David Meiklejohn - David Meiklejohn

I have been working at BT in Glasgow since finishing university in 1989. During this time I've been involved in projects using C, C++, Java, Oracle, UNIX, NT and VMS. I was involved in writing the system that the operators use when handling 999 calls as well as 100 and 155 calls, which was a great experience. Recently I've been working on a project which moves data about using a tool called Ab Initio.

Personal

I am a Christian, and most of my social activities are related to this. This means I spend Sundays and some of my evenings each week helping at children's bible clubs and going to meetings. I attend Gallowhill Adelphi Church in Paisley, and am involved with The Bible Centre in Inchinnan. When I have some free time I enjoy playing football, badminton, or any other sport, walking up hills, listening to music and playing computer games (I have a Wii, DS, Gamecube, DS, Jaguar, Lynx, Atari ST, Electron and ZX81).

Cate

This page is all about Cate, our daughter. She was born in December 2004, and is a constant source of amazement, joy, fun, worry and tiredness to Claire and myself.

New Arrival

Catherine Ellen Meiklejohn was brought into this world at 9:34 AM on the 3rd of December, 2004. She was not keen to join the outside world, and eventually had to be delivered by a section. She weighed 7 lb 11 oz at birth, and took the earliest opportunity to make full use of her lungs. She quietened down soon enough though, and even remained docile during the visits of various odd people she will later refer to as relatives. Mother is recovering and has been quoted as saying "Never again!".

Week 1 - In the Hospital

Claire and Cate stayed at the hospital for a few days after the birth. This was the easiest time for the father: turn up at 2, stay a few hours then home for a good sleep. We had some visitors and lots of presents. Mother recovered quite quickly, and baby did well with her feeding and not being sick everywhere.

First Days at Home

We brought Cate home on Tuesday 7th December, half expecting someone to run out of the hospital shouting "Bring that baby back". Now she's settling in at home and we're trying to get used to having her here, what with waking up every couple of hours during the night for a feed, crying for no apparent reason - and that's just me. Imagine what the baby's like! She still manages to be lovable enough for us to want to kep her around though.

5 weeks in and Cate has managed to guzzle her way to 9 lbs. She's had loads of clothes as presents, and it's not always easy to predict what will fit. Close Up

Eating and Growing

I'm amazed by how fast Cate is growing. Not just in the amount of weight she's gaining but in the progress she's making. Every week brings a new ability. She's three months old now, and she's sleeping in her own room (the Moses basket was getting a bit small for her), sleeping through the night (hooray!), making a variety of noises and she'll now hold on to something if you put it in your hands. She smiles a lot, which is encouraging, and cries quite a lot, mainly because she's tired, but too nosey to go to sleep.

We've been on a few outings: including lunch at the Coach House in Luss, and visiting Priscilla's church in Muirhead, for her baptism (hi Priscilla!). We're going to Wales in the early summer and I'm wondering how we're going to get any luggage in the car when the car-seat, pram and bouncy chair are in.

Fooood

We're started on solids now. Well, not really solids, more like runnies. Pureed apple, pear, courgette, carrot and sweet potato are all being met with an enthusiastic response. Latest skills learned are sticking out the tongue and lunging towards anything that looks bitable. We put a bumper cushion in the cot to avoid sore head type problems, with mixed results.

6 Months

Cate is 6 months old now, and Claire and I can barely remember the days when we could lie in beyond 7am. We've had our first holiday, which went pretty well. It took a couple of days for Cate to get used to the cottage but she settled in fine after that. Latest tricks learned are shaking things wildly, holding the arms out and rotating the wrists, making pterodactyl noises and being sick into her father's t-shirt pocket. She's enjoying pretty much every type of food we throw at her, and especially likes her carrots.

Commando Cate

Four months since the last update, so what's happened? Well, Cate can now crawl, though she's eschewed the standard hands and knees type of crawl for more of a commando style, belly on the floor, crawl. She can now follow us into the kitchen, and play with the fridge magnets. She also tries to crawl off the edge of the couch, so needs a bit of watching. She's desperate to walk, as well, but seems to think the way to do it is to make enormous steps each time.

Clapping is now in the repertoire, as is demolishing towers of building blocks. She has also phoned for a taxi, which doesn't bode well. We can now put her down at night without getting her to sleep first (hurrah!), but she does sometimes have a fight with Winnie first.

Finally, the favourite trip out just now is to the swing park. Oh, and she has a new wee cousin called Samuel. Much bullying expected in the future.

1 Year!

Cate is 1 year old. We had a few friends and relatives around for a party, and just so she could enjoy it a bit more she learned to walk the week before. I'd expected a couple of faltering steps and a lot of encouragement, but true to form she went from holding on to the table to wandering all over the living room in a matter of a couple of hours. She falls over quite a lot but seems to have a skull an inch thick.

This new-found freedom is revealing her character more. If I had to choose a single word it would be mischievous. If she gets into the toilet she comes out with the entire toilet roll in an Andrex puppy type of moment. She has also discovered the joys of throwing my clothes into the shower.

Speech

It's been 4 months since the last update, and Cate's been walking and running all over the place. She's run after cats, dogs and children, learned how to jump, spin round and climb the stairs. She regularly makes it most of the way down the aisle at church before Claire catches her. She also finds the leaflets at church very interesting.

All of a sudden, Cate gained an interest in her books. Now she brings them up and places them in our laps, insisting we read them to her. Once we've finished, she lifts the book up and places it back down again. This can go on until we've read the same book 7 or 8 times. She's also dead keen on the television programmes on the CBeebies channel, particularly Boogie Beebies. And so came her first real word used in context. One night she handed us the remote control. "What do you want?" we asked. "Boogies" was the plaintive reply.

The next one was even more unexpected. One day she handed me her book about what people like to eat. It has a picture of a girl (Hetty) eating spaghetti on the front. She placed the book in my lap and said "Baghetti". So now she can ask for the channel to be changed or order a meal at an Italian restaurant. Still doesn't say daddy (well not to me anyway) or mummy though. We've been teaching her lots of animal noises, too, but I wonder about the practical value of these. I can't remember the last time I used an animal noise in a conversation at work or with friends.

Adventures in the Woods

More about Cate's progress soon, but we've been going out for walks in the woods, and picking up leaves from the trees we pass. I've put together a wee page on trees from what we picked up.

Well, Cate is now 2. She's been learning words at an alarming rate, and copying the words and phrases we use without having to hear them more than once. She's coming along well with individual words, and stringing them together to make sentences as well: "See dog?", "I know! It's a window!" and our favourite "It's all right, it's just a dancing tree". She still manages to insert a whole lot of babbling in there, though, with requests such as "blabalabalaba juice".

The number of songs Cate has absorbed is amazing as well. I thought we'd have to teach her one song until she knew it well, then start on another. But she knows the tunes and some of the words to all the Boogie Beebies songs, a good few nursery type songs and some of the hymns from church as well. Shows how little I know about child development.

We had a holiday in the summer, with Irene, Colin and Sam, which was great, and we all went to junior camp this year, as well as camp reunion, and these were all a big hit. We also visited the zoo in August, which seems to have made a big impression on Cate. She sometimes mentions the zoo out of nowhere.

Cate had a good birthday, with family and friends round to visit, and we're now preparing for Christmas. She got a voucher from one of the staff at Asda the other day, for shouting "Happy Christmas" while being wheeled through the store. Better than a warning for disturbing the peace, I suppose.

Her eating habits sometimes leave a bit to be desired, but she eats very well, and sleeps well during the night. This makes up for the mad whirlwind of activity we get from her all during the day. It's going to be a fun 2007.

Big Girl Pants

Hmm, too many months since the last update. We're most of the way through the terrible twos now, and it could have been worse, I suppose. We had a few weeks of tantrums at the start of the year but it's died down now to just the occasional screaming fit. Cate is sly as a fox and will look for any opportunity to get up to mischief, immediately followed by an innocent "Are you happy, mum?".

The two big progress events were the bed and toilet training, and both went remarkably well. I took the bars off Cate's cot around April, turning it into a "big girl's bed". We tried to impress on her that she needed to stay in the bed at night, fully expecting regular visits down the stairs. Amazingly, though, she took to it straight away and stays in her room from bed time on. There are the occasional alarming bumps, but eventually we get peace and quiet until mum's bed time (about half an hour after Cate's).

The real biggie, though, was the toilet training. We waited until she was two and a half, and we had a few weeks without too many things to go to, and started on the "big girl pants". After a few poos on the floor ("not do that again") and a couple of weeks of occasional accidents (15 pairs of pants the first day) it seemed to click and there's been no problem since.

So apart from that we've been to the Sea Life Centre, sledging at xscape, Blairdrummond Safari Park, the Glasgow Art Galleries, nearly went to Turkey but went to Berwick instead and had a week of camp.

Cate got an animal book for Christmas, and loves to look at all the animals. Strangely, she's picked the dugong as her favourite. She loves going for walks to the park and going to see the horses in the field down the road: Henry and Tucker. She also continues to eat huge quantities of whatever food comes her way.

Shiny Stones

This Christmas I did my usual thing and spent practically nothing on Cate (when she was 1 I got her a cardoard box for her Christmas). She's been showing an interest in the few stones we have lying about and so I started her off on a mineral collection. Here's a page on what she's collected so far.

Nursery and Sharks

At the start of this year Cate started at nursery school. She goes for the morning each week day. Typically for her she was warned on the second day there for strangling another girl. It took her a while to settle in, with regular reports of "I was crying for you, mum" but she's now quite happy there and comes back with an assortment of things created while she was there: pictures, hats and so on. Claire is delighted with 2 and a half hours of peace each day and has been hitting the swimming pool in her newly found free time.

Cate watches a lot of TV, mostly CBeebies, but she's been getting interested in films as well, and has periods where she watches The Lion King, Ratatouille or Wallace and Gromit every day for days on end. She likes Star Wars as well, especially when R2D2 appears.

Always having had an interest in wildlife (last year's Christmas present was an animal encyclopaedia which she memorised and declared her favourite was the dugong), Cate has decided to specialise in one or two areas of the animal kingdom. Deciding on the best animal for a 3 year old girl to study is never easy: puppies, rabbits and ponies were always an option; but she's settled on sharks. We now have a number of books on the subject and she has a pretty good record on identification between whale sharks, makos, great whites, tiger sharks, basking, cookie cutter, nurse, blue, white tipped, monkfish and wobbegongs. Ever the scientist, Cate has also decided on her own method of categorisation. This is based on the answers to two vital questions relating to a shark species: can you pat it? and does it eat girls?

We had a good Christmas and New Year, and we're just past Easter. Cate sang a solo at the Easter service at church and did really well. Next up is the summer holiday: this year we've booked up a holiday in Majorca, so here's hoping for no last minute hitches this time.

"I want to be a marine biologist"

Well, we had a great holiday in Majorca and a good time at camp. After the summer Cate started at a different nursery, at Houston Primary, where she'll be going to school. She settled in very quickly this time and we're getting a steady stream of pictures and paintings home. They seem to be very organised and even have football and french lessons once a week.

For Cate's fourth birthday we thought it would be nice to take her out for the day. There's a place near Lanark called Valley International Park, which does a Christmas train ride during December, so we thought we'd try that out. It turned out to be ideal: it was snowy in Lanarkshire and the park had a real Christmassy feel. We had the train ride, followed by a trip through some darkened caves with various illuminations to Santa's grotto, where Santa spent a good 5 minutes with her. After that there was an indoor play area to keep Cate happy until it was time to leave.

The nursery put on a presentation at Christmas. The children acted out and danced to a variety of tunes, dressed up as different toys. Cate and a couple of other girls sang a couple of songs with microphones, which Cate proceeded to sigh into, much to the amusement of the parents watching.

Once we got past the winter there have been more opportunities to get outside for walks. Cate likes nothing better than to get out for a walk and "discover a bit of nature", or just hang about. We normally come back with a stick or two and get to pat the odd dog on the way.

Cate's interest in sharks continues and her preferred future career is as a marine biologist. This has replaced her previous choice of a stunt woman. With the amount of nonsense she comes out with she may even be a politician: who knows?

This year we booked a week at Disneyland Paris. We had a great time and Cate was able to practise her French on the bus drivers. The nursery is due to finish soon and after the summer it's school!

School

The day has finally come. Nursery finished in June, we had 7 weeks of summer holidays, including a little trip to Anstruther, and then it was time for school to start. On Tuesday 18th August Cate got her Houston Primary School uniform on and we took the car to the school. We had to wait outside for a while but we were eventually let in and Cate found her desk. That's it! Something between 12 and 18 years of education lie ahead before a young, educated woman emerges.

Guineas

Birthday time is coming up, and Cate has been asking for guinea pigs for most of the year. Some friends were having to give their's up, so we took them on. They're dead keen on their lettuce and carrots, and though very shy at first, they're starting to get used to us.

School seems to be going well, and Cate's now onto her second word wall. We're getting to know Floppy, Biff and friends with a new reading book each week. She's also been getting involved in other ladylike pursuits.

Primary 1

Cate's been through a whole year of school now, and what a difference! Her reading and writing are coming on, arithmetic is looking good, drawings are much better and she can make any numbers of pictures out of dry pasta if she can avoid eating it all. Yes, the appetite's still there; 5 a day is more of a starting point than a target. Her only dislikes now are raisins and jam (except for her grandpa's blackcurrant jam, which she loves).

We had a very cold winter, so had a chance to use the sledge we got last year but didn't use, and we had a few interesting experiences in the car. Christmas was a double celebration: Cate's first tooth fell out on Christmas Eve, so the Tooth Fairy and Santa visited on the same night. Since it was the first tooth out and a special day, the tooth fairy left a big silver jubilee coin. I'm sure I used to have one of those; I wonder what happened to it...

The school did both a nativity play (Cate was an angel) and an Easter bonnet parade, with various fundraisers throughout the year. The barbecue evening was fun, and Cate had a chance to find out what a hamster feels like. She's doing fairly well with her swimming, with regular visits, and has been going to weekly Tae Kwon Do classes since starting primary school.

In the summer we've had a holiday to Scarborough and a week of camp. The stabilisers have just come off the bike, so Cate's been learning to ride without them. So far we're fine if the practise area is really big, but have yet to master turning, starting and stopping. Falling off has been fully mastered though.

Primary 2

... and now we're through primary two. Landmarks this year: fairly fluent reading, swimming gradually improving, bike riding is now pretty much sorted and Cate can now tie her shoe laces (hurrah, one less thing for us to do). New skills learned: football (getting fairly profficient), badminton (just starting) , hill walking (made it half way up Ben Lomond) and archery (two shots at this in the last year).

At school she has loved being in P2, and the teachers look forward to reading her creative writing (e.g. a haunted house with a dancing skeleton and a dancing elvis). The Christmas play this year was the Wizard of Oz and the class also did a Vikings assembly in May. Cate was one of the narrators in both, and also got a chance to recite a Scottish poem, The Puddock, to the rest of the class.

We had another great winter, if you measure greatness by the amount of snowy days, so we made good use of the sledge again. For her 6th birthday we went to The Singing Kettle, a kid's show run by local talent which is very popular here. They invite a few kids up on stage at one point and her nibs managed to get picked, dressed up as a polar bear and run about to a song.

We've had a couple of holidays this year: a short week at a caravan park in Blackpool, which we enjoyed but was freezing, and a week at Centerparcs, along with Linda, John and Kyle. Cate had a great time and especially loved the falconry activity.

At the end of April Cate's grandpa Meiklejohn sadly passed away suddenly. We'll all miss him a lot, and fondly remember the times we would visit the house at Wemyss Bay, watch Cate out feeding the fish with her grandpa and go for a walk in the woods, looking for the fabled bouncy tree. We'd had the usual birthday meal for him in March at the Point in Greenock, where he used to like watching the boats go by out of the window, and he'd come, along with Cate's other grandpa, for a grandpas birthday meal on Cate's birthday.

Anyway, onwards and upwards. After the summer it's primary three. I'm sure there will be lots more to report at the end of the year.

Christianity

I am a Christian. This means I have been born again and am a follower of Jesus Christ. It does not mean that am sinless, a good follower, or better than anyone else. It isn't just something I do on Sunday, either, but is part of my everyday life. I'm involved at my church, Gallowhill Adelphi Church, and at The Bible Centre, for which I do children's work at the Gallowhill GO Club.

Beliefs

You can visit my Bible Guide from here, or have a read of the sermons I have put online.

GO Clubs

Claire and I do voluntary work for a local Christian concern called The Bible Centre, near Glasgow Airport. In the summer we have camps for children, and throughout the year we are involved in monthly clubs for the teenagers and in Gospel Outreach (GO) clubs.

Gallowhill Club

We run a club on Monday nights at Gallowhill Adelphi Church in Paisley. It's been going for a good number of years, and here are some pictures from the past.

I'm Engaged

Yes, it's true. After two and three quarter years of courting, Claire and I were engaged on Saturday 16th November 1996 on the moor road above Dalry. The time was about 3.30pm, the weather was cold and windy, the scenery was beautiful and the pair of us are quite happy.

Doghnuts

The wedding took place on August 16th 1997. We went on honeymoon to Kenya and moved in to our new house in Houston, Scotland.

To celebrate the engagement, I bought doughnuts for my colleagues. Here's one of them:

My Work

I'm a software engineer. That means I write computer programs. Well, it means a lot more than that, but it would get boring if I tried to explain it. I work for BT, and my office works very similarly to the one in Dilbert.

History

I write a lot of stuff in C++ and in Java, with Oracle databases and over BT's intranet. The projects I've worked on include:

Do I enjoy it? Mostly, yes. I like working with computers, and working in a team. I dislike corporate politics and pointless tasks. But mostly, I get paid for messing about with computers, which isn't something I had thought possible while at school.

Scotland

I come from Scotland, a small country occupying the northern part of the British Isles. We may be small but we have a proud history, and we most definitely don't like being mistaken for being English.

Like most people from whatever country, I have an inbuilt impulse to defend my country as "the best in the world", despite our small size, poor health record, tendency to ginger hair, etc. However Scotland does have a lot to offer, despite its seeming insignificance on the map.

Scenery

There has been a lot of up and down movement in the past in the Scottish landscape, producing an impressive set of hills, mountains and lochs. A huge amount of rain falls on the country, keeping everything very green, so when there is some sunshine, the land can be very pretty indeed.


Loch Lomond	Glencoe

Inventions

Any good Scot will tell you that we invented everything. And it's true. Well, nearly true. Here's a list of just some of the inventions of Scots:

Cate's Autumnwatch

Autumn's a great time to look at the trees, so I took Cate out for a walk to gather leaves and the like. I've never been much of an expert on trees, basically being limited to oak and conker. So when Cate successfully identified an oak branch I decided it was time to find out a bit more, if only to keep myself ahead.

Here are some of the trees and seeds that we found on our walk around our estate.

Oak

Let's start with the easy one. The oak tree has wiggly leaves. It grows acorns, which sit in little cups. The acorns start off light green, but turn to brown and fall out of the cup in autumn. Find out more.

Horse Chestnut

The horse chestnut tree is easy to spot as well. It has great big leaves which are like hands with five long fingers. This tree is known well to all boys in Scotland as it is the source of the conker. Conkers are shiny, brown nuts which grow inside a soft, green, jaggy shell. The shell is easily split open and the conker is then traditionally kept in the airing cupboard overnight to harden it, with the hope that it will become at least a "sixer". Find out more.

Sycamore

The sycamore tree is from the maple family, which is why the leaves look a bit like maple leaves. They have five points, with the two outside ones being smaller. Its seeds grow in pairs, and when they fall off their shape makes them spin round as they float to the ground. This is why they're odten called helicopters. Find out more.

Beech

For ages I've wondered what these little, prickly seed cases were which littered our garden every autumn. At last, I've found out they're from the beech tree. This tree has an oval shaped, shiny leaf, and produces these beech nuts. They open up to spill out the seeds. Find out more.

Ash

The ash tree has quite a light coloured bark, and long, thin leaves which stick out in opposing pairs along the stem. When it produces seeds these hang in little bunches. They are roughly similar to the helicopters on the sycamore tree and are known as ash keys. Find out more.

Hawthorn

The hawthorn has distinctive leaves, which are a bit like the oak leaves, but with less wiggly bits, which are at more of an angle. It grows red berries in the autumn, which makes it easier to spot. Find out more.

Alder

This is a tree I'd never heard of. There's one near the swing park, and it grows little pine cone style things, and it's this really which prompted me to try and find out a bit more about trees. The little pine cone things are the female seed pods, while the male equivalent are longer and thinner. Find out more.

Whitebeam

Getting into totally unheard-of territory here. I found this tree with large, tough leaves, which are a bit furry underneath, and large bunches of red berries on it. It took me ages to find out what it was, but apparently it's a whitebeam. Beam is an olden term for tree, and this tree is referred to as being white because in the spring the furry part of the leaves make the tree look like it's in blossom. Find out more.

Hornbeam

Here's another one I found and took a while to identify. It has leaves with a serated edge, and grows its seeds in a kind of cluster arrangement. Find out more.

Rowan

Well, it's nearly a year later, and we're getting quite good at spotting the trees now. Which means that we've noticed a few that we're not sure about. This one was a bit confusing, as it looks similar to the ash, with pairs of thin leaves, but the leaves on this tree have saw-tooth edges. At the end of summer though, all became clear, when bunches of red berries appeared. It was a rowan. Find out more.

Willow

The willow was a bit easier to spot. It has long, thin leaves which droop down making the tree look a bit like a fountain. Hence the name of one type of willow: the weeping willow. Find out more.

Silver Birch

Here's another tree that started sprouting catkins in the summer. It obviously wasn't an alder, as the catkins were a bit different and the leaves were diamond shaped. The big clue, though, is the silver coloured bark, with black patches, which makes the silver birch easy to spot. Find out more.

Well, that's all for now. I'll try to see if I can still recognise these trees once the seeds have fallen, and maybe get some more pictures in the spring.

Cate's Stone Collection

We've had a few pretty stones around the house for a while, from various holidays we've been on, and Cate has always been interested in looking at them. So from Christmas this year we've started a wee collection. Here are the stones we've collected so far.

Amethyst Amethyst is a type of quartz, coloured purple and often comes in "points" where the tip is purple and the rest is clear. Long ago it was thought to prevent people from getting drunk. Amethyst	Blue Goldstone This is actually a man-made stone. It's semi-transparent and if you look closely you can see sparkles inside. Normal goldstone is a gold colour, but this is a nice blue variety. Blue Goldstone	Chrysotile I forgot the name of this one after buying it and had to go back to the shop later to find out. The shop display says it's from china. This stone is a type of asbestos, but not dangerous unless you grind it into dust first. Chrysotile	Copper This is a little nugget of copper, a metal which is quite heavy, easy to stretch without it breaking and which conducts electricity. It's used for making electricity wires and telephone lines. Copper	Dalmatian Dacite This spotty stone is a type of dacite, a volcanic rock. This type is cream with black spots, similar to the dalmatian dog and hence the name. Dalmatian Dacite	Geode Geodes are like hidden treasure. On the outside they look like normal boring stones, but cut them in half and you find a miniature crystal cave. They're formed when a bubble occurs in a rock. Other minerals seep in and form crystal layers inside the bubble. Geode	Green Calcite Calcite is made of calcium carbonate, the same stuff that makes chalk. It comes in a lot of different colours and the one we have is green. Green Calcite
Hematite This stuff is iron oxide, one of the types of iron ore that we get our iron and steel from. It is a shiny grey colour and is quite heavy. You quite often get carvings made out of hematite. Hematite	Jasper Jasper is made from silica, which is the stuff that makes up sand and quartz. It's not transparent, like quartz, but has a nice smooth surface and a deep red colour due to the impurities (iron?) in the rock. Jasper				Malachite Malachite is a form of copper carbonate and the copper gives it the green colour. It is often formed in layers which are different shades of green, giving it stripes or swirls. Malachite	Moonstone This stone is semi-transparent and is made up of layers. The light bouncing off the different layers give it a sheen which is the origin of its name. Moonstone
Quartz Quartz is the second most common mineral in the earth's crust and there are a lot of different types of quartz. We have a bigger chunk of rose quartz, which is a pinky colour. Amethyst is a type of quartz as well. Our little quartz pebble is totally transparent without any colouring. Quartz	Snowflake Obsidian Obsidian is a black glass that can be found all over the world. It can be chipped into very sharp pieces so was often used for arrow heads and the like. It's still used for surgical instruments as it can be made much sharper than steel. Our stone is called snowflake obsidian because of the little white bits in it. Snowflake Obsidian				Tiger's Eye Tiger eye is made from a type of asbestos, which is made up of lots of little fibres of mineral. The fibres give the stone a sheen which changes as it is moved around, a bit like a cat's eye. Tiger's Eye	Nautiloid Fossils are formed when an animal dies and is covered with mud. The mud hardens and the animal is gradually replaced by minerals as they seep through the mud. Here's a shellfish, part of the family called nautiloids. Nautiloid
Ammonite This fossil is a shellfish with a spiral body. I guess it's an ammonite as this seems to be the most common thing to be fossilised. Ammonite	Shark Tooth Another fossil, this time the tooth of a shark. Shark lose their teeth quite easily and others grow in to replace them so there are millions of shark teeth scattered about the bottom of the sea. Shark Tooth				Turqurenite I didn't know what this was for a long time. It's a bit like turquoise but too blue to be turquoise. Claire bought it and remembered its name beginning with turq. Eventually I spotted it in another shop and found it is turqurenite - howlite which has been dyed blue to look like turquoise. Turqurenite	Carnelian This is a lovely stone, transparent but with a deep red colour, which makes it look like a gem stone. Carnelian gets its name from the latin word for flesh, since it's sometimes flesh coloured. Lovely! Carnelian
Peacock Pyrite This stone has a nice iridescent sheen on it, showing up in different colours as you turn it in the light. The shop says it's peacock ore, our stone book has it as peacock pyrite or chalcopyrite, but Wikipedia's article for chalcopyrite looks a bit different, and bornite looks nearer to the mark. Peacock Pyrite	Lapis Lazuli Lapis is a deep blue colour, with little lines of golden pyrite through it, and that colour has meant it has been sought after for a long time. It comes from Afghanistan. Lapis Lazuli	Gypsum Gypsum is an important mineral because it is used for lots of things, including plaster of paris and blackboard "chalk". When it grows in crystal formations they are known as desert roses, and this one is the biggest stone we have in our collection. Gypsum	Amazonite Not much to say about this stone except that it appears that despite its name it doesn't actually come from the Amazon. Amazonite	Unakite A nice brown patterned stone from the States. Our method of distinguishing this one is "it looks like a toffee". Unakite	Aventurine This is a semi-transparent green stone. Aventurine	Blue Lace Agate This is one of many types of agate, and quite a popular one. It's light blue with lighter stripes along it. Blue Lace Agate
Chrysocolla A stone notable for its name, which sounds a bit like Coca Cola, but actually means gold-solder. Very odd. Chrysocolla

We're going to add to our collection as time goes on, so this page should keep on getting bigger and bigger.

Links

These are some web pages I have visited in the past and found useful, interesting or sometimes disturbing. I make no guarantees that the links are still valid.

Common Visits

Financial

Fun

Shops

Money Makers

General Resources

Tech Resources

Comps

Travel

Holidays

Entertainment

Interesting

Wierd

Christian

Games

My Internet Pages

Meiklejohns around the World

I've put these pages here in the hope that they'll help the Meiklejohns around the world in contacting each other, and in seeing where other Meiklejohns have spread to. Thanks to those who have allowed me to place their details here. If you want added please send me some information about yourself. Pictures are useful. If you are on these pages and want taken off, just let me know.

History

The Meiklejohn name comes, I believe, from the East of Scotland. It means "Big John". There appear to be a lot of Meiklejohns in Fife, and also up around the Thurso area.

Meiklejohns in Scotland

Meiklejohns in England

Meiklejohns in Australia

Meiklejohns in New Zealand

Meiklejohns in Canada

Meiklejohns in USA

Meiklejohns in Belgium

Meiklejohns in Ireland

Pics

I was sent this picture of the shop front of the Meiklejohn Tea and Wine Merchants in Glasgow's Gallowgate by Paul Finch, who collects old postcards of shop fronts. Click the picture for the full version. If you know or are related to the owners, let me know.

Marilyn Bowers sent in this picture of the Meiklejohn star on the Hollywood walk of fame. It appears that one of our number, a William Meiklejohn was a well known agent to the stars in Hollywood.

Michael Clark has sent in a couple of photos relating to the Meiklejohn Brewery company. The first is the Grange Brewery in Alloa, which the company owned at one point, from around 1925 and the second is a Bass Crest Brewery tray, with the central Bass Rock logo removed due to legal problems the company had with another Bass.

Links

If you have any information about the family, or would like yourself added to these pages, let me know.

Meiklejohns in Scotland

David and Claire Meiklejohn - Houston

David and Claire live in Houston, near Johnstone, in the West of Central Scotland. David is a software engineer for BT, and Claire is a housewife and mother. They're both involved in work at The Bible Centre at nearby Inchinnan. Cate was born on the 3rd of December 2004, and has been attempting to gain superior position in the family ever since, with a fair measure of success.

Graeme Meiklejohn - Dunfermline

Graeme lives over on the east coast of Scotland, in Dunfermline, in the kingdom of Fife, along with his mother and father.

David Meiklejohn - Bishopton

There are some Meiklejohns that live on the other side of the world from me, and some that live just ten minutes down the road. David stays in Bishopton with his wife Tricia and daughters Vhairi and Heather. He enjoys real ale, motorcycles and fishing.

Andrew and Linda Meiklejohn - Aberdeenshire

Andrew was born in Paisley in 1945, and married Linda in Durban, South Africa, in 1969. They have two children: Nicola and Stuart. Andrew and Linda own and run the Castle Hotel in Aberdeenshire.

Alexander Meiklejohn - Clydebank

Alexander Jamieson Meiklejohn got in touch with me. He lives in Clydebank with wife Caroline and has worked back a few generations in his family tree, trying to find out more. He was born in the same year as me, so probably feels as old as I do.

Denise Meiklejohn - East Kilbride

Denise lives in East Kilbride and works in Glasgow at Strathclyde University. Her mum and dad are James and Margaret and she has two sisters: Lorna and Elizabeth-Anne.

Andy Boag - East Kilbride

Andy and Denise are cousins once removed, sharing the same great grandparents. Their great grandparents were part of a duo of marriages from the same families: two Meiklejohn brothers married two O'Brien sisters. Here's Andy's progress so far. Get in contact if you can help him:

"I have tracked the Meiklejohns for my part back to around 1750 to Tulliallan. From there they have branched out to Lanarkshire - Cambusnethan and Cambuslang and East Kilbride but also to Renfrew Greenock and Bonhill also Barrhead. I am trying to find connections right now to any family in Paisley "region" through descendants of Margaret born 1847 in Greenock Thomas born 1848 in Renfrew Walter born 1852 in Bonhill (My great great grandfather), Jessie born 1855 in Greenock James born 1857 in Renfrew and William born 1859 in Bonhill. Their father was Robert born Kincardine 1801 and mother was Janet Buchanan born Bonhill 1821. Roberts first wife was Grace Wilson (not sure where she was born) but they were married 27/12/1829 and had two kids Robert born 1832 in Greenock and William born 1835 (not clear where). I can also tell you that Robert was son of William Meiklejohn and Elizabeth "Scotland" who were married 27/6/1786 in Tulliallan. I have so far been unable to get any more information. I am pretty sure there was a Meiklejohn family in Tulliallan as I have found a Euphemia born in1786 but do not know if she is related to William or not. As for Elizabeth, I gave up instantly when I seen how many "Scotland" entries came up on the lists. I think I may have reached the end of the line unless I get some connection for William. So I am currently looking at more recent - well within past 180 years and try to build down some other sections of the family as I have established Walters descendry down to myself."

John Meiklejohn - Aberdeenshire

John is from Cambuslang, but now lives in Aberdeenshire with his wife and three children. He's Denise's cousin and Andy's cousin once removed.

Marilyn Bowers - East Kilbride

Marilyn was Marilyn Ross Meiklejohn before being married. She lives in East Kilbride but was born and grew up in Sandyhills, Glasgow. She's married to Sean and has 3 sons, and she works in Glasgow for Glasgow Life - Communities (formerly part of Glasgow City Council) in the Adult Literacies Team.

Her family originally came from St Ninian's in Stirling at least back to the 1600s. Some of the family emigrated to America and settled in California: mainly Los Angeles. There is a 'Meiklejohn' star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame which is dedicated to William, Campbell and Jean Meiklejohn, who were involved in the film and theatre industry in Hollywood. Marilyn's great grandfather William and their father Matthew were brothers. William ran one of the biggest talent agencies in Hollywood on Sunset Boulevard, and represented some of the biggest movie stars in Hollywood like Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Ronald Reagan, William Holden and many others. He was also an executive at Paramount for over 20 years as head of talent and casting and worked with people like Fred Astaire, Shirley Temple, Elvis and Marilyn Monroe.

Marilyn also provided some information about another William Meiklejohn, who the stadium in Pennsylvania is named after: William's father was Joseph Meiklejohn, son of Matthew C Meiklejohn and brother of William (talent agent). Joseph ran a small delivery service in Oakland, California in the 1920s; his company was bought out by a Mr Casey of Merchant Parcel Service in Seattle who were looking to expand. Joseph went to work for them and moved to the east coast, Philadelphia to develop the business there; the company had now changed its name to UPS (United Parcel Services). Joseph became the second largest shareholder in UPS history and when he died his surviving children, William and Rose, inherited a vast fortune. William used the money to benefit many organisations including Penn State University (his Alma Mater). He also donated a total of $85 million dollars to Saddleback Memorial Hospital in California and used to spend most days there after his retirement, chatting to the patients and staff. He also founded the Seniors Table Tennis Association in America and donated the prize money every year. Shortly before his death in 2007, the stadium at Penn State was renamed Meiklejohn Stadium in his honour, and Saddleback hospital have a statue of him and his wife Louise who died in 2009.

So far Marilyn has found members of the family in Staffordshire and Manchester, England; Cork in Ireland; Arizona, Oregon, Washington and Los Angeles in America and Brisbane, Australia and would love to hear from anyone who thinks they may be related.

Meiklejohns in England

Lyndsay Salaman - Westminster

Lyndsay was a Meiklejohn before marrying. Her father, James, came from Glasgow, and lived in London, where he died in 2004. The family now live in Ayr, and scattered around England. Her aunt, Maisie Meiklejohn, married Jack Mustarde, a retired surgeon, and still lives in Scotland. Lyndsay works at Westminster School

Kevin Meiklejohn - Wiltshire

Kevin lives in Chippenham, in Wiltshire, England. He was born in '77 and is also working in Chippenham. He was married to Gemma in July 2005. Gemma is a secondary school teacher in Swindon, and won the Guardian Award for Secondary Teacher of the Year for the West of England in 2006. Congratulations Gemma, good to see the family name being honoured :-)

Roy Meiklejohn and Family

Roy emailed me to let me know where his family live, increasing the number of known Meiklejohns in England by 8. There are:

Jon Meiklejohn - Kent

Jon was born the same year as me and married the same year as me, but doesn't live in the same town. Instead he lives in Sittingbourne with wife Debbi and children Catherine (hey! he has the same named daughter as me!) and Steven.

He knows a bit of his family history, back to the 1600s in Stirling and St Ninian. His great, great grandfather, John, was one of the first Scotland yard detectives and was body guard to Prince Albert, only to be convicted of money laundering and forgery of Clydesdale Bank notes, along with, amongst others the Chief Inspector. Nice to have some colourful characters in the family!

Jamie Meiklejohn - Manchester

Jamie comes from Manchester but his mum, Laura Meiklejohn was originally from Hill of Beath in Fife. There seem to have been a few Meiklejohn from the East Coast so maybe some of you can fit in your family trees together. Jamie is related to the famous Davie Meiklejohn of Rangers and Scotland.

Meiklejohns in Australia

Nola Sheppard - Brisbane

Nola was a Meiklejohn before she married Kevin. The family stay in Brisbane, and include four children, along with, at last count, 17 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren. Sadly, Kevin passed away in March 2006. Here are a few family photos:


Nola and Kevin	Wedding of son Alan to Jaclyn	Nola's parents William and Ethel Norma

Grandson Matthew John	Mum Norma on her 90th birthday, with sisters Valmai and Dulcie

Arthur and Irene Meiklejohn - Brisbane

Brisbane seems to be a hive of Meiklejohn activity. Arthur and Irene live there, as do many of their Meiklejohn relatives. The picture below is of their daughter Nicole with Arthur's mother Dulcie. Arthur's mother Dulcie is the sister of Nola's mother Norma, and his father George was Nola's father William's brother. Arthur and Irene have four children: Nicole, Cameron, Trent and Tammy.

David Meiklejohn - North Carlton

David stays in North Carlton with his wife Franca and their daughter Lucia. They have a website with some pictures from recent months.

Ben Meiklejohn - Brisbane

Ben is another Meiklejohn from Brisbane, and he's been keeping the family going with his first child, Chloe being born this year(2004). He's been getting together with others from the clan and traced the family tree back to the 17th century. Apparently Donald Meiklejohn came over to Australia from Wick in 1853, and he is Ben's ancestor.

Stuart Meiklejohn - Sydney

Stuart stays in the suburbs of Sydney. He was born in Scotland, in East Kilbride, and emigrated with his parents in 1967 (a year before I was born). Stuart is married to Vicki, and they have a son and daugher: Brady and Jodi. His parents, John and Margaret, along with a number of uncles and aunts, came from the Motherwell area.

Bill Meiklejohn - Cowra

Bill got in touch with me and sent me some updates to the ever increasing list of Meiklejohns in Australia. His family came from Thurso originally. Here they are:

Jan Gladwin - Canberra

Jan and her husband Bob were Wesleyan missionaries in Papua New Guinea for fourteen years, and now live in Canberra. They have five children, four of them living nearby and another studying in London. Jan has this to say about their Meiklejohn ancestors:

Bob is the great grandson of Barbara McBeath Meiklejohn born 1836 in Thurso - daughter of John Meiklejohn and Mary Manson. Barbara married Peter McKellar in Govan, Lanarkshire and came to Australia via New Zealand. Their daughter Mary Manson McKellar married Lachlan McDonald. Their daughter Mary Barbara McDonald married George William Gladwin and Bob (Robert James) is their youngest son.

Matt Meiklejohn - Bathurst

Matt is 18 and lives in Bathurst, near Cowra in New South Wales. His family moved to Sydney in 2001, originally hailing from New Zealand. His dad, Stephen was born in christchurch to Richard "Dick" Meiklejohn and Maureen "Faye" Strawbridge, but moved around a lot as a child. He has an Uncle Rick in New Zealand and an Aunt Lois Randall in Wellington. He's discovered that a "Matthew Fontaine Maury Meiklejohn" received a Victoria Cross in the Boer War and wonders if he might have been a relative.

Barry Meiklejohn - Brisbane

Barry and Margaret live in Brisbane, a veritable hive of Meiklejohn activity, with their three daughters. He also has a brother, Michael, who lives in Brisbane as well. They've traced the family line back to a John Meiklejohn from Thurso, born 1660 & married to Isabel Burn.

Philip Meiklejohn - Ballarat

Philip hailed me from Ballarat in Victoria. His father was James Frederick Meiklejohn and his mother Alva Alice (nee Ford). His father had two brothers and two sisters. Philip has a son, Travis James, born in 1984.

Meiklejohns in New Zealand

Ken Meiklejohn

Ken is my first NZ contact, but there seems to be quite a community of us Meiklejohns over there. Here's what Ken wrote:

We are currently planning to celebrate the 150th year anniverary of the arrival in New Zealand of Captain James Strange Mucklejohn (Later Meiklejohn) and his seven sons who built their own ship in P.E. Island Nova Scotia, and left for NZ in about 1856 settling here in 1858. As a young man James was based in Leith, Scotland, where he learned his boat building and from where he went to sea. We would love to know more of the origin of James Strange (we believe that the name Mucklejohn interchanged with Meiklejohn at that time ) . We have developed a comprehensive local family tree involving hundreds of Meiklejohn descendants, and are in the process of setting up a web site under the name www.meiklejohn.org via the Google search engine. We have a very active committee working on the Meiklejohn Family reunion which we are scheduling for March 2008.

I trust that this contact may be of interest and possibly lead to more contacts and information about James and his early origin.

Meiklejohns in Canada

Gregg Meiklejohn - Victoria

Gregg lives in Victoria, British Columbia. His dad was William Murray Meiklejohn, born in Vancouver in 1936 and passed away in 1989. His grandfather, Murray Alexander Meiklejohn, emigrated to Canada in the 1920s and married into the Muir family. He passed away after being hit by a trolley car in 1941. His great grandfather was an international gymnast around the time of the first world war, and his great uncle was that most famous of Meiklejohns, David Meiklejohn , who played for Glasgow Rangers and Scotland at football.

Gregg and Mona have three daughters: Michelle, Amanda and Erin. Erin was born on the 29th of May, 2003.

Gillian McIntyre Gaiser

Gillian has been researching her family and has written a book around it, which includes some Meiklejohn information. Here's her message:

I am a second cousin to Martha through marriage. My first husband, Ian Angus McIntyre, who died in 1991, was Martha's second cousin. Ian descended from the marriage of Jessie Meiklejohn of Uddingston, Lanarkshire and John Robertson of Glasgow. Ian's grandfather, William Meiklejohn Robertson, born 1888 in Alexandria, Dunbartonshire was the 7th child of John and Jessie. He was killed in the First World War.

I have traced Jessie Meiklejohn's line back to Walter Meiklejohn thought to have been born about 1675 in Barony, Glasgow. I have just published a book about my husband's ancestors including the Robertsons and Meiklejohns. It is called "The McIntyre Files" and I am just in the process of building a website with information about the book.

I have a photo of Jessie and also one of her with her whole family if it is of interest to anyone.

Meiklejohns in USA

Christine Hendricks - Utah

Christine and Bob live in Magna, Utah, with their two children Duncan and Jesse. Christine's great-great-great grandfather was David Forbes Meiklejohn. He immigrated to the USA in 1855 with his wife and eight children (7, plus one on the journey, including Mary, pictured). She's traced the family back to Robert Meiklejohn, born in 1728, who's son, George, lived in Culross. (Old pictures from DeadFred.com)

Albert William Meiklejohn 3rd - New York

Will is from Pennsylvania, but has recently moved to Corning, New York, where he and his family are helping a local church. His church in Pennsylvania are involved in missionary work in Uganda, and Will has been over helping build homes to house orphans in the area, with the Covenant Mercies programme. Will was planning to move over to Uganda, and may still do so, if God guides in that direction. The church is associated with a sister church in Wales.

Will is married to Karen, and they have two daughters.


Will,	house building,	in Uganda

Joan Furrow - Pennsylvania

Joan is the daughter of Albert William Meiklejohn, and Will(above)'s aunty. She lives in Wellsboro, in Pennsylvania, with her husband Larry. Thay have four children: Terry, the twins Larry and Garry and Jeffrey, and Larry has two of his own: Larry and Lewie. Between them they have 11 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren. Joan and Larry own a car repair centre in their home town.

Shirra Meiklejohn-Wilson - North Carolina

Shirra has lived in North Carolina since 1988, moving there from Connecticut where she studied, earning a BA and a Masters in Religion. She has been involved in crisis counselling, was an Offender Counselor for Polk County and is involved in spiritual development, founding the Soujourner Pass Community in 1994, teaching a discipline known as the Fourth Way.

James Munro Meiklejohn - Michigan

James' grandparents emmigrated to the US from Dunfermline, in the early 1900s. They settled in Lockport, New York, where James was born in 1955. He now lives in Flushing, in Michigan.

Cherie Meiklejohn Spilis - New Jersey

Cherie is Will's (see above) half sister, and lives in New Jersey with her husband Steve. She has a sister Debi, also in New Jersey, and another half brother Robert, who stays in Pennsylvania. Are Pennsylvania and New Jersey near each other? Hold on... ah right, they're neighbour states.

Sylvia Meiklejohn White - Georgia

Sylvia hails from Atlanta, Georgia, and sent me the following information on her part of the family:

John Meiklejohn of Uddingston, Scotland moved to Coventry, England after World War II - he met and married Minnie Moylan and they had three daughters: Linda Meiklejohn Toogood, Sylvia Meiklejohn White and Joyce Meiklejohn Edgens. In 1968 John, Minnie, Sylvia and Joyce emigrated to Atlanta, Georgia - Linda followed in 1981.

John Meiklejohn passed away October 6, 2003 - he was 82 years old. All three of his daughters still live in Atlanta.

John Meiklejohn - New York

John and his wife Mara live in New York City. His father, also John, lived in NYC and John was born there. He stays in Manhattan with Mara and their two daughters: Alison(39) and Sasha(31). They have two grandchildren: twins aged 11, and a yellow labrador.

John works as a director/cameraman, and has done all his life. It has taken him all over the world. He is also an avid fisherman.

Nathaniel Meiklejohn - Maine

Nathaniel Meiklejohn lives in Maine, and has two brothers, David and Ben. His dad, Daniel, also has two brothers, Gary and Steve. His grandfather Robert brought the family name to New England.

Franklin Golt - Maryland

Franklin's mother is Linda Meiklejohn, from Annapolis, Maryland. Her parents are Robert Shirra Meiklejohn Jr and Joyce Meiklejohn. Franklin is interested in the family history and has been over in Glasgow tracing the records.

William Donald (Mike) Meiklejohn - Maryland

Another Meiklejohn from Maryland, Mike (see below) sent me this information. Do you Maryland Meiklejohns know each other?

My name is William Donald Meiklejohn, Jr. I go by Mike. I'm married. My wife's name is Dawn. I have two children, Joey & Staci and one grandchild, Madalyn. I was born and raised in Annapolis, MD and now live in Denton, MD on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. My late father's name was William Donald Meiklejohn, Sr. My late mother's name was Jessie. My grandfather's name was James Alexander Meiklejohn. His wife's name was Bernice. My grandparents were also from Annapolis. My great grandfather's name was William Meiklejohn. Other than that I don't know too much more about my family tree.

Martha Hunter - Philadelphia

Martha Hunter lives near Philadelphia, Pa. with her family. She's a preschool teacher and pastoral counselor. Jessie Meiklejohn Robertson of Bonhill was her great grandmother, daughter Isabella Robertson Macdonald was her granny. She married William Macdonald and moved to the USA in 1923. A branch of the family moved to Coventry, England - Jessie Meiklejohn (of which there are many in the family) and Mary Robertson. Martha welcomes contact with our extended Robertson, Meiklejohn, Macdonald family from around the world!

Jenny Meiklejohn Martin - Maryland

The Maryland contingent increases with Jenny, who lives in Ocean City, Maryland, along with husband Richard, and children Austin and Shannon. Here is some of her family information:

I am the youngest of eight children and I have 5 brothers and 2 sisters. Here are their names and ages (Jan 2007).

My father was William Thomas Meiklejohn and my mother was Gertrude Ila Meiklejohn. My father had 5 brothers and sisters. My family is from Montgomery County Maryland, which is just outside of Washington, DC. My parents were both born and raised in DC. I now live on the eastern shore of Maryland in Ocean City. Also my sister Linda, brothers John, Gary and William (also know as Mickey) live here. I was always told that 2 Meiklejohn brothers came to the US from Scotland and I am a descendant of one of them.

Teresa Meiklejohn - Maryland

Teresa is yet another Maryland Meiklejohn, married to George Alfred Meiklejohn. George's father George was married to an Alice, and George jnr's sister is Alice as well.


George snr and Alice,	George jnr and niece

Ed Meiklejohn - Pennsylvania

Edward G. Meiklejohn (Ed) and his wife Claudette live in Mansfield, PA, a small college town in north-central Pennsylvania. Ed is Will's uncle and lives a bit to the south of him. Claudette and Ed are both retired accountants.

His mother's mother was born in Glasgow and her father was born in Belfast. However, they didn't meet until they both emigrated to Philadelphia, PA. The family names were Clements and McClean. On his father's side, his mother's family were German immigrants during the 1800's (Schmidt.) The Meiklejohn's were immigrants to Philadelphia in the 1800's. His grandmother told him they came from Paisley, Scotland.

"If any Meiklejohns would like to contact me by email, I would be pleased to respond."

Meiklejohns in Belgium

Roderick Meiklejohn - Brussels

Rod works for the EU, and has lived in Brussels since 1977. He sends us this information:

My two brothers, David and Andrew, both live in England. Our grandfather (another David) was from Kilmster, a short distance inland from Wick. It seems there were a lot of Meiklejohns in the village throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. I have no idea whether there are any still there. The most famous Meiklejohns, apart from the US philosopher Alexander, already noted on your website, were:

Meiklejohns in Ireland

Lee Meiklejohn - Cork

Lee is from Forfar, but moved to Cork in 2000. His wife and two children are native Corkers. He's looking to build up his family tree, and has a good number of branches filled out, so get in touch if you're interested.

Projects

I'm good at starting things and not very good at finishing them, so the following pages are in a usable but unfinished state. Still, I hope they can be of use to someone out there. These are some of the projects I've started for my own pleasure and for the good of humanity :-)

Bible Centre

I've been doing the web pages for the Bible Centre since I started them up a good few years ago. They give some information about the centre, the people there and camps that we've had.

Villa Daisy

I've recently set up this web page for a family member who has a villa in Turkey. We're planning to go there this June, so will know more about it after that, but hopefully the web page will bring in some custom for Paul. If you're interested in hiring it, give him a call.

Technical Help

As my work has to do with computers and the internet, I've built up a lot of knowledge about technical things. I decided to write down some helpful information about various topics, and keep adding to it as I investigate other areas. My work were kind enough to allow me to put this on the internet, so here is my Technical Help Page.

Bible Guide

I wanted to write down a rough guide to the various bits of the Bible. This was mainly so I could find passages again, and to give myself an overall picture of the historical events in the Bible. This is incomplete, but covers the first part of the Old Testament. So here is my Bible Guide.

Sermons

I do quite a lot of sermons at my church and sometimes at the Bible Centre. I keep notes for these, so I thought I'd collect them on-line in the hope that someone finds them useful. There are lots still in my notebook waiting to be typed out, but what I have typed out can be found in my Sermons Page.

Web Pages

This web site is a project in itself, of course, and I've learned a lot about HTML, CSS, style and layout over the years. To see how some of the old pages looked, and how my web page at work, have a look here.

One of the projects that has taken up most of my time over the last few years is of course this web site. It has changed a bit over the years, and I managed to find some older versions, so here are some snapshots of the site over time.


2000	2004

2007	Work

Holidays

This collection of pages is a sort of photo album. I like to store the pictures from my holidays, and write a bit of text to remind me of what we did and where we went. If it helps anyone decide to go somewhere or to avoid somewhere or if you just enjoy reading about our experiences, fair enough, but it's mainly a personal reminder.

2011 - Narin

In a first for us we had three holidays this year. In October we took the school week off to drive up north to Nairn for a couple of days. We had sun and driving rain but mostly wind and cold, but Nairn is a beautiful part of the country whatever the weather.

2011 - Center Parcs

In July we had a week at CenterParcs Whinfell Forest, which is near Preston, just outside the Lake District. We went with Linda, John and Kyle, stayed in a lodge for the week and booked up lots of activities for the kids. We had a good week and got plenty of exercise riding around the forest paths.

2011 - Blackpool

A short holiday in April to Blackpool Haven caravan park. We stayed for 5 days and enjoyed the park, the Sandcastle and the Pleasure beach. It was a cold start to the season though and the little gas fire in the caravan was on full-tilt for most of the time we were in it.

2010 - Scarborough

This year we stayed at home in the UK. We rented a cottage in the North Yorkshire Moors, near Scarborough, for the week. We managed to get out somewhere reasonably interesting each day and the cottage was an excellent base to work from, as well as being a relaxing place to return to at the end of each day. Colin, Irene and Sam came along with us for this trip.

2009 - Anstruther

Our holiday in Paris was in early May, so by the time summer was well in, we were yearning for another break. So we had a few days in the East Neuk of Fife, staying at a lovely hotel in Anstruther. With a full cooked breakfast every morning we were well fuelled to explore the excellent beaches nearby, and visit a few other places as well. It was only four days but we left with some happy memories (mmmm, battered prawns).

2009 - Disneyland Paris

This is the last chance to book a cheap holiday abroad since Cate will be in school by next year, so we had a May week at Disneyland Paris. The weather was variable but the queues weren't as bad as they will be at high summer and we had a great time. We had four days at the Disneyland parks, plus a day at the nearby sea-life centre and a day trip to Paris.

2008 - Majorca

After last years failed attempt to go abroad we thought we'd have another go. Somewhere warm, fairly quiet and with not too long a flight. The Mediterranean sounded nice and we've never been to Majorca so we tried there. A frined recommended Puerto Pollensa as a nice quiet area, so we found a hotel with a kids club and booked it up. Our most expensive holiday since Kenya, but it was half board so we saved a lot on restaurant bills.

2007 - Berwick

Well, the trip to Turkey didn't work out, but we wanted to get a week away somewhere. We ended up in the Haven caravan park in Berwick, for a week of beach trips, castle visits and trampolining. There was plenty to do in the park, which had an indoor swimming pool as well as the usual leisure pursuits, and the evening show by Rory and friends was popular as well.

2007 - Not Turkey

After a couple of trips to Wales we thought Cate was old enough to travel abroad, so we planned to go to Turkey for our holidays. Our plans were overruled though, as Cate broke out in chicken pox on the day we were due to fly. Instead we spent the week visiting a number of more local spots of interest, from Largs to Loch Lomond, Ayr to Hamilton. We did have a good week, and some lovely weather.

2006 - Wales

We liked our trip to Wales last year so much that we decided to go again, to the same cottage. This time we shared with Irene, Colin and Sam. We had the most amazing week of sunshine, and really enjoyed our holiday, especially the beaches.

2005 - Wales

This year we decided to stay in Britan for a change. I'd read that the Llyn peninsula was a lovely place to visit, and found a cottage in Snowdonia nearby, which had been voted the best place to stay in Wales a couple of years ago. We booked it up and it turned out to be a great choice. We were close to the mountains and within a fairly easy drive of some decent beaches. And the cottage was fabulous.

2004 - Jersey

A week in Jersey this year, trying to get the sunshine of France with the currency and language of Britain. We had a good week here, with a variety of places to visit and some good, sunny weather for the second half of the week. Visit Plemont Bay if you go there and are looking for a nice beach. Just be careful of the tides.

2003 - Paris and Normandy

We fancied a longer holiday this year, so booked up some time in Paris again, plus some time in a hotel in Normandy, booked through VFB Holidays. Paris was suffering a heatwave, so we didn't walk about too much, and appreciated the air conditioning in the hotel. Normandy was cooler, and the food at the hotel was first class.

2003 - York

We had a mini-break, as they're known, in York. We got a hotel near Leeds through Hotel Connexions, and drove into York each day. There's lots to see in York, and the town centre is fairly well contained, so you can walk everywhere. Overall, a refreshing and interesting break.

2002 - Turkey

I found this hotel in Turkey in the advertising pages of a BT newspaper. The rates were very cheap and it sounded nice and relaxing. It was. We spent most of our time sitting by (and swimming in) the pool, with just a few excursions. The hotel food was lovely, and cheap. Our only problem was that Turkey in August is very hot.

2001 - Gran Canaria

We went to Gran Canaria this year, booking through the travel agent. We had a fun week, with a jeep ride and a camel ride being the main highlights. Our hotel was up the top of a hill, and hot in the evenings, but had a good pool and decent dining. Not a bad holiday over all.

2001 - Madeira

We got a free weekend break this year, thanks to a colleague nominating me for an award at work. We spent the weekend at the world renowned Reids Palace - very plush. We did feel we were the youngest tourists on the island, but enjoyed our weekend, including the flower festival.

2000 - Paris

A city break for a change this year. I found a dcently priced hotel on the internet, and had enough air miles to get us there, so we had plenty of spending cash for this holiday. We went to most of the major attractions in Paris, including getting lost in the Louvre. There was so much more we didn't do, though. Highlight of the week was our visit to Versaille.

2000 - Lake District

A short break this time, with a few days in the Lake District. We stayed in Windermere, and managed to drive around most of the lakes in our 4 days. There are some lovely views among the hills, and a decent variety of eating places in Windermere.

1999 - Ibiza

Still recovering from the fanancial hit of getting married, we had a cheap package holiday in Ibiza this year. Known for it's clubbing, there is a lot more to the island, and we found some interesting and historical places to visit. The walls around Ibiza Town were a good walk, though perhaps I shouldn't have done that after psraining my ankle a couple of days before.

1998 - Torquay

It's a long drive down to the south of England, but we were able to use the car to good effect when we stayed in Torquay for the week. We went to the zoo at Paignton, which was OK, went down int Kent's Cavern, which was good, and spent the day in a forest park, which we really enjoyed. The weather was good, so we managed a bit of time at the beach as well.

1997 - Kenya

This was our honeymoon, so a bit more special than the next few holidays we'll take. We stayed at a four star hotel in Mombassa for two weeks, including a three day excursion on safari. The safari portion was great, seeing the wildlife in the flesh, and the hotel was perfect. The main dining room served great 5 course meals, and there was a good quality Indian restaurant in the basement. Mmmmm.

1991 - Zimbabwe

This was a holiday I went on with my Uncle Alex. We spent a couple of weeks in Zimbabwe with my uncle, aunt and cousin, who stay there. We had a chance to go on safari, cruise on the flooded lake at Kariba, stay in the high mountains and visit the mighty Victoria Falls. A beautiful country, with friendly people and the most amazing sights.

Camps

Every summer at the Bible Centre we have camps for kids. These are aimed at different age groups and are for spiritual teaching as well as fun and fellowship. These pages will probably be most useful as a source of amusement for the leaders and kids in the pictures when they have grown up a little and got embarrassed at how they used to look.

Year by Year

Weddings

We've been to a few weddings in the past, including our own. I like to make a written record of how things went, along with lots of pictures. This is especially good for relatives who couldn't make it, or nosey friends who weren't friends at the time. It's also an incentive to get back to the weight where we could fit into the clothes pictured.

David and Claire Meiklejohn

Let's start with our own wedding. Claire and I were married in 1997, at the Hebron Hall in Glengarnock. We had our photos taken at a local stately home and our reception at a hotel in nearby Dalry. The wedding went well, apart from the wasp that found its way into Claire's veil during the photos.

David and Marie Renton

There were three weddings among our friends in 1997, and David and Marie were the first, in March. The wedding was held at Knightswood Baptist Church in Glasgow, with the reception at the Redhurst Hotel, in the south of the town.

Iain and Nicola Taylor

Iain and Nicola were the second couple to be married in 1997, in May. The wedding was at Nicola's church, the Hebron Hall in Glengarnock, and the reception was at the Dean Park Hotel in Renfrew. The thought of Iain and Bruce taking part in a solemn ceremony was a bit worrying, but everything worked out OK.

Colin and Irene Davidson

Colin and Irene were married in 1999. Again, the wedding was in the Hebron Hall in Glengarnock, and they had their reception in the Claremont Hotel in Kilwinning. They were piped in to the reception, which was nice.

David and Marisa Mahood

David and Marisa were married in 2003. The wedding was in Newton Mearns Baptist Church, and the reception at the Sherbrooke Hotel. We enjoyed this wedding but I was disappointed to miss seeing the surprise guest in the bar, a Mr McCoist.

Johnny and Stacie Anderson

Johnny and Stacie had their wedding and reception in the Orton Hall Hotel in Peterborough. This was a long journey, so we travelled down by train and stayed over at the hotel, which was a lovely place, and we particularly enjoyed the snooker room. The reception was notable as the DJ gave way to a surprise singer who gave a rendition of Smoke on the Water with Stacie on guitar.

Meiklejohns Around the World

Cate

Wedding

Bible Centre

Updates

Events

Me

Family

Work

Personal

Cate

New Arrival

Week 1 - In the Hospital

First Days at Home

Eating and Growing

Fooood

6 Months

Commando Cate

1 Year!

Speech

Adventures in the Woods

2

Big Girl Pants

Shiny Stones

Nursery and Sharks

"I want to be a marine biologist"

School

Guineas

Primary 1

Primary 2

Christianity

Beliefs

GO Clubs

Gallowhill Club

I'm Engaged

Doghnuts

My Work

History

Scotland

Scenery

Inventions

Cate's Autumnwatch

Oak

Horse Chestnut

Sycamore

Beech

Ash

Hawthorn

Alder

Whitebeam

Hornbeam

Rowan

Willow

Silver Birch

Cate's Stone Collection

Amethyst

Blue Goldstone

Chrysotile

Copper

Dalmatian Dacite

Geode

Green Calcite

Hematite

Jasper

Malachite

Moonstone

Quartz

Snowflake Obsidian

Tiger's Eye

Nautiloid

Ammonite

Shark Tooth

Turqurenite

Carnelian

Peacock Pyrite

Lapis Lazuli

Gypsum

Amazonite

Unakite

Aventurine