The Winter Sea

This month for book club we read "The Winter Sea" by Susanna Kearsley.  It's a historical novel set in Cruden Bay, a city 30 miles from Aberdeen.  The fact that the novel took place so close to home, it goes without saying that we all wanted to visit the castle & hotel that was central to the story line.

Cruden Bay is a coastal city with famous attractions including Slains Castle, a golf course & St. Olaf Hotel.  Slains Castle (aka inspiration central) was also where Bram Stoker visited and created Count Dracula.  We set out on the road yesterday morning with the sun shining and blue skies.  Unfortunately as we got closer to Cruden Bay, the nasty haar (fog) hovered above and obstructed our views on our accent to Slains & Bullars of Buchan (a massive blowhole created by natural arches).  Luckily, I managed to get a few good pictures but not sure if we actually saw the Bullars of Buchan.

The castle ruins sit on cliffs overlooking the North Sea.  It was a beautiful sight and I'm sad the city has not maintained inspiration central.  The won't even mow the grass in the castle or surrounding area.  Even the footpath to the castle is not maintained, but that's another issue.

After working up an appetite we headed to St. Olaf hotel where the author stayed when she was writing her novel.  Of course, the meal would not have been complete without the infamous sticky toffee pudding.

After lunch, the hotel allowed us to go and see the room in which the author stayed for several weeks.  Though I feel a bit stalker-ish, I headed straight up the stairs.  No point in coming all this way and not seeing her room! Sure enough the view from her room was none other than Slains and it was an awesome feeling getting to experience what the author experienced.  As we were leaving, a hotel employee flagged us down and showed us the book where the author signed in back in 2006.  Talk about icing on your sticky toffee pudding!

Room 4

View of Slains from the room

In awe...

Star Struck! 

  

Sunday bloody Sunday

Oh man, what a week! Where to begin...

So Wednesday I attended my first AWA (my ex-pat org) board meeting, where I have been asked to co-chair as 2nd VP alongside my friend, Nary.  I've never been on a board before let alone bear a prestigious title.  I knew in this lifetime I would achieve VP status before Ram. Victory is mine! But I digress....

The role of the 2nd VP is to plan all of AWA's social gatherings for the year.  Hold on a minute, did someone just give me a job as a party planner?! YIPEE!!! I'm super excited about this opportunity and the planning for our first social is already underway.  We're having a bowling party and asking everyone to wear their favorite sports gear and crazy socks and we're giving away prizes and all! If you know me well, you would know that my list of ideas for this event was almost 2 pages long.  There are 2 other events this year, Thanksgiving and Christmas luncheon and next year I get to help plan Mardi Gras! This housewife is working it.

Later that day, we had book club at my friend Laine's house.  The book we read this time was called "The Winter Sea" by Susanna Kearsley and it's set in a town 45 minutes outside of Aberdeen.  We all loved this book and are planning to drive out to the town tomorrow and soak it all in.  ROAD TRIP!

Thursday, my friend Kristen had a guest in town from Texas, who happens to be good friends with one of my friends, so Jill and I took her to Crathes Castle & Gardens.  The castle itself was smaller than I'm used to seeing but the cool thing was they managed to restore a lot of the furniture, etc inside.  It was cool to see the furniture and rooms dated back to the 17th century.  I even learned a some cool things about their way of life back then.  If you want to know about it, you'll have to come visit and see for yourself!

Thursday night, I hosted a girls night.  It was supposed to be a hen party (hen = bachelorette) for one of our friends but sadly she was in the States and lost her passport and didn't make it back in time:( Since all the girls still wanted to get together, I decided to indulge everyone and have an ice cream sundae bar.  I think it was a hit...

Friday night we sent off yet another friend that is leaving the Deen to go to Houston.  Saturday, while we waited for Ram to come back in town, Luca and I stepped out to our favorite park, Duthie.  This park was near our temporary housing and I'm ashamed to say I haven't been back in awhile but Luca felt right at home.  Then we rushed back home so I could get ready to BBQ with Ram.  Sadly, his flight got delayed again and again and instead of being home by 5:30pm, he arrived at 7:30pm.  Three blissful hours later, he was fast asleep.  This morning I sent him off to Hanover and Luca and I went to another park, Hazlehead, to enjoy the sunshine.  Later I met up with some friends for Sunday brunch.  And now, I'm officially exhausted.

Here are just a few pictoral highlights from the week:

Home sweet Home

Recently it dawned on me that this is the first time Ram and I are living in a house.  In Houston, we've been putting off buying a house because Ram kept talking about how we'll have to fix things on our own.  Personally, I think he's afraid to show me his handyman skills.  But somehow, my skills are being put to the test.

Over the past few weeks, we've had one issue after another.  First our lawn mower doesn't work, then one of our windows won't close, the vacuum cleaner dies, next our refrigerator was freezing food on one rack and not cooling the other (while my family was in town), and finally to top it all off a fuse blew out yesterday as I was turning the bathroom light on, which cut out the lights on the entire 3rd floor. As a result, I was forced to shower in the dark.  Fan-freaking-tastic.  

Nighttime was no picnic either. I've never been scared being alone in our 3 story house before, but the fact that I couldn't turn on the lights in our bedroom made me edgy.  Luca, ever oblivious, kept running away from me every time I tried to snuggle him for comfort.  At least one of us had a good night's sleep. I need to teach that dog some manners!

24 hours later, I was successful in turning the lights back on the 3rd floor but can't quite reach the light fixture to change the bulb in my bathroom. Conveniently, Ram is not here during these "episodes." Put on list, buy step stool!  And I think our Landlord is starting to ignore my panic-stricken calls and emails.   So now I can officially add the role of handy-wo-man aka superwoman to my list of duties. Is there a handy-wo-man 101 class I can take (the UK version of course)?

The Highlanders

My mom and sister came to visit us over the past 2 weeks and looking back at the pictures, we covered a lot of ground in that amount of time! If there ever was an elite status on the Scotrail, I've earned it:)

After giving them a few days to recuperate and enjoy my culinary creations, we kicked off the Highland tour in Glasgow, south of Aberdeen.  The first thing we saw on the way to our hotel was the Olympic symbols.  So we just had to go back to George Square and take pictures.  Of course, we weren't the only ones with that bright idea.  Needless to say it was tough (and annoying) fighting off all the little kids to take a picture so we decided to come back at night when it was past their bedtime. Haha. During the day we walked around, did some shopping, and went to a street market. We ended the night at The Living Room where we enjoyed the atmosphere and live music.

Next, we headed northwest to Fort William.  Fort William is a small coastal town.  It's the site of Ben Nevis, the largest mountain in Britain and the 13th century Inverlochory Castle ruins.  I still can't believe how many castles there are to see over here.  It's amazing how much history is preserved in Scotland.  As the rain poured down on us we walked through the town and found ourselves at a local pub where we ate and drank the night away.  The next morning we stepped aboard the Jacobite Steam Train, also known as the Harry Potter train. (Jac-o-bite (noun): A supporter of the deposed James II and his descendants in their claim to the British throne after the Revolution of 1688).  West Coast Railways, operators of The Jacobite, provided the steam engine and carriages for the 'Hogwarts Express' as seen in the 'Harry Potter' films including The Philosopher's Stone. This 42 mile one-way trip took us past a list of impressive sights. Starting near the highest mountain in Britain, Ben Nevis, we passed by the deepest freshwater loch in Britain, Loch Morar and the shortest river in Britain, River Morar, as well as arriving next to the deepest seawater loch in Europe, Loch Nevis! (Remember, loch = lake).  

The views were breathtaking despite the rain, though as we were traveling there was no commentary so I had no clue what I was looking at!  After the 3 hour ride, we hopped off the Jacobite and into the city of Mallaig.  Another coastal town with a population of 3,000.  This city was very charming and was filled with cute shops.  After exploring our area, we took the ferry to the port city of Armadale in the Isle of Skye.  The rain was relentless so we did not continue further into Skye:(  We toured Armadale and the castle and gardens over there and then caught the ferry back to Mallaig.  Then we made the long 8 hour journey back to Aberdeen.  

After a much needed day of rest, we ventured out to Stonehaven and Edinburgh.  I simply could not let my mom and sister come all the way here and not see these 2 cities.  Of course I took them to the famous Dunnotar Castle and I was so proud my mom did the rocky trek up to the castle.  Then we hit up Edinburgh where we lunched at the famous Elephant House.  Again we were greeted with Olympic rings but this time they were placed such that we couldn't get too close but we managed to get a few pics anyway. I also showed them the panoramic views of the city from Calton Hill and the National Monument.  On our way to the Edinburgh Castle we came across a Whiskey shop was 2 stories tall! I was feeling bad that Ram was absent (and we seemed to missed this spot when we went a few months back).  So I set out to find the perfect bottle of whiskey for Ram.  Boy was that an adventure! The store was pretty cool, flavor map and all.  Luckily the whiskey I selected was a hit with Ram (phew!) I found myself enjoying Edinburgh a lot more this time around and there's still much to see and experience, so I definitely want to go back. 

That brings us to the last 2 days of their visit so Ram and I gave them a taste of our lives here in Aberdeen.  With the sun shining and not a cloud in the sky (yippee!), we took them to the International Market and Afternoon Tea at the Marcliffe.  The trip would not have been complete without showing my sister how we party in the shire.  She also got to meet some of our friends, so it was the perfect ending to their trip. 







Now everyone's gone:( Even Ram had to fly off to the Ukraine. 2 weeks flew by way too fast.  Can't wait for my brother to join me in October so  we can explore some more! 

  

Olympics 2012

I can't believe we didn't get tickets to any of the Olympic events:( We are so close to the venue this year that the Olympic spirit is definitely in the air! In June we missed the Olympic torch running through Aberdeen and I haven't been able to forget what a momentous occasion we missed while we were in Barcelona.  So as a tribute to my inner athlete, I agreed to participate in a ropes course last weekend (which was also part of a going away party for Caitlin).  This course had everything, zip lining, tight rope walking, tarzan swinging, you name it!  Needless to say, this is not a graceful sport. I had to leave my "grace" at the door. Check.

Luckily, I've done zip lining before because that was the easy part! As you can see in the pictures, this was no easy feat but it was so much fun! Of course the day would not be complete without a night of binge drinking to consume all those burned calories! In the short time I've been here, I've already had to say bye to 3 people and a few more in our group will be leaving this month as well.   Sad to see new friends leave, but I wish them the best of luck in their next post!

The 3 month itch...

Its been 3 months, 2 weeks and 5 days since we landed in the Deen. Time has definitely flown by. So what do I have to show for it?

Well, let's see.

1. I've learned its customary (and borderline rude) not to offer the handyman or lawnmower guy tea/coffee + biscuits when they come to your house;
2. 2 miles IS walking distance;
3. I can sustain new friendships after the age of 30;
4. Eating haggis is a hard limit for me; and
5. I've visited 7 cities and 3 countries so far.

I'm sure there are others that I'm forgetting but it will be interesting to see how my list changes as time passes.  Speaking of changes, after the initial acceptance that the food here would be different, my cravings are beginning to surface. And it's funny how I'm craving foods that I haven't even eaten since childhood.  Lately when we go to international markets or the "American" food section of the grocery store, I find myself searching for:

1. Macaroni & Cheese;
2. Fruit roll ups;
3. Now'n'Laters;
4. Caramel chews;
5. Diet Dr. Pepper (okay this is not an oldie, but its a goodie)

That's right, the fat kid in me is craving nothing but junk food! Thankfully my mom and sister are coming next week just in time to curb my top 3 cravings:) I'm excited to show them the city I'm completely in love with and give them a tour of the Highlands.  The agenda includes the highly anticipated Harry Potter train tour. All aboard!

The Floating City

We spent the second part of our 4th of July weekend in Venice.  We took the train from Milan (I was sad I didn't get to spend any time there, next time!)  I was more than happy to return to this city and excited for Ram's first impression.  While Venice was very much packed with tourists, in contrast to quiet little Bellagio, we welcomed the new energy.

We stayed near the San Marco Square where we walked to the Bascilica and Rialto Bridge.  We also took the cheesy gondola ride around the city and saw Casanova's house, amongst others.  The architecture in the city is just so beautiful. We spent our evenings in the Square listening to live orchestrated music surrounded by pieces of history. Ram, ever the Beatles fan, even got the orchestra to play "Yesterday." I knew they wouldn't know any Erasure but I didn't want to mess with the classical music vibe (ahem, Ram).

The Italians really do have it all: great food, music, coffee, dessert & not to mention the designers.  I would definitely be broke and fat if I ever lived there, but it would be totally worth it!

Surprisingly, we managed to avoid the temptation of the casino there. I'm not sure how much longer we will last (ha ha).  Our biannual trip to Vegas would normally be in the works by now. Of course there's no substitute for Vegas, but we just might have to check out the Wynn in Macau to get our fix! (tick, tock, tick tock)