scaleybrats

My savings are in dollars and my student debt is in pounds. It seems I have a lot to thank Mr Gordon Brown for.

Okay, so I know it’s kind of lame, but there’s a financial crisis on for God’s sake.

Merry Christmas: Scaleybrats.com is now guaranteed to the Seaton family for another two years. Hosting was more expensive. I renewed that for one year.

Now somebody please write something!

;-)

It is hard to believe that one of our clan has just graduated from Cambridge university. Well done Jamie, I am so proud of you. I remember you learning your letters and now you have them after your name! I hope the future brings everything you are hoping for because you deserve it after all your hard work. It is an honour being related to such a bright personable young man and I hope to see more of you in the future. Take care.

Pamela

I was talked into this gruelling 56 mile cycle ride, which crosses the North and South Downs i.e. great big hills…. by my friend Simone. They were a team of four called the Wombles (as they are from Wimbledon) but one had dropped out.  It is held every year in order to raise money for the British Heart Foundation and is really popular.  It takes the average cyclist 6 hours to complete.

27,000 people took part and we had the perfect weather for it.  They vary the starting times by having 15 mins slots that you have to book in advance from 6 am to 9.30 am. We were in the 8.30 am one.   Unfortunately due to a number of accidents near the beginning (people being too keen and forgetting to break when going downhill and one car driver being too impatient and just running over a cyclist), we were held back for an hour just after starting which resulted in the other riders who left later, catching us up, and we were stuck the whole way with this huge crowd of cyclists which made going uphill very difficult and coming downhill downright dangerous. 

Once we got to the half way point, I actually still felt quite good and was beginning to think this was easy but then, slowly but surely, the aches started.  Everywhere.  Especially my bottom and knees and we still had Ditchling Beacon to get up.  This is one of the 3 highest points on the South Downs which is basically a chalk cliff ridge that runs all the way to Dover and at 815 ft it is a hill to be reckoned with I can tell you.  We didn’t even consider trying to cycle up it, and began to walk, pushing our bikes. It was every man for themselves.  No-one spoke to each other and all I could hear was the heavy panting of all around me.  People were beginning to give up and just sit down on the edge but I knew if I did that I would never make it.

Half an hour later and beginning to consider that maybe it would be okay to just lie down and die here, we finally rounded the last corner and could see the summit. 

Luckily it was all down hill from here to Brighton, ALL DOWN HILL, for 5 miles.  People were getting up to speeds of 35 miles an hour.  I had the back brake on the whole way down with crazy people whizzing really close past me.  I could only tell they were there the split second before they passed as the wind came first.  Veeery scary….

Then it began to rain, really pelt down and I couldn’t see a thing with my safety glasses on.  Luckily the traffic lights in Brighton are a complete mare so we all had to go really slow, so slow in fact that I ended up doing the last two miles using the bike as a scooter, one foot pushing along the pavement and the other on the pedal.  We finally crossed the finish line just after 5pm.  It was a relief to finally be able to get off the damn bike but then, wet and tired, we had to cycle to Hove to get picked up. I began to get very grumpy….    

But I survived the 58 miles, and we raised over 2000 GBP so it was well worth it although I think I have now paid for any heart care I might need from the British Heart Foundation and won’t be doing it again next year.

You can see all the photos here.  

This was my third visit to Barcelona and I still think it is one of the most beautiful cities in the world.  It has everything you could possible want in one city, lively night life, excellent restaurants and a beautiful beach.  It also has the unique architecture of Gaudi and I always think it is such a pity he did not get around to designing more buildings as I think just the few he managed add significantly to the feel of the city.  He did live until 73 but then managed to get run over by a tram and ended up in a pauper’s hospital, as having empty pockets and a disheveled appearance, he went unrecognised.  He died there 3 days later.

Looking at the Sagrada Familia, I do wonder whether it is likely to ever get finished.  The Spanish blame it on lack of funding as they rely on donations but since the Japanese have taken an interest, they can’t really use this excuse.  It is just such a huge project and Gaudi did state that it would probably take generations of builders to complete and since his blueprints have been lost, I think it is proving to be quite difficult to work out the construction and to cap it all, the fast underground train that they are planning to build in the city is threatening to undermine the foundations.  It would be such a pity if the project is never completed and I can’t understand why UNESCO or the Spanish equivalent to the National Heritage don’t help in any way. 

We decided to go on another holiday to get over the stress of the xmas and new year holiday.  We wanted to just lay around and relax and not have to do anything all day so we chose Aruba (one of the few places that would be hot in February and also close to the US so that only one of us has to travel).  It was strange to be in a tropical place with everyone speaking Dutch.

We were lucky in that the first day we arrived, it was Carnival and the parade was about to pass the hotel we were staying in so we stood outside and watched all the wonderful colours.

As the idea was to relax, we lazed on the beach most days but one day we took a Catamaran snorkelling trip which involved stopping at 3 snorkeling sites, one of which was a wreck of a German warship. It was quite eerie to swim around the ship, which was lying very near the surface on its side.  We could even stand on it at the bow it was so close.  The water wasn’t as clear as it was in the Maldlives but there were plenty of fish.  We even got the chance to swim with a really huge shoal of small silver fish which was really exhilarating. 

We ate lovely food at some really nice restaurants, played a little Black Jack in the casino and just generally enjoyed relaxing.  See all the photos here.

• extensive choice of yummy bread, often still warm
• large disposable income
• and hence ability to eat out every night
• choice of restaurants
• not feeling like a granny in a nightclub
• Dutch sobriety - no drunks fighting on a Fri and Sat night (apart from the British tourists that is)
• everything within cycling distance
• being able to cycle without threat of being mown down by every passing vehicle
• living near the beach (and the restaurants on the beach)
• working in an office with up-to-date equipment (don’t ask….)
• speedy trains that run on time and go directly into the airport
• our lovely apartment in Den Haag
• Tuesday night girly TV
• wooden floors rather than carpets
• ATV’s
• sleeping in on weekends with the light shining through our red curtains and the yellow mosquito net, so warm and cosy….
• and …..living with Brian

Things I don’t miss:

• Dutch bluntness (which really translates as down right rudeness)
• everyone being at least a foot taller than me
• the weather
• not being able to read my mail or any serious newspapers (at least without mouthing the words slowly to myself, eliciting muffled sniggering)
• having to always ask at least twice for “een beetje melk” (some milk) with my tea
• the smoking…..everywhere…. but always in my face 
• Albert Heijn (the crappy supermarket that is supposedly upmarket - had to wait to see what they actually had each time before deciding what to make for dinner)

As promised Jamie:

It might interest you to know that some historians believe that haiku originated in Scotland. It is pronounced the same but comes from the old Gaelic spelling ‘highcoo’. Etymologically it has been mistaken over the years for the derivative of high(land)cow but this is not the case. The literal translation from the Gaelic is, ’stoned bovine’ and refers to the severe drug habit wildly practiced by cattle in Scotland in the 14th century. Below are some early examples by the celebrated scottish poet Al Bashyou(circa 1385)

Chewing herby cud,

Morag mooing contently

Gives chilled milk for tea.

Taking the high road

On grass for a tasty joint

-pot filled beef.

Patient, calm and still

Bashyou on his milk stool sits

Waiting for his coo.

A very good trip

A lunar feat to behold

Then cowpat come down.

My fellow students were completly bewildered by this posting and one actually enquired as to where I had found the information. Scary but true!

Pamela

Scaleybrats went away! Someone, and I wont say who, forgot to pay the bill!

Fortunately I was quick to point out this terrible mistake and the site was back up before our family exploded in a shower of communication-lacking-ness.

Kate and I met on a Post-graduate Diploma in Publishing course eleven years ago.  Since then we have worked together, fought together (mostly in karate ), laughed and cried together.  When I met Kate, she and Nick were already a couple and had been for some years but they did not yet share a home and were both very much independent, world-travelling, free-spirits.  Now here they are a married couple with their first born son just arrived.  In some strange way, I feel like I’ve watched them grow up.  It did take them more than a decade but then again, I have only just grown up myself…..

Welcome Kai, I am sure your life is going to be a very fun-filled, exciting one.  You really could not have chosen better parents.