Aberdeen - a bit dour

We’ve really liked the women we’ve met here. They are beautiful and uplifting, positive and enthusiastic. Great lassies.  The men on the whole are the same but here and there is a fellow who epitomizes the term ‘dour scot’.  They seem sceptical and appear to have a keen opinion of themselves regardless of their competence.  Very judgemental.  Peculiar. Yet there are enough of them to gain the national reference ‘dour’ scot. We hadn’t noticed them in Edinburgh but here in the highlands they are there.  Older men. Perhaps it’s the north and the struggle or just survival after countless invasions and rape and pillage by the English.  A tough land and a tough people, But here they are. Of course offset by the lads and lassies that abound.

We had a minor irritation personally and unworthy of comment but it nonetheless affected us.  We had a perfect evening. Great food, great decor. We sat in this fine steakhouse where there was great conviviality as wine and whisky flowed at other tables and we sat drinking sparkling water , looking at the rain outside the windows coming down on the cobblestone street in the light of street lamps.  The fillet mignon was 30 pounds stirling each.  Roughly $70 each. Succulent and tasty. I complain about the $20 steak at home I barbecue and share with Laura and the dog.  

This was a special night. My grandfather had bought an angus bull and it was a celebration when I was 10 years old.  A family story and a time of joy. Of course Angus beef is famed here in Aberdeen.  Grandad had worked so very hard,  all the time, my father said, and worked his sons hard, my father said. My Dad left for war and never went back to farming. But grandad continued with my uncles and one day he bought an angus bull, It’s size was something to behold. My grandfather a Scottish businessman as much as a rancher was delighted that the cattle he’d have from his bull would be a third larger and enrich his sales. He rubbed his hands when he spoke of his great bull,

At home I barbecue Angus steaks all the time. Most of it comes from Australia but I choose it when available. Here it was a sentimental thing.  I felt I was celebrating my grandfather. On my 70th birthday I’d had steaks in Edinburgh that were a special event like here in Aberdeen. We’ve been visiting the Hay Castles at Delgatie and Slains and thoroughly enjoyed attending St. Machar’s Cathedral giving thanks to the Lord.   

Laura asked if she could have a container to take half her steak with her.  She ususaually shares her steak with Madigan the cockapoo Karen is caring for right now . We are like parents on escape from a mad toddler  to enjoy some peace, I share everything I barbecue with the little guy. I’ve even bought him a Harris Tweed collar and leash here. Laura said she so enjoyed her steak and thought to have a sandwich next day with it.  But the waiter didn’t return it. Neither of us thought of it. I gave him a reputable tip and we left having spent approximately $250 on a meal. When we got home Laura noticed the loss.  We thought that was roughly $30 worth of meat and I’d given the fellow a tip when he failed. It was enough to make me a dour Scot. 

It’s not the first time this sort of thing has happened .  Back home  Macdonalds and White Spot  often forget the meat paddy I ask for the dog. We’ve often arrived home with take out meals and a starving little cockapoo so disappointed, Often I’ve gone back to get his share. He wasn’t here last night, thank God.  It was dark, raining and windy.  My back and feet were sore from walking all over the city being a tourist.  I ‘ve had patients who were discharged often from the hospital post surgery without pain medications. I’m woken in the night to get emergency supplies by waking pharmacists and arranging taxis.  Mistakes happen,  

I understand dour Scot’s. After a perfect evening and this disappointment I even thought « I understand why Grandad left Aberdeen. ». It’s a cold and rainy windy place and people are stealing your meat.  Scots were fighting Scot’s forever until they could fight the English . Then they fought all over the world for the English. Churchill called the Douglass Highlanders the greatest regiment.  Grandad went to Swan River Northern Manitoba and the climate and fauna were the same as here and the people not much different. My Ukrainian friend said his family immigrated there too. We talked about the agricultural life so at the mercy of weather and God.  Droughts and storms and disease.  It woul make anyone dour.  The city folk and government are enriched by cleverness and theft. The government taxed the castles here to pay for their friends to sit an their arses. The Scot’s took off the roofs to avoid the taxes. My dad didn’t put a door or windows in the room he built in the basement to avoid taxes too.

Now the price of gas has skyrocketed after horrific mismanagement of the economy for a decade or more in Canada with Trudeau literally destroying the Alberta oil producing economy by refusing to allow pipe lignes, His favourite province Quebec makes railway cars so oil is shipped with great expense and risk by oil car. His father the old Marxist Trudeau nationalized the Alberta oil and gave the money to Quebec with ‘transfer payments’ ,outright thievery.  Western Canada is the workhouse of the country, farming and mining and building with the east revelling in banking and self serving law making. 

Here Aberdeen is the same with the south and English revelling in the cash cows sitting in offices thinking of sneaky ways to steal money from the working folk. .  Investing in windmills which kill birds and require horrible maintenance costs but eat up the oil bill claiming that global warming is a carbon event when the IPCC of the UN was a wealth transfer program established by the Communist Canadian STrong to destroy the west. Communist China keeps building coal mines causing 60% of the world pollution while Russian controls the oil to Europe . Now with their riches gained from the folly of idiots like Trudeau the Russians have invaded Urkraine to steal and pillage what men do since they ran out Neanderthals and Denisons to kill .  Meanwhile the virtue signalling  scientifically ignorant ignorant were cutting back on their nuclear plants and oil industry.  It’s all absurd,  Enough to make one dour and constantly watch one’s wallet.  

It was a good night. Being with Laura out for dinner is such an event.  Edinburgh was the first time we’d dined out together in 2 years. This is the second.  The poor restaurant folk are overwhelmed and relearning. Covid and lockdowns terrorized the industry and workers,  

I won’t be a dour Scot. True we did go to the Chain Steakhouse partly because it was such a short walk from our hotel rather than go to Jacks which everyone recommended as the best in Aberdeen, a local family run affair.  The cost is a consideration but not when one considers how rarely we eat out and how much macaroni I eat when I’m not barbecuing game I’ve shot myself.  The experience was an event.  I loved the angus beef.  I loved a night out with a gorgeous lassie,  Hallelujah!  The Angus cow didn’t appreciate any of this evening.