Scotland Roadie – Weekend 20/21st of March

ME AND THE "BOYS" ON OUR ROADY





















With no rugby game this weekend, I decided to make the most of it and get out of Dundee. I threw my golf clubs and a change of clothes in the car and I was off. Left about 10 a.m and the weather was picture perfect. First stop was a place called Brechin where I pulled into a cafe and grabbed a much needed coffee. After that I headed east towards the Montrose basin. I veered of the main road and ended up on the Bridge of Dun. Refuelled at the shell station in Montrose, then I took the coast road A92 winding north. Gentle rolling hills with ploughed fields were the theme of the morning. Just before Stonehaven I spotted a sign for a castle. There were a few cars and a tour bus in the car park so I thought it must be good. The dramatic ruins of Dunnottar Castle are spread out across a grassy promontory rising 45 metres above the sea. The original fortress was built in the 9th century; the keep is the most substantial remnant; but the restored drawing room was more interesting. There was a large contingent of French students at the castle and while queueing for a ticket I was interviewed about my knowledge of France which was not very good to say the least. I unsuccessfully tried to take a closed road into Stonehaven. Looped round the main centre in Stonehaven and carried onto Aberdeen. Stopped on the outskirts of Aberdeen at the Tesco and picked up some lunch. I drove in to the centre of down, Aberdeen lives up to its name as being the granite city, because all the buildings are made of granite blocks. I found a guesthouse near the centre of town, the Royal crown, and I checked in and parked the car. I walked down the main street, Union street, the place was fair bustling and there were all sorts of people on the street, young, old, homeless, wealthy, corporate, you name it... Aberdeen had it all. Headed to Aberdeen’s maritime Museum, which has interesting displays on the off shore oil and gas platforms, fishing, boat building etc. I then wandered around Aberdeen’s harbour then back up to the main centre. Popped into one of Aberdeen’s oldest buildings Provost (Major) Skene’s house, a late medieval , turreted town house occupied by the mayor in the 17th century. Back through the some of the shopping malls (Bon Accord, St Nicholas) I picked up a ham and cheese calzone to munch on. I bought a t-shirt in one of the shops in preparation for the ‘Scottish summer’ I sincerely hope i get to wear it! My next mission was finding a pub to watch the rugby. Scotland V Ireland first up, what a great game with my new home team edging the Irish out 23-20 at Croke Park. I downed a few pints and got chatting with some locals, good craic. The England v France game was not quite as a good a spectacle with England blowing chances to beat the frogs on their home patch, 12-10 France. Was the last person to order KFC before wandering back to the guesthouse. Up at 8 a.m. for a cooked breakfast, had a good chat with the owner about Aberdeen and the long terrible winter they had just come through. Driving back through the centre I caught a small glimpse of Marischal College (through the renovation scaffolding), the second largest granite structure in the world. Taking the costal route north my first stop was Balmedie country park, where I checked out the dunes and the long sandy beach, the water didn’t look to inviting though! Continuing North the sandy beaches gave way to rocky coves and Collieston, a quaint fishing village, basically a small breakwater and a few shacks. Colliestons claim to fame is that it is the holiday spot for T.E. Lawrence from Lawrence of Arabia, wow...! Cruden bay was next stop and a place I definitely want to go back to, the links golf course there was an impressive sight, I tried to get a round in but they wouldn’t let me tee off until 12.30 pm, no non-members in the morning... The course is ranked in the world top 40 apparently. I drove through the town and down to the harbour, where a lass was playing the Scottish national anthem on a recorder, it made all 1/8th of me feel very Scottish! I bought an Iron Bru and some scones at the Local shop which had a very loud bell that rang as you opened the door. I also tried to get some cash out from the machine in the store, I typed in £60 and only got £20 out of the machine. I think it must be some kind of secret tourist tax! I’m sure the shop owner was grinning at me as I left the store. The further north I trecked the more I was getting into drug country according to everyone I have talked to. Peterhead was pretty boring, the most exciting thing there was a power station. The drive so far had been awesome, views of the coast, gentle winding bends, and a clear warm spring day, I wish I could ride it on a motorbike. Fraserburgh was my next stop, I drove through the town and to Kinnaird Head, where the Scottish light house was situated. I wanted to go and do the tour but time was short, because I still wanted to get in a round of golf in! Walked round the outside and out to the point where I saw my first fog horn. Took a few strange photos, one of a wine cellar, one of posts with colourful woollen socks on them (maybe knitting large socks is an activity for the recovering drug addicts?!) and a photo op with the boys! Or should I say buoys?! The coastal trek signs changed from North to West, Sandhaven was another quaint village which had a lot of elderly people signs, obviously a retirement village, so I wizzed through it. Driving along a section of coast I spotted a golf course, the Rosehearty golf club, I paid for green fees (£5) at the local pub and played two rounds of the nine hole course, the golf was pretty average. The next part of Journey was probably the most scenic, dramatic cliffs, rugged beaches (Arberdour) and steep winding roads. I dropped down to the historic fishing village of Pennan (Pop. 22) , a great little retreat which would be a good spot whatever the weather. It took me five minutes to walk the length of the village, I took a few photos and watched the waves crashing into the breakwater. I skipped Crovie and drove through Gardenstown. Dropped into Macduff and Banff which are separated by the river Deveron and are linked by the seven arch bridge. I stopped at the river mouth and had a dabble at some of the local cuisine, fish and chips! It was 5ish and time was marching so I cut the roadie short and headed back via Turiff and Aberdeen to Dundee. It took me an 1:45 to get home. A good little weekend mission.

Settling into Scotland

So I have now been in Scotland a few months and have settled into a new life. Work has been challenging, but it’s a new role which I am relishing. I work with some really great people who have a good attitude towards the extrusion project. Outside of the work I have joined the Rugby club, and met some Scottish lads. The rugby initially was very stop-start because of the snow and the frozen pitches. The standard at premier level appears very good, but I have yet to play a premier game. I have played a couple of games of the two’s but mainly for the threes as a number of the two’s games have been called off and I have been itching for a game. I pulled my hammy coming off the bench for the twos against Edinburgh accies and recently badly bruised my leg in a game against Ellon. Apart from those set-backs I have still enjoyed my Rugby and I feel I haven’t shown my full range of ability off yet. Pity the season is winding down now... The flat has been a bit chop-change in terms of flatmates. Sam moved out, Silvi moved in and now Christelle has moved with Clemont has her replacement. The letting agency said our lease runs out in July and we are being turfed out. Guts I am in the end room now with a great view over the river, which is cool. Social scene has been a bit thin on the ground. Went to an Ice Hockey game with a workmate (Colin), and been on a work pub crawl. Michelle and I broke up which is a shame that it didn’t work out. Before we broke up she came up for a week and we had some good fun mountain biking and snowboarding.I decided to learn to snowboard this winter and after 5 runs now feel I am fairly competent on the snow. Am slowly getting back into golf and now with daylight savings I have got more opportunities after work. What else... been on two road trips around Scotland, thus far... read the blog entries...

London  Edinburgh  Dundee

So we flew in pretty much on time from Geneva into Heathrow. We caught a shuttle bus from terminal 5 to the Sheraton Hotel our pick up point for the rental car. Everything was going to plan until the rental car man asked us for the second ‘paper part’ of our license, our jaws dropped, and no matter how much sweet talking we did he would not hire us the vehicle. So we had to catch a bus back to the airport terminal, which took forever, then catch a tube home. We didn’t get back to Michelle’s until 1 am. We were very tired, we both found our paper licenses and semi packed for tomorrow. Up at the crack of dawn to drive back to the Sheraton in Michelle’s family’s merc, this time there were no drama’s apart from me working out how to start the car. Tailed Michelle on the way back to her house, only stalled once at the lights! Loaded up the car and we were away, 430 miles to Edinburgh. We stopped quickly at a Tesco’s to pick up snacks for the journey. We split up the driving and the trip went really fast. The further north we trekked the more wintery it became, It was particularly cold around the borderlands, where the temperature in the hills dropped to -3 degrees and the Gritters were out in force. I actually missed the Welcome to Scotland sign because I was asleep but oh well, we were in my new home country! The countryside was a total whiteout you couldn’t actually distinguish where the hills finished and the sky started. We took the direct the route to Edinburgh and jumped off the motorway, while direct it was much slower as we passed through small towns. It was interesting seeing these towns prepare for Hogmanay, one of the biggest celebration nights in the Scottish calendar. We saw a huge pile of wood in one particular town, in what looked like was going to be a massive bonfire! As we neared Edinburgh we struck traffic. We arrived at our accommodation the Acer guest house around 4 pm. We had four single beds in our large room. We had time for a quick hour kip before downing a few drinks and catching a bus into town. We were halfway into town (sitting on the tartan coloured bus seats) when we realised we had forgotten the street party tickets. So quick trip back to the hotel to retrieve tickets then we were properly on our way. Michelle had organised with Crystal to have a few pre-new year drinks at a random flat in the centre of town. At around 11pm we headed into the town, the street party was crazy! There were people everywhere! So we drank, danced and sang ourselves into 2010. The fireworks were spectacular over the Edinburgh castle and then there was huge anthem of Auld Lang Syne. The crowd was in good spirits and everyone was wishing each other a happy new year. Once all the formalities were over everyone got down to some serious partying!
New Years ‘day’ day was understandably a bit slow, but we did manage to make it out of the hotel room by 2.30pm. We drove into town and climbed the rocky outcrop (craggy) near Scottish parliament, which offered great views over a frozen Edinburgh. On the way back to the hotel, we picked up some Indian takeaways. I also managed to talk to Richie and congratulate him on his recent proposal to Mel. We watched movies and crashed out, end of day one 2010.
The next day we had to pick up the Eddies car from Glasgow which he kindly let us borrow for a couple of months. So we loaded up the rental and cruised. It’s about 45 minutes to an hour between the two main cities in Scotland, but the adverse weather conditions made the trip quite slow. When we arrived we drove round the town centre (George Square) before parking in the Buchanan Galleries carpark. We were meeting Eddies flatmate to arrange pick-up of the car at 5pm so we had time to kill. We wandered through the mall’s and I picked up some leaflets on Glasgow, while Michelle had fun with hair curlers. We decided to walk down to the river, the blizzard conditions were something pretty crazy. Outside was definitely not the place to be so we ducked into the Golden goose pub for some lunch and a game of our recently purchased lexicon game. We arranged to pick up the car from Eddies flatmate earlier as we not too keen on tackling the icy roads in the dark. Picked up the car and a few other goodies from Eddie, before getting on the road. I got a wee bit lost trying to get out of Eddies subdivision but that was not as bad Michelle, who was following me and still managed to get on the m8 heading the wrong way! So I called Michelle and we agreed to wait further along the road to Dundee. Our route took us near Edinburgh across the Forth bridge and up the M90 to Dundee. I wish it had been as easy as that.... There was a substantial amount of snow and ice on the road and visibility was poor, so I stuck to 40 miles an hour sheltering behind big trucks, Michelle was about twenty minutes behind me. As I took the turn off to the Forth Bridge, I noticed there were suddenly no cars behind me, I thought that this was very odd. I later found out there had been a crash and the turn off route was closed. This really stuffed up Michelle because she had to drive into Edinburgh and back out to the forth bridge. Meanwhile I was stuck in a massive traffic jam, and cars were sliding all over the motorway because of the ice, I had to be very careful on the accelerator and brake. I crawled for about 30 minutes before the bridge, but once over the bridge the conditions steadily improved all the way to Dundee. Michelle had a really rough time , stuck in a traffic queue for 2.5 hours. She arrived in Dundee about 3.5 hours after me! I had a wee bit of difficulty locating the backpackers which was right in the middle of town. I checked into my room, and because I didn’t have any of my gear, I wandered the town centre for a bit before finding a place to park the car overnight. I picked up a zinger burger from KFC for dinner, and then waited for Michelle... I had made it to Dundee.
I stayed in the Backpackers for my first week in Dundee until I found a place to live. Michelle stayed until Tuesday and checked out a few flats with me, most were not quite what I was after, wacked out body builders, smokers, religious nuts, not quite my cup of tea. In the end I used a contact from the Rugby Club, Neil (keg). He worked at a letting agency and he had a room in a three bedroom flat available. The place was central to town, work and the rugby club and the flatmates seemed easy going, so I took it. I am living with a female law student from the Congo, Cristell and a Scottish male professional who is in the care industry, Sam. Sam plays the guitar as well, I saw potential for jam sessions. The room is nice and big, it has a heater! and plenty of storage. The house has a really nice living room with a bit of a view over the River Tay. The only real negative of the flat was when I first arrived we didn't have any water because the pipes had frozen! Work kicked off on the 4th of Jan, I am full time working as a commissioning engineer. The project is a large machine which extrudes rubber onto fabric. I have a team of operators to work with and help train. The days have been long but the work is challenging and enjoyable.

Christmas 2009 In Switzerland

Twas Christmas Eve and all was in order, the BA strikes had been called off, the ice and snow had thawed sufficently and our presents were packed, We were ready to roll. I finished work at 11.30am after sharing a christmas break up meal of Samosa’s with the factory and office staff. There were plenty of goodbyes and goodlucks for my time in Dundee. Managed to flag a ride to the station with Shaggy. Waited 10 minutes to catch the 78 bus to terminal 5. I was way, way, way to early (like 5 hours!) So I read my book ‘outliers’ and waited for Michelle. Michelle caught the tube from Nottinghill and arrived at 2.30pm. Checked in and dropped off our bags at 3.00pm, the earliest possible and headed through security to do some duty free shopping (grog). We sat down for a rest and I fell alseep, Michelle got a sandwich from eat and discovered our gate was right near where we sat down. Our flight was on time and we boarded just before 5pm. It was a very bumpy flight, we had a few beers and wines and settled into a game of Yatzee, which Michelle won!!! Into Geneva at 19.40 where Dad and Marcus were inside the security area waiting after their mission to find Marcus’s lost luggage. The weather was really bad with some pretty steady rain. It was only 45 minutes on the motorway and we were at Mum and Dad’s in a flash. After introducing Michelle to the family we sat down to Salmon, cucumber, tomatoes for dinner and shared a bottle of warmed Mulled wine.
The big day,Xmas! Unfortunately I forgot to tell Santa I was in Switzerland so there was no santa sack at the end of the bed in the morning. I quickly got over the initial disappointment and went and had a catch up yarn with Gavin. Christmas brekkie was croissants, cheese, proscetto meat and cereal. Quite full, we decided to walk it off. We cut through the Olympic Museum admiring current world records in athletic disciplines and sculptures. Down on Lake Geneva’s edge we turned right and walked past Ouchy, we looked at the old styled boats moored in the marinas. Gavin still thought he was in NZ and wore shorts, this was a bit keen given the temperature! The ducks and swans seemed happy enough though Walked p the hill through the botanic gardens which offered great views back over the lake. Back home it was present time! Woohoo. I was super stoked with my wee haul. A heart rate monitor from Michelle, a dress watch from M+D and a hoody and book from Gav. Christmas Lunch was mini quiches, bread rolls and salmon, yum. Time for a walk, this time we (minus michelle) took Gav’s new tennis racquet and ball. We had some catches in the park then walked along the lake front in the opposite direction from this morning. The high winds turned the lake into a surf beach, with waves breaking on the rocks and splashing up. We walked to the first marina before Lutre then back along the road. Dad Gav and I had a game of quiddler. Michelle woke up and we started ‘happy hour’ With the turkey cooking in the oven we had a few wines. Our christmas meal consisted of tomato soup for entre, stuffed turkey main with winter veg and traditional Christmas pudding and custard for dessert. More quiddler after the meal, this time we played teams with Mum and Dad taking out the game. Late night, bed at midnight.
Slept in, 8pm. Michelle and I went for a run along the lake front to Lutre and had fun with my new heart rate monitor. Quick breakfast , while we were out running Dad booked tickets online for Glacier 3000. We turned Dad’s car into a seven seater and then drove around the northern shore of lake Geneva we saw Nestle’s headquarters and the picturesque town of Vevey. After a brief stop we got back in the car and went further on to Aigles. After Dad found a car park (that looked free) we decided to grab something to eat before getting on the train so we had coffees, quiches and bread rolls. The train trip (12:55) was no ordinary train trip it was a truly alpine experience, we climbed 1500 metres up the valley, past a castle, vinyards, chalets covered in snow and through tunnels. Another thing I noticed was the rugged fences designed to stop rock falls. The train terminated at the snow town of Diabelerets. From there we caught a bus to Col du Pillon. Once the bus stopped it was time for the most extreme gondala I have ever seen, split into two stages it took us from 2000 metres to 3000 metres. Thats 1 km straight up! At the top were ski fields, chair lifts, a restaurant, shops and a view to behold. We climbed to the lookout up the stairs, at the very top with the wind it was soo cold that it hurt to stay up there longer than 5 minutes. We took photo’s before our poor fingers could take no more. From the top we could see the swiss pre-alps and some of the French alps including Mount Blanc (the highest mountain in france). After warming up in the restaurant we took the chairlift up and down a small slope (my first chairlift experience) then packed in the gondala with the other hundred skiers and boarders. The ride down was like a slow motion free fall! At the bottom of the gondola the bus took ages so Gavin and I wrestled to keep warm, the others stamped their feet and whined about the cold. I also talked to a friendly American man about hiring ski/boarding gear. The bus back to diabelerets was nice and warm, before the train left I had a chance to dash into ‘Jacky sports’ to get info on hiring gear. Home by 5pm. Turkey wraps, mousse and icecream for dinner. After dinner the others played 5-crowns while I sorted out our snowboarding and skiing adventure for tomorrow. Bed by 10.30pm.
Woke up early 6.00 am for my first day on the slopes. Checked the weather, it was clear and good conditions were predicted. Driving this time to Diabelerets it only took us 45 minutes, traffic was light and we arrived at 8.30 am just in time for the equipment hire store to open. Getting all the gears sorted was time intensive and by the end of it I felt weighed down like a deep sea diver. We hit the beginner slopes at 9.10 am. At first going straight was fine but turning was a different ball game and it took me a few wipe outs to get the hang of it. I kept crash landing on the same spot on my body, my left hip and left forearm, by the end of the day they had taken an absolute pummeling and were very bruised and swollen. After a couple of hours of confidence building on the beginner slopes we hit the main piste(s). We took the chair lift up and the view was primo, a crystal clear day, nice powder snow, and happy skiers everywhere. The long chair lift ended and we had to board down a short run to take another chair lift right to the top about 2000 metres up. Every run I was improving. We went to the fields over the back and had some great riding in the bright sunshine. Then I had to negiotiate my first T-bar lift and I kept falling off, because my board had a mind of its own and decided to steer off the track! It was so frustrating I tried twice in the end I gave up and walked up the steepest slope in knee deep snow (other skiers grinned as they watched me clambering up, at least it was good fitness!). It took me 30 minutes to walk up to the top and I was shattered. Gavin was patiently waiting at the top. Michelle didn’t fair much better than me although a kind boarder assisted her up the t-bar lift. After recovering at the top and a drink of water I boarded / bundled my way down some pretty steep slopes. Fortunately my final run was really good, in front of Mum and Dad and a camera. At the bottom Michelle and I rested for lunch (chocolate biscuits/ bananas / rolls and water) while Mum and Dad borrowed our passes and went up to check out the views. Time for one more run, this time it was 200% better and I began to get my balance right and get a feel for the board. The weather was closing in with blizzard conditions up the top of the mountain. So we ended it there, bruised and battered but absolutely elated at the same time. Returned the gear, then boosted home for a hearty meal of Mazetti, vanilla ice cream with fruit and a few stiff whisky’s to ease the pain. Played a duel game of quiddler and 5-crowns to end the night. What a great day!!!
The next day was very low key as our bruised and battered bodies didn’t permit us to do anything too active. The weather was pretty grotty as well, so we decided to go into town to check it out. We walked to the ...... stop on the metro and went a couple of stops into the centre of town. Town was pretty typical for a European city, shops, a square and a cathedral. The Cathedral was very big and had very distinctive (dark) stained glass windows. As well as feeling sore, I was also a bit under the weather with a bit of a head cold/flu. We walked home in the sleaty rain. I caught a few winks then woke up to see Gavin off with his friend Sophie and her boyfriend Manfrid. Manfrid was pretty hard case with stories about living in Switzerland, speeding tickets, working for the national guard, guns and others. We all sat down had dinner then after some Austrian biscuits they took off somewhere in Europe. More quiddler then bed and reading.
Woke up 8.30 a.m. showered then breakfast. After a quick tidy up we all went to Le Olympic Museum. We picked up audio guides and wandered through. Points of interest were:
•The different types of medals.
•The various styles of torch from the games.
•Bob sled weight 630kg
•Memorabilia of the athlete’s, including the speedo’s of the novice swimmer at the Sydney Olympics.
•Stepping through the history of the games from its inception to its reinception to some of the notable events (good and bad) – Munich / Moscow / Berlin / Women’s participation.
•The sculptures outside the Museum (moving abs, man with umbrella) and current world records displayed in the high jump, pole vault and shot put.
Back home for lunch – Salmon Pizza, rolls. Then we had one last game of quiddler for Marcus before he left. At 3.30pm we left for France, stopping at the supermarket on the way for supplies. Crossing the border was easy and we popped into a place called Gex for a strong coffee. Crossed back over the border to drop Marcus of at Geneva Airport. Home by 7 pm. Drunk mulled wine, and chatted away. Mum and I made lamb kebabs, which were so good. Chatted more after dinner then played quiddler until midnight.
Our last day in Switzerland. Slept in until 9 am, then had breakfast together. Michelle and I wandered down to Ouchy in the rain and I found some patches and Michelle was fascinated by the cuckoo clocks. Then back along the waterfront and up through the Olympic museum. Time for another game of quiddler then off to Chillon Castle via the small hill side towns. Highlights of the castle were:
•The dungeon at / below lake level
•Wood panelled ceilings
•Characteristic style of seating by the windows
•The defence systems at the castle
•The toilets
•The views from the keep
•Its strategic position as a toll on goods and traffic between Italy and Europe.
From the castle we drove back to Athletica just outside of Lausanne. It was a massive sports store and I found some snowboarding pants and Michelle some casual shoes. We had a drink in the cafe just outside the store then drove straight to the airport. No drama’s with getting golf clubs on the plane, said our goodbyes then flew out on schedule. A great Christmas in Switzerland.