Flight, Fame & Family

A short night, a long morning.

Early to bed on Friday night allowed plenty of time for lying awake worrying. The vestiges of jet lag assured for an early morning at the hotel room writing desk figuring our future. Options, expenses, medical status and juggling mobility.

We’d been thinking we might rent a car and do a bit of a road trip, to include Pete’s favourite towns and an opportunity for him to hike, Sharon’s relatives and a canal boat trip.

In the end we decided it’s all too hard. We could visit lots of nice places, but Sharon would probably only see the inside of a a car and hotel room. Time to cut our losses and head home.

Nearly 4 hours were spent using Air NZ phone and chat lines to effect a change. With overseas call centres, the time difference and a seeming rolling staff policy this process was nearly suicide inducing. Decision made. We fly home on the 12th August.

We all met up for breakfast at Cafe Fame. It seems that they had had a very nice dinner (Turkish) and some members of the team went long, with no apparent recall of early morning events.

Mark peeled off to do some work, Margaret & Mike went back to their hotel. We joined Hugh & Fiona for a look at the jewellery in Argyle Arcade.

After Sharon had established she couldn’t afford any of the rings she fancied, we drifted along Buchanan Street. This glossy street was starting to accumulate a growing number of shoppers. Sharon bought dungarees at White Stuff, Pete a shirt at Vivienne Westwood.

All of this gadding about was made much easier by the hired wheelchair. The Duke’s Umbrella found and fixed a ramp on our arrival. We had a really interesting lunch here, Sharon indulging in pea fritters and Pete in curried butter chicken pot pie and chips.

After that we needed a lie down. After the stress of the flight change saga it was very welcome. We also managed to sort our train back to London and a hotel at Heathrow airport.

Dinner was to be at La Vita, a trattoria, with Pete’s Aunty Margaret, Linda (cousin-in-law?) and her boys, Julian and Christopher. We were late because our Uber went to the wrong hotel. We hailed a cab and got to La Vita about 15 mins late.

The restaurant was absolutely packed, but helpfully had a lift to get us to the first floor. It was a terrific evening; having last seen them two years ago there was plenty to catch up on. The food was great (and lots of it) and we all managed dessert.

After exchanging gifts, hugging and misty goodbyes we disappeared into the night. We got a pedal rickshaw back to the hotel.

Today’s music: Honey & Milk by Auntie Margaret.

Glasgow’s Friday nightlife had the volume turned up to 11. It was all rather surprising for us, ageing pensioners from the backwaters of New Zealand. It seemed like there were more women than men and some local bylaw mandated that skirts must be short enough to ensure knickers were visible.