31/07/2022
Saturday morning there was a bit of a drizzle. Eloise was looking forward to another indoor Football Buzz session. We were almost late as she demanded a last-second car park water bottle switcheroo. What’s the time Mr Wolf was back by popular demand, an Eloise favourite.
After a tricky session, we made our way home to see Lachlan enjoying three cheeky babyccinos.
Once Lachlan was babyccinoed out, we made out way to Dalreoch Station to rendezvous with Kirrie.
After a morning sprinkle it was shaping up to be a nice day. Eloise was not taking any chances though.
It was a short walk to Scottish Pipe Band Championships. We had been to the British Pipe Band Championship in May where it was bucketing down. The sun was fighting to make an appearance, today was looking much nicer. On the walk in you could hear the pipers. The event was massive, there were half a dozen arenas and at any one time an additional dozen or so teams tuning and warming up. It was a loud constant drone of pipes and drums.
We started with the highlander dancers. Unfortunately, Eloise is not as enthusiastic about it as we were hoping. Lachlan loves a good dance about though.
There were also wee owls that Lachlan was excited to see. Not surprising, by the amount of flapping he did at the Scottish Owl Centre.
We followed our ears to one of the arenas and tuned into the sound of Scotland. Although it was the Scottish Pipe Band Championships, teams from all around the world were here to compete. Some were likely using this as a warm-up for the World Pipe Band Championships at Glasgow Green in a fortnight’s time.
We are not going to lie, we struggle to tell the difference between a decent pipe band and a brilliant pipe band. Especially when there are a hundred odd teams competing.
Then all of a sudden, a wild CG appeared. Eloise could not believe her luck, two CG sightings in two days. Of course, he was near the big gun. CG has actually won the Scottish Pipe Band Championships when he was a wee drummer boy. We had lots of questions about judging. In the end, we are still convinced it all sounds the same.
Lachlan was loving the sounds and danced around admiring the kilts. There were heaps of kilts, every tartan under the sun.
A green tartan marched by which caught our eye. It was our mates, we did a quick scout for David and Maria, sadly they were not present.
Eloise had been very patient listening to the pipe bands. We had promised her a ride, so we made our way over to the large ride section.
Sadly all of the rides were fairly wild, even the tea cups were pulling a few g’s. We were a bit unsure about them, the sun had come out so Eloise happily settled for an ice cream.
Somehow out of nowhere in the afternoon, Eloise remembered she had not finished her LEGO Easter set. Speaking of which we still have the Glasglobe to assemble. The Easter set is very complicated for Eloise at this stage, she enjoys finding the pieces and saying the colours while helping Dad try and put it together. We are on schedule for next Easter.
We had to park the build and rush downstairs to run about with Ladle Boy.
Lachlan was full of energy, there was no slowing him down. Dinner was on the go.
In the evening we tuned in to see Liverpool lift the Community Shield, excitingly, one week left until the Prem is back! It will be an unusual season with the world preparing for the FIFA 2022 World Cup in Qatar in a few months time.
It was also the start of the Scottish Premiership with “Gio van Bronckhorst’s men [winning]on opening day”.
This morning there was a drizzle and a half. We optimistically chucked the bikes in the car and headed south to explore Calderglen Country Park.
Calderglen Country Park has a wee zoo which the kids were excited to check out. The kids were free and adults were only £1.85, possibly the only cheap thing in the UK.
As soon as we entered the kids were loving the “cheeky monkeys”. There was an unusual collection of animals from all over the world, some we had never heard of before. The day was getting better and better for Eloise, who then found some buttons.
Not only were there Australian plants, but there was also a familiar Aussie laugh too.
It was the perfect-sized zoo to let the kids take the lead exploring.
After wandering about, we were getting peckish. We made our way deeper into the country park, lunch today was at the Court Yard.
With bellies full, we chased the girls down and down and down the valley. It was such a beautiful place. We were not entirely sure how we were going to get the batmobile out.
After escaping the enchanted forest we rushed back to the car to get out of the rain. However, the kids insists they throw on their puddle suits and it was back out to the playground and down the super fast slide.
Eloise and Foxie rushed back to the chopper and headed home.
The MET had got it right in the afternoon. The sun started shining and more importantly after a long 56 year wait the women had brought football home!
“England created history by winning their first major women’s tournament in a dramatic Euro 2022 final against old rivals and eight-time champions Germany at Wembley. Substitute Chloe Kelly poked home a loose ball from a corner to send the raucous record crowd of 87,192 into a frenzy with ten minutes of extra time remaining”. Possibly peaking at the right time with the FIFA 2023 World Women’s World Cup hosted in Australia and New Zealand this time next year.
“Three Lions”, also referred to as “It’s Coming Home” or “Football’s Coming Home” due to lyrics contained in the chorus, is a song by English comedians David Baddiel and Frank Skinner and the rock band the Lightning Seeds. It was released on 20 May 1996… Both the original version of “Three Lions” and the updated “Three Lions ’98” peaked at number one in the UK Singles Chart becoming one of only three songs to top the British charts more than once with lyric variants; the others are “Mambo No. 5″… The song has been described as the de facto “anthem” of English football since 1996. Its chorus, with the refrain “It’s coming home”, has become a popular chant for fans at England games.
A blast from the past…
[…] Curious George’s drum lesson and watching the Scottish Pipe Band Championships, Eloise has been working on her skills, sadly not the bagpipes… That is a work in […]