My departure from Scotland was by no means smooth, with the exception of the ice on the runways at Aberdeen and Heathrow. I was supposed to leave Scotland early on the 6th January. However, with the snow and ice closing roads and disrupting rail services, it became increasingly clear that my departure would be delayed. After a couple of calls to British Airways, I moved back my flight by a day.
So, I travelled through on the train to Aberdeen a day later than planned, but still with the hope that I might actually manage to hop on a plane down to Heathrow. That wasn't to be, so I stayed in the
Menzies Hotel next to the airport in Dyce for a night. Nice room and the bed was the same size as a football pitch.
My extra day in Inverness allowed me to revisit my Mum's
mince and tatties, a staple food in our household when we were growing up. Although I wasn't so chuffed to be eating mince when I was a kid, I certainly do enjoy it nowadays. Very nice, especially with the freezing cold temperatures in Scotland.
I awoke on the morning of the 7th January and wondered if my attempts at travelling would be any more successful than the previous day. Things started to look up when I was allowed to board the train to Aberdeen. The busy train was full of passengers who should have travelled on previous days, rumbled out of Inverness and my hopes of making it to Aberdeen increased. I quite like long rail journeys as you have no other option but to sit still and relax with a newspaper or just watch the world flash by. I am sure that calendars for 2011 will not be short of spectacular winter scenes. The coast ringed by snow, snow covered fields, and beautiful blue sky made it a very pleasant trip indeed!
The train rolled into Elgin, a bit behind schedule, but nothing too much to worry about. I had enjoyed two seats to myself since Inverness so I was a bit disappointed when another passenger sat down beside me...what a miserable sod I am! As my new travelling companion made himself comfy, the train driver announced that there were problems with the signals and that the train travelling in the opposite direction was delayed, therefore requiring our train to remain at Elgin for an additional 45 minutes or so....oh well.
I struck up a conversation with my new found passenger who it turned out was going to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary for 3 days of medical training. Interesting. After a bit more digging, it turned out that Garry was a winchman on an RAF Sea King.
VERY interesting! At this stage, Garry was still unawares that I have a particular interest in aviation and can hold my own with the best of them. Garry started talking about his interest in flight safety and that was when I pulled out of my bag an old book which I had decided to take back to Japan titled 'British Military Aircraft Accidents: The Last 25 years'.
Although I was very fond of the book and have owned it since I was a teenager, it seemed clear that Garry was interested in the book himself as he was flicking through the pages with some interest. I decided to give him the book provided that he promised to leave it in the Sea King squadron room for the rest of Sea King crews to read. Quality! Just thinking about the Sea King crews in RAF Lossiemouth reading one of my books about aviation safety puts a big smile on my face. In return for my book, I was half-promised to be sent a newly published book about the work of RAF Search and Rescue squadrons...I'm not quite sure if it will ever materialise, but you never know.
Garry then proceeded to show my his recent pictures and videos of a trip to the Falkland Islands. RAF Search and Rescue crew have to do an annual 6 week rotation to the Falklands and Garry had recently returned from his stint in the South Atlantic. Great videos of low flying Hercules, Sea King winching practice, and photos on the Antonov 124 Ruslan picking up the retired Tornadoes for flight back to the UK. He was even there to see the new Eurofighter Typhoons arriving at
RAF Mount Pleasant.
Further discussions involved how to pronounce place names on the Isle of Skye. Garry had flown around the island on a number of occasions but was not quite sure how to pronounce Sligachan or Skeabost. Although I understood why he would ask about Sligachan (it is a common place for the Sea King to land during rescue operations), I was a bit surprised that he was asking about Skeabost. It transpired that Garry has to organise the squadron 2010 Christmas party, and
Skeabost Hotel is at the top of his list because the crew who have to remain on duty can land in the hotel grounds, eat their dinner and then fly off again. He asked me what I knew about the hotel and was surprised when I told him my cousin Janet was the manageress. I'm sure he'll be in touch with her soon.
After a pleasant journey chatting to Garry, assisted by a couple of tins of Tennent's Lager from the Lidl supermarket next to Elgin Station, I alighted the train at Dyce and went to book in to the Menzies Hotel. I was under the impression that the hotel would pick me up from the station, but that service only starts from 6pm. As there were no taxis to meet the train at Dyce (why would there be!! [sarcasm alert]), I carried over 30kg of luggage through the snow and down the road to the hotel. By the time I had arrived, my feet were sodden and I thought I would also end up spending a few days in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. Once in my nice room, I sprawled out on the bed for a bit before hitting the hotel bar for a couple of beers. The bar was full of roughnecks (rig workers) and I felt a bit out of place....I think they noticed I was the odd one out as I got a couple of quizzical looks. They all seemed to be having a good time - either enjoying being back on land after a tough few weeks on the rigs or enjoying a final few beers before heading out to the rigs in the North Sea.
After my beers, I got a taxi into Aberdeen for a few beers with Garry. I met up with him in Ma Cameron's, an old haunt from my university days. It felt strange to be back in Aberdeen, the scene of many happy days during my time at Aberdeen University, but happy memories were aroused with my every step. The taxi journey was a particular pleasure. The driver was a friendly sort so we engaged in some football chat - it turns out he is a Celtic fan. Driving towards the center of Aberdeen, the sights became more familiar, especially when we drove around Mount Hooly roundabout. We passed Spring Gardens Halls of Residence and I managed to catch sight of my old bedroom and kitchen - I found myself wondering what the students living there now were like. Probably just like I used to be...
Some things had changed. Blandford Supplies near the Blue Lamp pub had closed down and the university union had also shut. Apart from those two changes, most other things were very similar and Garry and I enjoyed a couple of pints in Ma Cameron's before heading to get some Italian food in the Castlegate at the head of King Street (right below the flat where Willie, Hank and Grambo stayed for a couple of years). Following the food, we made a short crossing of the square to the Tilted Wig pub where the remainder of the night would be spent. Great fun chatting to the various characters inside - that's something that I miss about Scotland.
At the end of the evening, I said my farewells to Garry and flagged down another taxi to return me to the Menzies Hotel in Dyce for a shorter than planned sleep. I woke up in the morning and went to reception to check out and take the complementary hotel bus to the airport. Needless to say, I was a bit surprised when the dipstick at reception accused me of not paying my hotel bill. He seemed non-plussed when I informed him I had paid my bill in cash the night before. He then accused me of never having stayed in the hotel and that I was being classed as a no show!!! He wanted my credit card details so that he could charge me for the room - by this stage I began to suspect that he was trying to scam me and so I decided to leave and get on the hotel bus. According to the bus driver, lots of people have complained about the receptionist (called DJ) and my mother added my name to the list of complainees when she called the hotel later that day. The whole episode was bizarre and I cannot but think that he was trying to scam me.
I was lucky to make it onto my flight from Aberdeen - it turned out that my flight was the only one to make it to Heathrow that day, despite it being delayed by a couple of hours. Once at Heathrow, the travel nightmare continued as I was told that I had missed my flight and would need to queue for a couple of hours to make alternative flight arrangements. However, eagle-eyed Joep noticed that my original flight had not yet left and that the gate had in fact reopened!! I told this to some BA ground staff (not the most capable of people it transpired) who told me that I would still have to stand in line for another couple of hours. This would guarantee that I would miss my plane. Fortunately, my conversation was overheard by a supervisor who got onto her radio and checked whether the information I had received form my dad was correct or not. After having this information confirmed, I was ushered through the security gates and into the departure lounge. The whole journey was still hanging by a thread but progress was being made. My main concern at this stage was that my case would be lost in the confusion - not uncommon at Heathrow by all accounts.
I hung around the airport and spent an extravagant amount of money on coffee and sandwiches until we were finally allowed to board the aircraft. Great! I just wanted the journey to be over as soon as possible and to enjoy the final few days of my holiday back in Tokyo. However, due to the ice on the runway and on the wings of the aircraft, we had to sit inside the sweltering plane for a further 5 hours of misery. The delay was caused by a shortage of deicing liquid to remove ice from the wings of the plane. Due to the delay, the flight crew had to be changed as they would breach their maximum permitted cockpit time had they flown to Tokyo. The stress of delay and the heat in the aircraft led to a few on the female passengers loosing their cool shedding a few tears.
In the end, I made it back to Tokyo with the added bonus that my case was the first to hit the carrousel at Narita Airport. My time spent in Scotland was great and enjoyed meeting up with the family and friends. Great to see Mark, my parents and grandmother again, really enjoyed meeting Neil a few times for beers, and loved the winter scenery!!!
[Note: Sorry this post is a bit rough and ready. I haven't proof read it yet and I will want to tidy a few things up. Hopefully I will be able to tidy it up later in the week].
