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Thursday 26 December 2013

Boxing Day

The morning was the Fun Run, but only 3 out of the possible 6 actually showed to take part:


There was a good turnout but I managed to pick out Lucy in this video at the start:


Gary ran a good race and came in 31st in quite a large, high quality field - despite having to stop to throw up! Here he is finishing:


Lucy looked cheerful when she came in:


Gary ran back to join Carole for the finish:


Scott and Chris came along to see the finish of the race:


It was such a beautiful day that Chris decided that, having missed out on the Fun Run, he would climb Scolty instead - but he was back in good time for the arrival of various nephews and nieces, of whom more later.

Xmas Presents

Here's some of mine:





This one caused a laugh. It wasn't immediately obvious what they were, but Jo quickly sussed it out - or so she thought - the holes underneath were for your hands weren't they, so they must be puppets surely? No - head covers for my golf clubs actually!


Wednesday 25 December 2013

Xmas Day

No team photo this year, but, in the spirit of 2013, a group of "selfies" from the dinner table:











Tuesday 24 December 2013

Xmas Eve update

We all went to Crathes Castle on Sunday, but I headed the Lesinas down towards the Adventure Area, whilst Jo, Kelly, Chris and Miller went in the opposite direction towards the castle - although it wasn't long before they all headed back to Banchory, but the Lesinas and I carried on with Plan A:


From there it was off to Duthie Park and the slides, followed by the Winter Gardens:


Next was the Beach, where we met up with Gary. First of all, the dodgems:


followed by Air Soccer:


Cade posed in the "electric" chair - unfortunately broken down today:


Laser Tag was very popular - and they had 2 rounds of it as well - but whose score card was this, and who was a mere Space Cadet?:


Yesterday (Monday) was my turn to take the other half of the family out for the day. We drove up Deeside, ever nearing the snow line. Crathie Kirk and Balmoral Castle were out of bounds but the nearby Royal Lochnagar Distillery was open, so we went in there and got treated very well by the Distillery Manager, Stuart Adamson, who I'd known from years before when he was mine host at the Learney Arms Hotel. Here's Chris inside:


By now, there was a proper snowstorm outside and so we aborted our plan to have lunch in Ballater and instead headed for the lower ground of Aboyne and the Boat Inn. Chris must have been a good boy and eaten up all his lunch because they ran the model railway round the lounge:


Today we have the annual birthday football match in Banchory - not that I'm playing, but I still organise it and there's a little session in the pub afterwards.

Sunday 22 December 2013

Sunday morning and I'm home alone - Jo's at church and the American and Australian families haven't shown up yet. I think we're planning to head in to Aberdeen this afternoon - Duthie Park has been mentioned. Perhaps Inversnecky (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Inversnecky-Cafe/130026970382457) as well?

Forgot to say that Dad would have been 93 yesterday - the shortest day of the year.

I put the new postbox up yesterday - what do you think?:


For anyone who might have missed it, the intro and outro to my dedication on Radio 2's Sounds of the 60's yesterday can be heard here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEexWhhiwOY&list=UUBDeleoM99bWx2-P6rMydgA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZXcC-cmDNI&feature=c4-overview&list=UUBDeleoM99bWx2-P6rMydgA

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