Friday 20 March 2009

Barmaddy March 2009


The "expedition" arrived at Barmaddy around 2pm and the first job in hand was to "get the fire going" the first of Seumas' many and varied instructions (commands). Barmaddy farmhouse is set in a fairway off the main road, overlooking extensive woods and hills, a beautiful sight, and from a distance the house is in itself quite a commanding scene.

Accommodation, though basic, is comfortable and as with anything else, it is what you make of it. lots of work has already been done on the house but there is still much to do, with the enthusiasm of the Galgael crew this will certainly be achieved.

Work at times was hard, always enjoyable and in the evenings a healthy meal was had along with some long and often hilarious chinwag. For some odd reason Yanos, our hungarian friend tended to fall asleep.

Anyway, the few days spent at Barmaddy will always be memorable and given the chance I'd be off like a shot again and if anyone at GalGael gets the opportunity to go, take it with both hands.

Chris Doyle, GalGael "Navigate Life" participant.

Thursday 19 March 2009

Tool Kits Presented




Congratulations to Davy Whiteside and Grant Davidson on completing our Navigate life course.
The pictures show the lads being presented with their full bag of tools by Ian Bogle our workshop supervisor.

Monday 16 March 2009













Friday 6th March. Instead of our typical Friday outing, we were very happy to welcome back Luke Concannon with his mates from the Manjinga 7. We had a brilliant day! We started out by writing up key words then rhyming them into a rap then added chords and a melody. The pieces of music were performed later as Luke and the band done an excellent set of songs in our workshop, which is becoming a venue for film and music more and more these days. We witnessed some very expressive dancing too from various quarters of the GalGael posse. Thanks to Alastair for a cracking performance of "Homage to young men". It just goes to prove, you can still have a good time and get into the vibe without spending what little cash you have on drink and drugs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-2_EsAbFQo


Thanks to all who helped set up the area for the event and to our special guests who were a great bunch of guys and who we hope will come back again.

Monday 2 March 2009

Two more participants complete the course.

Congratulations to Alec Ogilvie and Frankie Scott who both recieved their tool bags on completing our Navigate life course. Both are still at GalGael doing a bit of volunteering though Frankie will be starting a new job this week while Alec is working with Ian Wade our blacksmith, learning how to use the forge and anvil.

Friday Gig at GalGael




Luke ConCannon from chart topping band Nizlopi will be at Galgael on Friday the 6th of March with his friends from the Manjinga 7. They will be doing a songwriting workshop with our trainees followed by a performance and we will be breaking out the scran (food- for the uninitiated) later on. Times are still to be confirmed so give us a phone (0141 427 3070) before Friday. Check out Nilopi's no. one single at the link below;





The Manjinga 7 can be seen at;








New Participant Intake




We have just welcomed our latest group of participants onto the course and they seemed to have got off to a good start. A trip on the Clyde is always a good way of getting to know each other, especially when you have to hold onto the person next to you when flying out of the water on an inflatible rib doing a rate of knots. Yes we had a great time, zooming downriver to Dumbarton for fish suppers on the Seaforce inflatables. The weather was great for this time of year and it was good to see so much birdlife on the Clyde.