1990 to 2009

Memories - 1990’s

The big event for us in 1990 was moving house from Dundee to Hurlford, near Kilmarnock. The picture to the left shows myself with my three sisters, Marlene, Thelma and Anne when they came to our housewarming party. I didn’t like it there, our next door neighbour. was a ’neighbour from hell’. I think she fell out with everyone in the street! One of my friends there was Janette Mackie. They had to move away though due to her husband’s work, to Portlethan near Aberdeen. A few years ago they moved to Johnstone which isn’t too far away and we still meet up. Her daughter, Amy, was born in Hurlford and will be 15 this year.

In 1993, our first grandchild, Ewan Gordon, was born. It was nice being only about 20 miles away as we could see a lot of him. In 1995, his little brother, Neil Andrew, was born. The following year Merle, Robert and the boys moved house... to the next street! It was a bigger house though.

In 1998, we moved house too. We decided that it would be nice to be a bit nearer to Merle, Robert and the boys and so got a house in Ayr about a mile away from where they are. In a very short time, Sam transformed a bare garden into something lovely which, with the help of my ’gardener’, Albany McKay, I try to keep nice. At the front of the house there is a small garden with pampas grass, lots of shrubs and a border with snowdrops in the Spring and a variety of colourful blooms in Summer. At the back there is a huge patio area where I have numerous tubs. Beyond that is an area of shrubs planted in red chips.

Along the back wall there are three separate bits of garden divided by paths. One has a lavatera and various shrubs, the next a lovely pale pink camelia, shrubs and heathers and the third is gravelled and has some shrubs including pieress, forest flame and hostas. Above right is a picture of my house in Ayr, although you can’t see much of the garden.

Memories - 2000’s

Sam was ill at the end of 2000. He was in hospital at Christmas and some days didn’t recognise anyone. He had scans and an op, but he had lost 35lbs and took a while to put some weight back on. He had problems with his blood and thyroid, having to take lots of medication. He took ill again, in September 2003, while I was on holiday in Ireland; he had terrible nosebleeds as the Warfarin wasn’t working propperly to prevent the thinning of his blood. He had a stroke on 8th November and died next day.

In 2004, Merle, Robert, Ewan, Neil, Thelma and I went to London on holiday. While we were there, the underground had a strike. We were lucky. The mainline railway was just as near so we could get into the City. Robert took the boys to the ‘London Eye’ and Museums, while we went shopping. We had a packed lunch and sat on a pavement bench to eat it and ‘watch the World go by.’

We met up with Jacqueline and her family, Cindy and her family, plus Grant. We went to Hyde Park for a Picnic and we got absolutely soaked in a massive thunderstorm. We sailed down the Thames and did the open topped bus tour, where I left my sunglasses on the bus and as I went to retrieve them the bus left again with me on it. The boys thought this was hilarius. Luckily, I could get off accross the square. A really good week.

Ewan moved from Forehill Primary to Kyle Academy in 2004. The school is quite near me and if I make what he calls ‘nice soup’, that being anything but lentil or broth, he comes round for lunch.

Ewan and some of his pals joined Ayrshire Voices, a choir made up of local children and teenagers, in 2005. They practice once a week and have performances throughout the year, usually in the Town Hall. The last concert they did was for Chistmas and was very good. I think he will be a politician as he loves to talk in front of an audience with his hands in his pockets! Since 2007, Ewan has also been a member of the Kyle Mock Trial team. They have competitions with other local secondary schools and are doing well. Ewan is also currently learning Spanish.

Neil went up to Kyle Academy in 2007. Like Ewan, he enjoys computing and tried to teach me PowerPoint! I went to a PowerPoint presentation by Neil’s class on ‘Medieval Scotland’ last year which was very professionally done. Neil enjoys swimming and, like Ewan, attends the Boys Brigade.

Robert works as a Clinical Psychologist for Ayrshire and Arran. He also likes going walking when he can, although the boys call his walks ‘long, boring walks’. Merle is studying with the Open University and is doing web design. Like me, she enjoys learning new things about her PC.

Merle is still busy with her Open University Web courses and spends a lot of time at her laptop. She has recently completed the ECDL certificate (European Computer Driving Licence).

I am still managing to keep the garden tidy, with a little help! I bought a new greenhouse and have tomato plants in there as well as cuttings from established shrubs and seeds including Lupins, Perenial Poppies, Calendula, French Marigolds, Lobelia and Pansies... if any of them survive, it will be a miracle.

Thelma, Nan and I went down ‘memory lane’ in May. We had a great time in Dundee and surrounding area, visiiting some of the places where we spent our childhood including Tealing and Scryne. I think a lot of the past has been demolished though, unfortunately!

In 2008 I had my last holiday at the Henderson Hotel in Blackpool as, sadly, it had to close due to lack of funding.

Ewan had excellent results for his Standard Grades! He went to Italy with the school on a ski trip. The lady in the Cafe gave him a chocolate bar for trying to speak Italian to her. Neil is now in 2nd Year at Kyle and choosing his subjects for Standard Grades. The Smiths also went to France for two weeks in the Summer.

In 2009 I had a nice break at Windermere Manor, although the weather wasn’t too good. We also had our usual anual holiday in York. We also had a week in Skipton near the Leeds-Liverpool Canal. Ewan got A’s for all his Highers and intends to stay on for a 6th year before going off to university.

Both Ewan and Neil went on the school ski trip to Austria and Ewan also went to Peru for three weeks. He enjoyed this very much and learnt a lot, though he was the only one who could speak Spanish and was official interpreter.