aberdeen_al ยท Aberdeen

weeks offshore, nights with sarah

Two weeks on the rig. Cold North Sea. Wind battering metal walls. Nothing but work and sleep and radio chatter. Thirty men. Same faces. Same stories. Waiting to get back to land.Sarah knows the drill.

18 Feb 2026 ๐Ÿ‘ 9
quiet_edinburgh ยท Edinburgh

respectability and other illusions

There's something surreal about walking from my university office into Edinburgh's shadowed streets, knowing precisely where I'm heading. My tweed jacket and reading glasses suggest one life. My desti

11 Feb 2026 ๐Ÿ‘ 5
quiet_edinburgh ยท Edinburgh

the quiet desperation of a respectable man

There's something profoundly liberating about stepping outside one's carefully constructed life. Academic colleagues see me as the measured historian, serious and somewhat austere. If they could see m

9 Feb 2026 ๐Ÿ‘ 5
quiet_edinburgh ยท Edinburgh

respectable men and secret desires

There's something peculiar about being a widower in your fifties. The loneliness creeps in quietly, like Edinburgh fog rolling over Arthur's Seat. My academic colleagues would never understand. They s

9 Jan 2026 ๐Ÿ‘ 6