I get to go home and my family is coming too.

A little known fact about me, is that I am part Scottish. My mum was Scottish, and I spent my school years in Scotland, and a lot of family holidays, and my mum’s family and some of my oldest friends are still there. I regard myself as semi Scottish, although I only get my accent back if I am there for longer than 48 hours. I feel like Scotland is “home” although we are very settled in London, and dream of one day retiring to the East Coast in a cottage near the beach somewhere. 

I don’t get to go home very often. Life is busy, and a bit crazy, and I would love my children to spend time with my cousins and their cousins, and to enjoy seeing where I grew up, spent time as a child and places I love. I had planned to do a weekend away and rush up to Edinburgh, see friends, go to a school reunion on, pop across briefly to visit my family, go to my Mum and grandmother’s graves with flowers, then come home again. I get an ache, every now and then, that is sort of satisfied by the madness that is jumping on a train to Edinburgh on a Friday morning and getting the last train to London on a Sunday night, but it’s getting harder and harder to organise and work a whole weekend out for me to be away. The last time I went was two years ago, and for a family funeral, so it wasn’t really a happy time, and was incredibly rushed as well as very emotional.

So, when we decided to take a week’s break at Easter, and were looking at our usual book a holiday cottage in the Cotswolds or Sommerset, that we usually do, when I had the idea of us all taking a city break, and spending a week based in Edinburgh. It didn’t take much to persuade LSH, he knows how I feel, and the children are excited at being able to see their cousins (who Emily has met, but can’t remember very well, and who have never met Matthew – I was pregnant with him when we last went as a family) and at getting to visit all sorts of fun places in Edinburgh, possibly going to see where I went to school, and maybe, if I can persuade my South African husband that it is ok that beaches are cold and sea water is freezing but it’s still fun to visit, a beach day out. 

We have managed the long drive to France, so a drive to Scotland seems like a picnic in comparison, and Edinburgh is easy to get around, and it’s not far to visit my family.

I am RIDICULOUSLY excited and because I am, the children are also and LSH is already planning the logistics, directions and playing with the GPS, and looking at guide books. 

The question is, is Scotland ready for the residents of the Mad House? (minus the animals, of course!) 😉