Everyone is talking about Susan Boyle, a Scottish woman who has entered “Britain’s got Talent”. You can see the clip here. She has had the most hits on YouTube ever - more than Obama’s inauguration speech – over 100 million. Good luck to her, however my favourite act so far, by a country mile, is Stavros Flatly and his Boy the Greek/Irish Dancers, what a laugh!!
Last week was spent with the Monks Clan in Inverbroom Lodge outside Ullapool in the North West of Scotland. The reason for this get together was to celebrate Jean’s 70th birthday and we had all been saving up for it for over a year. Everyone was really looking forward to it – all 18 of us (maybe not Rory who celebrated his 4 week birthday while we were there).
Wednesday was the last league competition of the year. Just got sent the final positions for the various categories.
I was 3rd in the Mono section before Wednesday, but with my results in the final round I managed to sneak into 2nd – by 1 point!! I am kicking myself because I didn’t enter the 2 of the mono competitions because I was wanting to concentrate on the colour – next year!!!
Didn't do too bad last night - Ella in colour was second and my Tulips got placed in the top 10 in the A prints. In the Mono the boy with the tractor got placed and Ella in B&W got 4th (I think) I will confirm this when I get the official results. Not sure if I managed to get 2nd in the final standings in the Mono section – maybe.
Ella in Colour - 2nd
Tulips – top 10
Ella in B&W - 4th
Boy with the Toy Tractor – Top 10
It is the last league competition tomorrow night. I am currently 3rd in the black and white. There is a chance of going 2nd, but 1st is out of reach. Maybe next year. I will let you know how I get on.
Read more...I was coerced onto the Camera Club committee last year by one of our older members of the club. While at one of the committee meetings I suggested that I could redo the clubs website. This way I am seen to be doing something for the club, but it is something I enjoy doing. Anyway, if anyone is interested you can have a look here - www.gryffecameraclub.co.uk
Below is a slideshow I made up for the site – this is samples from a number of the members – well worth a look
My next project is to help Mikie set up his website and blog. Watch this space.
Read more...I started recording statistics for the blog on Friday 24th of October 2008 – this lets me know the number of people who look at the blog, where they are from and what pages they are looking at. Here are a few of the stats
There have been 288 people visit the blog 2,955 times. I have had people visit from 35 different countries- top 5 are shown below, but I have had people from all over, Belgium, India, New Zealand, Japan, Vietnam, Peru, Uruguay, Mexico and South Korea are a few.
| UK | 78% |
| Spain | 6% |
| USA | 4.5% |
| Canada | 2.5% |
| Malaysia | 1.5% |
Here is the points on the maps where someone has visited.
The most popular page has been the Burns Supper Night. This was where most of the far fetched visitors arrived – I think the world was searching for Burns Suppers in Google and the blog was appearing in the results.
Uncle Brendan’s email “Were you born in the 40’s, 50s, 60’s or 70’s” was popular too – it certainly got plenty comments!
Granny Meg’s tribute was next, but I think it should be top as I started recording the stats after everyone had seen it – just shows that people are still going back for a look.
Mikie’s Piano music has had a lot of visits too – I know I go onto it regularly to have a listen – The first tune – Misty, has a very relaxing effect!!
I started the blog originally as a place to put Granny Meg’s tribute so that the Spanish and Canadian’s could see it, but since then I have really enjoyed putting up my photos and recording anything of interest (to me that is). I think it will be really good to be able to look back on in the future. Anyway – I hope everyone is still enjoying the updates from the Houston Brawleys.
Read more...
One of the rules of the pot is that the money has to be used for “good things” – not pay for bills or food shopping.
We smashed it last night and all started counting - £487.00, which was quite lucky because I had decided on buying a new lens for my camera and this just about covers it!!
By the way – I got my car back yesterday – all fixed and they even gave it a clean.
Read more...Here are a few pictures of the weekend - Ella was in the mood for some posing! She was getting no prompting from me – everytime I clicked the camera she would change position!!
Read more...Glasgow has just been updated on Google Maps. They have a new thing called Street View – they are in the process of driving around the major cities with a special van fitted with loads of cameras. The photos taken are then uploaded onto the web to give you a virtual tour of the town. Quite amazing – anyway start at George Square and have a wee walk roond the toon!! I am knackered – I’ve been everywhere! George Square
This is the best – for all the foreign family members - Granny's House – her windows are open!!
Only 99 days until we arrive in Spain!!
Read more...Mikie came over last night for his dinner and a wee swally. He got up and went to the skiing this morning with us to see the kids. I had offered him my old camera, which was keen to take so he came back for a crash course. He spent the afternoon messing about with it and was going to take it to the gig he is playing at tonight.
Just before he left we got him booked up for the wedding. He is on the same flights as us. He is picking up a car, so there will be plenty of room for the luggage!!
Read more...Mo met me at work with the kids and we headed through to Edinburgh to meet Rory. He is a cracker. He slept most of the time – no idea how he managed it with the kids having shots of holding him. He woke up just as we were leaving, so the kids were happy and I managed to get a few pictures.
And a wee sneeze to finish…
Siobhan and Stuart had a baby boy yesterday at 11:34am. He was 8lb 13oz. No name yet but will update as soon as we know. This is Jean & Eddie’s 8th Grandchild, increasing the Monks clan to 18.
Update – His name is Rory
The A9 road, which is the main road from Inverness to Perth, goes over the “Drumochter Pass”. This can be quite wild and is really high up. As we were getting close to this part of the road the weather was really closing in – complete white out with the snow. The road was becoming very white, apart from the tyre tracks from the cars in front.
I still was not too bothered, because everyone seemed to be driving quite sensibly, we were all keeping our distance and going really slowly. Just after the pass, before the dual carriageway, I kind of saw cars starting to break and then go sideways, then there was a pile of cars. I tried to break, but the road must have been iced over, as the breaks did absolutely nothing. I tried the handbrake and still nothing. Even although we had not been travelling fast, we were not slowing down quick enough.
I was heading straight for a car, who had managed to stop about 5m before the pile up. My car started to turn at the last minute, but the back passenger door hit their rear bumper (bump #1) and we then hit the crash barrier (bump #2). We must have been doing 10mph when I hit the car. Everything came to a stop, and there must have been 12-15 cars all stopped on the road, with various levels of damage. I recon there must have been 4-5 cars which wouldn’t have been able to drive. There didn’t look like anyone was injured, people were all out of the cars swapping insurance details. Some people had ran up the road a bit to warn the cars coming up behind. While I was watching I could see these cars getting out of control and bumping one another.
We spoke to the driver of the car I hit and got her contact details, and we were able to drive away. The car had been completely out of control, no steering or brakes - it could have been a whole lot worse – I still shit myself a wee bit when I think about it!!
Mo took a picture of the road after we set off again. We were the first to leave, so there wasn’t even the black tyre tracks to follow. 
My car has some damage all round the car, bonnet, bumper, both drivers side wings, rear passenger wing and rear passenger door. I have just spoken to the insurance company and they are muttering that it could be a write-off – I really don’t want that.
<<10/03/2009 - UPDATE
I have just taken the car to the garage and they will be able to fix it!! It goes in tomorrow.
Earlier in the week there was a dump of snow on the hills. I had arranged to go up to Aviemore at the weekend to see my customer at Scandinavian Village and was speaking to them on Thursday. Miriam said that there was a lot of snow but there was no guarantee for the weekend. I checked out the web site and gave Mo a call to see if she fancied trying some real snow again after the nightmare we had a few weeks ago. We decided we would give it a go. Jean and Eddie had said Ella could stay with them.
I arranged to hire the stuff from Bellahouston and I picked up the skis on Friday while Ella was having her ski lesson. She is doing great and loves going to her lessons – not interested in going onto real snow.
We headed up to Aviemore at about 4 o’clock on Friday and had an early night.
The alarm went of at 7 this morning and we got up, showered and had breakfast – Mo and I had porridge. We got in the car and drove the 8 miles up to the ski slope. Meg was not looking forward to it at all – she was thinking it was going to be like the last time. We got off at the top of the venicular railway and there was so much snow – it was quite windy, but compared to a few weeks ago, it looked great.
We had a few runs on the nursery slope to get used to it – we were all loving it. We had loads of runs and had lunch about 12 o’clock. This was just in time – we managed to get in and get served straight away. We had to sit on the floor because it was so busy – but you are so hungry, tired and cold you are happy to sit anywhere. When we were heading back out the queue for the meals was huge!!
Out on the slopes it was snowing, but the visibility had improved. We had a few up and downs on the slope we had been on in the morning, and then moved onto a longer run. This run was so long my thighs were burning about half way down. It was so good – the longest we have skied is about 200m before. The kids were loving it as much as us.
We had another few runs, but the wind was getting up quite a bit and the kids were getting a bit nervous. Mo took the kids down on the train and I skied down. It was great – I almost made all the way to the car park. Towards the end it was getting slushy and rocky. I had to take the skis of and walk – only after the train went past with Mo and he kids and saw me fall on my coupin!!
What a day – we all loved it. I was so glad to get some good skiing in with the kids after the last time.
I handed in photos a few weeks ago for the March camera club competition. The external judge came tonight to give the results. I managed 3rd in Black and White with Myah, and 3rd in the Digital with Meg at the Knapps.
The next day started quite early – We were up at 4:45am, showered, had breakfast, got dressed and into the car to get to the ski school for 6am. We got our skis and packed them onto the bus and settled down for the journey.
We were heading for the Nevis Range, which is just past Fort William, and got there just after 9. I was getting a bit worried because I hadn’t seen any evidence of snow all the way up – apart from the occasional small patch on the hills. They had not made a decision on whether the tows were going to run, because it was quite windy further up the hill, but they assured us that there was at least one ski run open.
At 10:30 they started the tows and we got started. The first bit of the trip is in a Gondola, which just involved us having a seat – however the whole way up there wasn’t a single patch of snow. I was starting to get worried. When we arrived at the base station there was a bit of snow. We had a short walk up a hill and we were able to get our skis on. We skied for about 3-400m until we reached another lift. The 4 of us got on the lift and it took us further up the hill. As we started getting to the end of the lift Mo and I started looking at one another, thinking how do we get off this thing!! As it came into the exit platform, the bar came up and it basically catapulted the four of us down a ramp and onto the snow – what a bunch of wallapers we must have looked. Mo landed on her face and then couldn’t get up, I managed to stay on my feet – but only just. If only this had been the most embarrassing point of the day!!!
Once we got ourselves sorted again (luckily no one, apart from the tow attendant had seen our silky smooth skills) there was a 200m calm, traverse where we were able to ski to get to the start of the run. At this point I was starting to think there was something wrong. I was finding it very difficult to slow myself down – not ideal!!
We made it to the top of the ski run, but if we were being awarded any points for style the Brawley's were still on 0. We were all over the place – the snow was really icy and it was difficult to even stand still. First to go was Patrick (obviously) – he shot across the slope managed a few turns and did a “controlled crash” into a big drift about 50m down the slope. I was starting to panic slightly, because if anything happened to the other 3, I was in no position to get to them quickly. I turned to Mo and said that I would try and catch up with Pat and that Meg and her to stay together.
I shot across the slope at 100mph, I had a major snow plough going and was still going too fast. I attempted my first turn, caught the back of my ski on the snow, tried to adjust, failed and started heading down the slope backwards – still at about 100mph!! I managed to stop myself and slowly made it to a patch of grass. Style points – still 0!! I had only made it down about 10m and certainly hadn’t filled Meg or Mo with any confidence as they set off on their attempt. Meg was very nervous, but she was coping with it the best. She made it down to me and continued past. Meg got us 10 style points. I then looked up to see Mo doing the one leg in the air, compensate, reverse manoeuvre which I had just performed – we just lost the 10 style points!!
By this time, Patrick had made it to the bottom – he had just got down as quickly as possible any way possible. Megan made it down having only fallen a few times. Mo and I took about half an hour to make it down, my legs were killing me and I had spent more time on my back than I had on my skis.
Patrick was not wanting to go back up, we tried to talk him into it but he was about to have a flaky – so Mo, Meg and I went up for another go. This time, Megan made it all the way to the bottom without falling – well done Meg – 100 style points. Mo and I had much better runs, still falling quite a bit but a definite improvement!! We only lost 60 of the points! When we got to the bottom Pat and Meg were making a snowman! It was about lunch time by this point so rather than try and force Patrick to have another go we decided that we would go and have lunch.
If there had been lots of snow we would have been able to ski down to the restaurant. However, we had to retrace our steps to get back. Remember the times when we were able to ski on the way to the run – well we now had to walk, with ski boots on and skis over our shoulder! It must have taken about 3/4 hour to get back, and I was gubbed. We had something to eat and realised that we would not really have time to make it back to the run, have a few skis and get back to the bus for 4 o’clock. We finished lunch and by the time we got down on the cable car, we got back to the bus for 3. We got changed and went for a coffee, before the hard-core arrived back about 4:15.
All in all I really enjoyed my day – the skiing conditions (by everyone's account, including the instructors) were rubbish and we were told over and over not to get disheartened by it. We were not the only ones who had found it difficult. However it was all an experience and we will defiantly do it again. And by my calculations we all went home with 40 style points in the bag!!
I had Meg’s camera and the wee video camera which I didn’t use very often (too busy trying to survive!!), but here is what I got.
The next day started quite early – We were up at 4:45am, showered, had breakfast, got dressed and into the car to get to the ski school for 6am. We got our skis and packed them onto the bus and settled down for the journey.
We were heading for the Nevis Range, which is just past Fort William, and got there just after 9. I was getting a bit worried because I hadn’t seen any evidence of snow all the way up – apart from the occasional small patch on the hills. They had not made a decision on whether the tows were going to run, because it was quite windy further up the hill, but they assured us that there was at least one ski run open.
At 10:30 they started the tows and we got started. The first bit of the trip is in a Gondola, which just involved us having a seat – however the whole way up there wasn’t a single patch of snow. I was starting to get worried. When we arrived at the base station there was a bit of snow. We had a short walk up a hill and we were able to get our skis on. We skied for about 3-400m until we reached another lift. The 4 of us got on the lift and it took us further up the hill. As we started getting to the end of the lift Mo and I started looking at one another, thinking how do we get off this thing!! As it came into the exit platform, the bar came up and it basically catapulted the four of us down a ramp and onto the snow – what a bunch of wallapers we must have looked. Mo landed on her face and then couldn’t get up, I managed to stay on my feet – but only just. If only this had been the most embarrassing point of the day!!!
Once we got ourselves sorted again (luckily no one, apart from the tow attendant had seen our silky smooth skills) there was a 200m calm, traverse where we were able to ski to get to the start of the run. At this point I was starting to think there was something wrong. I was finding it very difficult to slow myself down – not ideal!!
We made it to the top of the ski run, but if we were being awarded any points for style the Brawley's were still on 0. We were all over the place – the snow was really icy and it was difficult to even stand still. First to go was Patrick (obviously) – he shot across the slope managed a few turns and did a “controlled crash” into a big drift about 50m down the slope. I was starting to panic slightly, because if anything happened to the other 3, I was in no position to get to them quickly. I turned to Mo and said that I would try and catch up with Pat and that Meg and her to stay together.
I shot across the slope at 100mph, I had a major snow plough going and was still going too fast. I attempted my first turn, caught the back of my ski on the snow, tried to adjust, failed and started heading down the slope backwards – still at about 100mph!! I managed to stop myself and slowly made it to a patch of grass. Style points – still 0!! I had only made it down about 10m and certainly hadn’t filled Meg or Mo with any confidence as they set off on their attempt. Meg was very nervous, but she was coping with it the best. She made it down to me and continued past. Meg got us 10 style points. I then looked up to see Mo doing the one leg in the air, compensate, reverse manoeuvre which I had just performed – we just lost the 10 style points!!
By this time, Patrick had made it to the bottom – he had just got down as quickly as possible any way possible. Megan made it down having only fallen a few times. Mo and I took about half an hour to make it down, my legs were killing me and I had spent more time on my back than I had on my skis.
Patrick was not wanting to go back up, we tried to talk him into it but he was about to have a flaky – so Mo, Meg and I went up for another go. This time, Megan made it all the way to the bottom without falling – well done Meg – 100 style points. Mo and I had much better runs, still falling quite a bit but a definite improvement!! We only lost 60 of the points! When we got to the bottom Pat and Meg were making a snowman! It was about lunch time by this point so rather than try and force Patrick to have another go we decided that we would go and have lunch.
If there had been lots of snow we would have been able to ski down to the restaurant. However, we had to retrace our steps to get back. Remember the times when we were able to ski on the way to the run – well we now had to walk, with ski boots on and skis over our shoulder! It must have taken about 3/4 hour to get back, and I was gubbed. We had something to eat and realised that we would not really have time to make it back to the run, have a few skis and get back to the bus for 4 o’clock. We finished lunch and by the time we got down on the cable car, we got back to the bus for 3. We got changed and went for a coffee, before the hard-core arrived back about 4:15.
All in all I really enjoyed my day – the skiing conditions (by everyone's account, including the instructors) were rubbish and we were told over and over not to get disheartened by it. We were not the only ones who had found it difficult. However it was all an experience and we will defiantly do it again. And by my calculations we all went home with 40 style points in the bag!!
I had Meg’s camera and the wee video camera which I didn’t use very often (too busy trying to survive!!), but here is what I got.
Ella had her lesson yesterday and we had a breakthrough. Although she has been doing great at coming down the hill, she had got it into her head that she wasn’t going to use the tow to get her up. The whole time she has been getting lessons she has been leaning on Liam’s knee or getting pulled up behind him on a make shift tow.
We have been trying to encourage her to have a go for a while and the only time she would go up on her own was when Liam was walking up beside her. Yesterday, Liam was on a mission – he didn’t bother with his skis – he was determined to get her on that tow. The first time he walked up with her, next time he only walked up 3/4 of the way and by the 4th time it was looking like this ….
A few photos from the older one’s skiing lessons from today.
Ella had her lesson yesterday and we had a breakthrough. Although she has been doing great at coming down the hill, she had got it into her head that she wasn’t going to use the tow to get her up. The whole time she has been getting lessons she has been leaning on Liam’s knee or getting pulled up behind him on a make shift tow.
We have been trying to encourage her to have a go for a while and the only time she would go up on her own was when Liam was walking up beside her. Yesterday, Liam was on a mission – he didn’t bother with his skis – he was determined to get her on that tow. The first time he walked up with her, next time he only walked up 3/4 of the way and by the 4th time it was looking like this ….
A few photos from the older one’s skiing lessons from today.
There had been a load of raffle prizes handed in, many from the local shops and businesses. I had got Braehead Vouchers from the company as a prize. Megan won them!! Mo, Mum, Jean and Gerry all won prizes too – coincidence? Megan, Patrick and Ella were picking the numbers!!
There had been a load of raffle prizes handed in, many from the local shops and businesses. I had got Braehead Vouchers from the company as a prize. Megan won them!! Mo, Mum, Jean and Gerry all won prizes too – coincidence? Megan, Patrick and Ella were picking the numbers!!
