The Burns Dinner

Haggis - Everyone Should Give It A Try!

Well, we had a great time at the Burn's Dinner. The dinner is to celebrate the life and poetry of Robert Burns, Scotlands favorite poet. Dinner began with the Address to the Haggis. Although it was a little difficult to understand, the cutting of the haggis was exciting. We then had dinner which started with Scotch broth, which is a thick soup. For the main course, we had haggis, neeps and tatties (haggis, turnips, and potatoes). This was also very good. The haggis was served with a whiskey sauce. Dessert was a selection of cheese and shortbread. Following dinner, we heard a selection of Burn's poems. Chris was recruited to read one - My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose. He did a very good job. Following the poetry, we made an attempt at some Scottish dancing. It was a lot of fun and everyone laughed themselves sick.

As the dinner went past the time when we could catch the last train, Ken and Nicola gave us a ride home. When we pulled up to the house, there was an old man staggering around with his head bleeding. He said he had been beaten up by three girls after leaving the fish and chip shop. As he was very pissed (drunk), we are not really sure what had happened. It was a rather interesting way to end the evening.

Birthday

Happy Birthday to Me

Its my birthday and I am missing everyone very much. No bigs plans for the day other than a pint at the pub and some dinner. Saturday night we are going to a Burns Dinner. I am not really sure what that is, but it is apparently an English Tradition.

Everyone needs to make an entry into the contest (see previous post).

Guess What This Means

Here is a fun little contest. Try to guess what these 'british' statement means:

1. Does my head in.
2. Couldn't be bothered.
3. He's (she's) alittle gobby.
4. I'm chuffed.
5. Should I bring crackers to the party?
6. Put your wellies on.
7. Do you want gammon for dinner.
8. It was nicked.
9. He wound me up.
10. Do you have a rubber.

Person who gets the most right wins a prize.

Home from Scotland

Scotland was wonderful. It is a very beautiful city with lots of neat and exciting things to see. We went to Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood House Palace, The Royal Museum, the Museum of Scotland, The City of the Dead Tour (very spooky), The Real Mary Kings Close, Camera Obscura (Scott would have enjoyed that), Gray Friars Kirk, Gray Friars Bobby, and the Covenanters Prison. We also got to see the Torch Procession, which apparently is an old custom.

Our train ride to Scotland was awful. The train was so over crowded that you couldn't even move up and down the walkway. We ended up giving our seats to an elderly couple about 1/2 hour into the journey and then had to stand for the next 6 hours. Our train was then delayed because someone decided to off themselves by jumping in front of a train at the station.

We had nice weather while we were there. It rained during our night time City of the Dead Tour, but that just added to the excitement. The day we left (New Years Eve) is was cold, raining, and very windy. It ended up being so bad, they had to cancel the traditional Hogmany Celebration.

The food was very good, as we found some really neat places to eat. Yes, we had HAGGIS. It was actually pretty good - kind of like a cheesy sausage. We also had lamb chops and steak and ale pie, also very good.

The train ride home was very different. We had seats right from the beginning and kept them all the way, with the exception of them changing our entire train. We arrived in Portsmouth one minute after the ferry leaves for the IOW. We then found out that due to it being New Years Eve, there were no more ferries. So, we had to stay over in Portsmouth (which was not cheap). We finally returned home on the 8:45 ferry on New Years Day.

Check out a few photos below:




Edinburgh from Edinburgh Castle
















Edinburgh from Camera Obscura









Edinburgh Castle