Category — Calum

Tuesday - Peter, Rory, Calum & Chris on the beach at Studland

Monday - First day of holiday in Dorset. Calum out in Kimmeridge bay in a canoe

Jill, Martin and Andrew stopped off on their way home after their holiday in Scotland.

Calum had his school sports day today and won the 400m, beating a county runner in the progress. Apparently he was a tenth of a second outside the school record!

Calum played his first cricket match of the season today now that his thumb is better. He played for the school team and top scored with 46. Unfortunately the team lost. He plays for Aston U15s tomorrow evening away to Nantwich.

Calum was called up to be goal keeper for his school football team tonight - in the cheshire schools cup final! He hasn’t played in goal for ages since taking up rugby instead of football. And they won! 5-1. Hopefully there’ll be a photo to follow.

No rugby today for Calum or Rory as we had temperatures of -7 last night. This has left the pitches frozen and dangerous to play on so it’s training for both.

Calum on rugby tour this weekend with the crewe and nantwich under 14s. Aftr getting to bath they watch bath v sale -lots of tries but bath won. They then went to their hotel to watch the six nations then out for a quick game of ten pin bowling. After dinner there was a quiz then a rugby court.
The following day they play two matches against strong local teams and won both - Calum playing at Outside Centre & Wing.

Following the maxim ‘What goes on tour, stays on tour’ - there are no photos!

Left to right: Ranald, Euan, Calum, Carolyn. Rory in front.

Up in Dollar for a few days from Boxing Day. Lots and lots of snow here. Boys built a giant snowman in Mags & Neils back garden.

Calum off to a firework display at Audlem with his friends and then Rory to a swimming birthday party for one of his rugby friends at Nantwich pool.

Just about to set off on the taxi run. Home > Audlem > Nantwich > Home. Not raining at present. Now in middle of pick up time negotiations!

Calum was captain of the school rugby team this afternoon when his school played Malbank, their local rivals. They won 39-7 and Calum scored a try. What made it even better was that they won without their best player who was injured!

Calum playing full back for Crewe & Nantwich rugby away to Shrewsbury today. (He’s never played in that position before)Will be a very tough match.
It was as tough as we feared - they lost 52-0. As it turns out, Shrewsbury haven’t conceded a try since last christmas!

Calum getting ready to go to the school disco.

Calums injury during the school rugby match is more serious than first thought. Our village doctor thinks he’s torn a knee ligament. He had an x-ray last week and we are awaiting the results. In the meantime - no sport! Aaaaagggh!!

Calum scored 25 not out for the Aston Juniors tonight. The picture above shows him walking back to the clubhouse. There is a local adult knock out league run at the club and when one of the teams dropped out, the juniors entered. It’s a 20/20 match and you have to retire on 25, which Calum did after opening the batting. He batted really well against adult bowlers who gave no quarter. In the end, the juniors just fell short, losing by 9!

Went to an excellent outdoor laser quest in the countryside near Oswestry with our friends Glyn, Helen, James & Katie. It was adults against children - and the kids won! Some more photos here.

First day of the easter break and took the boys and two of their friends, Katie & James out for indoor crazy golf, laser quest and the cinema. We went to see Aliens v Monsters in 3D. Very funny film with great 3D. The first cartoon shot entirely in 3D. Above is a poor quality picture taken inside the crazy golf centre with no flash!

With over 15,000 photos stored in iPhoto and many more as prints waiting to be scanned, I thought it was time to put a few at random online. So here’s a selection...click here for a slideshow. If the slideshow doesn’t load, you need the latest Flash Player, which can be downloaded safely and freely here.

The revival in the fortunes of Calum’s football team continues. The won their second match on the trot beating Temple Tigers 2-0. They are still rooted to the bottom of the table but have a lot more points now.

Calum’s football team, Athletico Alexandra played Betley on a very windy morning in Nantwich today. The team started slowly and were losing 3-0 by half time. After a very robust team talk by coach Kevin, they made a dramatic comeback to win by 4 goals to 3. Calum had a very good game in midfield, playing some great through balls and making some very strong headers.

Calum is an Eco Ranger for his school. When we were in his school last night for the race night, I managed to sneak a quick photo of him on the Eco Ranger notice board.

Another sporting sunday! Calum had a football match against the league leaders today and it was a very bruising affair. The other team were very dirty and it became a bad tempered match. Calum played in midfield and had a great game. He defended well and played some great through passes. There was a lot of verbal abuse around and coupled with a very weak referee it was not a great game to watch. Calum is very strong on the pitch and gave as good as he got. For the record, they lost 4-2. Two of the opposition goals shouldn’t have counted (offside and foul on the goalkeeper) but at least Calum enjoyed it - much worse for the parents.<

Calum played cricket for his school this evening indoors at a local school. Scored the maximum number of runs (15) before having to retire, bowled someone out and caught a one handed catch. His school won so all in all a good evening. I’m off to committee club meeting at our local cricket club - I seem to have taken over the website and handbook!

Sad news this morning when Chris found that Calum’s rabbit, Blondie, has passed away in his hutch. Calum got Blondie at Easter 2003 when he needed to keep a pet diary for an Animal Carer badge at Beavers. Blondie had a great life, living in a hutch with three rooms, and a huge run which was over six feet long, although latterly this disintegrated and Peter built a smaller one for him! He came from Malpas via the hairdresser of a friend of ours. The hutch came from the boys’ previous babysitter at the end of our road and the run from another friend. Blondie now rests in our pet graveyard at the end of the garden along with guinea pig and lots of fish. Blondie had a great life, was much loved and will be missed by us all.

Calum went for his check up at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool today. We arrived early so Calum amused himself with the lego - for the first time in a long time! We were seen at 2pm where Calum had various tests on his heart including an ECG, Ultrascan and an exercise test. The exercise test was the most strenuous for Calum. He had twelve monitors on his chest and had to walk, then jog then run on a treadmill for as long as he could. He did really well, reaching level 6 (most boys only reach level 3 or 4) with his heart rate not going above 191. The Registrar decided that Calum was fine and could resume sports again - hooray! The tests and the stress obviously took its toll on Calum as he slept in the car on the way home - very unusual. A great relief all round. I guess we’ll never know what happened but I still suspect that he was kicked in the head during rugby accidentally but that in the ruck nobody noticed.

He’s very keen to get back to sport as his team play a tram with lots of his friends from school in it on Sunday - weather permitting. Rory did a sponsored walk around the school grounds today, in the snow! Went to play at Josh’s, a friends house after school.

Snow melting here. Photo taken with and added to post from my iPhone.

Lots of snow here - enough for Calum to make a snowman - in the dark. Schools open though!

Calum got injured during rugby practice at school today. He collapsed and passed out on the pitch. An ambulance was called and he went to Leighton Hospital accompanied by Chris. He was fine within a few hours but the hospital; decided to keep him in overnight. As nobody is sure what happened - no one saw him being hit on the head, he’s going for a check up at Alder Hey children’s hospital in Liverpool on friday week. Worst thing for Calum is he is not allowed to play any sport, including table tennis which he plays lunchtimes, until after the tests are completed.

Went for scooter ride down towards Wrenbury Hall with Calum & Dad after tea

Calum played well for his team, Athletico Alexandrabut they lost 2-1. He was voted man of the match

Rory played two matches.

Peter & Rory to Nantwich lake to feed ducks french bread, have ice cream and scooter around Nantwich

Calum went into hospital today for more tests after a bad weekend. He had been in lots of pain. The consultant at the hospital thinks that the problem is an overactive bladder which has become strained and bruised. She has prescribed some medicine which he will need to take for up to six months. To control the pain he is to carry on taking paracetamol. As he is nearly 12 he can take the adult dose.

We have had a strange couple of weeks lately with Calum.  He had been complaining of pains in his ‘nether region’ shall we say and also his side.  He took Monday off school two weeks ago when I was working from home and we saw the doctor, who suggested that due to pains in his right side, he should go to hospital to have blood tests to check it wasn’t appendicitis.  

Well, after spending a day there waiting about, it appeared it wasn’t appendicitis, but the consultant wanted him to stay in overnight.  So I, having spent the day in hospital, returned home with Rory and Chris stayed in overnight with him.  They started him on antibiotics and seemed to think it was a urinary infection.  After being in pain all week he did return to school on Friday but wasn’t brilliant last weekend.  He went into school on Monday morning, but Chris got a call around 10 am to say he didn’t feel well and went to pick him up.  

We saw a different doctor this time at the surgery and he felt the only thing it could be was a kidney stone, and a urine sample seemed to confirm this.  So we went along to have an x-ray on Wednesday, which we were informed on Friday had shown nothing.  Calum is still in pain and all the symptoms seem to be a kidney stone.  The doctor says that there are sometimes translucent stones, which don’t show up, so if the pain is as bad on Monday, he is suggesting Calum goes into hospital for some tests, which won’t be very pleasant.  

So, it’s not been ideal with Calum missing two weeks from school, but in the circumstances, it’s really been the only thing to do.  The poor chap has been straining his wee through a teastrainer all week, as it was suggested if it was a stone and was passed, they can analyse it.  But don’t worry, we only serve teabags in this house!!! 

The poor chap has been in pain for two weeks now but was in lots more pain yesterday afternoon and evening and after a good nights sleep woke up at 5.30 in lots of pain, so it looks like he’s off to Leighton Hospital tomorrow morning.

We all (Peter, Chris, Calum, Rory, Margaret, Neil, Ranald, his girlfriend Lyndsay, and David) went to see Edinburgh play Glasgow Warriors at Murrayfield. A very close match ended with Edinburgh winning - just!

Short movie to follow shortly.

We all (Peter, Chris, Calum, Rory, Aunty Margaret, Uncle Neil, Grandpa, Gavin, Ranald, Carolyn, Uncle David, Euan & Neil) went to see Joseph at the Playhouse in Edinburgh. Above is a picture of Chris with Craig Chalmers after the show.

Had a long lunch at Aunty Margaret’s house with 16 for dinner.

Spent Christmas this year in Dollar staying at Neil’s house. Above is a picture of Calum and Rory putting down food and drink for Santa & Rudolph.

Calum’s football team played the league leaders Haslington Rovers today in what was expected to be a close game. Athletico Alexandra played really well and won the game 10-0 to go top of the table.

A hat trick was scored by Calum who played very well with a high work rate. In addition to his hat trick Calum made some great through passes which led to other goals. Haslington had few attacks but one led to Calum making a goal saving clearance off the line.

The weather was very poor, being cold and raining with the match being played at Georges Field, Crewe.