Aberdeen, Scotland's 3rd most populous city, is truly scottish. I think I can really tell the Scottish architecture apart from the English, they are so different, it reminds me of Edinburgh, not quite but some resemblance. As Aberdeen is near the coast, many would expect it to be colder but it's not. In fact, the winter was quite mild when I was there, it was always about 6°C and only when it rained, it was a bit harsh. But otherwise, I quite enjoy the weather. Aberdeen is also well known as the Granite or Grey city as most buildings were made from granite, and thus a little grey. It is also increasingly becoming a popular place for business because of its reputation as the Oil Capital of Europe since the 1970s.
As I was staying near the office, everywhere I went was on foot, even to the shopping district which is not far away from our office. The shopping wasn't great but it was good enough for me, I found more good buys than I did in London where everyone was competing with you for the winter sale.
The working hours in Aberdeen is also much better than Singapore's, there they do 7 hours daily whereas we do 8.5 hours here (crazy!!). I should try to find a chance and land myself somewhere in the cold ;) My team is a bunch of easy-going people, and they did make my life easy over there :) My extended team too, everyone else in the Web Application team are quite fun-loving and I realised that on the Dinner & Dance night in Aberdeen.
Thanks to Gordon, he was very patient teaching me my very first Scottish dance, I think I almost stepped on his foot a few times... but I was quite a quick learner, in no time, I have memorized the steps and I was actually enjoying it! Also Kristy, whom has been a really great friend to hang out with, she took me on a daytrip to see New Slains Castle outside the city, and also with James (with his cutie pie, Rosa) to see Haddo House and have a lovely tea there.
My boss (from Singapore) left earlier to see his family and headed back to London and Singapore. It was a weird feeling, as I have always been an independent traveller, but once on business trip, I actually felt a little handicapped. LOL. But I got used to it pretty soon; solitude and Blackberry (fortunately with data plan) were my best companions. I also got to meet my boss (based in London) as he was in for 2 days.
Everyone had a great laugh with the durian sweets experiment. In fact, no one really liked it except for one lady whom said she actually enjoyed it. Most people spat it out in like 2 seconds. I felt a little guilty introducing them to something they didn't like... LOL. Hopefully I have compensated that with the other stuff I brought.
7 nights passed by in Aberdeen real fast, I was feeling reluctant to leave on the last day but I had to as I was going to see my best friend in London. But I felt so relieved to be out of the hotel (read about my complaint on the earlier post)!
Just in case you are wondering, the Aberdonians' English isn't anything like those in glasgow, I managed to understand them without much difficulty (unless they're drunk!). They don't have a very strong Scottish accent, fortunately ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment