before his soccer camp. A brief tour of Doveridge and pass-by of the Nutshell, apart from the new dual carriageway little has changed in Doveridge.

We took some back roads past Marston Montgomery to Denstone College. Denstone is a very impressive school with obvious sporting focus- there are many fields and facilities. The church/ chapel and dining hall building is very impressive and Hogswartsish. Everything was bedecked in Manchester United colours and slogans. It looked great. Ash was quiet but I think excited to be there.

Registration, kit collection and room allocation was smooth and well organised. Ash is bunking with 4 boys from the same school/ football team who are his age. Westie (Alexander), Lennon, Thomas and Harry. Met their parents, had a cup of tea and chat and tour of the buildings with them. Nice bunch. Ash should really fit in well and enjoy this.

Had a final presentation from the coaches- O’B, Eddie and others. Some parents were asking questions that Lyn felt unnecessary if they had read the printed information about the course….

Said goodbye and know that Ash will be missing us already - yeah right.

Then we met the Quinn’s - Greg, Charlie and Freddie at the Dog and Partridge in Tutbury. Had a late lunch and caught up with their news. Good to see them again.

Warren

Buckingham Palace

Up and at 'em again today for our last full day in London. I awoke from a nightmare in which I had been transported home to the school run 'but we've only just started, and we're having so much fun!'.

Luckily, we were in London when we woke up, and we left H & K to have a normal school morning, walked Kelvin to work and took the Jubilee line to Green Park for Buckingham Palace. We collected our tickets and had a cup of tea while we waited for our entry time. 

Buckingham Palace was very impressive. The tour took us through all the State Rooms, throne room etc, and included a viewing of Kate's dress in the Ballroom. Bridie was prettty tired throughout the tour, but seriously perked up for this! Sadly for her and Rafferty there was no photography allowed inside the Palace.

 

From the Palace we walked down Picadilly and along Bond St and Saville Row to Regent St. After a big feed at a great italian place just off Regent St (Strada), we were ready to face a second round at Hamley's to swap Ashlen's Nintendo game for one that would actually work in his unit....sorted OK....but the Hamley's money magnet sucked some more £'s out of our wallet at the same time.

Met Kat in Hamleys and got ourselves to London Bridge via the Apple store to pick up the car at Tower Bridge. Kat and I got to drive home via the Rotherhithe tunnel and Warren took Ash and Greer home on the DLR.

We're off tomorrow to see Alf and Marge in Romford. It'll be great to see them, but sad to say good-bye to the Smith's as we've had a great time with them and could easily stay on in London for a wee while more...

Lyn

London Day 3- TOYS

Kelvin back to work today- poor thing. Walked to the Jubilee line and caught it to Green park and changed to Piccadilly to Knightsbridge and Harrods! It was worthwhile visiting that's for sure.

The Egyptian themed rooms, Chocolate and tea/ coffee hall and Game/Seafood hall, produce and so on. Really attractively presented food- if there were no kids around I think a couple of dozen Oysters and Bolle might have been in order at the Oyster Bar. Maybe next time.

The pet shop was quite cool- $500 jewel encrusted dog collar would look very good on Stanley I know. Only Taco benefited from the visit with a couple of Harrods cat food bowls- befitting has breeding.


Some lunch and a walk to the Victoria and Albert to appreciate its architecture before going into the Natural history museum and a visit of the dinosaur exhibit we all really enjoyed and it was very popular- half of London was there.

Then on to Hamleys toy store, what the kids were waiting for.Heléna, Bridie and Greer had 2 soft toys made complete with papers and passport! Janet (Rabbit), Rosa (kitten) and Isla (Rabbit). 5 floors of toys and fun. Lots of Doctor Who stuff, remote control cars, Play station etc Pink stuff, Models,sweets etc. Great. Exhausted and broke we emerged and retraced the tube to Canary wharf for a well earned Guinness/ Wine and Apple Juice and met up with Kelvin.

A busy and fun day.


Warren

London

We've had a busy couple of days...with more to come.


The kids have all been absolute superstars, travelling really well, and sleeping like logs all night long on our first night in the UK.


Monday morning we headed out of canary wharf on the DLR to the Tower and got on a hop on/hop off bus. We chose to use 'the original' tour company, much to the disgust of the guy touting tickets for the opposition bus service. 


The bus took us along the river over and past the Globe, back across, along the Embankment, past Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, round the back of Buckingham Palace, past Sloane square. We hopped off at Baker Street and had some lunch at Pizza Express, we were all starting to fade at that point and it was a well timed break. 


After lunch we hopped back onto the bus and got off at Trafalgar Sq. We watched a very bendy contortionist and the kids clambered around on the Lions at the base of Nelsons column. From there we wandered up to Covent Garden and were entertained some more by a street performer juggling a chain saw. We also had some amazing ice creams - amazing both for their taste and their price.

Back to Trafalgar square again, we hopped back on board and finished off with a drive over Tower Bridge and off again at the Tower, back on the DLR and home to Kelvin and Kat's place for a barbie.


The kids all seemed to sleep pretty well again last night. I got up this morning and went with Katrina down the gym in the building basement, we'll try to get the kids down there at some point for a swim in the pool.


We headed into town (DLR again, kids are getting to know all the stops and changes). We met Alasdair at the Tower ticket booth and went in for a look around. Katrina thought we should go and see the Crown Jewels first up, they were pretty impressive and going in early was a great plan as the queue was enormous by lunchtime.  After the jewels we went into the armoury and the kids all seemed to be pretty impressed by the displays. it's all been re-done recently and was well set out and good to look at.


We followed that with a picnic lunch - again in the nick of time before meltdown occurred. It was nice to sit on the grass and chill out. The kids ran about and we managed to catch up with Al. Luckily for Bridie the Tower 'Raisin's' didn't fly over and try to steal our lunch.


From there we took the Ferry up the river to the London Eye. Another eye-watering bill for admission tickets, but a pretty impressive experience. Great views, the kids had a blast - Ashlen especially enjoyed leaning on the glass to try and freak me out.


A long walk back along southbank, lots of things happening along there. We poked our heads into the Tate, but really only to see what the building looks like on the inside - we were kind of over doing anything more. Alasdair headed back to Waterloo from there and we walked on to get the tube from London Bridge. 


Staggered home and Katrina made us fish and chips which we ate with pickle onions and pickled eggs.

Kelvin has to go back to work tomorrow so we'll just have Katrina and Heléna with us tomorrow. Hopefully H has a good night's sleep tonight as we're running the poor girl ragged! We're thinking Knightsbridge, maybe the Natural History Museum, maybe Harrods, and definitely Hamley's tomorrow.

Right, that's all from me, my eyes are on stalks!


Lyn


Today we planed to go to the tower of London then the London eye. At the tower of London we meet up with my mums cousin Alasdair. The tower was really interesting because we got to see the crown jules. We also got to see a torture chamber, the armoury, and were some ravens. After the tower of london we went to the eye which was really big. When you got to the top of the eye you could see for miles in all directions. On the way home we went on the tube which was really fast. So far our trip is going really well.


Ashlen