Packed at last!

Well at last I have managed to do my packing. Everything that was on the spare bed (plus quite a few extras!) 

Gathering things together

All ready to pack

is now in my suitcase or hand luggage. 

A job well done

I have checked it all against the final list (twice) as I don't want to be the one who forgets something and gets a fine.

What a sense of achievement I feel...and both are within the weight limits as well!! I hope everyone else has reached this stage by now.

Now I can sit with a gin and tonic (practice for Morning Class you understand) and relax whilst I await delivery of my pre-tour supper of fish and chips (an athletes meal if ever there was one) to arrive.

About 18 hours to departure - 1 more sleep - and then it will be all systems GO.

Edible Good Luck

Just thought I would show you a picture of the Good Luck cake that Fiona received from Lisa Davie, a fellow curler. 

Thanks very much Lisa - your Good Luck wishes are much appreciated and I hope you enjoy eating it Fiona! 

If all our team stones are as well placed as these at the end of an end (with not a Swedish stone in sight) we will de doing well.

It is now less than 24 hours now before we all meet up at the airport.....I must get my case packed today.... I can't put it off any longer... Hoping everything fits in and I'm under the weight allowance.

Thank you to our sponsors and supporters

With less than 54 hours to go before we leave for Sweden we must not forget to give a very big THANK YOU to all our supporters and sponsors who have helped whilst we have prepared for this tour. 

In, roughly, alphabetical order we would like to thank:

Ara, who made and supplied the boots we bought, and who also donated a cash sum to be used towards the purchase of gifts for our hosts. This has been done with the acquisition of tartan scarves and quaichs.

Cellfield and Kip McGrath, based in Scion House on the Stirling Innovation Park, and Dunblane New Golf Club for the use of their facilities for our meetings. Both these venues offered a central location and plenty of room for 16 ladies and various amounts of gear to plan, discuss, show and try on clothing. In addition we could practice singing loudly and enthusiastically without disturbing anyone!!

Rhona, on behalf of D & R Johnston, for identifying and sourcing the cosy boots we all purchased to keep the cold of Sweden away from our feet.

Fiona for introducing us to a Personal Shopper who was able to help us with the selection of the last few items of clothing. A fresh pair of eyes was just what was needed.

Glengoyne distillery for providing a goodly number of miniatures to be presented to the people we meet during the tour.

Jan, on behalf of Stuart's of Buckhaven, for the donation of freshly made shortbread to be used as gifts.

Thank you all for your generosity and support it is greatly appreciated by all the ladies on the tour.

Who's who on the Sweden tour

Team 1

Margaret Robertson (Vice Captain) - Ayton Castle CC

I am married to John, a farmer. We farm near Berwick-upon-Tweed. We have two children and four grandchildren, who take up a lot of my time! I am hands on at harvest time as John and I run the farm ourselves. I have curled for over 40 years being introduced to the sport by my parents. My other sporting interest is outdoor green bowling which is played during the summer therefore keeping me busy all year! I am so looking forward to touring Sweden playing the sport we all love.

Sandra Renton - Pentland Ladies CC

I live in a lovely suburb of Edinburgh called Balerno, which lies at the bottom of the Pentland Hills and makes for some lovely walking.  I have two grown-up sons and two grandsons and a grand-daughter. I began curling in 1995 when I finished working and I now play in two Edinburgh clubs.  My other hobbies are playing bridge and walking and I am also usually to be found in the kitchen of my local Church making scones for the coffee shop on a Friday morning. I have enjoyed travelling to many parts of the world and am really looking forward to meeting and curling with different people and visiting some more new places.

Morag Wellman - Fossoway Ladies CC

I am married to Frank, and we are both retired.  We have one son, Iain, who has just graduated from University and started his first job as a Chemist. We now live near Loch Leven, the home of curling, where I enjoy curling, gardening walking and singing in a local choir. I started curling in 1998 and have just completed two years as President of our district. I am also a Coach and enjoy helping young people to learn our sport. I enjoy travelling and am looking forward to visiting Sweden.

Val Saville - Doune CC

I was born and educated in England and worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 10 years before moving up to Scotland with my partner Phil. After a further 10 years in the same industry I left and started to work part time in my local golf club. I was inspired to take up curing after watching Rhona Martin’s team win the gold medal for Great Britain at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. I have been the Secretary of Doune Curling Club for the last 4 years.  My non-curling hobbies include playing golf (handicap 10), hill walking (I have climbed over half the Munro’s in Scotland), playing bridge, handbell ringing and photography.

Team 2

Linsey Alison (Treasurer) - Doune CC

Originally from Aberdeen, I met my husband Calum while we were both studying in Edinburgh.

Having travelled together twice round the world we eventually settled in the village of Doune in central Scotland 15 years ago. My curling career started soon after when we joined the small local curling club and has led to playing in Germany and Iceland as well as Scotland. It is a fantastic way to meet people. I work close by in a dental practice and love outdoor activities especially skiing, walking and wildlife. I continue to enjoy visiting new places and, when at home, gardening and cooking.

Corrie Lawrence (Captain) - Beresford Ladies CC

I retired 5 five years ago after 35 years as a teacher of Guidance and English in Ayrshire. I have curled for over 20 years as has my husband, Euan, who has his own architects practice. I have two grown up sons, Andrew and David, and two baby granddaughters, Bonnie and Betsy, who live in Brighton. I love curling, golf, cooking and socialising with friends.

Nina Clancy - St Boswells CC

I am CEO for RSABI, the Scottish land based charity. The charity is charged with helping those who have worked on the land in Scotland and fallen on hard times. I have only recently taken up the post. My partner Stuart and I run a beef and sheep farm at Eildon Mains near Melrose. I am a director and the Ladies Vice President of Border Ice Rink which specialises in curling.  As well as curling, I enjoy golf, food, wine and the odd wee dram!

Lynne Page - Raith & Abbotshall CC

I am a Property owner and Developer living in Kirkcaldy the home town of famous economist Adam Smith. My hobbies are curling, water/snow skiing, pilates and world travelling. I am married to Ron who is a Lecturer at Carnegie College teaching construction. We are lucky to have two wonderful sons Michael, 24, who is a draftsman in the gas and oil industry and Steven, 21, who is a Sports Coach.  We are Guide Dog puppy walkers and currently home Ember a cute black Labrador, she is our 7th puppy!

Team 3

Jennifer Kubrycht - Hercules Ladies CC

I am aged 63 and live in the beautiful fishing village of Pittenweem only 10 miles from St. Andrews. I stayed at home and raised my son and daughter. I now have 4 granddaughters, they are the sunshine in my life. At the age of 40 I retrained as a beauty therapist and since then have run my own salon. I really love my work, everyday is different. I meet so many interesting people. Curling has been a passion for nearly 30 years and I hope for many more fun times on the ice. Others hobbies include pilates, which I think keeps me supple for my curling. I have recently taken up golf again, more practice needed!

Fiona Macdiarmid - Falkirk Ladies CC

My passion is education, a field I have worked in for over 30 years.  I was a teacher and Headteacher in Glasgow.  I now own two education businesses in Stirling. I am kept busy with my husband, our house, and curling.  I am a member of Falkirk Ladies Curling Club and will take over the Presidency of the club in 2014. I also enjoy walking, dance, music and cooking.  

Walter and I enjoy travel and particularly enjoy cruising. We cruised around Norway this summer and I am pleased to be adding Sweden to this year’s travel itinerary.

Lorna Alexander - Ayr CC

I am married to Ronald an architect, and I work alongside him as his secretary/book keeper/diary keeper. We are both involved in horse trials both in Britain, Eastern Europe and  South Africa - Ronald designs the cross country courses and I use radios to control the cross country while the horses are competing.  I have 2 sons  both married, one with a daughter aged 3 in London and the other with a son aged 1½ in Tokyo, Japan. I also have an unmarried daughter who is a makeup artist living in London. My hobbies are curling, golf, gardening and cooking.

Liz Cullen - Earlston CC

I live in Earlston in Scottish Borders with my husband Jim, a solicitor. We have four children and two grandchildren. I was Principal Teacher, Support for Learning until I retired and am now the Borders Curling Development Officer. Apart from curling and babysitting I enjoy reading, going to concerts and knitting.

Team 4 

Jan Stuart - Hercules Ladies CC

I live in Leven with my husband Alan and Bichon Frise dog ‘Cookie’.  Married for 34 years we have two sons: Keith and Mark. Keith and his wife Lynsey gave us a beautiful grand-daughter, Sofia, whilst Mark married Katie in December 2012. Alan and I work in our family business - a Bakery and Butchery - which has been in the family for 156 years.  Keith will be the sixth generation. My hobbies are curling, singing (I have been a member of the local musical association for 37 years), walking and cooking. I am also involved with a puppet theatre for children at my local church. I have been curling for 25 years and a member of Hercules Ladies Curling Club - the oldest ladies club in the world.

Rhona Johnston - Muthill CC

 I live in Central Scotland near to the world famous 5 star Gleneagles Hotel - venue for the Ryder Cup 2014. I have been married to Douglas for 50 years and I have two daughters and five grandchildren. Douglas is a retired farmer and we had two shops in Auchterarder - a fashion shop and a shoe shop. Our two daughters now manage the shoe shop but I am still involved with the paperwork! My hobbies are curling, golf, bridge, swimming and holidays whenever possible! 

Lillias Hyslop (Secretary) - Coulter CC

I live with my husband John on a beef and sheep farm near the town of Biggar in South Lanarkshire. I have three grown up children, Lorna 28, is a primary teacher, Claire 26, is a pharmacist and John 24  works with his dad on the farm. Both my husband and I curl with Coulter CC. This is our local mixed club and I have had the pleasure of being secretary for the last 5 years with no end in sight! I also curl with Upperward Ladies and both these clubs play at Hamilton Ice Rink. During the summer when the curling is finished I can be found on the golf course.

Gill Smith - Strathendrick CC

I was born and brought up in London and moved to Newcastle-upon-Tyne to go to University followed by qualification as an accountant.  I moved to Scotland 33 years ago and now live in the Stirlingshire countryside.  I have been married to Peter for 40 years. I started curling nearly 30 years ago and play with Strathendrick Curling Club and also do some umpiring (mainly time clocks). My other interests are cross-country ski-ing (in Norway), walking, history, natural history and going to the theatre and ballet.

Where do we come from?

From the last post you will have an idea of what we will be doing when we are in Sweden but you probably have no idea who we are and where we come from (unless you have found this blog site via the RCCC website that is). Hopefully this post will help with that.

We are 16 ladies from across Scotland. We come from the west coast and the east coast and all areas in between as can be seen from the map below.

Where we all come from

We play for lots of different curling clubs:
Margaret - Ayton Castle
Sandra - Pentlandite Ladies
Morag - Fossoway Ladies
Val and Linsey - Doune
Corrie - Beresford Ladies
Nina - St Boswells
Lynne - Raith & Abbotshall
Jennifer and Jan - Hercules Ladies
Fiona - Falkirk Ladies
Lorna - Ayr
Liz -Earlston
Rhona - Muthill
Lillias - Coulter
Gill - Strathendrick

One of the main aims of the tour is for ladies to 'mix and match' both on the ice and off it. We are all looking forward to curling with ladies we would not normally curl with and getting to know each other better throughout the trip whether that be on the plane, the coach, over food and drinks or whilst sharing a room. Who knows what new teams and friendships will come out of this tour.

That's it for today. More to follow in another few days.

PS only 10 days before departure.....

15 days to departure - but where are we going?

Since it is now only 15 days before we depart for Sweden I thought I should publish a blog about our schedule - where we are going and when we will be there.

We leave Edinburgh airport on Friday 1st November. We will be catching the afternoon flight to Amsterdam from where we will travel on to Stockholm arriving in the early evening. 

If anyone is thinking of coming to wave us off please be there at 10.30am otherwise we might have gone through passport control and into the Duty Free shop!

Upon arrival in Stockholm we will be met by our coach and transported to Uppsala - a journey of about an hour. Here we will book into a hotel for 2 nights and attend a Welcome Buffet.

We will have 2 games of curling on Saturday 2nd November. A couple of my curling friends have a son that lives in Uppsala so I hope he will pop along with his family to watch and cheer us all on.

Sunday 3rd November looks like a long day. We first of all travel northwards for just over an hour to Gavle where we will have lunch followed by a game of curling. We then take to the road again and head south westwards to Karlstad. This is a 4 hour plus journey but is broken up by us stopping for dinner somewhere along the way. When we reach Karlstad we will go to the homes of the Swedes who are kindly hosting us for 2 nights.

On Monday 4th November we play 2 games of curling and don't travel anywhere. This almost sounds like a rest day!

Tuesday 5th November sees us on the move again this time to Jonkoping (about a 3 hour journey roughly southwards). Once there we have lunch and a game of curling before dinner and a night in a hotel.

We start Wednesday 6th November with a game of curling in Jonkoping before having lunch and then moving on to Norrkoping (approximately 2 hours north eastwards). Here we again will be hosted by locals for 2 nights. The schedule we have received from Sweden indicates that there will be  welcome party and dinner in the Arena. This sounds like fun.

Thursday 7th November starts will a guided tour, lunch and then 2 six end games of curling before a light dinner.

On Friday 8th November we head back to Stockholm (surely our tour is not nearly over already?!). This should be around a 2 hour journey still in a north easterly direction. Then there is planned a surprise activity with dinner to follow.

Saturday 9th November sees us playing our last 2 games of curling before attending a dinner organised by the Swedish Curling Association. This will definitely be a chance for us to wear our 'posh frocks' and blazers.

We have allowed ourselves a free day on Sunday 10th November so we can get to see a bit more of Stockholm and treat ourselves to a nice meal (anyone know a good restaurant for us to go to?). 

We leave Sweden on the morning flight to Amsterdam and arrive back in Edinburgh at 4.00pm. No doubt tired but happy and hoping that the friends and family who have agreed to pick us up and take us home have not forgotten about us!

Our tour route - we go in an anti-clockwise direct form Stockholm

We've done it!!!!!

This is a special message to let our captain, Corrie,  know that 'we've done it!'.

All our tour arrangements have been discussed and agreed. We now have all the elements of the tour finalised. It has taken a lot of effort by a lot of people but we have done it.

Now we can look forward to the curling.... and the fun side of the tour...

Lillias letting Corrie know that 'we've done it!'

Now it's time to practice our entertainment.....

9th October 2013

This is my first attempt to post a blog from the 'computer' I hope to take with me on tour.

Downloading photos from a camera, uploading into Picassa, writing the blog and adding photos from the correct album are all being attempted today.

It must work because we are having our final pre-tour meeting on Sunday when we hope to be able to tick all the boxes and agree that we are ready to GO.

I know the pile of 'goodies' on the spare bed has grown over the last few months so I'm hoping I can find a suitcase to accommodate it all - that I can still lift when full!

We will have a long entertainment session on Sunday so I hope someone will remember the lubricating liquid to keep our vocal cords in shape.

The photo is nothing to do with the tour it was just on my camera in case you thought David Stirling (founder of the SAS) had anything to do with curling!

David Stirling looking towards the Southern Highlands

All has not gone well - I had to finish the post via the 'big' computer. Why did it not work? Is the picture still to big at only 350kb? Does anyone have a suggestion?

Closeup of binoculars

This was a second attempt on the 'small computer' and I can add a photo and give it a caption but can I publish it? Yes, thank goodness!!