The Queen in green

We dived into some real Scottish culture on the first weekend of September by attending the Braemar Highland Games and ceilidh, staying with Mhairi's parents again. It was an absolutely party, with 11 people in the house. They had a bit of a sing along on the last night and sang Pokarekare Ana to us, which made me cry a bit! It was so wonderful to feel so welcome so far from home.

For those of you who don't know what ceilidh dancing is, it's a bit of an extreme sport, involving jumping around and flinging your arms at other people a lot, all in a highly organised manner (to reduce the injuries I suppose). The Braemar one also had the distinction of being held in the local Laird's ballroom. It's main highlight was the several thousand deer skulls & antlers attached to the ceiling. I was glad there wasn't an earthquake while we were in there.

As it was a traditional event, all the men wore kilts. Mark borrowed one off Mhairi's parents, as well as an ancient (and very large) sporran. We also had an intermission of 'stovies', which is a local dish of mashed potatoes and meat, always referred to in the plural for some reason. We managed to paticipate in about half the dances, but it was approaching 1 am before we were finally allowed to call it a night.

The next day was the big event: the games, attended by Her Majesty herself. Apparently since Balmoral Castle is so close, the locals like the queen, but further afield 'she wouldna be so welcome'. She wore green, and we all sang God Save the Queen, which all seemed a bit funny with her sitting right there.

The weather was marginal, but over the loudspeaker boomed "arrr, 'tis but a spitte o' drrizzle, nae ta be worryin' yerselves aboout" so we meekly folded our umbrellas away. The highland events were first class of course, with the caber, heavies, tug-o-war, hill race, highland dancing, pipe bands...

There will still plenty of kilts to be seen but we had it explained that since now it was daytime it was acceptable to wear a t-shirt with your kilt. On the left is Gavin (Mhairi's brother), Mark and Ian (Mhairi's Dad), exhibiting this fashion.

Mark enjoyed wearing his kilt so much he became quite angsty at the idea of having to return it on the Sunday morning (see photo right). Once we confiscated the umbrella he calmed down though, and we returned uneventfully to Edinburgh.