Diary 2004

January

We were first-footed by Simon and Carina on their way back from the cancelled Royal Bank of Scotland Street Party. We spent New Year's Day exploring the East Lothian coastline, stopping briefly at Aberlady before seeking refuge from the cold in a Gullane pub. We later braved the weather to have a picnic at Dirleton.

We had to dash to the emergency surgery (thanks for the lift Erica) after Emily cut her head while running at break-neck speed. Fortunately the wound required nothing more serious than a Steristrip. Em's bravery was rewarded with Smarties.

Keen to squeeze in a few nights out before the sleepless nights began, we saw The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen at the Brunton Theatre. A nice night out but the film was a bit rubbish.

Nigel started a new job at BT Exact Hadrian Security Solutions. His first task has been building and testing Jumpstart servers for Hadrian to build \ Solaris and Nokia firewalls. Jan runs a mile (well waddles) every time Solaris or Jumpstart is mentioned.

February

Lucy came into the world at 10.01 a.m. on Friday 6th February weighing 7lb 11oz. She arrived by planned C-Section (or Jumpstart as it is also known) and we were all back home on Sunday.

A huge thank you to all the staff at the Simpson Centre. Loads of photos can be seen here

After becoming a big sister, Emily seemed to grow overnight and the majority of February was spent gazing at our wonderful two girls.
We took our first family trip out when Lucy was 8 days old. It was only to Musselburgh but we were excited and, in true Barker family style, all four of us crammed into the photobooth at Woolies.

Jan's Aunt Doreen and Uncle Paul came to meet Lucy on a detour from their trip to Edinburgh.

Emily really enjoyed the two birthday parties she went to in February.

We explored Ruthven Lane, our favourite part of Glasgow, just off Byres Road exploring the retro shops.

Rachel and Peter came to visit and we took a trip to Burns's Yard - a favourite haunt of Peter's whenever he's up.

March

At the beginning of the month we were astonished to learn that Lucy weighed 9lb 6oz and pleased that Emily passed her sight test with flying colours.

As a keen user of the CBeebies site Emily decided to write some documentation and produced some very commendable 'Pr's on paper as a reminder not to take the print option.

Bill and Brenda paid us a visit as did Laura and Kev.

Lucy had her 6-week review and took her first trip across the boarder when we went on the 40 minute train journey to Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Lucy met up with fellow cutie pie, Molly and the babies slept soundly as Jan, Nicola, Pam and Cathy held the inaugural meeting of the Ladies Whae Lunch Club.

April

We spent Easter in North Wales with Bill and Brenda having travelled in style with VirginTrains, passing lovely West Coast countryside. Lucy met Uncle Simon and Auntie Carina for the first time and we had our first night out since January thanks to Grandma Brenda volunteering to babysit. We had such a good time that we went out again the following night, this time with Andrew, Simon and Carina when we went to The Griffin to meet up with Bill.

April saw the start of Lucy's innoculations and she and Jan took part in a breastfeeding workshop so mums to be could see how breastfeeding works in real life.

Nigel and Emily went to see the Happy Gang at the Brunton Theatre.

Jan went on an induction course as part of her involvement in a local community archaeology project.

May

May kicked off with a trip to the Festival Theatre to see Derren Brown - thanks to Laura & Kev and Fay & Allan for babysitting of Lucy and Emily respectively. It was a great night out and a fitting end to Jan's maternity leave.

Rachel and Peter came to visit us/Burns's Yard.

We went with Julie to see "Wee Witches" at Brunton Theatre having first had lunch at Lanna Thai.

We enjoyed a very pleasant meal at the Kilspindie House Hotel, Aberlady.

We visited Sadie & David in North Berwick for the occasion of Alex's 4th birthday.

Nigel gave blood for the second time!

We were at Prestongrange again but this time to hear Donnie Henderson Shedlarz tell stories.

Edith and Alan dropped in en route to their annual pilgrimage up north.

June

Lucy had the last of her innoculations.

Nursery finished up for the summer holidays.

We took advantage of Shelter's "Architect in the House week" and discovered to our enormous surprise that our residence is beyond help and that the only thing we can realistically do to stop bursting at the seams is to either move into the garden shed or the really drastic alternative...lose weight.

July

We had a fun and muddy day at the Haddington Show - favourite bits were Tricky Ricky and the face painting.

We celebrated Emily's 4th birthday with a trip to the zoo. The weather was lovely and we all had a fab day out.

The long-awaited "Cans in the Pans 2 - Prestonpandemonium" took place. It was erm...quite different from the previous year's event in that there were more kids than adults and it was very rainy. Nigel's MP3 jukebox worked a treat and Ikea's daim almondy cake was a big hit.

Nigel and the girls met up with Sadie, David and Alex and spent a pleasant day in Princes Street Gardens while Jan was digging a test pit.

August

The blisters had barely begun to heal when the Prestongrange Community Archaeology Project started back with earnest.

Lucy had her first taste of solid food.

We went to the opening of the Musselburgh Doll Museum. Nice museum, fantastic old church.

To celebrate Nigel turning 37(!) we spent a pleasant rainy day at Portobello and later had a rare night out at the Gothenburg where a Lorca evening was being held as part of the "Pans Fringe". We really enjoyed the play and the food was excellent.

We continued to have fun the following day when we all went to see the Falkirk Wheel and the Scottish Boat Show.

On one of our walks along the East Lothian shoreline we discovered the Levenhall Boating Lake - a real find and definitely a place to have a barbecue on a future occasion.

The highlight of Fringe Sunday was the face painting and the scrumptious food at the Brazilian Experience.

Emily was glad to be back at nursery.

It was nice to see Simon and Carina and we had just enough time to visit Hailes Castle before they were on the road again.

ELCAP's Fun Day at Port Seton lived up to its name and we enjoyed the story-telling session, badge making and bouncy castle.

As Nigel was turning up to work he saw his best friend from school in reception. It turned out that Simon Greenwood had joined BT Syntegra that week and is contracted there till March.

September

On 2nd September we became uncle and aunt when Rachel and Peter's daughter Lauren Darcy was born!!!
We had to wait a whole 8 days to visit her in Ripon but she was sooooo worth the wait.

We had to tear ourselves away to continue our journey to York where we stayed at the Hollies. We picked the busiest day of the year to visit Doncaster but we weren't interested in The Leger - no we were on a shopping mission and really enjoyed looking around and seeing how much it has changed. After fab fish, chips & mushy peas in the market we visited Jan's relatives in Armthorpe.

After a pleasant two days in North Yorkshire we headed back north, stopping at Newcastle where we stayed at JurysDoyle. We stayed rather longer in the hotel than expected when the lift broke down. Luckily we were rescued after 25 minutes and had enough time to visit the truly excellent Life Science Centre. We had just enough time to do some more shopping before the heavens opened and we were making our journey home.

The long-awaited Dictionary of National Biography was published this month and included the biography of John Rattray, which Jan co-wrote with Colin Strachan.

We explored our easterly neighbours Cockenzie and Port Seton.

October

Much of this month seemed to be occupied with our (unoccupied) London house. We decided to upgrade the bathroom and kitchen and big thanks are due to Bill, Brenda, Homebase, Sergei and PropertyLink for mucking in.

Our cat Maisie went missing for a few days and reappeared sporting horrible injuries. She is now on the road to recovery.

We enjoyed our visit to the Scotland Street School Museum in Glasgow.

Emily continues to have a better social life than us and enjoyed two birthday parties this month.

We enjoyed a Smuddlin' good lunch in Pencaitland with Julie and Stewart and their
boys Jamie and David.

Lucy's 8-month review identified a 'clicky' hip but otherwise was in fine fettle.

Emily really enjoyed Halloween - thanks Grandma Edith and Alan for the goodies - and we were pleased to be visited by several "guisers".

November

We attempted to stay up to watch the US Presidential race but fell asleep - just as well really.

We attended a meeting to show our support for a quality, imaginative play facilities in the area - watch this space.

We charity-shopped till we dropped in North Berwick.

We were hugely relieved to be told by Mr Macnicol, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, that Lucy's hips are fine.

We celebrated Diwali. Thanks Lucy for donating hundreds of empty baby food jars in which we placed tealights.

We paid a brief visit to Longniddry and the Longniddry Inn.

We were thrilled to see Rachel, Peter and Lauren and had a lovely trip across the forth to Aberdour. It was a really pleasant day, despite the biting cold and we lunched at the really cool Swell Cafe on the Silver Sands.

Nigel gave blood again so he was allowed to go to the Comic Mart at Henry Wood Hall on Glasgow.

Jan celebrated being halfway to 70 and the following day we all celebrated St Andrew's Day with Simon Greenwood, Laura, Kev and Julie, and a vegetarian haggis.

December

Beauty and the Beast, which was staged at the community centre, was a big hit with Emily and Lucy.

We enjoyed the Gothenburg's arts and crafts event and the art exhibition.

The torchlight parade and carol singing which marked the official switching on of the Prestonpans Christmas lights was fun and Emily was pleased to meet Santa. Emily met Santa again at her nursery party.

Lucy began taking her first faltering steps this month so was rewarded with a pair of pre-walkers from Masons in North Berwick. Emily also got some lovely Christmassy red shoes there and we all had a lovely lunch at Poonthais in Westgate.

We enjoyed a day out exploring our county town of Haddington.

We had a lovely Christmas and spent a lovely Christmas morning with our two (very excited) girls opening mountains of presents. We were visited later that morning by Laura and Kev. Nigel made a smashing Christmas lunch.

We were delighted that the entire Wrexham branch of the family (including Penny the dog) were able to visit us shortly after Christmas.

We opted for a quiet Hogmanay and would have slept through the bells completely had it not been for local fireworks going off.