The Braemar Gathering

Back at the beginning of September, I went with some friends to The Braemar Gathering, a well-known Highland games that takes place every year in the town of Braemar in Aberdeenshire(about 2 1/2 hours north of Edinburgh). This was only my second excursion to parts of Scotland outside of Edinburgh since I moved here. Sad, I know. It was also my first time to ever experience a Highland games, and I was pretty excited. What exactly are Highland games? Kind of like a low-key track meet with foot races and heavy weight events, but also with pipers and dancers and kilts (oh my)!

We got off to a bit of a late start, but the drive up to Braemar was relaxing with pretty scenery and no unplanned detours (we saved those for the drive back). Oh the way, we passed the Forth Bridge, drove through Perth, and saw lots of sheep. The sheep were pretty cute, at least from a distance.

We arrived a little after noon. It was a bit drizzly to start out, but it later cleared up into a lovely day. This is the sign over the gate wishing us a hundred thousand welcomes in Gaelic.

If you actually want to know how to pronounce ceud mille failte (a hundred thousand welcomes), check out this web page.

By the time we arrived, there were already a lot of people there, and the numbers continued to grow throughout the afternoon. This is the best picture I could get of the field. It definitely would have been an advantage to be at least 5 inches taller. (Note to self, next time, splurge for seats in the stands.)

On the very left in the picture above is where they held the weight and hammer throwing events. In the middle is the stage where they held the dance competition. And what you can't see because it's blocked by the people standing in front of me, is the tug-of-war competition.

Definitely need to get a better view of the tug-of-war competition next time.

They also had foot races and caber tosses. For one of the races, they started out on the field and ran up this mountain.

I'm not kidding. See, in the picture on the right, they are running. Up the mountain. Even if I ever get to the point where I'm running regularly again, I don't see myself running up a mountain. Ever. Unfortunately, due to the my stature and the mobs of people, I wasn't able to get a picture of strong men in kilts tossing small telephone poles (i.e., cabers). Sigh. And I wasn't quick enough on the draw to get a picture of the men racing in kilts and ties. Sigh again.

Of course there were lots, and lots of pipers and drummers. Pipe and drum bands from the UK and around the world performed. It's not an exaggeration to say there was piping in the air.

Really, they were everywhere.

But by far one of the best part of the day at the Gathering was the men in kilts. :+) Men of all ages were wearing kilts, from stately older gentlemen to adorable little guys.

Unfortunately, they didn't always stand still long enough for me to get the best picture.

Shortly before we had to head back to our cars, we we lucky enough to be standing in just the right spot by the road to see the Queen when she arrived. Yes, the Queen. See, this is her car. No really, I swear, the Queen is in that car, in the back on the left. I waved to her. I just couldn't manage to take a picture of her.

Right before we left for the drive back to Edinburgh, I took one last picture. The Highlands are beautiful in a very rugged sort of way. I really need to make time to get back there.

Amazing Fireworks

This weekend I finally got out of my apartment to see a bit of Scotland and experience the end of the Edinburgh International Festival. I'm still working on getting my pictures and thoughts organized from my excursion on Saturday (hint, it involved Men in Kilts and the Queen!), but I thought I'd go ahead and post my pictures from Sunday evening's entertainment.

A colleague at work was able to get extra tickets to the annual Fireworks Concert that is the finale to the Edinburgh International Festival. And I owe her many, many thanks for inviting me. It was amazing! And wonderful! And, and, and... Ok, you probably get the idea. We were treated to a concert played by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. The music was punctuated by the fireworks display, the likes of which I haven't seen since I can't even remember.

The concert started with the Overture to Candide by Bernstein, one of my favorites and so fun and challenging to play. We also got to hear some Gershwin and Copeland and a few others. The evening ended with Sousa's The Liberty Bell march. For some, this march brings to mind Monty Python's Flying Circus. The Liberty Bell was the theme music for that program. For me, it conjures up memories of endless measures playing off beats, the part assigned to French horn players 99.99999% of the time in marches. Argh. I will say, though, that marches do go very well with fireworks.

The fireworks were set off from Edinburgh Castle, and we watched from down below in the Princess Street Gardens. It's impossible to really get across just with words and pictures what last night's fireworks concert was like. I hope that the pictures below will at least give you a small taste.

Vocabulary Update

Being an American living over here in Scotland, I occasionally encounter new words, or new meanings for words. For example, when I first moved here, one of the first unusual-to-me word uses that threw me was for the word salad. I went to a sandwich shop for lunch and after ordering my typical sandwich fillings of tuna and cheddar, I was asked if I wanted salad on my sandwich.

My response: "Ummm."

The word salad here has evolved to also mean "lettuce, tomato, and cucumber, and possibly other veggies one might put on a sandwich."

This past week, I picked up a new word. Ironically, it was used by a fellow American who has just lived here for a long time. It always surprises me to hear her use British words or speak the occasional word with a British accent, because otherwise, her accent is very American.

New word: stroppy

It is an adjective used to describe a person who is easily offended or annoyed, bad-tempered or hostile. There is a theory that it might originate somehow from the word obstreperous.

So, know anyone who is stroppy?

Oh, and if you are interested in learning to speak with a British accent, this was one of adds Google listed when I was looking things up on dictionary.com.

http://www.speakmoreclearly.com/downloadbritishaccent

Wow, get a British accent in just 15 minutes a day! Think I should I go for it?