It was a strange mood in Aberdeen. On the morning of the result, two oil workers in my hotel met over breakfast and slapped each other's backs.
'Better together!' said one. A couple on the next table looked up in disgust and decided to leave.
Aberdeen is the oil-rich city that would have been the economic powerhouse of Alex Salmond's independent Scotland, yet it had rejected his economic plan by a margin of 58/42 and in Aberdeenshire 60/40.
In the town centre on the still appropriately named Union Street, many accepted that they had voted for the safe option.
Their city is the second wealthiest in the UK, they have 2% unemployment. They didn't want to rock the tanker.
'I'm a nationalist,' said one woman, 'but there was just too much uncertainty with full independence.'
For the pro-independence camp their enduring memory of the campaign seemed to be David Cameron begging Scotland to remain in the Union.
For them, this only confirmed that the UK needed Scotland more than Scotland needed the UK.
'We bottled it,' said a despondent Yes voter. 'People are laughing at Scotland now because we always bottle it and we've missed our only chance.'
A worker keeps a tally at a counting center in Aberdeen
They had waited a long time for it. I first came to Aberdeen 24 years ago and remember the 'Free Scotland' graffiti on the street corner where I lived as a student in 1990, the year Alex Salmond first became leader of the SNP, a job he would do twice for a decade each time.
As an Englishman in Aberdeen I would often get berated with arguments for Independence.
It was always a reasonably good natured but a few English students voted SNP in local elections mostly for effect - so they could argue they wanted separation too, for England's sake.
In the same vein, one day my flatmate walked to the end of our street and wrote under the graffiti - 'Free England!'
So, it was strange to be back in Aberdeen, over 20 years later, reporting on the culmination of Alex Salmond's political career.
The city centre had spruced up a bit with a new shopping centre, an impressive aquatic centre, a greater number of bars and more expensive restaurants than before.
But when I did my old four-mile run route down King Street and cutting through the council flats near Brig-o-Don to the beach, what struck me most was how little things have changed.
The same small-windowed, high-rise blocks were as dilapidated as ever and the old bingo hall on King Street hadn't seen a lick of paint in 20 years.
Later, in my taxi to the airport the driver said: 'It's a very odd mood right now - like somebody died.'
He'd taken the Yes sticker off his car window and put it in his glove compartment.
The Union has been saved but Scotland is more divided than ever: between old and young, rich and poor, Yes and No.
Posted by Unknown on Saturday, September 20, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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