Second time 50...

Back in December I had been thwarted on a plan to surprise my brother for his 50th by a stormy lady named Abigail. But never one to be defeated by a spot of rain - I'd rearranged the whole shebang for February.

Dave and I have shared many adventures over the years but this was to be a true test of my nerve. Despite being an avid mountaineer I have in recent years developed a bit of a fear of heights. And, with that thought in my head, I contemplated that booking a trip up The Shard might not have been the most sensible of ideas - hindsight really is a wonderful thing. Still, (brotherly love and all that), my brother really wanted to go; so I swallowed my fear, grabbed a touch of dutch courage and tried my best to make it so.

 A hearty breakfast for a hearty challenge

 Destination Shard in sight

 A not so hearty but equally meaty lunch (pork crackling and beef jerky)

 Nerves of steel on the big fella

The Shard is a very impressive building. It's also a very long way up. 72 floors and nearly a third of kilometre vertically upwards. You also go up pretty quick. 6 metres per second or about the same time as my cranky lift at work does 5 floors. All fine so far though as we step out on the 68th floor...

Videoclip: Going up

 It really is a long way up

 Ice cool on the 68th

 Stunning views over the dwarfed Canary Wharf

And then we went up to the 'half-outside' of the 72nd, and that was me done for I'm afraid to say. Waves of dizziness ensued but I tried to put a brave face on it. Dave's helpful 'look out there' comments really didn't help; nor did an attempt at a medicinal mulled wine. (Note to self: When feeling dizzy, drinking alcohol just makes you dizzier - hindsight really is etc etc).

So I retreated back to the safety of 68 but by this point my nerve was gone, and relief was clearly written all over my face when Dave suggested we head back down. 

Back on solid ground, well ground anyway, Dave helpfully sent us spiraling to the bowels of the earth on the London Underground which further traumatised my sense of balance and direction. So that by the time we re-emerged at the O2 arena I was somewhat unsteady on my feet. Still, all things must pass, and ten minutes later I began to feel human again...just in time to head over the Thames by...wait for it...yes, gondola... Genius.

The rest of the day was a sensory whirlwind of London in full weekend swing. We had a lovely tour but I was relieved when we arrived at the evening's hostelry for a fine steak courtesy of Marco Pierre White's Steak and Alehouse. Mighty fine it was too. Then it was time to catch the end of the rugby, a bit more of a tour, and a couple of beers to top off a truly marvellous day. 

Happy belated 50th Birthday big brother!!! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did...(or even just a touch more given my vertical challenge).

Brothers in arms

The young and the old...

The young and the old never cease to amaze and delight.

On a recent car journey...

Emily: How far do we have to go? Is it 5 minutes?
Daddy: No, further than that.
Emily: Is it 6 minutes?
Daddy: No, much further than that.
Emily: Is it 19 minutes?
Daddy: No, even further than that. It's actually 200 minutes.
Emily: But I can't count that high.

Stepping out in the snowdrops at Gargunnock House

Then there was the 12 Days of Christmas...in February.

Videoclip: An unseasonal delight

And finally there was my mother. She never ceases to amaze.

Daddy: Mother...do you know what you are reading?

Grandma: I just wanted to know what all the fuss was about.

Never ceasing to amaze

God bless friends...

We are very blessed to have so many lovely people as good friends in our lives. And January this year has seen us catching up with lots of them for a few hours, days, nights or weekends of adventures at a time.

With our house alterations in full flow, hanging around a dusty house with minimalist facilities hasn’t been that appealing; so we have taken advantage of the situation and booked in weekends away, gate-crashed nights out, invited ourselves for lunches, dinners and drinks with all and sundry.

There was the ‘hillwalkers’ annual trip to Pitlochry, woodland explorers in Mugdoch, Craig’s 40th celebrations in Saddell, Tom’s 40th in Glasgow to name a few events that have kept us occupied. Then there was meals at various generous people’s houses, a few nights out and a number of other impromptu bits of excitement (including getting to wash my smalls at the neighbours).

All in all, it was a fantastic January, fun-packed and full of great memories. We really hope we never out-stayed our welcome with any of you or that our (well, mine) table manners didn’t put you off inviting us back. However, we’ll soon have a new kitchen, dining room, bathroom and spare room to repay all the favours we’ve racked up in January. So we expect to see you soon…bookings are now being taken for the after party.

Thanks to all who made it a really special time, and thanks for all the meals, drinks and sanctuary that you have provided us with…too many folk to name here but you know who you are and we owe you big time :-) !!

It's always the 70's in Pitlochry

 The 'Junior' Walk

 Giddy up old man

And yet more faces!

 

Happy 40th Birthday Craig!

 An authentic Burns supper

A January jog on Saddell beach

 The Ladies of the Manor

A frantic festive round up...

So apologies for the blogging backlog. Pre-xmas flashed by in a blur of coughs and colds and a whole heap of organisation for our house renovations which started early in January (more to come in future blogs).

So a frantic festive round up…

Early December saw me left in charge of Emily for the day whilst Mummy swanned off to a spa. The supreme being was coming down with a cold but we still managed to make the best of the start to the festive season with some balloon keepie-uppies, den building, dancing, musical statues, drawing, stop-go, colouring, tele-watching, truffle making, Christmas tree buying, sofa leaping, snoozing, curry eating at the neighbours and finally some Christmas lights switch on watching. Phew, what a day! I was exhausted, as was Emily thank goodness.

 Truffle making

 Sofa leaping

 Snoozing through Christmas tree buying

The Great Kirky Lights Switch On

Next up was an attempted surprise trip to celebrate my brother’s 50th birthday. Storm Desmond had other plans however and, after getting up ridiculously early to start my journey by train, I arrived back home some 11 hours later having progressed not much further south than Penrith. Best laid plans and all that…

Still to cheer myself up I decreed that the Christmas tree could be put up a week early and spent my Sunday bringing Christmas to Kirkintilloch.

 

 Train tracks or Rain tracks near Penrith?

Our first Christmas Tree in Kirky

And then the Southern Rookes appeared, with much hilarity and a lovely weekend had by all. My niece, Chloe, fresh back from her first term at Oxford was quick to pass on her new knowledge to Emily. And my brother, now fully in on his non-existent surprise birthday, was pleased that we’d managed to rearrange for February.

 Chloe taught her this!

 Frosty horse delight

 A gathering of Rookes round the tree

Cousinly fun

And then Christmas was upon us. As I said the last few days were full of frantic home improvement planning and trips round half of Scotland picking up things bought on Gumtree, as well as a pre-Xmas gathering of all Tanya's family.

My parents then arrived and we had a lovely family Xmas. I would say it was quiet, but between more house organisation, visits to and from friends and family, last minute Christmas prep, a highly excited supreme being and the chat from the Queen of the Rookes (my mother) – it was anything but. However it was lovely spending our first Christmas in our new home. All visitors welcome next year as we’ll have a new kitchen/dining room by then.

The Gedik, Gurney and Rooke gathering

 Very suspicious on Christmas Eve

 Happily unwrapping amid Christmas carnage

 I blame Chloe for all these faces

 Oldest and youngest Rookes

Final stop on the festive tour was North Berwick for Hogmanay. With my steak pie all cooked and plans for it to be traded in for Big John’s whisky – we were off. Big John had other plans though. Personally, I think getting yourself admitted to hospital to avoid eating my food and giving your whisky away is a bit excessive. But the Big Man is never one to do things by half and so off he toddled to get some peace and quiet in hospital (don’t worry – all is fine now). Still, before he went he managed to do the annual Loonie Dook (as did T and I), and we did get to see in the New Year with Aly Bain and Phil Cunningham providing their usual set of raucous party tunes (not). God knows what other events they’d have taken over if Scotland had become independent!

Happy New Year everyone!! May 2016 treat you well...

 Steak pie to welcome in the New Year

 A frosty dook this year

Post dook celebration

 Big monster John before his wee turn

 Supreme being having a sparkling good time

 

Merry Christmas...

Apologies for the recent dearth of blog posts...the build up to Xmas has overtaken me. Here's wishing you all a wonderful Christmas :-)...

A picture is worth a 1,000 words...

They say a picture is worth a 1,000 words. Never mind about 1,000, the one's below left Mummy and Daddy speechless...

 Mummy

Daddy

Well you can tell who's got the looks in the family (me obviously). And it looks like nursery is coming along just fine too. In fact we've gone craft-tastic in the house with the approach of Christmas. Well actually Daddy is satisfying 2 of his loves (being frugal and Christmas) by hand making decorations with his daughter. There's some quality designs coming out - the favourite of which has to be Emily's painted footprints, named 'Mistletoes', which will hang from the ceiling near the front door.

Pleased as punch with the Christmas wreaths

Fireworks were a bit hit and miss with Emily this year. All a bit loud apparently. She liked watching them but from the safety of the indoors. Not really the point but that's toddlers for you. So after a couple of failed attempts we decided to try something a bit different. Scotland has taken to lighting up its forests at this time of year, and, coupled with some atmospheric music and other special effects (not to mention fairies), it all adds up to quite a dramatic experience. And a very excited toddler.

Emily was really into this idea, so off we trekked to a farm not far from us for a woodland light experience. It was a brilliant hit and well worth the effort. Fairies were not spotted directly but their houses certainly were and Emily loved the whole thing. So much so that we couldn't get her to slow down and savour the moment! We were supposed to be meeting friends (Leanne and Chris and kids Ruaridh and Rhys) but they were running a bit late and all tactics to slow the supreme being down failed. "Come on Mummy Daddy" came the cry...and what could we do? Nothing but jog on. Normally we can't get her to go fast enough. Sod's law - our friends eventually caught up near the end as Emily started to run out of steam. Boy can she shift when the mood takes her though.

 One very excited Emily, complete with lanterns, about to set out

 Car park, itching to be off

 

 Fuelling up for a sprint round the lights

 Jogging to the woodland light fantastic

 Dumbfounded by it all as she starts to slow down

 Just one of many stunning light displays

 Family photo at the end...Emily knackered

Devil child