Day 497: HMS Glasgow

04/12/2022

On Monday, Lachlan was happy to drop Eloise off at Nursery and have Super Mum all to himself while getting first dibs on the couch.

There was another cheeky catchup with Juju, shhh don’t tell Eloise. Lachlan’s babyccino was a bit cute.

Not long now until we fly back to Australia, Eloise is preparing for her citizenship test at the border. She loves this book Sue.

On Tuesday, Lachlan spent the day building a house for his animals with Super Mum and lapping up a second burst of sun.

After picking Eloise up in the afternoon she was eager to show us her stickers. Thankfully, she really seems to be enjoying Nursery.

Tuesday night we finally updated the two worst maintained pages on the internet: Watch us grow and Happy snaps. For all of you who have not asked, the pictures on the Watch us grow page are three months apart, hence why there are more of the Threenager than Lachnado. Whatever you do, don’t compare their hair or Lachie gets upset.

Wednesday afternoon we were walking about when all of a sudden a large TARDIS-looking thing started to make its way through the city. It was HMS Glasgow, after a Nuclear Astute Class Submarine swooped by a couple of weeks ago, what were the odds? “GROUPS have gathered along the River Clyde today to watch HMS Glasgow leave her birthplace before entering the water for the first time. Incredible footage shows the huge 6,000-tonne Royal Navy ship travelling down the River Clyde from BAE Systems in Govan on board a barge transporting her to Glen Mallan on Loch Long. After being lowered into the water the ship – the first of eight Type 26 frigates to be built for the Royal Navy will then return to BAE Systems’ Scotstoun shipyard to undergo the next stages of fitting out before testing and commissioning takes place”.

Sadly Eloise was at nursery, probably busy in her beloved mud kitchen and Lachlan was having his beauty sleep so missed the action.

“A guide to the Type 26 Frigate: Designed for anti-submarine warfare and this requirement dictates the key features of the platform. Their hull form and propulsion system have a low acoustic signature to avoid interfering with passive sonar also makes it harder for submarines to detect the ship… T26 can be described as a very large frigate, 149.9m in length with a beam of 20.8m, officially displacing 6,900 tonnes”.

In the afternoon we dashed off to pick Eloise up from nursery before heading to the local chippy and going super speed home to catch the end of the Socceroos match which was unreal, “Socceroos claim 1-0 victory to move through to final 16”.

Wednesday was St Andrew’s Day, although you would not have known, it is strangely not celebrated here.

Thursday morning was a lovely and final playdate with Jennine, the kids were eager to give Bill a buzz to check in on him.

After a hard day at the office, the kids put on their matching Christmas jammies, they were both excited by the Christmas dinosaurs on them.

The final rounds of the group stages are my favourite part of the World Cup. It was a challenge to follow who was going through in Group E. CG’s sweep draw of Spain lives on while my Wales team had failed me a couple of days earlier.

Friday morning started with some 05:45 arts and crafts. Hoorayyyy. To be fair, they still had almost eleven hours of sleep.

Although by 06:30 even the kids were questioning if they had made the right decision.

The kids were heading to Emma’s house today and could not arrive empty handed so they quickly baked snacks. The girls had matching hair which was cute.

After Super Mum had dropped the kids off with Jo, who had kindly and bravely accepted the babysitting request, we jumped on the train and excitingly made our way through the mighty PEOPLE MAKE GLASGOW covered pedestrian bridge (which could do with a bit of a clean) to our Festive Lunch at the Crowne Plaza.

After a nice meal the place went wild. I mean, it was extraordinarily loud from the get-go but the enthusiastic DJ, was more than keen for a midday rave! Not sure how common midday discos are here but we felt like it was at least six hours early.

With ears ringing and sore throats from shouting, but a lovely kid-free getaway nonetheless, we made our way back to see how they had been. Jo had done a stellar job with the three musketeers, it certainly had not been plain sailing, the kids had been, let’s just say a bit tricky but Jo had won them all over with every trick in her book. A massive thank you again Jo! We owe you one, or two, or …

On Friday, “scenes from the new Indiana Jones movie which was partly filmed in Glasgow [were] broadcast for the first time. The city was dressed up as an American street during filming for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny in summer 2021”.

Saturday morning after some festive dancing, Eloise and Dad headed off to Football Buzz. After her stellar session last week Eloise took it up another notch. We have been discussing when she moves up to the next class. Now that she is off on her own it is a big step in the right direction.

After Eloise’s best session yet, we headed home to see what Lachlan was up to before babyccinos.

The kids were in great spirits and we had to pick up a little something because they both owed Jo mega time.

Jo you will have to check out the D’Arenberg Cube, when you all come to visit us in Australia.

After the excitement of HMS Glasgow floating off on Wednesday, news broke throughout the city that she had successfully taken float and was making her way back for outfit.

We headed to Braehead for a cheeky look. Lachlan was off, excited to check it out. Eloise was not convinced after being woken up from her afternoon nap.

In the afternoon the “famous Sydney Opera House was lit up in the green and gold colours of Australia ahead of the match”.

On the other side of the world, we had a bit of a problem on our hands, there was a traitor amongst us. Even trying to convince Dad that Argentina was in Australia, perhaps she got it mixed up with Adelaide? Who knows? She better have her story straight for Border Force Security. We had to call the big guns in and invited over the largest Glasgow-based Aussie family we know, the Taylors, to help drown out Eloise’s confused cheering.

After throwing everything they had at the Argentinians, sadly, “Lionel Messi produced a moment of magic on his 1,000th career appearance as two-time champions Argentina beat Australia to reach the World Cup quarter-finals”.

It was reported on Saturday that “an agreement to return the Parthenon Sculptures – better known in the UK as the Elgin Marbles – is at “an advanced stage”, according to a Greek newspaper”. I was going to say at least the kids had the seen them, but they didn’t really.

Sunday was a sad day with the best friends of the blog, the Vines jumping on a plane and repatriating home. You will both be hugely missed by the family. Thanks for all the great times and support. The kids will be bigger, faster and more enthusiastic than ever when we catch up in Adelaide, watch out.

In the morning Lachlan was busy wrapping presents before he was interrupted by his favourite noise, he has quickly learnt exactly what that means, babyccino time. Grandpa Dave, we hope that machine is ready.

The weather has been great this week. I never would have thought we would be calling an average temperature of 5°C ‘great’ but it had not rained all week. Excitingly the look ahead suggests snow may be coming, although it is rather early, fingers crossed.

At night, Super Mum had her final Bounce Back to Netball session for the year with the like minded mummas celebrating at the local pub. Meanwhile, the boys were having a snuggle while trying to watch football come home because Lachlan is allergic to his cot.