my name is mwd

On Friday past I jetted up to Glasgow for a couple of days, mainly to see my new niece Sarah, and her parents. As I’ve said already, Sarah was born on Thursday morning in the wee small hours, and is a bonnie wee lass, who did a good job of pretending she’s sweetness and light by only crying briefly in the few hours I was at the hospital. Scott (the Dad) tells me it’s not always like this :) Karen is doing well, after she had a bit of a tough time with the birth. I think when I saw her on Saturday it was the first day she wasn’t out of it with being drugged and operated on, and she looked a bit worn out. But by Sunday she was looking a lot healthier, and hopefully they can get out the hospital in a day or two. I’m glad I got to see Sarah now, as it’s times like this you regret being so far away from everyone. Still, I’m off up next month, and the month after that too, so I’ll get to see how she grows over the first few months!

Here’s a couple of pictures I took on my phone of Sarah on Sunday, when she was awake:

Isn’t she cute? :)

Other than seeing the new Dales unit, I met up with Neil for lunch in Waxy O’Connells, and then went out with friends from Uni and High School to eat at Ichiban, one of Glasgow’s numerous Japanese restaurants. Cambridge is not well endowed in the Japanese food scene, and I’ve not found anywhere doing sushi here, so I made sure to stock up when in Ichiban :)

Two surprises about the trip itself. Firstly, I had two easyjet flights which were on time (indeed, the return trip was so early there was no ground crew to meet the plane, so it took them a while to be able to let us off). So, well done easyjet there. The other surprise was that I managed to get good food and service in an airport. Usually when I get to an airport I check in, get through the backage check bit, and then settle down and wait for my flight. However, I know from previous experience that the only place in Stansted that’s not too pricey once you get through is the Weatherspoons, and I didn’t fancy pub grub. But, if you don’t rush through the baggage check at Stansted there’s an Italian cafe called Ponti’s, which isn’t that pricey (it is still in an airport :), the range of food is good, and tastes really good (I had their ceaser salad, which was nice an fresh), and the service there is very good - they have staff on both sides of the counter to help you, which was nice. Having seen it I regret not trying their spaghetti and meatballs, but that’s something to do next time :)