Lisa & Neil in Aberdeen
Sonia, Lisa and Neil viewed from with Slain's:
Slain's, inside looking up:
... and the same looking down:
Sonia, Lisa and Neil on the way to our picnic spot:
Cliffs near our picnic spot:
OK, this is a belated post, but it's been a mad few weeks up here and I thought this one was worth digging out!
I am happy to report that from Thursday 7th to Sunday 10th September, Rullsenberg and Cloud saw fit to undertake a repeat visit to the great grey city of Aberdeen. I picked up our dynamic duo after work on Thursday and promptly introduced them to the new chez George. Predictably, good music, good wine and good food were soon on the cards, finishing with the brilliant Crossing The Bridge, a travel-music-logue by Alexander Hacke of Einsturzende Neubauten as he explores the rich diversity of Istanbul's music scene(s). That was followed by a cheeky midnight-nearing showing of Change from Season 2 of Spaced.
On Friday I had to slouch off to work, but L&N made good use of their time with a trip into the 'deen itself for, amongst other things, record-buying in abundance from the fantastic One-Up, the extent of which was so impressive as to earn Rullsenberg an unheard of cooler-than-thou free One-Up canvas shopping bag. Git. Anyway, in the evening, good food was required once again and this time, once refreshed with a good pint from Ma Cameron's, we opted for the recommendable Rustico's in town for some fine Italian fare where we were joined by the lovely Sonia. This lead onto the dark but oddly amusing A Scanner Darkly at The Belmont.
Saturday saw us get up and out for a wonderful visit to the impressive (new) Slain's Castle just north of Cruden Bay, Aberdeenshire. This castle seems to date from as far back as the last days of the 1500's and the return of the The Earl of Erroll to the region, but if anyone can fill us in on that we'd be extremely grateful. Our lack of knowledge stems from the complete lack of guides at the site, probably intended to discourage tourism and the subsequent lawsuits resulting from visitors falling off the impressively precarious yet accessible ruins. One thing I can tell you for sure as a Yorkshireman is that their claim to have inspired Bram Stoker above Whitby Abbey is quite clearly rubbish!
Having taken in the wonderful coastal setting complete with cliff-top picnic, we hit the road again, this time in search of whisky. Our original intention had been for Tomintoul, where I was to buy my 30th birthday present to myself, a bottle of Lagavulin 25. However, due to the heat and the long distances involved we settled for Dufftown whether they had the prized bottle or not. As it turned out they didn't, but L&N soothed me considerably with a couple of Speyside half bottles as thanks for their stay; the fine Cragganmore and an impressive independent bottling of Longmorn 17, the latter being remarkably pale for its age, but as well-developed in flavour as would be expected. The late return to Aberdeen necessitated a stop at the approved Cults chipper before showings of Cloud's bonkers Einsturzende Neubauten DVD (first gig INSIDE a bridge...) and then the bonkers-in-an-entirely-different-way The Machinist (Christian Bale in skeleton mode tries to sort out truth from paranoia in a self-created artificial reality imposed due to guilt over a hit and run incident a year before... phew).
Finally on Sunday, there was time for a bit more music and food before their inevitable departure. Bring on next year guys!
In re-capping (cue Rulls' welcomed corrections):
2006
Food: Rustico's & nice cafe in Dufftown
Film: Crossing the Bridge, A Scanner Darkly & The Machinist
2005
Live music: Blind Pew! at The Tunnels (cue almost-fight with local)
Food: Cinnamon's & The Lemon Tree
Film: Bubba Ho-Tep & Dead Man's Shoes
2004
Live music: some unknowns at the now defunct Dr Drake's.
Food: The Olive Tree & The Lemon Tree
Film: Before Sunset, Ring & Sexy Beast
Slain's, inside looking up:
... and the same looking down:
Sonia, Lisa and Neil on the way to our picnic spot:
Cliffs near our picnic spot:
OK, this is a belated post, but it's been a mad few weeks up here and I thought this one was worth digging out!
I am happy to report that from Thursday 7th to Sunday 10th September, Rullsenberg and Cloud saw fit to undertake a repeat visit to the great grey city of Aberdeen. I picked up our dynamic duo after work on Thursday and promptly introduced them to the new chez George. Predictably, good music, good wine and good food were soon on the cards, finishing with the brilliant Crossing The Bridge, a travel-music-logue by Alexander Hacke of Einsturzende Neubauten as he explores the rich diversity of Istanbul's music scene(s). That was followed by a cheeky midnight-nearing showing of Change from Season 2 of Spaced.
On Friday I had to slouch off to work, but L&N made good use of their time with a trip into the 'deen itself for, amongst other things, record-buying in abundance from the fantastic One-Up, the extent of which was so impressive as to earn Rullsenberg an unheard of cooler-than-thou free One-Up canvas shopping bag. Git. Anyway, in the evening, good food was required once again and this time, once refreshed with a good pint from Ma Cameron's, we opted for the recommendable Rustico's in town for some fine Italian fare where we were joined by the lovely Sonia. This lead onto the dark but oddly amusing A Scanner Darkly at The Belmont.
Saturday saw us get up and out for a wonderful visit to the impressive (new) Slain's Castle just north of Cruden Bay, Aberdeenshire. This castle seems to date from as far back as the last days of the 1500's and the return of the The Earl of Erroll to the region, but if anyone can fill us in on that we'd be extremely grateful. Our lack of knowledge stems from the complete lack of guides at the site, probably intended to discourage tourism and the subsequent lawsuits resulting from visitors falling off the impressively precarious yet accessible ruins. One thing I can tell you for sure as a Yorkshireman is that their claim to have inspired Bram Stoker above Whitby Abbey is quite clearly rubbish!
Having taken in the wonderful coastal setting complete with cliff-top picnic, we hit the road again, this time in search of whisky. Our original intention had been for Tomintoul, where I was to buy my 30th birthday present to myself, a bottle of Lagavulin 25. However, due to the heat and the long distances involved we settled for Dufftown whether they had the prized bottle or not. As it turned out they didn't, but L&N soothed me considerably with a couple of Speyside half bottles as thanks for their stay; the fine Cragganmore and an impressive independent bottling of Longmorn 17, the latter being remarkably pale for its age, but as well-developed in flavour as would be expected. The late return to Aberdeen necessitated a stop at the approved Cults chipper before showings of Cloud's bonkers Einsturzende Neubauten DVD (first gig INSIDE a bridge...) and then the bonkers-in-an-entirely-different-way The Machinist (Christian Bale in skeleton mode tries to sort out truth from paranoia in a self-created artificial reality imposed due to guilt over a hit and run incident a year before... phew).
Finally on Sunday, there was time for a bit more music and food before their inevitable departure. Bring on next year guys!
In re-capping (cue Rulls' welcomed corrections):
2006
Food: Rustico's & nice cafe in Dufftown
Film: Crossing the Bridge, A Scanner Darkly & The Machinist
2005
Live music: Blind Pew! at The Tunnels (cue almost-fight with local)
Food: Cinnamon's & The Lemon Tree
Film: Bubba Ho-Tep & Dead Man's Shoes
2004
Live music: some unknowns at the now defunct Dr Drake's.
Food: The Olive Tree & The Lemon Tree
Film: Before Sunset, Ring & Sexy Beast
posted by George at 17:32
2 Comments:
2005 at the Tunnels would be excellently kicking Blind Pew! (with the cd "You're claimed!" as played on the Tartan Podcast as well...
Great post!
I'll get on it...
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