Lessons from 365

We arrived in Aberdeen 365 days ago. That's a whole year for the mathematically challenged portions of the readership.

To commemorate we thought we would share ten lessons for living in Scotland, generally, and Aberdeen, specifically. (It's a bit like the Silly Scottish Slipups, just without the slipping.)

1. The question, "is it okay to have leftovers for tea?," is not a request for you to re-steep a used tea-bag. Tea is synonymous with dinner. And yes, leftovers are acceptable as long as we can utilize the Shepson Oreo Method for pudding, since pudding equals dessert. (We suppose that was two lessons for the price of one.)

2. Remember that it is still unlawful for you to do business with Cuba, Iran, and North Korea even though you're living abroad. The PhD programs in America's prisons aren't nearly as prestigious as those in Scotland's Universities.

3. Note that the phrase "great customer service" is akin to saying "pleasant smelling nappy."

4. Some advice for the Scottish office worker: When you develop a pet-hate that you just can't be bothered with, make sure you take the time to get it sorted. If you don't, you may inevitably be gobsmacked at all the gobbledygook that can creep in and do your head in. If you simply calm down and relax, it will be gone in no time and then, touch wood, that's you.

5. Groceries delivered to your door is, as they say here, brilliant.

6. The general impression around Aberdeen is that there are only two seasons: rain while light out and rain while dark out, formerly known as summer and winter. Although completely untrue, this basic distinction makes for very informative weather reports.

7. Houston may very well be the best known U.S. city. You know the old saying: towns that drill together, stay together.

8. Make sure that while you install and configure the WAN Accelerator that you change the IP Address to match the MPLS line that will be routed through the data centre located in Aberdeen. You may require a Domain Controller on site to migrate users, computers, and servers into the correct domain. (This lesson was really just an excuse for Allison to dominate with some of her IT vocab skills. Boo yah.)

9. Granite is the only building material known to humankind.

10. Finally, a visual lesson in Scottish (read: ridiculously convoluted) road signs. You will especially want to take note of the road cut off by the red rectangle of doom. That's Scottish for, it's time to go back to the roundabout and try again.

Cheers.