Hi, Welcome back.
I’ve been asked how living here in Cullen, Scotland, is different from living in Fort Myers, Florida. Aside from the weather, especially the temperature, there are quite a few differences.
First: Here we don’t have a car. CAR. Let that sink in. We use public transportation: buses and trains. The system is pretty easy and very reliable, once we got used to it. We know the schedules for the places we go most frequently. One of our main destinations is the town of Buckie (pronounced bookie), about 12 miles away. But, since there are 19 stops, it takes about 25 minutes. The good part is that we don’t have to find parking. The annoying part is the time spent waiting for the bus; and sometimes, although there are good bus stop shelters, waiting in the wind can be a challenge.
Buckie is were we go to do major grocery shopping, as they have 2 of the biggest grocery chains, Tesco and LiDL (pronounced like “little”). We take my small roll-aboard suitcase and backpack empty and return with them full. Here in Cullen there is a good co-op, but since it is pretty small, the choices are more limited. We go to the co-op about every other day for things like milk, eggs, fresh fruit and some veggies. Since the co-op is up and down a very steep hill, we don’t like to get very heavy things there.
Second: In Fort Myers, Anne and I went to the movies pretty often. There is no cinema here in Cullen. In fact, the closest seems to be in Aberdeen, a bus ride of about 1 hour 35 minutes then a train ride of about 1 hour 30 minutes.
So, we tend to watch TV instead. We have 2 channels that we like. Channel 20 airs detective and police shows; British detective and police shows. And another channel which I forget right now that airs all the good British comedies like “As Time Goes By” , “Father Brown Mysteries” and a few others.
Third: We know people in Fort Myers, Florida. We arrived here in Cullen knowing no one. So, we set out to meet people. The first people we met attend the Methodist church that is directly behind our house. Our first week here we attended Sunday service, then a tea on Wednesday morning, then The Guild on Wednesday afternoon. These are three weekly scheduled events. At the tea, everyone sits around and talks and drinks tea or coffee and eats goodies, the men at one end and the ladies at the other. The Guild sometimes schedules a speaker or some other event. Last week they just had a general knowledge quiz. Then there are tea and coffee and goodies, of course.
The church is very small. The first Sunday we went there, counting us and the pastor, there were 19 people in attendance. However, the people at the church are very friendly and so have met a lot of them. They are also very good about sharing information and answering our questions.
For us to stay here for 6 months, there had to be a library. So, we went to the library. The librarian gave us temporary cards so we can take books out. She also told us about a book club that meets the first Friday of the month. So, we got that book. Jane Austen, Persuasion. Anne read it, but I think I will get the Cliff Notes on line and just hang out at the book club on this one.
Then we went next door to the Community Center and met those people. It was going to be shut down but there is a group trying to keep it open. I volunteered to teach a Conversational Spanish class. we’ll see how that goes, if there is any interest. But, that makes 3 more people we now know in Cullen.
Some things aren’t different. They are just announced differently.
I guess that’s all for today. I will write about more differences later. Hope to see you then.