Day 47: Going with the lateral flow

10/09/2021

The week started with Eloise’s first play date with a friend. Sophie and the kids drove into the city to meet up with a mum and bub at the Glasgow Green Kids Play Area. Eloise is still warming up to the Glaswegians but had a ball on the playground.

Lachlan was loving his new chair for the first time.

Until Eloise reclaimed it.

In the afternoon Sophie and the kids surprised Liam at the train station on the way home. It was a longgggg walk home though, Eloise insisted she would make it home by herself, those wee legs did very well.

We finally got around to babyproofing the staircase, Eloise was not impressed, but now seems to enjoy playing gatekeeper, deciding who gets to come upstairs or downstairs. We are not convinced she can’t just jump over it if she tried. Need to keep an eye on that one.

Tuesday was full of biscuit baking and biscuit eating. Eloise is truly taking after Super Mum. They even made plane biscuits for Liam for when he got home from work and some dog bone biscuits for Delilah, which Liam also happily ate.

We tried out the local Indian restaurant, Raja Rani. Although we got takeaway. We had not even got around the corner when a little someone needed a papadam. Our suburb does not have that many restaurants, but strangely there are three Indian ones. One down, two to go. Raja Rani has set a high bar.

Wednesday was a short but sweet early morning call to celebrate cousin Xavier’s first birthday. He looked like he had a big day, what a wee legend! Eloise, like usual was thrilled to see him.

Sophie managed to get Lachlan into a last-minute session for Bookbugs at the local library, disappointingly there was only one grandmum and bub in this extra session. Luckily next week is looking like a full class again.

Wednesday “Scotland [had its] hottest September day in 115 years”, Gordon Castle in Moray hit 32.2°C. The City of Glasgow has had its hottest ever summer since records began in 1884. Glasgow will host the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) on 31 October – 12 November 2021. I wonder if ScoMo or Joyce will be attending.

Eloise is still taking good care of “baby”, she is realising parenting is tiring work. Lachlan enjoyed a bit of quiet time from Enthusiastic Eloise.

Sophie and the kids were feeling a “wee poorly” this week. We think Eloise must have picked up a bug from Gymboree last week. It was time for our first COVID-19 rapid lateral flow test. It was a bit more complicated than a COVID-19 PCR test. Supposedly, slightly less accurate, but gives results in half an hour. Luckily no COVID-19… yet…

Thursday, Sophie and the kids tried out the bus as they arrived at Gymboree. Eloise seemed to love the bus ride more than she loved Gymboree. Afterwards, Sophie and the kids went to a Cafe with their new friends. Eloise was happy to share around “baby”. Lachie even got some cuddles.

Friday morning, Sophie sweated it out at another Sweaty Mummas class. Eloise was a bit clingy this morning, making Sophie work on those guns extra hard.

In the afternoon Liam went to Platform at Argyle Street Arches, “Scotland’s largest restaurant and bar”. There was a farewell gathering for an Aussie friend. He was lucky enough to come over for an 8-month stint, but ended up staying for 5 years! He had some incredible stories and good recommendations. Believe it or not, apparently, Scotland is a great place for surfing. I might stick to hacking around a golf course instead though. It was great fun. It is always entertaining when you meet up with someone you have been talking to regularly for months but only seeing face to face for the first time.

Interestingly the wall at the end of the photo used to have three Banksy masterpieces on it. As part of a visit to Glasgow in early 2001, Banksy’s ‘Peace is Tough’ exhibition, at The Arches in Argyle Street, saw the elusive artist leave three works inside the venue.

Sadly, after a lack of funding, the masterpieces could not be saved, now living under a layer of grey paint.

Liam had to make sure he was home for the nightly book in bed.

The Fensoms all went to sleep dreaming about golf…