“Energy” capital

Some local facts on figures

The caller from “Growing up in Scotland” did not seem surprised when I said that the callee had gone away, abroad. Indeed despite Aberdeen being the most popular immigrant destination in Scotland many natives seem to want to get out as soon as they come of age. Below are 10 reasons to stay

(1) Some food can have exotic named associations. A “David” is a banana in celebration of a Huntly lad who stored one at work for his return from holidays. The infestation caused a kerfuffle.

(2) It’s 3 hours from the central belt, 1 hour or so from Dundee (home of jute, jam and journalism) and 6 from John O’Groats (top of Scottish mainland). People seldom visit twice.

(3)The Cooooncil is run by Barney Crockett (no relation)

(4) The most famous person from Aberdeen is Sir Alex Ferguson. We taught his all he knew about how to win at football. Since he left we’ve always looked back.

(5) My earliest memory of the beach was of elephants playing in the water; circus animals had not been banned then.

(6) Titanic and Cosmo Duff are inextricably linked. Guess who he was in the movie, he was not the local sailor at the wheel who was headlined in the local press: “Titanic sinks, Aberdeen man drowns”

(7) The Torry ferry disaster led to the building of a bridge to match the one over the other river that encloses Aberdeen

(8) The natural colour of the teenager is not orange.

(9) Aberdeen Dyce International airport is statistically sunnier than Heathrow cf fog-cancelled London flights this week.

(10) Other recent heroes include a footballer, of whom there is only one: Willie Miller, an ex-carpet advertiser, and Sir Ian Wood.