I have seen Loch Ness! Actually all I saw was grey — grey loch, grey sky, grey mist but no grey Nessie. Angus says she never appears when you are actually looking for her, proving that Nessie must be telepathic. Thankfully Angus’s sceptical propensities return when we are in the lab.

After that, I ate my first haggis. It wasn’t the first I have been served of course — I tried one in my first month here — but the first one that I actually ate. Either I was very hungry or some haggis are much better than others because this one was delicious, as were the mashed turnips, maybe because they were mostly butter. The haggis was made by Angus’s Aunt Mary, who also makes excellent ‘tatie cakes’ and the best shortbread in the universe, though even the best shortbread in the universe isn’t as good as Mah’s and Blue’s squished-fly biscuits or lamingtons or carrot cake, which the Scots haven’t discovered yet. They’d probably try to make it out of turnips. They even do Halloween out of turnips here, not pumpkins like in America, did you know? Angus says that Halloween is really Scottish and the Americans pinched it (I would say ‘evolved the tradition’, but not to Angus).

I still don’t like whiskey, except in fruitcake. Angus looked pained when I told him how you pour whiskey into our fruitcake. I asked him about deep-fried Mars Bars, but he’s never had one. Next weekend we’re going to try to hunt out a place that sells them.

I miss you all heaps but work is FASCINATING. I truly think we are achieving a lot here, even if we still need to correlate our results. Everyone is so friendly, not dour and standoffish at all, and the light is so soft, especially the long twilights. Every evening I look out over the city with the castle above — a really true genuine castle, floodlit at night — and the pub we all go to is fun, not like Aussie pubs where people just drink. They even have dogs in pubs here, which is extremely civilised. The city is just so OLD, and yet the land itself feels young. Does this sound silly? Angus came over all geological with me when I told him that and I didn’t know how to make him understand. Maybe you can’t, if you haven’t stood on a hill above Gibber’s Creek and watched the plains extend forever till they become part of the sky.

That sounds a little bit homesick. I am, but just a very little bit. I am glad I came.

Love to you all,

Scarlett

Chapter 48

Chapter 48

From the Notebooks of Maria Fitzharris