Month: July 2014

A Break from the Games, Back to the Village

A Break from the Games, Back to the Village

by TartanJogger ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

I thought you might appreciate a little break from my posts about the Commonwealth Games. While I’m watching the gymnastics, including another gold for Team Scotland, I thought I’d share a local Tarbert festival, which I missed this year.

While @TheWelshWookie and I were sunning ourselves in Tenerife, my family were at our house, enjoying Tarbert Seafood Festival! I enjoyed last year’s festival so much that I split my review into two posts, which you can read here and also here.

They had fabulous weather, and they told me that there were even more stalls than there were last year. They enjoyed sampling the seafood delights:

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Enjoyed a little beer:
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and basked in glorious sunshine.
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Stacey was a winner this year: she won a fishcake! No, not a fishcake, but a Fish Cake! Nom nom nom.
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And on the Sunday, they enjoyed the music at Beer on the Pier. They took the boys over to the outdoor gym, and were able to enjoy the music from the other side of the harbour. Smart thinking, guys!
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There is no way we’ll be missing the festival in 2015 😀

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Wednesday Wisdom

by TartanJogger ♥ 3 Comments

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Glued to Glasgow!

Glued to Glasgow!

by TartanJogger ♥ 6 Comments

I had planned on sharing my fun weekend escapades with you tonight, but I’m afraid I can’t. I’m stuck. Glued fast to the athletics and swimming coverage from the Commonwealth Games.

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http://www.BBC.co.uk

I haven’t lifted my laptop, my iPhone is out of battery because I keep checking the results. So I’m posting from my Kindle fire instead, when there’s a gap in the action!
I’m even more excited now about the coming weekend’s action: you already know that I’m off to the athletics on Friday night. Well, we now have tickets for the para-powerlifting on Saturday afternoon and for the final boxing on Saturday night, featuring the heavyweights.
And since we’ll be there anyway, we can go along to see the cycling road races on Sunday!
It’s going to be awesome, I have no doubt!
I’m afraid you’ll have to wait a little longer for my weekend recap!
Gotta go- it’s time for the 110m hurdles final!

Monday Motivation

Monday Motivation

by TartanJogger ♥ 9 Comments

Oh, my goodness. What a weekend!

Glasgow is absolutely buzzing with activity, fun, entertainment, visitors, Clydesiders, athletes and all sorts! Have you managed to catch any of the Commonwealth Games this weekend?

We were at the concert on Friday, judo on Saturday morning, the 2014 Festival at Glasgow Green in the afternoon, dinner at Brown’s in the evening followed by the marathon on the Sunday, where we met Allison, The Running Princess and her hubby Steve.

I’ll share my pics from the weekend later in the week.

For now, here’s some inspiration courtesy of Team Scotland:

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And, here’s Usain Bolt meeting Clyde!

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Here’s to another fabulous week of sport!

GLASGOW 2014: Highs and Lows

GLASGOW 2014: Highs and Lows

by TartanJogger ♥ 4 Comments

Did you manage to watch any of the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony?

What did you think?

I LOVED it! It was very self-depreciating, tongue in cheek, and just shows that we don’t always take ourselves too seriously 🙂

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I loved the dancing Tunnock’s teacakes! I’d love one that size!

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More importantly, I thought the UNICEF appeal was a fantastic idea, I wonder if that will now set a trend?

There seemed to be a lot of debate on Facebook and Twitter: lots of people loved it, others hated it, I thought it was great fun! Except Susan Boyle singing Mull of Kintyre (and unfortunately fogetting the words). I could have done without that!

I also loved Sir Chris Hoy saving the day, by opening up the Queen’s Baton.

And the Scotland team uniform is growing on me. A little. Except the socks. Yuk!

So, for me, the Opening has been a high. Lots of fun.

Now for the low: Mo Farah has pulled out. Boo! 😦 He hasn’t recovered sufficiently from illness, so I have no doubt he’s done the right thing. I guess it just reminds me that pulling out of a race can be a sign of strength, not weakness. He’s talked before about wanting to add a Commonwealth Gold to his collection, and I’m sure he’ll be disappointed.

Oh, well, I’ll still see Usain Bolt ‘flash’ past! 🙂

GLASGOW 2014

GLASGOW 2014

by TartanJogger ♥ 7 Comments

Today is the day: after years of preparation, it’s the start of the 20th Commonwealth Games, and they are being held in Glasgow!
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Both my mum and my sister are busy, busy, busy volunteering as ‘clydesiders’ and we’re excited about our events.
On Friday, @TheWelshWookie and I are going to a Commonweath Games concert which will be broadcast live on BBC radio 2 & radio 4; on Saturday we have tickets for judo; we’ll be going along to watch the marathon on Sunday, and we’ll still have the athletics to look forward to next Friday: I can’t wait to see both Mo Farah and Usain Bolt!
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Last Sunday, we got to see our second baton relay. In 2012, we were privileged to see the Olympic torch relay in Inverness:

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As you can see, we made our own Olympic torches!

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And we were fortunate to hold the torch itself:

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This time around, the Queens Baton Relay was passing through Lochgilphead, so we were able to see it there. It was delayed, so we ended up waiting around two hours to see it 🙂

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Not many people are as lucky as us! Are you planning on watching any of the Games? What are you looking forward to seeing most?

The Vikings Were Here!

The Vikings Were Here!

by TartanJogger ♥ 11 Comments

The week before we went to Tenerife was a very special one in Tarbert.
For months, villagers had been working on building a proper Viking longoat. It was made by hand, using traditional techniques. And, it was ready to celebrate the inaugural Tarbert Viking Festival, and the traditional boat festival.
So, during the week leading up to the festival, the village was overrun with Vikings, who sailed the boat to ‘raid’ local villages. It seemed like lots of fun!

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We missed the main event on the Saturday, which was a reenactment of Magnus Barefoot’s historic claiming of Kintyre as part of his kingdom. In 1093, Magnus and his Viking hoard laid claim to all of Scotland’s islands. An island was described as any body of land that his boat could circumnavigate. When he arrived in Tarbert, he and his men carried the longboat from the East Loch to the harbour, thereby circumnavigating Kintyre. Hence, Kintyre is known as the Mainland Island 🙂
On the Friday, the Vikings made a victorious return to Tarbert from their marauding and we celebrated with a big barbeque, music and a ceilidh.
The weather was great, and it was lovely to see the village busy.

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The music was provided by villagers, and was brilliant. There were folk groups:

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And choirs:

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A barber shop group:

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And even this guy did a few songs…… do you recognise him?

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We had a famous attendee: Rory McCann, who plays The Hound, Sandor Clegane in Game of Thrones. To be honest, he didn’t seem very pleased to have been spotted. I asked if he’d allow me to have a photo taken with him, and he said ‘no’, and walked off 😦 Good casting, maybe?
Anyway, we had a lovely evening, and it set us up very well for our holiday!

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Have you ever been refused a photo or autograph before?

Monday Motivation

Monday Motivation

by TartanJogger ♥ 2 Comments

Welcome to another week: I hope the sun has been shining brightly on you today.

I’ve had a wonderful weekend: we’ve had visitors and it’s been wonderful spending time with my bestie Pauline, her other better half Gavin, Olivia and Christopher. We took a trip to Portavadie, visited the abandoned village Polphail, and did lots of talking, eating and walking. And a little drinking of vino and champagne, of course! 😉

As always, talk turned to books, and we ended up discussing the books of Jon Ronson: they recommended reading Them and The Psychopath Test. I downloaded both, and read Them last night, finishing it at lunchtime today. I’m now almost half way through The Psychopath Test and I’m really enjoying it too. They’re fascinating!

So, here’s a little something to think about: not so much Monday Motivation, more like a Monday Mental Check, I suppose!

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I reckon mine is showing quite clearly….. is yours? 😛

My Brother Bungees

My Brother Bungees

by TartanJogger ♥ 11 Comments

The day before @TheWelshWookie and I set off to Tenerife, we were in Clydebank for a special event.

My brother Joe was doing a bungee jump!

He’d been given the experience from Stacey, his wife, and Ryan, his son, as a Father’s Day gift 🙂 I’m not quite sure what that means…… insurance money, anyone? 😉

The date was auspicious: exactly six months from Joe and Stacey’s Wedding.

So, on a lovely, sunny day we headed to the Titan Crane with Simon and Matthew, Leigh-Anne, Kieran, Aidan and Nathan, and my dad to witness this event – and to check he actually did it!

The Titan Crane was built in 1907, at John Brown’s shipyard in Clydebank. It was the largest cantilever crane ever built, and was essential for building many of the world’s most famous ships including the Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mary, the QE2 and the Royal Yacht Britannia.
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You can read more about it here: it’s now a brilliant tourist attraction, with a lovely cafe at the bottom of it.

Earlier this week, one of the Queen’s Baton Relay participants abseiled down The Titan with the Commonwealth Games Torch. It made for some great photos.

At 164 feet, this is the highest permanent bungee structure in the UK. As it’s from the crane, the jump is over the water which used to be the shipbuilding dock. While we waited, Joe was taken through the safety briefing, and soon headed to the crane with another five intrepid jumpers.

We watched as two jumpers went. then it was Joe’s turn. He had no hesitation. He ran and launched himself off the top! The bungee is secured around the waist, to allow the jumpers to have a running start, which was so much better than shuffling to the edge with and ankle tie.
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Stacey could barely watch; but the rest of us loved it! Then, we headed to a local restaurant, also called the Titan for some late lunch, and a celebratory beer. I think Joe earned it!

Have you ever bungeed?

Decision Made

Decision Made

by TartanJogger ♥ 20 Comments

Hello, everyone, this week has just flown by! And I haven’t even filled you in on the Viking Festival, my brother’s bungee jump, Tenerife or the Queens Baton Relay yet: I’m gonna be one busy blogger 😉

Well, as my post title says, I’ve made a decision. A tough decision. And after wrestling with it for a while, I’m now at peace with it.
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I’m pulling out of the Loch Ness Marathon.

No sad face: it’s the right decision – for now.

When I signed up in January, I underestimated the work that would go into organising my wedding and honeymoon. And we’ve been away a lot which has not helped my training schedule. I’ve also had other stuff going on that has demanded my time and attention. And I’ve had a bit of an ankle issue that’s been niggling. Finally, I have lots of weekends away planned over the next few weeks, so fitting in long runs will be well nigh impossible.

There’s always next year 😀

It now means that I can relax a little more, and enjoy my next couple of weekends celebrating at various Commonwealth Games events.

Hopefully we can go along and support the runners instead.

So, bring on the Perth Kilt Run, the TT10K, the Great North Run and the Great Scottish Run next!

Have you had to pull out of a race before? How did you feel about it?