Garioch Winning the League

On the last weekend of March we had our final league game against Moray away up in Elgin. If we won this game it meant we would win the Caledonia 2 North League. We had a bit of a setback in the week leading up to the game, losing five of the Army boys who play for our team. On Thursday/Friday Peter and I managed to rally the troops and get a decent enough team to put out for Saturday.

We got up to Elgin early and had a good intense warm-up. This seems to be important for our team as it usually means we start the game well. We dominated the first 20mins before letting them back into the game before half time. We then played pretty well in the second half to close out the game 24-10 and win the league!! Continuing the trend we had another average ref for this game who seemed to be a lot harsher on our team than the other. It was like he was evening things out a bit as we were clearly better than the opposition. But in saying that, at least he wasn’t deaf/speech impaired like the one we had the week previous.

After the game we had a court session planned for back at the clubhouse in Inverurie. The Scottish boys had not had a proper court session before so Neil/Peter & had a good one planned. It was a pretty good night, having a few beers with the whole team and some good banter with them as well. I think everyone enjoyed themselves which was good to see.

Champagne flowing after winning the league.

As we have now won the league, we now have a three-way playoff to get into the next division for next year. We will play the top team from the Caledonia 2 Midlands league and one team from the Caledonia 1 league. These playoffs are scheduled  for the 20^th and 27^th of April (after our Sevens tournament on the 14^th).

Isle of Arran

One of the many places Haylee and I had on our wishlist to visit when we came to Scotland was Arran. So on the weekend of the 16^th of March we made the trip down past Glasgow to visit ‘Scotland in Miniature’. We arrived on Friday afternoon and put our stuff away at the b&b we were staying at, and headed out to check out the town of Brodick & the Brodick Castle (which was getting renovated). After some fish & chips for dinner we had quite an early night ready for an early start in the morning.

Nice spot for fish & chips - was a bit cold though!

We caught the 8am bus and went up to Lochranza (on the very tip of Arran). The northern part of the Island is very rugged and made up mainly of mountains. Lochranza didn’t have much more than a castle so we walked around the island a bit before catching a bus to Blackwaterfoot on the western side. From here we walked quite a way around to see the Kings Caves, which had drawings inside from over 2000 years ago. We carried on along the track and down the road to go and see the impressive Machrie Moor stone circles (dating back to 1800BC). Some of the rocks were about 8m tall, I don’t know how they managed to get them up there back in the bronze age! After we got back on the road we decided to hitch a ride back to Lochranza as the bus was still another 2 hours away and it was freezing.. We watched a rugby game over a pint at the local pub, then saw an awesome sunset before bussing back to Brodick.

Got to be up there with one of the best sunsets I have seen

On Sunday we planned to visit the Glenashee waterfalls in the morning before we caught our ferry back to the mainland. We hitched again from Brodick to Whiting Bay with a nice local who gave Haylee some hand cream from Arran Aromatics as a souvenir. This saved us quite a bit of time so we took our time walking up to the waterfalls (which were alright without being spectacular). We got back to Whiting Bay and caught the earlier bus back to Brodick – giving us time for a hot drink before getting on the ferry.

Giants Graveyard - some of the many stone circle remains on Arran

 We managed to spend a bit of time in Glasgow in the afternoon before getting our bus back to Aberdeen. It was very busy on the streets due to St Patricks Day, was cool watching all the street performers and checking out a few shops while we had the chance. We definitely chose the right weekend to go as Arran had a really bad snow storm the week after and had no power for a week – we were quite lucky! The trip was definitely worth it, and although it would have been better visiting in summer, Arran lived up to expectations.

Planning Our Big Trip

We have started booking a few flights & planning our travels a bit more now that we have a few dates locked in. We are leaving Aberdeen for Madrid on the 14th of May, leaving Europe for Brazil on 12th of August and leaving Chile for NZ on the 2nd of October. Both Haylee and I are really looking forward to it after what has been a long rugby season here in Scotland.

In the next couple of months we will continue to work hard and save money for the big trip. We currently have a couple of weeks off rugby, which gives us a chance to see a bit of Scotland. Haylees good friend Emily has been up over the weekend from London, so we managed to get out and show her a few local attractions. We went over to Loch Ness on Saturday, visited the Urquart Castle and Culloden on the way home. Culloden is the site of the last battle between the Red Coats and Scottish Clansmen (fighting against English rule). This was apparently a bloody battle only lasting a couple of hours, and there are gravestones with clan names on them - marking mass graves where soldiers were buried. We found one with ‘Fraser’ (the clan of which Haylee descends from) on it. On Sunday we braved the snow and went over to see Dunnottar Castle. Even though we had already been there, it was still good to see it again.. We spent 2 hours there before getting a hot drink at Stonehaven on the way home.

Cottage at the famous battle site of Culloden

Haylee & Em & Nessie

Fastest town in Scotland... Nairn

This weekend Haylee and I are heading to the Isle of Arran, which is apparently like a mini version of Scotland. We are catching ua bus down to Glasgow, train to Ardrossan and ferry over to Arran. It was pretty cheap getting down and back as we booked nice and early, worked out at NZ $80 each return.

It seems like it has been a long season over here playing and coaching rugby. This may be because I have had back to back seasons and being new to coaching. The Scottish weather definitely hasn’t helped as quite a few games have been put off due to the weather. In saying that, it has been a great experience as we have learned to live in a different part of the world, seen some pretty cool places, met some nice people, and I have learned a lot about being a coach. I think living over here has made us appreciate home a bit more - especially the weather!