No Swimming Allowed

The Ythan Challenge is an approximately 10K multi-terrain run in which you have to tackle obstacles such as fallen logs, steep slopes, hay bales, deep mud, and a wade along a river. It was also an awful lot of fun - very friendly and well organised. I was running with Gordon, Claire, Angela, Margaret, and Wendy from jogscotland and we had a good time, supporting and helping each other through the obstacles. I'm happy to report we all finished with both shoes. A great run - I'll hopefully be back next year and would recommend it to anyone. Anyone who doesn't mind getting a wee bit dirty, wet, and cold that is.

The Calling of the Cuckoo is the Other Side of Spring

We all went orienteering today at Bennachie. It's the first time any of us had tried it and it was good fun, tramping around the woods, figuring out the map, and looking for the control points. We manged to get to 9 of them in the allotted time (Ok, so we were a wee bit over) and scored 90 points which didn't seem too bad considering we had a baby with us and Calum was dragging his heels quite a bit. In fact, we were so good or photogenic or something that a reporter from the Inverurie Herald took some pictures of us. Fame at last.

Click below for some pictures...

2008-06-28 Orienteering at Bennachie

Who Do You Think You Are?

It seems like I spent a lot of time getting wet recently, what with the treasure hunt last week, a 8.5 mile run in a torrential downpour this Sunday morning and the Beaver's infamous annual water fight on Monday evening. And we thought we were going to get soaked at a BBQ on Sunday afternoon as well. We were invited to the CNR family BBQ at Pittodrie House Hotel courtesy of Vikki's dad who works for them. Fortunately there was a marquee on the side of the hall so plenty of room to enjoy the burgers, sausages, toffee apples, candy floss etc. without getting wet. There was a Dr Who theme to the day so Calum dressed in his Monsters Inc costume (well, it's close) and beat up some inflatable Daleks and cardboard cybermen. There was a magic show and a bouncy dome and a tea cup ride (which the boys had a shot of) as well as horse rides and archery (which they didn't). We also met a few old colleagues of Vikki's from her Ranger Oil days and made a decent effort to spend the beer tokens given to us on arrival. Click on the pics below to make them bigger...
 
 
 
 

Magnus at 4 months

 

 

 

 

If you have been following my status updates on Facebook you will already know the big news on the Magnus front - he cut two teeth last Saturday!! He is a month ahead of his bros and two months ahead of average. We got zero sleep on the Thu and Fri, it was so bad that I didn't run on Sat morning. Then Iain was bathing M and shouted through "Magnus has got two teeth!!" He saw them cos M always screams his head off when Iain is changing his clothes. The other excitement in M's life is he has started on solids. He has had baby rice and pureed apple, carrot, pear, and papaya and likes them all so far. The baby rice has come from a packet but I have made the rest myself which I'm pleased about. I wasted hundreds of pounds on babyfood jars with the other two boys so I thought I would try to do my own this time what with the credit crunch... One of the photos is the scene when I'm on the laptop. Thought you might like to see the chaos!
Magnus is a really contented baby now and is back to sleeping through (hurrah!) This is probably due to the fact I've stopped breastfeeding and started him on formula. It had reached the stage where he was feeding for an hour at 4am every morning and we were all getting v tired and stressed so we thought is was time to change. Magnus is really happy so I don't feel too guilty.

Wet Wet Wet

The annual Arduthie School treasure hunt was last night so I spent much of the day looking out of the window wondering whether we were going to get sun or showers in the evening. As luck would have it, the heaviest shower of the day lasted for pretty much the length of time we were out and about, trying to answer the clues on soggy pieces of paper. A lot of people braved the weather - it was quite funny to see the long column of umbrellas winding its way round the streets. I wish I'd taken some photos of all the soggy people, but I was too busy trying to hide inside my jacket. Thankfully, the school dinner hall was open, so we were able to get inside and dry out a bit and enjoy our beer and burgers at the end. Well done to the PTA who organised it all - fingers crossed for better weather next year.

Utopia Found?

On Friday, I went to The Great Grampian Beer Festival with a few friends, including Vikki's dad. As ever, it was an enjoyable evening and I tasted a decent amount of beer, some of which was good, some of which wasn't great. I didn't have anything truly outstanding but I think my favourite was Williams Bros Roisin.

Strangely, when I got home and looked at my glass, I realised that maybe I'd found a clue to the mystery.

 

Imminent Utopia?

The coast between Stonehaven and Aberdeen is often blanketed in haar, which sometimes makes my commute a slightly spooky, fun trip (I have a fairly vivid imagination when I need it) especially when something interesting suddenly appears out of the mist. Last year, for example, I spotted a herd of buffalo. Seriously. And I've since seen them in full visibility, so I'm pretty sure it wasn't a hallucination.

Even stranger, last night I looked up from the book I'm reading to see a sign in the middle of a field which read "Imminent Utopia". I've no idea what that's all about but I'm hoping that maybe the village of Brigadoon is about to make an appearance.