The End of Year

And so we come to the end of another year. An eventful year, as they all are.

family except Gerry, but he was in touch and we will see him soon.

At Christmas, we saw all the family, and that is the best gift of all. We got to two Midnight Masses, a treat indeed.

I have an hours flying lesson awaiting me from my wife.

This year was full of change or me. My first visit to America, first visit to the American TFP Conference, first visit to Gettysburg, and the in USA at the time of the earliest snow fall, all 10 inches of it.

I have been out teaching since November, to my utter surprise. I am enjoying working with children again, and of course the money is an unexpected but welcome bonus.

And I will be back in school in January.

Tomorrow we will be at a Catholic family event in Edinburgh in the afternoon, then home in the evening. I am trying to find a midnight mass on Hogmanay.

Soon it will be 2012. No doubt there will be remarkable events and happenings in the year to come.

John will be off to Boston in early January for a workshop. He has commissions to write music and words for 5 plays so far. Not much acting looming up though.

I will be off to Kansas in April for another TFP Conference.

I pray that God will bless me and my family, and keep is safe another year. O pray that God will grant a period of peace to the World. Imagine a world without War.

It will come, because it is God's Will, and Mary said her Immaculate Heart would triumph and that Peace would come to the World. Will it be this year?

A Happy, Peaceful and Prosperous Year to all Men of Goodwill.

Christmas Day 2011

Last night I was cantoring at the 9pm Carol Service and Christmas Night Mass.

It was supposed to be my wife, but she was ill, so I had to step in.

Fortunately Mark for school had agreed to play the organ. In the end, he brought an organist with him, so I sang the hymns and carols, and Mark sang the Mass responses.

All in the Church joined in willingly in the singing and it all went well.

I got home about 10.30pm. My dearest was feeling a little better, so we headed out to Midnight Mass in Springburn, a solemn Latin Mass.

It was 2 am when I finally got home. Very tired.

School closed on Thursday, but I will be back on January 9th.

Before then we will have short break in the borders.

John was on radio Scotland today in a radio play with Billy Connolly and Brian Cox.

Storm Day

We had been warned that a storm was coming.

Last night the Scottish Office advised that schools be closed, bridges closed, and that travel should be avoided.

At 2.15am, texts were received advising that schools in many areas, including Glasgow would not open. At 7.30 am, another text advising that staff should report to their school, or contact your school if not possible.

I made my way to school, making detours to avoid floods, and reached school.

As others arrived, we discovered that our nearest school was totally closed, to staff as well. And there was a lack of uniformity about decision making. Our HT was reluctant to send us home in case we were in an accident. Though since the storm was going to increase as the day went on, that was illogical.

Eventually we were sent home at 11am to work there till the end of our normal working day, or if we preferred not to work, we could make up the time or lose holiday entitlement. Aye.

The storm has raged on. Conditions are difficult for drivers and pedestrians. Buildings are damaged, trees down, buses and trains affected, ships and planes cancelled, roads flooded.

It should peak by 6 pm, then we can expect a cold front with ice and snow tomorrow.

photos from Cyclerama at Gettysburg Visitor Centre.

First Snow of Winter 2011

We awoke to the first snowfall in Scotland of the winter.

Not much...an inch or so, but enough to cause some disruption. The Scottish Government is determined that there will be no re run of last winter, when hundreds of folk were trapped overnight on one of the main routes between Glasgow and the East coast.

As I write, it is below freezing point outside and it is snowing again. Of course at the end of October I found myself in 10 inches of snow in Pennsylvania. There was no traffic disruption there, but there were power outages as trees brought down overhead power cables. Here in the UK most power lines to homes are underground, unlike North America.

We will see how we fare tomorrow if the snow keeps up.

Some more St. Andrews photos.

Mazda is back

I got my own car back on Thursday.

Compared to the diesel Vauxhall, it is incredibly quieter. It feels lighter, more comfortable and much more relaxing to drive.

Friday at school was busy. It was also very cold and the roads around the school were icy. One parent slid into the back of one of the teachers. Glad it wasn't me.

Snow and cold weather are promised over the next few days.

Tomorrow we have the monthly TFP meeting at Milngavie. Looking forward to it.

Back to school on Monday. Seems strange. But the Christmas Holidays will be here before we know it.

Not sure if I will be needed in January. If I am, I will consider it, thought I don't want to be overdoing it.

Some more US photos.

Advent 2011

Advent has begun. 5 weeks till Christmas.

It has to be remembered by Catholics that Advent is a penitential season, a time of preparation for the Christmas Celebrations. There has to be more than just shopping and gift buying and drinking.

We need to assess our lives, make changes, and renew our religious life.

Bit it seems that every year the religious dimension gets smaller for more and more people.

Yesterday we celebrated St Andrew's day as we will be closed on the actual feast day. Every class did a little performance. But it could have been Burns' night, as there was scant acknowledgement that we were celebrating the life of St Andrew.

There are difficulties in that we really do not know very much about his life. But surely there is more to a saint's day than humorous songs and poems?

Today we had a visiting theatre group from London performing Oliver Twist. A cast of 2, with minimum scenery.

The children enjoyed it in bits, but for the adults, it was pretty grim stuff. London accents which were difficult to understand when lines were delivered fast. Not really pantomime stuff at all. The children enjoyed the chase scenes, but there were no catchy songs or snappy dialogue.

There is a gap here waiting to be filled by Scottish talent. Do Hopscotch still exist? Visible Fiction?

Tomorrow there will be a large scale National Strike in protest at the Government's plans for pension reform. Basically, everyone will have to pay more into their pensions, work longer to get to the pension, and receive a reduced pension.

I believe there are other ways to address pension problems. Maybe everyone could have the same per centage contributions. At present the range is quite wide, with some people paying nil contributions. Politicians I believe and maybe some Civil Servants?

Another issue is that single people with no dependents can nominate another to receive a reduced pension following the death of the pension holder. This is crazy. When you die, your pension should die with you, unless you are leaving a wife and children who need that income.

And of course the chaos caused by the greed of Bankers has to be sorted by non bankers, and that is another reason for the financial straits many of us now find ourselves in.

It will be interesting to see the reaction tomorrow and what further developments will occur.

Photos are from flight Baltimore to Newark.

CRASH!!!!!

I suppose it had to happen. I had my first car bump. After 35 years of bump free driving, and no offences or points, I had a bump. Luckily, no one hurt and.....not my fault. I was stopped in the Asda car park. I looked in my mirror. Saw a little polo reversing rapidly towards me, veering over the centre line. I honked. No use. She ran into me.

But, thank God, everything has worked out very easily. Her insurance company contacted me, accepted liability and arranged uplift of my car, and a hire car for me. I am now driving a new Vauxhall Insignia. It's a diesel. Has 6 gears. A nifty handbrake which is a button, and releases when you move away.

Nice as it is, I prefer my Mazda. The Insignia is a bit noisy for me. The diesel is noisy at low gears. It is roomy, like the interior. But I would not buy one.

Still working, and enjoying it, though responsibilities are building up. But I reckon I can get to Christmas.

I had an e mail from Gettysburg about Christmas events. Made me want to be there for them. Maybe next year, but I do believe, God willing, that Kansas in March is now quite feasible.

The East Neuk

This is a beautiful little corner of Scotland. Cross the Forth Bridge, or the Kincardine Bridge, and you are soon in the Kingdom of Fife.

Make your way to the east coast road, and there you are. The road will take you through a series of pretty little fishing villages, like Crail, Anstruther, Largo and so on.

At one time, fishing was vital to the community. Today, there is not that much fishing going on. Anstruther has an interesting Fisheries Museum.

The houses are brightly painted, as they are in many sea side towns. I noticed the same in Wales.

The area is rich in history and historic buildings, and not a few castles. From more modern times there is the war time aerodrome at Crail, and the underground Secret Bunker, which was a control point in Scotland to be used in time of War, and is now a fascinating visitor attraction.

A corner of Scotland well worth spending a few days exploring.

Some photos of Anstruther.

St Andrew's Break

We spent this weekend at St Andrews, in the East Neuk of Fife.

We stayed at the Drumoig Golf club, just outside Leuchars, about 15 minutes from St Andrews.

Our room overlooked the golf course, and the attached photos show the sunrise on Saturday morning.

It turned out to be a glorious day. We spent the morning in St Andrews, then drove round the coast road to Anstruther. From there, after coffee, we made our way to Leven, and then back to the hotel for about 5pm. By then it was dark.

The only drawback about the Drumoig is that in winter, they close the bar and restaurant at 4pm, but there are eating places nearby.

Back to school today. My timetable is subject to frequent change as emergencies arise. I am flexible!

Wednesday 16th November 2011

We are halfway through another week.

I am still in school. Had a meeting this afternoon with the DHT about the learning Zone timetable....my timetable.

We shook it out and re-organised it, and probably on Monday we will start running the new timetable and see how it goes.

Today the weather was really nice. Blue skies and sunshine, but not particularly warm. There was frost about this morning.

I have written to Tesco expressing my disappointment with their decision to fund a family friendly spot at the London Gay Pride March. I'm not sure how you do that, or who would want to do that.

Anyway, I have expressed my thoughts and I will simply take my custom elsewhere. I know where I do not want the money made from my shopping to be used.

Some older photos today from the Erskine Bridge, looking down over Old Kilpatrick, and down the River Clyde, towards Dumbarton.

Old Kilpatrick claims to be the birthplace of St. Patrick. Dumbarton was the ancient capital of Strathclyde, and has a castle perched on the top of Dumbarton Rock, an extinct volcano.

The Murder of Geoffrey Robbins

This was the title of short play written by our sons Gerry and John, and performed all last week at Oran Mor in Glasgow.

Geoff was their flatmate in Edinburgh, and not long after he moved in, they wrote their first anti-Geoff song...."Geoff Came to our flat, so we killed him!...."

This was the first of many. It would appear Geoff had many unattractive traits that irked people, hence the play after he moved out.

It was great fun. The boys performed well ably supported by George Drennan as the hapless policeman.

Geoff and his family came to see the show on Tuesday, and thoroughly enjoyed it. He is back in the Black Isle now....isn't he???????

I am back teaching all next week.

On Friday I went into the computer suite to find some worksheets and print them off. I switched on one of the computers. 18 minutes later, I was still waiting for it to open up. How are schools meant to offer computer support to teachers and pupils if this is the quality available. Not fit for purpose I hazard to guess. They are not new, are HP machines, while the Dell holds the contract for Glasgow schools. I guess there is an issue there.

The Weekend is Here!!!!

It is Friday. I Have done a full week at school and I am tired. I am back next week. I am responsible for Learning Support. I hope to have a look at pupil files this weekend and organise some lesson plans for the next few weeks.

I am enjoying working with the children, but I will appreciate my freedom when it returns.

Teaching, done properly, is an exhausting job. And everyone in the school where I am working is really giving their all.

Anyone who thinks teaching is an easy option is mistaken.

We are going to see the Gerry and John tomorrow at Oran Mor with their play, "The Murder of Geoffrey Robbins". The Herald described it as a cross between Noel Coward and Hinge and Bracket.

Then on Sunday we are having lunch with Martin and Claire.

Looking forward to all these family events.