Strichen

So, it's Thursday - Management Meeting day in Fraserburgh. I had a bit of a fitful sleep - so my UP bracelet tells me anyway. I woke at 5 am but managed to roll over and get a bit more rest. It was then I started dreaming - and it was one of those anxiety dreams.

I hate being late for anything - I don't want to miss a plane, a tee time, a bus, or whatever. This dream was about golf at Banchory. I arrived an hour early for my 8:45 tee time and hung around the pro shop for a while. The inevitable happened - time passed and before I realised it, my tee time had come. I rushed to the first tee - barefoot, without my shoes - but the tee kept getting further and further away - and the first tee, bizarrely, was a beach. I finally arrived there, but the (lady) starter told me I was too late, and there was no offer of finding me an alternative time. I shrugged my shoulders and walked away. OK, peeps - now analyze that.

Back in the real world, I completed my morning exercises and headed off to Fraserburgh, with some of the Graham Parker CD's I received yesterday for company. The morning went OK and I decided to stroll round to the cafe at the nearby National Lighthouse Museum for a bite of lunch. I then walked back towards our factory partly along the coastal path, which is still officially closed at one end after the subsidence of last year. I had time for a photo, looking north over the start of the Moray Firth:

Mid-afternoon, I decided to head home, but I took a right turn at Strichen and headed towards the sign that pointed to the Stone Circle. Some nice walkways there, beside a stream and along the disused railway line - yes, Fraserburgh, like Banchory, used to be served by British Rail before Dr. Beeching came along in 1963.

Anyway, I parked the car and sat by the stream for a while. A couple of (at least equally) elderly gents passed and had a chat, and then I headed up the slope towards the stone circle:

The whole area is really rustic and peaceful. There was a small circular tower nearby:

The apparent doorway was only about 3 foot high, but I ducked down and entered, to find a tall column in the centre:

There were flies everywhere - I didn't hang around.

I got home eventually and there, waiting for me, was a birthday present from Oz:

Perfect - and it's non-alcoholic! I was going to buy it this year myself.