Category: Journal
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Ice-skating at Duthie Park
Yesterday was skiing on Deeside Way and today was ice-skating at Duthie Park. I feel like I’m living at an alpine sports village. It was -8C last night and the model boating pond at Duthie Park froze. Daniel, Scott, and I went down for a skate at lunch. A photographer from the Press & Journal…
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Cross-country skiing on Deeside Way
It snowed a bit more overnight last night and Aberdeen put on a brilliantly crisp and sunny day for us. Rather than going for my usual run around the park I decided to try some cross-country skiing on Deeside Way. A few years ago we all got some cross-country skiing gear from the second-hand sale…
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New tourist attraction at Duthie Park: carnivorous snowmen
It has been snowing all day today and there’s more to come tonight. I feel like I’m living in an alpine ski resort. Elizabeth and I went sledging again during a break today. It’s good having kids because that gives me an excuse to sledge. I don’t think I could go as an adult alone,…
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Sunshine and blizzards
Aberdeen put on a beautiful day today with bursts of sunshine mixed in with intermittent snow blizzards. It was a perfect day. There’s more snow on the ground than I think I’ve ever seen in Aberdeen in the almost 7 years we’ve lived here. It’s lovely soft stuff that makes brilliant snowmen. We all had…
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Wild and windy February day at Torry battery
Everywhere in Scotland has been getting massive amounts of snow except for Aberdeen. One family in Moray couldn’t even get out their front door there was so much snow. All Scottish ski fields have more snow than they’e had for years, probably decades, and yet they’re all shut because of covid and we can’t leave…
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Bed for today
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Burns supper 2021
It was Robert Burns’ birthday on January 25th and Scots celebrate it with a Burns supper. This is fast becoming one of my favourite annual events, perhaps because it doesn’t have the same heavy expectations that come with Christmas. We celebrated it a bit late because the 25th fell on Monday this year and we’re…
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A year of blunders
The UK has made so many mistakes during the pandemic. We started by following the flu pandemic playbook which meant our goal initially was to slow the spread but not eliminate the virus. Something which is too late to do now and perhaps unfeasible anyway. I also realise that no one expected vaccines to become…
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Shopping by bike and cat photos
Last weekend I cycled to Nature’s Larder to get some supplies. It’s a wonderful whole foods shop on Holburn Street. What I love about cycling is I can park right outside just a couple of metres from the door. You can’t do this with a car as there’s no on-street parking in this part of…
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A dream come true
Today was a good day. It has long been a dream of mine to ice skate outside in a natural environment and today I ticked that off my list. Aberdeen has had several days of sub-zero temperatures, freezing the water in lakes and ponds. We found what is really just a puddle of water on…
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Yoga cat
Sleeping position today.
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Stormtrooper
We just finished watching The Mandalorian with the kids and loved it. Who’d have thought a baby version of Yoda could be so cute. It reminded me of the time Daniel had his photo taken with a Stormtrooper in York back in 2013. I went looking for the photos on my blog but couldn’t find…
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Never was there such slaughter in our islands
I’ve finished reading The Last Kingdom series by Bernard Cornwall. There are 13 books in the series and while they are works of fiction they follow the history of how England came to be, as far as we understand it today. The books start with Alfred the Great and end with his grandson, King Æthelstan,…
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Don’t be an idler competiton
As many of my readers know a pet hate of mine is when motorists sit in their cars with their engines running poisoning us all with their fumes. Last year I contacted the council about the problem to see whether they could help. After all, it is illegal in Scotland to leave your engine idling.…
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Moonwalking on ice
One of the ponds at Duthie Park has frozen, partly defrosted, and then refrozen over the past few days to create a strange effect where it looks like there’s chunks of ice floating in the water but actually the entire surface is frozen solid. On our walk today we saw lots of children walking on…
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The snow gods delivered
The plague is raging through the British population faster than an anti-vaccination conspiracy theory on Facebook. I can’t see lockdown ending at all until a significant proportion of the population has been vaccinated. But it’s not all bad: today the snow gods brought snow to cheer spirits and get people outside into the fresh air.…
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Full lockdown for Scotland
The covid situation in the UK is pretty dire right now with close to 60,000 cases per day. It’s worse than it was back in March at the height of the first peak. I read that hospitals in London are now cancelling vital cancer surgery. This is the reason covid is so deadly. It may…
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Elrick Hill
Being confined to Aberdeen, or within 5 miles of the boundary of Aberdeen due to covid restrictions, has stymied our walks in the countryside quite a bit. But it has forced us to look for hidden gems close to home and Elrick Hill is one such place. I’d never been here before but it was…
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A happy birthday, happy Hogmanay, and Dinner for One
If you’re looking for something funny to watch this New Year’s Eve then might I suggest this 15-minute British comedy sketch filmed in 1963 which will have you laughing out loud. It’s played annually on New Year’s Eve in many European countries and is widely known throughout northern Europe except, oddly, in the UK where…
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The Oxford vaccine, lockdown in Aberdeen, and online games
We woke to some good news today: the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been approved for use in the UK. I had been hoping and expecting this news for a couple of weeks now and was wondering why they were taking so long given the trial results were released at the end of November. They took much…
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