A new bag

Do you like this gift our friend A-M kindly gave Gail as a thank you for helping her during and after her recent hospital stay?

It's a very fine bag, don't you think?

And not only is it big enough to carry a satisfactory quantity of dog treats, it will also serve as a reminder to Gail that I am now well overdue a train trip down to England, or at least to Edinburgh or Glasgow or somewhere similarly exotic. I gather my predecessor Bouncing Bertie once greatly enjoyed his brief exploration of the railway station in Newcastle upon Tyne.... Time for a return visit perhaps?

Gail says that problems on the railways due to intermittent strikes have deterred her from pursuing my 'train training' over the past couple of years, but it's my understanding that the industrial strife is now all resolved and so WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR?

Looking for excitement in Gourdon

On Saturday morning Gail and I met our friends M and J in the Aberdeenshire fishing village of Gourdon, and after a short walk along the coast I went exploring the harbour area, looking for excitement.

I wasn't expecting to see a train emerging from a tunnel in the wall, but after a short while I concluded he wasn't going anywhere - perhaps the driver was still on strike?

So I moved on to inspect a little display installed by the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution). Gail said this was cute but frankly it didn't hold my interest.

Onwards to a pile of lobster creels stacked up by the harbour edge. More promising I thought, but it turned out the creels were all empty so I continued round the harbour.

Ah, this is more like it. A shark! 

I guess he thinks he's scary, but this fox terrier is not easily intimidated (and has never seen Jaws...)

Gail says "I hope you never meet a real shark Nobby."

Later at home we googled 'Gourdon' and learnt that there is a village with the same name in the south of France.

Gourdon (in the Alpes Maritime, Provence)

Would it be unpatriotic to say that French Gourdon looks even more exciting than the Aberdeenshire version? Perhaps Gail might take me there one day? 

Train training

One rather damp and gloomy day last week, Gail announced that we were going to have a change from the usual afternoon walk, and it was time for a spot of "train training".

Long time readers will be aware that my predecessor Bouncing Bertie travelled many thousands of miles by rail during his twelve years, including two trips to continental Europe - one to Switzerland and one to Bavaria. 

However, Gail did tell me that "Rome wasn't built in a day" and although Bertie eventually became the perfectly behaved train passenger, there were, truth to tell, 'hiccups' along the way (most famously the Newcastle Station incident) and thus her assertion that I might need some "training" sessions.

My first ever experience experience on the railway actually took place back in July when I was in Nottingham, but as this was only a six minute journey Gail felt it didn't really count. 

So last week we upped the ante and went all the way down the coast from Aberdeen to Stonehaven, a twenty minute trip. For some reason Gail chose a time of day when she was confident that the train carriages would be fairly empty. 

I'll let the pictures below do the talking (I was quiet throughout).

Waiting at Aberdeen station

Checking things out on the train 

The North Sea from the train window

"Are we nearly there yet?" 

We arrived safely and walked down to the town centre

Then on to the seafront

And a quick glance at Stonehaven harbour

Finally back to the railway station to board the train home

What IS all this "mind the gap" business anyway? 

On the buses

Readers of my predecessor Bouncing Bertie's blog will know that he was was a seasoned train traveller who during his life clocked up many thousands of miles by rail. But when I searched for his account of his first ever trip on a train, it didn't take much reading between the lines to work out that his behaviour was initially far from perfect...

I am still much younger than Bertie was when he was first introduced to the concept of public transport and I have yet to set paw on a train. But Gail has decided, now she is of an age to travel for free on all buses in Scotland, and what with fuel prices being so high (plus of course concerns about greenhouse gases), we might from time to time use the bus rather than the car to get to the start point of certain local walks.

So on Monday afternoon it was all aboard First Bus No.19 for a short (4 mile) ride from Aberdeen city centre to Cults, from where we could take a pleasant walk home along the Deeside Way.

I fear some of my readers might be secretly disappointed I have no amusing disaster stories to tell.

I waited patiently with Gail at the bus stop. After about 5 minutes the bus turned up. There were plenty of empty seats and I was allowed to sit on Gail's lap and look out of the window for part of the journey. 

My only complaint is that this window rattled rather noisily when the bus was moving, but I didn't let it bother me and I was in fact as quiet as a mouse throughout. 

Now that I have lulled her into a (possibly false) sense of security, Gail says she is emboldened to take me on a longer bus trip before too long!