It felt like we were barely back from our jaunt to London and and I was packing our cases again, this time bound for Scotland. The logistics of this trip became a bit complicated as I was travelling from Pau on my own with William and needed to be in Glasgow by the Friday (for Legs' wedding on the Saturday), and Iain was flying in straight after the last game of the season from Paris on the Sunday, and we needed to work out the best return flight for the three of us. It was decided that I would fly from Lourdes to Dublin with Ryanair, have a massive layover (to be on the safe side) then get a connection to Glasgow. We would all fly back from Edin to Toulouse and get the train back to Pau.
Armed with my usual excel spreadsheet, the Friday came round and I was ready to go. As the boys had already left for Paris, I needed a lift to the airport and Sophie offered to help us out. What a gem. It was absolutely hosing down and it didn't let up for us to board. The complete morons had people queuing on the tarmac in the pouring rain! I tried to keep William by the gate doors for as long as possible so we could go right up the stairs and onto the plane. The joy of Ryanair eh? The flight itself was fine but it did have an unexpected highlight - a GF lasagne! You wouldn't get that on AirFrance. ;-) We got into Dublin later than planned but still with a good five hours of hanging about. I tried my luck at the Ryanair desk to get on the earlier flight but it was fully booked so we just had to wait things out for the next few hours. We wandered upstairs to McDonalds which had a kids play area next to it and set up camp for the afternoon. It actually worked out brilliantly. William started playing with a little Brazilian/English girl who was travelling with her mum and also on a big layover. They ended up playing together for over an hour and William was just delighted to get to have a big play with someone who could speak english! Before we knew it, it was time to go and find something to eat. We managed to find some seats looking out towards the runways so William had a perfect view for his dinner before we had the big wander down to the gate. Our flight to Glasgow was barely in the sky before it was coming back down again which was good as there were some very interesting clientele on the plane. The last flight to from Dublin to Glasgow on a Friday night is always going to be a bit risqué! Sheena and Ronnie came to collect us at the airport and it was just great to get in to CHQ and have a glass of wine and a bite to eat. William was barely in the door before he was in bed, snoring. I had been prepared for a long, boring day but all things considered, it went pretty well and William, once again, proved himself as a great travelling companion.
On Saturday morning I woke late and found William already fully at home in his Nanny & Papa's house. It is so wonderful how as ease he is in Glasgow even though he's only there every six months or so. I had some breakfast and even managed to fit in a Joe Wicks HIIT session before packing my overnight bag and heading down to the Lochgreen House Hotel in Troon for the big event of the weekend: Legs and Marc's wedding. Sheena very kindly took me down to the hotel and we had a full carload of weans in tow too. William was just loving having all his cousins around. Sheena intended to take all the kids to the beach for a big walk but the weather was so awful that they barely got even 50m onto the sand before turning round and heading to Pizza Hut at Silverburn.
Anyway, back to my 24h pass. It was bloody marvellous. I walked into reception and I suddenly realised that yes, I was on my own and I was staying in a 5* hotel for the next 24hrs with some of my best mates around me. Incredible! I got checked in and headed up to my room. It was enormous. And all mine! With a bit of time still up my sleeve, I nipped along to say hello to the girls who were all getting ready in one of the other rooms and then I decided to truly indulge myself by ordering some food and a large GnT on room service. Even thinking back to it, in order to write about it, feels extravagant! But as I've said before, you can often end up starving at a wedding so its important to get a feed in while you can! I got my gear on and headed downstairs to find Divsy Kerr, Scott (Jo's husband) and Ross (Hester's husband) already well into the bevvy and talking nonsense. We were soon called through to the wedding room and found some seats. Marc seemed quite nervous but was being very upbeat and positive then before we knew it, Legs was walking down the aisle and Marc seemed entranced. It was beautiful. Legs looked absolutely stunning and the two of them are clearly very much in love and ready to build the rest of their lives together. I am stoked for Legs. She really deserves this happiness. Day soon became evening and we ate, drank and danced into the night and everyone had a wonderful time. I'm so glad that I was able to get back to Scotland for this. Another boon of living in France. The hardcore crew all crowded into the guest bar and we were still going with the GnTs until the wee sma' hours but by about 2am I was absolutely shattered and headed upstairs to bed.
On Saturday morning I woke late and found William already fully at home in his Nanny & Papa's house. It is so wonderful how as ease he is in Glasgow even though he's only there every six months or so. I had some breakfast and even managed to fit in a Joe Wicks HIIT session before packing my overnight bag and heading down to the Lochgreen House Hotel in Troon for the big event of the weekend: Legs and Marc's wedding. Sheena very kindly took me down to the hotel and we had a full carload of weans in tow too. William was just loving having all his cousins around. Sheena intended to take all the kids to the beach for a big walk but the weather was so awful that they barely got even 50m onto the sand before turning round and heading to Pizza Hut at Silverburn.
Anyway, back to my 24h pass. It was bloody marvellous. I walked into reception and I suddenly realised that yes, I was on my own and I was staying in a 5* hotel for the next 24hrs with some of my best mates around me. Incredible! I got checked in and headed up to my room. It was enormous. And all mine! With a bit of time still up my sleeve, I nipped along to say hello to the girls who were all getting ready in one of the other rooms and then I decided to truly indulge myself by ordering some food and a large GnT on room service. Even thinking back to it, in order to write about it, feels extravagant! But as I've said before, you can often end up starving at a wedding so its important to get a feed in while you can! I got my gear on and headed downstairs to find Divsy Kerr, Scott (Jo's husband) and Ross (Hester's husband) already well into the bevvy and talking nonsense. We were soon called through to the wedding room and found some seats. Marc seemed quite nervous but was being very upbeat and positive then before we knew it, Legs was walking down the aisle and Marc seemed entranced. It was beautiful. Legs looked absolutely stunning and the two of them are clearly very much in love and ready to build the rest of their lives together. I am stoked for Legs. She really deserves this happiness. Day soon became evening and we ate, drank and danced into the night and everyone had a wonderful time. I'm so glad that I was able to get back to Scotland for this. Another boon of living in France. The hardcore crew all crowded into the guest bar and we were still going with the GnTs until the wee sma' hours but by about 2am I was absolutely shattered and headed upstairs to bed.
It was a a suitably slow start to the morning but I'm pleased to report that I did make breakfast and I even ate alongside the weekend's celebrity endorser: Katie Derham (Marc works with her husband). It was then all hands to the breathalysers before deciding when we were fit to leave. Catster and Divsy said they could drop me off at CHQ and it worked out perfectly as Iain had just arrived from Paris by the time we got up to Pollokshields. We had a relaxing rest of the afternoon followed by a family curry to welcome us back to the Motherland.
On Monday morning, we headed over to Cambuslang to see Gregor and Emma's new house. Its' really lovely and they're enjoying finding their feet in their big grown up home. We grabbed some snacks from Morrisons and had a cup of tea then I left everyone and jumped on the train into town to meet Gail and Susie for lunch. Trying to plan this day out was bloody tricky but thankfully we'd put this on our calendar months ago as we knew how hard it is to plan stuff last minute. As ever, it was brilliant to see them. Just falling into the usual nonsense and reminiscing about the Ambies days. One of the highlights, however, was the story of my Ode to Jarvis. Both of them were in absolute bits.
The next few days passed in a bit of a typical blur as we immersed ourselves back into Glasgow life: visiting family (Jinty, Alan's new house); a spot of tourism (The Riverside Museum and the Tall Ship); attempts at shopping (City Centre & Silverburn) and lots of eating out (TGIs for the first time in my life!); and trying to offset much of this with Joe Wicks workouts every other day. As you'll see from the photos below, the weather was pretty rubbish the whole week. We forget how relentless the grey skies and rain can be in June in Scotland.
Before we knew it, it was Friday, and the start of our Big Weekend of Birthday Celebrations. We were kicking off things in the town for the Oman's surprise 40th. Poor Steph had been let down at the last minute with his original venue so had picked up a reserved area at Missoula on West George Street. It was so loud and so full of dubious youngsters and my God did it make some of us feel incredibly old! It was, however, bloody brilliant to be there and celebrate the Oman's birthday for the first time in years. The icing on the cake was that Lynny made it down from Perth and that we finally got to meet her new wife, Jay! Hurrah! They make such a great couple and I'm absolutely delighted to see Lynny so happy and settled. Lynny, Jay, Iain and I ended up going for nightcap at one of the boozers round the corner just so we could actually talk without SHOUTING AT EACH OTHER. (Sneaky Sneakersons!). So great to see them, and we said we'd also see the Brown/Omans on Sunday.
Saturday morning rolled round and we rolled out of bed, tired but not hungover. Our smug levels rose higher still as we were even fit enough for a cobwebber around Pollok Park in the early afternoon. It was a lovely day and we really enjoyed getting out in the sunshine after all the rain earlier in the week. In the late afternoon I went over to collect Jinty and we all went to Cambuslang for the next birthday party of the weekend: Woodsie's 50th. It was a really great night with lots of laughter and dancing well into the early hours of the morning in the very fancy new extension. Ronnie and Sheena took William home at about 10pm and gave us a free pass for the rest of the night. We left around 2am. Not bad for two days on the bounce!
It was a slow start to the Sunday but we finally got ourselves together and headed up to Bearsden for our third and final birthday party of the weekend: Sophie Brown's 5th birthday! Amazingly, this is Sophie's third birthday party in a row that we've been able to attend; just such luck that Iain's season / off season falls during this particular weekend of the year. It was bloody great to get up to see them all again and also see the newly finished extension. It's amazing. We didn't want to stay too long as it was very much a family affair but it was enough time for cups of tea and a quick catch up. Hopefully these guys will get over to France at some point for some proper time together.
A great but typically busy first week back in the Motherland. Time for some relaxation.
LM :)
Before we knew it, it was Friday, and the start of our Big Weekend of Birthday Celebrations. We were kicking off things in the town for the Oman's surprise 40th. Poor Steph had been let down at the last minute with his original venue so had picked up a reserved area at Missoula on West George Street. It was so loud and so full of dubious youngsters and my God did it make some of us feel incredibly old! It was, however, bloody brilliant to be there and celebrate the Oman's birthday for the first time in years. The icing on the cake was that Lynny made it down from Perth and that we finally got to meet her new wife, Jay! Hurrah! They make such a great couple and I'm absolutely delighted to see Lynny so happy and settled. Lynny, Jay, Iain and I ended up going for nightcap at one of the boozers round the corner just so we could actually talk without SHOUTING AT EACH OTHER. (Sneaky Sneakersons!). So great to see them, and we said we'd also see the Brown/Omans on Sunday.
LM :)
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