31/12/2021
Yesterday was a day to recover. Lachlan got a cheeky cot upgrade from Facebook Marketplace. The previous one unfortunately was falling apart from repeated Eloise attacks “wake up Lach, come ooooooonnnnnnn”. Eloise helped assemble it with her new toolset, performed some quick stress testing and it was all ready for Lachlan.
In the evening we met Caroline at the train station. She will be staying with us for a few days over New Years. Eloise was quick to warm up to her and seemed to remember Caroline from our family holiday in Oxford. Caroline was surprisingly warm after coming in from Oslo which was – 15°C!!!
Today was New Years Eve, or as the Scots call it, Hogmanay. Unfortunately, the new cot did not help Lachnado sleep any better, he is still a party animal. Eloise also woke up at 06:00 in Dad’s face, “Dad, play with me, Dad, Play-Doh snowman, Foxie pull you out of bed now Dad”. It is going to be a long day.
Eloise and Lachlan were excited when Super Mum squeezed in between their car seats as we all hopped in. We made our way to the Falkirk Wheel to show Caroline, another engineer, so we thought she would appreciate it. When we arrived we found out it had broken down and there were no boat rides today. Next time…
It started raining sideways so we figured we would have an early lunch in town, which was larger than we thought it was. Finnegans sounded like just the spot. The Ferrero Rocher hot chocolate was incredible.
Throughout lunch, the rain had stopped and saved itself for when we decided to leave again. We never should have mentioned the good weather earlier. To be fair, it was probably about time we got caught in the rain. Everyone in Adelaide, please spare a thought for us. We are currently enduring a heatwave, “Hogmanay revellers to bask in ‘ridiculously warm’ temperatures with some at 10C” as “this year’s Hogmanay is the UK’s warmest on record”. The good news is “a ‘SNOWBOMB’ will hit Britain next month – with a whopping 11in set to fall as a new Atlantic storm moves in”. Meanwhile…
“Cast not a clout till May be oot.”
Scottish proverb meaning: Don’t discard your winter clothing until May.
Turns out Caroline is Britain’s #1 propeller aircraft enthusiast so dragged Liam kicking and screaming to see the Grangemouth Spitfire Memorial. Eloise was disappointed she could not climb on the aircraft but made sure she brought her graphics calculator to confirm the elliptical wing thickness-to-chord ratio of 13% at the root was reducing correctly to 9.4% at the tip.
The final stop for the day, The Kelpies. The suspense during the long walk from the car park was killing us as Eloise slowly rode her broomstick there. We might need to tone back the Harry Potter brainwashing.
In the evening Eloise showed off her baking skills to Caroline, making some Scottish Empire Biscuits. Becoming a tradition for guests at Taigh-òsta (hotel) FIK.
We watched ABC’s 2021 year in review for South Australia. Probably save yourself the four and a half minutes. Although I am sure it was action-packed compared to Victoria’s.
The initial plans for New Years was Europe somewhere, but Omicron has put a brake on that for a few months. They also cancelled Edinburgh Hogmanay so we stayed home with our Hogmanay hommies.
Liam had a tactical hour and half nap when we fell asleep putting Eloise in bed, second night running. They managed to stay up for the Australian New Years. Eventually, Liam rejoined the party. University Challenge and Ticket to Ride Europe kept us up. At 23:45 Lachlan did what Lachnado does and woke up for his midnight rave. He must have sensed he was missing out and came down to watch the BBC’s coverage of the “cannon on Edinburgh Castle, fired by the locally famous Tam the Gun on the stroke of midnight… followed by a large fireworks display”. Hopefully, we can attend next year.
2021 was our biggest year yet!
We continued learning how to parent, rented out our family home, moved in with the parents (and Becca), converted Becca’s room into a late-night office, started learning how to double parent, sold the family car, said bon voyage to Delilah, relocated to the other side of the world during a global pandemic, pretty much joined a new company, explored the United Kingdom, made some awesome friends and drank plenty of Irn-Bru.
2021 has been an incredible adventure. There was never a dull moment thanks to Eloise and Lachlan who are growing up so fast and have enthusiastically embraced this rollercoaster ride with their crazy parents.
Hopefully, 2022 bring lots of visitors to Sunny Glasgow. Eloise is looking forward to showing you all around and Lachlan likes new faces to stare at.
Haud Hogmanay from the Fensoms and Caroline!
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