Great chieftain o’ the puddin-race! Well that was the address to the Haggis at the Burns night dinner I attended the other week…..My best friend invited me to attend the regular event. I had been invited many times in the past but my work had always precluded me attending…
First off my mate asked if I would like to borrow a kilt !!! Are you kidding me ??!!! No way would I wear one, because mainly I thought it a bit of a sham, not being Scottish. I was assured however, that of all occasions that an Englishman “could” wear one, would be a Burns night dinner. No amount of cajoling could persuade me. A couple of things overrode my sense of adventure. The fact that my friend would have had another subject with which to beat me over the head “I can’t believe you let me talk you into that !!” kept buzzing around my brain…PLUS you have to go “commando” and that was the defining characteristic that sealed the deal..
It was an interesting evening, but in my opinion a bit of a letdown as there were no toasts to Her Majesty (which from information that I had, ALWAYS opened the evening) and no Burns readings. Disappointing from my standpoint. The Haggis was piped in by two pipers, accompanied with the address to the “Great chieftain o’ the pudding-race..” which another friend gave..complete with the “slashing” of the puddin’ towards the end of the address. This was followed by the toast to the Lasses, and the one to the Laddies, the one to the lassies had some hilarious moment… Overall though, it was not as much fun as I would have thought but it did give me a chance to catch up with a few good friends whom I haven’t had the chance to visit with since returning from Cuenca.
Things are moving along slowly, the weather has been absolutely abysmal except for a few days.. It has been raining on and off for the past 3 days or so, the temperature not getting above the mid 50’s for over a week it seems….. today the sun has made an appearance for the first time this week…It might get up to 60 today but it seems unlikely.
Sunday is Super Bowl day, and I am looking forward to it having enjoyed immensely the play off games and I wonder if my friends at the Inca Lounge will have a party. My guess is that they will and I did remark to them that I would be thinking of them on Super Bowl Sunday and thinking about watching the game from the bar overlooking the river. I have (too many) fond memories of watching football (soccer games) the big Pacquiao fight there and the Sunday afternoons a.d.d sessions !!!! I certainly hope that you are getting more rain, you can borrow some from us, we have plenty to spare. The view is much better with a raging river….
I keep up with my friend’s activities by reading their blogs and it is good to see that everyone is doing well, and that Brian has now gotten the “all clear” from his doctors. Of course there are mandatory follow up tests that have to be undertaken, but I know that it must be a great weight lifted off of their shoulders as it would be anyone who receives positive news.
Now all I need to do now is to take my TEFL course, I have a couple of house sitting/dog sitting gigs for friends while they travel.. Who knows maybe a new business venture takes off ?? We’ll see…
I guess that’s it for now, there doesn’t seem to be so much to write about these days, my brief adventure in Ecuador is consigned to the recent past, the future holds even more uncertainty again, and where the road leads, I don’t really know. I have a Plan A, a Plan B, but they sometimes seem to be opposing each other…. Oh well, life’s an adventure, innit….







