Brawleys Blog

Mikie’s New Website

2012-03-10T21:13:00.001+00:00

Check out Mikie’s website – he has been cataloguing his compositions - http://michaelbrawley.weebly.com

Ella’s Dancing Show

2011-11-21T14:37:00.000+00:00

We were up to see Ella in her dancing show – she was great. She is the 4th pair to come on from right. 3min 10sec – I was there from 7:00 until 9:30!!

Aviemore 2011

2011-11-14T14:28:00.000+00:00

The Monks’ clan were up at Aviemore for the weekend. The count is now up to 19, but Nicole didn’t make it because she was right in the middle of her exams. On Saturday we went to Loch Morlich for a wee walk and then back for lunch. After lunch some went to Crazy Golf, some went Quad Biking. Mo Ella and I went a walk down to the park with Siobhan, Stewart and Rory.

We headed down to the Cairngorm Hotel for our dinner – ate far too much, but it was great.

On Sunday we went to Loch Garten for a another wee walk, back to the holiday house for lunch, before getting packed up and heading for home.

Another great weekend – again we were lucky with the weather.

All my pictures are here

This is the third Aviemore weekend to be recorded on the blog – you can see the previous ones here 2010, 2009 Part 1 & Part 2. It is amazing to see how much everyone has changed – not just the kids.

Patrick’s 11

2011-11-01T15:40:00.000+00:00

It was Patricks birthday on Sunday. We had Jean, Eddie and Mikie over for dinner and the Mejury’s came round for birthday cake later on. Good night. We got him shin guards for his ski racing, sweatshirt and fancy boxer shorts – called “Bawbags”!! He got loads of vouchers for Tiso (new ski poles) and Braehead vouchers – (hi tops and a new jacket).

Mo made a great dinner – roast beef, roast potatoes and veg. Homemade birthday cake too.

September Weekend Away

2011-09-27T13:39:00.000+01:00

It was mum and dad’s Ruby wedding Anniversary in the summer and the kids (Mikie, Fiona and Gerry, Mo and I) had chipped in and got a holiday house for the weekend as a gift. We had a “rer ter”. We pulled into the drive just after 2 on the Friday and Mikie and Emily had just arrived. The Wedlock’s and Mum and Dad were not far behind.

The house was amazing – a huge big kitchen and lounge and a dinning table that we could all sit round – all 13! We had arranged to have turns about with the dinner – we were first, then the Fiona & Gerry and Mikie & Emily on Sunday. Mo had made a big pot of Steak and Guinness the day before, so all we had to do was heat up the pot and make some rice - magic. After dinner we sat in the kitchen and Mikie played the accordion and the kids ran around before they went to bed.

Next morning we were up and out for a wee walk up the farm road.

Daisy picked up a worm – I thought she was going to eat it at one point!!

We got back to the house, got into the cars and headed into Melrose for a wee walk around and some lunch. We went down to the river and watched huge salmon leaping out of the water, before heading back to open the bar.

Fiona & Gerry had made Spaghetti and Meatballs – great. After dinner there was the X-Factor camp and the rest.

Next morning we all went for another wee walk – we went down the hill this time, and after we headed to Berwick upon Tweed. He had lunch and a walk round the walls before making our way home.

Mikie and Emily were on dinned duty – Chilli, which hit the spot. After dinner it was another lounge about with a few glasses of wine before bed.

Monday morning started with a wee walk before we had to start packing up.

At about 2 o’clock the owner came to get the keys and have a quick check round the house and she gave us the all clear, we headed to the local pub for a great lunch to finish off a great weekend.

All the photos are big here

South of Clyde Ski Race

2011-09-22T11:28:00.000+01:00

Ella and Patrick were entered into the South of Clyde Ski Race on Saturday. I didn’t catch Pat, but here is Ella in one of her races – not a win, but still a lot quicker that I would get down!!

A wee aside – Patrick cycled to school yesterday to practice for his cycling proficiency test. So rather than his uniform, he was wearing his track suit. He got to school and took off his tracky top, his pal sitting next to him asked “is that your pyjama top?” – Pat looked down and said “yes”. He is Primary 7 and he went to school with his pyjama top on – and he didn’t die of embarrassment!!

Glasgow to Edinburgh Cycle

2011-09-12T15:24:00.000+01:00

It was the fresh’n’low pedal for Scotland bike ride from Glasgow to Edinburgh on Sunday. Mo dropped me and Pat off at Central Station at 8:10 and we met Da and Mikie. What a great day again – the weather was surprisingly great, a few spits of rain but nothing major. It was really windy, but almost always at our back. It took us about 7 hours – including all our stops and Pat got a puncture in Linlithgow, which took a wee while to get sorted. We finished at Murryfield stadium, before heading up to meet mum and Mo at Siobhan’s.

As per usual, Pat was amazing – not a single “are we nearly there yet?” He has to peddle the whole way, the rest of us are on our breaks going down the hills and he has to peddle like the clappers because he weighs 2 grams.

Last year - http://blog.brawleys.co.uk/2010/09/glasgow-to-edinburgh-cycle.html

Time-Lapse Movies

2011-08-22T13:14:00.000+01:00

I have been looking for some inspiration for my Audio Visual show I will be doing later in the year at the camera club. I am planning to do time-lapse movie – this involves taking a photo every few seconds and then putting them together into a movie – this makes thinks that normally move slowly to speed up. I did a few trials last week. All done on my iphone …

Pummelvision Videos

2011-08-18T09:22:00.000+01:00

A couple of videos made using Pummelvision

Ireland 2011

Last 2000 Images

Elspeth Patterson – aged 2 days

2011-08-07T08:56:00.000+01:00

We got tidied up a bit this morning before heading over to Edinburgh to see the newest edition to the Monks family. She is a stoater -

Just to make things easier for them, Siobhan and Stewart are in the process of trying to sell their house and they had a viewer coming this afternoon. We said we would take Rory out for a walk in the rain – what a laugh. His shoes will take about a week to dry out!!

On the way home Patrick mentioned that the first time we saw Rory, he was 2 days old too – sure enough – the proof is here

Donegal – Home Time

2011-08-06T08:37:00.000+01:00

We had to be out the house by 10 and the ferry wasn’t until 5 – we were going to take a short detour and go to the Giant’s Causeway on the way to kill some time. After some photos outside the house we headed off. On the way the rain started coming down in sheets – the first real rain we had seen all week. We got the the Causeway and you would have gotten soaked to the skin if you had stayed out in it for 2 mins.

We decided to go to the hotel for some lunch first and hope the rain went off. Good idea – the Steak & Guinness Pie was amazing – and a huge portion too!! The rain had gone off, so we got on the bus and headed down to see it – while on the 2 min bus ride the rain came on again!! I took the kids picture and we decided to just head back up. The queue for the bus was huge, so we walked it – a lot quicker than waiting on the bus, but a little wetter. Shame about the weather – I think you could have easily spent all day at the shore exploring all the different areas of the Causeway. We will need to go back!

We got to the ferry in plenty time and settled in for the 2hr crossing, arrived in Troon about 8ish and were unpacked and in bed for 10 – smashing week, would defiantly go back.

Donegal Day #7

2011-08-05T17:40:00.000+01:00

Mo got a text this morning a 7:30 to let us know that Siobhan and Stuart had had a little girl – Elspeth – great news. We will be over on Sunday!!

Our last full day – the plan was to go into Letterkenny – a bit of a let down. It was the first time in a descent sized town for almost a week and it wasn’t any different from Paisley or Hamilton. We had lunch after a wee walk around the shops before going back to the house. Mum and Mo started packing the bags and Dad and me took the kids to do a wee bit of crab fishing.

We went back to the Pier at Fanny Bay (just up from Wullie Point), but this time the tide was out a bit and it was crab city – between the 3 of them they managed to pull out 89 crabs! There is something very relaxing about fishing for crabs – we will need to go and do it one Saturday at Dunure or somewhere. I sneaked off and took some pictures for a bit before we headed back to the house to pick up Mum and Mo and head to the pub for our last dinner. Maureen and Stuart were thinking the same and we had an enjoyable few hours savouring my last Guinness before home.

After the pub we went home to have our last fire – Dad and I had bought a bag of peat (turf). Wish we had done it at the beginning of the week – a great fire.

All the photos here and a wee video of the release …

Donegal Day #6

2011-08-04T13:48:00.000+01:00

We were going to spend the day going back to out roots. We got into the car and started heading to Burton Port. We stopped off at Gweedore, where mum and dad had stayed before. We headed down to the beach to fly some kites and build some sand sculptures …

After the beach we went for some lunch, before going to visit the grave of John and Ellen Boyle – mum’s Grandparents – Meg, Pat and Ella’s Great, Great Grandparents.

We then went to the remains of their old house where Mum used to come on holiday. The only part standing was the old byre. After having a look about we went down to the pier to see if we could catch any crabs. It was quite cold so we only hung about for about 1/2 an hour before heading back to the house for some scrambled eggs and a few glasses of wine.

Slideshow big here

Donegal Day #5

2011-08-03T13:52:00.000+01:00

We had arranged to meet Maureen and Stuart and the kids at their beach today and when we got up the weather was looking promising. We got to their place for about 11ish and by that time the sun was out and it was heating up nicely.

We were swimming, playing rounders, playing boules, flying kites and generally having a great time for about 5 hours. I managed to get a bit burnt on my shoulders. We got packed up and headed for the pub for a few drinks and our dinner, before heading home very satisfied after another superb day.

Slideshow big here

Donegal Day #4

2011-08-02T13:03:00.000+01:00

We were up and away for about 10:30. We had seen pony trekking and the kids fancied a go. We went down to Carrigart and booked them in for 3 o’clock.

Mum and Dad had brought over kites with them, so we headed for a beach to fly them. They were great – Meg’s struggled a bit – it was a bit heavier than the others and there was not a lot of wind, but the kids (and Da and me) had a great time flying them for over an hour.

We got back in the car and headed up to Fanad Head Lighthouse before heading back to the house for some lunch.

After lunch it was a mad rush to get down to Carrigart to the pony trekking. The kids had a great time – the walked through the village and straight down to the beach, walked right round the bay (the tide was out) and back again. We went for a take out coffee and sat on a bench and watched – simple things!!

Horse ridding finished, we got in the car and headed towards the beach we got stuck on the day before. What a great spot – not good for crab fishing, but great for rock scrambling, rock climbing, cave exploring, paddling, jumping waves, sitting watching, listening to the waves and Pat even went for a quick swim.

We got back to the house about 7:30 and Mo got to work on the sausage casserole, then a glass of wine in front of the fire – what a way to finish off a fantastic day. I can’t believe we did as much as we did in one day!!

Too many pictures today to put in the blog – see them big here or smaller below and there is a wee video from stuff I got on my phone at the end. Hope you like the soundtrack - I got a lot of Irish tunes of one of the guys in work to play in the car. There was one album by “The Irish Rovers” that was full of comedy tunes – it seemed to appeal to Pat he was singing this one all week.

Donegal Day #3

2011-08-01T15:11:00.000+01:00

We got up and had breakfast and decided to have a wee run in the car and see where it took us. We ended up in a place called Dunfanaghy, where we had a wee walk around the gift shops. We picked up some lunch and sat on a bench near the beach and just chilled out. We had bought some crab fishing stuff and a packet of bacon for bait, so we jumped in the car and headed back looking for a good crab fishing spot.

We found a good looking beach with some promising rocks and I pulled off the road. The beaches we had been on the previous days were all hard packed and we had seen a lot of beaches with cars on, so thinking that the 4 wheel drive would be fine I drove on – and immediately sunk right in. After trying to reverse out for a few minutes I realised that we were struggling. I got the newly purchased kids spades out of the boot and tried to clear some of the sand away from the wheels, but after about 20 mins of doing this we were no further forward.

I went up the road a bit to see if I could see a farmer with a tractor. A caravan just 100m away had a big (real) 4x4 outside it and I went into test the Irish reputation for being helpful and friendly. He couldn’t get into his car quick enough and with the help of someone else who had stopped who had a rope, we got out with no damage to the car – thank God!!

Once we were off the beach we decided to just head back to get some shopping in before Mum and Dad arrived. We got the shopping away and had a cup of tea – at about 4:30 mum and dad pulled in and we got their car emptied and the stuff away.

Before dinner we jumped in the car and headed to a wee pier to do some crab fishing – a great spot. The kids were pulling loads out and it was a lovely night so we hung about for well over an hour before heading home for dinner. Mo made lentil curry – magic by the way, and after the dishes were done, we sat down in front of the real fire and had a few glasses of wine – canny beat it.

Donegal Day #2

2011-07-31T13:11:00.000+01:00

We were up sharpish and finished getting the bags unpacked. It was dry and overcast, with no wind so not too bad. We had arranged to meet Maureen and Stuart at their caravan and head down to the beach. Their caravan could not be on a nicer place – right on the coast and nothing in front of them to spoil their view. They have a 10 min walk down to a beautiful beach – as good as private!

We had a cuppa in the caravan and headed down to the beach – boys had a game of cricket, girls played in the sand. The rain came on a few times, but not for very long, and it didn’t come close to spoiling the fun.

After the cricket, we went over to explore on the rocks – caught a few crabs and Meg got a starfish.

As well as beautiful golden sand, the top section of the beach had lovely pebbles – ideal for Granda’s new waterfall. We spent another half an hour picking out some good ones to take home, before heading back up to the caravan to get the sand off the kids feet.

Decided to go up to the Singing Pub for lunch/dinner and a couple of pints of Guinness.

Great Day.

Donegal Day #1

2011-07-30T15:36:00.000+01:00

Mo had the cases packed before I got home from work and we went over to Jean & Eddie’s for dinner. After dinner I got the car packed up before sitting for a wee holiday glass of wine. Got to bed early because we had to be in Troon for 9ish.

Ferry over and drive to Carrigart went without a hitch. As we pulled into Carrigart we noticed Maureen and Stewart (friends from Houston) sitting having a drink at a cafe. They have a caravan just outside Carrigart and we knew they were going to be there. Mo went into the supermarket and picked up some milk and bread, before we all headed up to the cottage. We dumped the bags and headed out for a wee tour about, before heading to Maureen and Stuart’s local pub for the first Guinness. Everyone came back for a wee glass of wine before we hit the sack.

Rory Over at Grans

2011-07-24T13:33:00.000+01:00

Siobhan, Stuart and Rory were over at Jean and Eddie’s this afternoon and we gate crashed …

40 Years of Memories

2011-07-15T16:06:00.000+01:00

At Mum and Dads Ruby wedding dinner a couple of weeks ago, Mum had laid out loads of photos from their 40 years. I took them away and Megan scanned them all in and here they are … Happy days.

Big slideshow here or wee one here.

Pat Dancing

2011-07-10T10:31:00.000+01:00

Doing the dishes this morning listening to some tunes- pat comes in and starts dancing like a eejit!!
I take out the camera to start recording him - any normal person would stop, but he starts the song from the beginning because he has a routine.
Used a new app called cartoonastic – some of the effects are rubbish, but I thought some were quite good.

http://youtu.be/yptY5epAdCw

Tall Ships with Rory

2011-07-09T23:33:00.000+01:00

We got a call at 9:47 from Eddie this morning to say that they (Jean, Eddie, Siobhan and Rory) were going for the 10:13 bus to Greenock to see the tall ships. Mo was in the shower, Meg and Pat were still asleep and Ella was in her Pyjamas watching TV. It was tight but we made the bus!!

It was a great day – really warm and Greenock was heaving. Rory loved the boats and all the biz. Eddie treated us to lunch before we headed back to Bridge of Weir.

Siobhan and Rory set off for Edinburgh at about 7 o’clock and Pat and I ran home – via a wee detour to make it up to 5km. Half way I suggested to Pat we miss out the detour and just head straight for the house – he said no and I had to do the full 5k!! 27mins – my best for a while, all down to Pat!!

Rest of the photos here

Andy Murray at Brodie Park in Paisley

2011-07-07T22:30:00.000+01:00

We joined the Tennis club a few months ago and Pat and Ella have been taking lessons. Andy Murray and the Davis Cup team were in Paisley yesterday to promote the improvements to some tennis courts and the tennis club had been asked to supply some kids to have a hit about.

The place was so busy and the media were surrounding Andy so it was difficult to get close. I stuck Pat on my shoulders and he took some pictures as he passed.

The Davis Cup match is against Luxemburg this weekend at Braehead. We got tickets for Sunday – should be good.

Big pictures here or slideshow …

Mum & Dad’s Ruby Wedding Anniversary

2011-07-03T21:40:00.000+01:00

It was Mum and Dads Ruby Wedding on Sunday and we were all at the Cricklewood in Bothwell for our dinner. It was a great day – Mum had looked out loads of old photos from the last 40 years – some stoaters!! I am going to scan them in over the next week or so and will add them to the blog later.

Meg Passed her Grade 4

2011-07-02T16:14:00.000+01:00

Just got a text from Meg’s Clarinet teacher – she passed her Grade 4 exam – with a merit!

Pieces
A	27/30
B	25/30
C	27/30
Scales	17/21
Sight Reading	18/21
Aural	11/18
Total	125/150