Autumn in Aberdeenshire

I am taking full advantage of this being my last autumn in Aberdeenshire for quite a while.  Our plan has always been to use up our holidays whilst in Singapore on seeing places we'd never seen before, so although I love this corner of the world, I wont be visiting for a little while.  

Although I've moaned about moving about so much in such a short space of time, most of the places we've lived in have been wonderful.  It's quite odd that this place is the cheapest of them all and its the 4 Star hotel.  We're in quite a predicament living in Aberdeen where hotels, even the worst of the worst, are expensive and you have to normally go over thirty miles out of town to get a place that will accept pets.  

When we thought we'd have to move down to Exeter for a little while we found loads and loads of lovely, inexpensive places that would accept Daisy dog.  However, we are here and I am making the most of it!

I love my walks with Daisy around the grounds.  We've been walking around the perimeter of the gardens, and then down to the walled garden.  There are still lots of apples on the trees and I'm finding lots of good conkers.

It's not all rest and relaxation though.  Today we managed to get some sweets to our old neighbours and visit my friends parents.  The weather turned horrible in the afternoon so we had to fly about the countryside in torrential rain.  My friend Catherine lives on the other side of the country, so seeing as we can't get there to drop of presents, and seeing as I thought I would be visiting and therefore bought heavy things it worked out quite well we could go visiting.  We bought some cakes from the baker and headed out to their cosy home.  Daisy came along too of course and played with their dogs and then we took them all out together.

I stayed chatting for longer than I should have as we had to rush back to the hotel as I was meeting Natalie and Holly there for afternoon tea.  I was glad they were able to see the hotel, but it was such a pity the weather had turned so awful.  The afternoon tea was actually not at all like it was the first time and such a disappointment.  It was so different, plain and made up of leftovers from breakfast.

Although it was upsetting that I had invited people to a place I thought would be nice and it was not, the afternoon was so lovely.  Holly gave me a wooden westie ornament and a really nice card.  Mark got a whiskey glass and some traditional Scottish cookery books (although I do think they'll be handed to be with bookmarks in them).

When I get back to Aberdeen I am looking forward to getting all my muddy clothes cleaned and looking good.  The one bad thing about hotels is that I can't just get my laundry done and all this walking has left me looking like a tatty scarecrow!

Pit and Peak

This is my last week of working in the UK for hopefully two years.  I am going to miss the amazing people I have had the pleasure to meet here but I will hopefully see a lot of them again, or at the very least stay in touch on-line.  This has been such a difficult Pit and Peak to write.

Pit

• Saying goodbye to people and winding up all of the work that I've been doing for ages, I'm just not part of it any more.  I've mostly been tidying things up and trying to stay busy whilst also allowing plenty of time to chat to all the well-wishers that pass my desk!  I have loved this job more than any other and am finding it so hard to say goodbye to everyone.
• Not staying up to date with my other blog and posting all of my lovely gifts I received in a very well organised Halloween Swap.  I have been rubbish at posting to it and feel bad for neglecting something I put so much energy into at the very start five years ago.  I have so many  happy memories that I can recollect from a single picture or post title, but I keep feeling sad knowing that time keeps on marching by and things are changing.
• Knowing that the gorgeous weather we are experiencing is the last I will have of autumn and winter for a long time.  I love these seasons more than any other, and in this part of Scotland it is already frosty in the morning.  We are living in a really pretty part of town and I love walking around it early morning and late evening with Daisy dog and feeling how cold it is.

Peak

•       Having a totally fabulous leaving drinks with some of the best people I have ever met and that I have been lucky enough to work with.  It has been amazing and I am already missing these people more than ever.
•        Having a wonderful send off at work and eating too much at the buffet that was put on right behind my desk. 
•              Getting a beautiful ‘Sorry you’re Leaving’ card with so many kind and thoughtful things in it.  Lots of ‘in-jokes’ and funny stories that people out with our office just wouldn't find funny.
•         This one is kind of for next week, but I am so looking forward to staying in the beautiful Pittodrie House Hotel again, I love where we are living at the moment, but nothing can compare to the amazing service at my new second favourite hotel!

First Day of Being a Housewife

***OK, first of all...I just need to explain one thing....I do own more clothes, they are just being shipped to Singapore, or are being taken away to be kept in storage in the UK.  This is not because I am already flunking being a housewife and can't keep up with the washing!***

This is my very well documented day of being a housewife.  Home-maker duties, I'm sure, are very, very difficult.  However, right now I am having an amazing time.  My very first day of being a housewife included me sleeping in, having a leisurely breakfast, going for a long walk with Daisy around the hills of Bennachie, coming home for a nap, and then picking my dinner! 

Luckily we're allowed to keep Daisy in the drawing room as long as she is well behaved!  "Come on Daisy, show them how good you are...how well I trained you...."

Cosy soup, definitely what I need after a very long and tiring day as a home maker (just with no home yet)

My Last Day

I am so sad to say that I have just had my last day of work.  A big buffet was put on right behind my desk and I chatted for way too long to my manager-the best manager I have ever met/worked for.  I was very kindly given $120 for Singapore as well as many sweet emails.  To say that I was a bit teary on my way to the hotel for the weekend is an understatement.  I only joined this team 18 months ago and have so many happy memories here.  I really think that I have been a bit spoiled by working in such a friendly place, lets hope my next employer will be as kind.

I had to catch my old train and Mark would pick me up from the station like when we lived in Culsalmond.  He would then drive us to the hotel a couple of miles away.  The whole way to Insch I was wiping away tears on the very crowded train while carrying everything from my desk as well as a comically oversized leaving card.  It was so dark outside of the train the windows only reflected the inside of the train, so when I was attempting to hide I was merely weeping into a mirror!
After all of this moving about it is good to be looked after sometimes!

The hotel was better than I remembered and I even got to hang up some of the Halloween bunting I had received in a Halloween Swap with my swap partner on my other blog.  We had a most delicious supper in the cosy drawing room and Daisy once again had some fillet steak and steak burger as Mark and I both wanted to share our portions with her.

Girls Night

One of the best and worst things about leaving is a leaving party.  Parties are great, just too bad that after an eventful secret spilling evening we won’t see each other again.  I had the best time with some of the best girls I know, drinking cocktails, talking girl talk and eating as well as eventually walking each other home in the early hours on a work night….

So British

If someone asks my nationality I tell them I am Scottish as I have Scottish traits like wanting a blether as well as being super proud of my identity and history, however I do think most of my traits mean I am so British.  I like to think of myself as polite and well mannered (with only a few episodes of high maintenance every month or so…) and I drink copious amounts of tea and use sorry to mean almost anything.  I have a very dry sense of humour and I can’t say ‘great!’ without sounding sarcastic or tell the truth to hairdressers when I hate what they’ve done.  I reply to Doctors asking how I feel by saying “Fine thank you, and how are you?”, and yet I don’t expect a reply (or really want to bother them by being there).   

Because of all of this I’ve been trying to read up on the culture of Singapore and learn about Singaporean traits, so far I’ve only found a few things like never to think the tissue packet at a café is rubbish and move it and to give business cards with two hands.  Marks been to KL before and said that if Singapore is anything like it we will feel cold when we go indoors as the air-con blasts frosty air as soon as you step into a shopping centre or cinema (note to self: don’t throw out all warm clothes).

From Coming to America Blog

I’m a bit worried that I won’t have a clue what people say if they speak Singlish (and I will do the terribly polite British thing of smiling, nodding and not being able to ask if they can repeat it..)  But what I am excited about is being able to see so many different cultures and religions all in one place.  I really want to try and see as much as I can and if that means a party all the better!        

I also don’t want to quickly move out

I was reading that people who do better at being expats have the following traits:

Extroversion

·         Is talkative;

·         generates a lot of enthusiasm.

Agreeableness  

·         is generally trusting; and

·         is helpful and unselfish with others.

Conscientiousness  

·         perseveres until the task is finished; and

·         is a reliable worker.

Emotional stability

·         is relaxed, handles stress well; and

·         remains calm in tense situations.

Openness

·         has an active imagination; and

·         is original, comes up with new ideas.

I’m pretty sure that between the two of us Mark and I can cover this lot.  I’ve also been trying to find out about culture shock, but all of the graphs I see just look plain distressing…who wants to see something that goes South so many times?  Or is that my ‘excited’ phase?

Before the Next Move

Source

After Friday being so gloomy and rainy all day long I wasn’t looking forward to the weekend as much as I should have been.  I had been itching to get outside on Saturday and ended up exploring our new area (having moved once again, back into serviced apartments this time).  Its in an area of town called Mannofield which is full of very pretty houses which were starting to get decorated for Halloween.



Mark had been a little bit poorly so wanted to stay at home and have a little nap, but Daisy and I went out and about.  I had an idea in my head that I wanted to walk over to Hazlehead Park as I hadn’t been there for so long and I roughly knew how to get there so off we went.

Daisy did very well on such a long walk for a little dog with short legs.  She had a snuffle about the houses going up over the hill and then ran along a little path we took which led from Johnston Gardens to Walker Dam.  We walked along the back of houses and that path led out to the playing fields at the park.

By this time Daisy was dragging her little paws every so often, but cheered right up when I took her off her lead.  She threw herself into the leaves happily as I walked along beside her.

One of the (very few) good things about moving about so much is finding new areas that are really beautiful in our own home town.  I don’t know if we ever are coming back to Aberdeen to live, but I feel like if we do we will be able to cast a larger net over places to call home.