Wedding

Early in June we all went to a wedding - the first in quite a while - at a lovely outdoor venue near St. Andrews. The couple were James and Debbie from our church (James also being a student being taught by me briefly this year) and it was a great day. Just a shame we had to come home and missed the dancing; alas it was on a Sunday and a school night.

Of course, looking back I don't have any photos of the people! We must have been spending all our time enjoying ourselves. I did get a shot of Lydia's anti-boredom-during-the-service picture, and the lovely setting though.

Easter

Well, in a true measure of how far behind we are - here are the Easter holidays!  A visit to both sets of Grandparents and a lot of cousins all in one go. Great stuff.

(for some reason we have no photos of the visit to Granny's house. Maybe too much Easter activity going on..)

We went on a very cold visit to Peterhead Prison Museum.
It might seem odd for a day out but it was very interesting.
The real prison is a bit larger than this Lego representation.

Naomi escaping one of the cells

Some slightly creepy statues give the place a proper atmosphere.

Miriam was impressed by the size of the soup pots.

Too cool to sit with the grown ups.

Next up, some soft play action. Esther likes the ball pit.

Large garden + children = fun. 

Obligatory egg rolling.

A wee bowling trip too. Grandad was still in fine form!
We're really glad to have had a good time all together.

That really is on course for a strike!

I like building big bridges out of Lego.
With some help we made it from sofa to coffee table!

Also a day at Aden.

Most of the cousins together.

Towards the end of the trip my Mum fell and broke her foot. Needless to say this didn't stop her usual red-hot pace of work ethic, it just meant adjustments. Like a lower ironing board.

Day out

We'd never been to Beecraigs Park before (it's near Linlithgow), but Granny and Grandad were nearby and we went out for the day. It was a spectacular day and there was a lot of fun to be had on some new toys. Plus there is nothing like a picnic with some family!

Messy Church

Back in late May we took the girls to Messy Church being run by one of the other churches in Stirling. They had a great time and we were all able to share in learning a Bible story. Essentially Messy Church has a few stations where there are different activities - usually craft of some kind related to the story of the day - and you can wander round these in your own time. There is then a bit of focused time where everyone comes together and has a wee song and a short talk, and it closes with some food. It worked really well for us and we've been planning to go back, but each weekend has coincided with some major event or travels since. Hopefully we can get to the next one.

See if you can guess the story!

Work travels

I've been away a fair bit the past few months, particularly in the earlier part of the year. I'll do a quick roundup here - though I think the trip to Japan probably deserves a post of its own...

In late March I had a day trip to Manchester Airport to talk with them about their aircraft taxiing operations. This included a tour of the tower and a drive around among the planes. Very good stuff indeed and certainly some hope that some of our research project will find its way into a real airport some time in the future.

I flew straight from Manchester to Aberdeen, where I had a meeting about my sounds project. We got a good level of participation in the project and how have some evidence that we can use my optimisation algorithms to produce sounds that people associate with different places. Still, several months on, I have yet to write up the paper on the results, but all good stuff. This team was a real pleasure to work with!

No photos from the meeting, but this is the view from my B&B - the glow in the distance would be Pittodrie.

I was then off on my Easter holidays for a little under two weeks. On return, I was off to London, twice in five days. Trip one was to talk about the airports stuff with the whole project team. This was accompanied by a visit to my sister (and a stay in exactly the same room at Chingford Premier Inn as last time).

Chingford Plain, and a Premier Inn car park.

Back again a few days later (we tried so hard to make the two meetings at the same time, but too many busy professors were involved). This time as an external assessor for a second year PhD student.

The view from Queen Mary University of London's offices

and the view from my hotel for this visit. If you look closely there are some famous buildings in the distance. 

Finally, a few days later again, I was back in Loughborough for a catch up with various staff and students there. Also a worthwhile visit: lots of nice researchy things going on there.

Gregory Street - just along from our old house and the very first place we ever stopped in Loughborough.

One fringe benefit of the trip to L'boro is the hotel I stay in - Holywell House, with very nice hosts and (crucially) an excellent breakfast.

All this travel has been useful (keeping all these links going is an important part of my job now) but I am not planning to travel nearly as much again any time soon!

Esther's first birthday

Okay, it was in April! - but still worth catching up on.

A few snippets from Esther's first birthday.

Early in the morning, we had a lot of excited big sisters...

The milestone cards are more-or-less at an end!

The party was an extended trip to Briarlands Farm, where we took over a very long table!

A hidden rainbow birthday cake. It was good.

Esther does like her food.

Jay made a felt picture game for one of Esther's presents.