Scotland: I'm finally here

After an all too brief visit to London, catching up with relatives and friends, I landed in a snow-covered Inverness on the afternoon of Saturday the 17th of January and was collected from the airport by Callum, the Production Manager at Glenfarclas. It was about a 45 minute drive back to the distillery and he pointed out landmarks, towns and other distilleries along the way.

We arrived at Glenfarclas and I was shown to my accommodation. I was told it was a nice place, but I still can't quite believe the house I have been put up in. I was hoping for a tidy workmans's cottage. As it happens, I am the sole occupant in "The Manager's House", which is normally kept empty for guests.

It is newly renovated and has three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a generous kitchen and living area. It also has a separate dining room and sitting room. It is all centrally heated and decorated with  a "hunting, shooting and fishing theme". I will probably use about a third of the space.

There was a bottle of 12 year old Glenfarclas whisky on the sideboard in the dining room that I was invited to familiarise myself with.

After dropping my bag, I was introduced to Mr and Mrs Grant. John Grant is the chairman of J & G Grant, which has owned Glenfarclas since 1865. Despite this legacy, the Grants come across as friendly and down-to-earth. I was welcomed with a cup of tea and a piece of christmas cake.

I'll write about how the work goes soon. I think I'm going to like it here.

Glenfarclas in the snow

My hoose

Bathroom wallpaper: "Och. I think I've hooked a dolphin"

Welcome to Singapore - You can leave your diet at the door

If you are expecting me to write about whisky, you will have to wait for the next post. I'm at the end of four days in Singapore and whisky hasn't featured. Booze is fairly expensive here, so apart from the odd bottle of Tiger after a day of sightseeing, it has been an almost teetotal visit.

What I have done is eat. There is so much good food here.
You probably know the story - Singapore is a small island, populated with Malays, Chinese, Indians, Europeans and lots of others. They all brought their food traditions, and some have evolved into distinctly Singaporean dishes. I wanted to eat them all and gave it a good nudge, going to different food centres, full of tiny food stalls everyday. I haven't had a western meal since the plane trip here. Breakfast this morning was rice porridge with fish stirred into it, yesterday, it was sort of turnip Egg Foo Yong. Maybe the best thing was a Mutton Biryani from a bustling restaurant in Little India. It's a good thing I'm leaving. My trousers feel tighter already.

It's always hot here. It's the least warm part of the year at the moment, but it's still always between low 20's and low 30's. I just got used to sweating and buying plenty of fresh juice drinks. The best of which was made from tropical Starfruit and tastes like a slightly sour, slightly salty Nashi pear. Very refreshing,

Anyway, hearing about other people's holidays isn't all that interesting, so I'll stop now, but here are a few photos.

A typical food centre scene. Meals here are typically $3 - $5.

With so many vendors under one roof, one vendor can be very specialised. This one only offers two variations of the same dish, Kway Teow, and has done since 1974. Needless to say, they do a bloody good Kway Teow.

This is a coconut milk drink called "Cendol". It's nice enough if you like drinks with Durian and little green noodles in them.

I took this photo to prove that I didn't just eat in Singapore. I looked at some touristy stuff too. Singapore seems slightly obsessed with the "Merlion' at the right of this picture. It's a statue that projectile-vomits water.

I wasn't really in Singapore to shop, but this was a bargain I couldn't pass up. For 30 cents, I purchased a dual-purpose "earwax pick" and blackhead remover. I didn't even have to haggle. In saying that, for $2, I could have got clear plastic earwax pick with a built in light. Truly a gift for the man who has everything.

And so it begins

Welcome to the first post of my blog, in which I will be writing about moving to Scotland and working in the whisky industry.

I have enjoyed drinking Scotch whisky since my early 20's and have long wanted to visit a distillery.

2014 has been a pretty big year for me. My marriage came to an end and as a result, the house that had been our home for 7 years was put on the market. My job was fairly secure, but it never seemed like it was quite the right fit. With no dependents other than a cat, I didn't just have an opportunity for a change and an adventure, I almost had an obligation.

My wife

Being a keen car enthusiast, my initial thoughts were to do something related to motoring. I looked into taking part in a 100 pound car rally where I would drive from England, down to Africa in an old jalopy, then donate it to a charity. Another thought was to buy a large motorcycle and ride it the length of Central and South America.

Our house

Both these options appealed, and still do, but they were both something that I would do for a few weeks or months, then go back to....I don't know what.

My workshop

I appreciated my job with the New Zealand government, but in the four years I was there, I never felt like I was doing the right job for me. I like working with my hands, fixing things, making things, cooking things. My father is an architect and my mother a caterer, so they were never far from the products of their labour. My job had paid the mortgage, but I was always a tiny tooth on a cog in a big, lumbering bureaucratic machine. (I realise this paragraph has a slightly Marxist ring to it. I would like to make it clear at this point that I am not a Marxist. Not even a little bit.)

My job

While dealing with marital fall-out, getting the house ready to sell, workplace boredom, developing a drinking habit and deciding what to do with my life, I came across the bucket list I had written years ago and looked for something slightly reckless to tick-off. Between "Eat Foie Gras" and "Drive on the Autobahn" was "Visit a Scottish whisky distillery". Not so reckless, but it got me thinking.

My cat

If you'd asked me a year ago if I had any regrets, my immediate thought would be that I would have liked to have followed thousands of Kiwis before me and spent a few years in the UK on an overseas experience, commonly known as "The Big OE". I have enjoyed three trips to England in my life and have always felt an ancestral connection to the country. In some respects, more so than to New Zealand. In 2003, Jo and I spent just under a year overseas, mostly in Europe and working in Ireland. We had a good time, but it was more like an extended holiday than actually arriving in a  foreign country and getting on with life.

I am now 35 and after the age of 30 New Zealanders could no longer get a 1-year working Visa for the UK, so I thought I had missed my chance. I looked into getting a 6-month holiday Visa and it turned out a change of rules meant I was eligible for a 5-year UK working Visa because my grandmother was born in England.

I don't recall exactly when I had the idea, but I decided to try and get a job in a distillery. My desk-jockey work experience was somewhat irrelevant, so I couldn't expect to be paid much. On a whim, I did some internet research and found the contact details for some independently-owned Scottish distilleries. In late July I wrote and posted letters to the owners of nine distilleries offering to do any work they could offer me.

To be honest, it was a bit of a long shot, and after a few weeks, I had had only one response, from the owner of a small start-up distillery who wished me well but said he wasn't in a position to provide me with any work.

Just as I was thinking about other options, I got an email from the owner of the Glenfarclas distillery in Speyside, saying they would be prepared to take me on for a "training period"of 4 months. They could also provide me with accommodation onsite for that time.  He warned me that the distillery is in a remote location, with little or no public transport and that they can get 3 or 4 feet of snow in the winter, and I, along with everyone else, would be on occaisonal shoveling duties. Emails were exchanged and my pipe-dream turned into actual planning. I applied for an ancestry Visa, handed in my notice at work and bought plane tickets. We accepted an offer on the house and prepared to move out.

I am due to arrive at the distillery on 17 January and start work on the 19th. The distillery manager has asked me for my clothing sizes, so I can be fitted with the staff uniform.  The plan is that I will spend the first few weeks with the warehousemen, then moving to mashing and distilling. At the end of that, who knows what will happen... Maybe more distillery work, maybe some travel. Maybe a stint in rehab.

I am hugely grateful to the Grant family who have owned Glenfarclas since 1865, and to Callum, who is the Production Manager, and who I will be reporting to. It's quite a leap of faith to take someone on from the other side of the world, based only on little more than a letter.

This is the first time I have attempted a blog, and I'm learning as I go. Bear with me if I break some blogging rules or bore you silly. Another thing I will point out is that I won't just be writing about whisky. I want to write about life in Scotland, my travels, the places I go, the food I eat and the people I meet. In fact, pretty much anything, because it's my blog.