At the tail end of January there we went up to Scotland to show Elisha off to the relatives and to attend the wedding of our friend Ian Binnie. Going back home for a weekend is always a busy affair, and this time was no different.
Driving up on the Thursday, we stayed over at Campbell and Claire’s place, where we introduced Elisha to their little one, Cailin, who has a three month head start on Elisha. The girls let Campbell and I go to the pub while they talked all things babies, which was a welcome escape for both of us, although admittedly we talked about babies too, before turning to proper man’s stuff like cars and football.
On the Friday we drove down to Helensburgh and had dinner at my mum’s place so that Great Aunties Helen and Mary could join in the photo opportunity with Elisha. I must say that Elisha behaved very well despite all the noise and attention. Cousin Iain and I escaped to the pub to meet Uncle James after dinner, where we enjoyed a few drinks before heading home early in preperation for the long day to follow at the wedding. In keeping with tradition, I managed to talk Iain into walking along the road to Mr Kebab when we got back, the legendary Helensburgh outlet of all things tasty.
During the hours that followed our return from Mr Kebab, Elisha demonstrated her new found power over myself and Fliss by keeping us both awake in her first real “bad” night since she arrived on the scene. It wasn’t the best preperation for the day ahead, but I guess this kind of thing is going to be a feature of life from now on.
The trip to the wedding was a complete nightmare – the merchant of death who was driving the minibus obviously had no experience driving a long wheelbase vehicle and how she didn’t manage to kill the lot of us on the way to the castle is beyond me. Just for reference, if anyone else is planning on charging us a tenner a head for the privelage of scaring the shit out of us for two hours on the way to attending your chosen event; forget it!
Fortunately the wedding itself was really cool – we hadn’t met or seen the bride until she appeared through the doors for the ceremony, so that made for a quality introduction to the woman brave enough to become a Binnie! The ceremony seemed to be over really quickly, looking back, and soon we were all down in a kind of lounge area in the castle, meeting old friends and sipping champagne.
The meal and the evening that followed really was a pleasant affair – I’d rate it in the top three weddings I’ve ever been to, so take from that what you will. Sadly Fliss and I were really flagging by the evening, so when the time came to head back home to Helensburgh I couldn’t wait to get to bed.
Elisha had had a fun day with her auntie Hazel, and was sleeping quite soundly when we got back – gifting us with a quiet night to make up for the song and dance of the one before.
We slept late, then went for a walk into town to take Elisha on a wee tour of Helensburgh, buying some chips and sitting down by the Clyde to eat them on our way back. Later that afternoon we went along to my mum’s house, where she made us a lovely dinner and I spent the time playing TimeSplitters with brother Andrew and brother–in–law Ian.
On the Monday we managed a quick visit to Auntie Helen’s work, the Clyde View retirement home, where she introduced Elisha to all the elderly ladies she looks after. One of them was exactly a hundred years older than Elisha, which was quite something. After that we made a brief stop to see Auntie Denise, before hitting the fog shrouded roads back to Liverpool.
As a first trip with a baby in tow, it all went quite well, considering. Not sure if we’ll make the effort more than a couple of times a year, though – it’s just too exhausting.
