Day 201: Cake my day

11/02/2022

Monday started with the blog’s photographer, Nathan, taking this ripper along the River Clyde. Cheers Nathan, your commission will be coming in the Royal Mail. We have recently been discussing that we will have to bring some art home to remember this adventure. Nathan’s photos might just do the trick.

It was a fairly ordinary Monday although it was announced “Neighbours will be forced to ‘rest’ production after UK broadcaster dumps iconic show”. Australian television is actually quite popular over here. Whether it’s Masterchef, Survivor, MAFS, Lego Masters or Bluey.

In case English cricket had not been embarrassed enough in Australia. “Australia beats England by eight wickets in final Women’s Ashes ODI to complete dominant summer… England will leave Australia after failing to record a win all summer between their men’s and women’s teams”.

After Lachlan’s Tuesday morning laughing fits had ended, the kids were back out terrorising the streets of Glasgow.

It was a terrible week in terms of early meetings. It is a good lifestyle once you get used to them, but since the new year, this week felt challenging. You know meetings are too early when you are waking up before Lachnado. The only positive is a 15:00 finish. The sun seems to have returned from vacation which has been lovely and good for those vitamin D levels.

We finally managed to get into an NHS dentist. Another great feature of the UK’s public health system is free dentistry. It suddenly dawned on us that this was Eloise’s first proper visit to the dentist. Super Mum went with the tactic of promising Eloise the dentist would give her a sticker, a bold move, “sticker, sticker, Daddy, dentist will give me a sticker”, she was suddenly very excited, we’ll see about that. As the lovely dentist asked Eloise to climb up into the chair it went about as well as you can imagine. No sticker, but she was happy in the end that she got another wee toothbrush, I think that takes her tally at home up to six.

There was an interesting Scotland and Beijing’s Winter Olympics related article in the BBC “Curling is back in the spotlight at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics – and all the stones used by the competitors originate from an uninhabited Scottish island”. On the topic of curling, only a few days ago, Australian “curling duo Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt overcame a horror week of COVID-19 uncertainty to secure Australia’s first win in the Olympic sport“. Our house is a twenty-minute drive away from Braehead Curling Rink. We will have to give this a crack soon. Liam needs to find a sports club to join. This could be it. Trust us, the video below is better than any TV you are all watching tonight, good stuff.

Wednesday, was Liam’s birthday. There was no time to celebrate in the morning, we managed to slip in a rushed call back home with the family. At midday, we made the most of the sun and went for a cheeky stroll which was nice. Eloise was on a mission to convince Lauren that 4°C is the new 20°C, guess it is all relative.

Dad had to dive back into meetings leaving the girls to finish off the cake and a final dash to the shops for party supplies. Eloise is getting very good at baking and cooking.

In the afternoon, it was party time!

Eloise and Super Mum had made pinatas during the week, special points to Eloise who even made it Iron Man themed. We had to get onto the pinatas quickly, Lachlan had started nomming them.

The girls had nailed the cake, Lachlan was excited!

Eloise and Lachnado spoiled Dad with some old man hiking sticks, bring on Ben Nevis.

Now for the throwbacks of all throwbacks. There should be some familiar faces 😉

Happy Birthday Chris! Thank you everyone, for the lovely birthday messages.

It was Sophie’s turn to drive the like-minded mummas to Bounce Back to Netball. This week it is half term for schools in our area so there were only eight out. However, they think they are just coming up with excuses for everyone now so are on a recruitment drive for more like-minded mummas. Grandma Nicholls get ready to bounce back!

On Wednesday, BoJo must have had another BoJo brain wave, this time his most cunning yet, BoJo going all in saying “all remaining Covid restrictions in England – including the legal rule to self-isolate – could end later this month”.

Thursday morning was the third and final 06:00 meeting in a row for the week. With a bit more time up our sleeves, we went out for a belated birthday dinner as Liam dragged on his birthday celebrations. Eloise did not take much convincing, putting in an order for ice cream before we had even left the front door. It was time to try out the Tickled Trout, we had driven past it so many times.

Eloise obviously knows the game plan by now and was very helpful, getting all of Lachlan’s food and toys out of her bag for him. Although the food was not coming quick enough. Lachnado was starving by the time we arrived. Another classic Scottish pub, we all loved the food and tartan carpets.

Eloise demolished her dinner and had not forgotten about her ice cream. We figured we should do it properly and had to try out the local Loop & Scoop.

Sadly, yesterday “koalas are now considered an endangered species in NSW, Queensland and the ACT, as numbers plummet due to climate change, land clearing and disease.”

This morning it was frosty with ice covering the trees. Eloise was not interested though because there was not enough snow to build a snowman. She was excited that her friends came over for a playdate. Juju very kindly brought gifts from her recent trip to Australia, the mysterious island that confuses Eloise from time to time.

After an adrenaline-filled morning, the kids had a midday nap, much needed for Elosie, her first for the week. With newfound light in the evening, we headed ten minutes north in the car to Mugdock Country Park. There was more snow here, still not snowman building levels though. Lachlan was glad we packed the baby carrier instead of the Batmobile.

We thought we would stroll to Mugdock Castle. However, Eloise wanted to practice her football skills so we stalled at Craigend Castle where she found some makeshift goals.

After some off-roading, we headed back to the car and spotted some more coos on the way home. Ready for a big day tomorrow.