Adios Dolphins

The Dolphin Trail is over

All 50 Wild Dolphins have found new homes and raised an incredible £531,000  for the ARCHIE Foundation and for Whale and Dolphin Conservation.  The benefit of having these beautiful pieces of art all over the city was clear for all to see. People of all ages and abilities were inspired to go and investigate Aberdeen in search of the Dolphins.  Forgotten gems and once beloved places that had not been visited since childhood were re-discovered.  Conversations were started amongst strangers comparing notes on which Dolphin they had found and which was their favourite so far.  All in all this project by Wild in Art was hugely successful in bringing a sense of community and shared interest to the citizens of Aberdeen and its visitors.

Below are all 50 of the Dolphins which were part of the original trail, and a sneeky late entry in the form of Tartan Tam who was a little dolphin created for the auction. We hope you enjoy looking at the photos as much as we enjoyed taking them with Little Angus the Bull.

There is a rumour going round that another Wild in Art trail might be visiting Aberdeen in 2016! So, which animal should they choose for next time?

Wild Dolphin Trail

A Pod Like No Other

As part of our Angus's Grand Tour project aimed at showing off just how wonderful Aberdeen, Scotland is, Little Angus is following the Wild Dolphins trail.  Below are the first 5 #dolphie's (dolphin Selfies) Little Angus is hoping to get all 50.

Wild Dolphins is an art project which has seen 50 life sized sculptures of bottle nosed dolphins appear all over the city.  Organised by Wild in Art and supporting the ARCHIE Foundation and Whale and Dolphin Conservation, these brightly coloured and imaginatively decorated dolphins can be seen until August 29th, 2014.

#dolphie no1 Don the Dolphin - Don is currently living on the upper mall of Union Square, he is painted in an Aberdeen Football Club strip (making him Little Angus's favourite) and is signed by the team which won the Scottish League Cup

#dolphie No2 Adeona - Looking out over the North Sea from the Mouth of the River Don, Adeona is delicately painted with lifelike birds and fish.

#dolphie No 3 Montgomery - situated in leafy Seaton Park, Montgomery is a riot of colour.  A beautiful painted cityscape and fused glass shapes adorn this stunning dolphin.

#dolphie No 4 The Great Wave at Aberdeen - One of the dolphins on the Beach promenade, The great Wave at Aberdeen conjures up the essence of the sea with its beautiful images rendered in calming shades of blue.

#dolphie No 5 Funky D - This dolphin nestled in the heart of Johnston Gardens really is a leap into the world of fantasy from its dragon snout to the magical landscapes and figures of balloon flyers on it's base this is a must see piece of work.

More dolphies will follow soon, the project can be followed on Twitter using the hashtags  #dolphie and #WildDolphins.

Community Poetry Project

Two more poems have been produced thanks to the children at Braehead Primary School and Quarryhill Primary school.  

We have been so impressed by the quality of ideas and imagination that the participants have shown and each poem despite sharing a theme is completely different.

Braehead -Water

Watering cans are puddles with walls
Tip them up and see white waves, 
Crashing, bubbling, full of life,
Refreshing the garden, bringing it to life.

Water pipes are trapped rivers
Rippling their way to freedom
Through gurgling taps Into the kettle,

Streaming into coffee cups

The rains come.  Some think its bad,
We like it that way. It cleanses, nourishing
Bringing Rain Forests and vegetable plots alive,
Brought to life to feed us and brighten our days

Quarryhill - Water

We stand at our sinks,
Running constant hot water.
Showers, gushing into life
Cleaning, refreshing,
Streaming rivulets of soap
Gurgling into drains
Leading to secret pools
Fed by bubbling waterfalls

Catfish, shark and seahorse
Swim through evaporating rip tides
In our hot, steaming baths.
Dolphins and sting ray
Lead us to safety
With a glass of ice cubed water
Filled by elephants trunks,
Natures soda stream.

The kitchen comes alive
As warming waters lap at our feet,
Surfboards and jet skis whiz past the fridge
Our Caribbean kitchen.
Reality pours in, dreaming ends
Sinkfuls of dishes lie waiting,
Covered in sand and seaweed.

To participate in this project, or to find out more about it, contact our Writer in Residence, Andy Bisset by email on shopmobevents@gmail.com

Angus' Grand Tour

A young bull on a quest

Shopmobility Aberdeen turned 21 last year, which got us thinking about all the people we have served during that time and all the places they have come from.  Aberdeen is a city which attracts people from all over the world to live and work as well as visit and this has led to us having clients from every continent. Many thousands of people have visited and enjoyed all that our city has to offer thanks to the services we provide.

As well as people from all over the world flocking to our Aberdeen, Aberdonians have traveled to all four corners of the globe (wait, globes don't have corners) and settled down to make these places their home and in many cases called these places Aberdeen (presumably to save confusion) in addition to this, because of the business interests of various Lord Aberdeen's over the years, there are towns, cities and geographical features all over the world named Aberdeen.

We began to wonder what our fellow Aberdonians were up to, especially as this is the year of Homecoming  in Scotland, we decided that we should have a family get together.

To achieve this, we needed an envoy, someone who we could all get behind.  With the support of Aberdeen Football Club, we chose Little Angus The Bull, cousin of Angus the Bull the AFC mascot. Each Aberdeen will be asked to provide Angus with a host who will help him discover all that is unique, beautiful, interesting, quirky and note worthy about their Aberdeen, help him with his holiday snaps and share with him everything that best showcases their Aberdeen.

Little Angus visits Marischal College, Aberdeen, UK

This is our simple, fun and slightly odd way of extending the hand of friendship.  To bring the event to a close, and to strengthen the newly made bonds of friendship between the respective Aberdeen's we plan to hold an exhibition displaying all the photographs and ephemera participants have shared, it may even be possible to turn this into a touring exhibition which could visit those Aberdeen's who participated.

Little Angus has looked at the map, identified 21 Aberdeen's he would like to visit, arranged his passage thanks to the Lord Provost of Aberdeen George Adam and Hellmann Worldwide Logistics and gathered a few tokens for his hosts.  Angus is almost ready for the off, but he plans to investigate what his own Aberdeen has to offer first so he can tell everyone just how wonderful it really is.

Little Angus outside The Central Library, St Marks Church and His Majesty's Theatre better known to the locals as Education, Salvation and Damnation! 

Hong Kong Hike - The Return

The story so far

The Hong Kong Hikers have been making remarkable progress on their journey back to Aberdeen UK.  The route back is not perhaps the most direct but it is interesting, the Hikers are travelling through some of the most beautiful and exciting terrain our planet has to offer.  As they are trying to make their way home without using any of the major landmasses and instead using only islands they are discovering flora and fauna which is specific to only a few square miles and there are some pretty odd beasties out there.

After leaving Honk Kong they first went to Madagascar (told you the route was circuitous) where they encountered, amongst many other things, the Aye Aye.

These most bizarre creatures with their long twig-like middle fingers, huge eyes, rat-like teeth, and large bat-like ears suffer widespread persecution by native Malagasy as an harbinger of bad luck. We think they are adorable!

Coincidentally their name sounds like an Aberdonian greeting, many Aberdonians will say "Aye aye" when they meet, usually followed by "Fit like the day?" or " Fit hiv' you been up tae"

Their next stop was Reunion Island.  Reunion is a volcanic island in the Indian Ocean, a wild beauty, rich in mountains and possessing a still active volcano: the Piton de la Fournaise with 2.631m in height. Administratively, Réunion is one of the overseas departments of France. Like the other overseas departments, Réunion is also one of the 27 regions of France (being an overseas region) and an integral part of the Republic with the same status as those situated on the European mainland.

Photo and caption by Luc Perrot

This photo was done in the mountains of Reunion Island in the middle of the night. We can observe the center of our Milky Way and the constellation of Scorpio. In the lower part of the picture is my silhouette, illuminated by my headlamp, which appears between two old tamarind trees.

Location: Plaine des Cafres, Réunion Island

Following on from Reunion, the Hong Kong Hikers made their virtual way to Mauritius.  

The legendary Dodo bird was found only in Mauritius before it became extinct. Despite its extinction, the Dodo remains Mauritius’ national animal.

Mauritius, a volcanic island of lagoons and palm-fringed beaches in the Indian Ocean, has a reputation for stability and racial harmony among its mixed population of Asians, Europeans and Africans.

The island has maintained one of the developing world's most successful democracies and has enjoyed years of constitutional order.

It has preserved its image as one of Africa's few social and economic success stories.

The Hong Kong Hike- The Return, continues. Where will they go next and what will they discover?  Keep your eyes on this blog to find out or follow the Hong Kong Hike on Twitter and Facebook