GARY in the SEVENTIES continued . . .

Excuse the fingers at the left side of the photo!! I didn't notice them till just now - oops :) Sorry!

BROXBOURNE, HERTFORDSHIRE

-about 1976/77.

Lucy, Gary, me and Wee Annie who lived across the street. We're totally absorbed in a Ladybird book. The publisher of the day for little children. Anybody who had children at this time possessed a library of these little books.

I think we lost ours at the time of the fire :(

Gary, you were the world's nuttiest reader. You would have had me read to you every waking hour and you got so familiar with all your little books, you would stop me immediately if I tried to leave any thing out!

I got to know them so well that I didn't need the book. I could recite them while my mind was busy elsewhere. Mind you, on reflection, was that why you started getting me to read them from back to front!!

The big bug glasses are still a feature - they're awful, aren't they. I will never buy 'up to the minute fashion statements' in glasses ever again!!

BENODET, BRITTANY

1978

Look at that lovely blue sky! I think we had booked the holiday with Eurocamp. Camping in France was all the rage when we were young and because we were living in the South East of England, France was just a hop skip and a jump away.

Do you remember this holiday at all, Gary? You would have been just turning three then. Lucy talks about remembering the journey across on the overnight ferry. Was that Southhampton to St Malo?

My memory is of croissants for breakfast on the ferry with a view of France bathed in sunshine layed out before us. Lucy's memory is of devastation and tears when she thought we weren't going to get onto the ferry when the queue for the ferry started moving forward . . . but Granda Stewart's car refused to start!!

We were pushed out of the line to let the rest of the cars drive onto the ferry and a mechanic was called.

Relief . . . the car started and we finally joined the other cars on the car deck but despair again when we had to be pushed off at the other side? Am I remembering correctly, Ian.

The car managed to get going again but we had to take it to a little country garage and use your higher french to explain what the problem was.

It was a lovely holiday.




Here we are sitting in a cafe enjoying the traditional fare of the region - crepes! Yum yum :)
I was on a diet as usual and regret refusing to eat more than one crepe at a serving. I'm sure everyone else would have but were put off by my reluctance :(

Eight and a half stone. . . and I still felt fat :(
Pathetic isn't it.

BROXBOURNE 

1979

And here we are at the end of the decade . . .you're almost four, Gary, and there's wee Kelly with the familiar glakit look of the newly born.
Those are pyjamas, by the way, that you're wearing. We certainly got our money's worth from them - they just kept stretching as you grew!!

This photo was taken in the May of 1979 and by the September, we were settled in our house in Edinburgh.

Saturday afternoon

I'm back . . .

9th July! My goodness it's been a long time since I wrote anything.
But here we go. . .
I started to scan some photos of Gary intending to put some on my blog in time for his birthday. But our scanner only gives you 300 pixels by 300 pixels so they were rubbish :(

However, yesterday, it suddenly came to me . . . Mark - Scott's cousin, made copies of some photos for me donkey's year's ago. And he had photographed them and uploaded them onto the computer - so I tried that! And it worked - well maybe not brilliant but definitely much clearer that when they were scanned. So . . .

Happy Birthday Gary!

b.1975 weighing in at 9lbs 9oz!

When Gary was a baby, he had very little hair, so we started affectionately calling him 'wee baldy Gary'. Over time this was changed to wee Garybaldy - note the similarity to Garibaldi! And it stuck :)
Wee cutie, isn't he!

Here he is with his big sister and his Granny Stewart. They're in the park in Broxbourne. Ian's mum and dad were down visiting us with their caravan that year.

I loved Gary in that hat. It had a huge pom pom on it which you can't actually see in this photo . . . wait a minute . . .

This one is a bit better. You can just about make it out. 

This second photo of Gary in 'the hat' was taken in Hoddesdon. The bigger town next door to Broxbourne. It had a Sainsbury's supermarket which I used to walk to once a week to get my big shop. Ah happy days.
I thought I looked really cool in those glasses :) Of their time, yes?

I've got some of you in your middle years too, Gary! Watch this space :)

Friday teatime

It's been threatening to rain for most of the afternoon but hasn't quite managed it yet which is good because I think Ian said he was going to try and play a round of golf this afternoon.

What have I been up to? Nothing much.

My new dressing gown arrived this morning along with my new swimming tops - I bought two new ones for my holidays :)

And I've put on 3 pounds in the last fornight according to the lady at Weightwatchers :(
Mind you, I'm not surprised. I drank copious amounts of wine last week end - just because - I wasn't out anywhere. And yesterday I didn't go swimming and I ate nothing but scones and cake till Ian came home and I had to make him sensible food.

Kelly said, that she'd read somewhere that having a blow out is good because it increases your metabolic rate which tends to slow if you are on a strict eating regime and I believe her!!

So here I sit at the dining room table typing with my 'toby talls' because the 'peter pointer' on my right hand is sore for some reason. I asked Ian, this morning, to have a look and check if anything had slid in between the finger and the nail - that's what it feels like, but he shook his head and said, "Oh, I can't see anything that small.!"
To be honest, I was asking him because I can't see anything that small!!
Things are bad in this house :(

But here's a cheery photo. I can't remember what year it was taken.
How old does Ross look? That should give us a clue.
We're in Spain on a wee holiday!! :) And we are in the resort where we bought our timeshare. So it was after our 25th wedding anniversary which was in 1997.

And there's my mum, God love her. If she'd lived as long as her own mother, she's still be alive! My granny was a good bit over ninety when she died. I haven't actually got many pictures of her. . . just memories.
This was during my 'wash and go' period. I'm talking about my hair!! Wash, mousse, let it dry and then use an afro comb. . . oh happy days!!

Ross tried roasted suckling pig when we went out for dinner on one of the evenings. You could see all its little teeth!!
Not my favourite memory of the holiday, I must admit, but seered into my brain nevertheless :(

Sunday 12th June

The scent of the azaleas lining the side of the road as you come into our street,  has been gorgeous for a couple of weeks now :)

BLAST from the PAST

I thought, "I wonder what is in my file marked 2001." So I had a wee look. I remember this!!

We've had a lot of showery weather recently and are having sun and showers again today but yesterday was awful. It was pouring at breakfast time, bucketing at lunchtime and torrential by teatime!
Cold, dismally dull and wet :(

Carole appeared at lunchtime to pick up Luca and stayed till teatime which was lovely. Luca had stayed the night before with us to let Gary and Carole go to a fortieth birthday celebration at The Foyer in Crown Street.

The Foyer was, according to Carole, wonderful - well worth a visit but Gary was a bit of a let down. He was 'on call' (he's 'on call' every other week end) and as per usual  'was called', so Carole ended up at the dinner alone :(

Looks like you missed out on a really lovely meal, Gary!

Luca used his bathtime on Friday night to get to grips with volume. Here he is working out which holds more - the old plastic beaker or the empty mouthwash bottle :)

It's the bottle, in case you're interested. Of course that was a large mouthwash bottle. It would have been a different story had it been the medium size or even the small.  
Make note: buy 'other sizes' of mouthwash to complete the experiment.


I had chummed Carole to Luca's 'graduation', the other week. Yes, I know the kids probably didn't know what it was all about but for the adults it was so cute. . . their little morterboards had elastic around the edge to hold them on :)

My hands were obviosly shaking with the excitement of the occasion. Sorry :(

That's better. Now where is he? Brilliant I've snapped just as he's bent down :(

What on earth is he doing with his tassle and why is this photo so blurred? I give up!

 When it was Luca's turn to be presented with his certificate, all went well until he stood to have his photo taken.

He held his certificate right in front of his face. I can see the sense in that - he was thinking the photo was of the certificate, yes? So where else would you hold it?

This line of 'Luca thought' became more apparent when having been told to put it down, he did. . . right down on the ground - but still facing out to the camera.

So now the photographer has a view of the top of his head as he holds the certificate ready for the photo . . .
 People should be more specific, shouldn't they?

Friday morning, 27th May

Happy Birthday, Lucy!
Although, technically, Lucy, you can't start celebrating your birthday till nine o'clock tonight!
Hope you have a lovely day!!

Never dreamed for a moment all those years ago that you would end up living in the land of the cowboys, sob sob :(

I've been looking through the old photos from when Lucy was young and apart from the fact that the composition of so many of them is terrible, many of the photos are starting to fade or disappear into an orange haze :(
New technologies always throw up problems, I suppose. And colour was definitely a new technology back then. Why, Ian's and my wedding photos are in black and white. . . we weren't willing to cough up for expensive colour ones and on reflection I'm really glad.
So here we go. . . the best of a bad lot!!

Ian and Lucy in the back garden of our first home together. We lived in Chryston in Lanarkshire.

By the time this photo was taken, we were living in Broxbourne. You were such a wee cutie in those days :)

I played around with this one. It was taken in 1979. This is an easy one to date because it was definitely the year that Kelly was born so that would make you six, Lucy!

And this one was taken the day Dawn married Michael. That's us outside Dawns house in - I think it was Coatbridge.

I know the quality of this one is dreadful, but I thought you might like to have it, seeing as your Granny and Granda Stewart are in it. It must be a Christmas - check out the party hats - but when? Sometime in the late eighties? I'm not sure.

That's key lime pie that you're eating and you are sitting in Orlando Airport waiting to catch a flight home. Do you remember?

Carole, Liz and Luca are heading off to Lochinver today for a wee holiday. Liz travelled up on Wednesday and she and Carole were going to get organised yesterday so's it could be anchors away this morning.
When I was in Inverurie on Tuesday night, Gary came in with a wee bucket and spade set for Luca :) . . .  fingers crossed they get good weather and the bucket and spade get lots of use.

Saturday 21st May

Made it at last. It's been a struggle getting back here again!
It feels as though the more the time gap between entries grows, the harder it becomes to actually sit down and begin writing.

But I've had my roll'n'sausage with squirty mustard for lunch and I finally managed to watch the final CSI episode in the vast collection that had built up on the hard drive since that fateful day that I thought, "I think I'll start recording CSI because I'm always missing them."  !!!!

At one point, there were 14 waiting to be watched and the memory was running out of space!

However, here we are. If wee Kelly can finally hit the keys again then so can I! :)
Talking of Kelly, I can't let your birthday go unmentioned, can I? So here's some images of you, bonnie lass :)

Scarborough beach.
This was one of the few dry days we got. Ask Gary about this holiday and he will tell you it was one of the best he was ever on.
I loved that wee dress, by the way - you look so cute in it, Kelly :) And look at those little chubby wrists :)

Kelly's fifth birthday. Can you see the green tupperware cup on the table. Does Tupperware, the business, still exist? you never hear about it these days. Used to be everybody had cupboards full of the stuff. I've still got my Tupperware orange peelers! :)

Do you remember asking for this photo to be taken? Kelly and the flowers! Gary was more interested in getting into the jelly :)

Norway.
I loved this holiday! We travelled a lot in the red Volvo which was Ian's car at the time and since we aren't good travellers, everybody except Ian took pills every morning. Ian reckons he was on his own for the whole of that holiday. He drove through Norway with a car full of folk totally zonked out.We don't look zonked out in this photo, do we?

At home
Two wee cuties and a plant that's long since died off! What age were you then, Kelly? About 16, maybe?

The wedding! :)I can see Aunt Mary in her 'pink fascinat' in the background - is that how you spell it? The cross between a fascinator and a hat?

Picked Luca up on Tuesday from Nursery as usual but this week, he was staying the night because Mummy and Daddy were going to the cinema after work. 'Were' being the operative word. They didn't actually make it because Gary was called into work so poor Carole got a quick stop somewhere for tea and ended up back at home all on her own:(

 Thursday had Luca back again. Vomitting all over the Nursery school carpet gets you a 48 hour suspension so Granny Jo took the Thursday shift and Mummy took the Friday.
And Luca bounced his way through both days.

You do realise, don't you, that this is a family of giraffes. Please note the beautiful flowers on their heads. You should hear Luca saying - beautiful - it's a hoot!

Note the multi-tasking. . . watching Tom and Jerry and playing with lego :) Watching Tom and Jerry and working on the computer :)  Choose your character!! :) Luca or Granda Ian :)

This picture was taken on Wednesday just before lunch time on the day he vomitted all over the nursery.

Sniffs'n'sneezes and dripping tap noses are abounding just now thanks to the very pretty yellow crop in the fields all over the shire . . .

And here's the culprit - rapeseed oil. The only thing I'd say on its behalf is that it is stunningly beautiful when you see a field of it bathed in sunshine. Yes?

Saturday 7th May

Ian at Aviemore a while back!!
He's roller skating. "That's it, Ian!" I cheered - from the side :)

It's nine o'clock in the morning and I'm sitting here in the front room looking out of the window at sunshine!

.. . .  And yes, the cloud is lifting and we can just about say that the sky is blue!

Which in one way is good but in another is a bit disappointing. You see, Ian should be playing golf this morning. He set off earlier in heavy rain only to come back soon after with a newspaper, some rolls and a bag of currant scones.

No golf.

"At least I won't have to go to all the bother of drying out all my gear before tomorrow." (he's off to Boat of Garten - and the forecast is for rain)

Ever the optimist - how I LOVE that man :)

I came across these old photos this morning.
Lucy's facebook entry talking about what she's arranged for Braeden's birthday celebration started me thinking and look what I found! May 2005 :)

 THE BIRTHDAY BOY

Love the hat, Mum. Did you make it, yourself?

Is my birthday hat going to be ready soon, Mum? I want to look cool just like you!

Do you think cellotape might keep it on?

And so to the most important part of the day. . . THE CAKE!!

Look at all that icing and check out the little chubby fists just at the edge of the picture :)

Spoon? No need! And while I'm about it, maybe if I smeared the cake and icing all over my face and head, it might be an interesting experience. What do you think?

With my last entry being on Easter Monday, a lot has happened I'm sure but what with my goldfish memory I really can't remember much!

I lay in bed the other night thinking.

So. . .  Alex Salmond is the leader of the Scottish Nationalists.

Deputy?

She's also got a fishy surname.

Right. . . what is it?

I spent the next ten minutes going through all the fish in the sea -

haddock, cod, plaice . . .

Eventually it came to me - sturgeon! Yes, yes - that's it Sturgeon!!

Now what's her first name?

Twenty minutes later, having gone through the alphabet without success but knowing it was 'bum bum bum Sturgeon' -  you know, three syllables - it finally popped into my head. Nicola or is it Nichola - it doesn't really matter - they both sound the same and tired but relieved that I'd beaten the memory gobbler, I went to sleep :)