Friday evening was our staff night out at my new school. In a strange déjà vu feeling I found myself sitting in almost exactly the same seat at the same venue that I had been a year ago for the Christmas night out of my previous school! I have had a cold all week so after the meal I said my goodbyes and set off down the road to walk home; James walked up to meet me.
Despite leaving the night out early I was still very tired on Saturday when we set off to Aberfoyle to choose our Christmas tree, and I kept dozing off in the car. Alasdair was also very tired, because he had spent Friday taking part in a Glasgow tradition of which I had never heard until this week; the Sub Crawl. This involves buying an all-day ticket for the Glasgow Subway, disembarking at each of the 15 stations and having a drink in the nearest bar! Alasdair and his friends had had a convivial time, however he was distinctly delicate on Saturday and lay down for a sleep in the back of the car. James stalwartly did all the driving!
We have bought our Christmas tree from the Forestry Commission at Aberfoyle’s David Marshall Lodge since well before the children were born. This year, with Jamie being in New Zealand and Davie being on a weekend in London, it was just three of us, but the tradition continues. We chose a fine eight foot tree and lashed it to the roof of the car before setting off to Edinburgh.
Our next destination was the Palm Court Restaurant at the Balmoral Hotel, which we reached by parking at Ingliston and taking the tram into the city centre. This involved the risk of leaving the tree on the roof of the car unguarded, but luckily the honest residents of Edinburgh did not steal it and it was waiting for us on our return. The tram into the centre was excruciatingly slow. I had thought that it would take priority over other traffic on Princes Street but the tram crawled along so slowly that we could have walked the last couple of hundred yards faster! Edinburgh was hootching, but once we got into the restaurant at the Balmoral we found ourselves in an oasis of calm.
Our afternoon tea was a gift that Jamie and Aisling gave us for last Christmas, so it was taken us a while to use the voucher! It was such a treat. We were brought a sumptuous array of tasty morsels including tiny sandwiches and sausage rolls, wee scones and delicious profiteroles. All the while we were serenaded by harp music which was being played on a balcony overlooking the room. Despite being an "afternoon tea" we were absoluted replete afterwards and were unable to eat anything else for the remainder of the day!
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