Sad News

Just heard on the news that Michael Jackson has died, aged 50. Never was a big fan, but he was inspirational to lots of people over the years and I'm sure he will be missed.

All is well!

gg has been given a clean bill of health from Blogger, she is no longer a "spam blog". Service will resume as "normal", whatever that may be!

Here is an update on the weight loss front......Drum roll please..........I lost a further 3lb this week, taking my total, so far to 24.5lb. Am I pleased, or am I pleased?

Spam Blog?

It would appear that my blog is being classed as a "spam blog"!!!! There is a message on my dashboard saying that my blog will cease to exist in 20 days if it is not checked out! I have followed all the instructions so that it can be checked out and hopefully deemed not to be a spam blog. Goodness knows how this has happened, but I await the decision of Blogger. Fingers crossed that all will be well. If all is not well gg will disappear and I will have to reinvent myself, only time will tell!

Edited later: This is what I found when I checked to see what was happening.

We received your unlock request on June 4, 2009. On behalf of the robots, we apologize for locking your non-spam blog. Please be patient while we take a look at your blog and verify that it is not spam.

In answer to your question, Robin. I don't know if I can back up my blog, or how to do it..... I am a "Ludite" as far as technology goes!

65 Years ago today..........

Today is the 65th Anniversary of the D-Day landings on Omaha, Sword, Gold, Juno and Utah beaches in Normandy, Northern France. These brave soldies, sailors and airmen of Britain, USA, Canada, Poland, Norway and the free French should be remembered for the ultimate sacrifice they gave, in their lives, so that we could be free.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning.

We will remember them.

From "For the Fallen", a poem by the English poet and writer Laurence Binyon.

Loose pounds to gain pounds!

Once again I am "on the wagon", the food wagon that is, since I don't drink alcohol at all! Yes gg is back on her healthy eating to help raise some cash for my local rugby club and The British Heart Foundation.

A couple of months ago, 5 of us at the rugby club decided that we would do a sponsored weight loss over the "closed season", so 4 weeks ago we all duly weighed in! We will be doing this from 4th May 2009 till 31st August 2009. The target I have set is 3 stone or 42lbs, so far after only 4 weeks I have managed to loose 21.5lbs, so I am half way there. If all goes well I might have to reassess my target!!!

Onwards and downwards!!!

Rugby awards and other rugby stuff.

This is it........the last rugby news till the new season starts in August!

Ronan and his team mates went off on tour (as indicated in my last post) on Friday 15th May. We all headed up to Stonehaven for an overnight stay in the local scout hut....well the kids and coaches did, the parents stayed in local Bed and Breakfast establishments and I stayed with my parents and spent some quality time with them. The team we were visiting was my "old" school team - Mackie Academy FP. They promised us a BBQ on our arrival, unfortunately due to it pouring down with rain this did not happen as planned. However the boys all seemed to have a ball. Both teams mixed together and they spent several hours playing games and running various relay type races in the hall. As far as I can gather, very little sleep was had by all! Then they all had to be up bright and early as we had to be ready to leave the hall at 9am to get to the pitches and be ready to play at 10. However the best laid plans and all that....it didn't quite work out that way!!! Once again it was pouring down and playing rugby in the rain was not very high on the boys agenda. However we live in Scotland so we should be used to it!!! The boys buckled down and played their hearts out, coming out eventual winners, 28 points to 15. It was a very hard fought match which took alot out of the boys on both teams. They had an other game scheduled, which would have been great had the weather been nice, however it was still teaming down. Mackie and Musselburgh pulled their players to become Mackieburgh and took on Deeside, who just happened to be playing several older boys, who had not played an hour of hard rugby prior to this game!!! They managed to beat Mackieburgh 9 tries to 3. A very weary and wet bunch of kids headed back down the road to sunny Musselburgh. We are now looking forward to Mackie coming down on tour to us next May!

On my return home, I had a quick turn around as I had to be at Robert's rugby presentation night. Not only that, but I also had to prepare a slide show of photos taken over the season by various people. I did manage to get there in plenty of time to set everything up. The evening was once again a great success.

Robert came home with the Primary 6 "Player of the Year" award, which is a great achievement since he is playing up a year! I was so proud of him, that I must admit I had to wipe away a few tears!! (Mothers privilege!)

The following day saw Robert and his team mates play in a tournament held by Portobello Rugby Club. Unfortunately Robert got injured and only played 2 games. However he did manage to score a couple of tries before his head accidentally came into contact with an opposition players boot.

Here he is feeling rather sorry for his-self. He did have the right to, as the "egg" on the side of his eye was scarily large! He was seen by a medic and deemed to be OK! Over the next few days he begun to sport some very "seventies" colours of "eye shadow"!!!!!!

Friday (29th) saw an other rugby award night, this time it was Ronan's turn. They do things a bit more civilised than the younger section. We had a very nice meal prior to the speeches and presentations. Once again gg was wiping away a tear or two, as Ronan was given an award.

Here he is getting his award from Euan, one of his coaches. He is extremely pleased with his award and it is sitting "pride of place" on top of the TV along side Robert's one.

It was such a lovely day on Saturday that I took a photo of them both out at the back of the house with their awards.


We watched our last "live" senior rugby games of the season at Murrayfield over the weekend. It was the last IRB 7s tournament of 2008-2009. The weather was glorious, so the summer gear and suntan lotion was brought out! We met up with some "old" friends and met some new ones and generally had a ball!! We all set up "camp" in one area and all the kids in the group just wandered back and forward between the events on the "back" pitches and the main stadium. They met and spoke with numerous players and got lots of autographs. Ronan managed to get his photo taken with the Scottish Rockettes, a cheer leading troupe of young ladies!!! (Boy is he proud of THAT pic on his phone!!)





Here they both are at Murrayfield on Saturday.





(Yes Ronan has on a very pink top....its one of the Stade Francais match tops....he also has one of their other ones which is gold with big pink flowers on it!!!!!
I think it is a "fashion" statement as since he bought it several of his team mates also have one......whatever! He says he's "in touch" with his feminine side!!!!!! Aye right!)Robert thinks its hallarious, give him a Scottish or British Lions top and he is quite happy.