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Catchup

Sorry, I know it's been a while. At least the long break has encouraged a few people to tell me to post here again, so I know people look here occasionally.

Since my last post, I've moved into a flat in Aberdeen, Jane has arrived, Kate and Andy have visited, and we've been to Glasgow to catch up with Kaska, Jim, Jess, Stu, Kai and Louise. So there's a bit to say.

Jane finally made it here to Scotland on June 25 and seems relieved that she's done with any major travelling and moving for a while. We've set her up with a desk at the Macaulay and she's working on finishing her Ph.D. thesis. After 4 months it's been a relief to be living back in the same place, and the flat is great. We have a short walk to the movies, the supermarket, the beach, shops and pubs and we've got plenty of room inside (check out the google maps link above). Which is probably just a well because the weather has really taken a turn for the worse since Jane arrived. Today we're sitting inside watching the rain piss down from a grey sky outside. Which reminds me that I really must fix my leaking car sunroof.


I took Jane away for her her first weekend in Scotland - we drove up Royal Deeside and stayed at Ballater. We climbed Craigendarroch, a hill behind Ballater, for a great view over the Dee Valley, and on the Sunday we drove up to the Lin of Dee and walked some way up the river.

My sister, Kate, and Andy visited from London two weeks ago for a long weekend - our first guests in the new flat - they survived so the rest of you are welcome. We checked out a few parts of Aberdeen with them that we hadn't seen before, like the Marischall Museum. We also visited Stonehaven and this time paid up to go inside Dunnotar Castle, which was pretty cool. We spotted puffins for the first time from the cliffs, as well as razorbills, eider ducks and a seal. This apparently even pleased the secret twitcher in Kate, who was excited enough to decide she no longer needed to go to Iceland to see puffins - tick! (Photographic evidence of Kate's twitching, but not of the puffins, supplied). Kate and Andy met a few of our Macaulay friends at a pub that evening. On the Sunday we drove up into the Cairngorms to Loch Muick and walked right around it. Somehow we avoided the rain, although the threatening shroud of mist didn't lift from dark Lochnagar, which towered above us. Not much in the way of birds, but a red-throated diver on the Loch was a bonus.




We got back from our trip to Glasgow last night. Jane and I drove to Dundee on Thursday night and caught a lift with Kaska and Jim to Glasgow. An easy drive as far as the hostel where we stayed along the Clyde, or at least until we pulled up in front of it. Unfortunately there ensued a 30min tour of Glasgow's truly screwed up 1-way system, with the truly serene chauffeuring of Kaska and the internally conflicted navigation of Jim and his GPS. We eventually met up in a pub with Jess and Stu and (sort of) with Kai and Louise, thus completing a pretty good reconstruction of a BoZo happy hour, far removed from Canberra. Alas, Kai had been drinking since 1pm and went home pretty urgently the moment we arrived. We enjoyed the cheap £1.50 pints until after dark on this, the longest day of the year. Unfortunately, the cheap lager didn't leave us feeling too flash the next morning, despite a greasy kebab stop on the way home. On Friday we caught the subway (the "clockwork orange") to the west end of Glasgow, and checked out the Botanic Gardens and the Kibble palace (a giant glasshouse). It was well worth it - the glasshouses especially were amazing. Jess mistook a tiger for a lion and Jim got pubes on Kaska's cherries when he dropped them in the mens'.




We wandered from the Gardens along the Kelvin River, which was a really nice surprise - a green canyon flanked by amazing architecture and soaring bridges in the middle of what I'd always been led to think of as a thoroughly grey city. In fact I was pretty pleasantly surprised all round. In terms of greyness, pink and golden sandstone doesn't really stand a chance against Aberdeen's granite. Plus there were interesting people everywhere, and shops and markets and amazing buildings and statues. This includes the biggest cathedral I've ever seen (St Mungo's), and some incredible old buildings at the University, plus we had a quick look in the Kelvingrove Gallery and Museum, which was like the set of "Night in the Museum" (I imagine) - all sorts of cool stuff including a mixture of natural history, history and art. So, get yourselves to Glasgow. We didn't get punched, headbutted or even scowled at!



Where was I? Right, we walked right across the west end to meet Kai and Louise, who called to say they'd parked on the other side, so we walked back, and spent the rest of the afternoon and night with them, picking up Kai's mates (it was his birthday) and bits of Lou's family along the way. We had a late night. Yesterday morning we wandered around town and walked up to the Necropolis overlooking central Glasgow. About 3, Jess and Stu headed off for a train back to Sheffield and the rest of us headed home in the rain through Fife and Angus.


Enjoy the pics, I'll try not to have such a long spell before my next post. Mum and Dad will visit in a few weeks and Jane and I head to Spain to spend a week or two with Dave and Libby at the end of July. Try not to feel threatened by dags...