Rachel M Journal

We bought a house and Slains Castle

We went out for a celebratory dinner tonight because we put an offer on a house today and it was accepted! We decided it was probably a good time to buy because interest rates are ridiculously low (<2% for a two year fixed term at the moment) and a dip in the price of oil has left the Aberdeen housing market stagnating. We won’t settle until the end of September as our lease doesn’t finish up here until October. But we found the perfect place and I intend to call her Heather, after my Scottish grandmother.

Our celebratory dinner was at Slains Castle. My father is going to be a bit upset about this because he really wanted to go here for dinner when he was staying with us but time disappeared so fast and we never made it. Slains Castle is not a castle but a converted church. It’s a pub but they have quite a good selection of meals and several things for vegetarians. The interior was supposedly inspired by Bram Stoker’s Dracula and is really spooky with cobwebs, stuffed animals, weapons, and other creepy things hanging around the place.. There’s also apparently a resident ghost so definitely a good place to take kids. I took lots of pics but it’s dark inside and so none of them turned out very well. Here they are anyway:

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Here’s my creepy look:

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The outside:

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A couple of months ago I had a bit of a rant about men pissing in the street here and how I think it’s rather uncouth. Not far from Slains Castle we passed this:

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I suppose it’s good to see they’re acknowledging the problem and trying to do something about it. I thought the notice was rather funny.

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I personally couldn’t care less if someone wants to flash their penis to all and sundry, it’s the pissing in the street that I don’t like. It stinks for a start and the street is not their personal ensuite. People work and shop in these city streets and they don’t want to have to walk though someone else’s excrement when they do it. But I have no objections to nudity. So I think the sign would be better if it said: “Please stand close to the urinal to make sure you don’t miss”.