Day 735: The wheels on the bus

30/07/2023

On Wednesday, Lachlan was still struggling, poor Lachlan, he just cannot seem to shake the temperature. It was another day of Super Mum cuddles.

We then dropped Eloise and her baby off at their Teddy Bears Picnic at nursery. Eloise had fun and even painted a teddy bear in the afternoon.

In the evening Eloise managed to flog the stair gates, she did her best to convince us that because the stair gates were for her and Lachlan that they should get to keep the money, nice try Eloise.

In the middle of the night, Lachlan still had a temperature over 40°C, this was rolling into his fifth day. Super Mum dialed the non-urgent 111 and at 01:30am Wednesday morning we had a GP appointment scheduled at Stobhill Hospital. As we made the trek both the kids were excited for a midnight adventure, they thought we were going on a holiday again.

As we entered the hospital Lachlan perked up as Nurofen kicked in and he was passionately crying to go to the beach, not what we were here for Lachlan. Turns out the poor boy has full-blown tonsillitis and he picked up some antibiotics on the way out. It was a dark slow windy wet drive home with Super Mum declaring how much she now loves the NHS.

Thursday morning was a cold and wet day, perfect weather to extend our UK visas. It was quicker than we expected, a far smoother process than VFS Global Adelaide but then again that’s not saying much.

Lachlan was feeling a bit better today and was back into joining the daily chase poor Dad around the backyard before bed routine.

We are not sure if it is the antibiotics or the dinos but fingers crossed Lachlan keeps improving as his temperature is back down to normal.

Bad news out of Australia, “the Matildas are in danger of an embarrassing World Cup group stage exit after a disastrous 3-2 defeat to Nigeria”.

Friday morning, Super Mum had not heard from Eloise for a while so crept upstairs to check on her. Eloise had managed to find her stethoscope, she has become fascinated with it again after the doctor was examining Lachlan. Eloise was making sure that all her babies were feeling well.

Eloise was thrilled that all her babies were in tip-top shape and took one of her babies shopping with Super Mum as Lachlan napped at home.

We can confirm that Lachlan does not like antibiotics, not one bit. However, it has had a dramatic effect. Friday after lunch once Dad was at his wits end dealing with UK tax it it was time to release Lachlan into his natural habitat. After a slow week we all needed some fresh air and to stretch our legs.

There was just one minor problem, the Adventure Trail had some new obstacles, this was not stopping the kids though.

After letting the kids run, jump and climb through the adventure trail we pushed on deeper into the Mugdock Country Park, Eloise and Lachan were enjoying sprinting along the fairy path.

Luckily we had brought the football, which looks much smaller now. This helped us power on into the centre of the park.

Lachlan maintained his 50m distance ahead of the pack. Yes, we think it’s safe to say he is on the mend. It was a beautiful time of year to explore the leafy trees and wildflowers. It is amazing all of this is just ten minutes away.

In no time at all we had found Mugdock Castle, the perfect playground.

By this stage we were all starting to feel it, not wanting to push Lachlan over the edge before he had completely bounced back, Eloise made sure to guide him back to the car at a sensible pace.

Eloise had a simple request for dinner, of course, it was sushi again.

Saturday morning, we made our way across the city to Glasgow Green, we had not really been there since visiting the People’s Palace back on Day 3. We had forgotten about the grand playground.

Eloise and Lachlan could not wait to start the climb and make their way around the PG. However, as they made their way onto the second floor Eloise suddenly noticed how high she was and wanted to head down just as quickly.

Once the kids were satisfied with their daily dose of PG we made our way past the pretty WEST Brewery.

We even managed to convince Super Mum to give the People’s Palace another crack. Last time we did not appreciate the Doulton Fountain is the largest terracotta fountain in the world. In fact, Eloise and Lachlan had both slept through the previous tour so were looking forward to it.

In 1881 a fountain was erected in the park to commemorate Sir William Collins, a figure in the temperance movement who had served as Glasgow’s Lord Provost between 1877 and 1880. In 1992, the fountain was moved to stand behind the McLennan Arch. The Doulton Fountain [de], given by Sir Henry Doulton to Glasgow as part of the International Exhibition of 1888, was moved from Kelvingrove Park to the Green in 1890. Designed by architect Arthur E. Pearce, the 46-foot (14 m)-tall fountain was built by the Royal Doulton company to commemorate Queen Victoria’s reign. It featured a 70-foot-wide (21 m) basin, with a slightly larger than life-size statue of Queen Victoria, surrounded by four life-size statues of water-carriers representing Australasia, Canada, India and South Africa. A lightning strike in 1891 destroyed the statue of Victoria, and, rather than let the city replace the statue with an urn, Doulton paid for a second hand-made statue to be produced. In the 1960s the fountain’s water was turned off and it was allowed to fall into disrepair. However, in 2002, a £2 million programme began to restore the fountain to its original condition. As of 2004, the fountain had been placed in a new location, in front of the People’s Palace. It is category A listed.

We let Lachlan use what we hoped was his last bit of energy before heading in.

Eloise was having the time of her life, collecting all the maps on the way in.

We struggled to get past the top of the stairs as Lachlan was lovin’ Sir Billy Connolly’s Banana Boots.

Once Lachlan had run out of giggles it was time to push on. There was plenty to see that we did not remember from last time, we think that more had opened now that COVID-19 is somewhat a thing of the past.

Lachlan then legged it back to the car and it was home for his nap while Eloise attacked the hedge.

Unfortunately, on Saturday Emily was still feeling unwell. This meant that Liam had no choice but to go on a hot date with Nathan to see Oppenheimer at the Science Centre IMAX. Thank you Emily for the ticket, rest up! It has been 13 years since I last went to an IMAX to see Hubble Telescope in 2010. “The IMAX screen at Glasgow Science Centre measures 80 feet (24 m) wide by 60 feet (18 m) tall. It is the biggest cinema screen in Scotland and 3rd largest by screen size in the UK”. The screen did not disappoint, the sound system was even better.

This morning, Lachlan was ready to rumble, he is almost back to full health which is good to see.

It was a short drive to Glasgow Vintage Vehicle Trust to check out the vintage buses. Eloise and Lachlan had been looking forward to this for months. There certainly was no shortage of vintage buses. Lachlan enjoyed pointing out the colours. Eloise was quick to spot the face painting station, so we had to join the line. Eloise chose a unicorn and Lachlan chose, no points for guessing, a triceratops. It was getting very busy and the face painting line was getting longer so quality control went out the window rather quickly. Both Eloise and Lachlan were thrilled though.

Eloise had grabbed the activity page and was searching inside the buses for the little Lego minifigs.

They put on quite the show, there was a decent-sized jazz band. A surprise to us, today was also Star Wars themed as the Imperial Army was on patrol. Eloise and Lachlan were terrified by them though.

Lachlan saw the flashing loud police car and had to jump in. We had to shout to him a couple of times to stop pressing random buttons.

We noticed a DMC DeLorean, not sure what the story was there. Lachlan was dissapointed he could not travel back in time.

This particular Sunday, there were a series of vintage buses that travel all throughout the city for free and past the vintage bus depot. We took the entertaining ride to George Square.

George Square was looking very busy as they prepare for the UCI Cycling World Championships next week.

After grabbing some lunch we jumped up top on another vintage bus and made our way back to the bus depot. Eloise and Lachlan were making funny faces to the cars behind us.

It was a fun family day out and about Glasgow. We were hoping Lachlan would have a nap on the way home. However, he was more than happy playing with his socks which he had managed to put onto his hands. Lachlan was quite happy with that achievement. Eloise was so tired she fell asleep with her hands in the air.

Lachlan’s appetite is back and extra carrots were on the menu as he started to make up for the past week.

It was then some classic Xavier bed jumps before sleep time.