Christmas already - how did that happen? Another year has absolutely flown by. This year, investigating the functionality that AI has to offer, we asked Google's Gemini software to access our family calendar, read our previous blogs, and then write this year’s newsletter in a similar style. I'm pleased to say that it did almost exactly as requested, except the mother of the family was named Sarah and the events it spoke about bore no resemblance to what we got up to! So what you are about to read has been composed entirely by the hand of a human. Or has it? That’s what AI would want you to think.
Every January, Eilidh just seems to get older. It’s probably because that’s when her birthday is. This year, we took Eilidh and her friends ice-skating. It was interesting to see the wide range of ability on show amongst the group ranging from beginner competency all the way to never-skated-before. Still everybody seemed to enjoy the ice disco, and as far as we know, there were no broken bones, so that counts as a small win.
The February school holidays were very notable. Firstly, we escaped Scotland to get some winter sun, spending a couple of days in Madrid before getting an evening train down to Granada to allow us to spend the next day exploring the Alhambra. From there, we hired a car and drove to sunny Malaga for a day, before flying back home in time for Craig to start a new job. After 22 years in pensions with Mercer, Craig moved into a different sphere. Following on from his Masters degree in Climate Change Finance and Investment, he now calculates companies’ carbon footprints and helps them set plans to get to Net Zero at his new company, Inspired ESG. He still had time whilst embarking on a new career to attend the Brass Monkey camp with his Explorers, which was slightly cooler than Malaga had been!
April saw our second mini-break of the year, going out to Poland to spend some time with Iona’s bestie Hania and her family near Krakow. With no direct flights to Poland on a Friday or Saturday from Scotland available, we concocted a plan that would get us to Krakow quicker than the available flight. So it was that we found ourselves on the Friday night sitting on the plane on the runway to fly to Berlin. Then we sat some more. And then a bit more. Then we were told that a passenger assistance lift was broken and stuck beside our plane, meaning that it could manoeuvre out onto the runway, so we’d all have to come back at the crack of dawn the next day. We eventually arrived in Berlin around lunchtime Saturday, meaning that we only had a couple of hours of sightseeing there before the next leg of our trip, a beautiful train ride from the German capital to Prague. There was no time to stop in Czechia, though - we were booked onto a sleeper train, which arrived in Krakow very early on the Sunday morning. The European trains all ran like clockwork, meaning the remaining travels were stress-free. We had an amazing and relaxing time in Poland including a hike in the beautiful Zakopane mountains. Craig flew back from Poland on Tuesday evening due to having to get back to work, while Gwen and the girls stayed out for the rest of the week.
There was still time in April for Iona to go on a Scout hike and camp, before the early May bank holiday weekend saw us take off to Dumfriesshire for a weekend with the Andrews and the Jenkins. Alas, a timing issue meant that the April showers continued into May, leading to a rather wet weekend and the postponement of a helicopter flight that we’d been due to take on the Monday afternoon.
As spring finally sprung and then broke into something vaguely resembling summer, but with more rain, Gwen and the girls went to Shropshire with Brenda and Roger to celebrate Uncle Harvey’s (Roger’s brother) 90th birthday. At the same time that was going on, Craig was putting his Explorers through their paces with a challenging expedition. That same weekend (if you thought it couldn’t get any busier) was notable for another reason - Taylor came to Town! With tickets being like gold dust, and despite everyone being very tired, we took a picnic rug and a hastily arranged packed tea, and made our way to Roseburn Park beside Murrayfield to hear the songstress roll out the hits; we even caught glimpses of her on the big screen that we could see a slither of through the stairwell!
As we neared the end of the school term, Craig and Iona went on their first Scout camp together, with Craig having been called in to run a kayaking session on the camp. Scouting for those two was coming to an end for the summer break, but there was a long way still to go for Eilidh, whose summer was about to get exceedingly busy! Readers with long memories may recall that Eilidh was selected to attend the Blair Atholl jamborette as part of the West Lothian contingent. Throughout the year, she’d been attending training weekends, team building evenings and fundraising events to ensure that the Explorers were capable of being relatively self-sufficient for the 12-days that they’d be away. But Blair was a tiny dot on the horizon at the end of June.
Six dance shows over a five-day Friday-Tuesday produced some fab-u-lous dancing, and ended with Eilidh presented with a trophy from one of her coaches for her kindness, conscientious attitude and progress over the year. No rest for the wicked though, and nor for Eilidh. She had to be at school at the crack of dawn on the Wednesday morning for a school dance trip to London, which included lessons at two different dance schools, various sight-seeing trips, and seeing Mamma Mia at the theatre. Back home in the early Friday evening, and the next again day, we jetted off for our summer holiday.
A large shadow was, however, cast on us whilst up north with receipt of the news that Roger had been diagnosed with a terminal cancer; left untreated, the oncologist gave him six weeks. After consultation with medical professionals and Brenda, and with a golden-wedding anniversary approaching in December, he resolved to receive whatever treatment was offered to prolong his life. The oncologist was non-committal about the anniversary. Amongst the sadness, it’s fair to say that we felt blessed that Brenda and Roger made the move to Livingston last year, and that we were correspondingly able to spend more time with them.
The fun continued in August with the rescheduled helicopter flight which had been cancelled in May. This was a very generous Christmas present from Auntie Wendy, and a splendid day saw us soar over the countryside around Cumbernauld on a short but spectacular flight.
At the September weekend, the girls received the last of their presents from Christmas 2023 - a trip to Alton Towers. We left the house early on Sunday morning, arrived early afternoon, stayed over, and had most of (a rather wet) Monday in the park as well. The girls have always loved roller coasters, and this was a weekend that went down particularly well!
Iona is now in her final year of primary school - where does the time go?! She’s still swimming, playing her flute (not at the same time), and has joined the school choir. She also enjoys playing (a bit too much?🤔) online computer games with her friends.
Eilidh is now reaching the crunch-time in education where exams start coming along! The homework has cranked up by a significant degree this year, and she’s been studying very hard to ensure that she can fit it all in between her activities. She passed her second and third artistic swimming exams this year, and also has a ballet exam in mid-December. With an ambition to be a primary school teacher, the opportunity for her to be a young leader in Scouting provides valuable experience. The Squirrel section that she’d been helping with had to change to a time that she couldn’t make, so she’s now started helping with the Beavers in West Calder. She is also fundraising for her next Scouting trip - to Norway in the summer!
It’s been a very busy year for Gwen (and Craig), supporting Brenda and Roger with their move to Livingston, and more recently with Roger’s illness. She’s also currently doing an extra shift at work to cover for a colleague’s paternity leave. In amongst all that, she’s managing to squeeze in concerts, exercise and living!
Craig is still getting (and subjecting the girls to) regular doses of sadness by going to see Hearts play (but ever the optimist, he thinks things are on the up after their worst start to a league season in history!). He’s also currently stepped in as a stand-in Scout Leader at Iona’s Troop (in addition to his regular Explorer work) to cover a leader who’s had to take some time off.
Finally, an update on Roger. His initial radiotherapy session didn’t go well and he had to be ambulanced to hospital after a bad reaction to it. After that, however, the remaining radiotherapy course went relatively well. The real turning point however, was starting on immunotherapy. He has been responding very well to that, and has a wonderful attitude to life, continuing to do short walks nearby and share with the family, and we’re at the stage where we feel like we can look to the future in weeks and months rather than days and weeks. He and Brenda are looking forward to their golden wedding anniversary just after Christmas and enjoying their time together.
All that’s left to say is that if you’re anywhere close by, please do let us know – we’d love to see you! The Family Browning would like to wish all our friends and relations a very Merry Christmas, and all best wishes for a safe, healthy, happy and prosperous New Year!
