Easter in Glasgow with Tabby....

It's 6.30 in the morning here in Orlando, the jet lag has hit and I'm up after about 5 hours sleep so I thought I'd use the time to tell you about my trip to Glasgow with Tabby.
It's actually been nearly two years since I last visited Scotland. A lot had gone on in Tabby's life in that time, men wise. She was dating a guy that used to be her sister's ex boyfriend, so it was all hush hush for awhile because she knew Kitty wouldn't approve, neither would her mother! I kept telling her to get it all out in the open, as Kitty had left him for her now husband, so it's not like he dumped her. She did eventually tell them, shit did hit the fan for a bit, but they got over it just in time for Tabby to dump him. That's about the time I lasted visited her. It was for her birthday, I met the guy in question, liked him, but had Tabby telling me she was sick of him. One of the nights we went out, she introduced me to these two singers performing in a pub. They were brilliant! Tabby had gone to school with one (or both) of them. She told me she had a crush on one of them, but he was married.
About 6 months later, we met up again at her sister Kitty's place. In that time, the singer guy's wife had died (she had been fighting with cancer for 10 years) and he had started dating Tabby. I was really concerned about this, because she had only passed away 2 months previously when he started flirting with Tabby. Well, not true, I'm sure he'd been flirting with her before, but now as a widower. Tabby was besotted with him and spent most of the weekend on the phone to him. Granted, one night he was practically with us, she put him on loud speaker while he was sitting at his piano, playing and singing any song we requested. Hey, I was impressed because he even knew some Violent Femmes, not many people in the UK do!
Anyways, we all warned Tabby about being the 'rebound'. Nobody wants to be the first person with somebody when there partner has left/died on them. Nothing ever comes from it, apart from that person being able to move on with somebody else! But Tabby was adamant this guy was different. He had only had ever one partner in his life, his late wife. He wooed Tabby for a few months before they had even had sex. They did take it very slowly, not involving any of the children from either side of the relationship.
Finally they made the relationship public (and consummated) about 6 months after his wife had passed on. Tabby was so deeply in love with him. It was all out in the open so obviously not a rebound...right?
Wrong.
I think it must have been coming up to the anniversary of his wife's death when he dumped her. Tabby was in bit's. She really thought 'he was the one'. When I asked her why he broke up with her, she told me 'because he's still in love with his dead wife. I can't compete with a ghost!'
So that brings you up to date with Tabby. Once again, it's a weekend with her, and we are both free and single.
What did we get up to?
Not that much.
Not that we didn't have a good time, just not the juicy stories we normally have to share!



You don't believe me?



Alright, I'll give you a lowdown of our weekend...



Good Friday - I arrived and asked Tabby what we were up to. She had mentioned about going to Dunoon for a night where we met our sailor lovers 3 years ago, but had decided against it, as nowhere to actually stay. So it was going to be two nights out in Glasgow town. So Friday night, we hit one pub with her two gay friends, G1 and G2. G1 had to go to work at 10.30pm, so just drove us to town, had a drink with us then left. About 10 minutes later G2 got a call from him saying someone had pranged into his car leaving town, bless him! Not enough to stop him from going into work. The 3 of us moved to another bar that had some entertainment, and we stayed there listening to the music. Tabby mentioned how subdued I was being. I informed her I've lost my mojo. Chasing boys is not my scene anymore. We tried to lift this by having some tequila slammers. It did the trick in making us all happier, until we decided to go to another pub, and they refused to let us in! The bouncer first said because we were all too drunk, and we really weren't, and I defied him with it. He then admitted it wasn't us he was worried about, it was G2, that he was swaying! So we went to the next bar along, and they wouldn't let us in because of G2 either! Seriously, he wasn't that bad, only had about 2 pints and 2 slammers! We then went back to the original bar we left and the bouncer nearly didn't let us in there because he thought G2 would cause some trouble! FFS!!! We just spent majority of our evening in this place and caused no bother! What is there problem with him? It's not like he's a bleeding troublemaker and in our (blurry eyes I'm sure) he is FINE!!! It's like all the bouncers have radio contact, and when one refuses entry for some reason, then passes on to all other bouncers in vicinity. Wouldn't surprise me actually if they do. We'll do the same in our pub, if thrown out a large group of trouble makers, will call the other pubs in town to warn them. But it's not like G2 caused any trouble!!! So when G2 left, Tabby wanted to go back to prove that we could get in without him. As we walked near it, I clocked the bouncer seeing us, turning his head and talking to the other bouncer. I knew because of what happened earlier, he wasn't going to let us in, and to save further humiliation, I grabbed Tabby's arm and said to her to keep walking, we weren't going to give this prick any more satisfaction of slamming us down. So we hailed a cab and went home. Yep. Home by half twelve! Pissed off with bouncers of the area, cutting our night short.



Easter Saturday - We spent the afternoon shopping, then it was another night out, this time without the G's. I thought we may spend a better chance of actually finding male company without them anyway. You know what it's like when you party with males, other males tend to leave you alone. We went to this pub that does karaoke. Tabby is a great singer. It wasn't very busy, but we had fun belting out some tunes. I thought i was an okay singer, till I saw the vids downloaded on this guys website of me singing on Monday...no you are NOT getting that link!!! Tabby did well out of the night, the karaoke guy asked her to work for him every Saturday night at another pub he sets up in. She was in two minds, as he is only paying £40 a session, when she makes more than that with her day job. I pointed out to her that £40 a week leads to £160 extra a month, and that's more pay than a bartender for a shift, and all she has to do is SING and take requests!!! No lugging equipment around, just show up and do her job! So she is going to give that a go. Oh and when we were there, we decided to have a play fight, you know just slapping hands in front of each others faces, when I then notice blood pouring from Tabby's chin. My diamond ring just caught her, like a paper cut. She didn't even feel it but the blood was pouring from her! So she was in the toilets for awhile trying to stop the bleeding. Afterwards, we went to this pub that Tabby said is the best place to pick up men...wall to wall of them, celebrities (well Scottish ones anyway) and everything. It was an awesome venue, and old church, and it had a massive neon halo over the spire. We had to line up what seemed like hours. I was really worried that when I got to the top of the cue I WOULD be refused entry because it was me that was swaying. I was so tired. Face it, we are to old for this crap anymore! Surprisingly enough, we did get in, and in true style of this pubs story, there were a load of guys in there. Tabby and I were standing back to back...she was talking to two guys, and I was talking to two guys. We got drinks bought for us, etc. But our homing pigeons kicked in, and we were in a cab heading home at about 3am in the morning. Tabby's brother, who was looking after her children commented on how drunk we were on arrival, I nicked his covers off of him on the sofa, and we begged for some 'cheese' as we were hungry. Neither of us remember that.



Easter Sunday - both of us trying to recover from the night before, while cooking a roast for the G's who were coming over. Booze was flowing from the minute we woke up. I had bought her children the 'Just dance' Wii game for Easter. So everybody had a go at that, it was really such a laugh. We finally ate about 5pm, with me having a kip in between. It was lush, the G's were good company (in between my kips) and we had a nice day overall. I think Tabby and I were asleep by 9pm, trying to recover from our two nights out...we just don't have the stamina anymore...as we are getting old!!!



So that's my weekend with Tabby...some as you may not think that is a quiet weekend...but for us...it was!!!

The start of a crazy adventure...

Urgh, I've been running around like a mad idiot this week, trying to get everything done before my holidays start.....which do in 12 hours time!

I'm off to Glasgow tomorrow lunch time, to spend the Easter weekend with Tabby.  It looks like it may be a white Easter with all the snow they've had up there the last couple of days!  She's got two of the 3 nights planned for us to go out, one of those in the town we met the Captain and the Chief 3 years ago.  Wow, how time flies!  I fly back to Blah on Monday afternoon, to then gather my children, the second lot of suitcases I've been packing all night, and head to Gatwick airport to stay over night and then head off to Orlando Florida on Tuesday!  The only good thing about the trips being back to back, is one suitcase is full of winter clothes, and the other summer ones. 

I'm really looking forward to the Florida trip, as its the first time I'm going on holiday with just me and the children, staying in a hotel where I don't have to cook or clean during the holiday (even though there is a kitchenette in the suite) and just have a blast with them.

We will be there for seven days, and the Theme Parks visiting are Universal, Seaworld, Discovery Cove (swimming with dolphins, my favourite animal/mammal!) and Disney.  We are only bothering one day with Disney, because the kids have been to the one in Paris, and there is just so many other places to visit.  Universal seems to have overtaken Disney, and the kids were really excited (as I) that the new Harry Potter ride was opening in the Spring!  A couple of days ago, they were talking about it on the radio, it sounds so bloody cool!  Then they announced the official opening date.....June 18th!  That's not effing spring...that's summer!  I wonder how many other people are going to Universal this Easter break thinking the ride would be open by now?  Grrrrr!!!!  It's not like I'm going to be able to take the kids again.  This is a once in a lifetime holiday for them, as it's so far cost me £3500 for the flights, hotel and tickets.  We could have gone cheaper, but I want this holiday to be WOW for the boys.  Something they will look back in awe and wonder for the rest of their lives.  This was my dream holiday as a kid (even though mainly for Disney, as there was nothing like it at the time) so now I'm about to have it, and enjoy the excitement through my children.

Oh, and my laptop is coming with me, so hopefully I'll find time to blog the adventure (for the price of the hotel, the internet would WANT to be complimentary!). 

Oh, and what is else on my list of things to do?

I'm meeting Nitebyrd while I'm out there!!!!

So chow for now people, I've got a busy few days ahead of me! I hope you have a lovely Easter...what are you doing for it?

Some questions answered...

Ok, I think I know what the problem with some people not being able to read my first blogs in white, they probably were reading it through a feeder, giving it a white background instead of black. Will keep the text in green now.

So I have some questions to answer, yay! I like this idea for a catch up.

First up Fat Controller asked me this...

Do you still frequent the other pubs, the Cock and the CU? Are you still boycotting the CU after the Chicken incident?

Yeah, I do occasionally go into the other pubs (well done for remembering their names FC!). Not that often as working in the Duck, I spend most of my time socialising there, as I know everybody. The swine bar has also now reopened, but their noses are so stuck up their asses charging £5 to get in after 10pm, even when there is no live music on, and charge nearly £5 a drink, we don't bother much with that place either. The CU STILL has crap food, probably only eaten there once since the fight with the cook, and was utterly disappointed, so haven't eaten there since and never recommend it to anyone else. The club does food now so that's where we do our 'ladies wot lunch', but even that's stopped because I work in the Duck on Friday lunches now.

Mel asked what my next journey was and who I'm going with.

Well, pretty much all of April is involving a LOT of journeys with different people! It all kicks off on 2nd April, Good Friday. The boys are with their dad for the Easter weekend, so I'm going up to Glasgow to spend time with my mad Scottish mate Tabby! I'm sure some tales will come out of that weekend, although I'm sure we wont be running into American Navy Seals this time!

I arrive back on Easter Monday, and that night, myself and the boys are driving to Gatwick to stay overnight, as the next day we are off to Florida! Woohoo! This is a once in a life time trip for us, doing it in style! My grandfather passed away last year, and my father gave me some of the money left to him, which I've used for holidays. We are staying at the Nick hotel for a week (kids looking forward to the 'gunge' in the pool apparently dropped out of the bucket each day). The parks I've booked is swimming with dolphins at Discovery cove, Seaworld, Universal Studios and one day at Disney. I'm so looking forward to this holiday, as it's actually the first time I've gone with the boys without anyone else. Just the 3 of us, having a lovely time I'm sure.

Then at the end of the month, I'm meeting Joie (my NZ friend who first got me into blogging) in Amsterdam for the weekend! She's got a houseboat booked in the city centre which myself and good friend Fee are joining them for two nights! Can't wait to see Joie again and meet her boyfriend. It's been two years since I have seen her...but will then be visiting her in NZ in August!

Mel also asked how my mum is...

She's great. Turned 70 in December which me and the boys went back to Oz to help celebrate. My sisters and I had been saving up for a year for her present, which was a new TV and tickets to NZ in July, she's coming over with me. Joie and I have already made the plan to dump her on Joie's mum! No joke. They've become friends over facebook.

Kahless asked me how the boys are.

They are also great. Dill is now 9, still coming out with the funniest things! I cooked a lamb roast in the slow cooker the other day and he said 'Mum, this lamb is so tender and SUCCULENT!!!' He amazes me with some of the words he comes out with at a young age. Pickle is 11, about to turn 12. He started high school in September and is absolutely loving it. Geez I'd love to go to that school! It's only about 3 years old and has all the mod cons. They don't even take money to school for their dinners, I have to place money into his account, and they pay by thumbprint! This way there is no chance of bullies taking money or cards.

Kahless also asked 'Are you happy?'

This question really made me think hard....

I've got my health, I've got my business and job, I've got two wonderful sons, and great friends. I'm not having to scrape by day to day (although may have to with all these holidays soon!). The only thing missing in my life...is a partner. It's been this way for three years, nearly six years since I left my ex. I haven't even had a SHAG for nearly a year! (and that was crap)

So the answer to the question? Yes, I am happy. I don't need a man in my life to make me happy. (after all, I still have thumper!)

But then, I was watching Neighbours the other day (don't snigger - its my way of touching base with Oz!) and Toadie said to his girlfriend 'I was chugging along with my life just me and *whatever the kids name is* and I thought I was really happy, but then you came along and I really discovered what happiness is.' Something along those lines anyway. It reminded me of when AC came into my life 3 and a half years ago, and how I felt having him about, and understood what Toadie was saying. It's the anniversary of his death next week. I think the scars from that relationship, and then Chief, is the reason why I've given up on finding love again. But I AM happy! There's just different types of happiness in peoples lives.

Right, all answered! I enjoyed that....any more questions wanted asking to catch up on my life?