Piping championships, highland dance show, cycle paths, gulls, and hamster

Lots has been happening here. Last Saturday was the European piping championships in Duthie Park which saw some 150 pipe bands playing. It was very loud and our brains continued playing bagpipe music long after they’d finished.

There was also highland dancing, lots of activities, and a dinosaur trail in the winter gardens. I do love a good pipe band but with so many of them all playing different things simultaneously I was glad for some quiet at the end of the day.

Here’s 6 seconds of music.

Elizabeth was looking fabulous in her national outfit.

I loved the dinosaurs in the winter gardens. I wish they’d kept them there but they’re gone now. It was only for one day.

It was really hot on Saturday so the kids went swimming in the Dee in the afternoon.

On Sunday was Elizabeth’s end of year show at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre at ISA. There were two shows and Elizabeth danced in both. It was excellent and Elizabeth loved every minute of it.

This week Daniel and Etienne went to the Maritime Museum which they both seemed to enjoy. Then on another day they went for a bike ride to Newton Dee and then down to the point where the path got severed by a new motorway, the AWPR (Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route).

The council today released designs for a segregated cycle path on Union Street. Yes, you heard that right. This is the very bit of Union Street they ruled out for a cycle path last year, much to my dismay. I even gave a deputation at a council meeting about it last December. But things can change quickly in politics and a cycle path is back on the cards! If this gets approved then work could start as soon as early next year. I’m crossing my fingers and toes.

I have sad news too. Two gull parents returned to our roof this year and a few weeks ago a chick hatched. I have been watching the parents care for it and feed it but then suddenly some time over the last week it has died. I can no longer see it and the parents have disappeared which they would never do if it were still alive as one of them is always standing guard. A few houses down there were two chicks and they too have died. There could be any number of reasons but the most like is the really hot weather we had, lack of food, or disease. I felt very sad about this earlier in the week as gulls are in decline and that new generation is desperately needed. I had also become invested in the chick somehow by watching it and hearing the little noises it made. RIP gull chick. I hope the parents come back again next year.

I have some good news to end with. Rocket is going from strength to strength: today I weighed him and he’s back up to what he was before he got ill. He’s such a little trooper and I think we can all learn a lesson from Rocket who fights on through everything life throws at him and takes pleasure from the simplest things like running on his wheel and rolling in his sand bath.