Holiday - Day 5

Mom & Dad's last day in town. They have an early flight Monday morning so they'll take the train out to Prestwick tonight and stay in a B&B out by the airport as it will be less stressful and they'll get a couple extra hours sleep that way.

So that means today is packing, cleaning and confirming travel arrangements. First off was church, then we had brunch at The Left Bank and my flat-mate was able to join us (she'd been out of town for the week and just got home the previous night). After brunch it was back to the flat to pick up the lap-top and head over to the i-cafe to check emails, look at train schedules, see if the hotels in Spain and France that we've booked have internet access (this is important) etc. Figuring out who will get where first and who needs to pay the bills and collect the keys when we meet up in May in Spain.

Lots to do, and yet not so much. Mom & Dad are all packed and their train doesn't depart until 7PM, sooooo might as well spend the afternoon in the pub :>) We head over to the Lansdowne Pub with all the suitcases & backpacks and just as we walk in the door the whole place erupts into cheers. I guess the Celtic game was on and the winning goal was just scored (but I'm guessing here). While enjoying a nice dram of Cragganmore 12 yr Dad notices a sign that the pub now has free wi-fi so out comes the lap top (are you noticing a trend here, it's not just me that's addicted to my laptop, but my whole family - something about wanting to stay connected with friends/family back home). So this is great. Now I have a choice of either sipping a coffee at the i-cafe or I can have a pint at the Lansdowne to check emails. It will be interesting to see if there is a change in my writing style depending on where I am.

Right, where was I - at the pub. My flat mate and her brother and sister-in law have all come to join us at the pub to send my folks off. It's just a quick visit but nice all the same. It's 6PM now so we need to get going.

It's as we are crossing the street and walking towards the Underground that it hits me - the subway only runs until 6PM so we can't get to the train station this way. No worries. We turn around and there a couple of blocks down I can see a number of cabs so it only takes a minute to flag one down. A nice cheap 5.00 fare to the train station and much less walking for Mom so everything worked out fine.

I go to the ticket booth and purchase their tickets for them and then take them to the board to show how they can tell what train & platform they need to find. As we are reading the board it gets extremely noisy and we can see a huge crowd of Celtic fans have just arrived at the station from the stadium and they are singing and cheering. There are a few police around just making sure nothing gets out of hand but it's fun to watch and one more experience that Mom & Dad are able to soak up.

So the board gets updated with the platform number and I walk Mom & Dad to the train and make sure they get seats. All is well and they are off on to the next leg of their holiday - a 12 day Mediterranean cruise. Sweet!

And I get to go back to work on Monday (not so sweet).