Liam breaks into double figures!

Liam turned 10 today, and here are some pictures of his birthday so far, which will be updated throughout the weekend...

Cantoria 2013 - The Gaffer's 50th!

Some pictures from a triumphant weekend in southern Spain to celebrate the Gaffer's 50th birthday...

 Gaffer in his commemorative '50' Lincoln City shirt from as close to his birthday as we could get...!

 Gaffer with framed photos of the moment last year, in his local bar, before and after Drogba;'s penalty to win the European Cup...

Not many action shots exist of the big party on the Saturday night, which I DJ'ed with Anthony, but here are two...

And below, two pictures of the first dips in the family pool all year, apparently. The first is,  as I believe the groovy people say, already "all over Twitter" (i.e. seen by 12 people, tops).

Photos of the match on the Saturday to come, hopefully. The Accies raced into a two-goal lead, both score by your correspondent, both down the left channel, both into the opposite corner... Unfortunately, we couldn't create too many more chances as we all got knackered, and the local team - Athletico Fines - got four in reply. Hilariously, the Gaffer was SENT OFF for a monumentally cynical hack to prevent a clear goal-scoring opportunity...!

A great weekend.

Barbados - February 2013

Quick bunch of photos for you while we are here... Above is Liam on the beach at Rockley, where we are staying at the Accra, and the view from the beach chair...

Next up, Liam and Mummy in the Accra pool (you'll enjoy these three as they came during a freak rainstorm...!)

Then, the beautiful plants at the Welchman Hall Gully, reached with a couple of rickety bus rides through the hills into the interior...

... and the highlight of the gully for kids, its resident wild green Barbadian monkeys, which run about amid the flora but are often fiendishly difficult to find.

We were blessed right at the very end of our visit to see two troops running about, fighting, feeding, everything, in front of us...

,,

Accies in Cantoria 2012

An Accies Select squad went out to Ian and Andrea's lovely Andalucian village of Cantoria in May 2012, just as we had the year before.

This time, instead of a tournament, we had a full 90 minutes against a local team.

Well, we got beat 4-1.  I got our '1' - outside of the left boot, first time, took the keeper by surprise, and myself if I'm honest - but missed a couple I should have done better with. And their 4 were all scored by teenagers, which was snot fair...!

The heat was bearable, from memory; the match was played in the right spirit, and we all enjoyed it.


Here are some pictures, starting with the Accies/Ex-pat XI, featuring - deep breath...

Back row, L to R:
Pete Roberts, Andy Dade (cap'n, oh my cap'n), Norman King, Craig Edge, Ken Hind, Dave Young, Anthony Emery, Simon Mesner [strike partner - laid on the ball for the goal]

Front row, L to R:
Stuart Dade, John 'Macca' McNally, Ian 'The Gaffer' Holmes, Luke Fallon, Barry Higginbottom, and Me.


Here's captain oh my captain Andy Dade and, er, their captain - details to be advised (bloody tough defender to get past)...

As before, we had our pre-match beers in the wonderful place run by Tony, a man who produces mind-blowingly good tapas for 1Euro each [I get charged £4.50 each for the same dish less expertly cooked in Durham], and so here is the full Original Accies complement:

(L to R): Anthony, Andy, Ian 'The Gaffer', Stuart, Andrea (Ian's missus, and Chief Barmy Army Rabble-Rouser), Macca, Simon, Luke [camera shy/lazy arse], and Ian and Andrea's wonderful daughter, Bella.

We returned to Tony's place for the evening meal, and the photo below was taken by one of the kids of an ex-pat policeman, Chris from Coventry (not sure which kid, sorry). His task was to get every single person present in shot. We'd done this the year before, and it had succeeded in distracting them for the best part of half an hour; same trick, same result! The boy done good, I think you'll agree. Might have been on his Dad's shoulders...

 

On the Saturday evening, after watching some European club match of some significance - the final outcome of which remains buried deep in my bitter soul [these two pictures tell the full horror of what happened]...



... we went on to another bar, and had drunken table football and pool tournaments, before I commandeered their Spotify - nobody else was in the joint; just us - and rocked the house with some even more drunken DJing, but featuring "Freak Scene", the Quo's "Caroline (Live)" and what I think should be England fans' unofficial anthem, "Swords of 1000 Men"!


 

A splendid weekend, and roll on 2013, when The Gaffer will be celebrating a birthday (whisper it, it's his 50th)!

Liam's charity run for Zambia

On 1st March 2012, Liam took part in a charity run for a Zambian charity supported by the University, and I went down to watch. The kids were put in gendered-and-school-year groups and had to run alongside the hockey pitches, back again, then around half the running track, finishing 10 minutes later.

Here's the start. So, "where's Liam?" Five seconds to spot him; no conferring!


OK, where is he now?!




Here he is...


Here he is, running down the track: good technique, I think...

... and crossing the finish line...

... and in the immediate aftermath of the exertion...



... and suitably recovered to give a triumphant salute to his creditable 61st place finish, comfortably in the top half of the runners...

Christmas 2012

Happy Christmas everyone!











Some photos, starting with Liam's disbelieving excitement that Santa had clearly visited as he'd drunk the milk and Rudolph had indeed tucked into the Italian cake we left for him the night before...













... then his amazement (and probably relief) at seeing the gigantic box under the tree which, in size and shape, matched the expected dimensions of what he had asked for from Santa...




... and then the frenzied unwrapping of various prezzies, including a pocket microscope, a Beano annual, some welly socks, a dinosaur kit, sweeties, and of course plenty of Lego...!













































... and, finally, a great video of the moment he realised, perhaps unexpectedly (!) that Santa had indeed judged him to have been, on balance, a "good boy" this year...



Plus, here is Mummy getting her voucher entitling her to a smartphone in the sales...!



































We then went round to our neighbours and good friends, the Wheelhouses, for an astounding Christmas dinner, and rounded it off making the LEGO Ninjago Fire Dragon in front of "The Gruffalo's Child".