After The Party

After the wedding party in the People’s Palace in Glasgow we had a problem getting a taxi.  The first company just didn’t arrive and no one else could provide a car.  Eventually the supervisor at one firm took pity on us and a car arrived within minutes.  Apparently, the driver told us, there was a big gig on at Clydebank (I assume he meant the SSEC) with 10,000 people all trying to get home after midnight!  Anyway two tired littlies, one glam mum and one oldie all got back to Anna’s sanctuary – late but grateful.

Two Children and a Dog = Fun

When they were here last week Wendy, Fraser, Catriona and I paid a visit to Pat and Dave’s.  Inevitably the children ended up playing with Briagha in the garden:

A Wedding and Birthday Celebration

Catherine and Wayne married some weeks ago and had their wedding reception, combined with a party to celebrate Catherine’s birthday.  The party was held at The People’s Palace in Glasgow on Saturday 5 June.  And what a party it was.  I spent most of the ‘dancing time’ dancing with Catriona who discovered that rock and roll was a Good Thing.  I was quite astonished that firstly my knee held out and that secondly Catriona had a limitless desire for being thrown around. 

Interior of The People’s Palace where the wedding ‘do’ was held

The building from the other direction with the bride and groom

Catherine and Wayne with the wedding cake.  Apparently this ‘Wedding Cake’ is all the rage in the UK.  It’s the first one I’ve seen.

Just to prove that  I don’t wear shorts and a polo shirt all the time

Catriona being Catriona

Dancing Kiwis

All’s Quiet

It’s 7am (or it was when I started this posting) and all’s quiet.  Mind you at this hour it has been since the Geddi (the plural of Geddes and applicable to any gathering thereof) arrived at Eagleton last Sunday.  Everyone has been going to bed so late that the mornings have not started until rather later than usual.  But this morning all is quiet and there will be no tired faces appearing for breakfast.  We were up just after 5am and by the time this post is finished Wendy, Fraser and Catriona will be half way across The Minch on the way to their next visit. 

They were fortunate in having wonderfully sunny, if cold, weather for the first four days and the children, who had not been on the Island before, saw it in its best light. Wendy, having lived here, knows the Island in all its moods.

So now the visit is just memories.  I have enjoyed it immensely.  I have enjoyed their company.  I have enjoyed that they have seen my home as it now is (Wendy was last in this house over 15 years ago).  I have enjoyed the laughter.  I have enjoyed being congratulated on my lovely grandchildren (and have given up explanations).  I have enjoyed (on one occasion and by someone who should have known otherwise) being mistaken for Wendy’s husband (who’s 20 years my junior!).

Today there were no emotional goodbyes; just hugs and high fives.  I probably won’t see them again before they return to New Zealand but I should be back in my NZ home at the end of our UK summer.  Summer?!  In Napier they are complaining about the cold winter.  It’s summer here and our temperatures are still generally lower by one or two degrees than in Napier!

Fraser, Wendy and Catriona at ‘The Wedding’ Dinner and Party (posting to come)

A beautiful smile

‘What’s more interesting than a Nintendo DS?’ (But at least they kept them happy in the car!)

Sunny Stornoway.  Even sunnier family.

Laughter

Being impish

Being Catriona

Being Fraser

Being contemplative (and windblown and chilly!)

A hole in a wall (a very high up hole in a wall!)

Wide open spaces

  and windblown sandy beaches

My New Zealand Family Visits

Life’s been really full on for more than a week with my visit to Callander and Glasgow and with Wendy and the littlies since we arrived back on the Island last Sunday.  We’ve been fortunate in having wonderful sunny weather although the children are bemused by the fact that we are in the middle of summer, it’s light all through the night, it’s sunny but there is a cold wind (force 6 yesterday but a gentle force 4 today) and the temperature before the wind chill is only 12 deg!  To give you a flavour of life here at the moment here are pictures of just one of yesterday’s exploits down on the beach at Horgabost in South Harris:

   

Fraser being awesome!