Easter 2019 - days 4 and 5

Day 3 dawned bright and sunny and the plan for the day was to visit the heads of Ayr farm park.  We went there around 10 am and the kids had a blast for the rest of the day. The young one particularly enjoyed feeding a pony called Merry Legs. She would go to the open trampoline, visit the other animals, go on the slide etc but always check on merry legs every now and then and feed her from the palm of her hand.

The weather was unbelievable for scotland especially for easter. We then went to the nearby Ayr beach where the young one got messy building sand castles and spotting washed up Jelly fish while K and I took our favourite long walk along the beach.

We had determined that these 4 days were a complete holiday for the young one  - with no studies and no food restrictions and most importantly no telling-offs from mum. She had a complete blast but hand on heart I could say that she was very sensible and though she opted for junk, she did not go overboard. She was extremely polite to our hosts, cleared her plates after she ate, cleaned the sink and tub after her brush and bath, thanked them when warranted and was sweetly well behaved with no prompts from either of us.

What was even more endearing was how she teased the shy little boy out, gently coaxing him to open up and devising games that he would enjoy as well. Being 5 years older, she could have easily bullied him ( as most older kids do with her) but she was gentle, sweet and friendly throughout. She did not 'mother' him but was a good and caring older friend. I was super proud of her and so was her dad.

We went to Akbar's for dinner and it was a refreshingly good experience after our previous night's debacle.

Our host P had to leave for work the next morning, so we said our good byes and left the next day. Once again we stopped at the Gretna green services for some refreshments and then made our way to the Lake district. The weather was so glorious, that we wanted to make the most of it.

Once again, we had been to Beatrix Potter land a while back, but we loved it so we visited the lake again. I did not want the ferry but preferred to walk around the lake. The young one gaily fed the ducks , we had our walk, enjoyed the beauty of the blooming trees, the green grass and the rolling hills, chit chatted our way around the lake and drove back home knackered and ready to fall into bed around 9 pm.

All in all, a wonderful holiday ( the cheapest we had ever had but one of  the best :) and another one notched up to keep us warm and light on cold and dark days :)

Easter 2019 Days 1,2 and 3

Unlike the last 10 easters that we have been here.. this easter was a bright and sunshiny one and hence the best of them all :). Though our friends had all planned for Tenerife, we chose the path less taken this easter and planned to visit JK Rowling's original haunts at Edinburgh. One of our friends kindly invited us to stay with them at their house, so the matter was settled.

On the Thursday, the young one finished her mock test review and her badminton class and swimming session at DL. She has already finished her bronze level of swimming and loves to swim just like that any chance she gets. Once in the water, it takes  atleast an hour if not more before I can successfully coax her out.

She was excited since her friend D was visiting her from Shropshire. Unfortunately, D's dad was a medical director and had some urgent issue to attend to and could not leave till 6 pm. While the restless young one was trying to engage herself otherwise, D and her family came walking in, having luckily zipped through the non peak traffic window for easter.

And what a evening it was! We grownups had a fun time chatting and laughing and eating dinner and sipping our drinks till 2 am in the morning. The next day, D's dad mentioned how it had been a long time since they had laughed so much and how the tension of the meeting had drained away from him over the course of the evening. We felt something similar as well.

The young ones completely sorted themselves out, despite meeting after almost a year. I went up to sleep at 2 am and could still hear them giggling and chatting till 3 am!

On day 2 all of us woke up around 9 am, had a leisurely breakfast of brioche bread and egg for the adults and nutella, brioche bread and cold chocolate milk for the kids. D and family left around 2 pm. We had our stuff packed and ready, so we cleaned up the house, locked up and left around 3 pm for our  drive of 4.30 hours to Glasgow. The weather was glorious, the young one needed her sleep, so she stretched out at the back with her pillows .. while K and I chatted, listened to music and enjoyed the drive.

We stopped at Gretna Green for a comfort break and then reached glasgow around 8.30 pm. The lady of the house, H was 8 months pregnant and the little boy was around 5 years old. Our young one, immediately struck a friendship and started playing with him while we had dinner and quickly went to bed.

On day 3, we had a quick breakfast and let H relax while the rest of us drove from Glasgow to Edinburgh. We had some lovely french toast, mac and cheese and milkshakes at Mimi's cafe at Edinburgh, took some snaps around Victoria street that was the inspiration for Diagon alley and then visited Edinburgh castle.

We had been there when the young one was around 3 and I fell in love with St Margaret's chapel and the stained glass painting of Queen Margaret there. So I took the young one to see the same, we then visited the crown jewels, the cannons etc and also the boy wizard shop on the way down.  We had some icecream and the kids played around for a bit.

On the way down we discovered we have lost our shuttle tickets..rare for K as he is usually diligent with stuff like this. We walked down instead and visited the Elephant house where JK Rowling wrote her HP drafts. The young one was the first to spot it and she seemed quite inspired by the whole visit. We then made our way to Victoria street- the museum context store, took some pics in front of trhe chamber of secrets mirror and the hogwarts school desk, bought a souvenir pen for the young one and walked further down the road to anothermerchandise shop and a disney store to buy a batman doll for the little boy who had been patiently doing the HP franchise tour for the sake of our young one.

Throughout the trip, the young one used this pen to write int he notebook gifted to her by D. She was spinning a story of mermaids under the sea..

We then visited Greyfriar's Kirk cemetry and managed to spot the names McGonagall, Tom Riddle and Helen.

We managed to then visit the porto bello beach for the little boy and given the weather was glorious , we had a good time at the sandy beach.

Drove back home, changed out of our sandy clothes and both families went to to Rishi's for dinner. A worse experience in dining we had never had. The food was bad, delayed and the service confused. The kids nodded off even before we could make our way back. We chatted a bit and went to bed happy and tired.

..To be continued