Author: Dave Haygarth

After a few years of overseas holidays in summer and winter, we spent our first summer at home for 5 years. We headed up to Scotland – lured in part by the Commonwealth Games, and part by the year’s big purchase of a touring caravan, we had a two-point holiday over a fortnight. Continue reading “Summer Holidays 2014 in Scotland”

We chatted about it for three years, then eventually it happened. It was bound to – I nagged.

We got ourselves a caravan in the early part of the year with the aim of getting away a bit more often and a bit more easily whilst the children are still young enough. Lily’s 12 this year and has four years of family holidays left in her, going on what seems to be the average of friends about us. It was time to act.

Our first trip was on Elsie’s Birthday – 24th May. Frank had just reached the age where he could go out and meet other dogs, so we were free to go. We hit Lytham, for some beach fun. A couple of weeks later we went to the Dales to stay in Howgill in Wharfedale. THey’re just break – mini, simple breaks, but we’re really enjoying the ability to do this. The proof is in the pudding: we have a large tent, we have the ability to book B&Bs, but did neither. This is already happening – it’s working!

Some photos of our first two trips here

We took the opportunity to have what may be the last chance for a big round-a-table tea party for Elsie’s 6th Birthday. They grow up quickly and the pass-the-parcel stuff doesn’t go on indefinitely. Elsie had a lovely time – as did we all. Parents dropped off, ten classmates went nuts for two hours, ate loads, played lots, then it all subsides so quickly. A really lovely load of compacted fun.

The party was hurriedly tidied away as we rushed off to make the most of the long weekend with our first ‘test’ family caravanning trip about 2 hours later… so birthday tea was a treat of Fish n Chips by the sea in Lytham, followed by a bit of a stay-up!

Photos here on Flickr

28th April 2004, and Dave, perhaps a little distracted at work, decides to start a blog.

“Minnellium” is a word I’d started to use for a music project back in 1999, as I’d worked on a Millennium Commission-funded project and numerous times people had got tongue-twisted and it made me smile, for some reason.

Initially, this was on Google’s Blogger platform, but I got interested in WordPress (an interest that 3 years later would lead me to a career-change) and I wanted the ‘ownership’ of something on my domain, so moved it from its old “blogspot” address to minnellium.com in 2005.

I’m definitely an uncomfortable and inconsistent blogger. Not an avid writer, just someone who enjoys writing when the mood takes me. In recent years it has definitely become more a diary than a source of opinion or reportage. If anything, the ebbing and flowing of what minnellium.com is / was / will be is its constant.  If I was being grandiose about it, I could imply some tie-in with my ebbing and flowing life since April 2004. It’s been a busy ten years.

… but I think the ebbing and flowing of minnellium.com is not necessarily tied in with an ebbing and flowing life.. it’s just that sometimes I can be bothered to write, sometimes I can make the time to write, and other times, I just can’t.

It’s tempting to pick highlights. That’s going to be tough… and there are too many risks of missing some bits, so here’s a few random posts…. picked to show the diversity, I guess.  A few words as to why I picked them

• The unlikely adrenaline hub of the world: Rossendale, Lancashire
  Life was changed. They built some amazing trails within a ride of my house, the weather was dry, and my interest in mountainbiking was dramatically rekindled
• Elsie is Born
  The blog ‘missed’ the birth of my first daughter in 2002. It was lovely to have my own personal media-frenzy when our second daughter was born.
• Fell Running Results
  A very simple post – just a list of the year’s results, but I do wish I’d kept a better diary of things like that – the blog has come and gone as a diary like that, I should have done better
• Kitchen – Work in progress – house extension rebuild 
  Possibly the biggest moment of stress in the last ten years. We knew when we bought our home that the extension needed ripping down and radically rebuilding. It was always on the plan. But with a three year old girl, a cold winter, and a muppet as a builder, things got pretty hard. To get the kitchen installed – even in ‘bare bones’ mode, was just a massive relief.
• A broken collarbone and 7 lug stitches
  A low, yet somehow I like looking back at that time. I had a mega crash – my first ambulance visit – a real knock to confidence – a real load of pain. But it made me stronger, definitely.
• 2009 Three Peaks Cyclocross
  The race I love the most and I reached the top ten at long last – I was, and still am, made up.
• CD: Metamusic
  The only CD I released in the life of this blog. I spent a load of time on creating 5 CDs worth of music in the late 90s and early noughties. I learnt a whole lot about music including the very important lesson that I do not have the time, talent or mental discipline to do it properly, but I do enjoy it whenever I get the chance to!

There’s more … there’s always more. Have a look