the Nutcracker - or Kneebreaker??

We stepped out a little last night and took in the Nutcracker ballet at His Majesty's Theatre. I thought I did a good job by getting seats in the first row of the balcony, but it was somewhat of a disaster. The seats were so small and so close together that it was impossible to keep your feet flat on the ground and not grind your knees to pieces on the seats in front (or in our case, the balcony wall). We also had to deal with an oddly positioned bar that caused to either have to crane our necks or duck our heads. After intermission we had to move further up into the balcony so that we could drape our legs over the seats in front and regain some feeling in our toes.

It would have been OK if it had been a spectacular show, but it was middling at best. There was some rubbish choreography and some poor dancing by some of the supporting cast. The costumes were decent. The program was saved from mediocrity by a good second half, the utter genius of Mr. Tchaikovsky and the brilliance of the prima ballerina - you could tell it wasn't much of a choice as to who in the company would dance lead.

Oh, and ice cream at intermission....

Burns Night

It's hard to believe that it's been another year already and that we've arrived at another Robbie Burns Day. Well, not quite, but close enough. We went with a group of friends to the annual Burns' Supper at a local hotel. The company was good, the haggis was delicious, the speech was entertaining and the dancing energetic. We had a great time.

the Mither Tap

The deep freeze has started to thaw, with some above zero temperatures doing away with most of the snow in Aberdeen proper. After a few days of absolutely miserable (but above zero) temps, where it was so overcast that it felt like 5pm at noon, we thought enough of the snow and ice was gone to plan a major hike.

We've been looking for places to start our training for our planned hike up Ben Nevis in May. On Sunday, with some blue sky breaking through the grey monotony, we decided on the Mither Tap as a good place to start. A full circuit would be 9 km, with about 400m of elevation change about 30 minutes outside the city. Part of the 7 peaks in and around Bennachie, the Mither Tap is so named because of a large outcrop at the top of the hill that looks a little like a .... nipple. Someone managed to get over that at some point and built a hill fort at the top. It certainly commands a great view of the surrounding countryside.

We prepared quite well, with many layers, extra food, good boots and a map. Snowshoes might have been a good idea. On one side of the mountain there were areas where there was still about a metre of snow. Not bad, unless you break through the crust and sink up to your thighs in snow. It made for a tough slog. We were happy to reach the top and head down the other side, out of the wind and with the sun on our backs.

We recovered enough by the evening to head out and throw our twenty pounds onto James Cameron's billion dollar pile. We had tried to see Avatar a few times, showing up to find the only seats left were in the first row. It was so frustrating that I think we were both quite prepared to not like the movie, as we're apt to do anyway when the hype starts to build like it has for Avatar. But we both really enjoyed it. The 3D took a little time to get used to, but was definitely more than a gimmick. Our only complaint was the definite 2 dimensional nature of the villain. Really? We're supposed to believe in nutcases like that? I guess I had one more complaint. Having gone to the theatre after a post-hike shower, Fiona had decided to hide her hair under one of her hats. Every time I turned around and caught a view of her with her hat and 3D glasses, I couldn't help but think I was with one of the Blues Brothers.

We've also managed to stretch our stint as local celebrities into another year as well. The Press and Journal once again carried a fine photo of Mr and Mrs B in their finery at the annual Snow Ball. Check the P&J website for our photo ... http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1549077

Just scroll through the pictures and you'll find us.

Happy New Year

We spent New Year's Eve in the company of some friends at a Chinese restaurant in the middle of a snowstorm. The food was good, especially the the duck.

The snow kind of obscured the fireworks, although it was still kind of impressive to see my council tax dollars turned into pretty lights and big bangs. The sound of foghorns from the boats in the harbour were kind of overwhelmed until the fireworks stopped, but it is still becoming one of my favorite new year's traditions.

We're looking forward to another great year of Scottish adventures and European travels. We're hoping to try and do as many new things as possible. What does 2010 have in store for us?

1. More traveling. We've got our big trip through Switzerland and the Italian/French Rivieras set for April We're excited because it seems like a pretty cool combination of history, scenery, beaches and culture. We're also looking at a long weekend trip to Barcelona in February. We've heard so many good things about it and are looking forward to that too. Hopefully we'll be able to squeeze in at least one more, but we're having trouble deciding - Rome, Venice, Vienna ...

2. Heading home. We've got green card issues that will need settling some time in September, necessitating a trip back to Houston. It will be pretty jam packed with friends and family, with likely side trips to Indiana, San Antonio and Mazatlan. We're also looking at buying some property in Houston to give us a better chance at keeping our green cards. Like I said - jam packed.

3. More Scottish travels. We hope to continue our travels, likely heading further South to the border areas and a bit further North, perhaps even out to the Orkneys. One thing we'll definitely be doing again is going to Braemar for the Highland Gathering. What a spectacle!

4. The great outdoors. We've made a promise to try and climb Ben Nevis on my birthday in May. That's going to take some training beforehand, which means many weekends out and about climbing some minor hills. We've also been looking into some sea kayaking lessons. It looks like there may be some offered here in May.

5. Visitors. We only have one set of visitors confirmed, Roger and Cathy in March, but with the size of our new place, we're certainly hoping that some more people decide to take in the Scottish scenery.

6. Culture. We're going to try and make a concerted effort to get out and see a few more things this year. Ballet, concerts, movies, etc ... it all seems better than another couple of hours in front of the tube. We've also stocked up our bookshelf. We'll definitely be doing more reading in 2010.