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.
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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.
