Back in G-Town

We bid a fond farewell to the Emerald Isle yesterday morning and caught the Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to Glasgow. Amusingly the plane we boarded was an ATR-72, just like the ones Air New Zealand uses on its regional routes. Of course being Irish it was much more comfortable and flew with a twinkle in its eye.

Just over an hour after departing Dublin we touched down at Glasgow International, disembarked and walked through to the terminal to be greeted by Jean's uncle and Aunt. They were happy to see us, but did have an important question to ask, 'Where's your suitcases?' In the excitement of reaching Scotland we had sailed past baggage claim and out through the exit doors, neglecting to collect our bags. Whoops! The one way doors had closed behind us, stranding us from our stuff. Just when it looked like our bags would have to find a new home with some other lucky traveller, who would be gifted with our dirty laundry, more passengers filed out of baggage claim and we took the opportunity to zip back in. Ha ha I thought, take that security, until the alarm went off and a voice announced 'You have entered a restricted area, please wait for security.' Bugger that I thought, you'll never take me alive and I continued purposefully striding towards our baggage belt. When I saw an airport official walking towards us I explained that we were dopey tourists and he said 'Sure it's fine, go for it pal.' God bless the Celtic sense of informality.

Bags now safely collected we returned through the arrivals doors and re-greeted Jean's aunt and uncle. They drove us to their home where we relaxed with a home made lunch before meeting up with Jean's cousin later on.

Today we have the big family reunion with Jean's cousins and their wee bairns. I have been promoted by Jean as a one man show for kids, so the pressure is on for me to entertain. If it doesn't go well I shall tell the kids that I'm Australian.Read more