17/07/2023
Friday morning was an early start as we enrolled Eloise into school, scary thought. The family then headed to Sushi Train to make it three sushi lunches in a row. For whatever reason sushi in the UK is extraordinarily expensive, so we have had to consume our next 12 months’ worth this week. It was a lovely lunch with Grandma, Becca and Jono.
For dinner, the socialising continued as we had another catch up with friends and plenty of Thai.
Saturday morning, Liam snuck out for the Dad’s walk, sadly we did not have a hiking carrier so the kids stayed behind as the dads crawled up Chambers Gully. Luckily there was only a drizzle, the path was looking worse for wear in patches from all the heavy rain recently.
After raising the heart rate in the morning, we rendezvoused at Base Camp and did some cafe hopping.
As the rain set in, we pulled the plug on watching Hugh’s soccer, apologies Hugh, and stayed warm with Nali cuddles inside.
Saturday night, Nali and Grandpa DAVE headed out to a Scottish-themed birthday party. Luckily with all the sweet merch Nali had picked up they were looking the part. Lachlan was stunned by Grandpa DAVE’s hairstyle, he was extremely confused. At the same time, we had Kim’s birthday party where we luckily managed to see the whole family. Thankfully, Tom and Hazel had agreed to double babysit, thank you again!
Sunday morning, Eloise was confused about where Tom and Hazel had disappeared to, she thought they were having a sleepover. However, she quickly cheered up when she spotted Grandpa DAVE’s Scottish tam o’ shanter.
We finally had some good weather in Adelaide and Lachlan was making the most of it in the backyard. It is almost time to sign him up for Football Buzz.
Sunday was our final day in Adelaide, Eloise and Lachlan were excited to have the family together for lunch. Lachlan was showing off his frisbee skills and having a great time until Grandma nailed him in the head, Lachlan was all giggles though. What goes around, comes around.
We enjoyed an Aussie BBQ, but there was not too much sitting around afterwards as Lachlan and Eloise dragged anyone they could into their art studio.
After a difficult start to the trip, it was nice to get the chance to see all our family and friends again, especially Aubrey and Hallee. At night time the Fensoms and Nicholls kindly helped us through Adelaide airport. The kids know exactly how to handle the security gates on their own now as we prepared to fly across the GlasGLOBE for their fifth time, thankfully they are pros.
Around the 13 hour mark on the first leg, Lachlan become disinterested in movies and had come alive, wanting to cuddle “sista”.
Meanwhile in Scotland, just out from Edinburgh, we were missing all the action as “Rory McIlroy denies MacIntyre with birdie-birdie finish to win Scottish Open”.
We all managed a solid nine or so hours on the first flight. It is probably no surprise, as Eloise said it has been a “huuumoooongous” couple of months. The kids enjoyed running around the Hamad International Airport playgrounds for a couple of hours before we boarded the Dreamliner.
Eloise somehow managed to sneak a double breakfast spread, she was all smiles. Lachlan almost slept the entire second flight, his 21st flight in fact.
We had made it back to a pleasantly sunny Scotland, now the tricky bit, juggling four large suitcases, three backpacks and two children from Edinburgh to Glasgow on the tram and trains. We had left as much of our stuff in Adelaide as we could so the suitcases were light.
Thank you, everyone, again for your generous support and for taking the time to meet up on what was a rapid return. It felt a bit different leaving Australia this time. ‘Plan A’ will see us repatriating permanently in just over a year, 381 days to be precise. The last two years have flown by and we were certainly not done with this adventure yet. See you all again shortly!
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