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AS: Sturgeon and Chips: the Scottish thread 2020

PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
edited November 2021 in Limbo
Happy new year, one and all!

I hope you all had as good a Hogmanay as I did, and aren't feeling too fragile.

We had a wonderful view of the fireworks from the balcony of my brother's flat, and had a very jolly evening.

During the party, I had a message from my estate agent in Canada with a new offer for my house, which I've accepted, so if all goes well I should be returning to God's Own Country™ in the not too distant future.
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Comments

  • I love the Thread title!
    :wink:

    Have I remarked before on what a neat hairstyle Ms Sturgeon has? Quite a contrast to other 'leaders' I could name (but won't).

    May Bonnie Scotland fulfil her destiny as a leading European country!
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    I've often thought that about Ms. Sturgeon's hair.
  • On a more serious note, she not only has neat hair, but also (AFAICS) honesty, and integrity.

  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Personally I would have titled the thread Oh Ma Heid.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    [whispers]
    Did you overdo the champagne a bit last night?
  • Not just the champagne, I fear...
    :cold_sweat:
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    The opening champagne, the Greek sparkler, the Barolo, the other red, the other other red, the midnight champagne... (I had help mind you).
  • Piglet wrote: »
    God's Own Country ...
    Those four Yorkshiremen might see things differently ...

  • Baptist TrainfanBaptist Trainfan Shipmate
    edited January 2020
    May Bonnie Scotland fulfil her destiny as a leading European country!
    My wife's sentiment (and mine) entirely.

    As it's New Year, we had steak pie last night (alas, the butcher was closed so it came from W**tr*s*e and wasn't as good) and a HAM is being roasted as I write. (In fact I'd better go and have a look at it). Apparently these things are Important.

  • Piglet wrote: »
    God's Own Country ...
    Those four Yorkshiremen might see things differently ...

    Amazing what a difference a consonant can make. The usual Yorkshire one is 'God's own county'.
  • Glad to hear about your house offer, @Piglet. Hope before too long we will be glad to hear of a job offer as well!
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Thanks, Cathscats - I can't really do much about that until I've moved back, but I'll certainly be looking into it.
  • Jengie Jon wrote: »
    Piglet wrote: »
    God's Own Country ...
    Those four Yorkshiremen might see things differently ...

    Amazing what a difference a consonant can make. The usual Yorkshire one is 'God's own county'.
    Ah.

  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    @Cathscats wrote:
    Got in late from a Burns Supper last night. Were other shipmates likewise occupied? This one was organised by one of my churches and a local heritage group to restore a grave of a lady of letters who got Walter Scott interested in the Highlands, and so changed our nation’s history and iconography. Though of course the evening was mainly about Burns. And shinty. Everything here has to mention shinty.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    @North East Quine wrote:
    We had a friend round to dinner on Friday night, and had haggis, neeps and tatties soup, followed by ham cooked in Irn Bru, followed by cranachan. Not a proper Burns supper but a nod in his direction.

    Our village butcher's shop was going like a fair on Friday. I counted seven members of staff hard at work and I still had to queue. The place was stuffed with assorted haggi, plus duck sausages which were being sold for Chinese New Year.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    edited January 2020
    @Baptist Trainfan wrote:
    Well, we killed a haggis last night (a real one, none of your plastic sheathing) and ate it accompanied with neeps, tatties and Irn Bru. Herself had a wee dram later, however, supplies of the Scottish variety had run out so she had to drink a very excellent Welsh variety instead.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    @Pendragon wrote:
    We had a haggis, complete with a very dramatic rendition of the Ode to the Haggis for the sake of the Dragonlets. I can confirm that despite none of us having any known Scottish antecedents, that everyone in this house enjoys haggis, even though Dragonlet 1 is only 5.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    @Cathscats wrote:
    Word at church this morning was it was a good evening and would have been even better had the giver of the immortal memory not seemed to think she was giving an eternal memory. 45 minutes! Bit steep.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Hostly Oink
    I think the five posts above were maybe meant for this thread; my apologies for appearing to have written five posts in a row!

    Piglet, AS host
  • Oops, sorry. I forgot we had this thread! To much late night burns-ing. (And I don’t drink....)
  • Piglet wrote: »
    @Cathscats wrote:
    This one was organised by one of my churches and a local heritage group to restore a grave of a lady of letters who got Walter Scott interested in the Highlands, and so changed our nation’s history and iconography.

    Would that be Jane Porter, or should I be thinking of someone else?

  • Mrs Grant, who wrote “Letters from the Mountains”. It is still in print.
  • Ah, thank you, Cathscats! I thought that I was barking up the wrong tree.
  • Had haggis yesterday with sweet potatoes and roasted celeriac, with the leftovers made into quesadilla today. So not strictly Kosher, but I did drink irn-bru while eating it: does that count?
  • Alan Cresswell Alan Cresswell Admin, 8th Day Host
    Piglet wrote: »
    @Baptist Trainfan wrote:
    Well, we killed a haggis last night (a real one, none of your plastic sheathing) and ate it accompanied with neeps, tatties and Irn Bru. Herself had a wee dram later, however, supplies of the Scottish variety had run out so she had to drink a very excellent Welsh variety instead.
    We had a Burns' Supper on Friday night, which in my case was washed down by nothing more exotic that uisge (that is, water, rather then uisge beatha) as I was driving. Had a wee dram of The Glenlivet after getting home though.

    This afternoon we had a brief chat about the Welsh variety. But, then I'm currently working in Wales.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    The Choir Pub here in Fredericton is reckoned to have one of the best whisk(e)y collections in Canada. They have over seven hundred, mostly Scotch but others as well; their Highland Park collection alone runs to 17 different malts.
  • After a lovely day of blue skies and general calm the wind has picked up and it's now sounding quite wild outside.
  • Heading your way. Not too windy here, but we are so far from the coast, I think as far as you can be, that we rarely get the worst of the gales. Lots of rain, though, turning white.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    I understand from Facebook posts that Orkney's going to get quite badly hit (or as they'd say there, "it's a peedie bit coorse").

    Stay safe, everyone.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    edited February 2020
    It is indeed far from nice, dreich and drookit and blawin' a hoolie (and boy did I have a job getting that lot past autocorrect).
  • O we have hoolies down here in Kent. We've got one now - and it's pushing the incoming tide back down the river towards the North Sea...
    :flushed:

    That, alas, indicates a return of the Lost Water some time tomorrow or Tuesday, when the Belgians get fed up with it, and send it back.
    :fearful:
  • Much snow in these mountainous parts today. Much snow. And still falling, falling. falling. I must find out if the schools I am supposed to be taking assemblies at today are actually open. High School seems to be closed as no students have passed my window going to the bus stop. Real winter at last.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Down in the Lowlands it's merely mini blizzards every half hour or so. Too wet to lie.
  • Looking at the traffic cameras from three thousand miles away, Druimachdar doesn't look too bad just now. The road is clear and you can see lorries passing. I'm sure the side roads are another story, though. Right here we had a snowy night, but probably not enough for me to have to get the snowblower out today. So far, a fairly mild winter for us, and any sort of wind is unusual here - I miss that..
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited February 2020
    I am sending you some Virtual Wind post-haste. Please acknowledge receipt, and leave positive feedback, as your business is important to us.

    I hate the thought of you not enjoying the benison of Gales, such as poor little Ukland is enjoying...
  • i took the option of heading home form W*rk early, to try and avoid snow-based traffic carnage at normal home time.

    never mind differences from one town to the next, the snow is definitely not lying in our High Street but definitely is further up the hill where we are.
  • @Stercus Tauri they usually manage to keep the roads open in this part of the world, unless an accident closes Drumochter, because we are expecting the weather, unlike more southern parts. In fact I should think they are glad to use their salt as this year has been pretty mild. So the roads are open and yet I have been shovelling a solid foot of snow from the drive. And it is still falling, yippee!
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    I didn't realise you were in Linlithgow, WK - it's on my "possible" list of places to look for a flat.

    It'll depend on where (if) I find work, obviously, but it looked as if there were some quite decent, affordable places there.
  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host
    Famous, IIRC, for being recaptured from the English by the local inhabitants, led by one William Bunnock or Binning and with the help of a load of hay.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Sounds intriguing!
  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host
    There’s a brief account here. I first met the story in the, now dated, but still fun, children’s book I was at Bannockburn by Agnes Mure Mackenzie
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Thanks for the info, BroJames! :)
  • FWIW: Aberdeenshire’s northern coastline is a fab place to dry one’s laundry outside; Sunshine everywhere!

    Three loads dried today and the sky has been mostly blue.

    (We’re ignoring that attempt at snow this morning....)
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Meanwhile, in Embra, it's alternated between Really Quite Nice and Blowing A Hoolie (with occasional snow, sleet and hail).

    I though I was going to escape that sort of weather when I left Canada ... :cry:
  • Alan Cresswell Alan Cresswell Admin, 8th Day Host
    They say that (at least some parts of) Canada is more Scottish than Scotland. That clearly extends to the weather as well as the culture.
  • Pangolin GuerrePangolin Guerre Shipmate
    edited February 2020
    And the geography, in Cape Breton. Until the late 1970s (perhaps later) there mass would be sometimes be said in Scots Gaelic.
  • 8 inches of snow here this morning. I have spent a strenuous hour digging out the car and wondering how many of the congregations will have done the same.....
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Embra's due 'heavy snow' tomorrow, it says here. So another day I won't be planting bulbs.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    I wonder how much the Met Office means by "heavy"? I'm used to warnings only being issued if they'ee expecting at least 15 cm (6 inches).
  • They say that (at least some parts of) Canada is more Scottish than Scotland. That clearly extends to the weather as well as the culture.

    That could be this town. Our church was predominantly Scottish until a few years ago, and so was the weather. Then there was a Dutch influx and the weather started to change at the same time. I'm not saying there was a connection, of course, but some of us are harbouring our suspicions.
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