All that oil, and this is Union Street.

Aberdeen got rich on North Sea oil and has been waiting for it to come back ever since. Union Street, the grand granite mile through the middle, is To Let signs and phone shops, and the gulls run what's left. Locals call it Aberdoom when the oil price drops, which is most years now. The council area has three times Scotland's share of homes stood empty for more than six months.

Then there's the food. 17.9% of the food businesses inspected were told to improve, more than three times the typical Scottish town's share, and so were a third of the takeaways. Two weeks on a rig eating canteen food, then a kebab on the way home. Brave lads.

It's grey, the wind comes straight off the North Sea and the buses run all night, so at least you can leave whenever you like. Dundee's down the road. It's the one place Aberdonians get to feel posh about.

The editor, who saw grey granite under a grey sky