Shetland Islands

The club asked if Peter and I wanted to go up with our 2nd team to the Shetland Islands, so we took the opportunity. Haylee was also able to come due to a couple of the boys pulling out. We left on the ferry at 7pm Friday night, and arrived up in Lerwick 12 hours later after a pretty rough ride (just ask Haylee - she was close to spewing a couple of times). 

Shetland is the most northern part of the UK and is actually in the Arctic Circle. The place is pretty barren and has no trees due to the cold, windy conditions but is still very interesting. Before the game we checked out the Clickimin Broch which is an old Viking house over 2000 years old. It was amazing how well preserved the place was, just shows how good the Vikings must have been at constructing the Broch’s way back then. We also saw a group of wild seals catching the sun on some rocks before we headed back for the game.

Clickimin Broch on Shetland

The usual kickoff time was moved forward to 12pm for our game on Shetland due to it getting dark quite early in the winter. It was freezing before the game, and the wind made it even colder. Haylee's feet were going numb standing on the sideline watching. I played a full game for the 2nd’s due to the lack of numbers, and we were beaten convincingly by a decent Shetland team. At the end of the game I was shattered, after a lot of running and tackling. The skill and fitness levels of our seconds team was very poor, and I told the boys that if they want to improve they will need to get to training. It didn't help either that a couple of the boys had an all night drinking session on the ferry on the way over. From this I gathered that these boys weren't too serious about their rugby.

We had quite a rough trip back on the ferry which Haylee didn’t really enjoy (again). After getting back early on Sunday morning, it took us a while to lose the rocking feeling of being on the boat.

After doing the schools rugby coaching work for 3 months, I have now managed to get myself a good full time job. I start on Tuesday as an Accounts Assistant for Canadian Natural Resources (an oil company) in Aberdeen. The job will suit me well as they are based right next to the train station and pay a decent wage also.