Happy Halloween

Considering that it's a lovely night, it has been a very quiet evening .
So far, only 4 people have been to the door (four very bad jokes) and only a few fireworks.
It's not even that they are not coming down the cul de sac, there seems to be no noise out there at all. Having said that, Ciaran didn't want to go out either so he decided to stay in and help with the sweets. We also watched the "Frighteners" - about the only scary film I have that he can safely watch.

Happy Halloween to all the monsters and witches I know.

Whitelee Windfarm

It was a beautiful day today so we headed out to the Whitelee Windfarm. It seems like everyone else in the EK area had the same idea also, so it was a bit of a challenge actually getting onto the site. Once on the site there is plenty of room - the place is massive - over 140 turbines and 90km of trails for walking and cycling. Its a clever idea to make the grounds into a park it both allows people to get up and close to the turbines and opens up what was moorland and commercial woodland.
The visitor centre is run by the same crowd that do the Glasgow Science Centre. There was plenty of info on the environmental aspects and the generation of electricity from wind, but not a huge amount on the mechanical aspects of these turbines.

The bit that is hard to appreciate is the immense size of these turbines. Yes, you can see them for miles, turning slowly in the breeze. And I had been up close to them before on Myre's Hill where we have our turbine lab (I'll need to check will Ali just where on the Whitelee's map Myre's Hill fits in). But you cannot appreciate just how big or powerful these things are until you stand under one when the wind is blowing.
The two pictures here show the same turbine, which is number 40 from the map. On the first one you can just make out the green shed at the base of the turbine, while on the second pic you can see it compared to my Dad.
Once the site quiets down Ciaran and I will have to take the bikes out and cycle some of the paths...

Birthday party

It was Ciaran's birthday party yesterday.
His grandparents were over since Tuesday night and he had a few friends around for a small party during the day and then we went out for dinner down to Troon's Jade Dragon.
Sounds simple?
My folks booked their flights ages ago, got a good deal but their weekends mixed up and with the school holiday wouldn't see Ciaran at all. But then they were supposed to be at a retirement party so the may have to come back early if they could get the flights. But then the ex had to work and change our arrangements. Perfect. Now my folks get to see Ciaran. But since they can't get the flights changed they may have to attend the retirement party. So they might not make their planned trip anyway.
So, for Ciaran I thought an xbox party would be a good idea. Until the console died the week before the party. Out of warrently but Game were willing to have it fixed under the sale of goods act free of charge. It was only collected on tuesday so the chances of it being back by saturday were slim. Sunday night and my mum confirmed tht they would be coming over for the week as originally intended.
By now of course there are no tickets left to book for the 'The Jacobite' the Harry Potter steam train run from Fort Wiliam to Mallaig but maybe some available on the day. With no xbox I thought we could all do the train run (but not the steam train as it finished for the season) and looked at prices for that.
Tuesday and Ciaran and I agreed that perhaps the xbox was nt happening and what other options were there. Bowling was considered. Ciaran would get me four names by wednesday
By wednesday I had a replacement xbox from Jim who would bring his in on thursday and the train run was put on hold. I never got the names though, but as the xbox waas back on it wasn't an issue. On thursday Jim was late in and forgot the xbox but would bring it friday, if I would come in for it. Ciaran called and confirmed 5 names which with him and me would be too many for the car to take safely, but we now had an xbox so that was ok.
Friday i went in and got the xbox then bought munchies for the party. Friday night telephoned the guys to confirm attendence and duration.
Saturday was cool. 4 guys showed upa nd they xboxed for a while , ate for a while and then played with Ciaran's soldiers for a while before heading home again. Almost like a quiet cub's night.

Once everyone was gone and everything was cleaned up we headed down to the jade Palace for dinner. As ever very good, but almost too much to eat, and that was with Ciaran picking from the platters.

Penne Pollo a la Ciaran

Ciaran made his penne pollo a la Ciaran tonight.
Basically its seasoned chicken mixed with peppers and corn in a creamy sauce served with penne pasta. The secret is in the seasoning whcih included crushed red and yellow chilli peppers, garlic, black and red peppercorn, oregano and basil. the sauce is Cambells (now knorr) condensed chicked soup. It has to be server with penne so that the sauce can get into the inside of the pasta