what a splendid weekend the henleys have had. on friday afternoon godparent josephine flew up to visit the geth-star. cole took the day off work and spent the morning getting the spare room straight and sorting out the confusion that is child tax credits. any prospective parents be ye fore-warned. there is no greater befuddlement than the reams of paperwork that you must digest and submit to the bods at her majesty’s revenues and benefits. you’d think that tax office and revenues could talk to each other to see how much you were earning and therefore your credit entitlement but nay, that would be far too simple. plus, with Gethin born two days before a new financial year much confusion ensued about which year-end earnings needed to be reported. think we got there in the end though and we were told that we only had to notify them if our combined earnings fell below £20k or above £75k. fret yee not her majesty’s inspectorate of all things shiny and valuable, if our combined income went above £75k i think i’d tell the whole flippin’ world!
jo’s flight from london arrived early (not easyjet then) and cole, peta and gethin tried to navigate the labyrinth of edinburgh airport by car. annoyingly, we had left our ball of string and breadcrumbs at home so not knowing where to find jo we settled on going to the pick up zone, a logically named place to find and collect recently arrived godparents you would think. a bit of a con though at £1 for ten minutes parking! after a brief, though unsuccesful, reccy by peta and mega-geth, we eventually found jo and – suitably meeted and greeted (geth sporting his lovely new hat from honorary nain Pat) – we set off back to linlithgow to deposit peta and gethin at their weekly baby massage class.
whilst p & g got down to some quality body rubbin’, cole and jo set off for ice cream, a sit down and catch up in the peel of linlithgow palace. time flew and before long we had to head home for some baby feeding action. we had intended to go up the hill for some cold beverages at the bonsyde but after gethin’s feed, and a particularly chronic bottom eruption, we only had time for a swift pint (twenty minutes) before having to head back. cole cooked up some fajitas, geth went to bed and we set down to watch back to the future 2. jumping gigawatts!
saturday-based antics revolved around a shopping trip to glasgow. the morning flew by and we didn’t get out of the house until shortly after eleven. we popped into tesco to stock up on baby food and headed west on the train into the wilds of glasgow.
we only had time for one shop before having to find somewhere to feed gethin and ourselves. that old stalwart, witherspoons, was rammed with footy fans so we ventured into pastures new at a lovely little spanish restaurant called cafe andaluz. what a find! the staff were amazingly friendly and helpful with the needs of three hungry adults and a very hungry bairn. the food was fantastic (tapas and paella), the atmosphere vibrant, the pace leisurely, and it was brilliant value to boot! truly the best restaurant experience me and peta have ever had!
after our lengthy lunch, we popped into a few more shops before heading for yet another geth-feed. it is amazing how much any extra-villa activities revolve around the timings of baby feeds and any associated emissions. peta bought a lovely new fridge freezer in john lewis, our one at home having packed up long ago creating its own winter wonderland and our frozen foods inaccessibly concealed within one giant freezer-sized/shaped ice cube. thanks to moomin and gramps for some financial help with this! pooped from a days shopping we headed back home for a light supper, still gorged from lunch, and set down to watch garden state before bed.
sunday we awoke at a leisurely pace and gethin had a bath before a pleasant massage from godmother seely. we pootled about before having to head to the airport to drop jo off for her return flight to london :( it has been truly lovely to have jo over for the weekend, she is a natural god-parent and we all wish she could have stayed longer!
elsehwere, wee friedrich bagged his tenth fly last night and is rapidly running out of leaves/traps to accommodate his prey (four more leaves are on the way though). think we are going to need a bigger plant!
This here blog is in honour of the esteemed Gethin William Albert Henley Esq, 5162 days old, who was born on 3rd April 2006 at 18:04 weighing a healthy 9lb 11½oz.
Daddy Cole is enjoying a career as a web developer whilst mummy Peta is juggling working part-time with being an all-round top mum