This sounds wonderful. What were the ports?

And snow. 🤦‍♀️

Easter egg hunt west Scotland edition: hunting for chocolate in the post storm hail.🤣

This was not how things were meant to go. After slowly emerging from the grips of the dread lurgy, my husband and my kids have now fallen prey to it. Just in time for the start of the holidays when I had it all arranged so the kids could play and I could work. Can't risk the grandparents with this.

The horrors that are being unearthed by the renovation. Just wow. Nails in pipes. Linked electricity supply (apparently we were supporting 4 other houses), lead pipes. Sigh. But the application to remove the gas went in today. And we can get financial support for installing the heat pump. Yay!

Single parenting for the evening. So there is sushi, a wee dram, the remote control is mine, shortbread and sofa snuggles with the pups.

In the midst of everything going to pot, we are starting our grand retrofit renovation of our 1960's semi. There's a skip outside and banging and hammering. And we're freaking out just a wee bit. And dreaming of a warm, airtight house.

Also why are cucumbers wrapped in cellophane? Is it so we can all practice rolling a condom on and off?

Why is it so difficult to buy just 1 lemon? I don't want to buy a net of 4 lemons. I just need 1. Neither do I want to travel 30-45mins to the nearest wholefood shop that will sell me just the 1 lemon. I want to be able to travel the 10mins it takes to get to my nearest supermarket for my 1 lemon.

Another door walk - another mudfest. I don't mind the rain so much in itself but the levels of mud everywhere are bordering on epic.

Why these unnecessary chicanes on the kelvin walkway? Most on inclines, too. Two of many on this lovely and safe off-road route into the city centre. This is also national cycle route. Surely there are less obstructive alternatives? @glasgowcitycouncil.bsky.social @sustrans.bsky.social

a cartoon drawing of a house with animals and the name bluebean on the bottom left ALT: a cartoon drawing of a house with animals and the name bluebean on the bottom left

Passed a new backfiets in the village. Gave an excited wave. There are now 4 of us in the area.

Old bones need lots of rest, preferably on mum's electric fluffy blanket.

Plenty of people out and about on two wheels in Berlin in the snow last week. After seeing that couldn't really not chauffeur cycle child 1 about today and go shopping. Sigh.

You are more observant than I. It would be good to know.

This sounds wonderful. I used to live (quite a while ago mind) in Birmingham and used my bike to get about and it was hair-raising. Navigating around Five Ways roundabout on 2 wheels is not something I want to ever repeat.

Birmingham Reveals Radical Ghent-Style Plan To Cut Car Addiction Car-besotted Birmingham wants to reduce the number of car journeys in the city.

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Staff, hotel Anna 1908. We enjoyed the slow travel experience so much we're looking doing similar trips in the future.

The ICE trains were a dream (we did treat ourselves to 1st class though, and we found they do kids sections- need to find out more about those). All on time (!) and the staff were just lovely. Public transport in Berlin is dead easy, too. Shout out to our little gem of a hotel and the truly lovely

We have made it home after our (to us) epic voyage with a 4 and 7 year old. Ferry: a cinema and a good night's sleep. Perfect. Disembarking took longer than expected and our 3 hour buffer at Amsterdam evaporated and we ran through central to get the ICE to Berlin- which was a dream.

After the ferry, lunch in the onboard restaurant in the train. Very civilised.

And we're off on our long trip from Glasgow to Berlin via ferry and train with the kids. We have a bag just for food and snacks and a bag for trainertainment. But first challenge 1: getting to the port on time.

The dogs and cats have spotted the travel bags and are hovering about them whilst throwing us reproachful glances. They know they're not coming with us. Still, guarding the bags is a tiring job and requires napping in situ in between throwing doggy shade.

That's the loan we got to buy our cargo bike. Best purchase ever. Scheme not widely known, though. Sadly poor active travel infrastructure overall (with some exceptions).

Exhausted after a marathon trip planning and booking session. Has it always been this complicated to book Ryanair and Easyjet flights? They are also not cheap at all. In the end, it was easier and cheaper to book an overnight ferry to the Netherlands and a train to Germany - even 1st class.

I'm going on a wee holiday with a friend this year. No kids or husband. Now, most people would have booked somewhere relaxing, where one can gently sightsee in the sun and read books and drink tea. We've decided to walk from Fort William to Inverness. Sigh. I suppose I have to get fit now.

OMG. There was another cycling parent doing pick up at brownies! I no longer feel like the only cyclist in the village.

And if you then add a long-tail transport bike and 2 children you get a large outing and in the evening have 2 tired and happy doggos, 2 tired and sleepy children, and 2 exhausted parents who deserve all the treats after the offspring has gone to bed.

Turns out you can use a cargo bike to give your elderly dog a lift halfway through a walk whilst echausting the younger indefatigable and excitable one. Result: two sleepy and happy doggos. Now I just need to remove the mud from the dogs, the bike, the corridor, the .... sigh. worth it.