Glasgow has won the 2014 Commonwealth Games. This is great news for the city where there is so much potential but it just needs a bit of money and attention. I wonder if 7 year old Lillian will be cheering for Scotland or Australia?
(I realise these posts are getting shorter but it’s hard thinking of something new to write about every day! Any suggestions? We do have some news to officially announce shortly.)
I’ve been saying for a while that we needed a trip to Glasgow to do a few important things like eat a hamburger at The Goat and visit Ikea and this weekend it happened. Thanks to Jo (Dirk was studying) we also got to do something cultural and visited Pollok House.
To finish off the weekend we met up with Amy (a friend from Australia currently living in Thailand and fresh off the boat from Northern Ireland) and took her to our favourite Indian restaurant for dinner, Mother India’s Cafe.
We got home about 9:30 Sunday night a bit tired but very satisfied!
A few pics start here in the Glasgow album.
A big thank you to Jo and Dirk for hosting us over Christmas and to Jo’s mum and sister for welcoming us on Christmas Day. The picture above is Jo’s lovely tree.
This was our third Christmas away since we left Australia and the first that actually felt like Christmas! The previous two were in Phnom Penh and Fes and (understandably) neither places really do Christmas. Scotland knows how to do it though! I think they get better value out of Christmas lights over here because it’s so dark you can see them all day.
Christmas Day was cloudy, cold and grey but we did get out before the meal for quite a long walk around Linn Park to work up an appetite. Lucky we did because there was much food and all very yummy. Dessert was a Nigella lemon meringue cake from her Feast book, created with a team effort by Jo, Dirk and Dave. There was some concern that it was a little dark on top but it still tasted good. Evidence before:
And after:
Yum.
So all in all a very good Christmas. I wonder where we’ll be next year?
Yesterday we met up with Lana and Andrew in Glasgow for the World Piping Championships. We were there to see their friend Ev perform with the Australia Highlanders Pipe Band.
If you want to know what an Australian pipe band sounds like here is a video:
Yep. They sound pretty much just like a Scottish pipe band.
We also saw some Highland Games events, including a new world record for the throwing-a-heavy-thing-over-a-high-bar event. A big Russian guy in his first year competing won it at 19ft. He had to take his shirt off before the winning toss and afterwards he brought out a piano accordian and played Amazing Grace for the crowd. He was pretty happy. He also won the lift-big-heavy-balls-that-get-heavier-onto-a-barrel event with 5 in 24 seconds. Not bad.
Today we had brunch with Jo and Dirk, visited Kelvingrove Museum again and showed Andrew and Lana the sites of the West End. A fine weekend and we’re looking forward to visiting Andrew and Lana in Lancaster in a few weeks time.
We spent last weekend in Glasgow staying with the lovely and very hospitable Jo and Dirk.
On Saturday we got up early and joined the hillwalking group on a bus to Glencoe. In Glencoe we divided. Dave and Dirk did two Munroes and Jo and I did a 12 mile undulating walk between two pubs.
More hillwalking pics start here.
On Sunday we said goodbye to Jo and Dirk and went to visit the newly refurbished and reopened Kelvingrove Museum.
This was followed by a much anticipated burger at The Goat, a visit to an asian grocer to stock up on Jasmine rice and then the drive back to Dundee. More pics here.
Next weekend…Paris!
