Walk With Me

There's no doubt I'm a fast walker.  My mum is also a fast walker, and by all accounts my sisters are too (aren't you?).  I mean don't get me wrong, I like to stroll... through Las Vegas... along the South Bank of the Thames... down the Corniche... while window shopping in the Mall of the Emirates ;)  I even left the house at five minutes to three the other day, as opposed to a few minutes past three as is my usual, and consciously strolled up to school enjoying the afternoon sun.  But sometimes strolling just drives me nuts, queue the memory of many a walk up George Street to my student flat in the freezing cold, wishing and urging and narking the Don to hurry up because it's cold! and why do we have to walk so slowly?!?

Basically, I think fast walking is as a result of not wanting to be cold (probably in my mum's case too!) and so a) I want to get from A to B as quickly as possible and b) I don't want to hang around at B any longer than I have to.  I mean in all the times I have been outside since moving back here last October I have consciously felt warm twice.  Twice: once playing Ogodisk on the beach ten days ago; the other time for about fifteen minutes the Sunday before that when I happened to find a spot in the garden in glorious sunshine with no wind.

Anyway, turns out my kids are fast walkers too.  I mean I know I set a fair pace on the walk to and from school or to and from town or to and from the train station, and they always keep up, but I assumed if I slowed down then they would too.  Turns out, they don't.

While Toots was partaking of her fourth swim session of the week (and second of the day) this afternoon at one of the local universities in town, Tiger, Lightning and I decided to stroll along the River Dee nearby, which is actually the Don's [childhood] neck of the woods.  But the two of them weren't having any of it...  Honestly, I finally had to tell them to slow down and enjoy the stroll, that we weren't rushing from one bridge to the other and then back again as quickly as possible, but were enjoying the weather, and if truth be told, wasting a fair bit of time. Which very quickly led to no strolling at all and instead consisted of lobbing sticks into the river, racing up the banks without crushing the daffodils just popping up, and working out how old each person who had a park bench or tree dedicated to them was when they died (great for Tiger's mental maths I have to say).

The Brig o' Dee

The Bridge of Dee today carries the main A90 road into Aberdeen from the south, but actually dates back to 1527 and crosses at what was once the City of Aberdeen's southern boundary.  It's approximately about 32 feet (10m) above typical water height and consists of seven nearly semicircular ribbed arches, built using granite and Elgin sandstone.

The bridge was nearly all rebuilt between 1718 and 1723 and in 1841 was widened from fourteen to twenty six feet (from four to eight meters).  The bridge is located near the northern end of the 'Causey Mounth' which was a medievale drovers' road connecting Stonehaven to Aberdeen.  This ancient trackway specifically connected the Bridge of Dee via Bourtreebush, Muchalls Castle and Stonehaven to the south.  Until 1832, this was the only access to the city from the south, and the bridge still features the original 16th Century piers, coat of arms and passing places.