When we arrived I quickly whipped up a batch a brownies which impressed Mairi and Murdo (both the speed at which I made them, and the taste - its a fabulous recipe!) then let Greg loose in the kitchen to cook fresh Scottish salmon with a hollandaise sauce and veggies. I decided to be sober Bob to allow Greg to have a few last beers and a whiskey or two with his cousin - I know, how unprecedented, I think it's only happened four times before when I've been pregnant! - so just enjoyed a glass of mulled wine with Mairi and Bella and a small glass of bubbles at midnight. The plus side of this was no hang over today!! After dinner Murdo had great fun dressing Greg up in his kilt and I must say he looked damn good - we have to get one! - but he is being "a wee bum" as Mairi would say and won't agree to any pics being posted on FB or the blog. However, Liam was desperate to wear the whole regalia and was next to dress up; then Bella begged to be able to wear it too (goes without saying that she looked pretty gorgeous!). Mairi insisted I have a go, which I tried to get out of as I don't have any Scottish heritage that I know of (except for the story of the McWadrops, which Dad blithely told me as a kid and it turned out to be a load of hogwash - goodness knows how many people I impressed though, when asked where the name Wadrop came from. "Oh, we escaped Scotland with Bonny Prince Charlie and dropped the "Mc" to escape detection!" I'd reply. Then one day Dad heard me telling the tale and asked where I'd got that rubbish from. Him!) Anyway I did dress up too and it was loads of fun. We watched the fireworks going off in Edinburgh, Stirling, Glasgow and the fire ball swingers at Stonehaven (near Aberdeen) from the warmth of the cosy living room with a lovely fire, and it was after 1.30am when I loaded everyone into the car and drove home (passing a long, long, long queue of people waiting for a taxi in the city centre; at least it wasn't raining, but it was pretty cold!).
So Happy Hogmanay!
Today we had a very late start, partly because we all (except Greg!) slept in and partly because Liam had managed to leave his drawing books at Murdo & Mairi's so we had to collect them before we could go!! The drive to Edinburgh was quite uneventful - not too many people on the roads. We'd returned Murdo's GPS so just followed signs that pointed to the city centre - we knew we wouldn't be able to go into the castle, as it was closed today, but we wanted to see it. Going in will have to wait for another visit! It was raining again by the time we reached Edinburgh and as we twisted and turned our way into the city (managing to get into a closed bus and taxi road only - I imagine for last night's celebrations!) we wondered if we'd actually even find the castle. I thought that would be an amusing post on the blog: drove around Edinburgh but couldn't find the damn castle! Luckily though we did see it and it's an impressive looking building, as are a lot of the lovely buildings in the area - definatley worth a visit. Preferably on a fine, sunny day! Despite the rain the streets were full of tourists, after last night's Hogmanay celebrations. We couldn't find a park and it was getting dark, so we drove to the airport hotel I'd booked us into. That involved a few twists and turns too, but eventually we did make it, and I've now checked us in online for our flight early tomorrow morning.
I've also included a photo of Liam's little dog 'Two Rhino', who he has had since he was four, and he has travelled everywhere with Liam - a well travelled and well behaved little dog!
A story I wanted to share was Christmas shopping in Aberdeen on the 23rd. It was a wet and miserable morning but I'd wheedled out of Bella that Greg had in fact bought me a Christmas present (despite an agreement we had not to exchange gifts this year). On the pretext of getting some small gifts for Liam and Bella (which was true) I headed out to get something for Greg too. I got them all some jocks and socks, because it's really not Christmas in our family if your underwear drawer is not filled up!! I thought I'd get Greg some sunnies - he can wear regular ones now as he only needs glasses for reading, not distance. Well, what a drama! I didn't realise that not a single shop in Aberdeen would sell sunglasses at Christmas time, except of course for opticians who had lovely raybans for 200 pounds; not that I begrudged spending 200 pounds on Greg but he'd be the first to admit that he has a very transient relationship with his sunglasses. They are lost and left everywhere!! In the end I admitted defeat and returned to the tartan shop we'd visited the other day, which had some Macdonald ties. I'd tried to convince Greg to buy a tie that day, but he wasn't sure about the tartan. There was only one left - the weathered tartan - so I grabbed it. Back onto the soggy streets searching for art supplies for Liam. I was soaked to the skin and very cold when I got back to the hotel room. Greg, who'd been out collecting the gamon we'd pre-bought, asked what had taken me so long? And what did I think of the Macdonald tartan tie he'd bought? I just about managed to keep a straight face. Thank goodness he'd bought the hunting tartan so at least he has two different ties!! It made for a very funny story on Christmas Day!
No comments:
Post a Comment