Hello.

And welcome to this my first Blog posting. Over the coming weeks months and god forbid, years, I hope to share with you all,  the musings and ramblings of an Englishman who has decided to set up home in Scotland, but who finds himself inextricably stuck elsewhere.

Along the way I will be sharing my thoughts on such varied topics as Life in the Middle East, Fly Fishing on the River Spey, The best Christmas Trees in Morayshire and why Pork Pie is quite possibly the best food in the world. I will also be addressing  the difficult questions in life, such as why isn’t the world knee deep in chickens given the amount we eat every day and if dogs sense of smell is so fantastic why do they stick their noses quite so far up another dogs bottom?

But first perhaps a little bit of background.

Yes its true, I am English.  Born in the tiny fishing hamlet of British West Hartlepool. I left there when I went to University and have rarely returned.

Now married to a true Scot, we have opted to set up home in the county of Morayshire, near Aberlour and close to the River Spey.  A beautiful part of the world,  steeped in history, with rolling countryside, world famous fishing rivers and at the heart of the Scottish Whisky trail.

The problem is, we currently find ourselves living and working in Dubai in the UAE. This is after stints in Abu Dhabi, Doha, Cairo, Jakarta, Melbourne, Sfax, Houston, Paris and Mold in North Wales.  Pretty much anywhere and everywhere other than Scotland.

As you may imagine, this presents certain difficulties for the WannabeScot, particularly one with hobbies comprising primarily field sports, sampling the many single malts distilled within a stones throw of our family home in Craigellachie and driving lonely country lanes at stupid, (but always legal) speeds.

And so this Blog will be charting our progress in our efforts to get back to Scotland, whilst sharing our experiences of the varied and often fascinating places, people and experiences we encounter on the way.

I do hope you choose to follow us along the way. I intend to avoid politics, religion and Donald Trump as far as is humanly possible, but do enjoy the occasional rant and bit of banter. I’ll keep it as interesting and amusing as I can and may even manage to get you thinking.

In the meantime, ‘Lang may yer lum reek’  as they say.  And you can’t say fairer than that.

Graham Picture

Graham, the wannabescot.