Rick and Reuben arrived on Sunday after church. Reuben helped me in the garden and then we went down to the front of Carrick again where the Charity Fair was still running.
Thanks to Bill Allen for the jousting picture.

Saturday morning I went and played nine holes of golf in Royal Bentra with Rick.

He had to be back for half twelve to take part in a longboat race at The Carrickfergus Charity Fair. The Fire Service had entered a team.

Big day out with medieval jousting on the castle green as well as lots of activity around the harbour. All the emergency services were there with fire engines ambulances and a helicopter.

This is the police water cannon, (not required!)

On Thursday afternoon I went up to "New Horizons" and heard Michael Green from the London School of Contemporary Christianity on Thursday night. Stayed overnight and heard John Lennox speaking on Daniel at the Bible reading on Friday morning. Had to come back on Friday afternoon.

Thought I would bring you up to speed with Dave and Stacey's family.This is Caleb Learning to play Snap!"

"This is Grace having a conversation with you.

And this is the attack of the killer poodle!

Friday was my day off. Played Royal Bentra with Robin and Rick. Robin spent so much time in the bunkers we should have gone to the West Strand at Portstewart instead!

Reuben enjoyed the Wii.

Fred and Linda came on Friday night with Sharon and Doug.
Doug is visiting from America and so we took him to Andrew Jackson's cottage and Jonathan Swift's place at Kilroot.



Then we dropped in to see "The Tempest" on the "Shakespeare in the Park" night in Carrick.

Gourmet night

Every so often we have a night in our family which we rather pretentiously call "Gourmet Night"!
We spend the afternoon cooking something which we have never cooked before, Rick and I usually do one course and Lilian and Katie do another.





We usually make a day of it, and so when Rick, Katie and Reuben arrived we put up the play tent in the garden, basically to stop Reuben, "helping" me in the greenhouse!
He enjoyed crawling up and down the tunnel between the tents!
Reuben in the Tunnel
We spent the afternoon making the meal.
Katie did superb starter,
"Tartlet of creamy leek and goat's cheese, balsamic syrup, crispy carrot and Parma ham"
Rick and I produced "Pan-fried Tuna with bean salad, buttered new potatoes and crispy potato shavings"
Lilian's desert was "Chocolate torte with garden raspberries and chocolate drizzle" (No picture available, it didn't last long enough!)
Now you know what I mean by pretentious!
Afterward we introduced Rick and Katie to a crazy Amish game called "Dutch Blitz" which was going well until someone in the excitement knocked a glass of water over the cards and soaked them!
We finished by playing "crockinole" in the front room. A good night.

It's the 11th July and so the bonfires get lit tonight. This huge one is just a short distance from where we live in Carrickfergus.

This is also the night that we celebrated Nicola Whyte's 40th birthday. Jackie organised a meal for about 30 of us in the Coast Road Hotel.


This is Nicola with her Birthday Cake.
Then we had Karaoke, this is Elia in fine voice!

Afterwards Jackie and Nicola did a demonstration dance!



And then the bonfires were lit at midnight.

Went to John and Rachelle's wedding in Portrush
yesterday and afterwards to the reception in Limavady.
They got a lovely warm sunny day in the middle of a wet and windy week.

Went out sailing with David Mitchell today. Blowing hard and very wet in the morning but it cleared up in the afternoon. Nice sail.

Campbell in party mood!

Holiday Bible Club ended last night with a barbecue. Really great week. Kids very very good and the programme and organisation was excellent!

Many thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make it all happen!