I have a confession. I went to the Merchant City Festival on Sunday with the kids and my friend AJ and her daughter, and I didn’t take any pics. I think I was so busy keeping an eye on my kids that I didn’t even think about taking photos. Sigh.

Still, I have the memories.

Okay, the main reason why I wanted to go to the festival was that there was a huge vintage part to it organised by Wayne Hemmingway and his team. We met AJ and her daughter at Queen Street station and then trundled down to the Merchant City, which is a really nice area of Glasgow for shops and restaurants. Here’s what we saw:
– a girl in vintage bathing suit, goggles and flowery swimming cap doing some street art and pretending to dive
– lots of stalls selling foods from all over the world, the smell was incredible
– a vintage market with lots of goodies…my fave was the Dennis the Menace stall selling memorabilia from the Beano
– circus and other street artists
– live bands
– afternoon tea in china cups and cupcakes
– a dance area with a man demonstrating 70s disco (complete with silver platforms and sparkly jacket)…he got some folk up from the crowd and the only reason AJ and I didn’t join him was that our kids were bleating ‘No!’ and looking mortified
– an area where you could get a vintage makeover (was sorely tempted, but would have been difficult to sit for half an hour with my two wriggle chicks bouncing around…they never stop)

There were also lots of folk dressed up in vintage styles ranging from the 40s through to the 60s. Excellent!

Was a good afternoon and was great to catch up with AJ again. Was exhausted though when I got back home…we walked around for several hours, had tea at a teensy vintage style caravan that was a ‘travelling tearoom’, and trawled the stalls. Next time, I leave the kiddies at home. I think I was too anxious trying to keep a hold of them to truly enjoy the experience.

The day before, the immediate family (all 12 of us) went over to my mum and dad’s to celebrate my dad’s 68th birthday. I can’t believe he’s 68. My mum will be 69 in November. When did they get older? Anyway, we ate out in their garden, my mum put on a fantastic spread (as usual) and we had a right old laugh. My parents put out a paddling pool (shaped like a pirate ship) in the garden which my boy and my three-year-old niece were never out of. It was a good day and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Happy birthday dad! I should also mention my two-year-old nephew who celebrated his birthday last Tuesday. Happy birthday to you too wee man!

Dawn xxxx