Torphins Hike

Now that school is back in session, so is our ex-pat org.  Our first official meeting is next week but some of the activity groups have already begun.  After my 3 month hiking hiatus, I joined the explorers group to hike in a city called Torphins, about 45 minutes west of Aberdeen.  If you recall from a previous post, I normally don't participate with this group because they hike a minimum of 8-12 miles and their hikes range from "intermediate" to "difficult" (aka no freaking way).  I ended the hiking season with this group in May breaking my 4 mile record with an all time high of 7 miles.   

As the first hike of the season, the leader promised that this hike was only 5.5 miles and there would only be 2 gradual rolling rises.  I decided I was up for the challenge.  There were about 20 of us that joined the hike based on the promise that it was relatively easy and short.  

About 15 minutes in we approached the first "rolling rise."  That was easy. Sweet! Only 1 more to go. 

Another 30 or so minutes passed and we come across the second rolling rise hill.  This one was tough but after 15 minutes of walking uphill, I made it without face planting.  Alright, now I can relax and enjoy the company of the women and take in the scenery.  Wrong.  

In the next hour, we encountered 2 more rolling rises hills, each progressively harder than the last. Uhhh what is happening? Did we go off path? Nope, this is the right way, I was just duped!!! After the last hill, we passed by the Learney House, a mansion built in the 17th century with panoramic views of Aberdeen.  

Shortly after, we approached an area with breathtaking views of Bennachie and we stopped to eat our sack lunch.

As we rested our legs, I sweetly reminded our group leader that there were more than 2 rolling rises and she assured me that the rest of the hike would be flat and downhill.  She even showed me the map.  I wasn't going to be fooled again.  

The hike back down was in fact flat, which my legs were thankful for.  But we still had another third of the way to cover. 

At this point, we'd been hiking for more than 2 hours, 5.5 miles shouldn't take that long, right?  Sure enough as we walked through the woods and back to our cars, one of hikers revealed that hike was actually 7.4 miles.  Laugh now, cry later.  

Though I was out of commission the rest of the day, I am proud that I surpassed my previous record.  My new goal is to reach 10 miles before the end of the year.  Hope I can do it!    

  

The Royal Highland Games

Saturday we had the coolest experience.  A bunch of us drove out to Braemar, a city approximately 30 miles west of Aberdeen to attend the Royal Highland Games.  Its an annual event that occurs over the summer and ends on the first Saturday in September.  The Queen is always in attendance at the final round in September and thereafter spends the rest of the summer at Balmoral Castle.  (This Castle is open to the public before and after the royal family completes their stay).

As we entered the arena, excitement filled the air.  When you hear the phrase "Highland Games" what comes to mind? If you said caber tossing, that's my answer.  Caber tossing is a traditional Scottish athletic event where they throw a large wooden pole (caber) that is 20 feet tall and weighs 175 pounds.  A perfect throw results in the caber flipping over on the ground.  Here is a video  we took of the caber tossing event (and of course a glimpse of the royal family).  Man these guys are strong!

We also saw the tug of war (which was very intense), heavy hammer throw, sack race, traditional Scottish dances and an uphill race.  A group of 50 or so people ran through the arena and up a hill (which looked like a mountain) that was the backdrop of the arena.  The winner took 24 minutes to run up and down the hill.  Talk about insane. I heard the winner threw up afterwards.  I wanted to throw up just looking at that mountain hill.

As the temperatures began to drop (and once again I was caught being poorly dressed), the rumors of the Queen's arrival consumed us.  So a few of us decided to walk around the arena and then stood at the entrance hoping to get a snapshot of the Queen as they escorted her and the family in Range Rovers.  Much to my surprise the security was minimal and as the Queen and Prince Philip drove in, their windows were down and they happily waved at the crowd.  Here's the video, we were on the side that Prince Philip was, so we got a good shot of him waving:)

I managed to get some good shots of Queen Elizabeth, Prince Phillip, Prince Charles & Camilla, Princess Anne and a few others.  No sightings of William & Kate though :( It was so cool to be within inches of the royal family.  The Queen is SO cute. This was definitely the highlight of my week. I am the luckiest girl in the world!

Beginning of the uphill race

Beautiful backdrop

Excited! 

Trying to stay warm....

The Royal Family!

Caber tossing

Good times...

Waving at us! 

The Dam

Over the weekend we ventured all the way out to Amsterdam.  That's right, we took the long 1.5 hour plane ride to spend the weekend in good 'ole Amsterdam.  It was nice to have a weekend getaway that was close by and meeting our good friends, Asif & Dima from Dubai, was an added bonus.

I haven't seen Asif & Dima since last year, so I was super excited to spend the weekend with old friends.  Dima also brought her bestie from Jordan.  It was a weekend of reunions.

I haven't been to Amsterdam since NYE 2005 (good times with my girls).  Ram has never been (I'm getting tired of repeating cities with this bubble boy) and since he's made hundreds of pit stops there for work, it was a must see for him.  Not much has changed since 2005, but it was nice to explore all the squares, canals, good food, and markets on Ram's arm.  We even managed to not break the bank at the Holland Casino, which by the way, was the nicest European casino I've seen thus far.

Of course the trip would not be complete without giving the newbie a tour of the Red Light District.  I recently read a book about African women being sold into prostitution in Amsterdam and it was heart breaking to read.  However, whatever sympathetic feelings I harbored were gone in an instant as we strolled down these narrow streets watching woman after woman standing in their windows, in their best seductive gear, completely preoccupied with their phone.  Excuse me, aren't you at work? Should you really be texting right now??? 

Overall the weekend was fun despite the constant rain (the weather is always blog-worthy over here lol).  I was sad that we didn't get to spend more time with our friends but happy to come home and have Ram here for the next 2 weeks! Yup, I actually get to see my hubby for a whole 2 weeks, which is good for him because I was starting to forget what he looked like...

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!