Tuesday 22/8/17:

Well we made it!

Hett and I left Perth Monday 21/8/17 (SQ 214) at about 5.10pm and got into Singapore at about 10.35pm having travelled 2420 miles, 3895km in five and a half hours. After a longish stopover we got airborne about 1.10am Tuesday 22/8/17 (SQ306) and after 6764 miles, or 11,140 km and about thirteen and a half hours ( lots of film watched) we made it to a cloudy Heathrow. Once more some fun at customs and security, some wore creative waiting and we were off (BA 1308) from Heathrow about 11.55 am and arrived at an equally cloudy Aberdeen about 1.40pm.

Luggage reclaimed, taxi boarded and we were off to Banchory on the River Dee (about 16miles) and then across the Dee and up alongside the Waters of Feughy about two miles to near the village of Strachan and Birchlea Cottage. The taxi driver was very friendly and spent some time explaining how similar the Scottish language and Norwegian are. When he realised we were keen walkers he mentioned how the Scottish Highlands kill ten people a year, usually by hypothermia or falling off a cliff in mist. Cheerful!

It was good to finally arrive, get settled into the house and use Ray and Myra's Honda for a shopping expedition to Morrison's in Banchory. A hot bath while drinking cold champagne helped us decide an early night was called for. Looking at my watch it is 7.47pm on Tuesday and it is about 2.47am in Perth. Along the way, in the course of the nineteen hours of flying we lost about seven hours. An early night will hopefully settle the jet lag, recharge the batteries and have us ready for the heavy weather coming in from the west tonight!

By the by, thanks Josh for coming up with a name for our travelling companion parrot. I think he looks like a Simon. Simon spent some time looking out the window in the aeroplane and I guess he had never flown that high before. He has been pretty tired and fell asleep in Sezza's pack in the taxi.

Wednesday 23/8/17:

After a pretty good night's sleep, Hett woke about 4.30 am and I held out until 5.30am! The bad weather doesn't seem to have arrived with light rain falling as the central heating groans and moans in the pipes as it turns itself on. We're planning a walk around Banchory today and maybe a drive to Stonehaven on the coast where the magnificent Dunottar Castle perches on a headland. I'm finding this blog site a little harder to use than the previous one so you may not be disappointed to receive a few less entries.

Ollie, Xavier, Josh, Stella and Felix, but probably not Aggie will be pleased to know that Simon the Parrot is pretty quiet. I suspect he likes a more tropical climate than Scotland, but at least he doesn't complain as much as Kiwi did in New Zealand. Maybe I should see if he likes the taste of haggis?