Website Updating - PHEW!

Well after what has turned out to be 2 hours sitting in front of my laptop, I finally got the new forum PHPBB software up and running. However I had installed some 'mods' which alter the appearance of the forum, but these have been lost in the update, therefore I am now trying to update those as I type.

On another matter, my Sky+ HD has lost part of it's signal and is basically just a Sky box, as it can only record one channel, and you have to watch that channel it is recording. Claire phoned the engineers who we have our warranty with and they were due to call us back to arrange a time to come out. Still waiting - typical! The firm we use are pretty useless!

Right, back to the forum update.

Website Updating - GRRRR

Whenever I have some free time I do some website design/maintenance for the ice hockey team I support - Fife Flyers - today I decided I needed to update the forum software as some people have been having issues with it, so I am in the process of doing that. Annoyingly however, my website host appears to be a Windows server therefore it is making things really difficult and what was supposed to be a quick job has turned in to a very annoying process and I am now tearing my hair out.

For anyone who is interested the website I am responsible for can be found here:

I'm back!

Well it's official, blogging ScubaSteve is back. Claire has been pestering me, since she started blogging again, for me to start up again. So I thought I might try and see if I get the urge to keep going.

Since this is my first post since the big arrival, I thought I would post a picture of my wee man. Here he is - John Connor William McLean.

Who's the Daddy? :D

Well I will be, come August 14th 2010. Claire and I are going to be having a little baby McLean, sex will be confirmed on birth - I will wait until that day!

We have been for 3 scans now in Perth, and had our NHS one back in January. We have our 20 week scan with the NHS on Wednesday (31st March).

It is so exciting. Any time I go in to a shop I am now looking at baby clothes, instead of DVDs; XBox 360 games; gadgets. Well, I still am looking at those, but I am getting as much excitement looking at the baby clothes as I am with the other stuff.

:D :D :D :D :D :D

Merry Christmas!

Hi folks, I thought I would put a 'wee' blog up here for Christmas, I haven't blogged since I was in Texas - that seems like such a long time ago now.

It is that time of year when children get ridiculous hyper in school and the shopping centres are even more ridiculously crowded, and don't get me started on supermarkets. People at this

time of the year become so obnoxious and think they are the most important person in the world and you had better get out of their way otherwise you are getting knocked to the floor.

I don't remember the last time I had a white Christmas - a proper white Christmas - and every year I try not to get my hopes up, but I can't help but just wish that each year, this will be the year. The weather forecast this week has shown lots of snow, so to say I am getting excited/hopeful is a bit of an understatement.

I have been writing letters to Santa with 2 of my classes this week at school. It took me back to the day when I used to write my own letter to Santa each year, and then I remember burning it in a fire and being told that once it goes out the top of the chimney it finds its way to Lapland for Santa - children can be so gullible.

At home, Claire has once again made a wonderful job of our Christmas tree this year. My job when it comes to the Christmas tree - go up the loft to get everything down and then watch Claire do a wonderful job :) and try and keep Kaiya out of the way from chewing any of the Christmas decorations.

Come Christmas day - let the travelling commence. Claire and I get up really early (I am still a big child) then once we have opened our gifts that are at our own house, we head down to our parents for more gifts :) Normally we have several journeys to make, but this year it isn't too bad. This year we are having Christmas dinner with my mum, dad and sister - looking forward to brussell sprouts, yummy. But by then all I am looking forward to is getting back to my own home so I can snuggle up with my ladies, Claire, Ruby & Kaiya :D

Well, it's the weekend! Today I was doing my Scottish lesson for the 1st through 5th grade classes at Heritage Elementary School today.

I hope the kids learnt some new things about Scotland, and I think I dispelled some myths too.

I had my kilt on, only the 2nd time I have worn it (the other time being my wedding), to try and give them a little taste of Scotland and to see how many children asked "Why are you wearing a skirt?" :D

I had quite a lot of things I wanted to tell the kids, from why we have the Scottish Saltire as our national flag and the origins of it's beginning, to how old the Forth Rail Bridge is, to the history of Linlithgow Palace/Edinburgh Castle/Stirling Caslte/Wallace Monument. I also shared the ingredients of the haggis, and of course no one found it appetising - but who would think it sounds appetising. I assured both students and staff that it does taste nice.

I had given the children the opportunity to ask me some questions, and without a doubt the best question I got was - "Do you have TV's and computers in Scotland?" - my answer was "Yes, and laptops and electricity and lights and running water". My sarcasm came bursting out at that point.

We spoke about kilts and tartans and I have asked the kids to design their own tartan for me. I have given them a design template to use and I am looking forward to seeing some of the final designs. I also gave the children a web site to find out if they had their very own tartan already and they were very keen to try and find out to see if they had a tartan.

Tonight I am going to watch the Texas Brahams play Amarillo Gorillas. Both teams play in the CHL (Central Hockey League), I am really looking forward to it.

Saturday is going to be a busy day, but I will post that later. I better go just now as I have probably written too much and if your reading this, will be thinking when is it going to end. :D

So my 2nd full day at Heritage Elementary School is done. I spent the day with Mrs Bolles 5th grade class. The students were keen to ask questions, just to listen to me talk, it was so funny. It was like when I was at uni and asking Laura (the Geordie to speak) stuff just to listen to her.

The class had their specialist time 1st thing, and whilst they were doing that I was getting ready for my lesson I am doing with all the classes.

Once they came back they were doing Maths, Writing, Science. The 4th and 5th grade classes are taking part in a scheme called the Snowball. It is when they write a letter to children who have lost a parent to the war in Iraq. Their are 2000 children visiting Texas and each of those children will get a letter from a student in Texas for every night they stay over in Texas. They go to lots of different places in Texas whilst they are over here in December for 5 days. It is a really great idea and the kids really enjoy it.

Right, it's just a short one today folks so bye for now.