Some scenery.....and final holiday comments

Coming from the Isle of Skye, it should have not been a surprise to see some fairly changeable weather. However, it has been a while since I left, so I was given a reminder of the vagaries of island weather. In the course of my visits to Skye, I have experienced all 4 seasons in their extremes. I loved every minute of it!

The holiday was a complete success. I made progress with the sale of my flat in Edinburgh, saw a plethora of friends and family, ate and drank all items that had been causing me withdrawal symptoms in Japan, and was recharged by the scenery and weather.
I am pleased to be back in Japan and still have some time before I return to work. A lot of things have been happening recently so hopefully I will fill you in with the details soon. We also have a weekend away in the countryside to look forward to as Yuki's mum will shortly turn 60 years old. More updates in the near future.

Back to Japan

Running out of time to post some more Scottish blogs so will do a few more once I am safely back in Tokyo. I will return to Tokyo early on Sunday the 27th April.

Portree

This posting was originally supposed to show some of the magnificent scenery that I have come across during my time back in Scotland. Unfortunately, it seems to have been largely highjacked by my negative thoughts about Portree, the capital of the Isle of Skye.

Whilst the beauty of Skye amazed me, the apparent deterioration of Portree disappointed. Perhaps I am better placed to see the changes in Portree because I visit intermittently. Others might say I have just become out of touch. Anyway, whatever the case, Portree has become more of a town than a village. The small-town heart and camaraderie that once existed did not seem readily apparent anymore and I really did not enjoy retracing some of my steps. In one bar (The Camanachd), the place fell silent as soon as I entered. Soon after I had ordered my pint, one of the twats in the bar accused me of being in CID i.e. an undercover policeman. This combined with being hassled by some scum-bag who claimed he was a surgeon, led me to finish my pint half way through and escape into the relative safety of the town square.

The Camanachd Bar was then followed by The Isles. To be fair, it was not a bad couple of hours as I got talking to about 5 tourists who seemed to be having a lovely time on the island. However, I had been warned that The Isles has turned into a bit of a shit hole and was now a magnet for all sorts of low life. I guess I got lucky.

After chatting with a few people regarding present day Portree, it would seem the place is in decline. Feral youths seem to be roaming the streets, sometimes beating up people walking home at night, regularly breaking into businesses and homes, and trying car doors to see if they are unlocked. Whilst Portree has had problems in the past, these were generally self policed and people were quickly brought back into line. Today, this control seems to be absent.

To be fair, some things in Portree have improved, but overall, the place seems to be losing elements that made it special. Hopefully, by the time of my next visit, some action will have been taken to arrest the decline.

The Campbell Wedding

One of the many highlights of our trip to Scotland was seeing Graeme Campbell (Grambo), my friend from Aberdeen University, getting married. Not only was I looking forward to the nuptials and associated events, but I was also looking forward to meeting up with my other friends from university. I cannot believe that we all graduated 12 years ago......sorry for the cliche, but time flies (when you're having fun).

The choice of wedding present was slowly torturing me in the run up to the wedding. I always attempt to buy presents from my friend from Skye called Len who owns his own pottery called Crieff Ceramics. Unfortunately, I have been so busy that I never had the chance to drop by, say "Hi", and then buy one of his creations. He really needs to embrace the computer age and have some rudimentary means of viewing products and then ordering online.

As Crieff Ceramics was unachievable, I was faced with the dilemma of buying Grambo and Mandy vouchers from John Lewis or thinking of something else. I chose the 'thinking of something else' option and ended up buying a print from a local artist in Skye called Tommy MacKenzie. Although I do not like to brag, it turned out to be an inspired choice and seemed to go down very well with the married couple. Grambo is a bit of an outdoors type and loves nothing better than scrambling over Scottish mountains or rambling through Scottish glens. Therefore, the idea of buying a print from a Skye artist gathered momentum. Once in Tommy MacKenzie's studio, the dilemma was which picture to select. I settled on a print of the Old Man of Storr, a prominent Skye landmark about which Grambo jokingly wrote a poem on a dark winter Aberdeen evening in 1994. It is titled 'The Old Man of Storr' and reads ;

Oh ye big black rock
Standing tall you do not talk
From Portree you catch the eye
And unlike me you'll never die
Like MacLeod who once stood tall
I hope you will never fall
But big black rock I hope you stay
From dusk to dawn for eternity
I printed off a copy of the poem and stuck it on the back of picture with a small message from Yuki, Clara, and myself. Grambo appeared to be really happy with it and I hope it will grace the wall of their house for years to come.

Unfortunately, I did not take a photo of the picture that I gave to Grambo and Mandy so I have had to use a photograph that I took of the Old Man of Storr the week we arrived in Scotland. Beautiful!

When I arrived at the Newton Hotel in Nairn for the wedding reception and looked at the table plan, it became evident that the picture was even more appropriate. Grambo and Mandy had named each table after a Scottish mountain or region. I think one table was called Cairngorm, another Quirang. The top table where the bride and groom sat was called The Storr. When I saw that, I knew my wedding present was a masterstroke and that has left a smile on my face for the past week.

Needless to say, the whole day was fantastic. Mandy and Grambo seem to be the perfect match and perfect companions for each other. The food at the wedding reception was spot on, and I really enjoyed the Pimms which was served upon arrival at the hotel. I especially enjoyed seeing 'The Posse' again.BACK : Alan Thomson, Graeme Campbell (groom), Fergus Thomson.
FRONT : Graeme Glover (Best Man), Kane Davidson

The guys in the above photo are friends I made at Aberdeen University. We have all gone our separate ways, but when we meet up, the banter still flows and it becomes easy to see why we are all friends. The banter was extended when Alan and Gillian kindly gave me a lift down to Edinburgh on Sunday morning. Alan seemed to drive at 50mph the whole way, but we eventually arrived unscathed.

A great day and night which allowed me to reabsorb some Scottish culture and catch up with long lost friends. A fuller range of pictures will soon appear on Webshots.

Clara in Scotland

Clara has certainly been the star of the show during her 2 weeks in Scotland. She managed to do so many things during her time in the country and will no doubt take many great memories back to Japan with her. Indeed, these memories will surely be with her for the rest of her life.As you can see, one of the things Clara did was horse riding. She actually went riding a couple of times, accompanied by her grandparents and Sophie, the daughter of a colleague of Joep's. Clara and Sophie got on very well and I was really happy for Clara to have another friend to visit when she is next in Scotland.
After horse riding came ten pin bowling. I'm not a great fan of bowling so I decided that bowling with my eyes closed would provide a bit of excitement. Clara on the other hand decided to use the ramp to launch the balls down the bowling alley. The results of the bowling are as follows :
1. Pauline 2. Clara 3. Joep 4. Kane 5. Yuki
The biggest mystery of the day is how on earth my mother managed to come first!! She even managed 3 strikes!!!

Up next was ice skating. I wisely opted out of this activity and occupied myself with taking a few photos before retreating to the car to listen to the radio. This was probably the best decision I have made in a long time. All and sundry were crashing into each other and falling to the ice. When the skating had ended, Clara was complaining of sore ankles, Yuki was breathless, Mum was complaining that she was hot, and Joep had sworn that this was definitely the last time he would be seen on ice.

There is no doubt that Clara had a lovely time in Scotland. My parents had arranged a full schedule for her and had even made up a room in their house solely for her to use. There were no downsides to the time Clara spent in Scotland. Only good memories which will remain with her for many years to come. The problem is now we have to start planning for her next visit...........

Loch Ness, Skye, and Granny

Yuki, Clara and I drove to the Isle of Skye on Tuesday the 1st of April. It was a lovely drive but I was still a little tired as I had driven to Edinburgh the previous day in a large truck to empty my flat (which I am selling) of furniture. We stopped off at a number of places on the way to stretch our legs and take photos. The photo above shows Yuki and Clara in front of a fiberglass Nessie at the Loch Ness Exhibition Centre. On the drive past Loch Ness, Clara was adamant that she really did see the Loch Ness Monster - maybe she did......

The visit to Skye was only brief as we had the intention of seeing my Granny who is in an old folks' home. The island looked beautiful and made me feel nostalgic for the days when I used to live there. We stopped off at a couple of places to get a few photos but we needed to brave the strong wind. I actually enjoyed seeing Yuki and Clara being blown around and watching the expressions on their faces. It was great to see my Granny again, although I am always apprehensive as I wonder how fit she will be both mentally and physically. The day of our visit seemed to be a good day for her as she was lucid and managed to keep a conversation going. She was smiling a lot and seemed really interested in Clara. Clara in turn was gentle and kind to her Great Granny and fully realised that her Great Grandmother was quite frail. The icing on the cake was when Clara performed one of the dances that she has learnt in her dancing school in Tokyo.More adventures to follow........

Aberdeen Football Club

Being an Aberdeen fan in Inverness, it would have been a crime to have missed the chance to see The Dons play Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Aberdeen have never lost to ICT so I was keeping my fingers crossed that this run would continue. Not only did this run continue, but it continued in style. Aberdeen won 4-3, with the winning goal coming deep into injury time. Before the game began, I paid £6 for an Aberdeen scarf and then joined the rest of the Aberdeen fans in the away end. I really enjoyed being part of the crowd and was lucky to see a great game with the right result. In the newspaper the following day, it said that the game was one of the best of the season. Lucky me!!

The good run of results continued when Aberdeen beat Falkirk 2-1 on the 7th of April to book their place in the top half of the league for the final 5 games. C'mon The Dons!!

Good to be back

The journey was long and tiring, but we made it to Scotland on the 27th of March, after a short transit in Amsterdam. Our decision to avoid Heathrow Airport (because of some bad experiences in the past) proved a wise decision, as Terminal 5 had just opened and the airport was reportedly in chaos.

Yuki and I did not do much on Friday the 28th March as we were still tired after the journey from Japan. We just chilled out in my parents' house and visited the local supermarket to marvel in the opportunity to buy some of our favourite British products. Clara had a bit more energy and was taken horse riding by my parents.

Saturday the 29th of March was a lovely day and will live long in the memory. In the morning, we all went on a trip to the remote village of Cromarty which has some quaint old buildings and streets and also visited a fantastic beach in the village of Rosemarkie. The sun was shining but we were battered by a ferocious wind. The wind really blew away the cobwebs and we were all windswept but refreshed. I took the chance to get some pictures of the area and it was nice to see the snow capped hills in the distance.After a cup of tea in a nearby hotel, we briefly looked at the small harbour with its colourful boats, visited a local antiques shop, and then drove back to Inverness as I was planning to watch Aberdeen Football Club play Inverness Caledonian Thistle. The refreshing morning walk was a great reintroduction to Scotland and whetted my appetite for more outdoor adventures.When I return to Japan, I'll try and upload my pictures to webshots and then post a link for you all to be able to browse through my pictures from Scotland. More to follow....