Day 502: A frosty festive presentation

09/12/2022

Lachlan started the week at full Lachnado pace, he has had a bit of a cold the past couple of weeks, good to see him back at full speed.

He must be feeling better as he has resumed climbing up to his happy place whenever he needs a break.

Tuesday morning, Lachlan was on the hunt in Eloise’s room while she was at nursery, he had to make sure that she was not hiding any toys from him as he conducted his full weekly audit.

It has been a surprisingly long time since there has been any rain in Glasgow, probably because it has been too cold for rain, it is is getting quite chilly “sleet, frost, snow and -10C in parts of UK as winter takes hold”. We have our fingers crossed for snow, it would be lovely for Olaf to pay a visit before we fly out, “exact day it will snow in Glasgow as temperatures to drop to -4 degrees”.

The boy who hates shoes and socks was up, down and all around to keep warm.

In the afternoon, the kids jumped in the Batmobile and on a train with Super Mum to rendezvous with Dad and the Dream Team at the Glasgow George Square Christmas Markets. We were excited, our first Glasgow Christmas Markets, they had been called off last year due to COP26. Eloise was ready and after much debate, we managed to get Lachlan’s penguin mittens on.

As soon as the kids left the train station their eyes lit up as bright as the Christmas lights. This was much more fun than going to bed.

After wandering about the stalls, we followed Nathan to St Enoch’s Christmas Markets which was just around the corner, we were surprised it was on after “two hurt in Glasgow St Enoch Christmas market gas explosion” the day beforehand. Nothing was getting between Nathan and a Yorkshire Pudding Wrap though, we had to give it a go, to be fair it was pretty tasty.

It was literally freezing tonight in fact it was below freezing. We cowered into St Enoch Centre to let our feet and hands defrost.

After heading back to the George Square Markets, Curious George pulled out two wee ducks for the kids that made them very happy. They were warming up to the big group, Lachlan jumped out of the pram and straight into Kirrie’s arms.

We could not pass the fudge store without picking some up.

After a couple of hours in the cold and well past the kids bedtime we were frozen again and dashed off to defrost for a second time after a fun school night. Eloise was exhausted after the nursery, dance, Christmas Markets triple mega super day.

Wednesday morning the kids took it easy to recover from a big night before Eloise headed off to nursery in the afternoon.

Wednesday afternoon, “the One Millionth Brompton bike has rolled off our London factory… The one-of-a-kind bike is going on an epic adventure. Travelling to 18 different countries over 12 months to create a connected journey like no other”. We were just thirty-odd thousand early.

Thursday morning was our 500th day in the UK, how time flies when you are having fun! We are still not exactly sure how long we will be on this wild ride for, we think 1000 days has a nice ring to it and sounds like a good challenge, halfway?

By Thursday morning, Dad was sick of scrapping the car, luckily he has a little helper. We thought Lachlan would like to have a crack too, but he was preoccupied with his favourite game, running around and hiding behind the bins, he gets a real thrill from it.

The kids were thrilled to pick up an enormous Cocomelon advent calendar, it was filled with books rather than chocolate, Super Mum pulled all the books out in the hope it will entertain them on the upcoming flight across the globe. It kept them busy for the rest of the day stuffing it with whatever they could find.

Friday morning, the temperature was still dropping, just not at the rate we needed, the kids were still trying to make the most of it.

It was then on with the Christmas sweaters and Peppa Pig backpacks to meet Emma in Milngavie.

Although it has been a while since the last Sewing with Sophie episode, there has been a lot of work behind the scenes as she is now armed with her birthday sewing gadgets. There are a couple of TS projects in work to bring back to Aus.

Meanwhile, Lachlan was busy with his funny faces. Thankfully, his Baby Shark phase is on the way out.

We had been looking forward to Friday afternoon all week, it was time for Eloise’s first dance performance. Super Mum started with her special dance doughnut hair but poor Lachlan was feeling jealous so cut in the line for a new doo. Thankfully the bravest Glaswegian had volunteered to look after Lachlan… Again… Thanks Jo. We figured he would not cope well in the crowd and would be upset he could not get up there and do his trademark wiggle.

I think we were more nervous than Eloise was as all the pre-nursery kids waddled out in front of their first large crowd. We could see Eloise looking for us and after finding us did a funny little chuckle. She did a great job and more importantly had a fantastic time.

It was a Christmas miracle, Santa appeared with mega trophies and Christmas gifts for all. Eloise was cautious with Santa but could not contain her excitement with her first trophy. As we made our way home she set the record straight declaring that “Lachlan, not allowed to touch or see my trophy, my special trophy”.

We went to pick up Lachlan and this time his report card was much better. Massive thanks again Jo!

We picked up some Wutong Oriental on the way home as Eloise’s favourite World Cup team kicked off.

Eloise could not wait to unwrap her Christmas present from Santa.

On Friday, the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom “Rishi Sunak has announced a collaboration between the UK, Italy and Japan to develop a new fighter jet that uses artificial intelligence. The prime minister says the joint venture aims to create thousands of UK jobs and strengthen security ties. The nations will develop a next generation fighter – due to enter service in the mid-2030s – that will eventually replace the Typhoon jet”.