Solstice

As Rob pointed out the other day, there is a certain irony that the last blog entry written was titled 'The writers strike is over'. That was in February. Rob uses irony, Kate uses an iron bar. " If I logon and see the back of Lily's head one more time,you'll swing for it McKendry. Trust me, I know the right people". So, through a sense of duty, and fear, the McKendry's will precis the last 6 months.

March saw us going on holiday for the first time 'en masse'. 5 families, 10 adults, 8 children, no fear. This was either going to be brilliant, or the sequel to The Shining. It was brilliant, but bizarrely had elements of The Shining. I say this because we collectively rented Melmerby Hall as our holiday retreat, complete with ghosts. Not the one of my former self - thin, tanned, with a hairline, - with a waistline - no this was the real deal - dead folk. Some of them really old dead folk.

The first night we had all settled the kids into bed, a few games of pool had been played, a little bit of Neil Diamond was to be heard in the background, when Jill found the 'guest book'. Interesting entries. " We had booked the house for the 8 of us, only to discover that 10 were present ". " If you wonder what the dents in the wall are for in the pool room, it was because we used them to repel the unwanted guest ", and so on, and so on.

While I am sure a lot of us were looking forward to things going bump in the night over the next week, it was for all the wrong reasons. Naturally there is nothing to fear but fear itself, and we all managed to work ourselves into a slight frenzy any time after about 8 pm. " Honey, have you checked on the kids ". " No, do you want to do it ?". " Naaah, I am sure they will be fine ".

Over the week a few odd things did happen. Jude and Pascal came to bed to find two drawers on the floor, one on either side of the bed. These did not match any in their room, or in fact the rest of the house.

Joe saw a ghost.

While Jude and Fraser were chatting one day, the multi-CD player randomly went through all 6 CD drawers. 'whirr, clunk, whirr cluck etc'. When it finished I said " Hey Jude ( I had actually been waiting all week to say that ) watch this. I then pressed on the 'ON' button and started up the machine. I then turned it off again. This proved that it had gone through all of the CD drawers when it wasn't even turned on. Neither was I.

Having said that, what a fabulous week. Great weather, great company, kids got on together, adults got on together, ghosts only appeared once and only for Joe. Two nights were birthdays so we had caterers in to host each of the evenings. Would do it all again in a heartbeat.

April saw 'Moira-the -wife' have another birthday. By that I do not mean she turned 2, but she did end up receiving 3 parcels from the company 'LUSH', who do make the most amazingly 'scented' gifts. Weirdly, due to Big Brother restrictons, none of the gifts delivered had contact details as to who they were from. We have found out since that one was kindly from Sarah in New York, one from lovely Kristen and Malcolm, but the third remains a mystery. Contacting LUSH to find out who any of them were from resulted in them acting as if we had asked them their bra-size. Therefore, please can the mysteriously generous third party please identify themselves so that we can thank them, otherwise I will have to pretend it was me, as an excuse for not being able to change a washer, bad habits, or sometimes my favourite t-shirt 3 days running.

Last month we went down to 'that-thar-London', for a wedding on Hove. Our friends Natalie and Mike celebrated their most amazing wedding, and were kind enough to ask us too. Natalie's Mum is an opera singer, and sang 3 songs to her prior to the dinner. An incredible experience that we all will remember, and it made all of the parents there imagine what it would be like to be able to create a gift so personal. The champagne flowed, the speeches were fantastic, and it is the only wedding I have been to where the 100 guests all used 'kazoos' to blow 'here comes the bride' to the happy couple as they entered.

Moira and Jackie babysat Lily for us, who did not even wave goodbye to us when we left for the wedding, as she was having so much fun. We did also, as Lorna and Neil came to visit the next day, bringing their beautiful new daughter Eve Elizabeth Mackay with them. Suzy and Steve also visited bringing Joel with them, so it was a case of of something old (us), something new (Eve), something borrowed( a dialysis machine for the day after) and something blue( Moira's tongue -babe, stay away from the curacao-weddings, huh ?)

We have since been visited by Zoe, Paul, Sam and Bronte, who also brought along Suzy and Joseph. They were the perfect guests - they cooked, cleaned, were great fun, and also did not mention waistlines. Paul received a knighthood while he was here, as he fixed the leaking tap in the garage. He also fixed the dishwasher so that it now accepts full-sized plates (don't ask). As Rob said to me " I wonder how Paul managed to get your testicles through customs when he returned to Australia ". I don't care. Hey Paul, did you have to pay by the kilo?

Anyway, Wimbledon tennis has started in England, and we literally are still lighting the fire in Scotland. Not to complain, as we could not be happier ( well Moira could, if her husband knew how to fix washers and dishwashers ).

As the young folk say 'shouts go out to'

1.) Ray Purdy - recovering from a large operation. Glad to hear you are on the mend.
2.) Russell McKendry - also recovering from a large op. Well done Dad, we love you.
3.) Kristen and Malcolm, Joshua and Georgia - have sold their house in Streatham, London, and moved to Vermont,USA. Well done Malcolm on sitting the USA medical exams, and now being qualified in two countries as a Doctor. Will you be in the sequel to Catch 22? Welcome home Kristen.
4.) Lorna and Neil - proud parents of Eve
5.) Moira (the sister) , welcome back from Canberra and NZ.
6.) Shelley and Greg getting engaged. Good on ya.

Right, the picket line has been crossed. Next blog in December.

Much love to you and yours

The McKs - Scottish Branch.