With apologies to any Scot with a tickly throught, we've had a week off work this week. As it was a break from the norm, what did we get up to?
The starter for 10: Fireworks. Saturday night was the local fireworks display, so we headed down to watch that' That offically became his first "second" event, ie the second time he's been to something. Well, not really, he's been swimming numerous times, been to dozens of gala dinners... but it's a notable annual event that tells us he's getting on in years now.
Sunday. We made like a Canadian goose and decided to head south for the winter. A few visits were had, firstly to Granny's, then to the Stevensons (all 2.4 of them), then for an overnighter. That was fun, a bit of an experience, aprehenssion all round. We slept as a family in the same room on holiday but back then we let boy wonder get off to sleep on his own, with us retiring later. This was a hotel job, so we were in the room he was going to sleep in. After throwing his puppy out of his travel cot a couple of times (thanks for the loan, Nic) he soon settled. Maybe it was the day's excitment. Maybe it was the comfort of the travel cot. Maybe it was the full bottle he'd just had. Nah, it was Mummy & Daddy watching Jeremy & Co take 3 old bangers across the African plains that did it. He nodded off just as The Stig's African cousin took the wheel of Clarkson's Lancia and thrashed Sunday-drove it around a makeshift time trial.
Monday. Start the day on a full stomach. Or an eyeful, whatever. Yes, she was blonde, and caught his eye whenever she walked past. That poor waitress. She was certainly under 30, because as JJ would say she hadn't been beaten with the ugly stick, as apparently it is in those parts. A surprise visit to Grandma & Grandad's saw a surprise power cut, so no welcoming cuppa. Thankfully the power was on at the local retail mecca, Metrohell, so we wandered down for a spot of Christmas ideas. Can I just say that this year M&S completely suck. MOTS has asked for a new robe, and the ones thay have (did check Metrohell (big store) against our local one (not as big) and they are utter shite. Just the sort of thing you expect some old dear to wear in hospital. With matching slippers. Oh well, plan B then.
Tuesday. Into the big city for a spot of lunch. Having to contend with the Bankers out for lunch (why does my spell checker refuse to accept a w as a valid character?) wasn't easy. We were in a different time zone. We were "relaxed". Well, it was the most stressfull "relaxing" lunch I've ever had. No longer is boy wonder content with sitting playing after he's finished, he wants down and away. Which doesn't really sit well with being out somewhere. So that's our lunches out shafted for a little while, at least until this phase passes. Or we grab them on a school day when he's in nursery.
Oh, the exciting part - Daddy rang the three 9s. Walking down the main street there was a bin on fire. The bins in Edinburgh have tops on them, so you stub your fag out on the top, then put it (and any other waste) in through the sides. Someone obviously hadn't bothered with the top bit, or not completely anyway, as the flames were licking the underside of the top. With fud after fud walking past, some right up to the bin to deposit more combustables, I did the honourable thing. Walked past and left it. But nobody else is doing anything. What if there's something nasty in there? What if the plastic starts melting? What if a kid goes to put somethi.... 999. We knew exactly how far they had to go to get to the fire as we used to live not far from the station. Even with that, call to extinguished was 5 minutes. Not bad. I was worried that after the call was made the flames died back, started smoking, then nothing. I thought my mobile number would be blacklisted from thereonin. But, as the first firefighter approached the bin, the flames licked the lid again. Never before I have been happy to see flames in a public place like that!
Wednesday - Deep Sea World. Over in North Queensferry is Deep Sea World, home to one of the longest underwater observation tunnels in the world. Well we'd been before as a couple, and made this our first family visit there. We dropped lucky, the sharks were due a feed (twice a week there, sometimes once a month in the wild - fed more often there to stop them eating their aquatic neighbours!). Unfortunately, the girls weren't nugry in any rush to get to the divers, and the old boy just wasn't hungry. Which meant boy wonder's tiredness cut short any chance of seeing the feeding. But it wasn't a disaster of any description. Every tank, the rock pools, the seal sanctuary, all a big big hit. The tunnel itself got a good trekking, or five. We can safely say he likes aquatic animals as well as the land based ones.
Thursday & Friday - Thursday saw Daddy heading to IKEA on his own to pick up some shelves, so a nice relaxing coffee lead to another before diong battle with the check-outs. And with Family card members getting free coffee Mon-Fri even better! I was gutted at spending £1.25 on a croissant only to then see a full English for 95p. Bollocks. Total and utter bollocks. No wonder I was the only much going continental.
It's now Friday night and back to a normal weekend. I guess it'll be park & cafe tomorrow, followed by swimming on Sunday.
Nothing like a bit of regular hum-drum to round off a great week.
