Pitlochry - New Year's Day street party and panto

Wednesday 01-January-2014

The main, planned entertainment of the day was a trip to the panto, Cinderella at the Perth Theatre, but Mary had read about the Pitlochry Street Party in the bumpf at the hotel. We had time to take Mary's mum into town to see the start of the festivities.

The event was kicked off with the complete Vale of Atholl Pipe Band.

That was followed by dancing in the street - they did well known dances like Dashing White Sergeant and Strip the Willow, it was a sight to see.

This is a video report on the full event:

Over 5,000 enjoyed 3 hours of entertainment in Pitlochry, Scotland http://www.pitlochry-scotland.co.uk/ consuming over 4,000 hot pies and 300 litres of soup. A very popular Scottish New Year highland community run event.

We were not able to stay for the full event as we had to get back to the hotel for the coach to the matinee of Cindrella. It delivered all you would expect from a panto.

"Some excellent performances and great pacing leave audience members thoroughly entertained." The Stage.
"Along the way there are many rich and gorgeous aspects to this good-looking show, with Barrie Hunter in rip-roaring form as the leading ugly sister, Luvvie, and the local jokes coming thick and fast." The Scotsman.

Then back to the hotel for the evening meal and more live music from North Sea Gas. The gig was in the lounge and the chairs had been arranged in a semi-circle around the band. Everybody was being very British and sitting at the back so I got a front row sofa. Sitting in comfort with an unimpeded view and a glass of red wine - result.

They played some excellent folk with some serious and some tongue-in-cheek tunes.

I was reminded of the joys of 3D vision being so close. People don't always appreciate depth perception; 3D is a cinema gimmick for most. I spent a couple of years between cataract operations being effectively monocular. Following the second operation binocular vision was restored and now I can enjoy 3D all the time.

Pitlochry - New Year's Eve

Tuesday 31-December-2013

To avoid being stuck in the hotel all day we went for a walk up to the local viewpoint on Hogmanay morning - Craigower 6.7 miles.

Thanks to the recent winds the ascent was more like an obstacle course of loads of fallen tree.

This is the plaque at the top showing what we should have seen.

Well, we could see the trees but thanks to typical dreich Scottish weather this is what we actually saw. 

Back to the hotel in time for lunch. No trip to Scotland would be complete without haggis, neeps and tatties.

After lunch there was a falconry display with about eight different birds of prey, this sea eagle being the most spectacular. The beak is pretty scary that close up!

The evening was in the function room: a cold buffet followed by a live band, ceilidh dancing and a disco.

The hotel did a good job: the buffet was excellent, there were crackers, lots of party balloons, and such like on the tables and the entertainment was, well, entertaining.

After the bells and the singing of Auld Lang Syne there was some stirring tunes from members of the Vale of Atholl Pipe Band and more disco dancing to two in the morning. And so to bed.

Pitlochry - Blair Castle visit

Monday 30-December-2013

As with many families the offspring takes it in turns to spend Christmas or New Year with one or the other's parents. This year it was our turn to spend Hogmanay with Mary's mum.

We decided to treat her, and ourselves, to a proper break with all catering and entertainment laid on. The Atholl Palace Hotel in Pitlochry had an excellent package of meals, events and music laid on to keep May and us occupied.

We arrived on the Sunday to a glass of rose champagne and dinner.

In the evening after a tasty supper we were entertained to some New Orleans style trad jazz. A promising start to the stay.

The next day trip to to Blair Castle. Its origins are old but much of it is more of a monument to Georgian ostentation and Victorian industry. They extended and expanded the original castle and put back the mediaeval battlements.

An entrance hall to impress the visitors

Georgian elegance throughout.

Some serious stucco work.

Lunch after the tour was in a echoing hall where we got chatting to a family who are making a repeat visit to the Atholl Palace Hotel. It seems there were a number of regulars who come to Pitlochry for New Year's Eve - some every year. Seems we have chosen well.

Then it was back to the hotel for supper followed by a practice session of Ceilidh dancing. That is like Scottish country dancing with many of the same dance but less formal. It was preparation for the following night but I wimped and sat it out.

Race for Life Hyde Park 2013

London, England. Sunday 14-July-2013

Ten thousand women dressed in pink is an awe inspiring sight. It is heartening amongst all the bad news headlines to be reminded how many people with big hearts there are out there. http://raceforlife.cancerresearchuk.org/index.html

Four of those women were "Team MACE" - Mary, Andrea, Christine, Elaine.


Andrea, Elaine, Mary, Christine

We made a bit of a weekend of it: Andrea and Elaine came over on Saturday afternoon for an evening of barbeque, drink and talk. It was great to be able to dine al fresco and sit out in shorts and T-shirt till it was time for bed.

Sunday I was chauffeur so we could take the makings of a picnic for after the race. We were joined by Andrea's son, Daniel, and his girlfriend. A beautiful sunny day - great for a picnic.



After we all dispersed I drove home and Mary and I enjoyed another barbeque and balmy evening and fell weary into bed after a most successful weekend.

More photos on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/markmclellan/sets/72157634784811344/

PS This was Mary's second Race for Life this year. The earlier was in Battersea Park (12-June-13).

Not so sunny that first Race for Life, but it's not about the weather it's about awareness and fund raising and the human spirit.

Weekend in Scotland - December 2012

The weekend before last we went up to Scotland for the usual visit to Mary's mum to see how she is, run a few errands and "go for the messages" - Doric for go shopping. It was lovely insofar as winter weather can be lovely - sunny and dry but cold.

Sunday morning we set off early and I to scrape the ice off the windscreen as it was -4°C. I was going to use a credit card but then remembered seeing this scraper in the door pocket. You do *not* get these in Puglian hire cars (because you don't need them) which is another reason to spend more and more time in Italy.

Haggis flavoured crisps

A good trip to Scotland last weekend to visit Mary's mum, May. Did the usual: take her shopping and tidy up the garden. This time there were a couple of DIY tasks for me:

• Re-hung the doors on her new fridge-freezer so they opened the other way. One of the screws was a pig to undo so there was a lots of muttered profanities but got there in the end. Why do they have to do them so tight - with power screwdrivers presumably - when they know that re-handing may be required.
• Installed a watering system for her pots and hanging baskets so May does not have to do any bending or lifting or carrying watering cans. Kept it simple, just turn the tap on, didn't bother with electronic timers.

In the supermarket I was muchly amused to see haggis flavoured crisps so I just had to buy a packet to try. They did indeed taste of haggis, although they were a bit salty to my palate, I say well done Mackies!

Then a lunchtime flight home so we could get ourselves down to The Alma to watch the Olympic closing ceremony. A meal, a late night and plenty to drink; I really didn't want to go to work on the Monday.

Mary's Bunion Operation

At the beginning of December Mary went in for an operation for hallux valgus deformities - bunion to you and me. The timing was chosen to allow for the convalescent period to run into the Christmas break. It also coincided with the end of my contract so I was "at leisure" and could be house husband, chauffeur and general gofer.



The operation is pretty quick, about 40 minutes, and treated as a day case. I took Mary up to the New Victoria Hospital at 7am and collected her, and a pair of crutches, that afternoon at 2:30pm.

I was amused by the mark-up on her leg: not a subtle line to say "cut here" but a whopping big arrow to say "This leg!"



She had a Scarf osteotomy on the first metatarsal (the two screws) and an Akin's osteotomy on the great toe (the staple). Note that neither of those links go to gruesome, colour photos but nice black and white illustrations (the former has an excellent animation showing exactly how the Scarf joint works).



We set up the sofa bed in the living room so Mary did not have to do stairs, she only needed to hobble along the corridor to the downstairs loo and shower. In order to keep the dressing dry in the shower we invested in one of these fine "LimbO" leg protectors. Note - the photo is not of Mary but borrowed from LimbO's website:



She had heard tales of great pain so Mary munched on analgesics for 48 hours and then went cold turkey with no pain at all. So little pain in fact that she was worried about nerve damage. It's fine, of course, and I put that down to the skill of the surgeon - neat slicing and dicing.



The first two days were spent in bed and the next fortnight hobbling about with two crutches. At the follow-up appointment the surgeon pronounced things fine and to go down to one crutch.

The second follow-up appointment was a bit delayed partly due to Christmas intervening and involved some nasty digging about to remove two stitches that had not resorbed - ouch.

Now it is all clear and the surgeon has recommended some physio to get the foot (and leg) flexing again. The slow, gentle recovery proceeds...

Christmas 2011 - Ambleside, Lake District

This was the first Christmas in our latest property acquisition - a timeshare in Ambleside in the Lake District. Since we would miss out on a McLellan family gathering we organised a pre-Christmas potlatch at our place. My family are always good value. Here they are debating the importance of children having the opportunity to learn an instrument and create art.


Geri (mum), Mike (dad), Mary (wife), Sarah (SIL), Ian (bro), Jane (sis).

The following Thursday we headed off to the lake district, a 5 ½ hour drive, to Quaysiders at Waterhead in Ambleside. The main room was bigger than I remember it - which is the better way round - and it is very well equipped. All the kitchenware is decent quality and we wanted for nothing.


Quaysiders main room

Mary's mum, May, came down from Scotland the following day and was picked up from Oxenholme by Avril (wife of Mary's uncle Ronnie) who lives in Kendal. We then went over to Kendal and collected May from there.


Mary and May

Christmas day we had lunch in the nearby Waterhead Hotel chosen to be within hobbling distance because of Mary's bunion op and May's emphysema.


Christmas lunch in the Waterhead hotel

Boxing Day we had Ronnie and Avril over for lunch.


Ronnie and Avril

To entertain May, Mary and her went to Holbeck Ghyll country house hotel for a pampering spa half day. We also went for a drive to admire the scenery.


View of Windermere from Holbeck Ghyll Hotel

We also did lots of shopping including Lakeland (formerly known as Lakeland Plastics). Not any old Lakeland shop but the original, the mother ship! On the right you could peer through the window into their call centre.


Lakeland flagship store

Our neighbour, Jo, comes from that area and said it rains all the time. She was not wrong:


Weather forecast for the week - rain, rain, rain...

Despite the weather we had a good week of eating and drinking and keeping busy. On the 29th we dropped May back off at Oxenholme and despatched her back to Bonnie Scotland. We then drove home to be ready for New Years Eve.

South Africa, October 2011 - Wedding Licence

Talking of wedding anniversaries, Mary and I were married in *the* St Paul's cathedral. Mary would have preferred low-key registry do and sent friends a postcard from honeymoon. However courtesy of Dad's MBE we had the option of the chapel in the crypt. It cost me an antique, hand cut solitaire. Worth every penny.

Since this was not our local church we needed a special licence from the Archbishop of Canterbury no less and a wonderful document it is. Couched in positively Shakespearean language together with the legal habit of no punctuation and the liberal use of Capital Letters.



George Leonard by Divine Providence Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Primate of all England and Metropolitan by Authority of Parliament lawfully empowered for the Purposes herein written To Our Beloved in Christ Mark Sebastian McLellan of 76 Garfield Road Wimbledon in the County of Greater London a Bachelor and Mary Mitchell Galashan of the same address aforesaid a Spinster

Whereas it is alleged that you purpose to contract a true pure and lawful Marriage and earnestly desire the same to be solemnized with all the speed that may be We do therefore of Our especial grace In order that such your desire may more readily have effect and for other causes Us hereunto moving Give and grant by these presents Our Licence and Faculty (so far as in Us lies and the law doth allow) for you the Parties contracting for any Clerk in Holy Orders thereto lawfully authorised and for all Christian People willing to be present to celebrate and solemnize such Marriage between you in the Chapel of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire within the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul in the City of London between the hours of eight in the forenoon and six in the afternoon upon any day within three calendar months from the date hereof Provided there be no lawful impediment thereto

Given under the Seal of Our Office of Faculties at Westminster this twenty-fourth day of September in the year of Our Lord On thousand nine hundred and ninety-three and in the third year of Our Translation

Race for Life - Hyde Park 2011

Hyde Park, London, England - Sunday 17-July-2100



It is quite an inspirational sight to see 11,000 women wearing pink. All raising money and awareness for Cancer Research UK.

This is Mary's second Race for life this year (see also "Race for Life, Battersea Park 2011")

This time we had Mary's mum with us. What May did not know was that Mary had sneakily entered her without her knowing. As we parked up the car we produced a wheel chair out of the boot and Mary sprang the surprise that she, May, was to be pushed round the 5 km circuit!


Waiting for the off

The back sign is way for the runners and walkers to dedicate their Race for Life in memory or in celebration of someone they know.


Mary's back sign - Catalina + Anyone else recently diagnosed


May's back sign - Me (cancer survivor) + Bill, Aunt Peggy, Laura


Push for Life

The weather was intermittent so thank goodness for the cheap rain ponchos we bought a couple of years ago.


Having crossed the line


Time for a cuppa

Thanks are due to Shopmobility, Wandsworth who made it possible through their hire of the wheel chair.

Race for Life, Battersea Park 2011

London, England - 18-May-2011

Raising awareness and raising money for Cancer Research UK



A cause we both support - both our Mums had breast cancer and Mary's Dad had prostate cancer and all successfully treated. More research is always needed into causes and cures.


Mary at Race for Life, Battersea Park 2011

Mary ran, I sponsored. They sensibly divide the participants into runners, joggers and walkers. Because of her dodgy back Mary placed herself with the walkers but, given all her recent power walking, she was closer in speed to the joggers - 5K in 40mins. Pink is the colour!

Afterwards we went for a meal at the Lost Angel with our friend Andrea A for a very enjoyable meal. It describes itself as "bar, restaurant and boozer". I have cycled past many, many times on my commute but this was a first visit - very pleasantly surprised. I was expecting more of a "young persons meeting place" but it turned out to be a very pleasant gastro-pub.