Zoo Too

A few more pictures of Holly's day as a zoo keeper, these ones taken by Holly herself, up close and personal with the animals as she mucked them out and fed them. That's Holly's hand in the lemur picture, holding the pink cup...

There's also a short video of her "target training" a giant tortoise. It's something to do with mitigating stereotypic behaviours. Ask her about it...

Zoo Keeper For A Day

Holly's "big" Christmas present was a "Zoo Keeper For A Day" experience at the Five Sisters Zoo in deepest West Lothian, in the shadow of the eponymous bings.

The day's a combination of mucking out, feeding and target training (whatever that is) with a dose of petting thrown in. We caught up with her when she was feeding the Fennec Foxes, like all the animals she got right in their wee house with them and set out their lunch. She'd already done the goats and chickens, three kinds of lemurs, meerkats and cranes, and more besides.

As you might expect, she absolutely loved it.

For the occasion, I'd given her my old camera. She's taken a good few snaps and I'll add them in here just as soon as I figure out how to get them off the camera...

Scots Wha Hae

It's something of a P6 tradition, somewhere in the vicinity of Burns Night, to perform a Scots Night at the school for parents, Scottish or otherwise. There's singing, dancing, poetry recitals and re-enactments of great moments in Scottish sporting history. Holly was one of the comperes for the evening, announcing upcoming performances and - in one memorable instance - ad-libbing when it took a bit longer than expected to count the parental votes for "Sports Personality of the Decade".

I also had my first-ever "proper dance" with my wee girl - a Gay Gordons.

On the downside, the whole event was lit by what appeared to be 4 forty-watt bulbs, lending the proceedings a warmth and intimacy akin to a basement speakeasy, but somewhat challenging for the amateur photographer. Camera shake is the recurring theme throughout the snaps, I looked up a faster replacement lens (birthday idea!) but it would dent the coffers to the tune of $6000 so I'll put up with the shoogly pictures for now.

Chris Hoy won Sports Personality of the Decade, BTW. Did I mention I'd met him?

Very Wintery Run

Happy New Year! Long before anyone had made any new year's resolutions, I had signed the children and myself up for the Great Winter Run. It's the standard 5k round Arthur's Seat, and we've done it once or twice before. The weather was not with us, with 30mph winds and snow flurries descending from a grey sky. Still, I set off with 2000+ other hardy souls and managed 24:29, a minute slower than last year but still under my 25 minute goal.

Just as I finished the 5k, the heavens opened and the sleet started to fall. The "proper" cross-country runners looked properly cold, miserable and fragile and they slipped and slithered through the mud.

Helen, Holly and Louis turned up in due course, and we timed our arrival at the Junior Run just in time to get the last of the warmup and then set off. Holly ran alone, Helen ran with Louis and as they disappeared uphill into an arctic headwind (the Met Office said "feels like -4") I sheltered behind a TV van until they returned.

Which they did, sooner than I expected. Holly arrived first, put in a good final sprint, and finished the 2.5k in 13:27, the 15th fastest girl in her age group. A short minute later, Helen and Louis rounded the final bend, putting in another good sprint to finish in 15:50, lower down the rankings but completing the distance for the first time without stopping, and as one of the youngest running.

Both were rightly pleased and proud to have finished on such a tough day.

We headed straight back to the car and home for lunch, pausing only to marvel - again - at the "proper" cross-country runners, caked in mud and wearing only shorts and vests...