At the races

I've wanted to go to the races for years and years ... in fact, probably since I read my first Dick Francis book about 25 years ago. I finally made it yesterday!

It was a 'Summer Fun Raceday' at Ayr - £5 advance tickets for the grandstand - so even though I didn't get out of uni until almost 4pm, at £5 a ticket I didn't mind missing some of the races, and this was my last chance of going as I'll be back in Orkney by the time the next race meeting is on.

I quite enjoyed the experience - it was definitely interesting to see what went on, watch the horses parading before the start, the jockeys mounting, down to the start line, the race, then back to the winners enclosure and weighing in. The lack of atmosphere surprised me - there wasn't really any. Too small and unimportant a race meeting I guess. I can imagine that for something like the Scottish Grand National there would be a good atmosphere.

It was difficult to find anywhere to watch where you got a really good view of the races. I think most folk probably go for the atmosphere, the betting and the beer! The bars were busy and have lots of screens in them so you probably get a better view of what's happening in the race from there!

I'm glad I went anyway, something else ticked off my list of things to do someday.

About time I posted again

Thought it was about time I posted here again. My wrists have been a little worse after seeing the specialist so it's been enough coping with placement without trying to do any extra like posting on my blog.

The first week of placement has gone well. Busy, tiring ... but fun. I'm still really enjoying it - despite all the hours spent every evening on paperwork. It's a holida today so that meant an extra day for all the planning and writing up, so I was able to take a little time off over the weekend. My friend Lorna came down to Ayr for the day - she's been working in Canada since I moved down here, so it was great to catch up.

Weather's been horrible today - cold and wet. Not exactly a nice day for the beach .... Ayr's getting noticeably busier now, with lots of folk out on the beach at all times of the day. And the ice cream vans have been out - and a giant inflatable ski slope (was going to go back and get a photo of it to post but I guess with the weather today it'll not be out!).

End of term

It's the end of term, and although I've got a lot of work to do over the holidays I was too tired to get anything sensible done, so I went for a walk along the coast to Greenan castle instead.

Same kayaker as last week - DW's friend Alan.


Looking back to Ayr from Greenan Castle.


Getting ready for a nice sunset.

Mossgiel Ploughing Match

I got up early (the new 8am - yesterday it would have been 7am!) and got a few hours work done so I could go and see the Ploughing Match at Mossgiel, Mauchline. It was a lovely sunny day - but I was glad I had gone in the morning as the wind picked up later and it got really cold.



I really enjoyed it -there were quite a lot of entires in the ploughing match - and also stalls, food (including haggis, porridge & an entire spit roasted pig) and vintage tractors, etc. And there was a birds of prey display ...

Although I had got really cold at the Ploughing Match, by the time I got back to Ayr I was warmed up, and it was still such a nice day (& I was celebrating end of placement) that I headed down the coast to Culzean and spent a few hours walking round the gardens.

Now I'm trying to catch up on the rest of my write-ups....

Peaceful evening in Ayr

I've had a lovely day. Woke up early and got some of my 'post placement' work written up ready to hand in on Monday. Then I headed off up the road to visit my wee nephew. Had a lovely time playing with him in the house and out at the park (it was cold!!!), followed by a fish supper for tea, then headed back down to Ayr. It's a lovely, peaceful evening - I got back in time to catch the last light in the sky and the crescent moon above Arran. Now I'm sitting typing up more notes from my placement ready for handing in on Monday. I'll be spending a lot of tomorrow doing the same thing I think...

Ayr sunset

Thursday was a beautiful evening. I couldn't bear to just stay in and work, and decided that it didn't really matter if I had to stay up until 1am to get all my work done, I just had to get out and enjoy the lovely weather. So I went for a walk along the beach.

It was so calm... I was really enjoying my walk, watching the birds and the sunset over the sea. I spotted a lone kayaker - and felt quite jealous, wishing I had my boat with me down here - it would have been a perfect evening for a calm, relaxing paddle, enjoying the wildlife and the scenery. Instead I watched from the shore, and snapped a few photos of the kayaker in the sunset sea.



The kayaker can be seen in the distance here - he (she?) was quite far out from the shore. The kayak is just visible if you look hard - at the top right of the sea in the photo.

I was just hoping that the weather would hold out for another 2 days for my trip to Arran on Friday evening....

Ayr esplanade

I can take a small detour on my way home and walk along a bit of the esplanade.

Placement

My next placement - in a P5 class - starts tomorrow. I'm quite nervous, but I'm sure after a day or two I'll be well into the swing of it again. I'm busy preparing paperwork for my file today, it feels like it's never-ending .....

We had a lovely evening with my wee nephew on Thursday, and a great trip to Glasgow Science Centre on Friday. I got lots of ideas I can use for teaching there - as well as just having a great time!

Kye went away yesterday, so it's lonely just now ...

Heron

OK, I know it looks like this heron is in a zoo or something. Actually, this is taken from the flat - looking through the window, on a dreich morning. Kye is hopefully bringing the big camera lens down with him, so we'll maybe manage to get better photos of the heron during the week (if he turns up - the heron that is!). This was just taken with my wee compact waterproof Olympus.

Here's the original - the one above is a cropped version of it.

Experimenting

Just in from Aqua Trim, and I'm exhausted! It's been a long week at uni too .... lots of new tasks constantly being handed out, just when we all think we're getting on top of things ... Almost the weekend though, and Kye's arriving on Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!

I've been playing about a bit with photos - experimenting to find something to put in my Art portfolio. Here's one of the results - feel free to comment :-)

Sky

This just caught my eye on the walk to uni.

Walk home from uni

The walk home along the river is a really nice one in good weather, and there's usually quite a lot to see along the river too...

Looking across the Auld Brig. The nights are definitely stretching now, and there's been some lovely sunsets lately.

The view from my window

It's snowing!

Ayr doesn't get much snow at all, so there's great excitement when a little does lie. It's snowing right now .....

... and the river in front of the flat has ice on it again.

Because of the ice the heron hasn't been around for days as that's his usual low tide fishing spot. I haven't even seen the swans or mallards about nearly as much as usual.

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This was the road to the campus on Wednesday:

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We had lovely squeaky snow underfoot that day. Right down here by the shore it's not really lying though - it's pretty much melting when it hits the pavement, although it's lying a wee bit beside the river and on the sand which is covering the road (a result of the winter storms is that the road to the pier has a fair covering of sand now).

Placement

I was at the school I'm going to be spending my next placement at yesterday. It's about 20-25 mins walk, which is great. It seems a realy nice school and I'm really looking forward to my 5 weeks in the P5 class there.

I can talk a small detour on the way there so I can walk along part of the esplanade and enjoy the views of the beach and Arran. It was very cold walking that way yesterday though. We've not had that much snow (more of that in another posting) but it has been cold - enough to make some ice form on the 'dry dock'/offshoot of the harbour in front of the flat.

Kirkyard

Last Iconic Burns posting:

I hadn't had time to get a proper look at the atmospheric lighting in the kirkyard on the way along, as I didn't want to miss the start of the fireworks/performance, so I went for a look on the way back to the shuttle bus.

It was very well done, very atmospheric and beautiful.

Iconic Burns - Flaming Torches and Fireworks

The band kept us entertained throughout the procession and there were stalls on either side of the route too with entertainment such as the "Brig Issue" seller, tattooist, singers and more.



It was a really cold evening (cars were covered in frost by the end and the ground was frozen and slippy) but the torchlit procession was warm! It was amazing how much heat came off the torches - and you really noticed the difference when you got to the end of that part of the evening and the torches were extinguished.



Then everyone split into 3 groups to go to the viewing areas. Where you went depended on the colour of the wristband which you were given at registration.

This is roughly the view from one of the viewing areas - on the modern bridge looking straight up the river to the auld brig.


I was in a viewing area in a muddy field - we had a pretty good view still.

The lighting at the end was really clever - it looked like the mare was galloping over the bridge carrying Tam to safety.

It was a really well organised event - everything seemed to run very smoothly and there were plenty of stewards everywhere.

Burns Cottage

At the start of the Iconic Burns event, while people were registering, getting their coloured wristbands and waiting for the parade to start there was some entertainment. There were some folk in costume, and each of the windows of Burns Cottage had a scene inside it with characters acting out the parts and interacting with the crowd peering in through the windows at them.

First there is Burns as a Twinkle in his father's eye:


Then there is 250 years ago - 24th January 1759 (as the Iconic Burns event was 24th January)


And finally the poet makes his debut:

Tam O'Shanter

This is a closer view of the statue of Tam O'Shanter which was specially made for the Iconic Burns event. It's a metal frame covered in polythene - it doens't look like much when flash photography is used as that destroys the lighting effects - and it was the lighting that made the statue so effective.



The procession started outside Burns Cottage in Alloway and followed behind Tam O'Shanter. The statue was stopped under each Bridge of flowers over the road - the bridges then lit up and the statue was turned so everyone got a good view of it.

The lights on the three bridges said "Tam O'Shanter", "Homecoming 2009" and "Auld Lang Syne". Sadly there was no massed singing of Auld Lang Syne as had been 'promised' in the initial advertising. In fact, the initial advertising for the event was not very accurate at all - but it was a great event, well worth going to.

Videos from Iconic Burns

The first one shows Tam o'Shanter on the Auld Brig on his mare, Maggie, with the witch grabbing her tail. Look for Burns' face on the side of the bridge - it was done with fireworks and gradually appeared - totally amazing!




The fireworks were really good (as you'll see in the 2nd video) - and synchronised with the music. At one point there was a lone piper (I think on top of the Burns Monument) playing A Man's A Man which was very atmospheric.