The Gillespies
A brief history in Manchester
Craig (aka crespie) moved from Glasgow to Manchester back in November 2005, starting at work later that month, and (eventually) bringing along Victoria, his Canadian wife. One of the first more formal evenings (and not just, y'know, random drinks after work) with the Gillespies was a tapas night at the Allen/Schofield flat back in November 2006. Here, Craig and Vicky are gobsmacked by the vast array of dishes on offer. Hey, that's tapas. We all seem to have fancy drinking glasses, which suggests that we were celebrating something, good news perhaps. And indeed we were - the news that Vicky was pregnant!
For the record, here they are, from top to bottom: marinated cheese, mixed salad, sautéed potatoes (sort of patatas bravas but without the, um, bravas), chorizo (possibly in red wine), Spanish tortilla, meatballs (aka albondigas), chicken in white wine sauce, bread. Result: bloating due to overeating (probably).
On 29 May 2007, young Julia was born. One of her first outings was a trip to Akbar's on Liverpool Road, on 30 June 2007. And what a fine choice for her first restaurant. I've managed to dig out some mobile phone pictures from that very night. Here's Julia...
In the end, Julia opted out of the curry itself, but was frequently passed across the table, on this occasion to me. S'easy this baby holding thing. Lynne was in Luton at the time, so did not see the evidence of this for a while. In the background, you can see a table of fellow diners, one of whom was slightly too eager to hold the baby. Get back, strangers! Also, due to the camera (erm, phone) angle, my head looks massive and Julia looks tiny... Ok, ok, but more so than is actually the case.
Craig and I had been playing pool earlier that evening, and Vicky brought Julia along for the meal later (much later - these pictures were taken at around 10pm). What it did mean is that the boys were increasingly worse for wear. This is Craig's "no more naan, please" look.
Ok, ok, here's a shot of Craig playing pool earlier, looking very determined.
A while later, in July 2007, Lynne and I visited the Gillespies' flat in Withington. Lynne showed herself to be a natural baby carer...
...ok, give her time (and whack a dummy in)...
...getting there, but still a look of sadness in those baby eyes (contrasting with the look of hope in Lynne's)...
...there we go. Unfortunately, that last photo was taken nearly an hour after the first couple, but you can't win 'em all. We settled down for a tile-based variant of gin rummy, but Craig nearly lost control of his balance. Or had wind. Or something.
Paul used a heady cocktail of Tiger and Peroni to subdue young Julia. It's almost a compare and contrast photo pair: in the first, the look is one of "what do I do with this baby?"; the second shows a little more interaction.
Craig on the other hand looked very pleased with himself. Beer does that.
Here we see Julia craving a slightly over-spilling Peroni.
It didn't take long for the girls to get bored with games and start dreaming about being somewhere else.
Erm, not sure what they are doing here. They look very serious, though. Playing Operation perhaps. Or changing Julia. Or clearing up. Oh, who knows.
Lynne does her impression of The Scream. Or an impression of Sylvester Stallone doing an impression of The Scream.
Craig looks like he is thinking very hard, perhaps as to what the meaning of life is. (It's nothing to do with God, Craig.) Either that or he is trying to remember how to shoot his pretend gun.
Erm, there aren't many shots of Julia now so I'll wrap up quickly with a shot of the girls..
And, of course, of Craig, holding on to the chair for dear life, looking downbeat and then puzzled. Like everyone has left the building, he doesn't know why and he blames himself. Or maybe he's just off his arse on beer. Who knows, it was so long ago.
We now move on to Julia's first visit to 126 City South, on 4 October 2007. Firstly, me looking vaguely surprised to have a small baby thrust into my arms as soon as possible. And, bizarrely, the backdrop depicts a photo of Lynne, also with Julia. Ah, that's the PC monitor on slideshow with the photos from the visit to Withington (see above).
Lynne looks much more happy to have the privilege of holding Julia, but she is thirsty by the looks of things...
And now very much knackered, again with Lynne being the carer. There's no in-between step, sorry. But Julia does magically change in between, from canary yellow dungarees to a fetching lime green all-in-one, very much the talk of the toddler catwalk.
Julia was so zonked, in fact, that it was possible to take a close-up picture with flash and get no or little response.
Sometimes you get those moments. Like you've had a child and you know your life will never be the same again, that you will never once have a moment to yourself, without responsibilities, without someone to look after. And then you are on a night out and pass your four- or five-month old baby to someone else and just have a grand old giggle.
Ok, another day, another picture of Craig looking puzzled. He has rather mastered that one. Maybe the girls have been taking the piss out of him and he's trying to work out either (i) what the hell they are saying, or (ii) a fantastically good comeback. Vicky looks amused anyway.
Rather than bother cooking, we ordered delivery curry from Millennium Spice. No idea what all the curries are. At least Craig didn't order a Caribbean pizza this time, just to annoy me. (Pepperoni and pineapple, in case you were wondering.)
Here we have all the Gillespies in a row, with Julia particularly surprised by something. Craig looks on with (very) mild curiosity as Vicky tries to find out what he is thinking using ancient Canadian mind techniques.
Ok, feeding time. Come on Julia, have some chicken tikka whatever. No? Ok, then...
Craig holding baby time (about time too, but that's fair enough). Julia looks a little disturbed. Maybe she had that spicy piece of chicken after all.
Once the food had all been cleared away, it was time for telly-watching time. Not having a TV at home, Julia was fascinated. As was I. Must have been something good on.
Hilariously, this is a still from the movie in which Julia vomited milky substance (probably milk) on Lynne's arm. And that was that, time to go home.
Not sure what the occasion was, but this was from some time or other, with Julia possibly a little over a year old. Firstly, in PwC reception, held by Miss Schofield...
...and later on in the evening, out on the town. In fact, this when we went to the Pitcher & Piano after work. But when was it? Maybe November 2007...?
And there are also shots from some point, some other event it seems, thusly, with Julia and an industrial-sized dummy.
And also like this, this time depicting the wanted three. We think that this was from our visit to the Gillespies' flat in Withington, but shot using my phone. So this will date from around July 2007.
Ok, back to some gratuitous Julia shots, as we move to 18 November 2007, when the Gillespies came round to 126 City South for the last time before heading to Canada, with young Julia now six months old. She could (mostly) sit up by herself! And look really happy!
Here is Julia's doting mother, Victoria, looking with pride at Julia still holding the very happy look. No doubt Craig was pulling faces again.
But joy gave way to anxiety when faced with the problem of a TV remote control. So many buttons. And pointing the wrong way too...
Ok, enough of the crowd-pleasing baby shots, time for one of Craig's trademark poses. This time, he is not sure what to do when the lampshade touches his head. "Do I just head it?"
It looks here like Julia has learnt to take pictures of herself. But that can't be true. Can it?
It was then time for Julia to ride on the back Craig. She sort of seems to be enjoying herself, but the overriding look is one of mild apprehension and awe.
Sniff, time for a family shot before they go...
...although they've not gone yet - time for more shoulder action. Not sure what is happening here, but Julia is the right way up anyway.
Time to get the outdoor clothes on. Looking pretty snug there.
Impressively, Julia had already started to read complicated documents.
Lynne and Julia had a staring competition...
...which Julia won easily but was relatively nonplussed about it... and notice the shadowy figure of Victoria in the background.
And time for one last shot with the two of us. At first the anxious look, but then the cheeky scamp look.
Ok, Paul's turn...
...before it was time to say (sniff) goodbye. There they go...
And that was that - off they went to Canada.
However, they returned to England in July 2009. On 6 July 2009, the Gillespies stayed over at 130 City South, our temporary rented accommodation in the same building as our old flat (don't ask). On 21 July 2008, there had been an addition to the Gillespie clan: Claudia. Here she is, being held by Lynne. Snotting a bit.
Meanwhile, Julia, complete with a blonde head of hair, was on a strict diet of cheddar cheese and bag handles.
Feeding time! They loved their yoghurts. Julia is using mind techniques to ask if she can play Fallout 3 on the PlayStation 3. Erm, that's a no, Julia.
Here's another shot of Julia. Erm, nothing in particular to add. Except that she is probably plotting something.
Here Julia looks a little anxious in front of Winnie The Pooh and Tigger, while Claudia looks on to see what might happen next.
Claudia was rather excited by it all. Just the four teeth for now.
Same old story: you (not us personally) spend loads of money on toys and they find it much more fun to play with the net curtain...
...or indeed in the wash basket...
After an afternoon of drinking (parenting must do that to you), we headed out to Shimla Pinks for a curry. On one side, we have Julia and Craig...
...and on the other side we have Claudia, in high chair (y'know, just to make sure you know who is who), with Victoria. They wisely stayed clear of the curry (not due to any lack of quality - it's just that someone has to change the nappies...).
Julia quite liked the thin, curly bits of carrot... particularly when dunked in the mint yoghurt sauce.
In fact, Julia got a real taste for the mint yoghurt sauce...
...particularly on poppadoms. The age-old aeroplane-feeding technique, with additional fake biting noise, worked wonders and had Julia giggling.
And then it was time for them to go back to the flat before they got too tired. Some of us foolishly stayed out a few hours longer (and even more foolishly ordered shooters - no names mentioned, Craig). Craig and I played SuperCars II on the Amiga emulator with nostalgic abandon, both at stupid o'clock when we got back from the pub, and also the next morning after Craig had dropped off the girls at a friend's (I decided it was probably better to take the morning off work in order to, um, give them a proper goodbye).
And that is where we have to leave it. Who knows when we'll next see the Gillespies...