gourdongirl

OMG!

2009-10-21T02:32:00.010Z

Its been ages since I wrote an entry for my blog....where has the time gone? I was full of good intensions during the "No rugby" season, and low and behold we have been back into "rugby" season for ages and I still have not done any posts....that is terrible. I will try and do better.

I have been rather busy with one thing and another since my last post so the next few entries will probably be somewhat out to sync!

Unfortunately there has not been too much on the knitting front, mainly due to a continued painful shoulder, which now transpires to be a torn deltoid muscle! I have no idea how this happened. I was injured at work about 6 months ago and it got better, but over a few days in the last 2 weeks it flared up for no apparent reason at all. This has meant for interesting times in the gg household. Due to the amount of pain I was in and the inability to move my left arm, I was struggling to get dressed/undressed, brush/wash my hair, put on/off lights, carry/drink a cup of coffee etc....so knitting really was totally out of the question. However I have managed to have one FO during this period. I will try and remember to take a pic and then post it.

In August we celebrated my mum and dads golden wedding (50 years married!!!!) with a big family get together, which was really great. It gave us all a chance to catch up with family and friends that we don't see very often.

Here they are opening a bottle of champagne. It was such a beautiful day they did this out in the garden..........saved anything getting broken by flying corks!!!!!!

We had a party in the local village hall at night, where mum's original wedding dress took pride of place. It was surprisingly in remarkable condition for 50 years old.

Oh well thats going to have to do for now as I'm at work and actually need to go and do some!!!

All being well I will post more tomorrow.

Sad News

2009-06-26T05:25:00.001Z

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!

2009-06-12T22:05:00.001Z

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?

2009-06-09T00:27:00.001Z

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..........

2009-06-06T21:53:00.002Z

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!

2009-06-04T17:01:00.000Z

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.

2009-06-02T02:25:00.013Z

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.

"My boys" dun us proud!....week 2!

2009-05-11T01:34:00.006Z

This is the winning team from last Saturdays Festival Shield.

Once again "My boys" dun us proud! A few months ago we were invited to take part in a 7s tournament. We have never played 7s before, so we weren't sure what it would involve, except we knew it would be hard and fast. 10 for "my boys" took up the challenge and went off yesterday to take part in the Tournament. They had only ever had 2 7s training sessions, and I must admit, when I watched them my heart was in my mouth, coz these sessions were the worst I had ever seen them do. This did not bode well. However these 10 strong young men "stood up to the plate" and proved to us all that they had grit and determination. There was some really big boys out there, but in true Musselburgh Team style they got stuck in. We had to play 5 games, oh boy they would be tired by the end of the day. They played 5 and WON 5, the only team to do so. They scored 31 tries and only concede 3. A great show of strength, team work and dogged determination won through in the end!!!!

This is the winning team before they were presented with their medals and a trophy.

Here is Ronan (on the right) with 2 of his team mates after getting presented with their medals and trophy. The trophy is now in "Pride of place" behind the bar in the rugby club.

Well done to the guys, they all put on a great performance today. Two wins in 8 days, is a great way to end the season and gives them the confidence they need to beat the two teams we meet next week when we go off on tour.

"My boys" dun us proud!

2009-05-04T23:33:00.003Z

If you are a regular reader to my mind meanderings, you will know that I took on the post of "team manager" for the S1 (under 13 years) rugby team at my local club at the start of this season. This is the team that Spinningfishwives son and my oldest son Ronan play for. Well on Saturday Musselburgh Rugby Club had its annual rugby 7's competition and "my boys" were asked to play a match before the final. They were playing against one of our local teams, Portobello. It was a very hard and close game, which saw a victory for "My boys". They won 14 points to 11.They were presented with the Festival Shield by Musselburgh's Honest Lass. I will edit this post once I download the pix from my camera!!!

It was a double victory for the club as the Musselburgh 7s team won the Tournament for the second year running. Thats 2 in a row for them, as they won the North Berwick Tournament a couple of weeks ago. Well done to all the players who took part.

Missing pix from yesterday's post!!!

2009-04-22T02:53:00.003Z

It would appear that Blogger is allowing me to upload pix today!!!! So here are the ones missing from my last post!

Here is Bob with the third place medal.

Bob is the one with the No 9 on his shirt, about to put the ball into the scrum. He is the one wearing navy and white and carrying the ball trying to find away through the middle of all the players with yellow and red tops!!!

Roll on the 30th May!

2009-04-20T13:10:00.002Z

I know I haven't been posting of late, but I have been trying to keep up with my favourite blogs.

Life is kinda hectic at the moment, but nothing new there. It just seems that I have had less computer time than usual. Not sure why, but that seems to be the case.

Not a lot of knitting getting done either, mainly due to RSI of my left wrist. I am managing to knit for about 30 mins, then have to rest wrist for a few days....really doing my "head in", that is! No pix of WIP either. Busy knitting baby stuff at the moment, as one of the "rugby mums" in Bob's team is having a baby in August and Karen, who taught both boys to swim is having one in September. Thank goodness they didn't ask me to knit a shawl, as at the rate I'm knitting, they would be going to school before they got it! I have an other "craft" project on the go, but it needs to be kept a secret at the moment, all will be revealed later.

On the rugby front it has been busy, busy, busy. We are now into tour and tournament season.I was off down to Ayr at the beginning of April with Bob's team to play in a tournament an Ayr RFC. I honestly don't know what happens to them when they go there, but we always see their best rugby there. They came 3rd out of 6 teams. In fact all 3 Musselburgh teams came third out of 6 teams....a good result for all.I was going to upload some pix, but for some reason this is not possible, even having problems uploading them to emails today as well! Gremlins in the system I think.Bob's lot now have tournaments for the next few weeks, then they end the season with a kids and coaches fun day on 16th May, with their "Player of the Year" presentation at night. I will miss the kids and coaches fun day, the first I have missed in 6 years, I will be at the presentation at night though. However I do have a valid reason for missing the fun day.......I am away on tour with Ronan's team!

Ronan's team hosted a touring U13 team from Stockport on Friday night. The age groupings are slightly different in England than in Scotland, which means that we play boys who are between 4 and 12 months older than us. At this stage in the boys physical development it means they are playing much BIGGER, stronger boys. We always knew that it would be a tough game, and we did have the option to get players from the next age up, but we decided that this wouldn't be fare on the boys in our team who had been playing with us for years. We got beat 9 tries to 4, so it wasn't too bad. Having said that we did not play our usual standard of rugby, not sure why, but they didn't seem to be switched on at all. We even had a piper to pipe them out onto the pitch, again no pix as it won't upload. We had an away game in the Borders on Sunday and it was the same boys playing, but they were on "Planet rugby" on Sunday and played their usual standard and came away with a great result.....26 points to 7. The last time we played this team we were beat by 1 point. Their team have been asked to play a game between the semi-final and the final at the Musselburgh 7's Tournament on 2nd May. Then they are going off on "Tour" to Stonehaven to play Mackie Academy FP RFC on 15/16 May. (Mackie Academy is my old High School). We are looking forward to that. These games in Stonehaven are the last for the season. We have our presentation night on the 29th May, and that's it for the 2008-2009 season.............Roll on 30th May!!!!!! I get a few weeks break, then its back to pre-season fitness training at the end of June/beginning July. Don't get me wrong, I REALLY love being involved with the rugby, if I didn't love it I wouldn't do it.

Right that's my update, now to catch some zzzzzzzzzzzz before the kids come home from school and its time to take them to swimming before going to work!

Normal service will resume soon!

2009-04-14T05:45:00.001Z

I know I've been "gone" a while but normal service will resume soon.

In the mean time this is brilliant!

My "word" is....................

2009-02-18T12:14:00.001Z

I was doing some blog catching up and found this on Peri's blog, so I thought I'd do it too. Haven't had blog fodder for a while!

Your Word is "Love"

You see life as possibility to form deep connections with a few people.

Relationships are the center of your world, and you always take time to bond with those you love.

You are caring and giving. You enjoy helping those you love.

And when it comes to romantic love, you feel passionately ... even in a very long term relationship.

What's Your Word?

Scary Stuff!

2009-02-17T00:32:00.005Z

Ronan became a teenager yesterday! Where have all the years gone? Now I'm in for it, teenage tantrums, mood swings etc....can it get any worse than it already is?

I've just noticed that my last 3 posts have been about birthdays!!!!!!

Double Digit Day!

2009-01-29T21:21:00.002Z

Today Bob reached Double Digits....Yes its hard to believe but thats him 10! Where has all the time gone, it seems like yesterday since I brought him home from the hospital all wrapped up in a shawl!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOB!

Happy Belated 250th Birthday to Rabbie

2009-01-26T03:27:00.003Z

I meant to post this yesterday, but I didn't have time.

Yesterday, the 25th Jan 2009, was the 250th Anniversary of my famous ancestor, Robert Burns, who was born in Alloway, Ayrshire on 25th Jan 1759.He was the son of William Burness and Agnes Brown. His father was a tenant farmer from the Stonehaven area of Scotland, who had moved to Ayrshire for work. Robert changed his name to Burns in 1786.

My connection to Scotland's National Bard is via my father's family. My 10 X Great Grandparents were Walter Burness and Isobel Greig, who were also Robert Burns's 2 X Great Grandparents. I am descended from their 1st child, William Burness and Christian Fotheringham, and he is descended from their 4th child, James, who married Margaret Falconer.

He wrote many songs and poems during his short life. One of the best know around the world is Auld Lang Syne, which he wrote in 1788. He also wrote To a Haggis in 1786 and To a Mouse in 1785. However he also wrote many romantic poems/songs which he usually dedicated to the current love of his life! Ae, fond kiss being one he wrote for one of his "loves", Mrs Agnes McLehose ("Clarinda"). He gave it to her on 6th Dec 1791, just before she went out to Jamaica to be with her husband! Here is an other of his songs, sung by Eva Cassidy (one of my favourite artists). Robert Burns was also a patriotic man and wrote songs about the state of the country in his times, one of these is A Mans, A Man For A That, which he wrote in 1795. I particularly like the last verse!!!!

Robert Burns had a total of twelve children by four women, including nine by his wife Jean Armour. Seven of his children were illegitimate, including the first four by Jean Armour before they were married in 1788, although under Scottish law they were considered legitimate after their parent's marriage.

This year, in celebration of the 250th Anniversary, the Scottish Parliament have organised various festivals and activities to encourage people around the world, with Scottish Ancestry to come home.....The events are known as "Homecoming Scotland 2009".

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2009-01-01T23:29:00.003Z

Well its nearly the end of day one of 2009 and I have finally found some time to sit down at the computer and wish every onae a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2009.

I had Hogmanay (New Years Eve) off, so it was nice to spend it with DH and the kids. I spend some time quietly reflecting on the year that was, and hoping that the year coming would be a tad better! New Year is a quiet time in the gg household, we watched some crap tv, opened some (really nice) fizz just before "the bells", watched the fireworks that are part of the Edinburgh Hogmanay Street Party from the balcony off our lounge, then watched some more crap tv before going to bed(after we finished the bottle of fizz)!!!!

The boys are now old enough to stay up so they also had a glass of fizz (lemonade with summerfruit diluting juice to make it look like the rose fizz DH and I had!)to bring in 2009. Lots of hugs and kisses from them at "the bells"(which was nice). However Ronan is now getting to "that" age where it isn't cool to give mum a hug, so I guess I have had my "yearly" hug off him!!!!!!

Today was spent quietly in the house just chilling and getting ready to go into work. This year I managed to have both Xmas and Hogmanay off which was really nice. I enjoyed my time up in Inverbervie with my folks at Xmas, its the first Xmas in years that we have all been together and the first one that the kids have had away from home.

Oh well thats "IT" all over for an other year and things can get back to "normal", whatever normal is?

Merry Christmas

2008-12-24T21:39:00.002Z

I am up North at my folks at the moment so this is just a very short entry to wish everyone who reads my ravings a very merry Christmas and a very happy, healthy, prosperous 2009.

The boys are all excited as "Santa Time" is drawing near!!! They made sure that they put granny and grandads address on their letter to him so that he knew where to deliver their pressies! (I hope he remembers!)

We are all about to head out,in the next hour or so to the midnight service to sing some Christmas hymns and carols, then when we come back to the house we will hang up the stockings and hope that Santa will come.

Have a great day tomorrow..........I will!

Radio Forth Toy Appeal

2008-12-18T18:05:00.003Z

Today was the last day to donate toys for the Radio Forth Christmas toy appeal.Every year they do this so that children who would not get anything for Christmas, get something. The toys are handed over to the local Social Work departments in Edinburgh, Lothians and Fife and The Salvation Army, who distribute them to the children.

OK so why am I rambling on about this worthy cause on the day the appeal finishes? Well, Musselburgh Rugby Football Club had toys left over from the Christmas party last year, and the Board decided we would donate them to the Radio Forth appeal and today was the day that I had a window in my schedule that would allow enough time to head up into Edinburgh to deliver them. However before I could do this I needed to empty out the car to allow enough room to transport the 4 very BIG boxes of toys. This done,I was about ready to head off when I got a phonecall from the school to say Bob had fallen in the playground and banged his head, so could I come and get him!!!

When I picked him up he was a bit "bloodied" and shook up so I cleaned up his head, hand and knee, made sure he was OK and we both headed off to deliver the toys.

Whilst we were waiting to bring in the toys from the car we met Sandi Thom who actually used to sing in a band called the Residents who come from my home village of Gourdon on the East coast of Scotland. We chatted for a few minutes before she had to go meet the person she was in to see. After that we brought in the boxes of toys.

Here is Bob handing them over to Radio Forth DJ and presenter Grant Stott. (No relation!)This really made his day!!!!!

Congratulations Bob!

2008-12-03T00:43:00.004Z

Yesterday I received a phone call to tell me Bob had been chosen to take part in the East Lothian swimming trials. I was overjoyed till I realised they were that night at 8pm and I was working. Oh well nothing else for it I would drop him, Big Bro and DH off in Prestonpans en route to work, (Which is no mean feat, as it is in the completely opposite direction from where I work!!!!)then they would have to get a bus home. No major problem as there is a bus stop outside the swimming pool and one just across the road from our house. Sorted!!! So that's what we did. I later received a phone call, whilst I was at work from one very excited little boy, it wasn't trials at all he had actually been chosen for the East Lothian Development squad. BRILLIANT Bob. Not bad considering he only learned to swim a year ago and only joined the swimming club in January 2008. The others who have also been chosen have been swimming for a lot longer than he has.WELL DONE, all your hard work has paid off!

Black eyes and Sleeping Beauty!

2008-11-29T22:42:00.007Z

Yesterday Ronan was playing in a school rugby game. Unfortunately I couldn't attend, so don't really know what happened. However I got the call that all parents dread....your son has been injured! Hell its rugby, its a physical game, so you kinda expect the odd knock, but still you dread the call that this knock might be a serious knock. Thankfully it wasn't THAT serious, but serious enough that the hospital wouldn't let us leave for several hours! He'd taken an other knock to the head, but this time he DIDN'T get up from the bottom of the pile of bodies. When the parents who were watching got to him (one was his rugby coach) he was a bit groggy, confused and his legs refused to work properly, so they carried him off. (No mean feat as he is a "solid" lad!). They found an ice pack for the side of his eye/head, which by this time was looking like he was doing an impression of the "elephant man", and kept him warm. When he had come "round" a bit more they had to get permission to take a car to the side of the pitch to remove him to the changing rooms to get his stuff to come home. When I finally got him he hadn't a clue what was going on , who he was or where he was.....SCARY STUFF. That and the fact he was walking as if he was drunk made me think he needed checked out, so I bundled him into the car and off to the Hospital we went. I had to literally carry him into A+E as he was so unsteady on his feet.Thankfully after several hours of tests, observations and head X-Rays they allowed us home. He seems to be more or less his usual annoying (lovable) self today, only he has a beautiful swollen, black left eye, that he is having problems seeing out of!!!
This was taken this morning before it closed completely!He's still getting headaches, but thankfully no nausea and vomitting. A couple of the parents who were at the game have called to ask after Ronan, but they can't shed any light on the event either and Ronan has no clue as to what happened from a few minutes before it till he came round with people standing over him!!!!!

On to happier things! I went to the Panto tonight (Oh yes I did!) with Bob to see Sleeping Beauty at the Brunton Hall in Musselburgh. IT WAS BRILLIANT! I haven't been at a Panto for years so wasn't sure what to expect from a "local" production. MAGIC. I had forgotten just how much fun pantos are. Ronan isn't a big fan, not since he got scared witless when he was 4 and had to leave before it actually started! (he didn't come, wouldn't have done his street cred any good to have been seen at a panto with his mum and little brother!!)Bob had seen it earlier on in the week with the school and had raved about it so much that he wanted to see it again. Infact I think he would go back again if I could afford it!(So would I)

Blog Fodder!

2008-11-25T01:35:00.003Z

I saw this on Robin's blog and thought I'd do it too as I haven't done any "blog fodder" for a while!

The things I have done are in BOLD!

1. Started my own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than I can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sung a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris (driven through!)
13. Watched lightening at sea
14. Taught myself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown my own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitchhiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping (along time ago!)
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught myself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied (I wish!!!!)
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke (after several beers and with a group of friends!)
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had my portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie (my son has)
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving (parachute jumpng, does that count?)
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter (numerous times when I was in the army!)
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had my picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life (I,m a nurse!)
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby (2)
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee (also been stung by a wasp - on my honeymoon!)
100. Rode an elephant

I don't think I did too bad. Some of the things not in bold I would still like to do, but some there is NO chance....like bungee jump!

In the middle of the night!

2008-11-21T04:25:00.003Z

Here I am, sitting at my laptop at 4.26 am. What am I doing up and on the computer at that time for? Well I'm at work and all the guys are asleep in bed and as things are settled at the moment, I decided to use this time to catch up on some computer "stuff"! I have been doing some spreadsheets for the rugby club, comparing last years figures to this years figures....depressing reading! Then I did some WWI and WWII war grave research for a project I am working on, which I will probably be working on for a long time to come, but worth it in the end, I hope. I also spent some time on Ravelry and Knitty, something I don't have time to do very often any more.I even managed to catch up on some "blog" reading, which I also have been neglecting of late.

In the time I have been sitting here the gritter has gone past the unit on 3 separate occasions, I'm almost frightened to look out the window to see how frosty it is. I hate driving in the winter, especially with snow and ice.I had several bad experiences the first winter I learned to drive (20+ years ago!)and that has made me very very wary.

Tonight is my 4th night on in a row and I am really tired. Thankfully I am off tomorrow, but I have a very busy next few days. I suppose it didn't help that I had both the boys off school ill on Monday and Tuesday and didn't get much sleep on Tuesday because of it. Ronan had "man flu" and boy did he milk it! Bless!!!!! He was really ill, he had a temp of over 40 degrees and had, according to him, really bad aches and pains. He was doing an awful lot of moaning and groaning and looking for lots of TLC. Which he got initially, but then the noise begun to get to me! Eventually he fell asleep and we all got a reprieve for a while! Bob he just took to his bed and slept, which is usually a good indicator that he is ill, coz he doesn't sleep alot normally. I had to take Bob to the Dr a few days prior to this as he had developed a nasty rash between his shoulderblades. It was weird, weepy in places and crusty in others, he said it wasn't itchy but was sore to touch. It started out like a small spot of dry skin then seemed to grow. The Dr said it was a flare up of his eczeama which had become infected....didn't look like any eczeama I had seen! This is what it looked like when I took him to see the Dr. He got antibiotic cream and medicine to take and so far it seems to be clearing up. The downside for him was that he wasn't allowed to go swimming and that night was the swimming club championships. He was really disappointed that he didn't get to swim, there will always be next year! Both the boys have been chosen to represent the swimming club in a Presidents select competition on 5th Dec, so fingers crossed all will be well by then.

Oh well better go and check that the guys are all still asleep, then time for a coffee I think!

Getting "studded" IS sore!!

2008-11-20T17:33:00.003Z

Believe me when I tell you getting "studded" in rugby (or football) is extremely sore!Never again will I tell the boys, "oh come on its only a scrape". How do I know its sore? Please don't laugh when I tell you. Well I now know first hand as it happened to me on Sunday!No I wasn't playing rugby......I'm stupid but not THAT stupid!(and anyway I'm far too old and unfit to do that). OK I digress. Ronan and his team had 2 games of rugby on Sunday, so the loyal band of supporters(parents)were in their usual place on the touchline, when one of our really fast wingers was on a try scoring run when one of the opposition decided to "take him out". Unfortunately I was too slow to get out of the way, as I was sitting on my camping chair, due to a work injury to my hip, and couldn't get up in time! The player came charging like an express train towards our player, which he managed to tackle. Unfortunately the momentum kept him going and he hit me on both legs with the studs on his boots. I now have a "beautiful", huge purple and blue bruise with a cut down the middle on my right calf and a smaller, but equally "beautiful" bruise on the left shin. I did try to take a pic, but none of them did justice to the state of my legs!!!! After I got over the shock and the strain of stopping myself from crying, I managed to laugh about it! I actually felt sorry for the player who "took me out" as he was mortified at what he had done....bless!

Anyway as a side note, Ronan and his merry band won both their games 23:3 and 24:3. Well done to them!

At last.....some knitting content!

2008-11-18T17:21:00.008Z

I know that there has been a lack of posting here of late and a severe lack of knitting posts! However I am about to put that right. I hav been knitting, not a lot, but there has been some getting done!!!

There is even a FO! and 2 WIP's (one is nearly a FO!)

This is my finished object, "Best Friend Scarf" by Cindy Bajema. This pattern is a free download from Ravelry.
I knitted it in Jaeger Pure Silk DK, in pale blue(shade 003), which I bought in the McA Direct sale (see yarn link for page!). I used 2.5 balls as I wanted a longer scarf.

Here is one of my WIP, using the left over 1.5 balls of Jaeger Pure Silk DK I used for "Best Friend Scarf". I decided to knit Leafy Lacy Scarf by Brynne Sutton, with it.

I also have a pair of toe-up sox on the needles as well.....now there's a surprise!!!

They are knitted in Opal Neon, 1935 colourway. This is the first one and the second one is half way up the foot.

Not a lot of knitting to report, but at least there has been some knitting activity over the past few months!

At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month..........

2008-11-11T00:55:00.002Z

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

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.

This verse is taken from "For the Fallen", which is a 7 versed poem by
Laurence Binyon. This is the forth verse and the one most people know and associate with remembrence.

THE FALLEN SOLDIER

Don't weep for me
O' Land of the free
When it was my time to fall
'Twas for my country's call
'Twas for the land that I loved,
That I gave my all
And for the land that I loved,
I did freely give
And in her freedom
And her courage
I'll continue to live

This poem was written by Patricia Krull in 1993 and dedicated to all those servicemen and women who lie in Arlington Cemetery

Why they sell poppies.

2008-11-10T17:25:00.002Z

I received this poem in an email from one of my friends and thought I would post it as it continues on my theme of Remembrance.

Why are they selling poppies Mummy?
Selling poppies in town today
The poppies, child, are flowers of love
For the men who marched away.
But why have they chosen a poppy Mummy?
Why not a beautiful rose?
Because my child, men fought and died
In the fields where the poppies grow.
But why are the poppies so red Mummy?
Red is the colour of blood, my child
The blood that our soldiers shed
The heart of the popy is black Mummy
Why does it have to be black Mummy?
Black, my child is the symbol of grief,
For the men who never came back.
But why, Mummy, are you crying so?
Your tears are giving you pain.
My tears are my fears for you my child
For the world is forgetting again

Lest We Forget, Part 3

2008-11-08T00:54:00.003Z

This poem is very personal to me, as it was written about my great uncle, by Alex Craig,one of his friends. My great uncle, William Cargill was killed in action on board HMS Canarvon Castle on 5th Dec 1940, he was 24 years old. He was the second youngest son of William and Margaret Cargill of Gourdon. They also lost their youngest son, John Gove Freeman Cargill on 5th Nov 1939, aged 20 years. he was killed in action on HMT Northern Rover, which was sunk by a German U boat.

Fraternal Memorandum By Alex Craig.

My heart is sad and full of grief
In my eye there springs a tear
When I remember my old pal,
A friend I loved so dear.

It was on board the Carnarvon Castle
Down South Atlantic way
He was killed by a piece of flying shell
And buried at sea that day.

It seems so hard, but it’s true
We will ne’er see him again
They buried him in a watery grave
Somewhere on the Raging Main.

He was so young and full of life,
An ideal blooming rose.
That flower was plucked while in the bud
And now rests in sweet repose.

There will always be a spot, dear Bill,
Left in my heart for you.
The world may, but I’ll ne’er forget
A pal so good and true.

Lest We Forget, Part 2

2008-11-06T22:34:00.002Z

I have chosen an other poem about war and how it efects everyone....just like the ripples in the pond. This one is about the aftermath of war and how it effects the soldiers.

The Tears I Shed by Chris Woolnough

God knows the silent tears I've shed
For the war in my heart and in my head
Through hollowed eyes that speak of sorrow
Of my yestaerdays and my tomorrow
The tears I shed, they are of truth,
The loss of innocence, the loss of youth.
Tears of a soldier that witnessed war
Through eyes that changed for ever more
They are the cross that I must bare
For the part of me that I left there.
I lost my soul up on that hill
Can't forgive the things I know God will
Tears for freedom that I will never see
For the guilt that lives inside of me
The tears I shed, they are of grief
For the lives in which I was the thief
Tears for the ones I couldn't save
For all the heros in their grave
For all the boys that were left behind
Tears for the peace, i cannot find
Tears of agony, Tears of shame
Tears of misery, Tears of blame
I cheated death and wonder why,
I did not live, I did not die
Because I answered the battle call
For what I've seen, i shed them all
A shattered man, That will not let
Myself forgive or forget.

We remember the soldiers who are killed, and rightly so, but often we forget about the soldiers who came back from the various Theatres of War and we forget how that horrific experience effects them for the rest of their lives.

At this time of remeberance, I remeber them too.

Lest we forget

2008-11-05T04:46:00.003Z

This week sees the 90th Anniversary of the end of WWI and some of you may or may not know that I have a special interest in both World Wars and in genealogy in general and have, for the past 15 or so years been involved in doing my own family tree. This is currently a “work in progress”! However, I digress, over the past few weeks I have been involved in some research within the rugby club archives, looking for any players that were Killed in Action during WWII. There are none from WWI as the club wasn’t founded till 1921. This also is a “work in progress”!!

LEST WE FORGET.

To mark the 90th Anniversary of the end of WWI, I would like to post some poems (over the next few days) as a tribute to the brave men and women who gave up there lives that we can live ours, and to those who were left at home, not knowing what was going on and when or if their loved ones would return.

The first poem I have chosen is called Battlefield Nurse by Dolores Ryan Rutland.

BATTLEFIELD NURSE

When will it end cried the nurse that night
As she sat on her cot alone
How many more will be felled in the fight
How many heartaches will be sown
Why am I here in this Hell on earth
How do I face one more day
I’m here for a reason God only knows
Are my nerves strong enough for the stay
Seeing these bodies all ragged and torn
Broken and bleeding and blind
Miles from their loved ones
Calling for help
I’ll stay for this special kind
Pour me some coffee for I hear a plane
And I know there will be one or two
Who will need me tonight in this tent with no name
Yes, I guess God I’m here for You.

This poem is dedicated to all Battlefield Nurses who are the Angels of Mercy in wartime. D R Rutland.

The reason I chose this one first is that I was a nurse in Queen Alexandra’s Royal Nursing Corps (QARANC)for about 6 years, thankfully all during peacetime. However a lot of my training was in preparation for war. I was a Nursing Officer, starting out as a 1st Lieutenant attached to a Field Ambulance Unit, then to a General Hospital, latterly I was a Captain attached to the Gordon Highlanders and spent some time in Germany with them. In fact I was one of the first female officers attached to an Infantry Unit! One of the worst moments for me was when I had to come home and inform my parents that I had been called up to go to the 1st Gulf War, thankfully I got a reprieve and didn’t have to go. This must have been a terrible time for my parents, as my brother, who was in the RAF was also on stand by. Thankfully he didn't have to go either, but I did have quite a few freinds who were in that theatre of war.

Whats going on?

2008-11-04T06:14:00.006Z

The pumpkins have hardly had time to decompose after Friday night and we are already seeing stuff for Xmas. For goodness sake its only the beginning of November, we still have to have bonfire night!!!!!

Last night on my way to drop the boys of at swimming club, before I set off for work, I was driving along the High Street only to see the local council workers erecting the Xmas lights that are strung across the street. Then, if that wasn't bad enough, a short distance further along the street there was a shop all decked out with Santa outfits etc. WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON? What with the credit crunch and my shifts being cut at work and DH just finished his job for the winter and no reply to any of his application forms.....Xmas is getting drastically scaled down this year. Bah Humbug!!!!!!!!

OK that's my bit of a rant over. Where have I been? I appear to have been MIA for quite a while. Well for 3 weeks I was really ill with 1st viral bronchitis and 2ndly a chest infection. After 3 lots of anti-biotics it is still not fully away. It has left me really tired and weak. (Not like me at all) I am now back at work and actually quite glad that my shifts have been cut, as to be quite honest I don't think I could do my usual hours. I have also been busy ferrying the boys between various sporting events...ie: school and club rugby and swimming club for Ronan and club rugby, basketball and swimming club for Bob. No wonder I have been exhausted!!!

The boys had their first "real" swimming competition a few weeks ago. When we got there I really thought I had made a bad choice and they had been entered into something way beyond their capabilities, however the boys rose to the challenge and proved me wrong. They both entered 2 races and Ronan won both his front crawl and his breast stroke and Bob came second in his front crawl and 5th in his breast stroke. This was the first time either had swam 200 metres under competition conditions.Bob was actually swimming against kids aged 10 and 11, he's only 9 and was still learning to swim this time last year!!!!I was extremely proud of them both. They have the club championship competitions over the next 2 Friday nights, so good luck boys.

Rugby news, both are doing well and are currently getting alot of rugby time. Ronan was off down to Biggar on Sunday and they played really well and came out eventual winners of a hard fought game. Bob was playing up at Stirling and they managed to win one, draw one and lose two. But according to DH they all played really well. This week Ronan and his team mates face my "old school" Mackie Academy from Stonehaven and Bob has training.

On the knitting front.....Not a lot to report here actually, it all seems to have come to a stand still at the moment. This might be due to the fact that most of my time has been taken up helping an ex-president of the rugby club do some research into the clubs history and searching the clubs archives. This has also involved several visits to the local churchyard looking for various graves. (All of which I have found!)Now all my time is spent trying to put all the information together....quite a daunting task and one which will take a while. However I am enjoying doing some genealogical research again, as I haven't done any for ages.

Oh well I think thats it for now, I promise to be a better blogger in the future!

Murrayfield Mascots and other rugby stuff!!!

2008-09-10T09:54:00.011Z

I know its been a while since my last post (again!!!!). I feel I should be standing up when I say that. However life has been a tad busy of late, but nothing new there either. Both boys have settled into their new school routine, with Ronan going off before I get home from work and Robert going off once I get home. Ronan seems to be enjoying the new challenges that the High School is giving him and Robert is getting used to being at school without his big bro!

All the boys after school clubs have started up again, so this means a new schedule for me too!!! Swimming for both on a Monday, school rugby for Ronan and basketball for Bob on a Tuesday, swimming for Bob and club rugby for Ronan on Wednesday, swimming with pals after school for Ronan and school basketball for Bob on a Thursday, swimming for both on a Friday night and then lastly club rugby for both on Sunday, Ronan in am and Bob in pm! Somewhere in all that lot they have to fit in doing homework and I have to fit in housework (not done very often)and working full time in round ferrying them around the various events! But, hay we are trying to promote a healthier lifestyle and all that sport is good for them. Means I don't mind them spending some time on their play stations etc without them turning into "couch potatoes" like so many children today.

Don't think I've mentioned it, but the rugby season has started, so we will be spending lots of time between the rugby club and Murrayfield watching games. We went along to Murrayfield for the friendly against London Wasps on the 23rd August and the kids had a chance to play a game or 2 on the pitch before the main game.

Here are the boys with some of their team mates warming up. They really enjoyed being allowed to actually play on the "sacred" pitch!

Ronan was well pleased as he managed to score 2 tries.

Here are some of the team with "Big" Jim Hamilton who transferred to us in the summer from Leicester Tigers. Unfortunately he has not been able to play yet as he has a shoulder injury.

Last Friday saw the start of the Magners League with Edinburgh playing at home V Munster. Unfortunately Edinburgh were beat 15:20. However despite the score line and the fact that it was raining 17 kids from the rugby club have special memories of the night. 15 of them had been chosen to be the mascots for the Edinburgh team. This meant they got to meet the players before the game then run out onto the pitch with them.

Here are the lucky 15 waiting in the tunnel to meet the players. Robert is at the front and Ronan is bringing up the rear! They were really excited about the whole prospect of running out onto Murrayfield and facing the 5.5 thousand crowd.

Robert, being the youngest was first out so he had the honour of running out with team captain, Mike Blair, who just happens to be his hero! Here he his teaming up with Mike before being piped onto the pitch by the 1st Scots pipers. They ran out amid lots of smoke so unfortunately Ronan was "lost" to the crowd when he was running out. I tried to take some pix in the tunnel but they didn't come out.

Here are some of the boys running back off the pitch.

During the game all 17 kids were involved in carrying placards, advertising the next home game, from one end of the stadium to the other and back. They really enjoyed this as they got to wave to the crowd.

After the game they got to meet the players and get autographs and pix taken with them.

The boys with Mike Blair.

and with Chris Paterson, who returned to Edinburgh over the summer and played his 150th game for them on Friday night.

Ronan with the Munster and Ireland player, Ronan O'Gara.

We are now looking forward to the next sojourn to Murrayfield to see Llanelli Scarlets on the 19th

My "Big" boy is growing up!

2008-08-18T15:28:00.003Z

Today my "Big" boy started High School! It hardly seems like any time at all since he started Primary school, but that was 7 years ago! Boy is he growing up FAST. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but not alot I can do about it, except get on with it! He seemed OK this morning, just a bit apprehensive incase he got lost in his new much bigger school. However he has just come in and according to him it all went well.

Where has the time gone?

2008-07-15T00:39:00.007Z

I honestly don't know where the time has gone since my last post here, so this might be a long one as I'm playing catch up. What have I been doing and where have I been? Nothing much really, but I just don't seem to have had much computer time over the past few months.....probably something to do with the kids using it more! You would have thought that I would have had more time since the rugby season finished in May, but I think I just replaced the rugby with doing an extra shift at work!

I'm sure there has been stuff happening, but its been a while and I've forgotten most of it!!!! Well I'm not getting any younger after all! I haven't even been doing much knitting either, but I have read quite a few books, so I suppose my brain has been kept active.

Work has been really busy and we have been really short staffed so I've been doing extra....well I kinda had to as my car finally gave up the will to live and needed to be replaced with a bigger and younger one. After much research on the net and looking around local garages I finally decided on a Renault Grand Scenic.

I really like this car, it has plenty of space and the boot (trunk) is big enough to take all the rugby kit that I need to carry around with me (but that's an other story!)It also has the option to have 2 extra seats, making it a 7 seater. This has come in very useful at times since I bought it.

As I mentioned, the rugby season finished in May and this saw Ronan and his team mates winning a couple of tournaments before they progress on to the next section.
(Ronan is 3rd from the right)They are no longer in the Mini section (7-12 years), but have moved up to the Midi section (13-16 years) and things have got tougher for them, or it will! Last season they played on a 1/3rd of the total pitch, however next season they play on the full size pitch....a big ask, so they need to be really fit. Yes they also get 3 extra players but they still have a lot more ground to cover. They started their pre-season training a few weeks ago and it has been hard. At the moment they are concentrating on fitness and basic ball skills.Ok on to why I have to carry all the team kit.....well, way back months ago I was approached by their coach and asked if I would be the team manager and organise all the stuff and fixtures for the team, so after I got over the shock I said yes! (I MUST be mad) I will also be helping out with Robert's team when I can, but DH has said he will do the coaching course next year so he can help out more. The season starts back, proper in August, so I have been busy getting all the membership stuff ready too, as it all needs to be sent out this week.

Once again we went off to the Scottish International Festival of Rugby at Ayr and the guys played some very tough games and unfortunately there was no medals this year. But fun was had by all.

Robert once again was a stalwart of the team and put in some great performances. However he was unlucky on the Saturday and had to come off injured for a while. thankfully it wasn't too bad and he was soon up and playing again.

Most of the stuff that's been happening, has been happening to Ronan.

Their school class made a film called "Highland Challenge"and Ronan was one of the main characters in it and Duncan (spinningfishwifes son) was also in it. It had its Premier at the Film House in Edinburgh and it was really good. The parents were invited along to see it and lets just say there was hardly a dry eye in the house!!!!!!

An other milestone has been reached by Ronan in recent weeks, and that was when he finished Primary school. After spending the last 7 years at this small school he moves on up to High school in August. It is a much larger school. He says he is looking forward to it....we shall see how he copes will all the extra homework it brings?

When the boys finished school for the holidays I took them up to my folks for a week or so. I initially went up with them , then left them for a few days then went back up for them. They had great weather and even managed to spend some time in the open air swimming pool in Stonehaven!!!!! Yes, even in Scotland we had it warm enough to swim outside!!!!

Here they are having fun in the pool.

Oh well I think that's about me up to date. I will promise not to be away so long the next time.

The Sea.

2008-03-21T17:48:00.006Z

I just love the sea. That is one of the main reasons why I love the flat I live in, coz I couldn't live any nearer the sea, unless I lived in a boat!!! I suppose the sea is "in my blood", I'm the daughter of a fisherman, who is decended from generations of fishermen, dating back to the 1600's!! I have a great respect for the sea and I love watching its different moods and its different colours. Today is stormy and I was totally mesmerised as I watched the waves lashing the shore from my kitchen window. I then braved the elements (between snow flurries, yes I know its Good Friday, but according to the weatherman, we are to have some snow over the weekend!)and took some pix from my back garden.

Looking towards Musselburgh from my back garden.

As the majority of my regular readers know I like poems and one of my favourites is by John Masefield, so decided to add it to this post, since it was about the sea!

I Must Go Down to the Sea

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

- John Masefield

Both taken looking out towards Fife and the Firth of Forth from my back garden.

This one was taken from the promanade at Portobello (just along from Musselburgh) when I took the boys to the leisure centre there this afternoon. Ronan spent an hour working out in the gym and Robert had a swim, and I sat in the gallery and knitted!

Today at Murrayfield!

2008-03-08T23:37:00.004Z

Today saw Scotland play "the auld enemy" at Murrayfield in the Six Nations, for the Calcutta Cup. Given the Scotland performances in the previous 3 Six Nations games I wasn't really looking forward to the game today. However, I dragged my sorry carcase out of bed (I'd been night shift Friday night)to watch the game, and WHAT a game. Not the best I have seen I must admit and the weather was crap, in fact it poured with rain for the majority of the game. This did not dampen the team or the supporters spirits though! The majority of the game was like ping pong, with one team, then the other kicking the ball up the park, till someone made a mistake and surprise surprise it wasn't Scotland who made the first mistake. We won a penalty and the trusty boot of Chris Paterson slotted the ball between the posts, we were 3:0 up. Things continued like this for 80 mins, with neither team really looking as if they would score a try.

The long and the short of the game was we won!
The final score was SCOTLAND 15 : ENGLAND 9 and the Calcutta Cup came back to Scotland!

The Calcutta Cup at Prestongrange in 2006, when we last won it.

Was I a happy bunny, or was I a happy bunny?.....No I was a VERY happy bunny today :)

Next Saturday at 1pm, sees us kick off against Italy in Rome in the final of the 2008 Six Nations. Depending on how the Italians do against France tomorrow will determine if it will be Italy or Scotland who win the "wooden spoon". I don't care if we win the "wooden spoon" or not, we beat England today. (I appologise to my friends south of the border for this, but I have to gloat a wee bit today, allow me that, coz it doesn't happen very often!)

February Update

2008-02-27T17:12:00.012Z

OK so this is supposed to be a knitting blog, so I guess I'd better have some updated knitting content!

I have been a busy little bee on the knitting front this month. So far I have knitted 4 pair of sox and 3 gift bags and about a 3rd of a baby Pin Wheel blanket.

Thought you might also like some pix as last couple of posts have been a pic free zone!

The first pair of sox for the month was Red and Black "secret" sox and coz they are a secret there isn't a pic! They were started on 2nd Feb and finished on 11th Feb. Once they arrive at their destination I will post a pic.

This is the 2nd pair for the month called Autumn Sox and they have been knitted for a present. Wont say who for coz I know they read my blog! They were started on 12th Feb and finished on 16th Feb.

The 3rd pair is knitted in Opal in an Orange/cream colourway. They are for a girl at work. Started on 20th and finished on the 22nd Feb.

This is the 4th pair are knitted in Regia Ringel and are bright orange, blue, green and pink. The pattern used was open rib from Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch. They are for the daughter of a friend and were started on 23rd and finished on the 25th.

This is a small gift bag and took my a couple of hours to knit on 16th Feb.

This one was a bit more complicated coz I knitted it in the same pattern as the Autumn sox and had to juggle the number of stitches to accommodate it. It was knitted on the 18th.

This is the third gift bag and was knitted also on the 18th.

I have no pix of the pin wheel blanket coz I keep forgetting to take them. It is being knitted for DH's boss who is expecting her second child in May/June.

So far this year, my sock total is 6.

Right that is the knitting update, now for the kids update!!!

The boys were playing a re-scheduled game down at North Berwick on Sunday 24th and Bob was given "player of the week" for his continued solid performance and for scoring 4 tries.

Not to be left out here is Ronan when he won "Player of the week" way back in January. He doesn't have on a Musselburgh rugby shirt, this is the Mackie Academy FP rugby club shirt. Why is he wearing it? Well Mackie Academy is the High School I went too! Also congratulations to Ronan, who after only 3 months at the swimming club has been "promoted" to the elite swimmers group, where he will swim with the older age group and have a chance of maybe getting picked for East Lothian (but only if he is good enough)

I have tried to add hyper-links but blogger is playing up and doesn't want to comply :(

Hot of the press. DH had an interview today (for the job he has done for the past 4 years!!!!) It is a seasonal job and he has to re-apply every year....don't ask its all red tape and council bureaucracy!! Anyway, that's his boss on the line and he has once more got the job..........Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! More on this later, once I know all the details.

Early morning wake-up call

2008-02-24T10:54:00.003Z

I was lying asleep this morning when I was rudely awakened by the frantic ringing of my front doorbell. Didn't know what time it was, but knew it was early as it was still dark outside. Got out of bed quicker than DH and went to the door. I know I shouldn't have opened it, but due to the frantic ringing I thought my elderly neighbour was having problems and needed help. However when I opened the door (a small crack) I realised it wasn't my neighbour but some young guy totally "out of it". Thankfully I had my foot behind the door so he couldn't push his way in, which he was trying to do. I told him he was at the wrong house and pushed the door closed, unfortunately he was still pressing on the doorbell and woke the kids up, but I managed to get the door closed with not much effort.

It wasn't till I put the light on that I realised it was only 6am!!!! Decided to contact the police coz I didn't know where he had gone and I wasn't going out to look! As I was on the phone to them, I was told there was an other call coming in from one of my neighbours about him.

Shortly after I came of the phone the police arrived and on looking out the window we saw them bundling him into the back of their van. It turns out he had walked into one of the other flats in the block (they had stupidly left their door open all night!!!!!!!)and had lay down behind their door and gone to sleep. Thank goodness my door is locked all the time, THAT would have totally freaked me out! Thankfully the boys didn't know what was going on, despite being woken by the incident.

Oh well, alls well that ends well!

Fitness Fanatic!

2008-02-22T16:30:00.002Z

Not me, before you think I have totally lost it! Fitness is not really my thing, should be, but need to loose weight before I go there!!!!

For the past few months Ronan has been driving me mad, since the local councils have put together fitness sessions in the gym for 12-15 year olds. So when he turned 12 last week we got him booked into his first supervised gym session. He was shown how to use the treadmill, rowing machine, stepper, and bike. Next week they get to do some weights (not free weights) and build up their confidence, experience and times on the gym equipment. The course is 10 hourly supervised sessions then they sit a test at the end, where they prove to the instructor they can use the gym and equipment safely, responsibly and competently. Once they have achieved this they can commence unsupervised sessions. He said he really enjoyed it, but his legs were a bit wobbly when he came off the treadmill!!!!!!! He is booked in for his second session at 3pm next Friday.

It seems he is taking getting fitter for going up to S1 rugby very serious indeed. Next season they start to play on a full size rugby pitch, so there will be a lot more running around so the team will have to up their fitness levels as at the moment a few of them would struggle. If he keeps up his swimming club 2/3 times a week, his basketball and gym sessions, he will be "supper fit" by the start of the S1 season in August!!!!

Maybe I need to get back on the programme and join him in the gym. (BTW I actually used to enjoy doing my gym sessions!!!!!)

An other year older.....

2008-02-16T20:53:00.004Z

But I don't think he's any wiser!!!

Yes, today sees number 1 son, Ronan turn 12 years old!!!!

It certainly doesn't seem like 12 years since he was born! And looking at him today its hard to believe that he was only 3lb 11oz when he arrived into the world and spent the first 10 days of his life in a special care baby unit!!!

On to other stuff........look what Robert gave me for Valentine's day!

He can never resist buying me sheepy stuff when he sees it! Bless him!

DH and I decided not to buy cards and pressies this year, mainly coz I had spent the few days leading up to Valentine's in bed with flu and couldn't get out to buy anything!

I've also been busy knitting and have knitted 2 pairs of sox so far this month, but there are no pix yet as they are a "secret". Pix will be posted once they recipiants have recieved said sox!

Good and Bad stuff!

2008-02-07T21:43:00.000Z

The good stuff!
I've been meaning to blog about this for a few weeks but the batteries in the camera died and then life got in the way and I forgot to take the pix. So now I have finally managed to get round to taking the pix of the wonderful package I recieved from my Knitty SP10 spoiler.

2 skiens of knit Picks Gloss in "Dusk" colourway.It is oh so soft and I can't wait to knit sox from it....not sure which pattern yet.

She also sent laminated instructions on knitting toe-up socks, a pen so I can mark what size I'm doing and a wonderful "smelly" (lavender) bag for my knicker drawer. (Well thats where it has landed up!)

More good stuff!

On the 29th Jan Bob turned 9. Here he is with his birthday cake. He looks really pale, he had the flu and really wasn't feeling well at all, but made the effort coz it was his birthday!!!! (Bless) You can see Ronan lying on the couch, he also had the flu. Both boys spent most of the week in bed, sipping on water and sucking on ice cubes!Thankfully they are back to normal now.

Bad stuff.
Well coz Ronan had flu he unfortunately was unable to swim for the school. Much to his annoyance and disappointment. Even if he had gone back to school on the friday, he was in no fit state to swim, nevermind in a competition.

Even more bad stuff.
Crash bang wallop.......here's the picture!
After spending £100's to get the car running smoothly some stupid *bleep* of a woman goes and does this to my car! I am not best pleased as the insurance are not going to pay to fix it as they say it isn't worth it.Thankfully the car is still road worthy and goes, so I will have the option to keep the car and just live with the bumps and scrapes all along the side of the car. As I'm skint, I guess thats what I'll have to do!

So what happened?
Well it happened on Sunday night as I was going to the chip shop to get dinner (we had just come back from the rugby and were hungry!) As I was manouvering into the side of the road to park the car, I had just passed the front of her car when crash bang wallop........she had decided to pull out without looking! Now she is trying to blame me?????? Goodness knows how she has come up with that when she actually admitted it was her fault! Hey the insurance companies can work that one out. I did contact the police, but coz both cars were driveable and no-one was injured they wouldn't come out. I'll keep you posted as to the outcome of this little adventure!

The dreaded "lurge"!

2008-01-31T18:09:00.000Z

Yup, thats what gg's house has been full of this week!

Robert took ill on Saturday, complaining of a sore throat and generally feeling ill, things got worse and he missed his rugby training on Sunday. (He must have been bad, coz he misses THAT for nothing. He broke his arm a couple of years ago and would have even played with that had I let him!!!!) He has been off school all week, with sore throat, high tempratures and sore, achy bones......The flu! Unfortunately for Bob, he didn't feel up to celebrating his 9th birthday on Tuesday either, so hopefully once he is better we will have a belated birthday tea for him.

Ronan managed school on Monday, but I got a phonecall from the school gates to come and collect him as he wasn't fit to play basketball.....you guessed it.....The flu, too! He has also been off school all week and won't be there tomorrow either, much to his disappointment as he was due to swim in the finals of the front crawl and relay team for the P7 school team tomorrow morning. He is really upset about this, but no way is he fit enough to do it, he has lay on the couch most of the week and hardly eaten a thing (not like him!!!!)

Lets hope thay are both feeling better on Sunday so they can enjoy a joint birthday treat....we are off to Murrayfield to watch Scotland V France in their opening game of the 6 Nations Rugby Tournament 2008.

Page 161?

2008-01-27T12:53:00.000Z

OK I know this is a strange title for a blog entry, but all will be revealed soon!

I was catching up with my blog reading this afternoon.....Yes I know its Sunday afternoon and gg isn't at the rugby! Robert isn't well(must be bad if he didn't feel up to going to the rugby, this from a boy who would have played with a broken arm, had I let him!), he has a very sore throat and temp so I've stayed at home with him and DH has taken Ronan to rugby. Having said that I had been up at 7am to take Ronan to swimming this morning so DH (bless him) thought I could just "veg" for a few hours!!!!! He probably wants a pint at the rugby club more like!

Anyway, getting back to my title...... As I said I was catching up on blog reading and whilst reading Robin's blog I found this and coz I'd been reading it, I was "tagged" to do "Glimpse of what you're reading", this is where you turn to page 161 of the book you are currently reading and copy out the 5th sentence on the page.

So here goes.........
"At least my chilblain-covered fingers were testament to the fact that I really didn't like the cold."

OK, so what am I reading..... "Bloodletting, A true story of secrets, self-harm and survival" by Victoria Leatham.

I have always liked reading "true-life" books with a mental health topic, I suppose 20+ years working in this field has left me with a curiosity about how mental health issues are dealt with by the person themselves and the professionals trying to help them. I find some of the books I have read actually more informative than the official textbooks! Over the years I have worked with many people who have a history of self-harm and I suppose never having experienced this first hand (and thankfully never having had the urge to do so)I find it difficult to understand the compulsion to do it. I must admit, so far, this book is helping me to gain some insight into why people self-harm.

I'm not going to specifically tag anyone to do this, but if you want to do it, feel free!

Tired!

2008-01-18T18:48:00.000Z

I'm really tired today, but its worth it! I was working last night, but stayed up this morning as Ronan and some of his class mates were swimming in the heats for the East Lothian schools swimming gala. Lewis, his best friend was also swimming and they both had a good swim, both were swimming in the front and back crawl heats and both won their heats. It will all depend on their times who will be going through to the final in a couple of weeks. They also had a team in the relay, Lewis had the 3rd leg and took them from a close second to first equal and Ronan had the final leg and won for their team by more than half a length. They all swam brilliantly.

Well done boys, see you in the finals in 2 weeks time, if my nerves can stand it!!

Now I'm off to work.......... Thankfully I'm off tomorrow and will be able to catch up on my sleep, well some of it anyway.... the first XV are playing away tomorrow and we plan to go watch!

No pix of the swimmers as you aren't allowed to take pix in the sports centre....Child protection.

At last!!!!

2008-01-15T13:11:00.000Z

Robin sent me a package way before Xmas and we were both getting a bit worried about it coz it hadn't arrived.....well it arrived yesterday and was full to the brim with all sorts of goodies!

Look......

...isn't that plate just gorgeous, well it was hand made by Robin herself at her pottery class last year. Isn't she a clever crafty girl then? This was the main reason she was concerned about the package as this is irreplaceable and a one off and I just LOVE it. There was also 2 skeins of Gossamer 100% Merino from Knit Picks, in blue jeans colourway......VERY scrummy and destined to be sox for moi at some point!

Also included was some chocolate but it didn't even last till I took a pic. (It was Weight Watchers though, so its allowed!!)

There was this Sand Dollar too, something I had never seen before. The kids and I were fascinated with it. Along with the sand dollar was a postcard telling the Legend of the Sand Dollar. Just in case, like me, you know nothing about this legend I will tell it to you. (From the postcard BTW!)

There's a pretty little legend

That I would like to tell

Of the birth and death of Jesus

Found in this lowly shell.

If you examine closely,

You'll see that you find here

Four nail holes and a fifth one

Made by a Roman's spear.

On on side, the Easter Lily,

Its center is the star

That appeared unto the shepherds

And led them from afar.

The Christmas poinsettia

Etched on the other side

Reminds us of His birthday,

Our Happy Christmastide.

Now break the center open,

And here you will release

The five white doves awaiting

To spread Good Will and Peace.

This simple little symbol,

Christ left for you and me

To help us spread His Gospel

Through all eternity.

If you look closely at the first pic you can see the Easter lily in the middle and the 5 holes ......

.....and if you look closely at this side you see the Christmas poinsettia. I haven't broken it to "release" the 5 doves, but if you shake it you hear them rattling inside!

There were some pressies for the kids too, a game of twister, a Virginia T-shirt and baseball cap for each of them and a fossilised sharks tooth necklace each. They were well impressed by that, especially when they discovered they were 16-25 million years old!!!! (The sharks teeth not the T-shirts and hats!!!!) No pix of them yet, as they squirreled them away before I got the chance to take them.Thank you VERY much Robin you are a star.

Meet Emanon!

2008-01-11T13:29:00.001Z

Hi my name is Emanon, and I am the newest sheep in gourdongirls collection and the only one who has actually been named!

I was bought from a stall at the German Market in Princes Street Edinburgh when she visited just before Xmas. I was sitting looking rather forlorn and cold on the stall that she was buying a mug for her son Ronan at.

At last Ronan has a mug with his name on it. He has problems getting named items since his name is so unusual??? Even when we were in Ireland he couldn't find anything, despite his name actually being Irish!

This is the mug in question. Notice it has a picture of a seal on it, this is VERY appropriate as the Gaelic meaning of Ronan is "Little Seal". Needless to say Ronan is well pleased with his mug and uses it constantly. I only hope he doesn't break it!

OK on to some knitting content, after all this is supposed to be a knitting blog!

Just before Xmas I received a package from Izzy, this was my Secret Santa swap from Ravelry. In the package there was some yarny goodies and some stitch markers. Sorry for the quality of the pix but the light was pretty crap!

There were 7 stitch markers with letters of the alphabet and one was a sock.

The yarny goodies are 2 skeins of Knit Picks Gloss in burgundy, oh boy it is really yummy and I can't wait to knit with it. However I'm not sure what it will be yet, probably sox for me, but as to the pattern, who knows? Any suggestions?

More goodies via the post!

This arrived just after New Year from The Yarn Yard.
Its the second instalment of my Merino Club. The yarn is really silky and soft, it is a 50% Merino 50% Tencel mix.

I also have to say a big thank you to my Knitty SP as she has sent me a "membership" to the Stitch n Bitch daily email calender.She also informs me there is a package in the mail for me, so I guess I need to start stalking the postie(mailman)!

Sorry this is quite a long post, as its a while since I did one. Now on to the FO's and current WIP's!

Yarn Harlots 1 row handspun scarf. I knitted this with some handspun, hand dyed yarn I bought on ebay from Elvincraft.It only took me a couple of days to knit this as the pattern only had one row to remember and I did it on 6mm needles!

This is the Jaywalker sox I knitted for Debbie, one of the girls I work with. They are knitted in Opal Neon.

These are the first ever Toe-up sox I have knitted, and also the first on 2 circs. I used the magic cast on for the first time too, so that was 3 firsts for 1 pair of sox....not bad, ehh??? I really enjoyed doing them. I started on 4th Jan and finished them on the 9th. They are for Debbie's daughter Kelsie, and are knitted with sock wool from Russia that I found in a local charity shop. The pattern on the cuff is Waterfall from Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch. If you look closely you will see my new sock stitch marker too!

Right that's the FO's out of the way, now for the WIP's!

I have just cast on an other toe-up sock. They are knitted in Opal Neon 1932 and are for me. I plan to do the crosshatch pattern on the cuff from More Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch. Yes, I love her books!!! Hey you can see that sock stitch marker again!

I have also just cast on a baby jumper (no pix for it yet)as a friends daughter has just had a baby boy.

I have also read 3 books since Xmas, but I'll leave that for an other post as this one is way long enough!I have been to work over the festive period, but didn't have the usual ferrying around of the boys to their various sporting activities, that is why I have managed to read so many books. However that has all come to an end as we are back to the usual hectic sporting schedule!

As 2007 comes to an end!

2007-12-31T18:33:00.000Z

I have been thinking over the past few days what my last post of 2007 would be.....A round up of what's been happening in my life, but hey you can read my archive for that!!! Then I decided to go searching for a piece of poetry, but I couldn't find one that said what I wanted to say......back to square one. Then I got this via an email and I thought THATS it!

Not much of a "last post" I hear you say so here are some pix I took when DH and I took the boys up to Winter Wonderland in Princess Street Gardens in Edinburgh last week.

The Big Wheel and Carousel beside Scott Monument.

Ronan on the Carousel

Bob in front of the Helter Skelter.

OK enough pix for now. All that remains for me to say is I hope you all have a VERY Happy, Healthy and Prosperous 2008.

I've also decided to say HAPPY NEW YEAR in some other languages too!!!

• Chinese (Cantonese) - Sun nien fai lok
• Chinese (Mandarin) - Xin nian yu kuai
• Danish - Godt Nytår
• Dutch - Gelukkig nieuwjaar
• Farsi - Aide shoma mobarak
• French - Bonne année
• Gaelic - Aith-bhliain Fe Nhaise Dhuit
• German - Gutes Neues Jahr
• Hawaiian - Hauoli Makahiki Hou
• Hebrew - Shanah tovah
• Hindi (Indian) - Nav Varsh Ki Badhaai/ Naya Saal Mubarak Ho
• Hmong - Nyob zoo xyoo tshiab
• Indonesian - Elamat Tahun Baru
• Italian - Buon Capo d'Anno
• Japanese - Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu
• Norwegian - Godt Nyttår
• Pilipino (Tagalog) - Maligayang Bagong Taon
• Polish - Szczesliwego Nowego roku
• Portuguese - Feliz ano novo
• Romanian - La Multi Ani
• Russian - S Novym Godom
• Spanish - Feliz Año Nuevo
• Sudanese - Wilujeng Tahun Baru
• Swedish - Gott Nytt År
• Turkish - Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun
• Welsh - Blwyddyn Newydd Dda

Have a GOOD one, see you in 2008.

The Meaning of Christmas

2007-12-24T18:33:00.000Z

Let us never forget the meaning of Christmas.

Wishing you all a joyful and peaceful Christmas.

Picture of The Nativity Scene in Princess Street Gardens Edinburgh.

Rugby Club to the rescue!

2007-12-23T15:55:00.000Z

Yup, The Rugby Club has come to my rescue and given me the use of the Club car till mine is fixed! Isn't that just great?

John, my friendly mechanic has been down and looked at the car, but because of the time of year he won't be able to do anything with it till the 28th, when he's back at work. He's not sure what the problem is, so lets all keep our fingers crossed that its nothing major.

A Xmas meme!

2007-12-22T17:51:00.000Z

I read this on Robin's blog, so decided to go ahead and do it.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Usually wrapping paper, I just love wrapping pressies and always feel using a bag is a cop out. If I do use a bag I usually wrap the pressie in it!!!!

2. Real or artificial tree? - Artificial. I only had a real one once and I spent the next year vaccuming up the needles that got stuck in the carpet!

3. When do you put up your tree? Round about the 15th Dec.

4. When do you take the tree down? Usually the 5th Jan

5. Do you like eggnog? Yes

6. Favorite gift received as a child? - My first record player, yes a record player....way before tapes and CD's, it was still in the days of vinyl.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? - Yes, one Ronan made at school.

8. Worst Christmas gift you've ever received? Bubble bath I got in a secret santa at work. I took a reaction too it....and itched in places you don't itch in public!!!

9. Mail or e-mail Christmas cards? - Both....I love giving and receiving cards!

10. Favorite Christmas movie? Don't really have a favourite Xmas movie, but the kids really like Santa 1,2 and 3.

11. When do you start shopping for Christmas? - Pick stuff up through out the year, put it away then forget about it when it comes to wrapping the pressies, then usually find it about June/July!!!

12. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? I just love food!

13. Clear or colored lights on the tree? This year they are clear.

14. Favorite Christmas song? Oh little Town of Bethlehem, Fairytale of New York and I'm dreaming of a White Christmas.

Now I have to tag 3 people, but as this is on loads of blogs, I tag any one who is reading this, that hasn't already done it........so on ya go.

All prepared......

2007-12-22T17:06:00.000Z

for a siege, well that's what you would think if you saw my fridge!

LOOK!

There is no room for an other thing! You would think the shops were going to never open again! I did the Xmas shopping yesterday as I sure ain't venturing back in the next few days. We should have enough to see us through till after Xmas....well that's the plan anyway!
Then it will be the same for over the new year.....What a thought!I hate shopping at the best of times but this time of year is even worse!

I suppose it wouldn't be so bad, but my car died yesterday and there is no hope of it being fixed this side of Xmas (or possibly this year). Thankfully one of my friends has offered me her car for Xmas night since there are no suitable buses running to get me to work, goodness knows how I will get to work after that. The bus service over the festive period is crap, I would have to leave the house at 5.30pm for an 8pm start and the first bus I can get in the morning after working an 11 hour+ shift is 20 to 11 and I finish at 7.45am!!!!!

Enough of my depressing stuff....so to rugby depressing stuff! The kids have been really peed off with the weather over the past 2 Sunday's coz their games have been cancelled due to the pitches being unplayable.

This was the pitch at 3pm last Sunday....the frost had not lifted all day, in fact it has hardly shifted all week!

Well all the Xmas parties are done, thank goodness. The kids had the rugby club one last night and although it was noisy it went well and santa paid a visit. Ronan has a birthday party tonight, in fact he is just waiting for spinningfishwifes hubby to come and collect him. BTW the girlfriend dumped him the other day.....after he gave her her Xmas pressie! GIRLS!!!!!!!! He was initially upset, but now seems to have got over it.

I'm all done!

2007-12-17T21:57:00.000Z

Well I'm all done with knitting the Xmas tree decorations to sell for the rugby club.

Mussleburgh RFC home and away tops and Santa tops!!

Over the past few weeks I have sold 51 and given away about 10 of these blighters! (I raised £102 for the Mini Section Tour to Ayr 2008) All the orders are fulfilled and all but 2 delivered (they will be delivered tomorrow). Now that that is done I can do some "ME" knitting. Thankfully I had decided not to do much Xmas knitting so it was all done before I started on the Xmas decorations!

However I have been approached to do a joint rugby/swimming club venture next year, so will probably have to start knitting them again in about Feb!!!

Doing this has put me all behind!! Usually I am way better organised than I am this year. Tomorrow I will have write my UK posting Xmas cards and get them posted.

Thankfully after Wednesday I have a reprieve from sporting activities.....instead I will be ferrying the kids to the various parties!!!!

Oh well better go check that I actually have enough cards to send!

All went well.......I think!

2007-12-07T17:41:00.000Z

Well THE date has been and they are all still talking to each other!! After numerous phone calls between the kids it was all eventually arranged!!! Louise's mum would give them lunch then take them to the movies and I would collect them.

Met Ronan at the school gate, he handed me his school bag and I handed him his bag with his change of clothes, hair gel and under arm smelly stuff!!!!Then the 4 of them walked up the hill to L's for lunch.

I was waiting at the allotted time outside the cinema when the boys came out.....NO girls! On asking they said the girls were getting a lift from someone else.....Wasn't happy with that, so being the "responsible" parent I phoned Louise's mum and sure enough A's mum was picking the girls up. I hung around till I saw them leave the cinema with said parent.

The boys were quite chatty about it all in the car and it all seems to have gone well. The laugh of it was L's twin sister C went too, so there were 5!!

gg has been Xmas shopping for "pink" things!!!!Hope we get back to normal after all the parties, this is doing my head in!!!!

Bemused and Bewildered!

2007-12-06T17:47:00.000Z

I'm not really sure how I feel.

Ronan came home from school yesterday with an invite to a birthday party. Nothing unusual with that, he gets loads of party invites throughout the year. But this one was to twin girls! (He has known them since nursery, so nothing unusual there either, except he doesn't really speak about them and they aren't in his usual circle of friends)However on further questioning, it transpires he has been invited coz one of L and C's friends is Ronan's girlfriend. Yes GIRLFRIEND, first I'd heard of a girlfriend.........Don't worry at this announcement gg took lots of deep breaths!! Well it is Christmas dance time, I suppose! Last year he took a girl called A, he's taking the same girl this year. However there has been no mention of A between the Christmas party's!!!! No big deal I thought. That was yesterday.....All change today when he came home from school.

Ronan announced he was taking A to the movies tomorrow after school, in a foursome with Spinningfishwifes son Duncan and his girlfriend, L (one of the twins mentioned earlier!)There followed numerous phone calls between Duncan and A to arrange things. I sat listening to all this in a bemused and bewildered silence. In fact I was frightened to open my mouth in case I laughed out loud. (The conversations were really funny!!). I thought it was all arranged then Duncan phoned to say they were all going to L's house after school for lunch. At this point I thought it better to confirm this arrangement so phoned L's mum. She is as bemused as I am, but has been through the "first date" scenario before, so she was able to put me right on a few things!!!

Oh well I guess I'd better add a girlie present on to my Christmas pressie buying list, so he better not dump her before Christmas! However I have never seen Ronan like this he is all excited and been in the bathroom experimenting with gel on his hair and trying to decide what clothes to wear and where he would change since they are going right to L's after school.........decisions, decisions!

Away at school camp last week, first dates this week. I guess he's just growing up and I'd better get used to it! gg is on a VERY steep learning curve, I think!

My peace is shattered!!

2007-11-30T14:31:00.000Z

My boy is home........Yup, he arrived home at 1.30pm this afternoon. Having had a brilliant time. He did skiing, gorge walking, hill walking, orienteering, archery, mountain biking and a night walk where they were blind folded and had to hold on to a rope and the person in front for guidance. He had a ball!!!!

Its great to have him home, we all missed him. He said he missed us too, especially when he was writing his letter home! Despite all his bravado, he is a big soft lump at heart and he did give me a huge big hug when he got of the bus :D

One bonus was, the weather had been dry so he came home with more clean clothes than dirty ones. I'll probably get off with only 2 loads of washing instead of the mountain I envisioned!!!!

Counting the sleeps!

2007-11-29T16:43:00.000Z

Robert has been totally at a loss this week without Ronan around. He has even had to rope David into playing PS2 with him! That was funny listening to Robert giving his Dad instructions on how to play the games, then getting totally frustrated when David couldn't do it quick enough!!!

He has been OK in the short period before he goes to school and up till tea (dinner) time, but when he's been getting tired that's when he seems to miss him most. However he has had a couple of small treats to compensate for Ronan being away... like a Burger King for tea and a couple of cheap books on offer at Lidl.

This morning he had a big grin on his face and announced.....Only one sleep left till Ronan comes home......Bless!

A letter arrived this morning from Ronan, he says he is having fun but he didn't like the pasta he had for tea!!!!! Oh well...I'm sure he'll survive! At that point they had been skiing and hill walking.No indication if he had been cold or wet!!!!!

As you can see from this pic taken in the garden, they are really close. Yes they have their moments and fight like cat and dog, but on the whole they get on really well and are well behaved children.

BTW, that's the Firth of Forth behind the boys and at high tide it comes right up to the sand below the fence! That's how close I live to the sea! In the background you can see Fisherrow Harbour and the other end of Musselburgh and the twin chimneys is Cockenzie Power Station.

OK one more sleep and then we can return to "normal".......noise and chaos!

And they're off!

2007-11-26T18:33:00.000Z

If you read my post yesterday, you will know that I was not looking forward to today! Anyway it went better than I expected......NO tears!!!!!

All ready to go!!! Outside the school gates with all his stuff. The black bag in front of him is all his stuff and the blue one to the left is Duncan's (spinningfishwifes son)

Helping load the bus before departure!

And they are off!

Does he look upset..........NO. So obviously there was no need for all the crap I put myself through! But thats what being a mother is all about....I suppose.

Its now evening and the house is really quiet, no incessant Ronan chatter and no fighting between the gruesomes either......just peace and quiet!!!! Robert isn't saying much, but I think he is missing him too. We have actually changed the computer wallpaper to one of just Ronan (just for this week!).....Is that sad, or is that sad? (It was Roberts suggestion)

I've had time to reflect on the last 2 days and I now know why I was feeling like I was yesterday. Its that ever since Ronan has been able to talk (and boy he CAN talk), no matter where he or I have been we have been able to talk to each other at some point in the day. However that is not the case here, we are not allowed to contact them whilst they are away. Yes we can write to them, in fact the school has encouraged us to do that, so as soon as I have finished here I will write to him. Robert says he will draw him a picture too. Ronan is off with a stamped addressed envelope and some paper so he can write to us too!!!! I'll look forward to receiving that!

OK better go and find a pen that works and some paper......or I could just do it on the computer, save looking for a pen!

Feelings!

2007-11-25T22:33:00.000Z

If you have read Spinningfishwifes blog, you will know where I am going with this entry, since her son Duncan and my oldest son Ronan are in the same class at school. Thus they are both of to school camp in the morning.I know he will be fine, but he is "my baby" (and he will kill me if he sees this!!!!!). Yes he has been away from home before, he goes on sleepovers on a regular basis, he goes up north to see his grandparents for a week(s) at a time, he's been away on rugby tour, he's been camping for the weekend with spinningfishwife and her family, but THIS is different. I don't know how it's different, but it is. I do know that the house will be so much quieter, coz he talks incessantly and appears from nowhere to be right behind you when you least expect it. He has a wicked sense of humour and is usually up to something, that something usually gets him into trouble!!!!

Here he is in Marks and Spencer's trying on a furry hat. I turned round and got the shock of my life coz the hat is about the same colour as his hair! I was waiting for a shop assistant to come up and ask us to leave.

At Prestongrange.

What is it with hats? He loves to make stuff and dress up and PG is a wonderful place to do it. Pitty it is now closed till April 2008!

Ronan is a kind and helpful "little" boy and still at age 11 volunteers to give you a hug, or sit on your knee. Usually when it is least convenient!!!!

Not that he would admit it, but I think he is a bit apprehensive about this week away from home, coz there have been lots more hugs than usual over the weekend and he also crawled into bed with DH the other night when I was at work, something he hasn't done in years! I know he is really looking forward to all the outdoor activities planned for the week as he is a very sporty guy.

He is not frightened to try something new, as these pix show!

He loves his brother, although they fight all the time, but thats just brothers!! Robert has said he will miss Ronan.....He always does when he's not around.

I know my week will be slightly less hectic, as I won't have swimming club on Monday and Wednesday nights! Its going to be one VERY strange week.

I have spent the last few days in great preparation, making sure he has enough clean undies and warm sox and everything I want returned named etc. All is now packed, with instructions given as to where everything is and where he can find the black plastic bags for the dirty/wet clothes.

I am not looking forward to tomorrow and waving him off, I'd better make sure I have plenty of hankies, coz I just know I'm going to be an emotional wreck. However when I read Spinningfishwifes post, I took great comfort in the fact I wasn't alone with these feelings. DH has just been laughing at me all weekend..... We will see what he is like in the morning!

What type of person am I?

2007-11-21T00:57:00.000Z

I found this on Jaquiebean's blog when I was doing some catch up reading!

You Are An ESFJ

The Caregiver
You are sympathetic and caring, putting friends and family first.A creature of habit, you prefer routines and have trouble with change.You love being in groups - whether you're helping people or working on a project.You are good at listening, laughing, and bringing out the best in people.
In love, you value harmony and mutual understanding.You will apologize or give someone the benefit of the doubt, if it means getting over a fight sooner.
At work, you are good at building relationships and connecting with people.You would make a great nurse, social worker, or teacher. How you see yourself: Organized, dependable, co-operative
When other people don't get you, they see you as: Opinionated, critical, and know-it-all

What's" Your Personality Type?

I must admit after reading this, a lot of it is fairly accurate. (Well I think it is anyway!)

Delight!

2007-11-19T22:26:00.000Z

Well, here we are into the middle of November and the weather has turned decidedly horrible. Yes today, was the first really terrible day we have had.....wind and rain....yeuch.

However, I have not allowed this to get me down as over the past 2-3 days there have been a few things that have delighted me!

One being the look of sheer delight on Robert's face when he received an email from "Santa's daughter" with a pic of "The Man Himself" for him!!!!. Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough with my camera to take the reaction..........

This follows on from my previous post! He now has his list all typed out and ready to send off!!!! Oh the innocence of a child. I hope it will last for a few years yet...Well I can live in hope!

The second thing that delighted me was when I took a couple of knitted Christmas Tree decorations up to the rugby club on Sunday to see if they would sell to help raise funds for the kids Tour to Ayr in April 2008. Heck I sold all the ones I took up and so far have an order for a further 30+ (and there were hardly any parents around!!!)

These are miniatures of the rugby club tops -
Home = Navy and white
Away = White and Navy

This is the "Santa" ones I made. I also sold all I had and took an other 10+ orders for them.

Now I just have to work out when I'm going to find the time to knit them all...But I will!

Lastly, tonight, Ronan has been chosen to go forward to the East Lothian Under 12 Basketball Trials on Monday 3rd Dec. When I saw him talking to his coach after training tonight, I thought he was getting into trouble, so I was ready to give him hell about not behaving and how he should know better etc.....You get the picture! However his coach came to talk to me after and said that over the past 5-6 weeks they have been watching and selecting the most promising players from their squad to go forward. Ronan is 1 of 4 to be chosen. The coach also said that Ronan has been selected to be Team Captain for this season as he had proven during the games they played last Friday to be the only one who could control the game.....personally I think its coz he shouts and screams louder than the rest of the team!!!!Needless to say he is walking on air and feels 10 foot tall.....I only hope he doesn't come down with an almighty crash on the 3rd! As you can gather, he's not the only one who is pleased with his selection :)

Since this is a knitting blog........Look what I got this week!

A skein of 100% Merino from the Yarn Yard! Yummy!!!!

The things children ask...........

2007-11-04T21:01:00.000Z

Yesterday Robert and I were having one of THOSE conversations that all parents dread, well I do anyway. The kinda conversation that can go either way, with a profound statement at the beginning and you are not sure where its going to end. Our conversation went like this:

Robert: Mum, see Christmas and Santa?

Me: Yessss??? (Wondering what is coming next!)

Robert: Well, Mum, I believe in Santa.

Me: (Huge sigh of relief)That's good, coz it'll soon be Christmas.

Robert: You know why I believe in Santa, Mum?

Me: No,Why?

Robert: Coz he's Robin's dad!

Me: (Trying desperately not to laugh out loud with relief) That's right, Robert, Robin's Dad is Santa.

Robert: Do you think he has a car or reindeer and a sleigh?

Me: I'm sure he has a car, but maybe he has a sleigh for if its snowing!

Robert: Mum?

Me: Yes?

Robert: Can you email Robin and ask?

Me: Why don't you email her, you have her address?

Robert: She's your friend, you ask her!

Me: OK!

The innocence of an eight year old....but for how much longer I ask?

BTW, I haven't emailed Robin, but maybe when she reads this she will let me know and I can pass the message on to Robert!

Wash day blues......

2007-11-03T17:34:00.001Z

The boys were playing a basketball match last night and guess who got the kit to wash? (All the mums take turns of washing the kit.)

I suppose it could have been worse it could have been a muddy rugby teams kit! Bad enough with only 2 muddy rugby players in the house!!!!!

I don't have a large drying area, just 3 ropes on my balcony, but I managed to get all the kit hung up....just!

Unfortunately their team got beat, but we were missing a few of our bigger players. However the boys enjoyed it and thats all that matters.

Ghosts and other strange things!

2007-10-31T15:05:00.000Z

HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO ONE AND ALL!

from the ghostly figure of Ronan

and Robert as a pirate skeleton from Pirates of the Caribbean,

and a flesh-eating zombie (Lewis) and a pumpkin (Duncan, son of Spinningfishwife)

and lastly from the wickedest witch ever (gg herself!!!!)

We were all dressed up for the Mini Section Halloween party last Friday night.

BTW I do have a pic of spinningfishwife but I promised her I wouldn't blog it this time!!!!

2 days left!

2007-10-29T21:56:00.000Z

Hey, ya all need to go visit my "soul sisters" blog. It was her 2 year blogversary on the 25th and she is holding a competition....closing date 1st Nov, so hurry up and visit her.

Happy belated blogversary to you and a happy belated birthday to your DD, appologise to her....I missed it :(

Missing Pix

2007-10-29T21:15:00.000Z

Hopefully blogger will allow me to upload the pix that were missing from yesterdays post about the Zoo!!!

Yiphee, we have success this time.......well for the moment anyway!

Here is Robert watching the penguin parade. Both the boys really love watching the parade...having said that so do I! (I guess I'm just a big kid at heart!!!)

We were fascinated to watch a group of penguins swimming above water ........

......then totally mesmerised to watch them swimming underwater. In fact we stood for ages just watching how graceful they were underwater compared to what they are like on land!

I couldn't resist taking this pic of the boys cuddling "Mumble" from "Happy Feet!!!

OK, so getting back to my previous posts title....koalas in Edinburgh.....well here they are! (Well one of them at least)

That's it, all the pix that were missing from yesterdays post. I promise a knitting post soon :)

Koalas in Edinburgh?

2007-10-27T22:29:00.000Z

Occasionally gg and family decide they will be tourists for the day and go visit places of interest in and around Edinburgh. So a few weeks ago when the kids had nagged on at me for several weeks I decided to give in and took them to Edinburgh Zoo. To let you understand Edinburgh Zoo is actually only about 10 mins on the bus from the centre of Edinburgh. On a nice sunny day it is a wonderful place to be, but on a rainy day...... However the day we decided to go was a beautiful sunny day and lots of pix were taken of the animals. (So please bare with me there will be lots of animal piccies to follow!)

Edinburgh Zoo is owned by The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland. The Society was founded by an Edinburgh lawyer, Thomas Gillespie in March 1909. He was a visionary and enthusiast and it only took four years for him to gather enough support and money to enable the Society to buy an 85 acre site to the west of Edinburgh. He bought it for £17,000 with help from the City of Edinburgh Council.

Edinburgh Zoo was opened to the public on 22 July 1913, and was incorporated by Royal Charter later that year. However, it was only in 1948, following a visit by HRH King George VI, that the Society was granted the privilege of adding the prefix 'Royal' to its name. It remains the only zoo with a Royal Charter in the United Kingdom.

Anyway I digress.....what about our visit? Well we took the shuttle "bus" up to the top of the hill to begin out tour. (Easier to walk down the hill that up!!!) There were a few "must see" animals on our list, especially the Saki Monkeys.

This is a White Faced Saki Monkey. Saki monkeys can be found in northern and central South America, extending from the south of Colombia over Peru in northern Bolivia and into the central part of Brazil.

Why were these monkeys on our "list"....well the boys school sponsor the Saki Monkeys at Edinburgh Zoo, and Robert is a Saki Monkey monitor! (That is NOT easy to say!!!) What does the Saki Monkey Monitor do? Well he is responsible for collecting the money from his class mates every Wednesday. Because of this he wanted to see a real one. Good enough reason for me! We actually spend quite a while watching the monkeys "play" in there enclosure.

As we wandered down through this vast site on the hill we passed may animals, like

the Jaguar (I'm quite pleased with this pic, as you wouldn't think there was a thick piece of toughened glass between it and me!)

Greater one horned rhino

Madagascar Ring-tailed lemur. Boy were they fun to watch, frolicking in the sunshine. This one was sitting eating an apple and much easier to catch on camera.....the others were far to quick for the shutter speed on my ancient digital camera!

However I think my favorites have to be the penguins, and if you ever visit Edinburgh Zoo, be sure to be there at around 2pm, as they let the penguins out of their enclosure and have a penguin parade!

At this point I was going to put a pic of Robert watching the penguin parade but blogger wont let me! I was then going to post some pix of the penguins swimming underwater, coz that is really fascinating to watch, but again no can do!

OK so why the title of my post? Well earlier this year Edinburgh Zoo got two Koalas from a Californian Zoo. Ronan wanted to go see them as he is doing a project on Australia at school. I would have posted a pic here of the Koalas but again blogger has let me down! I will try and post the pix later when blogger allows!

One last thing before I go, British Summertime is officially over! The clocks went back an hour last night, so early dark and dark in the mornings.....yeuch!

RWC knitting and a FO

2007-10-20T15:48:00.000Z

Yup, I've done it.......I've finished all my RWC knitting and a UFO as well. All 3 hours before the start of the South Africa V England final. Am I pleased.......You bet I am!!!

I even have a pic to prove it too!

This is the Koigu KPPPM sox in the waterfall pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch that I blogged about yesterday.

They are lying on a baby blanket which I finished this afternoon. It is knitted in King Cole Sprinkles and baby DK in liliac and white. I hated every minute of knitting this blanket as the "yarn" is 100% polyester........am I a yarn snob or what? Yes I am I hate knitting with acrylic yarns!..........yeugh! That is probably why it has taken me ages to actually finish the blanket.

Ravelry and RWC knitting

2007-10-19T20:06:00.000Z

I have not posted about me having been invited to joined Ravelry way back in June. However since then I have been enjoying immersing myself in all things Ravelry since!!! (Just like many others it would seem!)I have joined several groups and met and made some new friends and met some old ones too!

One of the groups I joined was the RWC (Rugby World Cup) KAL. At the begining of the RWC I decided I would knit a copuple of things, one was a pair of short sox in Scotlands colours of blue and white. I just had enough yarn to actually complete them. Yes they are finished, infact they have been done for a few weeks now and claimed by Ronan! Since I had finished my "portable" knitting I needed an other small project so I decided to knit an other pair of sox, this time for moi! I had some really nice Koigu KPPPM yarn that I had been wanting to knit with for some time so I decided to knit my favoirite sock pattern......the Opal ladies lacey sock one!

This is a picture which I took on Monday once they were done. I then needed a further portable project so I then dug out some more sock yarn, this time, Koigu KPPPM in beautiful purple heues. (No pic as yet!) I am on the second sock, knitting it in the waterfall rib pattern from Sensational Knitted socks by Charlene Schurch.

I also cast on a large project and I mean large coz it was a jacket for myself!

It was the Long Line Jacket by Twileys of Stamford. It was knitted in the Freedom yarn, in the claret colour and on 9mm and 10mm needles.

and here it is, resplendant in all it's glory, hanging from my shower rail as this was the only place I seemed to be able to get a half decent pic!

Oh well I hope to get my second Koigu sock finished before the final whistle is blown tomorrow after the South Africa V England game. Unfortunately I probably won't be able to watch the final since I will be at work :(

Profound Statement!

2007-10-08T13:48:00.000Z

I took this pic on a visit to Edinburgh Zoo with the boys on Saturday. I liked what it said and decided to put it here!

Incase you can't read it, it says......."We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are all just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love.........and then we return home"!

I found the link for this on spinningfishwife's blog and couldn't resist doing it too!

I have also just noticed that I have passed the 200 blog entry mark with this one (201). Hell when I started doing this nearly 2 years ago i thought i would striggle to reach 10 entries, how wrong one can be.

I need help!!!!!!

2007-09-30T08:28:00.000Z

Yes folks I have finally admitted it I need help! The people that know me well have known that for years, but I'm sorry to disappoint you its not THAT sort of help I'm seeking! Yes I know I have been certifiable for years, but no one has been willing to do anything about it.........YET!(I'm sure DH will do it one day!)

However this is a plea from the heart. When I returned from my "Irish adventure" I discovered I could no longer access my email addy.....the one where all my knitty pals emails and blogs were stored. I have been trying for the past weeks to get it all back but to no avail.So if you read this blog could you please leave a message so I can access your blog and then save them in my favourites. I also have a new email addy, so if you want to contact me that way it is knit1rugby2ATyahooDOTcoDOTuk .

If anyone has been trying to contact me and I have not returned an email, that is why. I was also a member of several yahoo groups and can't remember which ones so have been unable to access them too. It's a terrible thing "old age"!!

All help will be gratefully received. Thankx in anticipation.

The Land of the Leprachauns! (part two)!

2007-09-29T21:58:00.000Z

OK so here is part two of my Irish Adventure, and what an adventure it turned out to be!

As I said in part one, we had a really great time seeing lots of interesting places and the weather wasn't too bad either so we even managed to spend several afternoons on the beautiful beaches in Donegal.

Here you see (in the distance) my parents and the boys, walking on Narin beach. The lovely white sand just seemed to go on for miles and miles. It was wonderfully peaceful walking there. It was like you were on a desert island!!

Here are the boys on one of the many beautiful beaches on Cruit Island (pronounced Critch Island), which was only a few minutes in the car from where we were staying. The Island is accessed by a bridge and the roads are very narrow, with passing places every few yards, just in case you meet anything going in the other direction!!

This is a view of Owey Island, taken from the beach just down from the 9 hole golf course on Cruit Island.

OK I hope you are prepared for this, coz it is a first for gourdongirl! In nearly two years of blogging this is the very first picture of yours truly! Its not a very good pic of me, but the background is pretty good! Please excuse the windswept look, but it was pretty windy!!!

This is taken from outside the Viking House Hotel in Kincasslagh, looking towards Rosses Bay.
I hate getting my picture taken, so this is very rare. I'm usually the one taking the pix, but my mum persuaded me to get one taken with the boys, so one has to do what ones mum asks! (Yes I know, mum, that will be a first!)

Now for the adventure part!

All was going well and we were enjoying our last day in Ireland before we made the epic return journey on the 20th August. We had made plans to meet up with some friends who live in Donegal, so were traveling to meet them when the car lost power and literally died! On closer examination (when I lifted the hood) I discovered that I had a burst radiator and there was water and oil everywhere! The fact that there was oil all over the engine made me think it was something more serious than just a burst radiator. We contacted our friends who in turn set out to rescue us! In the mean time a very kind passerby saw our predicament and took me to a garage. Now if this wasn't bad enough it was a Sunday and everything was closed! The VERY kind mechanic came to see what he could do and the long and the short of it was not a lot at that point! I, then was towed to the garage where the car remained for the next 5 days! After much phoning on the mechanics part he finally managed to get the parts needed to repair the car enough to allow me to get home. The car wasn't quite right, but right enough that with a bit of luck and a wing and a lot of prayers we would get home.

Everyone we came into contact with....Kitty and Brian (the owners of the B&B where we were staying), J Gallagher (the garage owner), The Flannagan Family, Bert, Helen,Rab and Jean who were all just brilliant and supportive through out the week and especially my parents, whom I will never be able to thank enough for all the support and help (and much, much more)they gave me during THAT week and since.

Now the daunting drive home was even worse, as I had to nurse a sick car all the way across Ireland, then all the way across Scotland. It was a horrible, stressful journey, coz if the car stalled when hot, for some reason it wouldn't start, so basically I didn't have to stop! One of the worst parts was when Bert (who followed us and supported us all the way to Glasgow) flashed his lights to indicate there was a problem. When I stopped (but left the engine running)he informed me I had hit a dead fox and had dislodged my back bumper (fender) which now needed to be tied up! An other nervous part of the journey was when I needed to fill up with petrol (gas) and just knew I had to do this without switching off the engine or we would be stuck in the west coast of Scotland. At this point I just wanted to get home. However 13 hours after we left Kincasslagh, I finally fell out of the car in Musselburgh. Boy was I glad to get home. I think that must have been the most stressful, fraught journey I have ever made, and believe me I would NEVER wish to repeat it.

The kids thought it was great, coz they got an extra week off school!!!

No more adventures for me for a while, don't think my nerves could stand it!

What time of day are you?

2007-09-26T22:27:00.000Z

I found this whilst reading Robin's blog and thought it would be interesting to see what it come up with......

You Are Sunrise

You enjoy living a slow, fulfilling life. You enjoy living every moment, no matter how ordinary. Yup, I suppose that is true!

You are a person of reflection and meditation. You start and end every day by looking inward. Not sure about this one. Don't really have much time for reflection! Certainly don't have time in the morning when I get up and I usually just flop into bed at the end of the day!

Caring and giving, you enjoy making people happy. You're often cooking for friends or buying them gifts. Yup, I'd agree with this bit. Although I do enjoy cooking etc for friends, I don't do it very often. However I do enjoy looking for pressies for people and seeing their reaction to what I've found!

All in all, you know how to love life for what it is - not for how it should be. Yup, I'd probably agree with this bit.

What Time Of Day Are You?

Leave me a comment to let me know what you are!
(Surprise, surprise, Robin, we are the same!!!!)

The Land of the Leprachauns! (part one)

2007-09-21T21:38:00.000Z

As promised, here is an account of my Irish trip.I warn you there are A LOT of pix in this post!

Off we all set, bright and early on Saturday 11th August. We knew it would be a very long day, as we had to travel right across Scotland from Musselburgh to Troon on the West coast to catch the ferry to Larne in Northern Ireland.

Thankfully the kids are both early risers, so the 6am start wasn't too bad!!!! They both enjoyed the 2 hour ferry journey across the Irish Sea, as neither had been on a ferry before. We arrived slightly later than scheduled, but rested and ready to face an other long journey. This time a drive right across Ireland from Larne to Kincasslagh in Donegal, crossing the border at Derry. (For those who don't know Kincasslagh is the home village of country singer Daniel O'Donnell).

Eventually we arrived at our destination, a lovely cottage on the edge of Rosses Bay.

This is what we looked out on..........as I said wonderful views!!!!

We had planned to do a fair bit of sight seeing as well as going to see The Fisher Folk in concert. (The Fisher Folk is the folk group which my dad plays in, and we were on holiday in Ireland coz they were on tour!)

Here they are playing in The Viking House Hotel in Kincasslagh, which used to be owned by Daniel O'Donnell's sister Margo. (My dad is playing the bodhran on the right!) They finished up their tour at Leo's Tavern, the home of Clannad and Enya. They went down a storm and thoroughly enjoyed themselves! (So did we!)

Robert had never seen his Granda play and was totally enthralled by the whole experience!

He never took his eyes off him the whole night!

We drove all over Donegal and I mean all over Donegal! Visiting Glenveagh Castle and National Park, Ionad Cois Locha (Dunlewy), Dunfanaghy workhouse, Fintown railway, Father McDyer's Folk Village in Glencolumbkille, Killybegs, Triona Design at Ardara, Narin Bay and all places in between!!!

Lots of pix now, so skip to next blog if you don't want to see some of my holiday snaps!

Here are the boys on the climbing wall at Ionad Cois Locha.

and with the giant soup pan at Dunfanaghy Workhouse!

Here are a couple of pix I took at Triona's Design in Ardara.

The one on the right is of the looms and the one on the left really took my fancy, its a spinning wheel made from bike parts. (Spinningfishwife this one is especially for you!)

This is Glengesh Pass, which is a VERY steep minor road enroute from Ardara to Glencolumkille.

These two pix were taken at Father McDyer's Folk Village. The one the left is a 17th Century woolwinder and on the right is a loom and spinning wheel dating from around the 1850s.

OK,one last pic for this post. Its one of my favorites from the trip.

Its the boys paddling in Rosses Bay at about 21:00 hours. It was freezing, but they didn't seem to feel it!

The next installment will follow soon!

Rugby Season once again!

2007-09-19T21:18:00.000Z

I know this is predominantly a knitting blog but I also blog about the other loves in my life........My kids and rugby! There will be some (not a lot) of knitting content to this post, so please bare with me for a bit yet.

Well the rugby season is well under way and this year it seems to be taking up even more of my "free" time!!!

The kids started training back in August and Ronan won the player of the week on his first week back! They have had a few training games, but this Sunday sees us at our first tournament of the season, at North Berwick. This is usually quite a tough one as it is so early in the season.

Musselburgh RFC 1st XV were promoted to the 2nd Division of the Premiership this season, so that has seen us play some hard games. At our home game last Saturday, Robert and one of his team mates (Joe) were the 1st XV mascots. Both were really nervous and excited about this, as it has never been done at the club before. Being the mascot comprised of getting to "train" with the "big" team prior to the game,

and getting to run out onto the pitch at the start of the game with the team

and having their picture taken with the team.

The parents were invited into the Committee room after the game for food and drinks!!! (So needless to say DH and I went along, but coz were are both involved with various aspects within the club, we are expected to be there for food and drinks after the game anyway!!!! However Joe's aunt enjoyed it!)

In case you haven't heard the Rugby World Cup is taking place at the moment in France. Well the majority of the games are being played in France, but coz they don't have enough top class venues, some of the games are being played at Murrayfield in Edinburgh and The Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. Obviously I am supporting Scotland, so I was really pleased to see that they had 2 games being played at "home" in Edinburgh. I even managed to get tickets for the game against Romania last night. We won 42:0, taking us to 10 points in Pool C, with 2 wins under our belt.

Here are the boys waiting for the game to start.

and here they are after the game. Murrayfield is all lit up and it looks like an alien space craft has just landed!!!!

Now, as promised, the knitting content of the post!

I managed to get into Ravelry way back in July (I think thats when it was any way)so couldn't resist joining in the Rugby World Cup KAL.

This is what I decided to knit. Its the Long line jacket by Twilleys of Stamford. It is knitted in their Freedom wool and I have chose the wine colour (shade 412) to knit it in. So far I have done the back, both fronts and half of the first sleeve. I know that sounds a lot, but it is knitted on 9mm needles! I am also knitting a pair of "trainer" sox for myself in blue and white (Scotland and Musselburgh's colours!!!). I am nearly finished the second one and still have to take pix of both items!

I must do a post about my holiday to Ireland........soon!

A father's poem to His "Little Boy Blue"

2007-09-06T17:09:00.000Z

The father of murdered schoolboy Rhys Jones has written a moving tribute to his "little boy blue".

Now God wanted a football match
And to play it up in heaven
But first he needed players
And select his first eleven.

Georgie Best, big Brian Labone
The legend Dixie Dean
Alan Ball and Bobby Moore
All made it in the team.

He needed one more player
Someone who would be quick
From up above he looked down
And saw Rhys there in his kit.

So Rhys was taken up above
God took him by the hand
To play the game he loved so much
Where sponsorship is banned.

There is no cheating either as
God is the referee
There are no mega wages
And the transfers they are free.

The games are live on telly
You don't have to subscribe
The players all stay on their feet
Cos no one takes a dive.

So Rhys plays now so happily
To the angels in the crowd
And every time he hits the net
They roar his name so loud.

Have fun my little blue boy
You're safe and in God's care
Till it's time for me to get my boots
And join with you up there.

Home again, home again, jiggitty jig..............

2007-09-06T15:19:00.000Z

I know its been a while, and when I last blogged I was heading off to the Emerald Isle. Well I have been and now I'm back! In fact I have been back since 25th August, but it has been RATHER hectic in gourdongirls life of late! I know I was supposed to have returned from Ireland on the 20th August....... but .......well THAT'S for an other blog entry!!!

Just for a taster, this is a pic of the sunset taken from the back of the cottage where we were staying for the first week of the Ireland trip. I promise to blog about that soon.

Okay so what have I been up to since my return? Well mainly working. I've done some nights, but over the last week and for the next few weeks I will be up and about during the day as I am scheduled to do days! This in its self is a VERY weird concept after years of night duty!

On the knitting front.....nothing, zilch, nada! Yup thats right I have NOT been near ANY knitting for nearly 4 weeks. This is virtually unheard of, but its a sad fact. However as I am part of the Ravelry Rugby World Cup knitting group I had better get thinking as to what I want to knit, as the Rugby World Cup starts tomorrow and I haven't got a clue!

On the subject of rugby, the rugby season has started! This means for the next 9 months or so every Sunday will be taken up coaching Robert's group and every Saturday for the forseeable future I will be involved with helping out at the 1st XV games!!!!! I am responsible for ensuring there are ball boys/girls at every home game. I MUST BE MAD!

On the weight front, I actually managed to loose 0.5lb when I was on holiday (and that was no mean feat let me tell you!)and this week I managed a further 3.5lb taking my weight loss so far to 52lb!

Oh well better go as thats the washing finished and I still have to pack the boys stuff, as they are off on a camping weekend with Spinning Fishwife, as it is her son's birthday tomorrow. HAPPY BIRTHDAY DUNCAN.

Off to see the Leprechauns!

2007-08-10T15:38:00.000Z

Sorry I've not been blogging recently, but I'm not sure where the time has gone. Well I suppose I have been working (nothing new there!), but I recently took on the job of membership secretary at the Rugby Club and boy has that taken up all my "spare" time. The new season, officially starts on 1st September and all members had to get a membership package sent out, to enable them the pay their subscription before the start of the season. As there was a few changes to things this year I've had to attend several meetings to iron out all the glitches! All letters are now out and the money is slowly coming in, then I have to process all the information sent back on the forms and ensure a membership card and fixture card are sent out before the start of the season!

On top of that I've been busy promoting the mini section for the kids, with putting up posters and making up batches of fliers ready to put out to all the local schools when they return on the 20th! The mini season gets underway on the 19th. Where has the summer gone....Hell it doesn't seem long since I blogged about the rugby season being at an end!!!!!!

Where do the Leprechauns come into this post.....Well I'm off to Ireland at 6am tomorrow for 10 days! I'm driving my parents and the kids over to Donegal, via the P&O Ferry from Troon to Larne (north of Belfast) and we are staying in a cottage by the sea. Unfortunately DH has to work so we are leaving him at home :(

Will blog about our adventures when we return.........and yes I have packed some knitting!!

The Things You See!

2007-07-30T19:11:00.000Z

As you know, ( or you will if you read my blog often enough!) when I'm working in my kitchen I just love watching the comings and goings on the beach and the Firth of Forth. And that's just what I was doing when I was preparing dinner tonight, when I saw this young couple sit on a log at the edge of the sand. Nothing weird in that, I hear you say, but ..........

...............Guess what she's doing? Yup, she's cutting his hair! Well I think that takes the prize for the most bizarre thing I've seen out of my kitchen window in a while!

Last week was the "Honest Toun's" Festival week and here are more views of the beach! (The "Honest Toun" is what Musselburgh is called!)

The Honest Lad and Lass as they canter along the beach.

More horses cantering along the beach!

They also have a fancy dress parade on the Friday night, when various local organisations dress up and parade through Musselburgh. The Honest Lad and Lass and their party of attendants also get dressed up. This year the Lasses were American Footballers and the Lads were.........................................

............cheer leaders!

Its usually a great week, but it was marred somewhat this year by poor weather at the beginning of the festival.

During this week the boys were up visiting my parents and they seem to have had a great time. They went bowling, went for walks down the beach, played snooker in the garden and helped my mum weed her garden.

I don't have a garden and just loved the vibrant colour of these Livingstone daises in my mums garden.

On the right you find the boys helping with the weeding!

OK, one last thing before I finish this post. My monthly Weight Watchers update. Well in the month of July I managed to loose a further 12lbs, bringing my total loss so far to 43.5lb. This means I have met the target I set in April. I wanted to loose 42lb (or 3 stone) before I went on holiday, well I have managed to achieve that and I still have 2 weeks to go, so fingers crossed it will be nearer the 49lb or 3.5 stone!

Bad blogger!

2007-07-13T15:33:00.000Z

I seem to have been remiss of posting anything on my blog for a few weeks. I have been working really long hours, trying to make up my time before I go to Ireland on holiday in August. The contract I have at work means that if I don't work I don't get paid, so if I take holiday time I need to work loads to make it up. I suppose that is the downside of working when and where I choose!

However I do have one really exciting piece of news. On Wednesday 4th July I made a very special phone call........I finally spoke to my friend Robin in Virginia. I managed to arrange this secretly, with the help of her daughter Julia and it was great to hear the squeal from Robin as she realised who was calling!!!!! We chatted like we had known each other all our life and now we can't wait till she comes to Scotland next year. I feel so sorry for both our DHs coz they won't get a word in!!!!!! I needed to thank her personally for some family history research she has been doing for me in the US. (A future post about that!)

Sorry no knitting pix or news as I really haven't been doing any of late, don't know why! However I do have something I want to share with you..........You know how periodically I post a bit of poetry, well here's one I prepared earlier!

My class

There came a day when enough was enough,
Time to throw out all the fattening stuff,
But I’d been here a few times before,
I knew it would be hard getting through that door!

The time had come to grab the “bull by the horn”
So I pitched up one Thursday morn!
Off I went for the class at nine,
The class time had changed, so I stood in line!

I should have known, I’d nothing to fear,
I was greeted with one almighty cheer!
The friends I’d made here in the past,
Were sorry that my weight loss didn’t last.

The last time I came I’d lost 73.
The difference was plain for all to see,
But 2 years ago, by the wayside I fell
And plummeted back down to dieters hell!

Once more my head is “In the zone”
I would lose the weight, that I’d put on,
But help from our leader, Jo I did need,
With all her information and books to read!

Staying to class, this is a must,
It helps keep me from the foods I lust,
Like crisps, and sweets and sugary cakes,
I need to stay for my health’s sake.

For tips and info to help me loose,
I can still have the odd glass of booze!
Jo helps to keep me on the straight and narrow
Then Thursdays wont be filled with sorrow!

Each day I track and write in my book,
So, if in the future I need to look,
Then I can search back from week to week!
When in times of doubt, inspiration I seek.

Thanks to Jo and her team,
Nothing’s impossible, it would seem,
The help and support they give us all,
Means each week I have a ball!

This class is great, I’m glad I came,
The friends I’ve met have all one aim,
To loose the weight and be thin,
In this Weight Watchers class nothing is a sin!

Yes I really did write this poem, I do sometimes write some, when the mood or inspiration hits me......must be in the genes! Not that its anywhere near the standard of my famous ancestor...Robert Burns!

School Holidays!

2007-06-29T19:54:00.000Z

Seems like ages since I actually sat down at the computer and wrote something for my blog. There really hasn't been too much going on.....just work and family stuff as usual!

However today is the first day of the school summer break.....and guess what.....it rained!

Having said that it has been raining here for days now, but the weather is supposed to be sunny and warm on Sunday :) We shall see!

THUNDER CLOUDS OVER THE FIRTH OF FORTH. (Picture taken from my kitchen window! Yes I DO live that close to the sea!)

It has also been the first week of the tennis at Wimbledon......thats why its been raining! I enjoy watching the tennis, but am hopeless at the game. DH plays for the local tennis club first team and has been coaching the boys tennis there on a Saturday morning and they really enjoy it. Robert has been busy with some 1:1 swimming lessons with Ronan's old swimming teacher and he is really doing well and nearly off on his own. I have him booked in for a weeks intensive course over the summer break, so that should bring him on. I also have found my swim suit and since loosing weight I fit into it, so I plan to go swimming with the boys once a week over the summer break. (Well thats the plan anyway!)

Since I have mentioned loosing weight, I'd better update you all with this months weight loss.....well in the month of June I have lost a further 10lbs, taking my total to 32lbs, still on track to loosing 42lb before I go to Ireland on the 11th August (6 weeks away).

Today I took the boys to the movies. We went to see "Shrek the third", it was really funny and well worth going to see. We plan to see a few new releases and some not so new ones over the summer. This coming week we hope to see this or this. The boys are also planning to spend time in Inverbervie with my parents sometime over the holiday. They enjoy having Granny and Granda time on their own!!!!

Oh well I'm off to bed now as I have been feeling pretty yeuch since yesterday, sore throat and hacking cough, plenty of TLC and hot drinks for me!

Righ or left sided?

2007-06-20T20:48:00.000Z

I haven't been up to much of late so nothing really to blog about. I was catching up with some blog reading and found this on Mallory's site. I thought it might be fun to do!

You Are 45% Left Brained, 55% Right Brained

The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning.
Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others.
If you're left brained, you are likely good at math and logic.
Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet.

The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility.
Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way.
If you're right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art.
Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports.

Are You Right or Left Brained?

Busy few days

2007-06-06T17:37:00.000Z

I've had a very busy few days and I've lots of pix to show you. A stint of 8 straight nights, followed by a weekend packed full of world class 7's rugby and my last secret pal package.

I'll start with my last knitty secret pal package. It arrived yesterday and was full of some wonderful goodies.

Just look.......................................

2 balls of natural Regia sock yarn, (now I'll be able to try the cool aid she sent in her last package, once I work out what to do, as I've NEVER intentionaly dyed anything!!!), 100g skein of "Posh Yarns" sock yarn in Lucia Sway colour way, which is a mixture of colours and I just LOVE it, various bubble bath products and hand cream, "Devine" chocolate in chocolate Orange and white chocolate flavours, haribo sweets and wobbly worms for the kids. WHAT a great package, but I only have a very small complaint.........I'm NOT 100% sure who my secret pal was as there was no card inside. I know she comes from Devon and I know her name, but I DON'T know her knitty name.........or at least I don't think I do..........Mmmmmmmmmmmm???? Any way, who ever you are, THANK YOU * THANK YOU *

Here is a closer look at the "Posh Yarn". Just look at the mix of muted and bright colours.

and the wobbly worms!!!!!!!! The kids just loved THEM. Don't they look oh so real?

OK what did I get up to on my well earned weekend off?.......................
It was DH's birthday on Sunday so as a treat we got tickets to the last weekend of the IRB world 7's rugby tournament which was being held over Saturday and Sunday at Murrayfield (The home of Scottish rugby). 16 coutries took part in this wonderful festival of rugby. There were teams from New Zealand, Austrailia, Samoa, Portugal, Italy, Spain, South Africa, Georgia, Russia, Canada, Wales, England, Fiji,Kenya, Argentina and Scotland. The players mixed with the crowd and signed autographs etc and generally there was a great "party" atmosphere. There was lots of brilliant exciting rugby to watch. The game of 7's rugby is different to the normal game. Its played with 7 players instead of the usual 15. It is usually only 7-10 mins per half instead of 40. To find out more look here.

Here is Robert with Ben Cairns one of the Scotland players (left)
and A J Gilbert from Austrailia (right). The boys had a great time collecting autographs on the Sunday and were really excited to meet lots of "real" rugby players!

There was a festival of rugby on the Saturday and Sunday where there was lots of things for the kids to do, we booked them in to a couple of rugby workshops where they developed their rugby skills.

Here they are, with one of their friends meeting Scottie, the 7's mascot.

They also had the chance to see the Webb Ellis Trophy (Rugby 7's world cup)

and dress up and fight like sumo wrestlers!!!!

There were lots of other things going on......Golden Lions parachute team dropped in on the Sunday, Lothian and Borders Police Pipe band, Dunipace Pipe Band, a couple of groups playing drums and the Rockettes (cheerleaders). It was a brilliant weekend, although we were all really tired by the end of it on the Sunday night. We are already looking forward to next years 7's!!!!

This was taken on our way home on the bus on Sunday night. I didn't take the car as we could get a bus from right out side our house to the Stadium and there is always a problem with parking in the city centre so it isn't worth taking the car.

OK enough about rugby!

Just before I finish up this post I'd like to say well done to Robert who came 3rd in his year at his school sports today! Way to go Rob. Ronan has his sports day next week, so Ronan, good luck for Wednesday.

My bag has been tagged!!!

2007-06-01T20:44:00.000Z

Yup, the bag that I carry round with me all the time has been tagged by Robin! Thank goodness I cleaned it out the other day or I dread to think what I might have found! As it is it wasn't too bad!

OK so what did I find........Hair brush, money wallet, organiser, credit card wallet, current book by Tami Hoag, band aids, analgesic tablets, whistle from rugby training, various pens (like Robin I seem to have a few of these!) mobile phone, body spray, Weight Watchers books, house/car keys, work personal alarm/keys/torch, spare batteries (for my camera), tape measure and Roberts swimming goggles. Of coarse the camera should also be there, but for obvious reasons it's not!

Now I need to pass this meme on so Marilyn , Ariel , Batty and Malory you have just been tagged! :P

Belated thankx

2007-06-01T07:42:00.000Z

This post is really a "Catch up" post, as I have not been very good at sending thankx to people who have been kind to me and sent me packages. Really there is no major excuse for it, apart from having been really busy at work and not spending a lot of time on the computer. I haven't even been sending many emails.....Yes Mam I will get round to sending you the links and pix I promised you weeks ago!!!

This package arrived a few weeks ago from Stariel, one of my "knitty" buddies. We did a swap and she sent me some amazing koigu sock yarn in purple colours. I have never knitted with koigu and am looking forward to doing so as it feels just wonderful. In the package there was some wonderful mint chocolate which I ate as a treat over several nights..... Believe me THAT was not an easy task! THANK YOU * THANK YOU * THANK YOU

Then a few days later this package arrived from Robin in Virginia. In the package was a pair of medium sock blockers, a lovely trinket box with a ladybug and a 4 leafed clover on the lid and when you open it it says "Good friends, good health, good luck" and a packet of Weight Watchers peanut crunch candy. Yummy, but still not as good as Reeses Peanut butter cups, but these not allowed on my WW plan!!!!!
THANK YOU * THANK YOU * THANK YOU

Right I think that's all my thank yous done. If I have forgotten any one I'm sorry, I must have just had a "senior moment"!!!!

OK, what have I been knitting........Well I'm still doing the border on the Civil War Shawl....still a long way to go with that. I keep meaning to take a pic, but I keep forgetting when I have it out of the bag!

As you can see I've also been busy knitting sox. Usually at this point I would bore you with all the details, but "off the top of my head" and after 8 night shifts in a row I can't remember! They all have there ball bands, so when the time comes to make labels I will know all the pertinent details!

Right I have kept the best news till last, well at least I think its the best news. How have I been getting on at Weight Watchers? Well some of you know, but others don't! I have deliberately not posted about it every week coz it gets boring after a while so I have decided just to post a monthly update, on or after the last Thursday of the month.

DRUM ROLL PLEASE..............................................Over the last 6 weeks since I joined Weight Watchers I have managed to loose a staggering 22 lbs! Yes, that's right 22 lbs! I know I still have a long way to go, but at least I'm on the right road. When I started Weight Watchers I decided to set my self a mini goal and loose 42 lbs before going on holiday to Ireland on the 10th August. I still have 10 weeks till then and only 20 lbs of my target to go, so all being well, if I keep going as I have I might even exceed that goal. However if I don't reach it I won't be disappointed.....................................HELL, YES I WILL BE, so I'd better stay focused and then I will achieve it.

Mindless Vandals

2007-05-29T15:25:00.000Z

Today, I was saddened to read in the local paper that the club house of one of Musselburgh's great rugby rivals, Portobello was destroyed by fire on Sunday night. According to reports in the press and on the clubs web site it was set on fire by vandals. 50 years of club history and memories just wiped out.......For what, I ask?

The pix taken at the scene show the devastation the fire caused.

I feel sick to the stomach that this has happened. All the players, members and supporters at Portobello must be in shock. I only hope they manage to "rise from the ashes" like the Phoenix. We look forward to playing there again next season, new club house or not!!

Well that's it!

2007-05-24T11:32:00.000Z

Yes, that's it.......The rugby season is finished till 19th August! Yiphee FREE Sunday afternoons from now till then! Hey don't get me wrong I LOVE being involved with the kids rugby, but sometimes it gets a tad tedious, especially when its pouring with rain and howling a gale and boy there seems to have been a lot of Sundays like that this season!

We had our presentation night last Friday, which went well. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and the kids had fun. Unfortunately no "Player of the Year" or "Most improved player" trophies came home to take up residence in gourdongirls cabinet this year! However both boys have won several medals which have moved in to the cabinet to reside with the ones won in previous seasons.

Here are some pix of the boys in action from their last tournament of the season at Preston Lodge.

Ronan running into support the guy with the ball. (He's the one in blue and white, just behind the guy on the ground!)

Ronan after collecting his runners up medal at the Preston Lodge tournament.

Robert running up the wing with the ball in the hope of scoring yet an other try for Musselburgh!

Yup, you guessed it......It was raining at the Preston Lodge tournament and here's a pic of the "Mud Magnet" to prove it!

That's it, no more rugby pix till the season starts again.........I promise!

The boys have also been doing basketball on a Monday after school, but that finishes next week!!! They had been doing it on a Tuesday at Musselburgh Sports Centre, but a few new boys started and they just wanted to play around and didn't listen to the coach, as a result the whole class spent most of the hour doing punishment exercises because of them so I moved them to an other class and they just love it!

Now that the basketball and rugby have finished for a few months I've had to look for something else for the boys to do to keep them active over the summer. DH has just started coaching tennis to kids at the local tennis club on a Saturday morning, so they have been going along with him and they both seem to enjoy that. Robert has just started swimming lessons on a Tuesday, which he is also enjoying. Hopefully we will do a regular swim session on a Monday after school, which will help Robert learn quicker and Ronan can do lengths to improve his fitness and swimming times.I'm saying "we" as if it will be me doing the swim session, but its not, it's my friend Fran who will be going into the pool with the kids. I refuse to buy a swim suit till I loose some more weight! Fran's son, Lewis will swim along with Ronan and I think Duncan, spinningfishwifes son is coming along too.

Murals at Prestongrange by Tom Ewing

2007-05-10T09:06:00.001Z

This is an interview done with Tom Ewing about the murals he painted at Prestongrange Industrial Heritage Museum. Tom is being interviewed by my DH!

BTW DH will be totally mortified when he discovers I have put this on my blog as he hates the way he sounds! At no time during the interview do you actually see him.

A ray of Sunshine?

2007-05-04T01:13:00.000Z

I was catching up with some blog reading and found this on Yorkie's blog, and since I hadn't done one for a while I decided to go a head!

You Are Sunshine

Soothing and calm
You are often held up by others as the ideal
But too much of you, and they'll get burned

You are best known for: your warmth

Your dominant state: connecting

What Type of Weather Are You?

Then I found this when I was finding out what weather I was and JUST had to find out if I was a morning or night person?

You Are a Night Person

For you, there's nothing worse than having to get up and moving early.
In fact, you probably don't hit your peak until well after the sun has set.
So if your struggling to make it on a normal schedule, realize it's not your fault.
You just weren't meant to do anything during the day!

Are You a Morning Person or Night Person?

Well there's a surprise....NOT. I guess that might have something to do with why I work nights!

Then I found this on Robin's blog!

You Are An ESFJ

What's Your Personality Type?

Oh well there you go!

A "secret" package arrives

2007-05-03T20:44:00.000Z

I meant to post about this wonderful package last week, but with work and rugby commitments this is the first chance that I have actually had to sit down at the computer long enough to post about it.

I would like to say a huge THANK YOU to my wonderful secret pal, who has totally spoiled me rotten,and according to her there is yet an other package on its way. I guess gourdongirl needs to start stalking the mailman again!

In the package was some wonderful 4ply by Jaeger in a grape colour, a skein of Rowan 4ply in blue and one in black/grey. There was also a skein of ? aran weight and one of ? lace weight in what I think might be her own hand spun and dyed yarn, also in a grape coulour. It is so soft and yummy, I must confess to fondling it ALOT! I'm not sure what all that yummy yarn will turn out to be, but once it "talks to me" you will all find out!

Also in the package was a selection of Koolaid sachets so that I can experiment with dying. I'll need to buy some undyed yarn first so I can do that. Dying my own is something I have never been brave enough to try......One day I will! There was also some nappy pins for holding small amounts of stitches, 2 sheepy pencils for the boys and a packet of lambs whoopsies! (chocolate sweets!) I must admit that I didn't eat any of them, and that is definitely NOT like me, but since I returned to Weight Watchers I have been watching my chocolate intake, having said that I have it on VERY good authority that the lambs whoopsies were delicious.... Yes the boys got them!

As I said earlier, a BIG thank you goes to my secret pal who has been really wonderful. I think I know who she is, but I'm looking forward to the big reveal to see if I have guessed right!

On the knitting front I have done a bit more of the border on my Civil War Shawl. This is taking ages, in fact I knitted the main body of the shawl in less time! I have also just finished knitting a sock. However I have lost the other ball of yarn, so will have to delay starting the next one. I know it is in the house somewhere!! I promise to take some pix and post them soon.

Well I weighed in at "fat club" this morning and despite having a tricky weekend for food, I still managed to loose 3lb, so that brings my total so far to 9lbs in 2 weeks! This weekend will be an other tricky one as I am helping out at the Musselburgh 7's rugby competition on Saturday and on Sunday the boys have an other rugby tournament. However as long as I watch what I'm doing and factor in all my indiscretions I should be OK.

Tournament season!

2007-04-29T22:13:00.000Z

Oh boy, today was the start of the rugby tournament season, which sees us attending several different tournaments over the next few weeks. There are several tournaments which we attend over the season (August - May), but the last few weeks are always the busiest and most stressful!!!

Today was our own tournament which was held at Musselburgh Rugby Club. There were teams taking part from North Berwick RFC, Lasswade RFC and Preston Lodge RFC.

All our guys were up for playing some good rugby and the sun was shining so what more could we ask for?

The P3's (under 8's) had their own sub-tournament, where all teams came out winners.

The P4's (under 9's) played well and won 1, drew 1 and lost 1, making them runners up, with North Berwick coming out winners.

Here is Robert (in the middle with the red boots) tackling one of the Preston Lodge players!

The P5's(under 10's) were well up for it, especially after their win at the
Scottish International Festival of Rugby a few weeks ago. Again they played brilliantly and came away as winners.

The P6's (under 11's) came out fighting after losing in the final at the Scottish International Festival of Rugby a few weeks ago. Guess what they weren't runners up this week. Yes they were the winners.

Here is Ronan (with the white bandages on his knees) tackling a Preston Lodge player. Why does he have bandages on his knees......well the ground is so hard I put Vaseline on his knees and then some stretchy bandages for protection. (Keeps the knees from being skinned and painful....as well as clean!)

The P7's (under 12's) in their last year in the mini section were looking for a win too, but unfortunately they were runners up to, once again the North Berwick team.

We had managed to arrange for Dougie Hall and Alan McDonald, 2 Edinburgh Rugby players to hand out the medals and trophies.

Robert and Ronan with Dougie and Alan. Yes Bob has THAT trophy again! He played a stormer and tackled like a demon so he won "Man of the match" as well as a runners-up medal! Ronan is hanging on tightly to his rugby ball as both Dougie and Alan signed it for him.

Today is our BIG fund raiser so we have lots of stuff going on, from "hook-a-duck"(Hook-a-Duck is a game usually played by children, whereby small plastic ducks are placed in a bath of water. The players then have to 'hook a duck' using a piece of bamboo with an eyelet in the end: the ducks all have hooks on their backs. Sometimes a small prize is given, other times the number painted on the bottom of the duck determines whether you have won or not.), tombola(bottle stall), cake/candy stall, teas/coffees and a BBQ with both burgers and steaks. Its thanks to a huge army of volunteers that today can actually happen. Yesterday we were all at the club making up food bags for all the teams taking part, sorting through stuff for the tombola, and baking things for the cake stall. Today we were all there bright and early to set everything up and then clear it all away at the end of the day.

A good day was had by all and now I'm about to go to bed coz I'm absolutely shattered!

Moment of truth!

2007-04-26T14:46:00.001Z

This morning was the moment of truth, when I discovered if all my hard word had paid off or not. Yes that's right it was Weight Watchers weigh in. I wasn't really looking forward to it coz I had just finished a night shift and had drunk 1.5 litres of water overnight and kinda felt bloated. I did have the choice to go this evening, but then I would not be able to catch up with all the girls that I know. I also looked at my work schedule and discovered that for the next few weeks I am working on a Wednesday night before weigh in so it would all even out in the end. Or that's the plan anyway!

I knew I would loose some weight coz it was the first week and if you stick to the plan you will loose the weight and you always loose loads of fluid the first week anyway. A good indicator that I had shifted some poundage was the fact that I kept having to pull my trousers up last night. They had been snug at the waist before and now they weren't. I suppose it didn't help that I had my work keys and personal alarm attached to the waistband, that might have been pulling at them slightly!

OK enough of this prevarication and lets get down to the knitty gritty and let you know how much I actually lost this week................................. A whopping 6lbs. Woooo Hoooooo. Wasn't gourdongirl a VERY happy bunny in deed. Now that has just set me up for next week. But I will have a few temptations over the weekend as its the kids rugby tournament on Sunday and there will be lots of goodies to tempt gourdongirl away from the "straight and narrow". Having said that there will be plenty to keep me occupied and I probably won't have time to go near the cake stall!!!! I also have to supply some cakes, sausage rolls and sandwiches, so there will also be temptations in the house over the weekend! All I need to do is remain focused and all will be well.

On the knitting front I have now completed the main body of my Civil War Shawl and have managed to do 12 repeats of the border, only an other 70 to go!

Here I am at row 154 out of 161, so I was nearly there. I am knitting it in 100% silk lace weight from Colourmart and the colour is called Tartan Green. I hope to have it finished to take on holiday to Ireland in August.

Getting a grip!

2007-04-22T22:29:00.000Z

This week I took a long hard look at myself and I didn't like what I saw.

It was time to get a grip and do something about the weight I need to shift. I really struggled at times last weekend when I was away at the rugby tournament. I was hiding my head in the sand a bit and blamimg how I was feeling on being really tired due to lack of sleep. The lack of sleep was mainly due to the pain in my right leg after falling on Friday night and the fact that the bed was the smallest double bed I have ever seen!!!!! When I fell I landed on my right knee, but its not the knee that's giving me bother but my calf and thigh. I'm not sure what I have done, but being over weight is not helping the situation.

TIME TO GET A GRIP!

A couple of years ago I went to Weight Watchers and managed to shift 73lbs....YES I did say 73lbs. Unfortunately life got in the way and I stopped going and low and behold two years later we are back to where we started. Something needed to be done and after bumping into several people from the class and the class leader I thought I was being told something and took the bull by the horns and got my act together and went back to class on Thursday morning. That was the hardest bit, getting back in through the door, now I have done that the rest is up to me. I know I can do it,as i did it before.

I got DH to take a "fat" pic on Thursday, but I don't want to blog it just yet. I might in the future but not yet.

So far all is going well and I even turned down the offer of several beers at the rugby club this afternoon and had diet coke instead. Giving up the odd beer, glass of wine or gin and tonic won't be a problem as I don't drink much anyway, it will be staying focused and organised that will be the problem. If I am organised and write out my weekly menus and shopping lists I am OK, if I don't do that I run into mega problems.

Wish me luck!

Proud moments!

2007-04-16T20:28:00.000Z

What a weekend THAT was! Brilliant rugby, brilliant kids, brilliant sunshine.

We all arrived back to Musselburgh late last night, rather bruised, battered, weary and hoarse!

Here are the under 9's (in the front row), with Robert second from the left. Behind them are the under 11's with Ronan about the middle of the picture. We were all waiting patiently for the tournament to be officially opened.

The kids had their first games of rugby on Saturday. The first to kick off were my under 9's team, and boy did they play. They came together as a team and played like demons. They won all their games on Saturday which meant they won their group and had a place in the semi-final of the cup on the Sunday. Unfortunately they lost and didn't get into the final. They won the playoff and got bronze medals. Not bad for their first ever away tour. Played 4, won 3, lost 1.

The P4 (under 9's) team with their bronze medals.

Back row - Tim and Stuart (the other coaches)
Middle row - Fraser, Michael, Ross and Douglas.
Front row - Greg, Joe, Robert and Max.

The under 10's won all their games and came back to Musselburgh with the biggest cup I have ever seen! Goodness knows where we will put it as the trophy cabinet isn't big enough! Played 5, won 5.

The under 11's, that's Ronan and Duncan's team played really well and managed to get into the final of the cup, unfortunately they lost it. But they put up a brave performance and come away with the consolation of being the only team to score a try against the opposition for the whole tournament!!!! They all received a small trophy for being in the final. Played 5, won 4, lost 1.

One of the proudest moments of my life happened on Sunday, when I watched Ronan (6th from the front in the blue and white) being piped on to the field for the final of the cup. I, along with several of the other parents were all choked up with tears at this point. Goodness knows what I'll be like if he ever gets to Murrayfield!!!!

The under 12's had a really tough time. Their squad was depleted before they even left due to injury and most of the 11 guys who did manage to go on tour were also carrying injuries. They play 10 a side so that left only 1 sub. I spent most of my time during their matches patching up the wounded and sending them back on to play. They played 6, won 3, drew 1 and lost 2. They also came home with a bronze medal.

A brilliant performance from all the kids who took part. This was the biggest tournament we had ever been in and all the coaches and parents of all the kids involved are really proud of them.

Today I am tired and coming down from a huge adrenaline rush. I have sore feet from walking goodness knows how many miles up and down the touch line shouting encouragement to all the Musselburgh teams. I have a sore throat from shouting and singing and a sore left ankle and right knee from when I fell getting on the bus before we even left for the tournament!

As I said at the beginning, WHAT a weekend that was!

BTW, I am glad to be home to a decent bed!

Here we go, here we go, here we go.......

2007-04-13T12:35:00.000Z

Yes the Rugby Tour weekend has finally arrived! We are off to Ayr on the west coast of Scotland with approx 50 kids and 20+ coaches/parent helpers. Oh joy!!!!! I am absoloutly dreading it....not the rugby, as that will be great, but what the kids will get up to before/after the rugby!

OK do we have all our stuff?
4 pairs shorts.......check
4 rugby tops.........check
4 pairs red sox......check
2 body armour........check
2 second skin tops...check
2 pairs rugby boots..check
2 gum shields........check
4 pairs stick mits...check
2 waterproof tops....check
toiletries...........check (why I have packed that for the boys is beyond me!)
spare clothes........check
2 water bottles......check
sun screen...........check (We live in hope!)
2 baseball caps......check (Just incase the sun shines!)
2 prs swim shorts....check
2 towels.............check
sweets...............check

Oh well I thats the kids sorted, now for DH and I.
Beer.................check

Guess thats us all ready to go.

Back on Sunday night, hopefully with lots of pix and medals.

Have a good weekend, I will!

Fallen off the World

2007-04-12T08:08:00.000Z

Or at least that's what I feel has happened to me in the last couple of weeks. I know I haven't been around "blogland" much and I haven't really been answering my emails either. I have done some knitting and have nearly finished the main body of my Civil War Shawl, but still haven't taken any pix of it.

I feel as if I have just been going through the motions for the last 2 weeks. I've been at work and I've looked after the kids etc, but my head feels full of "cotton wool"! I'm NOT depressed, I'm simply grieving. I'm actually finding it very difficult to write this post but I feel I need to, so that I can move on and get on with my life. (It doesn't help that the screen is all blurry, as I'm looking through tears).

On the 31st of March a person who has been part of my life for the past 45 years died. Helen Smith Dorward (ms Cargill) was my granny and although she hadn't really been "with us" for the past 8 years she was still a part of my life, and every time I went home to see my parents I visited her, even if she didn't know who I was or who my children were. She hadn't been ill and even at 91 years old her death wasn't expected. Her condition rapidly deteriorated over a period of 48 hours, which really took us all by surprise. However we all managed to get to her bedside and spend some time with her on our own and I feel we all got to say goodbye. This has helped me deal with her passing. The strange thing was, that even although she hadn't known my brother and I for the past few years she seemed to know us at the end.

She died peacefully at 13.25 hours on 31st March 2007 surrounded by the people who loved her and being met at the "other side" by people who loved her. It had been nearly 30 years since my grandad had died and I believe he came to meet her that day.

I have found myself, at odd times thinking about her and her life and I can't help thinking that had she been born 20-30 years later, how different her life might have been. She was a character, who knew her own mind and knew what she did and didn't want and because of this she wasn't always easy to live with. She was brought up in a close fishing community, the eldest child of a fisherman, sister of a fisherman, wife of a fisherman and the mother-in-law of a fisherman, thus her life was governed by the sea, and it was a hard life, but now she is at rest.

I'm forever blowing bubbles!

2007-03-25T09:44:00.000Z

I couldn't resist taking some pix of the boys blowing bubbles in the bath, they were having so much fun!

They were having competitions to see who could blow the biggest one! I think it was a close run thing!!!!

BTW Ronan will be totally mortified if he knew I was posting about this, certainly won't do his "Street cred" any good!

Its been 12 days since......

2007-03-24T08:42:00.000Z

my last post. I didn't realise I hadn't been near my blog for all this time. Don't really have a reason for not posting. Life , I suppose has just got in the way. It's not as if I've been working a crazy work schedule like I sometimes do, so that's not the reason. Yes I've been busy, but not any more than usual. Oh well, I'm here now!

Before I tell you all my news I have several BIG thank yous to say.

First one is to Robin who sent me a surprise package,

and Oh boy was it a great package. There was 2 skeins of Koigu sock yarn, in lovely blue tones. I have been wanting to try this yarn for ages and now I can. There was a china thimble all the way from her Hawks nest spinning weekend to add to my collection of china thimbles and a fridge magnet which says "Even though we are miles apart....I will always feel we are close at heart". I have only known Robin for about a year, but its like we've known each other all our lives, and guess what.......I will finally meet her when she comes across to Scotland (her and DH's ancestral home)next year. I can hardly wait.

The second thank you goes to Kimberly from Knitty.com, who I did a sock swap with.

Here you see the sox she knitted me on 2mm needles from Lorna's Laces in blackberry. The pattern she used was Child's sock from Nancy Bush's "Knitting Vintage Socks". Also in with the sox was a bar of home made soap, post its and note cards. Thank you very much Kimberly, I really love the sox (and the all the other goodies too!)

The third thank you goes to my Secret Pal who sent me this..........

Debbie Stroller's "Happy Hooker". I was just thrilled to receive this book as I had been eyeing it up at my local Borders books, but had never actually got round to buying it. I already have several projects ear marked to do and can't wait to get started with them, but before I do I need to do some FO's first!!!!!!

My last thank you goes to Isabella who brought back some sock wool for me from SKIPnorth.
She brought me back 1 x 100g ball of pink Opal Uni, 1 x 100g ball of purple Opal Uni, 2 x 50g balls Cygnet in pink and 2 x 50g balls Cygnet in purple. She also brought back a ball of red and a ball of green sock yarn which was very kindly sent up from Sue and Nic, 2 of the girls I met at SKIPnorth last year. I have already knitted a pair of kids sox with the red. (pix to follow)

Now for my other news!!!

I now have 2 Cub Scouts in the family. Yup, Robert said his promise a few weeks ago. Here he is posing for the camera along with Ronan. Once again I was busy sewing on all the appropriate badges!!

We have also been busy with the usual rugby on Sundays. Having said that a few of our away games were cancelled due to bad weather, so we just trained instead. Robert managed to get the "Player of the week" trophy 2 weeks running, on the 4th and 11th. Well done Bob. Ronan was also picked to play in a rugby tournament on the 4th, but unfortunately it was cancelled. But well done Ronan for getting picked for the 1st team.

On the knitting front I have finished 3 pairs of sox, but I will post about them later since I don't have pix of them.

Here is my "main" current project.... The Civil War Shawl. I am taking part in this knit-a-long which started on the 1st of March.

This is my second attempt at it, the first one having to be frogged when I lost several stitches when the 2 parts of the Denise needles I was using parted company! I started it again on Wed 21st March, this pic was taken on the 22nd, when I had reached row 45. (The 1st weeks target!)I managed to reach the second weeks target of row 68 by Friday morning and this morning I have managed to reach row 85, so I am now well on schedule and in fact I am a head of schedule, as this weeks target was to reach row 81 by Sunday. Thank goodness for quiet nights at work!!! I am using 100% silk lace weight yarn from Colourmart in Tartan green. I was using 2 sets of 2mm dpns, but thankfully I am now using a circular needle. I was getting fed up with all the dpn's getting stuck in all the holes!

I have today off and really should be in bed sleeping at the moment, but instead I am catching up with my neglected blog! I have a few things to do today......like go to the garage and get 4 new tyres put on the car. The car went through its annual MOT this week and failed, but I knew it would as there was a few minor things needing done, like the breaks needing adjusted and a couple of bulbs needing replaced. I wasn't reckoning on needing 4 new tyres and the catalytic converter needing fixed/replaced. Think it will be beans on toast in the gourdongirl house for the next few nights as this ain't going to be cheap! Oh well I guess the summer is coming and I can put off renewing the central heating boiler for a couple of more months!

All being well I will be at the rugby club this afternoon to watch Musselburgh against Perthshire in their last home league game this season. At the moment we are second in the league and as long as we win this game and the one next week we should get promotion to Division 2. You never know, with a bit of luck we might even win the league and become Division 3 champions. That we won't know till next Saturday after our away game at Ellon.

And finally.................Just a reminder to all those reading this on this side of the "pond", The clocks go froward tonight and tomorrow it will officially be British Summer Time!!!!!!

Edited at 19:05 on Sat 24th to point out that I made an error when I stipulated the size of needles I was using on the shawl. I should have said 2.5mm and NOT 2mm. Thank you Isabella for pointing out my mistake and for lending me the said circular needle. (Which was in deed 2.5mm!!!!)

Also, Musselburgh beat Perthshire by 38 points to 10, so promotion looks good for next season

Couldn't resist this!

2007-03-12T16:50:00.000Z

I was reading knitdaisies blog and just couldn't resist doing this Harry Potter quiz. Not sure about the wise or learning from bit, but the rest is a pretty acurate assesment I feel!

You scored as Albus Dumbledore. You are very wise, observant, and analyctical. You have a very "well-organized" mind, which makes you function in a calm and fair manner. Though you get angered easily, its rare of you to ever act our of temper. You are constantly seeing the good in people and are naturally forgiving because of it. You're easy to please and a great person to learn from.

Albus Dumbledore

66%

Neville Longbottom

56%

Bellatrix Lestrange

53%

Remus Lupin

50%

Oliver Wood

47%

Harry Potter

44%

Sirius Black

44%

Ron Weasley

38%

Hermione Granger

34%

Luna Lovegood

28%

Severus Snape

25%

Lord Voldemort

19%

Percy Weasley

13%

Draco Malfoy

Harry Potter Character Combatibility Test
created with QuizFarm.com

As promised!

2007-03-09T16:33:00.000Z

As promised here is a pic of my Dad with all the grandchildren.

(l to r) Keira (15), Dad, Calum (17), Ronan (11) and Robert (8). This was taken at my brother's house after we had all been out for a meal to celebrate Dad's 70th birthday.

Since coming back from my parents on Sunday I have been rather busy working, so I haven't had much time to blog or take pix of my sock swap sox which arrived the other day, or the latest pair of sox I'm knitting, or the progress (or not) of the KAL Civil War Shawl that I started on Monday night and had to frog last night when disaster struk. Disaster struk on row 47, when the Denise needle I was using unclipped and I lost several stitches. After about an hour of looking for them I gave up and frogged it. I am using lace weight 100%silk in Tartan green from colourmart and its like knitting with thread!!!! I was using size 3.75 needles and I really wasn't happy with that, so now that it is frogged I will be able to start again on smaller ones, well I will when I go search the LYS to buy them!

I promise to take pix over the weekend and post them soon.

More Blog filler!

2007-03-07T16:16:00.000Z

I was reading Faerynuff's mums blog when I came across this quiz and I thought it might be fun to do.

Which Jane Austen character are you?

Take the Quiz here!

I'm Anne Elliot of Persuasion! Let's face it, you're easily persuaded, especially when faced with choices that are or aren't 'the Elliot way.' But this doesn't mean that you don't have conviction. Actually, your sense of duty is overwhelming. And though you won't stick your neck out too often, you have learned to speak up when it counts. To boot, you know how to handle sticky situations. You love deeply and constantly