Arm Wrestle

Louis and I had an arm wrestle. That concludes our 2018 reporting. Good night!

Christmas at the Botanics

It's a long time since we've been to the botanics, it was a regular haunt when the kiddies were wee, but only during the hours of daylight. These days they light up the place at Christmas and charge money to wander about in the dark. It is good, though it would be even better if it wasn't for all the other people there...

Coke Can Camera

Now this is interesting. Back in the summer, Holly and Louis went to an event as part of the Science Festival on making a "solargraph" - a photo image of the sun taken with a pinhole camera made from a Coke* can and exposed over a six-month period.

This week, at the winter solstice, out six months was up. In a darkroom, lit only by the red glow of a rear bike light, we removed the photo paper from the cans and scanned the images into the computer. A bit of Photoshopping (a flip, a greyscale inversion and a wee tweak to the contrast) later and these are the images that came out:

Holly's:


and Louis':



* other carbonated sugar waters are available.

Woo Hoo It's Christmas!

Christmas comes but once a year, and when it does we dance like idiots. We were at home for Christmas this year, and hosted la famille Millar for exchanging gifts and eating. Helen did a magnificent turkey with all the fixin's but I didn't get a picture of that, or anything else. These are just a few snaps we took while waiting for folk to show up...

Playing at Murrayfield

An early-season rugby tournament, hosted by Murrayfield at Murrayfield.

Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?

Last Scout meeting of the year, and Louis and the Scouts made "snowmen" by wrapping their colleagues in toilet paper. Somewhere under there, there is another Scout.

MRI in the Toon

As part of my ongoing participation in UK Biobank, I was invited to Newcastle for a torso MRI, a functional brain MRI, a full-body X-ray scan and a free sandwich. Alas, I didn't get any of the images but it was an interesting day. MRI scanners are claustrophobic and noisy! Plus I didn't know the Millennium Bridge lit up at night.

Helen's POV

A selection of 2018 snaps from Helen's phone, including some from Center Parcs and Croatia as well as closer to home.

Silence In Court

Louis and the P7s have been working on a "mock court" for the last few weeks, with them all taking roles - from plaintiff to witness, from researcher to advocate - in a fictional civil case. The climax to all this was to have the case heard by an actual Sheriff at the actual Sheriff Court in Edinburgh. Owing to a slight organisational oversight beforehand, the kids were let loose in the courtroom with predictable results. But the case was heard, the Sheriff made his judgement, and at least nothing got broken...