Gorgeous Garden Girls at Hill House Helensburgh

Deirdre came to Glasgow this past weekend to keep us company while John was away at a conference in Oxford. It was nice to see her and I think she enjoyed this very civilized outing to another Charles Rennie Macintosh designed property. This was 2 hours after the double tantrum in the car, when Deirdre had to endure screaming, crying and having the back of her seat kicked while the driver swerved and threatened all sorts of nasty punishments. Things were calmer from then on. I don't think she was too traumatised by it, and hope she realised that her presence saved us from doing each other in.

Classy Snacks

Referring back to blog entry dated 23 August, here is what I could have done with the snack van for sale. I could have set up every day in the industrial park and named my snack hut, "Classy Snacks". Please send entries for what type of snacks you believe qualify as classy. Anyway, seeing as this business idea is taken, I might have to rival them with "Trashy Snacks".

Reids on Safari

The following text is intended for my Dad. Everyone else can roll their eyes and groan. We had a roaring great day at the safari park, I'm not lion, and I'm not trying to get your goat.

Seriously, it was a nice day out and obviously really tired Heather out.

I forgot the camera

I remembered the picnic lunches, the colouring books and Smarties for the car journey, the coats in case it got windy, the boots in case it got muddy. I remembered to fill the car, buy a newspaper to read on the road, the discount vouchers, the road map, the children, the husband, etc. But I forgot the camera. So there are no pictures of the gorgeous day we had at Culzean Castle just south of Ayr. It was a beautiful warm sunny day, perfect for a car trip through the countryside, looking at sheep and cows in the fields, the cliffs and the sea, windfarms and Ailsa Craig island. We had a picnic, walked through the biggest fanciest castle I've ever been in (Ailsa counted 108 copper pots in the kitchen), had coffees and cakes outside, went to the Swan pond and adventure playground, then for a walk through the woods to a small beach to play in the sand and the rockpools. We finished the day with fish and chips on the seafront in the Ayr. We are all sunkissed and castleblitzed.

Before and After

Here is our attempt at the pork chops and pears with maple syrup (recipe courtesy of p+jb:see their blog for recipe), accompanied by green beans and potato gratin (recipe also courtesy of jb, chef divine). It tasted delicious. I don't think the photo does it justice.

Heather liked it so much she volunteered to help do the dishes. If it looks like there is very little water in the sink, that's because it is all over her clothes and the floor.

VOILA C'EST ARRIVE

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ntLee1bAytk&NR=1

MIRACLE DES MIRACLES!

0 - 1 0 - 1 0 -1

Vive L'Ecosse

My weekend was a getting back in touch with some tribal roots. Went to see Scotland beat Lithuania 3-1 at Hampden. Lots of good singing and tribalist religion with songs like 500 miles (Proclaimers), Ye take the high road (Runrig), and the National anthem (O flower of Scotland). Then 'Doe a deer' from The Sound Of Music kept being sung, but there was no-one dressed up in Nun-gear. Those Lithuanians are cheats (blatant penalty dive). So now Scotland are in 2nd place in their Euro-qualifier just behind France who they play in Paris this wednesday and ahead of the world champions Italy. We'll see how long that lasts...but speaking of the Auld alliance..I note France kicked off the Rugby world cup rather poorly being beat by lowly Argentina..Bruno are you reading this??? (Reflechissez sur ceci quand Ecosse ont gagne contre les Francais en Octobre '06 http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LIMqsxisjbA et http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5fGCsItMlq4&mode=related&search=) We'll talk after wednesday. A toute a l'heure.

Scottish Ballet Day


We had a fantastic day, playing in the morning sunshine in the local park, Ailsa swimming backwards at her swimming lessons, I started the morning by being brought tea, chocolate croissants and the newspaper in bed. But the highlight was a fantastic afternoon at the Tramway. It was a behind the scenes look at Scottish Ballet. We had a musical walk through the gardens, tried on children's dressing up-costumes, ogled over the gorgeous professionally made costumes, watched a class of ballet dancers being put through their paces by a very serious teacher, had lattes and cakes on the terrace, made a clothespeg ballerina and Ailsa went to a half-hour lesson on her own. All this while basking in the company of friend and godmother Anita (who also happens to be a super guru of dance, because of her job as head of dance at the Scottish Arts Council...she was looking very stylish in her chic new glasses).
I think John had a good day. He went somewhere with Neil C to sing Do-a-deer with 50 000 other men.

Peach Cobbler

Mmm-mmm. Deelicious dessert. You should all be jealous. And it followed a delicious homemade johnmade lasagne and caesar shazzer salad. What a great supper.

What the?

What are Anita, Sharon and Elaine staring at? Should they run? Should they catch it/him/her? It's a mystery falling out of the sky.

One Two THREE



OK, we all know that Heather doesn't turn three until tomorrow, the 2nd of September. But don't tell Heather. The party was today, so we just pretended the whole day that today was her birthday and she is now 3. It was a great day, started off with a special delivery man ringing the doorbell at 7:30am (Jen, you're lucky the gift was so fab that we didn't mind), then French toast and bacon and birthday hats at breakfast. She took her new goggles to her swimming lessons while Mum stayed home to get the picnic things together. We went to Crookston Castle to run around and climb to the top and pretend to be princesses, but the wind was inescapable so we carted the picnic back to the house. We had a nice afternoon; thanks to the friends and godparents for the nice gifts. It's not even 9pm yet but I'm going to hit the sack. Tomorrow (the actual birthday) we'll just take it easy, go to church and to the dump. Honestly, anyone who, at any time in the future tells Heather that we spent her 3rd birthday at the dump is out of the will, or off the Christmas card list at least.