Travel blog

17/09/2023

Lachlan was ecstatic to start the week off as he got to help Super Mum look after Juju again for the day. There were toys everywhere as Lachlan did a great job sharing with Juju. In the afternoon Lachlan was showing off his Football Buzz skills to Super Mum, luckily he enjoys a good kickabout.

Eloise started the week at nursery drawing self portraits and learning about facial expressions.

The sad news from Scotland on Monday was that “One of the creators of the world’s first cloned mammal, Dolly the sheep, has died at the age of 79. Prof Sir Ian Wilmut’s work, at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, laid the foundations for stem cell research… The creation of Dolly in 1996 was arguably one of the greatest scientific achievements of the 20th Century”.

Lachlan was particularly cuddly on Tuesday and made sure that Super Mum paid him full attention.

After dropping Eloise off at nursery, Lachlan lucked out with a David Lloyd visitor pass from Juju and had a grand ol’ time climbing in the soft play and swimming with her.

We are not sure what is up with the weather, we were spoilt last week and it keeps on coming. During this good spell Lachlan has drastically improved at cycling, he has sorted out the pedalling although we still need to keep turning him around at either end. Lachlan has always loved cycling.

For dinner, we had probably our last BBQ for the year. It is definitely getting cooler at night. Of course, we snuck in some more football while waiting for the World’s slowest BBQ.

It was then Aussie animals before bed, luckily Lachlan still gets very excited when he spots the Koala.

All football fans in the UK were excited Wednesday night for the friendly between Scotland and England at Hampden Park in Glasgow. Listen to the video below, the crowd were belting Flowers of Scotland, making a point not to sing God Save the King. Although they started with high energy and a vocal crowd behind them, they could not contain England’s firepower as Scottish “fans embrace brief high before 3-1 loss”.

On Wednesday, Eloise had her hands full while helping Super Mum out with the shopping in the morning, she made sure that all her babies had snacks for the week.

Lachlan certainly is determined, no matter how many times he falls off, he bounces back up just as fast, he has the pedalling and steering down pat now. Not easy on Eloise’s £5 rust bucket of a bike. You can tell how happy he was with himself, singing his head off as he cycled around in circles.

All that cycling is tough work though and he was out for the count in the afternoon. He kept fighting Super Mum so that he could have an extended nap.

It was a loud dinner Wednesday night as Eloise proudly brought her harmonica that she had made in the afternoon at nursery to the dinner table. She enjoyed the noise that it made and said she will make one for Lachlan next week.

It was then final rolls, before calling it a night. The gymnastics classes are paying dividends.

Thursday morning, the wait was finally over, after attending our visa extension interviews almost a couple of months ago we finally received our new biometric residence permits and we are free to exit/ enter the UK again. This was music to our ears and Eloise took a five minute break from her working from home setup for a celebratory scoot followed by the usual backyard games in the evening.

Thursday night we celebrated our freedom by booking our next holiday into Europe, it is going to be a special one, we cannot wait! There were also celebrations a bit further north as “Falkirk park has been praised for bringing a multimillion-pound tourism boost to the area on its 10th anniversary. The Helix, home of the Kelpies, has attracted millions of visitors since it opened on 14 September, 2013. The idea to transform a piece of little-used grassland near the eastern end of the Forth and Clyde Canal into an eco-park was first mooted in 2003. Last year, more than 850,000 people visited the attraction”. We have had many fun times strolling around the Kelpies where it all began.

Friday morning Lachlan requested his Barbie pump up music as he made his way to his weekly gymnastics session. It was another great session, the boy is a daredevil. After lunch we headed back to Milngavie Library before Eloise’s session. It is a great way to launch into the weekend seeing the kids catch up with their friends in the area.

Eloise does an amazing job at teaching Lachlan pretty much everything, she does love helping her bro and he very much appreciates the attention.

There it is, it had to happen in the end, the weather has started to turn. The rain jackets were dusted off as we killed time in Milngavie waiting for Eloise. We were actually hoping that Lachlan would have a nap.

Mmm yeah, there would be no napping from Lachlan he was too interested in singing “rain rain go away”.

After Eloise’s gymnastics we made our way over to Braehead Shopping Centre where we finally gave in, you win this time Lachlan.

Eloise picked up some more puddle pants and put them on as soon as we got home, she wanted to test by running and jumping in the rain.

Saturday morning, Eloise finally decided that Lachlan was sensible enough to use scissors and made sure that she showed him how to cut safely. She pointed out multiple times that Lachlan did not need to put his hair up because he does not have much hair.

Football Buzz was absolutely packed this week, the absolute definition of chaos. Lachlan loved the obstacle course. There was also a funny moment where he scored a worldie of a goal and then got stuck in the net as I struggled to free him.

Meanwhile, Eloise was working hard with Super Mum making pouches, Eloise’s new favourite hobby, making random sized pouches to put all her pencils in.

We hit Glasgow Fort as Eloise wanted to send some birthday requests to Grandma, she could not believe all the Barbie options, she couldn’t stand still.

Lachlan, feeling a wee bit left out, tried to convince us that we needed this plush cat in our lives.

Both the kids nodded off on the way home, Eloise fell asleep while eating her Happy Meal.

As soon as we got home, Lachlan was straight back out on the bike, he was still a bit drowsy but nothing some Irn-Bru could not fix before dinner.

Eloise randomly then remembered the evenings she would take Dad on a night walk last winter and was keen to start the tradition again, ecstatic that Lachlan could now come with. She was telling Lachlan all about the fun. Sadly it is still too bright for her torch.

On Saturday it was good to hear that “thousands rally in Adelaide in Yes campaign event ahead of Voice to Parliament referendum”.

This morning, the kids were loaded up with marshmallows and we were on our way.

We thought that it was about time that we travelled back to Heaven. However, we could have picked a better day. As we made our way east across Scotland the rain was getting heavier. It was still coming down as we pulled into St Andrews so sheltered in Costas. Turns out it was packed as university in Scotland starts tomorrow. There are two demographics that live in St Andrews, university students and retired golf enthusiasts with nothing in between.

Still drizzling, we made our way along Market Street and then ducked into a bookstore. Believe it or not, preparing to repatriate is starting to take up some bandwidth, we have lots more souvenirs to sort out.

Luckily the rain started to ease, to be fair, it was about time we got caught in the rain, it had been well overdue. Eloise and Lachlan jumped into their beloved puddle suits and we made it to the Old Course. We noticed that they had started putting the stands up again. Turns out the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship starts soon which is “one of the richest golf tournaments on the European Tour. It is played in September, on three different links courses, centred on the “home of golf”, St Andrews in Fife, Scotland”.

Eloise and Lachlan made sure that we did not leave the house without “their” golf clubs and golf balls. In no time at all, Lachlan was quick to inspect the fairways ahead of the championships.

The course was busy there certainly were the most tourists we had seen, Super Mum said we don’t count as tourists anymore. Eloise and Lachlan made a best friend. They are missing Delilah, Maya and Lily very much.

We then bashed our way through the rough until Lachlan got very concerned for Eloise, she had gone, “Sista, Sista, SIIISSSSTTTAAAA, where are you?”

She had just found another large bunker and was busy at work preparing it. Always makes us chuckle when she calls these “beaches”.

We were all starving by this point so we looped back around with the kids hockeying their way down the 16th fairway.

After a quick snap with one of the Scottish Terriers, we made our way into the Jigger Inn.

Super Mum mentioned putt putt and the kids were up out of their seat and eager to get back out onto the golf course. We headed over to the St Andrews Ladies’ Putting Club: Himalayas Putting we knew the kids were going to enjoy this, fantastic fun for a couple of pounds. They even had the perfect size club for Lachlan.

Lachlan had just as much fun being the obstacles as putting, often making Eloise putt through his legs as he giggled uncontrollably.

It was the perfect place for Eloise to practice her number recognition. Although, Lachlan went for whatever hole he thought looked the best.

Eloise was starting to take it very seriously, it was interesting to see her competitive side. It was just as well, she needed everything she had as she approached the boss level…

… Final hole 9 was the trickiest of the lot, you had to get a hole in one around Lachlan, otherwise, Lachlan would yeet it back to you with interest. Eloise tricked him with a bit of multi ball and snuck past him to win.

We then made our way home at the danger time, trying to keep both of the kids awake. However, there was little chance of that, Eloise asked Super Mum for a “wee nap” and she was out of it.

10/09/2023

It was a happy, loud, shouting singing, start to the week. Lachlan got lots of applause as we made our way down the street to drop Eloise off at nursery.

After making sure that the whole of Bearsden was up bright and early it was back home to change into his beloved Adelaide top and enjoy the sun, the forecast said it was going to be a hot week.

Meanwhile, Eloise was learning all about shapes at nursery. Nursery have requested lots of photos of the kids in front of famous buildings this week and Eloise has absolutely smashed the challenge out of the park.

After nursery the kids were eager to swing past the library early before Eloise spotted some bows for Aubrey and decided she deserved matching ones.

When we got back home, Lachlan was excited to show Eloise all the games he had invented in the backyard during the day. Eloise was not sure about them and proceeded with caution.

It was a high energy dinner. The kids only agreed to eat their food if they could eat it on the run. We lost track of how many laps they did. Some dinner was consumed.

Tuesday morning, Lachlan was over the moon as the day started picking up Juju, she was coming over for a play date, he was glad to see her again. In the car, Lachlan kept offering Juju his dinosaurs but was taken aback that she was not as excited about dinos as he was.

Lachlan and Juju had a great day together and she even helped us pick up Eloise from nursery. Eloise was squealing from behind the gate when she saw Juju had come to greet her. The nursery teachers asked whether they were cousins, close enough.

It was the usual quick change for Eloise and off to dance while Lachlan gave Juju the tour of his beloved library, of course, straight to the dino books.

The kids were up to their usual dinner tricks, this time, insisting on an outside couch dinner. It was strangely peaceful at our outside dinner table.

Wednesday morning started early, well they all start early, but even earlier than early this time. Perhaps Lachlan woke up extra hungry, it was straight to making pancakes.

It has been a hot week, in fact “the hottest day of the year is expected in the next two days, with parts of the UK already in heatwave conditions”. Lachlan our Energiser Bunny has been lapping it up and zipping all about.

Eloise, always thinking ahead was way ahead of us, she had put one of her yogurts in the freezer for after nursery, she knew it was going to be another hot one.

Thursday the mercury kept climbing as “UK’s long-lasting snow patch melts away for 10th time in 300 years”. We made sure to hit up the PG early in the day. We were surprised that it took them this long to start screaming for ice creams.

After too much sugar, Lachlan wanted to double check if he still fit in the KALLAX. He was happy to announce that he still fits.

Sue, two of the beloved masks are still going strong. The kids pull out every trick in the book to try and extend their bedtime.

Friday morning our family walk was a foggy one, it was quite eerie around “Kilmardinny Loch”.

Eloise and Lachlan were glad to catch the big birthday boy who had lucked out with a new pirate ship upgrade.

Eloise then put on her bathers or swimming costume as they call it here before helping Lachlan get changed. There was no stopping them from getting wet again. Super Mum quickly geared them up with the cleaning appliances and sent them on their way.

Emma the giant then magically appeared to spoil Eloise with a huge batch of clothes before all the kids rushed off to their beloved gymnastic sessions. Afterwards, there was no rest for the wicked as we made our way into the West End. In hindsight it was not the best day for it, it felt like a furnace with all the tall tenements trapping the heat in.

After checking out some unairconditioned shops we needed to get away from the buildings and headed to Glasgow Botanic Gardens to let the kids run free. It was looking spectacular from the sun recently. It seemed like half of Glagsow was out enjoying the sun.

Lachlan then bolted, with Eloise in hot pursuit, the boy had seen a squirrel.

After we got home, it was a quick change into “let it go” and one of Emma’s numbers before Fox Boy sang his wee heart out all the way down to the local chippie, he was excited.

Funnily enough, Eloise and Lachlan only eat room temperature food. They won’t eat anything hot. As their dinner was cooling down it gave them plenty of time under the sprinkler again. This inevitably led to another running dinner like the start of the week.

After the kids had made themselves feel sick running around eating dinner it was another quick change into Emma’s nightie before books and bed. Although Eloise and Dad had a terrible night, it was far too hot to get any sleep as “UK has hottest day of the year, beating Thursday’s record”.

Friday night, we shameful forgot to watch the football as “Steve Clarke’s side on brink of Euro 2024 qualification after fifth straight victory”.

Saturday morning, Lachlan was all giggles on the way to Football Buzz, now that Google listens to him, he was very happy to request Barbie music.

Liam made sure not to show Lachlan his post Football Buzz snack beforehand this time and he had another stellar session. Lachlan very much does not like using his right foot though. there was even a game with dino eggs, Lachlan had a great time.

Meanwhile, Eloise was working on her selfie and funny faces game.

Saturday was an exciting day as Dad had ‘Family Day’ at work. We figured this was the best chance for Super Mum, Eloise and Lachlan to see why we had turned our lives upside down. Now we think about it, leaving home with a 1.7 year old and a 62 day old, what were we thinking! We were impressed with the show that they had put on. Eloise and Lachlan had a terrific time and Sophie snuck off for a sneak peek tour with Janet and Matt. After collecting their show bags the kids day kept getting better and better as Eloise spotted face painting and Lachlan found a mega inflatable slide.

It turned out to be a massive afternoon and a great family event. Lachlan was keen to put his feet up as soon as we got home after another hard day in the office.

On Sunday, Eloise and Lachlan were both keen to see the Bearsden Bears, although we are not sure they have actually been here before as we took a wee detour on the way towards Kelvingrove Park.

It was a fairly humid day but we were finally getting some relief from the heat. Supposedly the kids who had not walked a step still needed an ice cream to cool down.