Day 392: Bubbleology

21/08/2022

Saturday morning there were early concerns. It was Football Buzz time, but Eloise refused to put on her ‘boots’ and would only wear her new Frozen shoes that Emma had generously passed on to her. They are at least one size too big, Eloise did her best to convince us they fit her perfectly. Eloise was actually on fire with the Frozen shoes, the “biggggg kicksssss” were only getting bigger. Her passing and aiming impressed Dad too. There were a few more girls at Football Buzz this morning which was good to see. One had an Australian Surf Life Saving t-shirt on, we introduced ourselves but Eloise was not trusting her. Good call Eloise, she was not even from Australia.

Each session Eloise lets me step back further, she sometimes gets grumpy if I do not keep up “C’mon DAD!!!”. She seems to be enjoying the challenge, although there has not been much progress in the little kicks department.

It was shaping up to be another cracking day, we swung past home to pick up the misfits before making out way through the Botanic Gardens. Strangely there seemed to be a lot more flowers than at the start of August last year, perhaps a result of the out-of-control heatwaves.

After some general hooliganism, we made our way through the West End tenements following our noses to the Gyros shop, worryingly becoming a Friday tradition.

It was the perfect day for a stroll through the University of Glasgow.

Eloise helped Lachlan up to the weird and wonderful Hunterian Museum, we had heard it was open again.

The Hunterian is a complex of museums located in and operated by the University of Glasgow in Glasgow, Scotland. It is the oldest museum in Scotland. It covers the Hunterian Museum, the Hunterian Art Gallery, the Mackintosh House, the Zoology Museum and the Anatomy Museum, which are all located in various buildings on the main campus of the University in the west end of Glasgow. In 1783, William Hunter, a Scottish anatomist and physician who studied at the University of Glasgow, died in London. His will stipulated that his substantial and varied collections should be donated to the University of Glasgow… As well as Hunter’s medical collections, which arose from his own work, Hunter collected widely, often assisted by his many royal and aristocratic patrons. He and his agents scoured Europe for coins, minerals, paintings and prints, ethnographic materials, books and manuscripts, as well as insects and other biological specimens… The museum first opened in 1807 in a specially constructed building off the High Street.

After looking at the bizarre collection we relaxed in the sun while watching the kids do shuttle runs up the steep hill.

Out of nowhere, Eloise decided it was ice cream time, “it’s hot, let’s cool down”.

After a tiring week, we headed home for Peppa Pig, like usual Eloise was in charge of Lachlan and Dad.

This morning was Groundhog Day. We were prepared for another relaxing train ride. Not so fast, Lachlan was not feeling like his usual train nap, he was determined to surf the train back to the Fringe.

Eloise is starting to know her way around Edinburgh like the back of her hand and led us up through the levels of the Old Town. The first thing we noticed was that Edinburgh was looking gross, or how Eloise would say “disgaauusting”. “The piles of fast food boxes, bottles and cans are inching ever higher next to Edinburgh’s overflowing street bins. Only four days into the capital’s 12-day waste collection strike and the city centre is already a sorry sight”.

Of course, the kids led us back to the babyccino store.

Around the corner was the Piccolo tent, the kids were excited to see The Bubble Show. Eloise was struggling to sit on her seat she was laughing so much at the storyline. Lachan was up and about with his cheery show jig.

Professor Bubbles was a blast. There were some clever, helium, hot air neutrally buoyant bubbles, Eloise enjoyed the fire bubbles, Lachlan loved all of the above, sadly he was not old enough to go inside a bubble.

Coincidentally an “Adelaide man [holds the] Guinness World Record for the world’s ‘tallest free-standing soap bubble’… Graeme Denton, aka Marty McBubble, broke the record with a bubble that reached up 10.75 metres, or more than 35 feet, from the ground”.

Full of excitement and energy Lachlan was off to see what the Garden had to offer.

We happened to bump into our mate who was a long way from home.

Lachlan had been looking forward all morning to catching more Pokémon. Eloise made sure that our runner did not stray too far away.

It was a late Thai lunch before catching an early train back to Glasgow. Bounce Back to Netball is back on! Now on a Sunday night. It was nice to have Jane tag along to bounce back this week.