Blogs from Angus, Scotland, United Kingdom, Europe

Now that we have the car, our days don’t have to start as early so a bit more sleep is the side benefit of that. We were up at 7 and down to breakfast at 8:30. Breakfast was the standard everything for a Full Scottish, but two types of eggs, scrambled and fried. Remember fried in the UK means sunny side up. The whether was overcast, which makes for good driving. The day started at the farthest point South of the County Angus, Dundee. Dundee is not in the running for a potential summery retirement home, but it is one of the 7 cities in Scotland and close to other places we are considering, so we did want to see what it had to offer. The attraction here was the Dundee Law. It is about a ... read more

In my last blog, I concentrated on the "new kid on the block" in Dundee. The masses are gravitating to the redeveloped waterfront, but there is of course so much more to see. They say Dundee grew on the back of the 3 "J"s - Jute, Journalism and Jam - and probably the best place from which to appreciate the layout of the city is from The Law. The Law or Law Hill is a prominent landmark - an extinct volcano, former Iron age settlement, the scene of the start of the first Jacobite Rising in 1689 and home to the Dundee War Memorial unveiled in 1925. It offers a panoramic view over the city, the Perthshire hills to the north, Fife to the south and the Forth of Tay. The castle at Broughty Ferry can ... read more

We arrived in Arbroath late Sunday afternoon 20th May. Arbroath (Aberbrothic) is a former royal burgh and the largest town in the council area of Angus in Scotland, with a population of around 24,000. It lies on the North Sea coast between Dundee and Aberdeen and is well known for its fishing. It is also home to our lovely friends, Bob and Linda. We enjoyed their hospitality for the next three days. Again we were very fortunate to see the sights through the eyes of locals. The fishing boats in the harbour; the Abbey; the Murton Nature Reserve; Glamis Castle; Carnoustie Golf Course; eating Smokies down at Lunan Bay. Arbroath had a thriving fishing industry for many, many years. With changing conditions, fish processing has remained at Arbroath but the fish now comes from Peterhead (further ... read more

Walk around Dundee day. Through the pedestrian mall, past the statues, to the Science Centre, around to the Discovery and Discovery Centre, along the waterfront to the Unicorn and finally to a cafe for hot chocolate. The centres were a bit expensive and Lee a bit tired, not a great combination! So it's to the cafe whilst I have a little sight seeing walk but really it's just a day for looking around the city centre. Our turreted bedroom accommodation is quite a dominant feature of the cityscape here, really the dominant feature if the church spires are discounted, which makes navigating through the town rather easy. The buildings are a combination of old and new that sit quite comfortably with each other. Along the waterfront buildings are springing up aimed at that same market niche ... read more

I have always meant to keep this blog more up to date but life just seems to get in the way, I wanted to keep this more of a diary of our travels and trips but I’ve not succeeded in that aim, as always I will plan to do so going forward! So, where are we – April 2016, we’re still in the same house and I’m still working the same job. The kids are well, seven, four and two year olds now, work is going well - very busy with some travel to the Middle East (Doha, Abu Dhabi, Muscat) America (Denver, Houston, Austin) and Europe (Rome, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Vilnius) since I last wrote here. Fiona gave up her job with the NHS and is now starting a private practice for Speech and Language Therapy ... read more