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About johngo
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Member:
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John Ollason
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Epinions.com ID:
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johngo
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Location:
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Scotland
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Member Since:
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Jul 31 '02
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Homepage:
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Connexion
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I used to work at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, a lecturer in ecology.
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Activity Summary
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Reviews Written: 83
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Member Visits: 5,077
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Total Visits: 21,695
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About johngo
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I live with my wife, Janet, in Scotland. Our remaining cat Leonora is a calico tortoise-shell, is reserved, but friendly when she gets to know you, short-haired but shaggy, pretty rather than beautiful.
We have been living for the last 17 years in an ancient house built in 1629. In one direction you can see the sea (just) in another you can just see Bennachie, a towering mountain 1500 feet high. Otherwise there is nothing to see except arable land recently harvested of barley, fields of grazing, occupied by beef cattle and sheep, some decorative copses planted by a forgotten laird and in the far distance you can make out the roofs of the little town of Ellon.
About 6 years we began to renovate a disused smiddy (smithy) a ruin, last used in the 1950s, but Janet did it up. My main contribution was as Job's comforter in the trials of making tradesmen do what they are paid to do.
I thought we were settled but Janet is an enemy of complacency, and now that we are retired we have the time for more gardening---That means a bigger garden---and she has been looking around for a new house, and found it. It's a former manse built in 1832, quite new by the standards we have become used to. So we have sold our house and our cottage, and moved in September 2005.
Church of Scotland ministers lived opulent lives in the 19th century evidence for this provided by wine cellar in the basement.
My main contribution to almost everything we do together is to read a book, or play with the computer. I am at my best outside where I am a willing carrier of large camera, small camera, tripod, spare lenses, day-sack, night-sack, binoculars, maps, compass, torch, magnifying glass, penknife, hats, gloves, waterproofs. Janet takes black-and-white photographs using a medium format camera about the size of a small car. She uses a tripod. It has to be a strong tripod. Strong tripods weigh a lot. I get my breath back while she is waiting for the light. I never knew that light came in such subtle qualities: it all looks much the same to me, brighter or duller, it's just light. Wrong!
We have time for our amusements now because we have both retired from work. Two years ago Janet was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, last year I was diagnosed with renal cancer, so far our treatment seems to have worked, and we both decided that it made sense to drop out of the rat-race and enjoy the afternoon.
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