Archive for the ‘Friends’ Category

Proctor wedding

Wednesday, November 7th, 2012

From Monmouth, we relocated to Buckland Hall for the wedding of our university, orienteering friend and one time IBMer Hedley Proctor to Lisa Dawe. Buckland is a suitably imposing country house on the edge of the Brecon Beacons and the following morning we woke to beautiful views across the River Usk to the snow topped hills beyond. In keeping with the bride and groom, the hall is a vegetarian establishment. Thankfully it was vegetarian food done well and we were well catered for throughout the weekend.

As best man, I was privy to the big secret for the weekend. The rings would be delivered to me during the ceremony by barn owl! The owl had its own plans once freed of the rings and took a tour of the room, taking in the photographer’s head amongst other stops. After the photos, we were then treated to a display outside included the owl, a hawk and a falcon courtesy of Hawksdrift. I particularly enjoyed the part where Hedley was chased down by one of the birds. There was, of course, the small matter of a speech to give as well. It seemed to go reasonably well although it remains to be seen whether Hedley will talk to me again!

Hedley and Lisa made a lovely couple and we wish them the best for their future life together.

Animal Encounters

Friday, August 19th, 2011

941We had visitors last Saturday and made a trip out to what I shall always know as the Owl & Otter Center but which is now called the New Forest Wildlife Park. It’s actually the first time I’ve been (despite having used the car park for numerous RR10 events). The owls and otters are still present in force but there’s a good selection of other animals to see from ferrets and foxes to bison and, the most recent addition, wolves. (It’s based in the New Forest obviously rather than containing wildlife representative of the Forest!) The highlight had to be the over friendly deer which, having nibbled my shoelaces proceeded to give the edge of someone’s silk dress a good chew much to their distress! Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves but I’m not sure I’d rush back.

The following day, Christine was off visiting a friend and I took the children off to Manor Farm. We topped up our buckets with bird seed as usual although there seemed to be few in evidence in the farmyard. Duncan seems particularly wary of the animals. At one point he let out a prolonged ‘oooooooo’ which transformed in to a scream as a hen approached him. After a picnic we headed down to the playground in the park which was advertising some new equipment. Some was a bit dubious. There was one triangular piece that wouldn’t have looked out of place on a dog agility course which Duncan seemed to love as it had carpet inside and mirrored walls! There is a fantastic new swing though which is a very thick rope suspended from something resembling a Newton’s cradle which seats/stands about 10 children. After about 10 minutes of watching, Emma eventually deigned to get on. She didn’t stay on for long though!

Royal watching

Saturday, April 30th, 2011

920I can’t claim that Royal Wedding fever was rife in the Currie household. Emma was mildly excited due to the whole ‘princess’ side of things but probably wouldn’t have noticed  if we’d just gone out for the day. As it was, we settled down in front of the TV just as the groom departed for the Abbey and watched until they were in the church. The photo is a bit misleading as Duncan wasn’t really glued to the screen. He was probably only standing there to try and get other people’s attention. Emma seemed to enjoy wathing all of the different hats going in to the church.
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Emma turns three

Sunday, May 30th, 2010

863Emma’s birthday itself was a fairly quiet afair. Emma was up early but more due to sunlight than anything birthday related. Presents were opened over breakfast and then I went in to work.  The family then joined me there for lunch at the clubhouse where Emma’s early start was starting to show. Apparently she enjoyed visiting the fish after I’d gone back to my desk though. Then it was the first of many cakes in the evening. Emma’s attempts at blowing anything (and not just Rice Krispies out of her nose) are still pretty feeble so I was suitably impressed that she managed to extinguish the candles.

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Sand and Sunshine

Sunday, April 4th, 2010

842Our accommodation has a wonderful view over Saunton Sands and Braunton Burrows which meant that we didn’t have far to travel to today’s event. I drove Christine down for her run and took Emma around the string course. Emma enjoyed running up and down the dunes so much that we had to collect all of the off-string controls (although the walk to and from the start was a bit much for her, particularly with all the puddles to jump in). The enjoyment was increased by the copious amounts of sunshine! There were 4 hours between split starts so I could drive everyone back to the cottage, have lunch, and then drive back for my run!

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New Year at Hilliers

Friday, January 1st, 2010

821We decided to make the most of the sunshine today and spent a large part of it at Hillier Gardens. Despite no longer being members, entry is still free with our Culture-all Passport. In some ways, the passport is better as, in my absence, Christine can take any guest along with her for free. I’ve put a small selection of photos up on Flickr. (I’ve decided to make a concerted effort to download photos in a more timely manner, sort them more ruthlessly and get more of them up on the web.) Unfortunately a large number of people had obviously had the same idea and, although they are easily lost in the gardens, there was a long queue to get something to eat.

Anderwood BBQ

Saturday, July 11th, 2009

Thanks to Sam Massey for organising a good evening’s entertainment yesterday for SOC. Unfortunately there was a heavy downpour as we approached Anderwood which soaked the BBQ area but the weather then improved. Sam had put on a 45 minute score event with a handicap scheme that meant that the old/young had to get less controls. Sadly that meant I had to try and get all 20. In winter it may have been achievable but the head high bracken (which was also soaking wet in to the bargain) proved too much of an impediment and I only managed 19. The handicapping worked well with lots of different ages getting an adjusted 18-20 controls. Tamsin Moran was the winner having got her 14 controls with time to spare. The subsequent BBQ also went well although it was a shame there weren’t more members present. I dread to think quite how many sausages Emma ate!

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Run the Pubs (and Car Parks)

Sunday, June 28th, 2009

As regular readers may remember, around Xmas each year the Tuesday night runners do a run that takes in all of the pubs that we have visited during the year. This, it seems, was not enough of a challenge for Neil and he proposed that we should run not only all of the pubs, but also all of the car parks that we visit. This is particularly significant when it comes to our runs from Wilverley where we usual drink at Bank afterwards. As if this still wasn’t enough, Neil wanted to make it a round trip rather than the usual linear route. And, although to be fair he wouldn’t have known this at the time, he wanted to do it on a day when the temperature was in the mid 20s.

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