Aberdeen and the North East

Our buddies Ken and Peggy drove us to Victoria Airport - alway a good way start a trip. Atcheck-in for our flights (Victoria-Vancouver-Heathrow-Aberdeen, changing terminals and airlines along the way) we were delighted to hear that our bags would be checked all the way through. Even better! At Heathrow, we learned where Aberdeen sits in the firmament: the British Airways flight is operated by Jet Time, a Danish low fare airline, there is no departure lounge for the flight, unless you call the bus that takes you on a 10 minute bus ride to the periphery of the airport where the plane is “ready for boarding”, a departure lounge! Only BA flights to Scottish destinations and Copenhagen are operated by Jet Time. Just sayin’!! But it is a short flight and the crew were pleasant. In Aberdeen we picked up our rental car [Volvo V40] and learned something new about cars. The Volvo unlocked without the need of a key; there was nowhere to insert the key to turn on the ignition - rather you just sit there with the key in your pocket and press “start”. The car was also fitted with start stop technology - that means that when the car stops at a traffic light for example, the engine cuts out till you put your foot back on the accelerator at which point the car turns on immediately. I must admit, it took a little getting used to, with always that fear that the car would not start, but it always did! We stopped in at the Tesco store in Inverurie to buy SIM cards for our phones - for £10 we got a month of data, text and calls more than sufficient for our needs - and that included roaming in Europe. We don’t get anything like that in Canada - we would pay double, and not get any roaming! On the drive to Banff, we had to rely on our memories - although the car was fitted with GPS/SatNav, it could not find Kate and Tom’s farmhouse address - Netherwood near Banff!  We had a good idea of its general location and got really close, but we had to get help from a local with the last 250m.

Our whole time in Scotland was as usual when visiting family - catching up with special folks, eating well and enjoying a glass or ??? of wine. As they would say in Aberdeen, we had a good blether.  Meals would last several hours, but it didn’t seem long. (Same as in Victoria!) On our first night, much to our surprise, we managed to stay awake till 11.00 pm after travelling non-stop from home. Doubtless it was the stimulating conversation! Next morning, we were awake at 5.00 am, before sleeping in till 11.35am!!

Our time in Banff was very relaxing with no schedule to follow deadline to meet. We relished just being there, spending time with Kate and Tom, as well as Edward, Rebecca and partner John who all happened to be home, unlike our previous visits. Apart from the family dog and cats, there was also Rebecca’s dog, a friend’s dog and John’s parents’ dog being dog sat. We are “doggie people”, so the dogs all got lots of attention.

When the weather was sunny and conducive to being outside, we would head to the coast and walk along the beaches at Banff, Portsoy , Gardenstown and Crovie. If you were to only look at a topographic map, the coastline is similar to that of the south west of Western Australia - the beaches tend to be in bays separated by steep cliffs; there the similarity ends. Well not totally, on one our visits to the beach at Banff, the kids were having a surfing lesson (in wetsuits). There were definitely no surf lessons in our day - that was considered exotic! The many villages dotted along the coastline used to be reliant on fishing, but now with fewer fish available and the concentration on larger centres like Fraserburgh these small villages rely on tourism. Crovie is an excellent example of one such quaint little village that almost died, with no one able to sell their properties, but was saved by converting and renovating homes into “holiday homes”, many of which were bought outright by Europeans, especially French and German, while others are rented. People come here to get away from the hubbub of modern life. You have to park on the outskirts of the community because there is no road access to the properties. It is not unusual to find no UK licenced cars in the parking area. On the dreich days, we spent our time in the conservatory, reading, chatting and generally relaxing to re-charge the batteries. Or Norm and Tom worked on the shed! When we got bored with that, we dropped into the Market Arms, the oldest pub in town, dating back to the late 1500’s. This part of Scotland seems to be thriving better than anticipated, given the downturn in oil prices and the depletion of oil reserves. While the region is not booming, there seems to be quite a bit of house building activity and farms look to be thriving.

Supported and aided by Kate, Tom is an accomplished chef. As the dinner hour approached, Tom would happily spend time putting together sumptuous meals - scallops in a prawn sauce, bacon wrapped filet, a splendid lamb roast - all accompanied by vegetables and salads accompanied by a bottle or two of fine wines [there were 7 of us around the table after all]. One evening after dinner we had a rather raucous sing-song - just as well the closest neighbours are several hundred meters away. It was a thoroughly indulgent beginning to our trip. We look forward to returning their generoushospitality in Victoria in 2017 or ’18.

Upon our return from the Nordic countries, we again hired a car, this time a Skoda Octavia which like the Volvo had the instant start-stop technology. The Skoda was a manual, so Norm was a little apprehensive how this technology would work with a clutch. In a word - perfectly! For the next 6 nights we were based in Aberdeen. So that Norm’s sister Anne, niece Gillian and partner James and could all be in the same spot with us, an Airbnb was rented in the Mile End part of town, not far from where we grew up. (Norm attended Mile End Public School - now converted into flats. The same fate has befallen Beechgrove Church where met a long time ago!) The social side of things was similar to our time at Netherwood. In this case James who hails from Orkney, was the ever-considerate chief chef. A lot of time was spent just catching up and reminiscing. Meals were never rushed, and we all mucked in when it came to clean up! The north east is not known as a hot bed of haute cuisine, but it does lay claim to some comfort foods. For example a warm rowie at breakfast is a calorific treat, then there are oatcakes and shortbread. The rowies were always carefully counted - you can imagine the outrage when it was discovered that someone, you know who you are, “stole” a rowie overnight!  Some of us even indulged in a knickerbocker glory!

When back in Aberdeen, there are usually a few “drives” down memory lane. On a picture-perfect day we drove up Deeside [Royal Deeside if you are a monarchist!] which was a common haunt as kids - we could cycle there, or take the bus. The architecture is typical of the North East, relying on granite as the building stone. Within a short distance of town, you are in the Grampians. We stopped at Aboyne and Ballaterwhich was still recovering from some serious flooding back in January with water 2m deep in parts of the village close to the River Dee. Even in September, many people were still out of their homes and wouldn’t be back for some time. There were questions about whether home owners would be eligible for insurance - was the flooding an act of god or not? On another day, we had a wonder through town - like many cities in the UK, and elsewhere, the downtown retail segment is suffering as they try to compete with the big suburban box stores. Not all was bad news, Marischall College which used to be part of Aberdeen University [indeed where our graduation ceremonies were held] is now the home of the City Council offices - but they have done a great job of cleaning up the granite. We dropped into the Apple Store - there is one in relatively small Aberdeen, but not on the whole of Vancouver Island!!

No visit to Aberdeen would be complete without checking out old haunts. A walk along the Prom (where one can get a knickerbocker glory, eh, Gillian?) broughtback memories of when we were young and foolish and would even go in for a swim! On this sunny September day, we didn’t seen any brave souls, except for the occasional dog, go into the surf! Hazelhead Park was another trip down memory lane - of course, no visit would be compete without a visit to the tea room! As alumni of Aberdeen University, founded in 1495, we had to make a pilgrimage to the university, based in Auld Aberdeen - this is where we got married almost 50 years ago after all. When we attended back in the day, there were fewer than 3,000 students enrolled, today there are 3,000 graduates every year! Some buildings are as they were while others have been replaced, refurbished or repurposed. The main Library which we used has been turned into a conference centre, with the new Library a stunning piece of modern architecture designed by a Dane; there are conference rooms and rooms where students meet to chat. Chat in a Library, what is the world coming to?

As a final celebration, we all were joined in an extended family lunch at Howie’s when Anne’s husband Charlie came up from Laurencekirk, nephew Kenneth and Liz came up from Glasgow, and Charlie’s kids Kevin and Linda, Paul and June (all Aberdonians) and some of the kids from the next generation all got together. Unfortunately, we were so focused on having a blether with everyone, we forgot to take any photos - but we have the good memories.

Although we left the north east of Scotland over 47 years ago, much still feels familiar. We are always thankful for the good start in life that our parents and Aberdeen provided. While the loon or quinie can leave Aberdeen, you can’t entirely take Aberdeen out of the loon or quinie. [Loon means a boy, and quinie means girl]

Thanks to our very special family for our time in Aberdeen and Banff!

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