....the holiday blog - dundee 2010
day 1 - saturday 24th july
first day of the holidays and it's a busy one with the grand opening of the newton hall junction, the play park we've spent about two years raising money to build. and it looks great! the mayor mamie simians opened it and the highlight of the day was watching christine queue with the eight and nine year old girls to get her face painted. and then, face still painted, off she went to hartlepool hospital to see her mam. made the day of many poorly ladies on the ward and assorted nurses. nice picnic on the field by the park, then some bike repairs ready for the hols, then chris and lynne over for a coffee and chat. to be fair, and they agreed, their crack was not good…. they were both tired after being at a family wedding until four in the morning, the most exciting part of the conversation was discussing the quality of the bread at sainsbury's and approximately how many slices were in each loaf……….
day 2 - sunday 25th july
..a strangely calm day ….well you know how when you're getting ready for holiday it's all a bit of a nightmare and you rush around light a headless chicken …well…. we decided that the solution was not to go away for two weeks but to go away from the monday of week one to the friday of week two! genius! the weekend and the prep was so chilled it hardly felt like we'd had to do anything at all and there we were all sorted! mint! then we were off to the hospital to see christine's mam.. and she's doing very well and should be out in the next day or two although frankly if i was charge of the nhs i'd be wondering what i was spending my money on. frankly there is now nothing wrong with jean that would mean she needs to be in hospital but because the consultant now isn't in until tuesday no one can say she can go home! how ridiculous is that! do you know how much a hospital bed costs per day??? no??? well neither do i… but it's a lot! and then we were home and tucking into our take away curry.. well you know it cuts down on the washing up pre holiday ;-)
day 3 - monday 26th july
how much stuff are we taking on holiday!! the car is absolutely packed and the bikes are loaded. i can't believe it takes this much gear for four people to have fun. i'm reminded of tony's friend peter who cycles lands end to john 'o groats with nothing more than a carrier bag with a single t-shirt and a single pair of undies in it ….for nearly two weeks …yes i know mingin'!! but he does it and he survives!! couldn't do it! need my moisturiser and many changes of clothes and several maps and reading material and my vitamins …i know! …i know!!!
so off we went car heavy laden for our road trip to dundee. and it was lovely… the boys had their in car entertainment psp, ds, and dvd's …and they were silent virtually all the way! i love the modern world - no family interaction required at all! great!! we drove through beautiful countryside and over the forth road bridge (which was a bit spectacular) and arrived at dundee. just out of the other side of dundee is piperdam our "luxury" holiday cottage set in a golf resort….. cool! we checked out the 9 and 18 hole courses and the gym and the bar (nice lunch of a brie panini) while we waited for check in time and then we were off to our lodge. it's absolutely lovely…. hot tub (which the boys were in only minutes after arriving), ensuite, patio area, set in the forest… lovely… our shopping arrived courtesy of mr. sainsbury… christine is very organised (everyone should have a christine!). however the driver wasn't and off he went with our freezer stuff still in his van only to return half an hour later very apologetic!
and then we settled in… the boys cycled backwards and forwards to the park and appeared to be having fun, we played dr. who and the daleks frustration (dad won - not that i was trying or anything), christine beat my sorry ass at backgammon (mind you she kept drip feeding me the rules ["oh! did i not say you could do that"]) ….then off to the driving range for a quick drive of a few balls to get our cumulative eyes in ready for the big golf gig…… then back at the lodge me 'n' jonathan cooked a meal of spaghetti bolognese! ah! father and son in the kitchen - that's cool!
day 4 - tuesday 27th july
….happy birthday to me happy birthday to me happy birthday to meeeee happy birthday to me! well what a great day. the scottish sunshine has shone and shone and shone. it's been very hot. the day started with breakfast and cards and pressies; cash, a mint t-shirt from the millers (fat face 'cos we're cool), and waiting for a present to be delivered that didn't arrive - but not to worry it will and that will make for a whole other exciting day.
we headed off on the bikes to rait where we parked the car in a little antiques centre and promised that if we could leave our car there we would have coffee's at the cafe and look around the shops when we returned. the locals appeared happy with this so off we went. we headed down the road through kilspindie, missing our turn, and ending up at glendoik, crossing a very busy a90 and then back onto the beautiful country roads. apart from this excursion across the a90 and crossing it later on again it felt like we were in the middle of nowhere, in essence, because we were. we then headed through the lovely village of errol on the sustains cycle route ncn 77. the sun was beating down, the roads were quiet and we were all bearing up well. we had no idea how far we had been or how far we had left to go. cycling through the carse of gowrie we passed errol station crossed the a90 and found ourselves lunching on our picnic under the protection of a shady tree in the grounds of the remains of an old chapel. the final part of our journey took us to kinaird and back to the antique centre at rait- a total of about 12 and a half miles. we had our coffee and bought fresh vegetables placing the appropriate amount of money in the honesty box for potatoes, beetroot, and tomatoes. over coffee we listened to a splendid and engaging conversation between the owner of one of the antique shops and a hawker of sorts touting the things he had found that were ripe for restoration; two large wagon wheels (metal not biscuit!), two pot bed warmers, a fire grate, and assorted brass. it was wonderful to hear the bartering, leading to final agreement over price, both feigning reluctance; "i can't believe i'm paying you that", coupled with, "i can't believe i'm selling you that at such a knock down price"!
then back to the lodge for a great barbecue and more hot tub and a few glasses of wine and bed……… sweet.
day 5 - wednesday 28th july
…what of the second full day in the lodge. well a lazy cooked breakfast 'cos the weather was going to be rainy and we were just going to head into dundee. but by the time we were heading out the sun was shining so we headed to camperdown park in dundee "just for a look" and when we left at about 4 o'clock we'd had a cracking day in the sun. we'd played in the play park, the boys had peddled a peddello, and we'd visited the zoo. now as a rule i don't like zoo's and what i saw didn't change my mind but
… it is wonderful to see some of these animals up close (tinged with a certain sadness). the european brown bears were the highlight…. they looked beautiful and were very engaging climbing trees for food and tearing down bags with food sealed inside them i'm assuming to mimic how they would find food in the wild. some lovely owls and some lovely lemurs among other things made for an enjoyable day.
i'm spending the holiday with dan brown and his latest novel… more of that later! jonathan's cooking and the chicken in the pasta is ready!
day 6 - thursday 29th july
the day started early with the boys heading off onto the wee piper 9 hole golf course for our first round of the holiday!
we gave luke 2 shots per hole and at times nearly regretted it! when he gets it right he gets it right. we had a proper dad son fight about how he needed to line himself up with the hole more effectively when putting and in a strop he just smacked the ball and sunk it from about 14 feet! jonathan said "dad, you've just been owned" (something the young shavers say to one another when someone has just got something over on one - i think??!!??)
Hole 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Par 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 27
Jonathan 6 7 7 5 4 4 5 5 4 47 (20 over)
Luke (adjusted) 8 9 16 7 6 4 6 6 6 68 (41over)
Stephen 6 7 5 7 5 6 7 6 7 56 (29 over)
it does not bode well for the 18 hole course on saturday!!
then mid morning, because it was going to rain, we headed of to sensation science exhibition. at lunch we came outside and had our packed lunch in the blistering sunshine - great that we chose indoors - thanks weathermen! mind you the exhibition was great. we were greeted at the door by a robot that reacted with us, which was very clever, and then were impressed with experiments and interactive exhibits a plenty. and they all worked unlike some of these places you go where half the things have an out of order sign on them! we learnt about our brains, were made invisible, morphed into monkeys, and the opposite sex, and manga characters. we were treated to a video about the creation of the universe… and apparently it took more than 7 days… well i never… really…. we were then shown stuff about sound and camera's and electricity …great fun. then we went on an epic mission to find the tourist information centre which appears to have been in many different places recently according to the locals…. and we visited them all before finding it about 100 yards away from where we had been at the science exhibition! you couldn't write it!
day 7 - friday 30th july
those wonderful weathermen… wrong again…. it was meant to be red hot all morning and raining by about 2 so we decided to go to the beach nice and early and then head home when it rained. so as we drove of in the dull and overcast weather we thought we would just see what happened. well…. we spotted a signpost for carnoustie… and what with me 'n' jonthan being golf aficionados now we thought we'd go and gave a look at this famous course. so we drove and stopped and looked and then spotted a great park which the boys played in. and then within chipping distance of the famous course we played crazy golf! and a mighty fine crazy golf course it was too!
we then made our way to lunan an award winning beach… clearly award winning for having the biggest dunes to climb over before getting to the beach…. but it was worth it! the beach was fabulous, beautiful sand, beautiful water, beautiful craggy, grassy backdrop. we walked along the beach and found dead jelly fish, dead crabs, and empty shells ….i blame all of this bloody oil spilling out on the other side of the world!
after a relaxing, shirt off walk along the beach when it started to rain we headed off back to carnoustie for something to eat and a dodge around the shops. we found a little old cafe to eat some traditional scottish fayre. first i asked what stovie's and oat cakes were and when told said i would try that. "oh, we've not got any left". "oh ok then what is a forfar pie". "oh that's lovely its….". "oh excellent i'll try that". "oh, sorry we've got none left". "ah well how about traditional scottish pie?". "it's lovely but…. we've got none". so twenty minutes later i sat down in the heart of bonny scotland with a chicken curry pie and beans… i kid you not!
day 8 - saturday 31st july
who would have thought that in the piperdam for people called mordue golf championship mordue snr would draw mordue jnr for the 7.15 tee-off slot! from the first tee mordue jnr cleared the water with a 130 yard drive onto the green….. mordue snr - ball no.1 into the lake…. ball no.2 into the lake ….it wasn't going to be a good day! hole 2, a long par 5 which mordue jnr managed in 9 shots and mordue snr eventually holed in 16 ….it still wasn't going to be a good day!! hole 17 and nearest to the pin off 2 shots saw mordue jnr on the green in one and mordue snr in the pond in one…. doh! 17 holes and about 16 lost balls later the mordue's found themselves on the 16th tee with £2 riding on the longest drive…. mordue jnr stepped up and drove a good ball at least 150 yards…. mordue snr stepped up and drove the ball probably about 200 yards but he fact that it swung in a beautiful arc meant he was only about 100 yards from the tee and on the wrong fairway! now to work my way towards the green - in front of me 150 yards of clear fairway and a 6 foot wide water feature followed by 100 yards of fairway and a 12 foot pond to the right….. yep you guessed it… found them both - 250 yards of fairway to go at to avoid 18 feet of water…. it wasn't my day clearly
matchplay score found jonathan 2 holes up by the 19th and stroke play found jonathan 120 shots (48 over par!) and stephen 145 shots (a staggering 73 shots over par!!!!!)
hole 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
par 3 5 4 4 4 3 4 4 4 (35)
jonathan 4 9 7 10 8 5 4 8 7 (61)
stephen 9 16! 7 7 6 3 7 7 7 (69)
hole 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
par 5 3 4 4 4 4 5 3 5 (72)
jonathan 10 6 7 7 6 6 8 4 5 (120 - 48 over)
stephen 15! 9 6 6 6 9 8 7 10 (145 - 73 over)
the afternoon saw us off to the hermitage walk near the picturesque village of dunkeld in perthsire. we wandered around the village and even managed to dodge into a local record fair. if bagpipe techno was your thing then there was plenty but nothing much on offer for the discerning music punter. we then wandered the hermitage paths and happened upon ossian's hall and ossian's cave. the hall, overlooking a dramatic waterfall, had my heart in my mouth while luke (renowned for his propensity for tripping over things and generally falling clambered about near precipitous edges…. i did not enjoy myself!! and then back on the forest trail to ossian's cave. clearly manmade using features of the forest and carefully assembled rock it was a wonder to behold..
day 9 - monday 1st august
we saw the new month in on holiday in scotland with the big family bike ride! there's a route which circles dundee. the green circular cycle route offers over 28 miles of light traffic or traffic free roads. so out came the map and a course was plotted that appeared to be fairly flat and good fun. sherpa mordue, who's map reading skill are renowned held the map and confusion ensued as the green cycle route was marked on the map in blue and another route was marked in green!?! yes i kid you not the green route in blue!! it was like that game on the ds, brain train, where you have to say the word not the colour when given the word blue shown in red text. now if you've tried it then you'll know the urge is to say red because you see the colour rather than the word. well…. i need to practice this more when i get home 'cos i kept looking at the wrong flipping route. i have to say sections of the route were nice and picturesque with other bits very unattractive. anyone who has ever done sustrans routes knows how this works…. the people on the posh estates don't want hundreds of cyclists cycling through their back gardens and the routes often follow rivers which tends to be where the industrial estates are. but the north part of the route was lovely, all off road and through park land and we had our picnic right in the park that included the viaduct although could we hell as like find it!! after that we cycled down to the sea. the run into dundee along the coast on ncn 1 was lovely but as we hit dundee and the docks it wasn't so nice but we soldiered on and arrived at discovery point. now… this is where the ride should have ended. we were all tired and ready to be home but the car was in camperdown park a further 6 miles away. doesn't sound far does it. well the last 6 mile nearly made christine cry bless. i think she thought her legs were going to drop off…..
but we made it and before we knew where we were we were in the hot tub soaking our aching bones……….
day 10 - tuesday 2nd august
golf - 9 holes - round 2 - the stephen/jonathan/luke trophy - again luke gets 2 shots per hole…… hole 7 "no luke you can't use my clubs 'cos they are too big", "ah, go on dad please just one go with your proper clubs", "no luke you won't be able to play a shot because they're too big", "please", "no", pleeeeeease", "nooooo", "pleeeease", "oh for goodness sake here try the 4 iron", thwack….. on the green in one! luke was the star of the show and won the match play…. so he's only getting one shot each hole next time…. ha! that'll teach him!
hole 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
par 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
jonathan 4 6 6 7 6 5 6 6 6 (52)
luke (adjusted) 5 9 6 5 5 9 1 4 13 (57)
stephen 6 7 5 7 5 6 7 6 7 (56)
christine had been very vigorous while we golfed and had gone to the gym! this has to be the first time ever that christine has made more use of the gym facilities than i have! whatever next…. well! off to the olympia swimming pool and fun on the slides!
from the outside, and even in reception to be fair, dundee's olympia swimming baths looked like everything that is bad about council ran facilities. they looked like they'd been built 30 year ago and nobody had bothered to think about updating them since, but, the pool was absolutely immense. the water was lovely and warm. there was a wave machine, a whirlpool/rapids area, a jacuzzi, a diving pool, and four (!!) different slides. the red one - short and fast and fun, the green one and the blue one - much longer, much faster (you took off twice for some distance) and the yellow one which ended up in the diving pool with you coming out of the tube a good 4 meters above the water! incredible! i did not try the yellow one! christine thought she'd put her hip out when being launched into the air on the green run but still under pressure from the kids she relented and said she'd give the yellow one a go…. i was waiting for a go on the blue run and watching her on the monitor…. it was a tense wait then in a rush all i saw was christine emerging from the yellow tube on her side arse first!! she was travelling at a fair rate of knots and she seemed to hang in the air for an absolute age… at one point i thought she was going to make it into the seats but eventually she started to descend and hit the water!!! what a star that girl is! she was wondering why the attendant at the top was smiling as she launched herself and the attendant at the bottom was laughing as she emerged from the pool. the adults tend to come down a lot faster it would seem!! she lost her contact lens and her swimming costume gave way under the force of the water (and her ample bosom). it's lost all it's elastic support!! we had a great time in the pool and then headed into dundee for a mooch around the shops which was fun before heading back to the lodge.
day 11 - wednesday 3rd august
the big bike ride! ncn route 77.
christine and the boys drove me to pitlochry (which looked lovely - although all i did was find the loo and then get on my bike) before waving me off on the ncn route 77 to dundee. what has struck me so far about my adventures into scotland, which to be fair, has only been dumfries and dundee - very much the south of scotland - is that really it's not much more impressive than north yorkshire or the lakes. and then you start heading further north! as we headed towards pitlochry today the scenery became breath-taking. more dramatic. more…. well scottish…. i can only begin to imagine the west of scotland, or the highlands…. maybe next year……
off i went from pitlochry… first stop dunkeld…. and it went well, fairly easy to be honest…. no real big climbs just a steady ride…. an hour and a half when i thought i'd be nearer 2 hours 15. the family joined me briefly then i was off heading for perth…. and again it came fairly easy… the climbs were a bit more strenuous but nothing too difficult. a lovely stretch with trees on either side and some lovely views of the tay. got myself a bit lost on the run in to perth and instead of following the river ended up on the main road which was a shame. i was doing the route the wrong way really. sustrans mark it on their map from dundee to pitlochry rather than the way i was going which appears a tougher ride - heading away from the coast and into the hills rather than down off the hills and down to the coast. the sun was scorching in perth and i had a well earned break with my banana and oreo's! coming out of perth was a flipping nightmare with a real tough climb for a few miles but then it was all down hill and flat all the way to dundee. criss-crossing the railway line and keeping the tay in view most of the time. i had a decision to make at invergowrie…. i had 5 miles to go to dundee and the end of the 77 but was now heading away from piperdam. i could turn off here and head straight for piperdam or head to discovery point in dundee and get christine to pick me up. decided to head for piperdam…… wrong choice… as i headed away from the tay it was a vertical climb of about 4 miles till i hit the piperdam road. an arduous end to a beautiful days riding….. arrived at the lodge very tired and very happy and very very sleepy……
day 12 - thursday 4th august
our final full day and our final round of golf! and it all went so much better! not as many lost balls and a few less shots! we had fun and many times jonathan and i were tempted to try a happy gilmour but didn't want to be thrown off the course so late in the holiday!
hole 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
par 3 5 4 4 4 3 4 4 4 (35)
jonathan 5 11 9 5 9 6 4 8 10 (67)
stephen 5 9 11 10 6 5 6 5 9 (66)
hole 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
par 5 3 4 4 4 4 5 3 5 (72)
jonathan 9 8 8 8 5 8 12 4 13 (142 - 70 over)
stephen 7 4 9 9 6 10 9 4 9 (133 - 61 over)
our final dundee adventure was to go to j.m. barries's camera obscura. a victorian forerunner to the camera which comprosed a lens on the top of a building projecting an image onto a dish screen in a darkened room. it was fascinating and you can only begin to imagine the delight it must have caused victorians to witness this phenomena! taking images of what we see with our digital cameras is so common place to us that i fear we lose the mystery of what we do and see. i wonder sometimes that we don't actually "see" what we are looking at due to the preoccupation with videoing and photographing important moments for the fear we may lose them. in some ways we never have them because we don't "drink in" and experience what is in front of us because our eye is clamped to the view finder. the pictures become our memories instead of our memories being our memories. i'm as guilty of this as anyone but sometimes i find i stop myself and just look and think "no, i'm not taking a picture of that… that one is just for me, just for this moment". i felt like this a lot when cycling the other day so took very few pictures but have lots of "pictures" in my head which are just mine…. for me...
day 13 - friday 5th august
the trip home…. are you like me? it's lovely to go away but it's lovely to get home as well……. the familiarity, the comfort, and still the weekend to go at before getting back to work…. the drive home was good……… enjoying the scenery and enjoying being on my way back home…..
first day of the holidays and it's a busy one with the grand opening of the newton hall junction, the play park we've spent about two years raising money to build. and it looks great! the mayor mamie simians opened it and the highlight of the day was watching christine queue with the eight and nine year old girls to get her face painted. and then, face still painted, off she went to hartlepool hospital to see her mam. made the day of many poorly ladies on the ward and assorted nurses. nice picnic on the field by the park, then some bike repairs ready for the hols, then chris and lynne over for a coffee and chat. to be fair, and they agreed, their crack was not good…. they were both tired after being at a family wedding until four in the morning, the most exciting part of the conversation was discussing the quality of the bread at sainsbury's and approximately how many slices were in each loaf……….
day 2 - sunday 25th july
..a strangely calm day ….well you know how when you're getting ready for holiday it's all a bit of a nightmare and you rush around light a headless chicken …well…. we decided that the solution was not to go away for two weeks but to go away from the monday of week one to the friday of week two! genius! the weekend and the prep was so chilled it hardly felt like we'd had to do anything at all and there we were all sorted! mint! then we were off to the hospital to see christine's mam.. and she's doing very well and should be out in the next day or two although frankly if i was charge of the nhs i'd be wondering what i was spending my money on. frankly there is now nothing wrong with jean that would mean she needs to be in hospital but because the consultant now isn't in until tuesday no one can say she can go home! how ridiculous is that! do you know how much a hospital bed costs per day??? no??? well neither do i… but it's a lot! and then we were home and tucking into our take away curry.. well you know it cuts down on the washing up pre holiday ;-)
day 3 - monday 26th july
how much stuff are we taking on holiday!! the car is absolutely packed and the bikes are loaded. i can't believe it takes this much gear for four people to have fun. i'm reminded of tony's friend peter who cycles lands end to john 'o groats with nothing more than a carrier bag with a single t-shirt and a single pair of undies in it ….for nearly two weeks …yes i know mingin'!! but he does it and he survives!! couldn't do it! need my moisturiser and many changes of clothes and several maps and reading material and my vitamins …i know! …i know!!!
so off we went car heavy laden for our road trip to dundee. and it was lovely… the boys had their in car entertainment psp, ds, and dvd's …and they were silent virtually all the way! i love the modern world - no family interaction required at all! great!! we drove through beautiful countryside and over the forth road bridge (which was a bit spectacular) and arrived at dundee. just out of the other side of dundee is piperdam our "luxury" holiday cottage set in a golf resort….. cool! we checked out the 9 and 18 hole courses and the gym and the bar (nice lunch of a brie panini) while we waited for check in time and then we were off to our lodge. it's absolutely lovely…. hot tub (which the boys were in only minutes after arriving), ensuite, patio area, set in the forest… lovely… our shopping arrived courtesy of mr. sainsbury… christine is very organised (everyone should have a christine!). however the driver wasn't and off he went with our freezer stuff still in his van only to return half an hour later very apologetic!
and then we settled in… the boys cycled backwards and forwards to the park and appeared to be having fun, we played dr. who and the daleks frustration (dad won - not that i was trying or anything), christine beat my sorry ass at backgammon (mind you she kept drip feeding me the rules ["oh! did i not say you could do that"]) ….then off to the driving range for a quick drive of a few balls to get our cumulative eyes in ready for the big golf gig…… then back at the lodge me 'n' jonathan cooked a meal of spaghetti bolognese! ah! father and son in the kitchen - that's cool!
day 4 - tuesday 27th july
….happy birthday to me happy birthday to me happy birthday to meeeee happy birthday to me! well what a great day. the scottish sunshine has shone and shone and shone. it's been very hot. the day started with breakfast and cards and pressies; cash, a mint t-shirt from the millers (fat face 'cos we're cool), and waiting for a present to be delivered that didn't arrive - but not to worry it will and that will make for a whole other exciting day.
we headed off on the bikes to rait where we parked the car in a little antiques centre and promised that if we could leave our car there we would have coffee's at the cafe and look around the shops when we returned. the locals appeared happy with this so off we went. we headed down the road through kilspindie, missing our turn, and ending up at glendoik, crossing a very busy a90 and then back onto the beautiful country roads. apart from this excursion across the a90 and crossing it later on again it felt like we were in the middle of nowhere, in essence, because we were. we then headed through the lovely village of errol on the sustains cycle route ncn 77. the sun was beating down, the roads were quiet and we were all bearing up well. we had no idea how far we had been or how far we had left to go. cycling through the carse of gowrie we passed errol station crossed the a90 and found ourselves lunching on our picnic under the protection of a shady tree in the grounds of the remains of an old chapel. the final part of our journey took us to kinaird and back to the antique centre at rait- a total of about 12 and a half miles. we had our coffee and bought fresh vegetables placing the appropriate amount of money in the honesty box for potatoes, beetroot, and tomatoes. over coffee we listened to a splendid and engaging conversation between the owner of one of the antique shops and a hawker of sorts touting the things he had found that were ripe for restoration; two large wagon wheels (metal not biscuit!), two pot bed warmers, a fire grate, and assorted brass. it was wonderful to hear the bartering, leading to final agreement over price, both feigning reluctance; "i can't believe i'm paying you that", coupled with, "i can't believe i'm selling you that at such a knock down price"!
then back to the lodge for a great barbecue and more hot tub and a few glasses of wine and bed……… sweet.
day 5 - wednesday 28th july
…what of the second full day in the lodge. well a lazy cooked breakfast 'cos the weather was going to be rainy and we were just going to head into dundee. but by the time we were heading out the sun was shining so we headed to camperdown park in dundee "just for a look" and when we left at about 4 o'clock we'd had a cracking day in the sun. we'd played in the play park, the boys had peddled a peddello, and we'd visited the zoo. now as a rule i don't like zoo's and what i saw didn't change my mind but
… it is wonderful to see some of these animals up close (tinged with a certain sadness). the european brown bears were the highlight…. they looked beautiful and were very engaging climbing trees for food and tearing down bags with food sealed inside them i'm assuming to mimic how they would find food in the wild. some lovely owls and some lovely lemurs among other things made for an enjoyable day.i'm spending the holiday with dan brown and his latest novel… more of that later! jonathan's cooking and the chicken in the pasta is ready!
day 6 - thursday 29th july
the day started early with the boys heading off onto the wee piper 9 hole golf course for our first round of the holiday!
we gave luke 2 shots per hole and at times nearly regretted it! when he gets it right he gets it right. we had a proper dad son fight about how he needed to line himself up with the hole more effectively when putting and in a strop he just smacked the ball and sunk it from about 14 feet! jonathan said "dad, you've just been owned" (something the young shavers say to one another when someone has just got something over on one - i think??!!??)
Hole 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Par 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 27
Jonathan 6 7 7 5 4 4 5 5 4 47 (20 over)
Luke (adjusted) 8 9 16 7 6 4 6 6 6 68 (41over)
Stephen 6 7 5 7 5 6 7 6 7 56 (29 over)
it does not bode well for the 18 hole course on saturday!!
then mid morning, because it was going to rain, we headed of to sensation science exhibition. at lunch we came outside and had our packed lunch in the blistering sunshine - great that we chose indoors - thanks weathermen! mind you the exhibition was great. we were greeted at the door by a robot that reacted with us, which was very clever, and then were impressed with experiments and interactive exhibits a plenty. and they all worked unlike some of these places you go where half the things have an out of order sign on them! we learnt about our brains, were made invisible, morphed into monkeys, and the opposite sex, and manga characters. we were treated to a video about the creation of the universe… and apparently it took more than 7 days… well i never… really…. we were then shown stuff about sound and camera's and electricity …great fun. then we went on an epic mission to find the tourist information centre which appears to have been in many different places recently according to the locals…. and we visited them all before finding it about 100 yards away from where we had been at the science exhibition! you couldn't write it!
day 7 - friday 30th july
those wonderful weathermen… wrong again…. it was meant to be red hot all morning and raining by about 2 so we decided to go to the beach nice and early and then head home when it rained. so as we drove of in the dull and overcast weather we thought we would just see what happened. well…. we spotted a signpost for carnoustie… and what with me 'n' jonthan being golf aficionados now we thought we'd go and gave a look at this famous course. so we drove and stopped and looked and then spotted a great park which the boys played in. and then within chipping distance of the famous course we played crazy golf! and a mighty fine crazy golf course it was too!
we then made our way to lunan an award winning beach… clearly award winning for having the biggest dunes to climb over before getting to the beach…. but it was worth it! the beach was fabulous, beautiful sand, beautiful water, beautiful craggy, grassy backdrop. we walked along the beach and found dead jelly fish, dead crabs, and empty shells ….i blame all of this bloody oil spilling out on the other side of the world!
after a relaxing, shirt off walk along the beach when it started to rain we headed off back to carnoustie for something to eat and a dodge around the shops. we found a little old cafe to eat some traditional scottish fayre. first i asked what stovie's and oat cakes were and when told said i would try that. "oh, we've not got any left". "oh ok then what is a forfar pie". "oh that's lovely its….". "oh excellent i'll try that". "oh, sorry we've got none left". "ah well how about traditional scottish pie?". "it's lovely but…. we've got none". so twenty minutes later i sat down in the heart of bonny scotland with a chicken curry pie and beans… i kid you not!
day 8 - saturday 31st july
who would have thought that in the piperdam for people called mordue golf championship mordue snr would draw mordue jnr for the 7.15 tee-off slot! from the first tee mordue jnr cleared the water with a 130 yard drive onto the green….. mordue snr - ball no.1 into the lake…. ball no.2 into the lake ….it wasn't going to be a good day! hole 2, a long par 5 which mordue jnr managed in 9 shots and mordue snr eventually holed in 16 ….it still wasn't going to be a good day!! hole 17 and nearest to the pin off 2 shots saw mordue jnr on the green in one and mordue snr in the pond in one…. doh! 17 holes and about 16 lost balls later the mordue's found themselves on the 16th tee with £2 riding on the longest drive…. mordue jnr stepped up and drove a good ball at least 150 yards…. mordue snr stepped up and drove the ball probably about 200 yards but he fact that it swung in a beautiful arc meant he was only about 100 yards from the tee and on the wrong fairway! now to work my way towards the green - in front of me 150 yards of clear fairway and a 6 foot wide water feature followed by 100 yards of fairway and a 12 foot pond to the right….. yep you guessed it… found them both - 250 yards of fairway to go at to avoid 18 feet of water…. it wasn't my day clearly
matchplay score found jonathan 2 holes up by the 19th and stroke play found jonathan 120 shots (48 over par!) and stephen 145 shots (a staggering 73 shots over par!!!!!)
hole 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
par 3 5 4 4 4 3 4 4 4 (35)
jonathan 4 9 7 10 8 5 4 8 7 (61)
stephen 9 16! 7 7 6 3 7 7 7 (69)
hole 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
par 5 3 4 4 4 4 5 3 5 (72)
jonathan 10 6 7 7 6 6 8 4 5 (120 - 48 over)
stephen 15! 9 6 6 6 9 8 7 10 (145 - 73 over)
the afternoon saw us off to the hermitage walk near the picturesque village of dunkeld in perthsire. we wandered around the village and even managed to dodge into a local record fair. if bagpipe techno was your thing then there was plenty but nothing much on offer for the discerning music punter. we then wandered the hermitage paths and happened upon ossian's hall and ossian's cave. the hall, overlooking a dramatic waterfall, had my heart in my mouth while luke (renowned for his propensity for tripping over things and generally falling clambered about near precipitous edges…. i did not enjoy myself!! and then back on the forest trail to ossian's cave. clearly manmade using features of the forest and carefully assembled rock it was a wonder to behold..
day 9 - monday 1st august
we saw the new month in on holiday in scotland with the big family bike ride! there's a route which circles dundee. the green circular cycle route offers over 28 miles of light traffic or traffic free roads. so out came the map and a course was plotted that appeared to be fairly flat and good fun. sherpa mordue, who's map reading skill are renowned held the map and confusion ensued as the green cycle route was marked on the map in blue and another route was marked in green!?! yes i kid you not the green route in blue!! it was like that game on the ds, brain train, where you have to say the word not the colour when given the word blue shown in red text. now if you've tried it then you'll know the urge is to say red because you see the colour rather than the word. well…. i need to practice this more when i get home 'cos i kept looking at the wrong flipping route. i have to say sections of the route were nice and picturesque with other bits very unattractive. anyone who has ever done sustrans routes knows how this works…. the people on the posh estates don't want hundreds of cyclists cycling through their back gardens and the routes often follow rivers which tends to be where the industrial estates are. but the north part of the route was lovely, all off road and through park land and we had our picnic right in the park that included the viaduct although could we hell as like find it!! after that we cycled down to the sea. the run into dundee along the coast on ncn 1 was lovely but as we hit dundee and the docks it wasn't so nice but we soldiered on and arrived at discovery point. now… this is where the ride should have ended. we were all tired and ready to be home but the car was in camperdown park a further 6 miles away. doesn't sound far does it. well the last 6 mile nearly made christine cry bless. i think she thought her legs were going to drop off…..
but we made it and before we knew where we were we were in the hot tub soaking our aching bones……….
day 10 - tuesday 2nd august
golf - 9 holes - round 2 - the stephen/jonathan/luke trophy - again luke gets 2 shots per hole…… hole 7 "no luke you can't use my clubs 'cos they are too big", "ah, go on dad please just one go with your proper clubs", "no luke you won't be able to play a shot because they're too big", "please", "no", pleeeeeease", "nooooo", "pleeeease", "oh for goodness sake here try the 4 iron", thwack….. on the green in one! luke was the star of the show and won the match play…. so he's only getting one shot each hole next time…. ha! that'll teach him!
hole 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
par 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
jonathan 4 6 6 7 6 5 6 6 6 (52)
luke (adjusted) 5 9 6 5 5 9 1 4 13 (57)
stephen 6 7 5 7 5 6 7 6 7 (56)
christine had been very vigorous while we golfed and had gone to the gym! this has to be the first time ever that christine has made more use of the gym facilities than i have! whatever next…. well! off to the olympia swimming pool and fun on the slides!
from the outside, and even in reception to be fair, dundee's olympia swimming baths looked like everything that is bad about council ran facilities. they looked like they'd been built 30 year ago and nobody had bothered to think about updating them since, but, the pool was absolutely immense. the water was lovely and warm. there was a wave machine, a whirlpool/rapids area, a jacuzzi, a diving pool, and four (!!) different slides. the red one - short and fast and fun, the green one and the blue one - much longer, much faster (you took off twice for some distance) and the yellow one which ended up in the diving pool with you coming out of the tube a good 4 meters above the water! incredible! i did not try the yellow one! christine thought she'd put her hip out when being launched into the air on the green run but still under pressure from the kids she relented and said she'd give the yellow one a go…. i was waiting for a go on the blue run and watching her on the monitor…. it was a tense wait then in a rush all i saw was christine emerging from the yellow tube on her side arse first!! she was travelling at a fair rate of knots and she seemed to hang in the air for an absolute age… at one point i thought she was going to make it into the seats but eventually she started to descend and hit the water!!! what a star that girl is! she was wondering why the attendant at the top was smiling as she launched herself and the attendant at the bottom was laughing as she emerged from the pool. the adults tend to come down a lot faster it would seem!! she lost her contact lens and her swimming costume gave way under the force of the water (and her ample bosom). it's lost all it's elastic support!! we had a great time in the pool and then headed into dundee for a mooch around the shops which was fun before heading back to the lodge.
day 11 - wednesday 3rd august
the big bike ride! ncn route 77.
christine and the boys drove me to pitlochry (which looked lovely - although all i did was find the loo and then get on my bike) before waving me off on the ncn route 77 to dundee. what has struck me so far about my adventures into scotland, which to be fair, has only been dumfries and dundee - very much the south of scotland - is that really it's not much more impressive than north yorkshire or the lakes. and then you start heading further north! as we headed towards pitlochry today the scenery became breath-taking. more dramatic. more…. well scottish…. i can only begin to imagine the west of scotland, or the highlands…. maybe next year……
off i went from pitlochry… first stop dunkeld…. and it went well, fairly easy to be honest…. no real big climbs just a steady ride…. an hour and a half when i thought i'd be nearer 2 hours 15. the family joined me briefly then i was off heading for perth…. and again it came fairly easy… the climbs were a bit more strenuous but nothing too difficult. a lovely stretch with trees on either side and some lovely views of the tay. got myself a bit lost on the run in to perth and instead of following the river ended up on the main road which was a shame. i was doing the route the wrong way really. sustrans mark it on their map from dundee to pitlochry rather than the way i was going which appears a tougher ride - heading away from the coast and into the hills rather than down off the hills and down to the coast. the sun was scorching in perth and i had a well earned break with my banana and oreo's! coming out of perth was a flipping nightmare with a real tough climb for a few miles but then it was all down hill and flat all the way to dundee. criss-crossing the railway line and keeping the tay in view most of the time. i had a decision to make at invergowrie…. i had 5 miles to go to dundee and the end of the 77 but was now heading away from piperdam. i could turn off here and head straight for piperdam or head to discovery point in dundee and get christine to pick me up. decided to head for piperdam…… wrong choice… as i headed away from the tay it was a vertical climb of about 4 miles till i hit the piperdam road. an arduous end to a beautiful days riding….. arrived at the lodge very tired and very happy and very very sleepy……
day 12 - thursday 4th august
our final full day and our final round of golf! and it all went so much better! not as many lost balls and a few less shots! we had fun and many times jonathan and i were tempted to try a happy gilmour but didn't want to be thrown off the course so late in the holiday!
hole 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
par 3 5 4 4 4 3 4 4 4 (35)
jonathan 5 11 9 5 9 6 4 8 10 (67)
stephen 5 9 11 10 6 5 6 5 9 (66)
hole 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
par 5 3 4 4 4 4 5 3 5 (72)
jonathan 9 8 8 8 5 8 12 4 13 (142 - 70 over)
stephen 7 4 9 9 6 10 9 4 9 (133 - 61 over)
our final dundee adventure was to go to j.m. barries's camera obscura. a victorian forerunner to the camera which comprosed a lens on the top of a building projecting an image onto a dish screen in a darkened room. it was fascinating and you can only begin to imagine the delight it must have caused victorians to witness this phenomena! taking images of what we see with our digital cameras is so common place to us that i fear we lose the mystery of what we do and see. i wonder sometimes that we don't actually "see" what we are looking at due to the preoccupation with videoing and photographing important moments for the fear we may lose them. in some ways we never have them because we don't "drink in" and experience what is in front of us because our eye is clamped to the view finder. the pictures become our memories instead of our memories being our memories. i'm as guilty of this as anyone but sometimes i find i stop myself and just look and think "no, i'm not taking a picture of that… that one is just for me, just for this moment". i felt like this a lot when cycling the other day so took very few pictures but have lots of "pictures" in my head which are just mine…. for me...
day 13 - friday 5th august
the trip home…. are you like me? it's lovely to go away but it's lovely to get home as well……. the familiarity, the comfort, and still the weekend to go at before getting back to work…. the drive home was good……… enjoying the scenery and enjoying being on my way back home…..
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