“Quine and Loon”
David arrived in Stewarton on Sunday evening in time for some of my Mum’s yummy steak pie. Diana found the two of us waiting patiently in anticipation of the pie quite entertaining for some reason.
We enjoyed breakfast at the Millhouse on Monday morning, prior to David driving us up to Aberdeen in what’s known as a “Duber” service (David’s Uber). We gave him a very good rating. The Millhouse is much nicer than when I visited the previous discotheque incarnation more than 35 years ago. The 4 hour drive (with a pleasant stop for coffee) concluded just in time for us to ooh and aah over the amazing rural views from Elspeth and David’s home before the early sunset.
That’s the Bennachie mountain range in the distance, and the highest peak, Mither Tap at 1,732 feet, on the left. How would you like to enjoy that view from your kitchen every day? A website says it should take about 2.5 hours to climb Mither Tap. I asked David how long it took him – about an hour – sounds pretty typical of the speed he moves.
David’s younger sister, Suzanne, and her family arrived shortly after us on Friday afternoon. They came even further than us – all the way from Brisbane, Australia. It was funny to watch David looking down the road and judging the size and speed of each car to determine if it could possibly be Suzanne. When they arrived, Suzanne said she knew she was at the right house because she saw the way David was walking through the window. It was a real treat to meet the entire Ruff family of Suzanne, Alan, Rebecca, Izzy (Isabelle), and Alex.
From the left: Izzy, Alex, Michael, Heather, Struan, Rebecca, Bramble in the foreground
David was a good sport and took the girls out to enjoy the night sky from the hot tub.
The Ruffs headed off to the Lecht Ski Center on Monday morning, in search of some snow for the girls – not much of that in Australia. David took us to an excellent coffee shop – the Coffee Apothecary near Pitmedden, a short drive from the house.
The coffee selection and presentation were great, as was the chicken liver pate. What a nice feature to have such an excellent place close by in such a rural setting.
After coffee and a snack, it was Bramble’s time to have some fun. Who’s Bramble? Sorry – the latest addition to David and Elspeth’s family, a red Labrador retriever. David took us to Fyvie castle to give her a good run. Another pet seemed to sneak in on the adventure – that crazy baby penguin certainly gets around.
Here’s a video of the exercise routine. It helps when Bramble keeps an eye on the ball all the way to hitting the ground. Diana survived a direct hit on the noggin with the tennis ball from the launcher shortly after this video was made.
Tuesday was a quiet and relaxing day. David, Suzanne, Bramble and I went for a walk around the neighbourhood. I wasn’t expecting to be doing quite as much “off-roading” through mud and long grass. Wind power is popular in Scotland, with turbines seen all over the landscape. We passed under a set used to power the ice cream making operation at Mackie’s farm, next door to Bonnyview.
Our hike lasted about an hour and we had worked up a good appetite by the time we finished. Meanwhile, the rest of the crew was working their way slowly through a Christmas jigsaw puzzle. I’ll spoil the excitement and let you know that the puzzle was ultimately completed on Boxing Day afternoon. I hate to think how many man and woman hours were invested.
We expected an early start on Christmas Day with the young girls in the house. They were exceptionally patient, and even waited through breakfast before heading to the living room to open presents. There were lots of fun presents for everyone. Here’s McD with one of the stuffed trophy heads we received from Elspeth and David. Aren’t they hilarious? They did generate some interest on the trip home as they peeked out from Diana’s carry on bag, even getting the once over by the Dallas customs team.
The girls enjoyed the colouring book, pens and charm bracelet kit that Diana picked out for them.
Elspeth, David and Heather worked very hard on a delicious Christmas dinner. From the prawn and smoked salmon starter, through turkey with all possible fixings, through to Christmas cake and pudding (thanks Mum), everything was perfect.
The hilarity level went up a bit after dinner with board game time. We played several rounds of a game, the name of which I can’t remember now, where you had to describe a thing without using the word. The teams were evenly matched and so we kept having to play another deciding game.
That was followed up with a game of Cranium. I enjoy the variety and silliness of this game – everything from clay modeling, to charades, to blindfolded Pictionary. I was disappointed that nobody could guess my puppeteer work as I had Suzanne demonstrating how to milk a cow. It’s really lovely to see everyone laughing and having so much fun.
The Ruffs left early on Thursday morning. Not really that early to give David a good excuse for wearing his pajamas out to close the gate after them.
David and I used our time in the afternoon to coach Michael through enhancing a picture that we had jokingly titled the “Elf on the Shelf”. I shared this with Brent, who in typical clever fashion, suggested “impaired on the stairs”.
We drove to the nearest decent sized town, Inverurie (Diana can do a decent Scottish accent on this one), for an Indian dinner. Rajpoot was very good, with everyone really enjoying their meals. The owner thought he was funny bringing me a kids dessert served in “Miss Pinky” – I had laughed when I saw them on the menu.
Our visit was drawing to a close and we did our best to organize our packing for an early start to the airport on Friday.
The airport is located less than a mile from where I worked my first job out of University at Gearhart. The area has changed a lot since 1985, but the Four Mile Inn (a regular lunch spot back in the day) is still there and looks much the same. The Aberdeen airport was small and pain free (other than not having jet bridges, resulting in us having to haul our carry on luggage up slippy metal stairs), and we were soon in some very comfy seats (particularly for a shuttle flight to Heathrow) and enjoying a massage.
The flight to Dallas was around 10 hours and a bit hot and stuffy. I was glad to get home and stretch out. I did catch up on some movies and enjoyed a TV series by Billy Connolly about traveling through the east coast of the United States. I had been reading his autobiography (a present from Mum and Dad) on the earlier flight.
We got a much needed work out in early on Saturday (early to bed and early awake thanks to time changes) and then enjoyed coffee and a crossword in downtown McKinney. We enjoyed reflecting back on how enjoyable our visit to Stewarton and Bonnyview had been. We are fortunate to enjoy spending time with our family as much as we do.
We exchanged gifts that were too much to carry to Scotland on Saturday afternoon. These penguins nest like Russian dolls. One of several very creative gifts that Diana picked out for me. She got another puzzle – this one double sided for extra fun.
I finished “Olive Again” by Elizabeth Strout this week. I had recently watched a TV series based on the original “Olive Kitteridge” book, and starring Bill Murray and Frances McDormand. I kept visualising them as I read this sequel. It’s a bit of a depressing story as each chapter chronicles residents of the town and their interactions with the aging Olive, but Strout is an excellent writer who can create a very vivid picture of a character in just a few paragraphs.
I’m not a huge fan of Christmas music, so try to find twists on it that I enjoy. As usual, New Orleans to the rescue. Here’s a big band version of a classic carol.
And here’s a couple from a great New Orleans Christmas album:
I heard this more raucous and irreverent carol by the Pogues on the Scottish radio: