Back from the Highlands

[spudtater]

Well, I've been in Nethy Bridge all weekend with the New Scotland Country Dance Society. An... interesting experience.   8^)

Thursday:

• Last minute mask shopping. Found one in 'Ahahahaha' near the Grassmarket.

Friday:

• Three lectures in JCMB, one in DHT, project meeting in JCMB again, then straight up to Appleton to catch the bus up north. A little bit of a hectic schedule.
• Forth bridge! Yay!
• Unneccessary amounts of singing.
• Fish supper.
• More singing.
• Arrival at hostel, ceilidh soon followed. Good fun, albeit tiring. Cheap alcohol too.

Saturday:

• Bagpipes at a quarter to eight.
• Breakfast. Deficit of bacon. Deficit of marmite. Deficit of waffles. Surplus of toast.   8^P
• Country dance workshop. Slow and stiff going, but learnt some surprisingly complex dances.
• Step dance workshop. Tripped over own feet within five minutes, gave up, went and played cards instead. <grapes taste="sour">It's a particularly pointless form of dance, anyway.</grapes>
• Lunch. Pie! (steak & kiddley), quiche, cheese, some rabbit food too.
• Washing up duty. Other people skived. Grrrr.
• Croquet cancelled due to rain. Darts instead. Oh well. More cards too. 'Spoons': fun.
• Dinner: chicken korma, rice, beany-type-thing, couscous. Beany-type-thing surprisingly tasty.
• Masked ball. Discovered that I had completely forgotten the surprisingly complex dances from the morning.
• Annoying 'party games' initiated by loathsome 'person'. Sunk into bad mood.
• More dancing; bad mood lifted again.
• Retreated to bar. More party games, so went to bed.

Sunday

• Bagpipes some time in the morning. Uncivilised.
• Heard roommates describing upcoming highland dance workshop. Calculated probability of being able to 'hop around' given current inability to open eyelids: Very Low.
• Back to sleep.
• Woke up again in time for breakfast, a.k.a. lunch. Soup, and leftover quiche and pies.
• Bus to Aberdour distillery. Admired the scenery, replete with heather.
• Aberdour distillery tour. "Smallest distillery in Scotland": something to be proud of? Not convinced. Run by Campbells. Don't trust them. A tasty dram, though, and highly educational tour. Resisted the gift shop.
• Bus again. Slept.
• Back in Edinburgh. Went to Doctor's to drink more booze deconstruct the weekend.

Anyway, I'm glad I went, though I'm equally happy to see a nice comfy bed in a room that I don't have to share with five other people. Missed the usual bunch of goths & freaks (you know who you are) on Saturday night. Oh, and my sympathies to nickys, who I hear was suffering from aggravated injustices while I was faffing around in the highlands without a care. I hate being out of touch.   8^(

See you all soon!