When Two Blogs Collide

Well, we had a fine time on our trip to Lewis to escape from our elder children for a while meet young Alasdair Morrison, catch up with his parents and gatecrash go along to his gran's birthday dinner.

All in all, it was a good trip - great to see everybody again and to meet wee Alasdair. We stayed at the Dacama B&B in Ullapool on the way up and at The Rowans in Stornoway. Both were very nice and Anne at The Rowans certainly serves up a hearty breakfast.

The weather wasn't great but we went for a drive and had a quick stroll in the drizzle at Luskentyre beach - we really will have to go back in the summer some time.

If you want decent photos of Alasdair, check out Alex and Fi's blog or Ian and Nikki's. If you want to see some dodgy photos taken by me, see below or click on the images to get them bigger.

The continuing travels of Magnus

And now?

Where's Magnus?

Snow Joke

As forecast, it snowed yesterday. Sadly for Vikki, this meant she couldn't go running this morning without risking injury, but happily for the boys, it meant sledging. So we went to the park (unbelievably Lachlan actually asked if we had to walk even though it's only about 1/2 a mile) for a couple of hours and had a great time despite getting a bit cold, a bit muddy, and very wet (in Calum's case especially). Heaps of other people were at the park, including our neighbour Craig who ended up having a snowball fight with Calum.

 

 

 

Max Tundra Rocks

We went to see Hot Chip on Sunday at The Forum in Aberdeen. I thought it was an excellent gig, and a good night out. I also really enjoyed the support act, Max Tundra (warning: link to myspace with automatic music), who was very strange, but also extremely good. Go see these people if you get the chance - you probably won't regret it.

Must. Train. Harder.

The true cyber-stalkers among you will already know that I ran the Glen Clova Half Marathon on Saturday, and finished in a slightly disappointing time of 2:11:00.



Nevertheless, it was a good day out and a (mostly) enjoyable run on an undulating course (I've been on rollercoasters with fewer ups and downs) through one of Scotland's picturesque glens. The low clouds threatened throughout, but the rain stayed off until the final couple of miles, by which time the only thing that kept me going was the thought of a fine pint of Lia Fail at the Glen Clova hotel, which thankfully did not disappoint. In fact, had Vikki not reminded me that we needed to get back to our children, there's a good chance I would have listened to my sore legs and still be sitting on that bar stool now.



The pictures above show some important race preparations, warming up with Ian and Tony (Ian is a friend from Stonehaven, Tony is a friend of his who ran the New York marathon last Sunday). The picture below is me nearing the finish line (at long last). I actually think I look much better here than I felt.

Ghosts and ghouls and gunpowder

'Twas All Hallows Eve on Friday, and the streets were filled with evil spirits searching to steal the souls of the living - or failing that, all manner of sweets, fruit, and nuts. Calum dressed as a vampire and Lachlan went "old school" as a ghost in a sheet.

On Sunday, Stonehaven held its annual bonfire and fireworks display. Once again, I had made the Guy's head for the Beavers, but we were a tiny bit late and missed his moment of glory.

The fireworks were really good; they had music this year which was a nice addition - the boys loved hearing the Star Wars and Indiana Jones themes especially. Magnus enjoyed it all from the vantage point of the carrier on my back. He was an absolute star and didn't get at all upset, although he did look confused at times.