Seafield Arms Hotel Banff

Okay, I know I've been boring. I'm sorry! Basically I've been trying to get used to the bits and pieces of university before embarking on significant journeys. Can't blame me for that :P There have been the odd trips to random castles etc but I have no interest in random small town castles, lived in the Isle of Man for WAY too long to be interested in them! Hoping for a trip down ...

Rothes is the little Scottish village where the Glen Grant Whiskey Distillery is located. It is part of the Speyside Whisky Trail, where the largest concentration of Scotch whisky distilleries is located in Scotland. This large valley is popular among distillers because this is where most of the barley is grown for the distillation process.

The distillery has a nice garden and a gift shop.

Dunno if I mentioned that the left hand front brake on our car had seivzed on the first day so Matt clamped the brake line & was using the other brakes. This was proving to be an issue as the front brakes kept locking up & we weren't stopping.

We headed to Aberdeen to find somewhere to get a new brake calliper & had no luck - Matt then bought some new brake pads but when he got the wheel off, he realised ...

... And honestly, my stomach was happier with the haggis than the battered mars. That's right, a deep fried candy bar. Only in the UK. I only ate a couple of bites. Jodi ate most of it! But I tried it and thats what is important.
Tomorrow is going to be a transit nightmare: drive to Glasgow to drop off the car, bus/train from Glasgow to Stranrear and ferry to Belfast, taxi to hotel. Dreading it already. Stupid stupid plan.

Stopped at the main part of town to get some 'chips' before the work function. I also was a tourist for a few minutes and took some pictures of the market cross and an interesting fountain. Then it was off to the lighthouse museum for the photo recognition.

... I always have in my blogs. I feel 'depression', is an over-used word by those who linger over things too much, are too emotionally stunted to describe their feelings and too unwilling to admit to their own errors. Many people who use the word are merely looking for sympathy to equate their general feelings of boredom and mild anxiety to those with real hardships and 'issues'. Historically, I'm guilty of lingering over things too much, of 'thinking' too ...

... with all Dublin burglars not to bother risking their neck climbing up to our second floor balcony again - we don't have anything worth stealing. We're not sure whether to be offended or not that they found nothing worth taking? Anyway, back to Inverurie, which was lots of fun, and where I hunted down bears with Tanya's daughter. We caught several. The people of Inverurie can sleep easy in their beds at night now.

... they use to catch the fish is pretty impressive. After they trawl the net and it fills with fish, they lower a pump and house into the net and all of them are sucked into the tanks of the ship. They then circulate the fish through a refrigeration circuit repeatedly which gradually drops the temperature and preserves them for the processing. Upon return to the harbor ...

... the girls and I went out for dinner and bowling. The President of the Fraserburgh Club was a GSE team leader and decided that the team needed to do something on our own. Thanks Margaret-Jane! Paul went out for dinner with some of the Fraserburgh Rotarians. Needless to say, a good time was had by all, except for the bowling results. Tami apparently minored in bowling in college and dropped the hammer on the rest of her teammates. A rematch will be forthcoming!

... in Scotland. Unfortunately the name escapes me at the moment. The drive to Aberdeen was very interesting as we took a narrow two lane road across the mountains. Fortunately the breath taking views made up for some of the near misses. After we were picked up in Aberdeen, we were taken to a quiet church cafe for dinner, and then headed back to our hosts for a bit of quiet time and then to bed.