Friday 19 September Aberdeen

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

Took the shuttle home from the conference yesterday and asked the driver when we arrived at the drop off whether the shuttle was going to be running the following morning as advertised and he said it was. Will it be leaving from here? Yes, right here. OK, I’ll see you then!

So, this morning I turned up bright and early and full of confidence. I was a little worried when I saw no one else was waiting, which turned into outright dismay as the time for departure came and went. Goddamnit! I must have looked like a crazy person, stalking up and down the street and swearing like a sailor. Luckily a taxi van turned up just then depositing a couple bound for the train station, and he was more than happy to take me to my conference. In fact, we had a good chat, as i also had with the taxi driver yesterday morning. I am now much better informed about the social and political situation in Aberdeen, as well as acquiring useful tips for getting to Glasgow tomorrow, and at a very reasonable price of 16 pounds 80 p so I’m going to stop complaining now.

The first talk of the day was from a famous, now retired local forensic pathologist. Very entertaining, and his many brushes with crime authors has inspired me to get back to my novel once I return home. Just a half day at the conference today, so Simon picked me up in the hire car he’d just collected from the airport and we drove out to Stonehaven for the afternoon. Simon had booked the car for the wrong day so didn’t have any choice in the car we’ve ended up with, which is a Tesla model 3.

A lovely half hour’s drive got us to the picturesque seaside town, where we got a late lunch at an overpriced tearooms. I had my first (and last) taste of Iron bru there. It’s the traditional Scottish fizzy pop but it tastes quite horrid, like medicine. Inexplicable that they drink so much of it, it makes Mountain Dew taste like elixir of the Gods.

Also, I’d been envious of various fish cakes Simon had ordered over the past week, so I took the plunge myself. Alas, they were store bought, however they were deep fried beautifully. Speaking of which, we discovered on strolling about the wee hamlet that it was the birth place of the (in)famous deep fried Mars bar. What a thing to be famous for! Luckily Stonehaven has other strings to its bow.

As well as being a quaint wee fishing village, it has a Tollbooth museum – Tollbooth being a type of jail apparently – and an old castle, mostly in ruins, called Dunnottar.

The tollbooth museum was tiny and fairly amateurish, with bric a brac and various odds and ends strewn about. They did have an interesting section on the local fire festival. The origins of this are lost but for over 100 years locals have made flammable balls on chains which they set fire to on the night of the festival and walk along the street, swinging them around, until they get to the beach, where they throw them into the water.  Very strange behaviour if you ask me.

The ruins were also picturesque. You can walk there along a famous cliffside walk from the village if you have the time, but we didn’t so we drove there. The Tesla told us to go up a small road which we later found signposted as not fit for cars. Oops. Anyway, it was one of the best castle ruins I’ve ever seen.

We planned to try out a fast charger of the Tesla on the way back to Aberdeen. The carhire people had told Simon he could trade in the Tesla for an ICE car in Glasgow if he so desired, so we wanted to try out the charging system before making our decision. There were a couple of fast chargers nearby, called superchargers over here. Once again the GPS guidance was somewhat lacking – we could see the charger from where we were, but it was on the other side of a fence. We got there in the end, plugged it in and started charging. It was up to 90% charged after only 15 minutes, which seemed a successful trial, but the problem was, we didn’t know how to pay. The lady in the adjacent petrol station  said you just do it with contactless payment, but for the life of us, we couldn’t find any means of paying. In the end, we just unplugged the car and drove off. Not sure if that makes us felons, up there with stealing petrol? We’re hoping it somehow goes back to the carhire company so we can pay for it there. Or maybe it’s free? Who knows.