A weekend in the air

This weekend we had a flying visit to the UK in both meanings of the word!  Leaving Wednesday night after a busy day at work I slept like a baby all the way to Heathrow and to be honest I also slept all the way up to Aberdeen where we landed at about 4pm the following day.

Ann and Neil kindly put us up for the night as we were supposed to be surprising Iain at his 40th the following day!  Well not all surprises go quite to plan so he actually knew we were in the country.  A relatively quiet night was just what the doctor ordered.  I woke at about 3:30am – wide awake however, after tossing and turning finally getting back to sleep only to feel dreadful when it was time to get up.

I had seen a meeting request the previous evening so we had breakie (well Stuart got his in Aberdeen – with black pudding and back bacon!) and heading off into Aberdeen to do a bit of shopping – you know pick up all those things you miss!   I had to leave Stuart to complete shopping so I could head to the office for my meeting.  He got the train back to Dyce so Emma could meet him and then they were going to start preparing for the party that evening.  I finally got out to Emma and Iain’s after 6pm.  Poor Neil had had to do all my duties – sorry Neil but could you just go to the garage AGAIN!!

The birthday boy had been playing two rounds of golf in Dundee and got home at about 8:30pm to be greeted by all his guests. 

The party was fun although we did nearly forget the champagne in the freezer.  Iain got to blow out candles twice, once for Alex who had to go home to bed and was disappointed by the lack of party hats!, and then a second time for the adults – he had so many candles he could blow them all out at once!

The party begins before the birthday boy arrives – we all start tucking into the food!
	The different skin colour is quite amazing! Cake number one with many, many candles! It almost burns the house down!

Next doors hen party came in for a bit of rude hula hooping and that is when Iain broke out the stags tutu from his weekend away!  We remained up until 5:30am – a little mad I know but it always seems to be the best way to get over jet lag I have found!

	Cake number 2 being prepared with 40 candles!! It was actually quite a challenge to get them all lit without burning your hand on another burning candle!
Just look at the puff in those cheeks!
	5:30am approaching!

We were all woken the following morning by Louise and Matt who Emma had invited to breakfast since they couldn’t make the party (they had a good excuse they had flown in from Australia that morning!).  It was a good thing they turned up when they did as we had a quick shower, sort out wedding gear, breakfast then off to the wedding.  The others were heading to St Andrews for the day as Emma had surprised Iain with a round on the Old Course.

On the way to the church we had a nosey at the house – it was still standing and except for the nasty net curtains the tenants have put up the house looked fine.

Unfortunately the glorious sun on Friday had long gone and it was decidedly miserable but that didn’t dampen the atmosphere in the church.  Emma looked beautiful and could not stop grinning through out the service.  Even the minister commented on there very happy manner!!  After the ceremony we all stood outside under our brollies and through confetti at them

We gave Clare a lift to Pittodrie House Hotel where the reception was – so I got to see how well she had been looking after my old golf that still looked to be going strong!  We took a ‘quicker’ back route!!  Well I think we were last to show up and on the way it had absolutely chucked it down.  Although the back route was not as quick as we hoped it was lovely and the green countryside was just fabulous.

The speeches were very good – funny and quite emotional.  Emma’s dad managed to make all the girls at the table fill up! We all ate well, breakfast was a long time ago, and it got us ready for the dancing that followed.  The evening guests included many more work colleagues so we had a fab catch up and the evening passed so quickly.  The only downer was our cracking headache that set in at about 9pm from the heavy night before!!  We managed a couple of ceilidh dances – on the Arcadian Stripe the Willow I nearly came a cropper thanks to Nick (although he was just paying me back from swinging him too hard!). We got home at about 1:30am just about 20 minutes after the others had got back from St Andrews, however there was no continuation of the party we all needed bed!

Sunday was quiet with all us missing the best of the weather while we were still in bed, however we did manage to eat breakfast outside only wearing one fleece!  Our walk around Bennachie was a little soggy and probably the reason Emma and I were walking so fast to the complaints of the boys!  We collected our car from the hotel and all retreated back to the house to dry out and eat more cheese and biscuits! 

Sunny ……
	…then not! We were all rather wet after this down pour.  Good old Scotland lives up to it reputation.

In the evening we went for a curry, however it didn’t go quite to plan as people dropped like flies.  Ann feel off the pavement 200 yards from the restaurant only to be taken to A&E with a poorly ankle, and the Carolyn and Kevin phoned in with food poisoning – not good!  Anyway Stu, Iain and I still enjoyed a good Light of Bengal curry to get our fix!!

On the way home we dropped into A&E to see the invalid. Poor them they had been waiting nearly 2 hours and still not seen not to mention now very hungry and probably our gloating about our curry didn't help!  However, while we were there they were called in and Ann is now in a removable plaster for two weeks and hobbling around on a crutch before she gets reassessed.  Get better soon Ann.

Thank you to you all for putting us up and we had lots of fun despite of the limited time.  I thought we were going to be in the UK an extra day when our flight from Aberdeen was delayed and we very nearly missed our Houston flight.