Off to Aberdeen

First a word of explanation about my travel companion Rhino prompted by a question from my son Alistair yesterday.
Way back in the day when I actually worked for a living at Caterpillar, I was on a team working on "Project Rhino". The reason for the name is top secret, but we had small gifts for visitors to remind them of the project. They are squishy rhino toys and quite friendly, unlike real rhinos. My friend Nick took me to the airport and gave me Rhino as a travelling companion and as a gift from the Project Rhino team. Thank you. He will be appearing in the blog along the theme of the gnome who appears in photos and postcards around the world. Thank you for your indulgence in this explanation!!

It is early Monday morning. My brother Steve is away to work and the house is quiet.
I am off to Aberdeen on the East coast of Scotland today to meet up with my long time friends Geoff and Ellie.

Aberdeen is the hub for much of the support activity for the North Sea oil and gas production, and the harbor is full of supply vessels and equipment and is a busy place. Many of the workers on the rigs work 2 or 3 weeks straight and then have the same amount of time off. I know of some that actually have homes in Spain and come off the rigs in the often cold and always windy North Sea, and hop a plane to sunny Spain for their time off.
Geoff and I worked together way back and after a rough start became very good friends and I am happy to say that the friendship has endured for close to 30 years!

Steve and I had a pleasant weekend as the weather gradually improved and we went for a walk yesterday (Sun) morning with the intent of going to a place called Waters Meet, where the north and south branches of the Tyne river meet. It is abobout a mile west of Hexham where he currently lives. The path proved to be too icy so we walked along the swollen river and sloshed about in the mud for a while before taking a different route home. It was sunny and about 6 deg C a pleasant change from previous weeks.
We had reports from Shetland that the wind on Saturday was blowing 44 knots (almost 50mph) and the Friday ferry to Aberdeen was canceled in both directions. This is the same ferry we will take on Wednesday evening. It takes about 12 hours,and is about 110 meters long and carries cars and trucks as well as passengers. I will be posting photos when I have some.
Hmmm. On Saturday I could select the font, but do not see that option today. Sorry Bruce, but it looks like Times New Roman is the font of the day. Who came up with those funky names anyway??