Is anyone still out there?

In a year of setting personal bests i can also confirm this is the longest without a post since 2008 - i'd like to thank my manager, my parents, my team, everyone involved but above all my wife Katie for always being there......

Ok, so it's not really something to celebrate never mind do a speech about but we have (at the risk of sounding like a broken record) been pretty busy.

On 27th july 2013 we were married at Machrihanish and after a crazy year of planning we were looking forward to being able to sit down and just enjoy a year of doing very little - perhaps start the search for a
 house or something.

However, on returning from our honeymoon we went back to work, started to think about thank you cards and by the start of October we realised that perhaps all was not normal with Katie. A trip to the shops to purchase a bottle of wine and a pregnancy test was to herald one predictable result (me drinking the wine) and one surprising result ( a positive test).




A shock to the system but a very welcome one - no point in hanging around is there when this is what you want to do anyway.

So, all of a sudden we were on a mission to find a house, buy a house, get a house ready for a family - we must have viewed over 30 crazy houses all over the city but in the end settled for a nice area just outside Glasgow which feels like the countryside, is closer for getting to and from campbeltown and will be a great place to raise kids.

Unfortunately though the house needed A LOT of work .........

Wedding Personnel

The Wedding is fast approaching and we don't want to spoil anything for you but we are very pleased with the people we are bringing in to help us on our big day.

Our band is led by a friend of ours who attended the music course at Jordanhill - a very talented musician called Colin Train.

Colin Train @ youtube

You can check out more of Colin at his own website as well

http://www.colintrain.com/

Things are starting to get pretty exciting all we need to do now is get something to wear, arrange some food for everyone, get a big tent, make sure people are coming, do invitations, survive our stag and hen do's and ................actually, there is still tons to do - I best go and get on with it all.

Good, Eyes, Good.

I recently visited an optician voluntarily for the first time in my adult life, just out of interest and in the spirit of making sure everything is working ok as I hurtle towards my 40's.

Turns out my eyes are still actually remarkably good which I was delighted about.

If I spend more time on the blog though perhaps that will not last long!

Trip to Man City

I recently led a school trip to Man City v Chelsea - these trips are generally pretty simple to organise and the company that we used was excellent.

Man City really have everything worked out pretty smoothly, you step off the bus, walk up to the stadium and there is entertainment, their own bars and food vendors etc - and of course a massive club shop.

Our seats were great, especially given the way the game turned out with two home goals scored at our end. In this picture you can clearly see our group behind the goal - if you want to play spot Steph then you'll be doing very well if you see me.

8 hours on a coach for 90 minutes of football between two teams who you don't even really like though..................don't think I will be doing it again for a while.

Auchrannie

For Christmas Katie surprised me with a weekend trip for two to Auchrannie resort in Arran. (I say surprised me but what I really mean is that I knew all about it due to there being open tabs on the ipad confirming the details of the trip - and Katie knew that I knew)

However, now that we have finally arrived in February that story is all forgotten and we were in desperate need for a wee break. (after all, our last break went far too quickly and was a massive 5 weeks ago).

So, on Sunday we set sail for Arran for some rest and relaxation:

For those who don't know about Arran, it's a wee island off the coast of the West of Scotland. It's roughly a 50 minute ferry journey from Ardrossan. Auchrannie is in the town of Brodick.

We had a great time spending some time with each other, eating good food, relaxing, swimming etc - we even played a game of badminton. Katie's last game of badminton was believed to be some time just after the last Ice Age. Thankfully I play a wee bit more regularly than that at school every day. At times however we both hit the shuttle into the net so often that we felt like that match at the Olympics were neither team wanted to win.

Auchrannie is a spa resort - you know the type of place that charges you £80 for a 60 minute massage. The massage only lasts 35 minutes and the girl that is doing the massage is a local lassie who just talks non stop about everything and nothing when all you want to do is relax. We didn't go for any treatments this time so can't comment on specifics of our experience of Auchrannie's spa quality but we did speak to someone who we know who was also there this weekend and their experience was identical to the one I just described.

Anyway, as a break Auchrannie scores 7/10 overall from us - food quality 8/10, food price expensive/10, room 7/10, bed uncomfortable/10, leisure facilities average/10, staff very friendly 9/10

It was perfect for what we needed however - apart from the screaming weans and noise outside our room when we trying to sleep in past 8am.

Thanks for the Christmas pressie Katie - was great to spend so much time together - almost like we were off travelling again!!

Save the date

As I mentioned, Katie and I are finally getting married this year. Here is the save the date we sent out those we are able to invite to our shindig. Hopefully you got yours? ;o)

The building is the David Stow at Jordanhill college, where we first met. Isn't that nice?

Lorna and Iain's wedding

Continuing on  from our busy summer, we had a really busy Christmas period this year. Lorna and Iain were returning from NZ to get married in Glasgow - we had't seen them since leaving NZ ourselves so it was a very highly anticipated event.

They were coming back the week before Christmas to have their stag and hen parties and then they would be getting married on the 28th of December.

A couple of additional things made this wedding even more special - we had agreed to accommodate some of Lorna and Iain's friends during their stay so we were glad to host Cat De Silva and Greg Campbell. It was great to spend some time with Kiwi's again.

Greg and Cat snapped just before we got to Glencoe

The second thing that added to this wedding was that I had been requested to play guitar during the signing of the register. Bearing in mind that Lorna had only ever heard me singing stupid songs, made up songs or Oasis covers this was a brave move.

It all went very well however as far as I could tell, it helped that I was teamed up with the talented Renee who provided the quality vocals to give everyone something good to focus on.

The wedding itself was a blast and the huge numbers of Kiwi's wearing kilts for the first time (some of them back to front) and getting involved in the ceilidh dancing really made for a good atmosphere. As Russ Abbott once pointed out, you've got to love a party with a happy atmosphere.

Iain and Lorna also went to great lengths to make sure that all special needs were catered for at this event. 

We did spend quite a wee bit more time with them over the New Year period but it was all over in a flash and off they jetted to New York for their honeymoon.

Congratulations to Lorna and Iain on a fabulous wedding and it was really great to catch up with them both. Hopefully it won't be too long before we see them again.

Dad's 60th birthday.

My Dad turned 60 this year - and although he generally doesn't like a fuss or being on the internet, it's necessary that I mention his birthday as it is a huge occasion. 

Not only is my Dad now 60 - he is also three quarters of the way through a BA degree with Open University. He is also a frequent runner these days completing his second santa dash 5k this year. If I can be doing half of that when I am 60 I will be delighted.

Well done Dad and congratulations again from all the family - a definite superhero!

Having a birthday dinner in my Mum's new extension.

John Brown - the T-shirt.

The Birthday boy himself.

Marie's Wedding.

In amongst the Olympics, travelling to Portugal and moving house we also paid a visit to the wonderful Isle of Skye to see Marie Gannon get married.

Marie is a great friend from the Jobbyhill days and it was great to see her finally walk down the aisle of Skye (ho de ho).

A great time was had by all and this was really the start of our summer madness - which was so busy that only now am I able to blog about it!

Congratulations Marie and Barrie ;o)

2013 - another busy year!

Another year been and gone, and with life in Wellington fading further into the distance - this summer is our next big exciting step. We're finally getting married on 27th of July 2013 in Kintyre.

We got engaged way back in 2008 at Carradale Bay!

Most of what we are doing these days is saving our cash and making plans for this summer so it definitely feels that we have less "adventures" to report on. However, I will do my best to update you (whoever you are these days) on recent events in the next couple of posts.