It already seems quite a long time ago, but last weekend we travelled to Aberdeen because our children had qualified for the North Scotland school’s chess final. Quick and direct travel to Aberdeen would have been quite expensive, so we decided to make a road trip of it. It was the first time we set foot on mainland Scotland for over 4 months. We visited some of the sights we had already visited three years ago when we travelled Scotland. Among them were the Whaligoe steps, castle Sinclair and Girnigoe and the mall in Inverness (if you can call that a sight). I have to say though, the closer we got to Inverness, the more we were overwhelmed with the masses of cars. And in those couple hours in the mall in Inverness we probably saw more people than we have seen in our whole past four months in Orkney. It’s amazing and somewhat frightening how fast you adapt to countryside life and everything that comes with it.

We had booked a very nice B&B in Portsoy with huge rooms. Unfortunately, the bathroom was not en-suite, but we had it all to ourselves. It was, however, so big that it more than made up for its un-en-suitedness. There was a huge portrait of a lady in there and a comfortable armchair you could sit on while brushing your teeth or for just enjoying the view of the toilet or shower ...



There was another 1.5h to travel to Aberdeen. We didn’t really see much of it though because we spent all of our time in the cafeteria of the school where the chess tournament took place. We were not allowed in the actual chess hall, so all we could do was wait for our children to come down with either a smile on their face or a face showing disappointment. Maleah’s face of disappointment was never on display. Nanouk had to play some strong opponents after winning the first two games and ended up winning and losing three each. We were all very proud about Maleah’s undefeated day. She qualified for the North UK final in Manchester, but unfortunately we can’t go because it’s just before we return to Switzerland.

On the way back to Orkney we stopped at the remains of Elgin cathedral which was very impressive. Especially the weather was almost too warm for us with sunshine, no wind and 16 degrees. The past week we’ve also had some very nice weather in Orkney. I spent quite a bit of time at the beach basking in the sun. Surprisingly even the water seemed quite warm because it is quite shallow at that beach and had been warmed up by the sun all day. So next time it might be swimming trunks ...

In other news I have joined the football team of the Deerness Parish cup. They were short of players and asked me to join them, so in a moment of madness I agreed to do it. It turned out that even with me they were still short of players so we ended up playing a friendly match instead of an official Parish cup game. It was still a lot of fun even though we lost quite high. Funnily enough I only realized when I looked at the photos Natalie took, that I was wearing the number 10 shirt ... So there will be another match in two weeks and then my temporary football comeback will come to an end and I will be able to concentrate on my running training again, providing I can get rid of my small aches and pains.



There was also another of our articles in the local newspaper. You can look at it here (only in German).

In many ways we think we are adapting very well:
I remember our first months, creeping behind a slow driver (or sitting in the car with them), wondering why he/she was only doing 45 when it was a 60 zone and there were no bends. Well, now, that’s (sometimes) me!

But one thing we are only getting used to very slowly is that people live on a slightly different time frame than us. Even for Swiss standards we go to bed quite early, but since we’ve arrived it is very slowly getting later, which means going to bed around 9.30ish or even 10pm, on rare occasions... But more than once we have been phoned around 10pm - by people who just want to tell us something, not emergencies at all, things which could easily wait till the next day. This would never happen in Switzerland, but at least, now we don’t jump out of bed and think “What has happened???” when we hear the phone so late!
On the other hand, getting up before 7.30am, is considered very early - and we all agree fully with that part!

Also, when entering the mall at Inverness, Matt and I just looked at each other and we both knew, that this was too loud and there were way too many people for us - although there were probably less than any given Saturday in our Supermarket at home!

And (and this one slightly caught me off guard...) when we were on the ferry back from Aberdeen and saw Mainland, we both felt that we were coming home!
(Matt will (hopefully) tell you more about our successful chess journey and road trip to Aberdeen, or you can read about it in the German blog I’m supposed to be writing).

Also we now enjoy chatting to people a lot more, no matter if it's at the front of a long queue or in the middle of the road. When we came here we were always very conscious of people waiting behind us or somewhere we had to be when someone started talking to us at the cash registrar, or on the road, at the post office or wherever, but now we think it’s lovely that people take the time to chatter, enjoying the encounter and not worrying about having to be somewhere else. Everything else can easily wait!

Ah, and I’ve just remembered something else we have not (yet) quite adapted to: The variable understanding of time. People are often late - and nobody cares. Only we Swiss (and in this we still feel very Swiss...) we are normally at least 5 minutes early - and then we wait for half an hour, for the Orcadians to turn up. But, luckily this doesn’t bother us anymore. Nanouk said last time: “Did you forget again, that we are in Orkney?” when we were somewhere “much too early” :o)

The the lesson behind the most of these things is the principle of “taking things as they are”, in which we are getting better, but are not quite there yet. If we get to a coffee shop or the museum, which should be open but is not, we are still slightly frustrated, but not as much as we were at the beginning and we can more and more just shrug our shoulders and look for an alternative!

And, of course, it’s great to know so many people here, whether they are Orcadian or not, but all such lovely people who make our life so much more pleasant!

I’ve just had a couple of wonderful days! As some of you might know I’ve just past the milestone of leaving my thirties and starting my forties, but if I had had any doubts about it, they all vanished!
My parents came and we had a wonderful party on Sunday with many of our new friends! It was wonderful for us to realise how many great people we have already met - and some of them we can even call friends!


Then on Monday it was the most glorious day! 16 degrees, sunny, no wind! Amazing! Perfect for showing off “our island” to my parents! I took them to Skara Brae, “a tomb” (just behind Finstown, can’t remember the name, but it’s one of my favourite, because there are no signs and it’s very untouristy, but very nice!) and the Broch of Birsay, which we weren’t allowed on. I had hoped to show them some puffins, but I’m not sure they are there yet...
Then, on Tuesday we had another highlight:
There was only one island left, which is inhabited (not counting the ones with less than ten inhabitants), we had not visited: Shapinsay. We were not too sure about going there, as there is not that much to see, apart from Balfour Castle. Unfortunately it is no longer open to the public.
A while back I had found an email address for the castle and thought I’d give it a try. I wrote to them, asking if we could come and see the gardens - and we got a yes. So on Tuesday morning, we got the very early ferry (leaving our children at our neighbours for a rainbow pancakes breakfast (we are soo lucky to have such great neighbours!!)) and set off to Shapinsay.
Our two men were slightly nervous, as there were signs forbidding trespassing, but we found our way to the service entrance and confirmed our permission to see the gardens. We also had a few lovely chats with John the gardener.
I’ve just gone through our photos, to put one or two on our flickr page. But there are too many, so I’ve decided to put them on here instead, and Matt will have to choose the best for flickr:


It was magical and amazing, especially for us, who had been in Orkney for 4 months and have not seen that many amazing gardens!
Then I had to leave on the next ferry, to go and do my volunteering at the St. Magnus Centre and Matt and my parents enjoyed a stroll through the village and a delicious dinner on Shapinsay before returning to Mainland for some shopping on main street.

Today is a lazier day, replying to birthday messages and catching up with my emails, before we head out to the school, to join the assembly (invited by Maleah, who will be playing the tambourines :o)

It is lovely to have my parents here and introduce them to our friends and “our island” and they understand now, why we have fallen in love with this place and these people!

I have just reread my title and have noticed that I have not mentioned tea at the beach: One of my birthday presents was a Kelly Kettle. It allows us to make hot water anywhere - including the beach. So on my birthday, after supper, we all went to the beach, and enjoyed a sunny evening drinking tea and hot chocolate - and being together!

I can't imagine a better way to end a day!

Our first visitors have already left again; it was great to have them here. We went to pick them up at the ferry terminal and headed straight south to see the 'Tomb of the Otters'. It was quite impressive to see a tomb that was only just recently discovered and has not been completely excavated yet. We also found that there are mixed feelings between the owners / discoverers of the different tombs, to say the least. Just go and see the 'Tomb of the Otters' and you'll find out what I mean ... The weather was great for the whole stay of our friends and they were sadly missing the famous Scottish rain for almost all of their stay. On Easter Sunday we even got a completely cloudless day. Roland and I took part in the Kirkwall 10K and were soon too warm running in long sleeves. We finished the race within seconds of each other and were both very happy with our time.

Getting back from the race we all looked for the Easter rabbits that had been hidden in the garden. Unfortunately one of them couldn't be found even though we've looked for it for literally hours. So either a bird took it to its nest or it's still lying there somewhere in the bushes, waiting to be found.

On Monday, a very dense sea haar moved into Orkney. For those not familiar with it, it's a dense fog, built when warm, humid air moves over cold water. I was quite interested to see it and to find out about its depth and what the logic is concerning its disappearance. I got some early insights that day when we went to Rousay. Apparently the top of the haar was at about 400m and places in the lee (away from the wind) of high hills had a fair chance of getting some sun. There was a big haar hole in Rackwick, Hoy that day and, we couldn't believe our luck, another one in the southwest of Rousay. So we spent most of our day there, at Midhowe broch and cairn and enjoyed the warm sunshine while we saw mainland in the sea haar across Eynhallow Sound. There were some more fantastic cliff arches a bit further west, absolutely breathtaking. We then also managed to see a whole bunch of seals on the north side of the island and spent a lot of time observing them.

Natalie's parents arrive Friday night and then we'll be busy showing them around and celebrating Natalie's birthday. A weekend after that we'll already be heading for Aberdeen where the children have qualified to play in the Northern Scotland school's chess tournament.

We are back to school and everyday life, after another two lovely days on the most northerly island: North Ronaldsay. We had a nice stay and the people were very friendly and helpful - and we had a great dinner (with the men trying the North Ronaldsay sheep with mint jelly, which was apparently delicious!) and talking to the “boys” who did all the bird observing and then we met more lovely people the next day. Here is what Nanouk wrote about our holidays in his school essay:

My Holidays 2014
First we went to Stronsay. We went to our hotel. It was very nice. We had our own room. We were indoors most of the time.
When we were home again we unpacked and packed again. We went to Sanday by ferry.
In Sanday we went to high dunes. I walked to the top and sledged down.
In North Ronaldsay we went to the lighthouse. It was high. We went home.
Then we went “bag the bruck”- ing.



I few things I (Natalie) would like to add:
“Bag the Bruck” is a big day in Orkney, where everyone (well, a lot of people) go to clean up the beach. We asked at the local shop and were allocated a stretch along a local beach. We were amazed how much brook (the Orcadian word for rubbish) we found, although it had looked so tidy!

I would have thought, Nanouk would mention Billy in his report, the lighthouse keeper. In his letter to his Swiss class mates, Nanouk told them all about the different jobs Billy had (Fireman and farmer are just two additional ones) as we had also seen a German documentary about Orkney that was mainly about Billy. Watch it here.
The other thing I wonder about is the phrase “We were indoors most of the time.” I think I’ve never been on a holiday on which we were outdoors so much! We only were indoors for eating and sleeping and we’ve even caught a bit of sun!

Two more things I think should be mentioned about the last leg of our holiday: The sheep (they are all around the coast, eating seaweed!) and the bikes we rented, which were fun!


Yesterday we were invited to the school for parents evening. This is very different to Switzerland. In Switzerland we have a parents evening, where we invite all the parents to our classroom at the same time and give a small presentation about the year ahead and it’s also a social event. Then, on another date, we have parents’ talks, and all parents get an appointment of 20 up to 40 minutes with the teacher alone to talk about their child. This is normally spread over two or three weeks and is hard work for the teachers but very interesting for both sides!
But although we only had 10 minutes with the class teachers each, we had good feedback from the teachers and it was nice to be back at the school. We are very proud of how well Nanouk and Maleah are doing!

On Saturday our first friends are coming and we can’t wait to show them “our paradise!”