Living in Scotland

I think I have mentioned on this blog that I lived in Scotland with my parents in my late teens early twenties. It was a great experience. We lived in Aberdeen, then in cold, rainy, windy Dundee (not too different from the climate I live in now). While in Dundee, I worked at Boots Pharmacy selling fragrances. 

We later moved to a small cottage in Rait, outside of Dundee. That was during the blackouts and every day after sunset, the electricity would go out. My brother was sure there were ghosts in this old house and he would always get scared in the dark, where the candles would flicker because the house was so old and drafty.  Not so much hot water, I remember 3 of us sharing a bathtub full of hot water. I am pretty sure my poor brother was the last to bath. Our dog would regularly kill rabbits in the field and it would be a grisly sight every morning. 

 

Eventually I moved to London with some friends where I worked (illegally) at Lucienne Phillips on Knightsbridge until I got caught. I sold expensive designer clothes to lord, ladies and very wealthy Arab woman with rolls and rolls of money hidden beneath their black robes (the daughters never wore traditional robes). Lucienne was this incredible woman, with perfectly french manicured fingernails with an obsessive love of roses and high-fashion, like Jean Muir, Betsy Johnson The boutique was a couple of blocks away from Harrods, across the street from Hyde Park, it was really magical. I could take the train home to Dundee when needed but mostly we explored London on the weekends, with my older and much wiser friends that I lived with.

Of course, I did not completely appreciate how magical it was then. I don't understand how I got that job at the time,  I did have really nice clothes at the time. It was when the British Pakistanis were moving into London and the height of punk rock in London, with pink, spiky hair and lots of safety pins hanging from noses. I worked with lots of girls of different nationalities. Below is the outside of what was Lucienne Phillips.

Anyway, I was in love with London. The international community, the history, the museums. But it was hard to survive there, even back then. In the beginning I lived in a house with 8 people, then we moved closer to London in a flat with 4 of us. As much as I did not want to leave, I was feeling like I was losing time and needed to get back to school. I had 2 years of college under my belt. I did manage to get a work permit there, and I don't understand why, but I left London to got back to the states to attend school.

I strayed way off the point here. My parents bought a house in Scotland called Emerald Banks, in Insch, then stupidly sold it when they were going through the pre-divorce time of their lives. Mom was so happy in that place. I wish she could have kept it. At the time, I thought I would always have access to Scotland but then their marriage fell apart, and continued to do so stateside. 

We did go on several driving family vacations, looked for the Lock Ness monster in Inverness and saw lots of castle ruins, but as I travel around Scotland via Google, watch British mysteries based in the Hebrides, I realize how little we actually saw. I feel ashamed and disappointed I was not more curious back then. 

I feel fortunate to have Google and YouTube to do a little traveling when I am feeling nostalgic for Scotland. I ran across a few the other day and was so absorbed with the beauty! As I remember, I was not as much into nature as I was in fashion and partying, stupid me. I did have a couple of opportunities to get married to locals and I wonder how my life would have turned out if I had pursued and accepted. But all and all, I had such a great experience, fun, learning, living, I was very lucky. Mom and I would drive 27 miles over to St. Andrews to have a day out and lunch, attended extravagant dinners in castles with men playing bagpipes at the entrance, joined exclusive clubs created by the petroleum companies for Americans, played golf, met traveling Mormons trying to convert us, and had lots of friends from all over the world. Did I mention lots of parties and dinners? (Why wasn't I collecting sand then?)