Tag: Scotland
-
Craigievar Castle
We booked another Co-Wheels car today. I think I’ve got the system all figured out and have tried a few different cars now including electric, petrol, and hybrid. Most of the problems I had in the beginning were down to user error, I’m embarrassed to say. We drove out to Craigievar Castle, about 30 miles…
-
The Shetland Islands
I’m not quite sure how to begin this post. I’ve just had a fantastic adventure in the Shetland Islands and saw and did so many wonderful things so this is probably going to be a long post. On Friday evening we boarded a ferry, the MV Hjaltland, for the Shetland Islands. The Shetland Islands are at…
-
Dunnottar Castle
I took Dad to Dunnottar Castle today. I booked the electric car again which I had no problems starting but we couldn’t get the plug out of the charging station. I phoned Co-wheels and they weren’t sure either so they said I could just leave it there and that’s what we did. I have been…
-
Squirrel Nutkin and a fish ladder
I saw not one Squirrel Nutkin but two Squirrel Nutkins this morning (and by Squirrel Nutkin I’m referring to the very elusive red squirrel). I went out by myself just after breakfast and it didn’t take very long to spot them. They’re much smaller than I thought and very, very cute. They’re incredibly agile and…
-
Job losses at the University of Aberdeen
Aberdeen University are calling for voluntary redundancies in a bid to save money. At this stage it is just voluntary but typically in these situations, if enough people don’t volunteer, they progress to forced redundancies. The physical sciences and mathematics are usually fairly safe so I think the chances of Ben losing his job are quite small,…
-
Jane Austen and Gretna Green
I hate my wedding photos. More specifically, I hate me in the photos. Everyone else looks terrific and the photos themselves are wonderful. It’s just me. I was 7 months pregnant when Ben and I got married and I was fat. I put on 17kg during my pregnancy with Daniel which is rather a lot. I also…
-
Aviemore, Scotland
Snows transforms the outside into one giant playground. Every hill becomes a slippery slide, every twig a potential arm for a snowman, and every flake of snow a potential snowball for tossing at loved ones. Kids love it, I love it. My long suffering husband doesn’t love it quite so much. Walking around is like…
-
The train to Aviemore
We’re spending the weekend in Aviemore in the Cairngorms and I’m writing this from the train. Oh, how I love trains, even all the bad things like when the people sitting nearby seem to fart the whole way or when a group of rowdy youths gets on stinking of cigarettes or when you go to the…
-
Curling in Ballater and the Royal Station Museum
This morning I went for a run around the golf course in Ballater. The roads and pavements in the village have icy patches which aren’t visible with the coating of snow they got yesterday and so it can be slippery running around the streets. The grassy golf course seemed a safer option. It turned out…
-
Ballater in the snow
It snowed this morning in Ballater. I was ecstatic. An Australian in the snow is a bit like a puppy with a smelly leather shoe to chew. Ben was less excited about it. This is the Royal Station in Ballater, a magnificent building: The River Dee, which is lovely in all kinds of weather, was particularly beautiful…
-
Linn O’ Dee
FossilCycle pointed out in the comments on my post yesterday that we were just down the road from the Linn O’ Dee when we visited Braemar. If you Google Linn O’ Dee you’ll see this is a place worth visiting. So we drove back to Braemar today, a drive I would happily repeat because the…
-
Dunnottar Castle, Scotland
We had the bestest day ever today. We went to Dunnottar Castle, a Mediaeval ruin on a dramatic and rugged outcrop near the village of Stonehaven. We caught the train to Stonehaven which was wonderful. I love trains and have sorely missed this mode of transport in New Zealand. It was only about 15 minutes…
-
Footdee, Aberdeen
We went out for a long walk this afternoon to an old fishing village at the very tip of the east end of Aberdeen harbour. It’s called Footdee, or “Fittie”, as the locals call it. Aberdeen harbour has been hijacked by the oil industry and none of it is walkable to the public (not that…
-
An apology and Scottish independence
I retweeted a tweet earlier that I thought was funny but was criticised for tweeting foul language. I actually regret retweeting that tweet now (and have removed it from my feed), not so much because of the language – I do have a bit of a foul mouth – but because I can see that some might find…
-
Panic mode
It’s time to panic and freak out. Less than two weeks to go before we leave for Scotland. Our house will be auctioned next week. We haven’t started any packing and I’ve only just listed our car on TradeMe today. How does TradeMe know more about our car than I do? Admittedly I know very…
-
Scotland, here we come!
A couple of weeks ago we sent off our visa applications for the UK. They had to be sent to Manilla for processing along with all our passports, including old ones, and original birth certificates for the kids, and our marriage certificate. We also had to have fingerprints and mug shots taken. The applications themselves…
-
I have an announcement to make
I have great news which I’m finally allowed to blog about. Some of you may have observed that in the last week or so my mood has improved. But then, maybe this isn’t so noticeable. I’m not sure. Anyway, here’s my news: I am delighted to report that we have a ticket out of the…
-
The Cairngorms
Today we left the city for the country and visited the majestic Cairngorms, the highest mountain range in Britain. It was spectacular and my wish for snow finally came true. The scenery was a mix of woodland, mountains, castles, villages, rivers and fields but I’ll let my photos tell the story. The rest of…
rachel.blog 