Okay, My first Rant - 4 June 2009

Okay, so let’s be frank, I cannot fathom how people around here live with the whole 5 day thing! I know I am not known to have incredible patience, but goodness! So we still have no internet. We got our long awaited modem on Tuesday (5 business days from the day we ordered net) and it gets here and the modem is dead………….doesn’t not work! Has NO power! I mean really……….come on, if you are going to make people wait 5 business days then at least check your equipment before you send it. Anyway, I call the lovely people at the phone company to let them know that the modem doesn’t work and after going through a series of things I have already done (to appease them), the guy tells me that “it seems you got a faulty modem”. You think?!?! And then he tells me they will send me out a new one, and he tells me I should get it in about 5 business days. He was apologetic but really………….come on! Apparently they’ve never heard of sending stuff any other way than by Royal Mail, which is what takes that long. As much as it’s wearing on my nerves, there’s nothing I can do so I thank the man for helping me and hang up. Unfortunately those of you that are reading this, get to hear my rant. Sorry! I wanted to scream into the phone to the guy that the internet is my connection to “home” and that I have bills to pay and other things to do online that I can only do online from “across the pond”. I did not say a word though, just thanked him and carried on. We’ve learned that most conversations here really are recorded and if you carry on and rant and rave to people on the phone, here they can use that recording to charge you with assault. I can see it now………………

“Mrs. Bartulla, can you please explain to the court why you screamed at the lovely lade at the phone company when he was only trying to do his job”. My response……………. “My most honest explanation is that I am American and I was not wired to have this kind of patience when you are delaying my connection to “home”.” I’ll be sure to send you all my address from jail! LOL

It’s turned rather cold this week. Jeff helped me out this morning by telling when the weather was on that 20 C is 70 F and that 0 C is freezing, which should be what we consider 32 F. That being said, we are probably around 17 C today and suppose to be around 12 or 13 C tomorrow. And as I was shaking in bed last night trying to get warm Jeff tells me that the weather we experienced the past couple of weeks, sunny and around 75 F is rare and that the weather we are about to get is what we are most likely going to have for the next several weeks. I am already thinking my winter months will be spent inside huddled up to a radiator unless my blood thickens a lot between now and then. The good news is Jeff seems to think we’ll be fully acclimated in about a year which means just in time to leave! LOL Just kidding!

Riding the Bus - 1 June 2009

Yesterday we decided to live like a lot of the Scots and take the bus to Aberdeen. I’ve been wanting to take the bus just because there’s a bus stop right by the house and the public transportation system is suppose to be top notch here. And since we don’t have the Yukon yet, I would like to be able to take the bus on occasion. So we called yesterday morning to find out what time the bus will be by this particular stop. We weren’t sure exactly which bus stop this one is by the house so we gave the lady an estimate of how far it is from Inverbervie (the closest town to our house). She told us on Sundays the bus comes by this area every two hours and that it would be by around 1:00, 3:00, etc. So we decided we could make the 1:00 bus and we set out to get to the end of the road to the bus stop around 12:50. As we were walking up the hill Jeff could see the bus pass by on the roadway ahead. We were optimistic though, hoping there was another bus in the next 10 minutes but we knew we were wrong. It was about 12:45 when we seen the bus pass by. So needless to say, we missed the bus. But we knew there would be another one in two hours so we went back to the bus stop at 2:30, to make sure we wouldn’t miss it. We waited and the bus came, but not until nearly 3:00. But what we found out was that the bus was running about 10 minutes late at that time. We also found out that the bus really isn’t as economically as we thought. For us to go about 10 miles down the road was 5.30 each, one way and then we had to pay another 5.30 each to come back. It was really cool though, a nice bus and very scenic route on the bus. Of course you go through every little stop along the way but the buses only stop if there is someone at the stop or you indicate by the stop button that you need to get off there. Still it took us about an hour to go that 10 miles. But I can see me doing that during the week, if I needed to go to the market for a few things. People sat on the bus, reading, listening to ipods, etc. It was really kind of quiet though and it was pretty neat being able to see the country side and the coast as we rode to the market. It took about an hour to get there, then we spent about an hour at the market and then it took about an hour to get home. Not too bad really. We were going to have dinner out while we were out and about but we realized that the place we go to the market at doesn’t really have anything open on Sundays to eat at.
While we were at the market I got some sour candy. I love sour candy but this stuff was the sourest stuff I have EVER eaten. I swear it’s like nothing we have in the states! Made me pucker up good and I even had to have a drink to wash it down. LOL I looked at the package and it said it was super sour stripy strips. I’ll say!

In Stonehaven there’s a place called Chocolate Monkey. So what would you think that was? I looked in the window as we walked by and it’s a hair salon!!! I told Jeff I think I should start getting my hair cut at Chocolate Monkey. LOL

This weekend I am going to make my way back to Union Street (downtown Aberdeen). I want to get my cell phone as soon as I get my bank card and can “qualify” for it. And I need to get a birthday present and I also want to see about going to a pharmacy to get some vitamins, etc. Jeff is leaving to go offshore today. So if he’s not back this weekend I am going to take the bus to Union Street and do some shopping. I’m looking forward to going back to Union Street. It’s really pretty neat.

And later this week, once I have net I am going to look into us going to Edinburgh in August. My friend Catherine, from Sheffield is going to Edinburgh in August with her dad for an event. We want to try and meet up, so Jeff and I thought it would be fun to go spend the weekend in Edinburgh and see some sights, etc.
We are due for a cold front this week. Seems it will be cold again this week. It’s been really nice the past several days though. It’s been around 26 degrees Celsius and we are suppose to get down to 17 degrees Celsius this weekend. Of course I have no idea what that is in Fahrenheit. So when I figure that out, I’ll let ya know. LOL

Fantastic views - 30 May 2009

Still not feeling fantastic, but feeling better. Jeff is sick too, so no doubt we think it’s our bodies not being use to the allergies and dust, mold and everything else around here. Moss grows on almost everything around here and while it’s really not terrible, I don’t think we are use to it. We decided today to order an air purifier, see if that won’t help us out a little.

Since we are feeling a little better today we decided to take a walk down the road and get a little fresh air. It’s a beautiful day here. Very sunny but a little chilly. It’s very hard for us to tell the temperature all around because we are in a valley, so it might seem perfectly calm here and a little warm and then you walk up the hill and it’s cold and windy. But it’s really nice today, even on the hill. I think I’ve mentioned that we live near Benholm Mill. On our walk today we found a house; its right behind our house and guarded by a wall, so we’ve never seen it before now. It’s practically ruins now but someone has taken a great deal of effort to try and keep what’s left standing, standing. Benholm is very small, but there’s a castle here, near the mill. We plan to walk over there soon, take a picture of it and I’ll write more about it. As we were walking the road behind the house we could see rolling hills all over. There looks to be a wheat field not far from our house too. And some other crop on the other side of the road, but we couldn’t tell what it was yet. I think the path will be a good place for me to take daily walks. It’s uphill going away from the house. We got to a point and got ready to turn around to walk about and as we turned around I realized we could see the ocean! So basically you walk one way, rolling hills of Scotland and you walk the other way and you can see the ocean. Absolutely beautiful and breath taking, all at the same time! I’m still in awe sometimes thinking about the fact we are actually in Scotland. I don’t think it’s fully sunk in. The walk did a lot of good for both of us, getting the fresh air.

The Rolling Hills on the Road behind the House

The view looking toward the ocean

The ocean is the dark blue to the left, rolling hills to the right

We went to Montrose the other day, just took the drive along the coastal road and enjoyed the view. We came across a place that grows asparagus. I picked up asparagus at the store the other day and its real inexpensive here. It was 1 pound for a bundle. The bundles are a little smaller than ours but that’s really a great price. I’ve been looking at everything that we buy to see where it’s grown. A lot of the veggies are grown here and there are things like avocados that are grown in South Africa and sent here. But several things I have bought I am finding that they are grown locally and I guess that’s why the prices are so low. So last night I pan seared some asparagus and Jeff grilled a couple steaks on the grill. We’ve been buying disposable grills. Yes, disposable grills. They have these little grills that are all the charcoal and all inside and you light it and then grill and throw it all away when you are done. We’ve decided though that we really want a grill that burns charcoal, so we are going to order a grill. We tried to order it today but the one he wants is out of stock. So maybe next week.

We got prawns the other day too (shrimp) and we got some wheat pasta that is spinach and garlic flavored pasta. It must seem I talk about food a lot but I am really enjoying finding the things they have here and I can’t wait to get our full shipment when I have all my cooking stuff and I can make some really neat meals. I am limited by the dishes and pans I have right now.

So tonight I am going to make the prawns and wheat pasta for dinner.

Jeff’s job got delayed a little, so he’s likely going out tomorrow or the following day. And we should get internet next week and also get Sky satellite.

American TV and Mexican Food - 28 May 2009

Well I’ve managed to get sick already. I actually think I have a sinus infection from the dust that was about when I cleaned the other day. There’s a lot to be said for our ceiling fans in Texas. At least we keep things moving around. Jeff and I definitely think we’ll get a couple of air purifiers. I feel a little better this afternoon but was miserable last night.

Yesterday we went to the bank in Stonehaven, which is probably about 10 miles from our house. It’s right on the ocean and we found a little tea room that serves breakfast and lunch. They had this patio and on the patio you can see the truly blue ocean and it’s really quite a view! There was a ship anchored out that looked like a relic, really like the ships you would have seen in the 1800’s. It was really neat. We had lunch on the patio, that is until the rain came. But we did enjoy it and while it was a bit chilly, it was really nice prior to the rain. Rain comes in waves here and one minute it will be cool and breezy, sunny and the next it will get overcast and rain and cool down a bit more. Then 20 minutes later, it’s passed and the sun is shining again. As we say in Texas, if you don’t like the weather, wait 10 minutes, it’ll change. ;) Anyway, we both had an “American burger” and fries. There are a lot of fish and chips around, much like Mexican food or hamburger places in Texas. It’s typically fish and chips, Indian food or pizza. At least that’s what I’ve seen so far. The other big thing is toastiest (basically a grilled sandwich of some sort) and soup. Lentil soup is very popular around here. The burger was good and the fries are real home cut fries, not the frozen ones you see at your typical fast food place. There is Pizza Hut, Burger King and McDonalds here. I’ve not had any of it yet but I have seen them.

The Tea Room where we seen the relic ship

Today, after I started feeling better I tried my hand at baking a small cake. We don’t have a traditional oven like I am use to in the States and everything in is Celsius. So I am learning still and basically we have a confection oven. And everything is measured in pints and milliliters. So I figured a cake was an inexpensive way to try out the oven, figure out how it works and then go from there. I used the “fan oven” and it worked okay. I think it will take a lot of practice to get something to turn out the way I think it should. And tonight for dinner I am making tacos. I made homemade pica de gallo. Which you know, they don’t have cilantro here, so it’s minus the cilantro and so it’s not near as good as I think it should be, but in a pinch, it works. I did find flour tortillas and corn tortillas, go figure and they actually have Old El Paso products here, so I got refried beans and taco seasons. Jeff hasn’t had anything close to Mexican food since he got here, so I figured that would be a bit of comfort food before he goes offshore again.

We don’t have Sky TV yet, which is their satellite and has the most American channels on it. But we have cable right now and Sky will be hooked up next week. Today I flipped through the channels and have found some American shows. They have The Simpsons, and they play re-runs of Smallville, One Tree Hill, CSI and a few older shows that aren’t even on the air anymore like Gilmore Girls. And the other night when we were channel surfing we found Desperate Housewives and it was the episode from the season finale. They are a few weeks behind us on their shows. Sorry this isn’t more exciting today. I’m really not up to snuff today. Hopefully I’ll feel better tomorrow!

Feeling a little under the weather - 27 May, 2009

Another picture of Aberdeen city centre

Jeff and I both have managed to get a little under the weather. Sore throats and such. We think it might be because of allergies and different climate. And this house, I cleaned and cleaned the other day and vacuumed over and over. They don’t clean places up here like they do at home when you first rent a place. So the carpet was less than desirable when I vacuumed the first time and since we’ve been sleeping on the floor practically, I am thinking that’s what made us both sick. We are starting to feel a little better though and I am hoping that cleaning this place up helped us both.

We had porridge (aka oatmeal) for breakfast this morning. We hit the grocery store last night to stock up for the week and I was really having a hard time figuring out what some stuff was and what they call it here. For instance cream cheese is called soft cheese and I’m not quite sure yet what they call sour cream. What I do know is that sometimes you can tell just by the package because like they have Lays potato chips here but they are called Walkers but you can tell because the logo is the exact same and so are the colors, just for some reason they are named something different here. Several things are that way. But I’m learning. When we checked out last night the guy was kind of laughing at us because of all the groceries we had. They just aren’t use to seeing that much stuff bought at one time. And Jeff and I had a hard time getting it all in the little fridge. They don’t have a lot of preservatives here, so things go bad rather quickly. They mostly only buy 2 days of food at a time. But we managed to get a weeks worth and think we can manage that without anything going bad.

I drove home last night from the market. Jeff feels like I need to learn now, in case something happens and I need to drive and he’s not around, etc. I was a little intimidated because they drive so fast here and very aggressive. But I think I did okay. It was a right hand drive with standard transmission and I thought shifting with my left would be the oddest part to over come but really it’s not. At least not for me. The hardest thing for me was being able to judge the curb on the left since I’m not right by it and getting adjusted to looking to my left for the review mirror. I’m just not use to doing that at all. I almost hit the curb once, because I just can’t seem to judge well enough to stay away from it yet. But I’m learning. I think when the Yukon gets here it won’t be bad at all since I will be driving on the left side of the car. I have seen some bigger vehicles on the roads and the biggest obstacle I have seen so far will be in the smaller towns where people park on the street and its only two lane road. I’ll have to stop and let people pass by in the other direction before I can move on.

The water here is really very different and having ice is kind of unheard of around here. You can buy ice trays but you really don’t need them. The water comes out of the tap ice cold and it’s like drinking spring water. Guys won’t get this part so skip on down……….but the girls will. It’s like washing your hair in spring water every day. It’s GREAT on my hair and I love it. The only thing I am not keen on, it’s kind of stripping the color from my hair.

Guys can pick up from here………..LOL. The water is so cold that in the toilet………..if you get the bathroom warm enough, you actual have condensation on the tank where the water is stored because it’s so much colder than the room. It’s so bizarre! LOL

I’ll leave ya on that note!

Adjusting - 25 May, 2009

Still no internet. They tell us we should get the equipment by June 2nd and then we can get online as soon as we get the equipment set up. I’m hopeful we’ll get the equipment sooner. But we will see.

Jeff and I got a coffee pot! Yay! And of course I brought a big bag of Dunkin Donuts coffee with me in the air shipment, so we could have coffee. So we have had coffee and eggs, with rashers (aka bacon) each morning. Bacon here, if you get what they call bacon reminds me a little of Canadian bacon or something along those lines. Rashers are the skinnier slices of bacon that we are use too. And apparently their version of bacon is better for you, healthier I guess than rashers. But we are use to rashers and since I’m not a big fan of ham and their bacon is like ham to me more than bacon………..we have rashers! ;)

Today is Memorial Day there; here it’s a Bank Holiday, which is basically what they consider a day that the banks, post office, etc is closed. I have no idea if it’s a holiday here or not and to be frank it seems like they have a bank holiday about every other Monday or so. That’s probably an exaggeration but I do know that in the past two months they have had at least 3 bank holidays and me, nor Jeff have figured out what they are closed for other than just being a “bank holiday”.

Since our sea shipment is still weeks away from arriving we don’t always have a car. Sometimes we rent a car, other times Jeff uses a truck from work, when it’s available and when we have neither (which hasn’t occurred since I’ve been here yet) we will have to take the bus, taxi’s etc. But we live far enough out that a taxi is really not feasible, however the bus runs right by the house. So I am guessing one day this week I will start to learn how to use the bus system here. Which as many of you know, public transportation is a way of life here, much safer than in the States! On the road that we live on, real close to the house actually, is Benholm Mill. It’s kind of what started the town we live in or the area really. We live in Benholm but it’s between Montrose and Inverbervie (In va burvee and you say the last part really fast) so since they are so close together (literally) we sometimes are referred to in computer systems and such as living in Montrose but we consider it Inverbervie but so far, no one says we live in Benholm, though our address is just that. And here in Benholm you don’t have a street number……..your house has a name………that’s how they know where you live. So we live at the Brigview house. So when someone asks for your address they will ask for your area code which is basically your zip code and then they will verify that its Montrose area, which we say yes and then they will ask what house we live in and we tell them Brigview and they pretty much have our address then. Very different! Could you imagine if we all had house names in the States or even in the smaller towns and no street numbers?

Front of our House - Brigview

See the sign with the house name on it?

So anyway, since we don’t have the Yukon yet, and we need to return the rental car tomorrow, we’ll go to the store tonight and get stuff for the week so that we won’t need to go to the co-op (that’s the little grocery store in Inverbervie) until this weekend. But I will be very glad when we get the Yukon, though I am dreading having to drive it on the little roads around here. Of course the roundabouts scare me more than anything! It’s so confusing, on top of driving on the left hand side of the road! I have seen a few cars (not many though) that were obviously imports and the steering wheel is on the left hand side. Jeff says I have to learn to drive this week though, so that when we do have a car I can drive. So I guess tonight I will attempt to drive the rental car, even though it’s a standard and a right hand drive. Should be interesting………so I’ll write more later or tell you tomorrow how that went.
And I’m doing laundry again today while Jeff is getting some work done at the office. Okay let me tell you about the washing machines and dryers here. First off everything is compact! So with the washing machine you can realistically only fit probably 3 pairs of jeans in a washing machine and nothing else. Towels about the same. And everything is eco friendly and has an eco-friendly setting. I’m not quite sure what that does or what it means other than maybe it conserves energy. But the dryer blows my mind! The dryer doesn’t work like our traditional dryers do and it takes MUCH longer to dry. Which makes no sense to me; you would think that it would be better to have a dryer that dries quickly to be more efficient. However, most people don’t have dryers either; they use a whirly gate which is those circular clothes lines. And yes, we have one but so far, I’ve never used it. I have thought about drying towels out there, but just haven’t yet. Anyway, back to the dryer. Okay so when you are drying clothes it somehow absorbs the moisture out of the clothes and it puts it in this container inside the face of the dyer. And it’s a tank that you literally pull out and dump the water out of when it gets to full. And just so you have an idea how full it can get, the tank is actually rather long, I would say probably a little more than 12” long and its probably 3” deep and it will fill up just from drying a set of queen size sheets and before they are even dry! And that’s how the dryers work! They absorb the moisture out of the clothes and it drains it into this tank and you empty the tank when it’s full and you just keep tumbling the clothes until they are “dry”. And everyone here is very efficient and very eco friendly, but I must admit, I really don’t understand how that’s doesn’t use more energy than the way we dry clothes. Because you still are tumbling these clothes. And it will take like 2 hours to dry 3 pairs of jeans. I’ll keep you posted on how much our electric bill is! LOL
One nice thing though………..well at least right now anyway………….we have no a/c and it’s like its 70 degrees in the house almost all the time. You actually open blinds and curtains to get some heat in the house or turn up the radiators so that the house warms up. And they only use fans in the winter time……..to circulate the heat in the house. They are considered a seasonal item that you can mainly only get in the winter, unless you go to B & G (which is Home Depot here. Same colors and same brands like Homelite). We know this because we bought an osculating fan this week too. ;)

Castle Hunting - 24 May, 2009

It’s been an eventful couple of days. Jeff and I decided yesterday that we would go out and do the “touristy” thing. Our first stop was business though, get me put on the checking account and get cell phones then we were going to go castle “hunting”. Little did we know that going to the bank and to get a cell would take the better part of a day! We went to Union Street, which is the heart of Aberdeen is probably very similar to Times Square in New York. They have a mall there and it’s super busy and people walk everywhere it seems. Anyway, the bank and cell phones took longer than we expected. Here we are learning to get anything accomplished; it will take “five days”. That’s the answer we get to EVERYTHING! To add me to the account that Jeff already has………….takes 5 days! To get my pin number for a check card, takes 5 days and to get the card takes another 5 days. To get broadband hooked up at the house, takes another 5 days, not to mention that when the guy came out to actually hook up the line was a 5 day wait and you have to get that done before you can get broadband. Needless to say, we are learning. We are also learning they don’t use check cards the same way we do. You walk up to a place to pay and you put your card in this machine and you still have to use a pin number to pay. Very few places actually take the card and can swipe it or put in the number. And our cards here don’t work as well, because we don’t have chips in our cards. So my advice to anyone that is thinking about coming to visit us………….bring cash or be prepared to go to ATM’s and pay the fee to get money out. Sorry………it’s quite a pain.

Oh and among the many things I learn each day, I learned yesterday that the women here that are “housewives” consider it an insult to call them housewives and would rather be considered “unemployed” (which was explained to me by the bank guy because I put housewife on my application form) and I’ve also learned that they don’t call wheat bread “wheat” here. If you ask for wheat they think you are asking for white because of the accent and so when I ordered my sandwich yesterday and ask for wheat bread, I got white. Jeff says they call it brown bread. So when you order a sandwich you order either brown bread or white bread. I ask him about other breads like rye, pumpernickel, etc and he said that so far he’s not seen that kind of bread. So I had a sandwich yesterday on white bread, since I ordered wheat. LOL

Downtown Aberdeen at Union Street

Church on Union Street and there's a cemetery in front of it

So anyway, after that we decided since it was raining and the day was nearly gone that we would go to the big ASDA (aka Walmart). Its two stories, has a parking garage outside of it. It’s truly the oddest thing I have ever seen! Groceries are down stairs and things like household goods and clothes are upstairs. To get from upstairs to down stairs there is an escalator and the wheels have a magnet on it so you can push the cart onto the escalator and it locks it in place. So anyway, we went there and got a few things. Oh and FYI, I seen a guy wearing a kilt in the grocery store!!! ;) On our way out of the ASDA I saw a place where you can ski! Yes………..it’s like this manmade slope that you can ski on and of course it’s not real snow, not this time of year. Pretty nifty. Maybe one day I’ll have to be adventurous and try it out.

So today, since we didn’t get to go yesterday, we made it a point today to go castle hunting. We went to a castle right by the house. Called Dunnottar Castle. Really beautiful day for it! The wind was blowing and it was a little cold but it was sunny. Most famously known for having a small garrison that held out against the might of Cromwell’s Army for eight months and saved the Scottish Crown Jewels, the ‘Honours of Scotland’ from destruction. It’s mostly ruins now, at least from the inside of the grounds. Truly a site to see though and its beautiful. It’s right by our house too, so we figure that it will be nice place to visit often. It sits on a flat rock right on the ocean and it’s quite a hike to get from the main grounds to the castle itself. We definitely got some exercise yesterday. We packed a picnic (in the cool picnic backpack that BWR co-workers got us………..thanks SO much) and we sat on a cliff overlooking the castle and had lunch. I was completely in awe! After lunch we made our way down to the castle and went inside. We got a brochure so we could read all about it. While we were walking around the inside of the castle grounds I could hear bagpipes! I looked at Jeff and we were about to decide that it was a recording that they were playing until we looked over at the grounds of the mainland before you make your way down to the castle and seen a man wearing a kilt and playing bagpipes! J I was deeply disappointed though because by the time we got back up that way from our tour he was gone! I told Jeff though that I am determined when we go back to visit the grounds again to see him and get a picture! ;) We will go back too because not far from there is memorial for the Scottish soldiers that died in both world wars and from the castle you can hike over and it’s about a mile probably. It’s hard to tell because it’s a path that goes up and down and around, so it might be much further than that. But we are going to do that one day when we just want to enjoy the weather. I did take a picture of it from the road, when the zoom lens though. Of course the only access to it is to walk that path, that we know of.

The Memorial for the soldiers of the World Wars

Dunnottar Castle

There are so many castles around, we thought maybe it might be fun to try and see one castle a weekend, when the weather is good until we’ve seen them all or we are plan wore out from seeing castles. I told Jeff I would imagine after about 10 castles your frame of mind is if you’ve seen one castle, you’ve seen them all! But we’ll see.