19/12/2021
On Monday, our tartan Christmas stockings arrived. Eloise is always excited when the Amazon Prime van pulls up out the front, we think Lachlan is starting to learn what that means too. She unwrapped the box quickly and put them straight on her feet. She was a bit confused why her socks were so big and concerned with how slippery they were.
BoJo announced that “Omicron has risen to more than 44% of cases in London and is expected to become the dominant variant in the city in the next 48 hours”. Looks like we may have timed the family getaway well.
Tuesday, Liam was up at 04:30 and caught the early morning hour-long flight back to the Land of Omicron, London. This time flying straight into London City Airport for the first time. He was hoping for a nice view as he descended over London, however, they flew down the coast and the steep approach was from the east.
It was a quick in and out, catching the driverless trains into the heart of London while trying not to breathe. Mask wearing in London had certainly picked up after last week. Liam only had an hour to walk along the River Thames and through Trafalgar Square. Not much sightseeing today.
It was then back on the Avanti West Coast Train. This time, with a first-class ticket, to try and dodge Omicron. With nothing to do and not a kid hanging off either hip it was a much more relaxing ride than last week, almost therapeutic.
In the afternoon, First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon urged Scots to “limit socialising to three households”. BoJo also announced that “all 11 countries will be removed from the UK’s travel red list from 4am on Wednesday” as he starts work at creating the next variant.
For dinner, Bill and Jennine dropped by, Eloise made sure to put them to work with the Duplo blocks.
Wednesday, for Sophie and the kids, started Eloise’s favourite way, at the playground. The puddle suit was a great hand-me-down as Eloise loves rolling about in the sand, no matter what the weather is doing.
It was our third wedding anniversary. To celebrate we went out for dinner around the corner to Burnbrae – Pub & Grill, a classic Britsh Pub. We tried dual wielding high chairs for the first time which worked brilliantly. Strange feeling eating dinner without wrestling a baby or toddler at the same time.
We asked Eloise to take a romantic photo of us, after a couple of attempts, this was the best she produced.
We figured that they will most likely introduce some restrictions shortly, well they will try at least. So we made the most of it and had to check out the dessert menu. Eloise was very happy with her selection of chocolate ice cream with chocolate sauce.
Wednesday, “The UK has recorded the highest number of daily Covid-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic, with 78,610 reported”. Although it is estimated that case numbers could have been up to five times larger at the beginning of the pandemic before BoJo started testing.
Thursday, Liam had no early meetings so managed to slip in watching a couple of early hours of The Ashes Second Test Match in Adelaide, Day One. A day/ night test match works so well for the timezones. We have started teaching Lachlan the rules.
There was an informative article about why although NHS Scotland is independent to NHS England and can put in place their own Health advice. Ultimately all the funding to support the furlough of staff is controlled by BoJo, so it is difficult for NHS Scotland to send everyone home from their jobs to isolate when BoJo is happy with how things are progressing.
Friday, Liam had the day off work so after taking Foxie for a walk the family headed to the playground for a playdate. There was not too much playing on the equipment, Eloise is obsessed with the sand, she must be missing her sandpit.
Liam also got his COVID-19 Booster jab. Sophie’s is tomorrow. Well-timed as on Friday “Omicron [became the] dominant virus variant in Scotland” and “the UK reported 93,045 new Covid cases today, breaking the daily record for the third consecutive day”. Hopefully, these will keep us safe. It is another vaccination race against the clock as Scotland “aim to offer boosters to all adults by end of year”. It is a little messy we now have two incomplete vaccination passports, although no one seems to care about them here. Verbal confirmation seems to be more than enough evidence to enter a venue.
In the afternoon we took Foxie for a walk to put her asleep. Ironically Eloise saw a real fox prowling the streets and freaked out and had to be carried home “me no like foxes”.
Saturday, Lachlan and Foxie got a nice push around Pollok Country Park to see the coos again. Eloise was glad they had returned, as they do seem to be fair weather coos. She enjoyed yelling at them to “sit down cooooo”. Funnily enough, they actually listened to her and she managed to get three coos to lie down on command. More obedient than Delilah.
It was then home to start producing the gingerbread men army.
Lachlan tried to take Eloise’s dinner when she was not watching. Eloise made sure that was not going to happen again.
This morning it was back to the Balloch Castle & Country Park. Eloise had another shot on the bike and she was much more confident today.
Instead of making our way to the top where Balloch Castle is we went to visit the Walled Garden.
We then rushed home to warm up and finish off the army. We actually had to make a couple more batches because some disappeared last night.
[…] Dad had finished slogging it out for the day we headed to the Burnbrae for a special birthday […]