It's a wanderful life, so it is

There can’t be many better feelings than catching up with friends and family after some months apart. In Real Life, as the young folks say. Even if the weather is absolutely freezing!

Although we arrived safely in Belfast from Miami, our luggage wasn’t so lucky. Some problem with baggage handling at Heathrow, just a risk that comes with flying. It’s also, however, where the challenge of travelling with all your worldly goods comes in. Fortunately, we had old jumpers and holey jeans that we had used for gardening and painting at Niall’s so we weren’t left in our birthday suits. But it was close! Our luggage turned up a couple of days later and, armed with clean knickers, we relaxed into our stay.

Speaking of Christmas Dinners, some people may be aware that Gerry always gets together with some friends at this time of the year. In past years, venues have included historic cities such as Istanbul and Paris but it was held locally this time. Let’s just say it wasn’t one for the ages but there are high hopes for redemption at the 40th Christmas Dinner in December 2025, wherever that will be.

We had a big family gathering at the other Murphys (Gerry’s brother and family) on Boxing Day which was the usual great fun and mayhem. Catherine provided enough food to feed the 500, as always, and the drink was flowing. 

Mhairi was in their house an hour before she was in bed, where she pretty much spent the rest of the weekend with the flu. Jeannie (Mhairi’s mum) was staying, Niall was with us, and Jan and John (Jamie’s parents) were round for a ‘Christmas’ day on the Saturday. Jan and John introduced us to a game called Herd Mentality where the right answer is irrelevant; you win by guessing the most popular answer given by the players. Mhairi has a reputation for some eccentric thinking so, although we missed her, it made the game a lot easier to predict!

Meadhbh and Jamie live in a lovely hamlet in the middle of the countryside. The countryside, of course, is a place you visit before going back to the city, While you’re there though, there is also plenty of scope for walks. Now, a walk isn’t just something you do before stopping off at a pub. It can also be done for its own sake, perhaps with a beloved pet, and seemingly without any regard to soggy, slippery or hazardous conditions underfoot. Keira, Meadhbh, Jamie, Niall and Gerry went on one of those, for pleasure apparently. The most amazing part was that everyone apart from Gerry got lost! Having climbed up the hill, he dandered back down and found himself all alone while the rest were still stuck up there looking for some old man! Gerry was able to phone them on the mobile, however, and guide them to safety once they pointed him towards the right path. For some reason, his sense of direction seems to be always at its best when there’s a pub at the end of the walk.

We headed off to Glasgow for New Year but it was a quiet one as Gerry was now poorly too. We did manage to walk around Glasgow Green as it was only ten minutes away but clearly weren’t in any decent state of mind as we took some terrible pictures (even by our standards), including one of the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games that missed most of the logo and one of the stunning Templeton Carpet factory, modelled on the Doge’s Palace in Venice, that we captured while standing behind a massive tree for some reason!

We headed down to Ayrshire for a couple of days, both still feeling a bit ropey, so we had a quiet weekend. We met up with Lynne and Rod for a long awaited catch up and the craic was definitely 90. Josh even made an appearance, but Ross was out house hunting. Still, 3 out of 4 ain’t bad. Once again, we were far too busy chatting to take photos. Maybe next time.

We also caught up with Jeannie for a lovely breakfast and enjoyed a bracing walk through to Prestwick. The views across the Firth of Clyde were just stunning.

We returned to Glasgow, feeling a whole lot better and stayed in the West End this time. Partick is in a lovely part of town and we’d planned to do lots of walking. I think we’d forgotten just how cold it gets and, after spending months during which the most difficult wardrobe decision was “Which t-shirt and shorts will it be today?”, trying to decide just how many layers of coats, jumpers, gloves and hats was a bit of a shock. We’ll come back when the weather’s warmer and Glasgow will be just as interesting but not so freezing.

The weather didn’t stop us from celebrating Niall’s birthday at Celtic Park on a baltic Wednesday night in January though. (The truth is we would have been there anyway but don’t tell Niall. 🤫). Ross Malone joined us for a couple of drinks before the game which was great. Even better, he had just found out that he and his girlfriend had got the house they were after, so celebrations all round. Celtic won 2-0, rounding off a great (but cold) night.

After a lovely few days in the West End we headed back to Meadhbh’s, and Mhairi finally got the catch up she’d been waiting for. All in rude health, we ate, drank and were merry. Meadhbh and Jamie both had hair appointments on the Saturday, so we headed into Edinburgh and met Keith and Jill for a few drinks. It was the first we had seen them face-to-face since the end of June and we had fun just nattering and planning some trips in Argentina later in the year.

On our last Sunday at home, it was back to school for Mhairi, with Lesley and Alan (and Jane). They have been friends since their school days and, ironically, all ended up on the East Coast, so it was a perfect opportunity for lots of nonsense talking! We went to Dhoom in Dunfermline for a 7-course lunch, which was delicious, and was only topped off by the flights of cocktails, floating in the ‘clouds’ of dry ice. Much fun was had and many plans for future gatherings.

It was a sad farewell to Meadhbh and Jamie on Tuesday. We didn’t see nearly enough of them on this trip, but did manage to finalise their meeting up with us for a week in Florence in May. We can’t wait.