We got back to Aberdeen today after a couple of nights in St Andrews. Daniel wanted to go to the university open day so we decided to make it a short family holiday. More on that later. Far more exciting right now is that not long after arriving back Victoria became obsessed with something behind the bookcase in our office. I looked behind expecting to see an animal of some kind but there was nothing there so didn’t give it another thought until later, while sat at my desk, I heard a noise coming from the chimney cavity in the wall behind the bookcase.
We moved the bookcase, removed the ventilation cap on the wall and Ben plunged his hand into the darkness. He immediately felt something furry that moved with his touch. I stuck my camera in and took a photo to give us a clue as to what was there. It was a pigeon.
There’s no way the pigeon would be able to go back out the way it came in so we somehow had to get it out through the wall but after Ben’s hand startled it the bird moved higher into the cavity and out of our reach.
After about 30 minutes of unsuccessfully trying to reach it we stuck a bendy pipe thing we have for unclogging drains up the chimney in the hope the bird would move down closer to us. I had no luck but Elizabeth had a go and somehow managed to move the bird down to within reach.
I then reached in to grab it. Daniel filmed it in this video.
The pigeon was very small so I assume it’s quite young. It was strong though and uninjured as far as I could tell. It wouldn’t have been stuck there for more than a 48 hours at most.
Victoria is inspecting the cavity afterwards. It’s funny how animals always know where other animals are.
Our absence from Aberdeen was because Daniel is keen to study at the University of St Andrews when he finishes school at the end of next summer. It’s likely he’ll study a combination of computer science and mathematics. He can apply to five universities and after being suitably impressed with St Andrews that will definitely be a top contender although it’s worth noting it’s a very competitive university so a place is not guaranteed. I’d be quite happy if he stayed in Aberdeen but of course it’s his choice.
Ben and Daniel spent the day yesterday attending open day activities while Elizabeth and I went sight-seeing. It was a dreich day but the rain, fog, and mist added to the atmosphere around the castle and cathedral ruins.
It’s a delightful village which doesn’t seem to have been affected by high street shop closures afflicting other places. Indeed I don’t recall seeing any closed shops. I think the death of the high street is partly due to the plague of shopping malls that fortunately haven’t spread to St Andrews yet. The village centre was a buzz of activity with shops, cafés, restaurants, and museums everywhere. It’s wonderfully walkable with lots of cobbledy streets lined with pretty stone cottages.
I liked the ivy covering this home in the next photo.
This is one of the university buildings in this next photo which is very attractive but it is the third oldest university in the UK and quite frequently tops various league tables so I’d expect nothing less than this magnificent grandeur and there was plenty of it all over the village.
St Andrews is also famous for being the birthplace of golf, which was first played there in the 15th century. I was surprised to see people playing golf in the rain.
Elizabeth and I also visited the St Andrews aquarium which is home not just to marine animals but also to meerkats, marmosets, various lizards and even a bird-eating tarantula. The meerkats were particularly delightful and I enjoyed watching their anticipation and excitement as feeding time neared. The aquarium were originally approached back in 2011 by a facility in the south of England looking to re-home three meerkats. Being an aquarium they were a little hesitant but ended up taking on the challenge and never looked back. Two of the original three were named Wills and Kate after the Prince and Princess of Wales who both studied in St Andrews and this pair of meerkats had babies. All the female babies were given to another park while the males remained in St Andrews and they’re still alive today although geriatric now for meerkats. Wills and Kate have since died.
They all congregated around the door scratching at feeding time.
Here’s a photo of one of the marmosets. They seemed just as interested in us humans as we were of them.
These are piranhas.
We stayed at Rufflets which is a lovely hotel on the outskirts of the village.
The hotel is a lovely peaceful haven surrounded by woodland, manicured gardens, and with its own flock of chickens that provide eggs for the hotel breakfast. We bought a cabbage and some cherry tomatoes to feed to them.
They’ve recently constructed some cute woodland lodges that you can stay in.
I had porridge for breakfast with a delicious fruit compote, stewed apricots, muesli and fruit.
The lounge in the hotel was very inviting and always had a warm fire roaring.
Victoria the cat came with us of course. Dogs are also welcome at the hotel.
Victoria enjoyed her holiday.
It turns out St Andrews has a famous ginger cat called Hamish McHamish with his own statue. He’s dead now but lived to be 17.
Well done if you’ve got this far and are still reading. I’m almost finished! Not long after returning home the mailman arrived with a package for Ben containing 200-year-old lecture notes. Someone in the highlands contacted Ben about it and had said he was going to post them. They had belonged to his grandfather although he wasn’t sure where the grandfather had got them from but he wanted to donate them to the University. Inside the front cover it says, “A course of Arithmetic and Algebra. King’s College Aberdeen. 1816/17.”
The name inside says Peter McKay – he was the donors grandfather. My grandmother’s maiden name was MacKay so maybe I’m related to him.
In any case, it looks more like a text book and the writing is very neat and lovely.
Hopefully it will go on display in the University of Aberdeen library in due course.
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