Scottish Adventure!

Well we finally made it! Despite a 5 hour delay in Dubai due to fog, we finally made it to Glasgow in one piece. The trip went well and the kids were great, drawing quite a few compliments regarding their behaviour. A family consisting of parents, three adult children, son in law and grandson which I named the Large family (how they managed to squeeze into those seats was beyond me) were sitting to our left in the double seats. After not drawing a smile the whole trip, I was surprised when the two daughters turned to me as we were about to disembark and suddenly announced "You deserve a best mum award, your children have been wonderful the whole trip and you are amazing to tackle this on your own." I was stunned! The children to their credit were very good, but I cannot take all the credit as they emerged at the end with red eyes due to the equivalent of a whole day watching TV! But it just goes to show that you never really can tell what other people are thinking. So finally we arrived weary, but excited in Glasgow and from the moment we stepped off the plane I was filled with nostalgia as I was surrounded by Scottish accents, sparkling eyes and warm smiles - well they needed to be warm smiles as the temperature was about 8 degrees! With the sun shining in our eyes we headed into the airport across the tarmac from the back of the plane and Jarra finally realised just how big the plane actually was. Standing under the wing, his eyes full of wonder he uttered "Our plane very big plane mummy!" My wonderful friend Sheila was there to meet us with her friend Ann there to take the luggage, as Sheila's little 'green minty' wasn't up for such a big load. Standing for the interminable wait for our luggage to appear on the carousel, Sandra ( Glasgow airport employee, or so her badge said ) saw me trying to keep Jarra from climbing on to the conveyor belt for the tenth time and approached me.She asked if I had anyone meeting me and then offered to take Jarra and Tal through to Sheila while Rennie stayed with the rest of our stuff. In the seconds after I saw them walking off I suddenly had a moment of "Oh my God! What if she isn't who she says she is!", but she was just great and returned to help me through customs and beyond, dissappearing back into the arrival area with a smile and a wave. I wonder if she realises how much her warmth and kindness re-asserted all that was good in my memories about Scotland. The weather may be shocking, the Aussie dollar not go very far,but the people are great. They smile often, chat freely about their cousin in Australia or whatever and it is as if they have known you all their life. I smiled. I was home.