05/10/2022
Monday morning, Grandma and Grandpa Nicholls woke up for their first full day in what was sunny Glasgow. Totally exchausted from the long fight the day beforehand, it had been a solid nights sleep with strong snores resonating throughout the house. That was a good enough excuse for the excited kiddies to be up bright and early, they flew downstairs to jump on the grandparents.
The grandparents had been in Glasow for almost twenty hours, time to see a castle. It was a short drive to a local favourite, Mugdock Castle. Tour guide Lachlan had his sprinting shoes on as he led the way deep into the Country Park.
Grandma Nicholls described Mugdock Castle as “old and I don’t know Liam”, the jetlag is still wearing off.
On the way home we stopped at Milngavie for coffees, Jane’s Aussie radar must have been pinging as we bumped into Juju, a nice surprise. After the grandparents had been hit by their first Lachnado it was back home to put up the feet and relax. Although ‘relax’ is not a word in Lachnado’s vocabulary and Lachnados do strike twice. Meanwhile, Super Mum was loving being able to leave a room without a small person hot on her heels demanding a snack.
After a quick trip past the Bearsden Bath House, Eloise was on the BBQ, she had to prove to the grandparents that under that thick Glaswegian accent there was still an Aussie inside.
Monday evening “an artist from Kent has achieved his childhood dream – to live in a house full of doodles”.
Tuesday morning, for his first breakfast of the day, Lachlan tried Vegemite which had been especially hand carried across the globe. After copying his big sister and gulping it down, he quickly found out that he was not a Vegemite kid. Fair enough, Dad has never been able to eat it either. Looks like all the Vegemite is for the girls.
The luck with the weather had run out on day three. It was a wet one in the morning with Liam catching the Brompton Boat into work. The canal and locks were roaring!
Super Mum and the kids took the grandparents into the city. However, there was no escaping the rain. In the photo below who do you you think is enjoying the rain the most? I will give you a hint. Grandpa Nicholls described the days rain as “wetting and persistant”, they just cannot get away from it.
There was confusion when they ran into the Duke of Wellington statue, it did not help their tour guide was sleeping on the job. Luckily there was a cone on the Duke already so the grandparents did not have to make the climb. Grandpa was trying to work out how to add another but Grandma would not let him climb up on her shoulders.
The equestrian statue of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington located outside the Royal Exchange, now known as the Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow, Scotland, is one of Glasgow’s most iconic landmarks. It was sculpted by Italian artist Carlo Marochetti and erected in 1844… In recent times the statue has become known for being capped with a traffic cone. Adorning the statue with a cone had continued over many years: the act was claimed to represent the humour of the local population and was believed to date back to the 1980s, if not before. In 2005, Glasgow City Council and Strathclyde Police took a stance of asking the public not to replace the cone, citing minor damage to the statue and the potential for injury when attempting to place a cone. In 2011 the Lonely Planet guide included the statue in its list of the “top 10 most bizarre monuments on Earth”.
The grandparnents described lunch as “crazy”, they are starting to understand the beast that is Lachnado, the food was flying. After tiring himself out, Lachlan sat happily with Grandma all the way home.
In the afternoon, Eloise was extra excited as she headed off to show the grandparents where her dance class is. Besides her festive dance performance scheduled towards the end of this year we still know very little about what goes on at dance, besides the fact that Eloise loves it! Occasionally a Dance Mom peeps a look to let us all know before getting told off, Grandma could not resist, Eloise spotted her snooping and thought it was hilarious.
After a solid nap and with Eloise off tapping, Lachlan showed the grandparents his favourite spot in the library.
In the afternoon it was techincally already Grandpa’s birthday but as we are all living in the past it was not yet here. Either way, we headed to the family favourite, the Tickled Trout for an early birthday dinner.
Liam did the first car trip back dropping off Super Mum and a very tired Lachlan. Meanwhile Eloise felt like the luckiest girl in the world, staying out a bit longer and sharing ice cream with the grandparents.
After a couple of shuttles from Uber Liam, the Nicholls were all in their element on the couch rewatching some movie that they had all apparently watched a few dozen times already, because that is supposedly what is the done thing.
Wednesday night at Anfield, there was the highly anticipated first leg between Liverpool and Rangers. The good guys got up early thanks to a terrific Trent freekick. Next week Liverpool will be heading to Glasgow for the return leg at Ibrox. Liam is still desperate for tickets, which is proving difficult.
This morning it was Grandpa’s first Glaswegian birthday. Eloise was panicking as she had not wrapped his present yet, she quickly dashed off to finish it off last second.
It seemed appropriate to start the day with a Scottish birthday breakfast with Super Mum firing up the Lorne sausages, there was no birthday haggis.
To continue the theme, Eloise whipped up some of her signature Empire biscuits, they always go down a treat and are Lachie friendly. Followed by her scottish highland tap dancing.
In the afternoon the Grandparents were on a bus out to Edinburgh airport. Both the kids were sad to see them leave, but they promised to return. As soon as Dad was home from work, Eloise was quick to ask for her first Caramello Koala, “dahhhlicious”.
[…] was shaping up to be another wet day as summer fights a losing battle, Curious George was not having any of that and used his part Irish […]