I cannot believe it is nearly August already! July has flown in. What is equally as quick is how fast the days fly in too! I don’t know how I managed to work part-time (or even full time before I had the kids) and ran the house and had time to myself for I feel as if I have no time at all. If I’m not doing housework, I am cooking. If I am not shopping for food, I am gardening. And so it goes on. The days are busy busy busy. How I squeezed work in there every week I do not know!

So, anyway, how are you? How has your week been? Ours has been good, but it started off with a bang…literally. Just after 8am last Sunday morning two explosions shook the house…and I am not joking. I thought something had hit the roof it was that loud and that powerful. I popped my head outside to see if I could see bits of the roof in the garden but there was none. The street seemed quiet so I went on Facebook to tell my woes to my friends only to find that the ones living in our area had also heard it and been frightened by it. Eventually, one – my friend Zuzka – came up the explanation…two old cranes had been taken down in Greenock across the water from us. They used controlled explosions.

I am sure that all of Greenock knew it was going to happen, but no one over this side of the river had been told. The Faslane Naval Base is only a few miles away so you can imagine what everyone initially thought…thankfully there was no fire and smoke and no mushroom cloud and it was all explained when Zuzka shared the link to the online news feed. Phew. It was a helluva explosion though!

The following day, we met my youngest sister and her two children last Monday at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. We paid in to see the Frank Quitely exhibition, he’s a Scottish comic book artist. It cost me £13 for me and my two so I thought this was alright. The exhibition wasn’t huge, but I really enjoyed it. I think comic book artists are amazing. Some of the artwork they produce is beautiful and Frank Quitely’s work is really stunning. Plus Superman’s cape was there too, so it was good.

After that exhibition, we had a wee wander around the Art Gallery and Musuem itself. I’ve been going there – like most folk who grew up in and around Glasgow – since I was wee and I love it. A lot of the exhibits were there that I remember from my childhood but arranged in a different way. There’s lots to see although the kids didn’t seem that fussed on viewing art…in fact my nephew (who turned six recently…happy birthday wee man!) found some of them highly amusing. I love when small children giggle at serious stuff, it’s funny. He made us all laugh. We had lunch across the road at a small pizza type place. ** Alert ** Alert ** gripe coming up – what is it just now that all the wee pizza places are going for weird toppings on their pizza? I just want a ham and pineapple pizza. That’s it. Just that. I do not want Himalayan Goat’s Cheese with Rocket and Pink Seasalt and…pardon my French…poncy shite like that. My children do not want it either. This place was the type of small artsy café that sold that kind of stuff (well, it is the west end I suppose!). We could have left, but the kids were hungry so I opted for a pizza with chorizo and some weird type of fancy cheese. It was alright. Sigh.

On Wednesday, me, the kids and one of my best friends’ teenage daughters popped down to The Tower in Helensburgh to see the latest Spiderman Homecoming film.

We had brunch in Riverhill first (yum) before dropping into the wee arts centre and cinema for the film. We had a ball. It was a great day: brunch was lovely as always and the film was really quite good. This young lady has been unwell recently, but is back on the mend. I’ve known her since she was a day old. My kids think of her as their cousin and she’s like a niece to me, so we really did have a lovely time with her. We are going to fix a date for August for a wee cinema night at my house.

Thursday was pick up the new car day…I wish. Basically, someone ran into the back of my car a couple of weeks ago. The van driver’s insurance company sorted everything out and I currently am driving a beautiful gun metal grey and brand new Qashqai. It’s a stunning car with all the mod cons. I shall feel bereft when I pick up my newly fixed car (there are a couple of dents in the boot door) this week…whenever that will be. Sigh. It’s been so nice driving such a lovely car.

Right that’s about it apart from to wish my dad a happy 71st birthday this week and my father-in-law a happy 89th birthday today.

Til next time!

Dawn xxxx