The Highland Games

[Diane CBPFC]

We went to the city yesterday to see the Highland Games: http://www.gphighlandgames.com/

It was a lot of fun ? the featured family this year was ?Sutherland? ? not only did they get in for free, but they were able to follow the pipe band in a procession across the field and have a few of their members catch the haggis at the opening ceremony.

Obviously, we didn?t have such a thrilling time as members of the Sutherland clan; nobody threw a haggis at us, but we still enjoyed a Scotch Pie with beans and all the activities right up until the downpour anyway.

I bought myself a clan map ? I recall my mother having one years ago. On hers? our family name ?Nisbet? was on the map (south east) now it?s gone. All we have now is our tartan ? our motto was taken off our wee square of tartan sample too. I am going to have to write to the publisher to see what they have against the Nisbets.

You have to understand the Scottish blood has been much watered down in my children, I myself am half English ? then my hubby descends from the Norwegians/Germans/English ? so keeping in mind they are only 1/8 Scottish at best, you have to understand why my middle son wondered if the taber throwing was some ancient form of camouflage (I guess he imagined a bunch of hairy leg-ed fellows pretending to be a forest.

It is good to keep in touch with your roots isn?t it ? if only to get a Curly Wurly candy bar once a year.

[Malc]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and offer these alternative spellings:

Sutherland
Caber
Curly Wurly.

[Diane CBPFC]

All fixed - it must have been grating on you - seeing all those errors.

[Roger Kettle]

Sounds great, Diane, although, I must admit, caber-tossing is a pastime that baffles me. It must have been really boring way back then in the Highlands when someone decided it would be fun to throw a tree-trunk around.
My daughter has just returned from the modern equivalent here in Scotland---three days at a rock festival at Loch Ness. Apparently, some chaps called The Chemical Brothers were playing. Anyway, she has been showerless and sleep-deprived for the entire time. My suggestion that we should have an evening of family games and a sing-song didn't go down well.

[Tarquin Thunderthighs lll]

(you still have a little rogue 'taber' in there, Diane)

Lovely to know that there's so much Scottishness spread throughout the world.

Unfortunately, England seems to be the exception, though I'm told there's a Burns Society up the road form me in Chester. I shan't rush to join - it'll probably turn out to be an annual reunion of plastic surgery patients.

I had a good weekend too. I went to RAF Cosford's annual Air Show with the gang. Not a new experience for me, but the highlight certainly was. Midway through the magnificent Red Arrows formation display, the entire nine Hawk aircraft disappeared from view and didn't come back. An announcement was made that an unidentified aircraft had entered the airspace over Cosford unannounced and without permission, and that for everyone's safety, the arrows had flown out of the area until the situation was resolved.

There was bemusement and not a little concern among the 50,000 crowd (well, at least among those standing round us - I can't speak for everyone) that this may be the actions of subversive terrorist organisation, though panic failed to set in thankfully, possibly because the hot dog vendors stood their ground.

The second announcement was slightly more faltering than the first - the intruder had been identified as a powered hang-glider. The daft sod had managed to stop the might of the RAF's crowning glory with his foolhardy mission. After about 15 minutes of the commentator calmly (I thought, in the circumstances) explaining why it was probably not this pilot's finest decision, to steer his craft into military airspace without permission, especially during an air show, accompanied by increasingly regular shouts from the crowd along the lines of "Shoot the bugger down!", the Red Arrows re-emerged from the haze for their farewell 'split' and flew off back to base, having used up their allocated fuel for the display.

I've yet to discover what happened to the hang-glider pilot. Hopefully (for his sake) he's still up there.

[Roger Kettle]

Talking of air shows, I'm guessing my next question is going to be right up Mince's street. How come planes can "loop the loop" with the cockpit (and pilot) on the inside of the loop but not on the outside? The same plane, the same weightload but it can't be done. Is this to do with centrifugal---or whatever its called---force?

[Mince]

I would assume it's that the wing is shaped to produce lift one way only - upwards. I don't think that a plane that is upside down can produce lift.

[Tarquin Thunderthighs lll]

I think it's 'cos the pilot's scared.

[Tarquin Thunderthighs lll]

Sorry to harp back to my Red Arrows story, but it appears there was a gang of them.

Also of interest may be the name of the Air Show spokesman...

[Roger Kettle]

I'm not sure about this. Regardless of wing shape, I just can't imagine a plane doing a loop with the pilot on the outside of it, if you know what I mean. This annoys me. Almost as much as "Big Brother".

[Roger Kettle]

Sorry, Tarks---was posting at the same time. McGuckin, eh? Hmmm.

[Diane CBPFC]

Sounds great, Diane, although, I must admit, caber-tossing is a pastime that baffles me. It must have been really boring way back then in the Highlands when someone decided it would be fun to throw a tree-trunk around.
My daughter has just returned from the modern equivalent here in Scotland---three days at a rock festival at Loch Ness. Apparently, some chaps called The Chemical Brothers were playing. Anyway, she has been showerless and sleep-deprived for the entire time. My suggestion that we should have an evening of family games and a sing-song didn't go down well.

Do you think that thing where people are jumping off stages and other things into the audience and are then carried around and passed from one group to another comes from the same idea as the caber throwing? I don't even know what it's called sorry, but when you think about it those people do look like logs.

[Diane CBPFC]

(you still have a little rogue 'taber' in there, Diane)

Lovely to know that there's so much Scottishness spread throughout the world.

Unfortunately, England seems to be the exception, though I'm told there's a Burns Society up the road form me in Chester. I shan't rush to join - it'll probably turn out to be an annual reunion of plastic surgery patients.

I had a good weekend too. I went to RAF Cosford's annual Air Show with the gang. Not a new experience for me, but the highlight certainly was. Midway through the magnificent Red Arrows formation display, the entire nine Hawk aircraft disappeared from view and didn't come back. An announcement was made that an unidentified aircraft had entered the airspace over Cosford unannounced and without permission, and that for everyone's safety, the arrows had flown out of the area until the situation was resolved.

There was bemusement and not a little concern among the 50,000 crowd (well, at least among those standing round us - I can't speak for everyone) that this may be the actions of subversive terrorist organisation, though panic failed to set in thankfully, possibly because the hot dog vendors stood their ground.

The second announcement was slightly more faltering than the first - the intruder had been identified as a powered hang-glider. The daft sod had managed to stop the might of the RAF's crowning glory with his foolhardy mission. After about 15 minutes of the commentator calmly (I thought, in the circumstances) explaining why it was probably not this pilot's finest decision, to steer his craft into military airspace without permission, especially during an air show, accompanied by increasingly regular shouts from the crowd along the lines of "Shoot the bugger down!", the Red Arrows re-emerged from the haze for their farewell 'split' and flew off back to base, having used up their allocated fuel for the display.

I've yet to discover what happened to the hang-glider pilot. Hopefully (for his sake) he's still up there.

Oh bugger! CABER! not taber

How was the punctuation for you? I?m glad nobody noticed the missing bracket.  :

I once did a work experience scheme at British Aerospace in Hawden - that is probably misspelled too.  I didn't get to fly any planes but I did get to learn to use the Telex which was the great grandfather of the internet.

 

[Malc]

I'm no pilot, but I'm sure that the outside loop Roger describes is actually performed by aerobatic specialists.

It might be too dangerous, or put too much strain on the aircraft to be done regularly.

[Malc]

I'm also no caber tosser, but I'm told by my brother, who is an official highland games and air show announcer, that the caber toss is judged not on how far you can throw a huge log, but on how many times you can turn it over and get it to land in a straight line.