Celebrating Robert Burns

Today is the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns. He was a bit of a lad in his day but he left Scotland and the world a powerful legacy of poetry and song that 250 years later is sung and recited all over the world. At New Year I always think of all the people around the world joining hands and singing Auld Lang Syne. 

At the new house the acoustics are amazing (something to do with it being empty and as yet uncluttered) and I found myself belting out 'My love is like a red, red rose' and 'Auld Lang Syne' and other songs and doing half-baked recitations of poems.

After waiting a long time for The Complete Poems and Songs of Robert Burns to come in stock at Amazon (and giving up), I found the book I had been longing for during a grocery shop at Lidl and on sale for £2.99. Shopping at Lidl often throws up little surprises but this was totally unexpected. Anyway, the book came in to its own today as I recited Address to a Haggis on placing a haggis, 'Great Chieftain o' the pudding-race!', on the dinner table.

'And then, O what a glorious sight,

Warm-reekin', rich!'

 My husband listened politely,  my son tucked in and my daughter hadn't even arrived at the table yet as she "hates" haggis. 

Then after dinner we sang and recited 'Such a parcel of rogues in a nation' amongst others. England didn't take Scotland by force and make us join them in the Act of Union. No, Scotland was given away by a few  Lowland Scots concerned with gaining access to the Commonwealth. The people of Scotland didn't get a choice in the matter. 

'We're bought and sold for English gold - 

Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!'

The older I get the more I appreciate Burns' work. His language, his ability to get to the heart of the matter, his choice of subjects such as a mouse, a louse and the Holy Willies of the world. I'm off now to make a cup of tea in time to watch a TV programme of Burns poetry and song.

I've decided to celebrate Burns night every year with a haggis, music, song and recitations. My challenge for next year will be to be able to recite some Burns without reading from my book!

Country comes to town

We went to Dublin for Christmas to visit the in-laws.  After months in the dark, wintry countryside we just love getting in to the city. Especially my daughter who is only 4 but possesses all the confidence and poise of a grown woman. She lives in a tiny village in the highlands but the minute she hits the city streets you'd think she'd always lived in the city. She wasn't always like this. She used to act like she had been held in captivity, shouting from the top of escalators, "Hello people." Standing arms outstretched, eyes filled with wonderment, exclaiming, "look at all my people." She thought they were all there for her, well toddlers are like that, they think the world is all about them. Her little brother is at that stage now. He is 18 months old and walking down the busy shopping street holding his daddy's hand he did a little dance and shouted "Hiya, hiya, hiya," to everyone that passed. In our little country village everyone says hello, but not in the city. 

My daughter loves the hustle bustle, the buzz, the shops, cafes, lights, people and all the things there are to do like visit zoos, theatres, the beach and the parks. Especially the parks. There is a beautiful park near her grandparents. Everything is made of wood and there are lots of wooden animals including a herd of cows. The park is very popular and was full of children as usual. My child, of course, was the only child playing at milking the wooden cow. She pulled on its wooden udders for a good few minutes before offering me a go. No thanks, not today. I should have said yes but I was thinking about what the other mums would think. I have never seen any city kids try to milk that cow. Country comes to town indeed.

Everything is breaking down

The tumble dryer has no heat. 

The dyson has no suction. There is a label on it that says 'never loses suction'.

The sky digibox is kaput. Even the man in the call centre agrees.

The printer does not print. (Yes, I tried new cartridges. Yes, I switched it off and on again.)

The DVD remote control is lost and the toddler boy is getting the blame. (Actually, I just found it after 2 weeks of searching. It was in the book case hidden from the kids - by me!)

Oh and MFI went bust before giving us a VAT receipt. They can't give us one now because they sold the printers. That is actually what they told me. They have still to replace a broken cabinet and a length of plinth. At least we got our kitchen.

My house is resembling a grubby laundry. Damp clothes hang everywhere. The carpets are thick with dust, hair, crumbs and God knows what else. My 4 year-old daughter said, "I wish our house was as clean as everybody else's." I could have died with shame.

Six things you may or may not want to know about me

I have been tagged by tarte tartan to write 6 things about myself.

I get great satisfaction from emptying a blocked pore.

I am scared I will get ill and die young.

I miss my Grandpa who died 2 years ago. I spent a lot of time with him and loved him dearly.

My husband proposed to me on a ferris wheel despite being scared of heights.

I am very indecisive. I can never make up my mind and sometimes feel frozen by the choices I have and end up doing nothing then regretting it. I always regret it when I let my head rule my heart. 

I want to be 18 again and make some different choices. It is true that youth is wasted on the young. Oh to be young again.

there are beasts that roar in yonder hill

My wee girl and I went out into the garden at bedtime when it was very dark. We wanted to look at the stars as the night before had been magnificent. Millions upon millions of bright stars peppered the black sky. So we made a pact that once our toddler boy was in bed we would wrap up warm and go out to look at them. She was so excited to be going out to look at the stars but there were none. It was a cloudy night. I remembered we had a packet of glow sticks that I had bought for Hallowe'en guising but forgotten to take with us. We twirled them making tunnels and waves and circles. They painted the dark in yellow, blue and green.  The nosey next door neighbour opened her window to peer out at us. We ignored her and carried on having fun and swapping colours. A loud, deep roar erupted in the silence of the night. My wee girl bolted inside to the far end of the house. I ran after her to reassure her and coax her back out but there was no way she was going back out there. It was just a stag in a nearby hill. You could say she shows good instincts to flee from something with surging testosterone.

Hallowe'en in the village

Hallowe'en is traditionally observed in our village. That means the children go guising (not trick or treating) and we observe traditional customs such as dooking for apples. Pumpkins have become a feature of Hallowe'en relegating the turnip to a thing of the past. I had a lovely witches costume for my daughter but would she wear it? No. She didn't want to be a horrible witch she wanted to be a pretty ballerina. No amount of cajoling, threatening to go out guising without her worked. In the end she went as a ballerina. H took her and her little brother, dressed as a pumpkin, round the houses. My girl belted out a gaelic song in each house and they came home with a bag so heavy she couldn't carry it. 

After guising we went to the hotel for the Hallowe'en party. There were loads of children there and all in great disguise. I was worried my little boy would be scared but he joined in and was up dancing and running around screaming in delight. 

Once the children were settled in bed I went down to the hotel for the adults Hallowe'en party. It is an annual event that everyone makes a point of going to. This year I went as a witch - again. The funniest was when some of the villagers came dressed up as other villagers. People were meeting themselves. They all laughed. Everyone laughed. We played silly party games, rank and danced and just had good clean nonsense. 

The next night I stayed in while H played for a barn dance which was a shed warming party. It is a big shed.

We celebrated guy fawkes with the usual bonfire and fireworks. I don't actually know why we mark the occasion as it is an English event that happened before Scotland was joined to England in the Act of Union. The kids didn't come with me as my daughter doesn't like the bangs so refused to come and my little boy fell asleep in his high chair while rubbing potatoes into his hair. We are all exhausted as they haven't adjusted to the clocks going back so get up at 6am. 

The house is progressing well. The sewage and rainwater pipes are in and the ground has been levelled off by the digger and we have a large flattish garden area. It looks huge. Inside, is plodding on. The downturn in the building trade hasn't affected here yet. All our tradesmen are busy. 

We definitely won't be in for Christmas at this rate and we have decided to aim for sometime in January. It will be better to finish it and do a good job rather than cut corners and rush to get in. I just can't wait to live there and get out of this shoebox in a goldfish bowl. 

village social life

We are working non-stop on the house and getting tired. There are just not enough hours in the day but this weekend I found time to socialise. A strange thing happens in our Highland village. As daylight gradually disappears and tourists largely disappear for the winter our social calendar suddenly fills up. It is our attempt to make the winter bearable and to prevent isolation setting in but it is also the time of year when many people have more free time to reconnect with their friends and their community. 

I joined my girl friends for a steak in the local hotel. Various locals joined us at different points in the evening and the craic was good. One of my friends is hilarious in her storytelling and had us all roaring with laughter. An estate manager joined us and periodically roared like a stag. Literally. It has just been rutting season when the roar of stags reverberated around the hills enclosing us. 

After several drinks we hatched a plan to go back to C's house and meet her visitors, including a childhood friend of her husbands. He had never met C before so we decided it would be funny to go into the house one by one and greet her husband with a familiar kiss on the cheek and say to the friend, "Hi, you must be S, I'm C, pleased to meet you." The poor guy was very confused but decided that I was definitely the real C. So I poured drinks and pretended to know how to work the stereo! Then we put on the music and started dancing. "Is it normally like this on a Friday?" he asked. "Oh yes," we lied. He must have thought he'd landed in a very strange land.

The next evening I went out with my husband to a wedding dance. It was great. The band was fantastic and everyone could ceilidh dance. There is nothing like a highland wedding with men in kilts, pipes and dancing. We saw old friends we hadn't seen in ages. 

I don't think I have the stamina for two nights out in a row. It is no use when the kids are bouncing on you at 7am and you only got in at 3am. Next weekend there are two halloween parties and a shed warming. Might manage 1 out of 3.