August 2024 brought me an unexpected visit to Aberdeen. Queen’s Park got drawn to play at Aberdeen in the Scottish League Cup. Leaving aside my other associations with the city, I went to watch Aberdeen occasionally when I lived there in the 1970s.
So off I went that Friday morning on a bright green Flixbus, waving my senior travel card proudly for all to see. It was my first journey with that brand. I am sure it will not be the last.
I booked to stay the night at the Residence Inn in the city centre. The location is ideal for my purposes and the accommodation is great.
I had decided to do the Aberdeen Parkrun on Saturday morning and to get to/from the start at Bridge of Don by taking city buses. The plan worked well. The bus route out King Street was full of memories, taking me past my grandparents’ home (in University Road) and King’s College where I studied in the 70s.
The Parkrun course was evocative too, being out and back along Beach Boulevard. When I was playing rugby in the 70s the coach sometimes used that route to give us a pre-training warm up. This usually happened after we had played badly in the last match. The beach is grim in January in the dark, with a north wind blowing snow in off the sea from the Arctic.
The other poignant moment was when the first timers’ briefing took place shortly before the start. I thought I recognised the woman who gave the briefing but only figured it out after the run started. Her (late) father was one of my best friends at school and I was best man at her parents’ wedding.
Small world.
The staff at the Residence Inn were kind enough to look the other way when I turned up for a second visit to the breakfast buffet after Parkrun.
As for the football, my team gave everything and it was still 0-0 after 90 minutes. Aberdeen grabbed the winner 2 minutes into stoppage time.
After the match I had MegaBus waiting to whisk me back to the south and comfort and style. And for free, obviously.
It was a lovely wee escape.
ⓒ iain taylor, 2024
🏴🇪🇺