Morton 4, Forfar 0. Forfar's sake!

Who says a science degree won't get you anywhere?

Well I've almost shaken my cold, which imposed a bit of a restraint upon my activities the last week. I took it pretty easy until Friday, when I figured I was ready for a gentle run - I'm now officially in training for the Balmoral 10km race on 28 April, as Sara and I signed up during the week. Apparently I'm meant to wear a kilt to be in the running for the first across the line in a kilt prize. We'll see.

Friday night was a big farewell dinner (50 people) for a few upcoming departures from the Macaulay, including Alan Duncan, who I've known since he spent 6 months in Canberra quite a few years ago. even though the dinner marked several redundancies, it was heartening to see such a happy and friendly bunch of work mates all together.

When Sunday came around, it was time to venture forth from the Macaulay again, so I took a trip with Richard and Russel to Forfar, 1hr south of Aberdeen to watch Rusty's team, Greenock Morton, take on Forfar. It was not an even match. I guess one clue would have been the fact that although the game was in Forfar and Morton fans had travelled 3hrs or so from beyond Glasgow, there was not a Forfar fan to be seen. In the end Morton won 4-0, but 10-0 would have been fair enough. At any rate, a bit of local culture never hurt anyone and I had a good afternoon of it. I even scoffed a 'famous Forfar bridie', which is something like a cross between a pie and a pastie, filled with something that tastes a bit like haggis, but which I presume is similar to the contents of most pies you'd buy at the footy in Australia (lips and arseholes). I'm not sure if that's better or worse than supermarket haggises, of which the first listed ingrediant is lung. We had a quiet beer after the game, followed by a visit to a chippie that offer such delights as scampie (my choice), "mock chop" (?!?) and pizza (batter 30p extra). To top it off, we saw a pair of peregrines roosting on the church tower in Forfar's main street. A fine day, and incidentally the days now run until about 8 in the evening, which is a big improvement.

That's it. I'll try to be more exciting next week.

I'llLiveWithA NewtOn-Ben

Palmate newt - Triturus helveticus

Don't expect a cheery post from me this time around - I've caught my first British cold and it's a doozie. Luckily I made it through the week in the field but from there went straight to bed on Friday arvo and have become thoroughly bored with the view from my window since then... if I wasn't bored already - it consists of a lawn and a grey wall, but at least with a eucalypt poking over the top!

Last week's field work was based in Lairg, in Sunderland, a huge area of northern Scotland once owned by the Duke of Sutherland who was evidently chief villain of the highland clearances in the 19th century. The landscape was not as dramatic as I saw in Ross; more rolling hills, rivers and lochs than icy jagged peaks. Two of the woods we visited had previously been planted with typically dense conifer plantations amongst the remnant pines, but these had subsequently been removed. In one case they had been left lying on the ground though, which made the going a bit less than pleasant. Wildlife-wise, we saw sika deer, a few red grouse, a kite, wigeon, redshanks and cormorants. I also saw my first British herpetefauna - toads and newts acting like it was springtime in a puddle. I think that's a sizeable proportion of this country's amphibians that I've seen now!

If I'm up to it, I'll be in the field again next Wednesday, but otherwise at my desk. I've posted a picture of Dave and Joan, partners in cone-gathering, on the pier at Golspie, and one of Jim and Kaska in their kitchen before their party last weekend. Jim and Kaska have an apartment in Tayport with an amazing view across the Firth of Tay. Sometimes they can see dolphins from their window!

The other great news this week is that Jane has booked her ticket and will be joining me here in May.

Strange, but perhaps to be expected...

I went into town last night for a few quiet pints and my eye was caught by a vending machine in the toilets. In Australia, we expect to see condom vending machines in pub toilets, fair enough. But in Ma Camerons' you'll find a vending machine that sells, amongst other things, 'fun' inflatable sheep for £5. I can produce photographic evidence if required. The girls tell me the same machine was in the ladies' toilet too.

My car is now roadworthy and still works out as a bargain. Thanks again Emma.

You may have worked this out already, but you can click on the photos on this blog to view larger versions.

and back again

This week's trip was a quick one - to Kinlochewe in Wester Ross. I drove out with Dave and Joan on Monday, gathered pine cones and needles on Tues and Wed morning and then drove back to Aberdeen for a work meeting on Thursday. As promised, the scenery was amazing. Tuesday afternoon's weather was almost frightening, and the use of a partially submerged telephone pole as a bridge to cross a deep burn made things interesting too. It also convinced me to leave my camera in the car, however, so y'all don't get to see the good stuff - it's all in my head. Unless you want to come visit, of course. The scenery came with more difficult-to-pronounce names of course. Some of the highlights were Beinn Eighe (which sounds the same as what people say when I introduce myself in Queensland - Ben ay?), Slioch, Loch Maree and Lochcarron. here's a bit of what I had to deal with:
The rest of the week has flown by. I'm heading into town tonight, hoping to catch some of the Aberdeen Jazz Festival. Tomorrow I'm heading to Dundee to see Kaska and Jim from Canberra (now of Dundee) at Kaska's birthday party. I took my car to the mechanics today but no news yet, so I'm catching the 'megabus' to Dundee. Kaska told me "it's murder... but it should be ok." Great. In good news, Jane's visa application was approved so she can definitely join me over here before too long. I'm now expecting visits over the next few months from Mum and Dad and DJ Dave Donuts too. Nest week will see me in the field again, this time north of Inverness at Lairg.

I've changed some settings on this blog so that anyone can comment without signing in - so go crazy.

Residents of the Cunningham Building are changing one by one, but here's a photo of a few of the longer-term stayers and a visitor (Rocio, Sigrun, Charlotte and me)

later

go west...

In a rush again, as I'm heading off on another field trip shortly. This time to Kinlochewe in Wester Ross. This is some of the western highland scenery I've been told about. Had a fun weekend - a plan to check out Stonehaven (a fishing village south of Aberdeen) on Saturday was cancelled when we saw the weather forecast. As it turned out however, the weather was perfect, so I finally spent some time wandering around the city and then went to the beach with Sigrun, who's also staying in accommodation at work. Lonely Planet claims that Aberdeen has probably the finest beach of any city in Britain. I see now that that's an important qualification. Nonetheless, it was great to see the North Sea and breathe in some fresh air.

On Saturday night I went to a pub in town with Sara, Sigrun, Charlotte and Hannah. A nice old mans' pub with real ales. We made up for this by ending up in a drum and bass club - yep they still exist. A bit of crazy dancing, and a greasy pizza to break up the long walk home in the early hours left me less than perfectly productive on Sunday, which I spent at work.

A bit of bad news to start the week - the bike Glenn gave me was nicked from the bike sheds at work over the weekend. Bugger. It's the second time that professional thieves have broken in cut locks in the last fortnight. That comes on top of my car's emissions failing the m.o.t. - requiring another visit to the mechanics on Friday. Fingers crossed!

West Highlands and my first night out in Aberdeen

I guess this is going to turn out more like place to put my photos occasionally, rather than a blog. Unless I overcome a very well-established inability to maintain a diary that is. Anyway, since my last posting, I have spent another week in the field, this time based in Fort William, in the Western Highlands of Scotland.

I saw some spectacular scenery on my first trip two weeks before that, but this was in another league again, and I'm told that there's better to come if I make it out to Wester Ross in a few weeks' time. This time around we visited three woods: Cona Glen, Glen Loy and the Black Mount. I'd love to include all their Gaelic names too, but their spelllings (not to mention pronunciations) remain a bit too challenging for the moment. The weather remained mild but consistently pretty wet and grey this time, which is evidently typical West Highlands weather. I'll continue to praise Gore-tex, though, as I remained dry throughout, even after sinking calf-deep into peat and bog countless times. We had a tough time of it at one site where there were almost no pine cones to be found, but the next day compensated as the trees were hoaching and we came away with great muckle bags of cones.

While travelling between sites, we saw plenty of famous tourist spots like Glencoe, Rannoch Moor, Glenfinnan, and Ben Nevis. And Mum, you'll be glad to know I saw the place where they film Monarch of the Glen. These spots account for most of the photos on this posting.

There are Bens, Craigs and Glens everywhere in Scotland. I've also learnt that to go through to the back of a house in Scotland is to go "ben the house". I've even got myself trained to say burn instead of creek, glen or strath instead of valley, lorry instead of truck and haggis instead of offal. Actually I had some very good haggis and neeps this week.

I finally made it into town at night for the first time since moving to Aberdeen. I went with a very large group, mostly of overseas students and postdocs, for a movie (The Science of Sleep) sandwiched between two pub visits. I ended up out pretty late with some sleep-averse Spaniards towards the end of the night. We stopped for kebabs, and I'm guessing that it's a Scottish thing, rather than a Turkish thing, to offer kebabs served on a choice of pita bread or a tray of greasy chips. We ended up walking home to the Macaulay, because a 40 min walk in the rain is quicker and preferable to queuing for a taxi in Aberdeen. Anyway, I can report that Aberdeen is certainly lively at night, although there are parts that have an atmosphere disconcertingly reminiscent of Townsville's Flinders Street East. There are plenty of venues including numerous converted churches, old pubs, new bars, nightclubs and the last place we visited, which was... I dunno. A man playing a grand piano and singing on stage in a dark room to a small audience.

Enjoy the photos.

First Post - from Aberdeen

Well this is my first blog entry, and I'm afraid it's going to be pretty pathetic. For now it will have to consist mostly of a few pictures posted on my homepage. But in brief...Jane and I left Townsville in mid-December, after two years of sweating it out studying possums and gums trees in North Queensland. The departure was disorganised and frantic, even by my standards, but we made it to my parents' place in Melbourne where we spent Christmas and most of January.

I left Melbourne, without Jane for the next few months, on January 24, arriving in London the next day, where I spent a few days with my sister Kate and her Andy before flying to Aberdeen just over two weeks ago. Since arriving here in the UK things have gone perfectly. Emma gave (that's right, gave) me her old car in London, so I'm off to London this weekend to drive my '94 Renault 19 back up here.

The weather when I arrived in Aberdeen was warmer than it was when I visited in May last year, and persisted in its unseasonably mild and sunny ways for most of my first two weeks here. I've packed a bit into those two weeks and it seems like I've been here longer. My head was spinning after the first few days of inductions and introductions at work at the Macaulay Institute, but everyone was remarkably friendly and my new boss, Glenn, has done an admirable job of helping me get settled in. Accommodation is sorted for now, which makes things easy, and Glenn even gave me his old bike.

The most obvious highlight had been the week I've spent in the field already, collecting pine cones and needles from several natural pine woodlands in the central highlands of Scotland. More fieldwork to come next week. Anyway, for now I'll post a few photos from last week's trip with Joan and Dave. Apart from being extremely valuable from a conservation perspective (there are only 86 remnants of this vegetation type which once covered much of Scotland), these woodlands are pretty nice places to spend some time, as you'll see. Fieldwork in the snow was new for me though...