Day 747: Friends from afar

11/07/2023

The weather has been fantastic the past couple of weeks, with the UCI on Liam has enjoyed cycling Bearsden while being overtaken by cyclists from all over the world, everyone loves the Brompton! The daily dash to the Mugdock Reservoir has been a breath of fresh air.

The great news at midday was that the Matilda’s put on a dominant display against Denmark. Great to hear about the support back home as it was the “highest-rating TV program of 2023. The Matildas’ 2-0 victory drew a five-city metro audience of 2.294 million viewers on Seven… That figure makes it the most watched broadcast event of the year, eclipsing State of Origin… and even bettering the 2022 AFL grand final, which captured a metro audience of 2.179 million”. No pressure Kerr.

Lachlan has made the most of the water play season. Spending most of his days in the backyard adventuring into each corner.

After nine and half months, nursery have finally discovered Eloise’s greatest passion, just cutting up random pieces of paper into smaller pieces. She is a pro with scissors, we are not surprised that “Eloise displayed excellent scissor control and was able to confidently cut along the wavy zigzag and straight lines”. She could probably do that blindfolded.

Tuesday took off right where Monday finished, Lachlan working on his backyard laps. It is a shame that UCI does not have a toddler competition.

Eloise was happy in the afternoon that her dance classes have finally started up again. She has been missing them as their “routine” slowly gets back to normal.

Lachlan was equally happy for quiet library time with Super Mum and getting to swap his weekly stories over.

Lachlan was a happy boy as his favorite meal was back on the menu, slow-cooked orzotto, he licked the bowl clean before performing his happy dance.

The kids were then shouting at Dad to go back and forth across the road as they tried to run him over, poor Dad.

Everyone in Scotland can stop panicking now that Hogwarts Express has reopened just before the new school year. “Services on the “Hogwarts Express” steam train can resume after being granted a temporary exemption to a safety rule. The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) said the Jacobite – made famous by its appearances in the Harry Potter films – can run until the end of November. Services had previously been halted after a safety inspection found passengers were being put at risk”. Sounds like we are lucky to be alive.

Wednesday was spent with Lachlan whizzing around the backyard in all of the different animal masks that the Leadbeters had kindly brought him. As long as he has somewhere to run and some sort of prop he is pretty good at playing by himself.

In even more exciting train news, it was announced on Wednesday that “steam fans are invited to get up close to Flying Scotsman when she returns to her home city later this year. The famous locomotive, which is celebrating its centenary year, will be in Doncaster on the weekend of 11 and 12 November. Organisers of the free event said the public will be able to step on to the 97-tonne engine’s footplate”. After disappointingly missing it at Platform 9¾ in York, we will have to try and get back down there.

Thursday, Eloise was back at it, working on her scissor skills. Now allowed to use the big scissors there is no stopping her. Meanwhile, Lachlan spent the morning giggling as he kept trying to hide from Super Mum.

The good weather continued throughout the week, warm enough that Lachlan is always eager to strip off.

Eloise and Lachlan then had a wee rest before it was time to roll dinner. They are quite good at it now.

Friday morning as soon as the clock struck midday we jumped in the car and made our way across to Edinburgh. The Edinburgh Fringe is in full swing, last time it was quite difficult getting a train home so we opted for the car and tram today. This worked well as Eloise and Elsa both had a cheeky nap on the way out.

It was free parking and cheap tram tickets from the Ingliston Park and Ride. Elsa was slowly starting to wake up again confused where today’s adventure took him.

It was a warm day in Edinburgh, although it could have just been the heat from the crowds. The city was rockin’. The Edinburgh Fringe was reasonably busy last year but we could instantly tell it had stepped up a notch this year. With people from all over the world enjoying the atmosphere.

Eloise and Lachlan were keen to see another show, however, we had somewhere to be. We made our way towards the castle and down Diagon Alley through the masses of street performers and crowds.

Right in the heart of the Old Town, which Lachnado knows like the back of his hand we had found Laura and her family. We were so excited to see them and hear their wild travel stories from the past few weeks and were happy for a rest inside their wonderful apartment. After some drinks and snacks, Eloise and Lachlan were hanging all off of Dad and bouncing off every wall. It was time to stretch the legs. Lachlan had a conundrum of not wanting to take off Elsa, but the dress was slowing him down.

By this stage, Eloise had remembered Laura and she had no choice but to be her best friend as we made our way down from the top of Edinburgh. It was a perfect day for a walk, it certainly has been warm recently.

Turns out, Eloise’s senses were spot on, Laura was a bad influence and was requesting a midday ice cream. Eloise told her that “ice cream is usually for after dinner” but was then quickly persuaded.

It was lovely to catch up on the past couple of years and see a friendly face. The afternoon was spent relaxing in St Andrews Square letting the kids run around. We spotted some mega ‘Scotland Thistles look alike things’, these were a good 13cm in diameter.

It was the perfect spot for the kids, to run about and show off their gymnastic skills to Laura. Eloise was doing her best sporting her Glasgow t-shirt, whoops.

The kids then hit Laura with their full energy. They were having a fantastic day.

Super Mum then rang her bestie Gordon Ramsey, and we managed a lucky walk-in at his new Bread Street restaurant again. It was actually amazing value as kids ate for free.

After a delicious meal and more clotted ice cream than we needed, Laura’s fault again, we had to walk dinner off as we did not feel ready to make our way back on the tram just yet, plus there was still sunlight for hours. It was full steam ahead with the denim jacket crew, Eloise was so excited to be a part of it.

Lachlan was full of food and full of energy, we did not know how we was still going after all his laps around St Andrews Square.

We wandered down for a sneak peek at the Palace of Holyroodhouse through the gates, Lachlan was not content and was trying to bash his way in.

It was well past the kids’ bedtime at this stage so it was back on the tram where Lachlan was still buzzing and trying to put Super Mum to sleep, he is a funny one.

It has been quite a while since a car boot pajamas change. Although he did not look tired, he was asleep after a couple of corners. Luckily we took the car. It was another fun day with friends in Edinburgh.