Glasgow blow by blow!

Hello!! Thanks so much for all your kind birthday wishes ♥ It was a lovely day, but more on that later! I've got so much to blog about, so I'll start with the beginning of the week, when I went to Glasgow. I'll blog about my birthday later on after work.

So, Alex's family are Scottish and his gran/aunts/uncles/cousins live in Glasgow. So our main motivation for going up to Glasgow was to visit his family. It was a very short visit but we got lots packed in! Here's a blow by blow account of our trip, with a couple of crap mobile phone pics to accompany it! As we had to travel light, we couldn't bring our obese digital camera along. (EDIT: took a couple of pics of my purchases with my lovely new camera just now... more on that later!) Right, here we go...

Sunday night: Alex's mum picked us up from Canterbury and took us to Bexhill (because Alex's car was being MOT'd) where she, Alex's dad and my family live. I stayed at my mum's house and got Roxy settled in for her own little holiday there!

Monday 7am: Set off for Glasgow from Bexhill. The drive was fine, no hold-ups. Finding a Krispy Kreme in a service station was probably the highlight for me. It was only 9am, but I couldn't say no to a glazed donut!

Monday 4pm: Arrive in Glasgow. We got all settled in the hotel room and then went to see Alex's gran.

Monday night: Fish and chips with Alex's Gran - lovely!

Tuesday morning - We got the taxi into Glasgow centre. We had a little look in Urban Outfitters which was envy-inducing. I saw some Swedish Hasbeens in real life too... Aren't they just lovely? I refuse to give in and buy a pair though because A) I'm not bloody made of money, and B) I am put off by anything that is OH.SO.NOW! I need my purchases to go the distance. We went to Debenhams to spend my £50 voucher, where I got the gorgeous H! by Henry Holland jumpsuit seen a couple of posts ago. I also bought a mesh shirt in the sale but I don't really know how to wear it yet. Also nipped to Primark where I picked up a lace dress for £7.




Tuesday afternoon: We got the subway back to Hillhead, which is where all the cool shops are, and near Alex's Gran's flat, which was good! We had lots of vintage shops to check out thanks to recommendations from Lauren (Sparkle Unicorn Moonbeam Cupcake) and Ayden (Little blog of horrors)! We had a good rummage but it looks like there is as much of an over-priced vintage problem in the North as there is in the South! Such a shame, because we saw some gorgeous stuff. We checked out the heaps of Charity shops that Ayden also mentioned (there were tonnes!) which was great fun. I only bought a bag in the end, but it's a very nice bag indeed. Also found an amazing junk shop, then had some lunch.





Tuesday night - We went for dinner with Alex's family which was great fun. We went to 'Spuntini' where me and Alex's mum shared a huge Paella. Yum! I picked up some cool Glaswegian phrases too thanks to Alex's Uncle. (Nippy Sweetie - someone that seems sweet but has a sharp tongue! Talking mince - Talking rubbish!) Despite their Scottish roots, both phrases feel strangely close to home..! :)

Wednesday morning - One last jaunt round the charity shops before saying goodbye to Alex's gran and setting off to catch our train home (Alex's parents were continuing a few hours further North to their house in Scotland, not coming back South).

Wednesday 1.40pm - Boarded the Virgin train from Glasgow to London. We booked tickets in the 'Quiet Zone' because noisy passengers enrage Alex & I beyond belief. We read books and mags and had a [quiet] giggle and before we knew it we were in London!



(Alex's immaculate train table and my one, piled with junk!)

Wednesday 6.47pm - 1.5hr train from London to Bexhill to pick the cat up from mum's. The quiet zone was a distant memory after just a few minutes on this jam packed train. We were sat in front of a man constantly shouting at his cute toddler (which made me VERY angry. Poor little thing), beside a family that were making no effort to stop their little kids from regularly squeaking those fucking trays attached to the seats, and behind a girl that started vomiting later on in the journey. Utter. Hell. It was a relief to get off that train and get back to Mum's. My mum and sister surprised me with a birthday cake because it was the last time they'd see me before my birthday. We wolfed it down and then had to catch the train to Canterbury - Roxy in tow..!

Wednesday 9.20pm: Train from Bexhill to Canterbury (changing at Ashford) with a howling cat in a basket. I felt so bad for little Roxy because she's never been on a train before, and she was so confused with all the new sights and sounds. She's basically my baby and I cannot bear when she isn't happy. The train guard kindly let us sit in our own first class compartment because he took pity on our sad cat and the fact we had loads of luggage. This was awesome, because I got to charge my dead phone while we were in the first class bit!



10pm: got to Ashford, where we missed our connection by seconds. We had to wait 50 minutes to catch the next train, which sent me over the edge after a long day. Regular readers will know I'm rather emotional at the best of times, let alone stranded on a platform with my little cat who didn't have a clue what was going on :( I cried for a bit but then figured Roxy would be home soon and once she's scoffing some food, she'd have forgotten all about being cooped up for 3 hours in her basket.

11.30pm - HOME SWEET HOME!!! As predicted, Roxy was back to her normal stress-free (and gorgeous) self almost instantly. I cooked some toasties for mine and Alex's empty bellies and we went to bed and watched Three In a Bed on the laptop (my new favourite tv programme!) A lovely end to a long day. :)

We had such a fun time and I definitely want to go back soon. It'll be much easier when Alex's car is sorted, because there would be no hellish waiting for the train with the cat, we can just drive home from the cat-sitter's Mum's house!

Off to work now, but will be back later on with a post about my birthday, including much better photos thanks to a lovely gift from my lovely boyfriend... :)

♥