Jason

Two unremembered single-malts sampled at the Edinburgh Castle. Pretty good, and my first whisky in Scotland, on day 2.

Glenmorangie - one of my favorites. I had it several times, but the first was in the Glynhill our second night in.

Whisky 26.6 (Whisky Society) - a wonderful dram. Ross, my first host, offerred it to me and gave me my first real lesson in whisky drinking. This is a drink I will never have again, as it was taken from a single barrel and only sold to members of the Whisky Society.

Deanston - a good whisky, made in the town where my host Bill lives.

Jura Superstition - a dark, peaty, charcoaly dram. Very cool bottle. Bill gave me this one after the Ceilidh.

Drambuie - not whisky, but a whisky liqueur. Very sweet and tasty. Another one from Bill from Deanston.

Glengowrie - don’t remember this one, but I got it while with the Strathendrick folks

Edradour - smooth, sweet, not too bitter. Henry in Prestwick.

Bladnoch 15 year - light, sweet, sparkly. Had it at the Bladnoch distillery, and brought some home.

Bladnoch 18 year cask strength - strong, because it was out of the barrel

Bladnoch 18 year/sherry finish cask strength - sweet finish

Bladnoch rum finish - sweet and fun. I bought some of this, too.

Unknown cask strength - nasty, peaty, strong - bought from another distillery to sell at Bladnoch. I need the name so I can avoid it in the future.

Grant’s (blended whisky) - nice and mellow. Malcolm in Stranraer.

Famous Grouse (blended whisky) - light and easy. Hugh in Stranraer.

Glayva - liqueur - sweet, a little easier to drink than Drambuie. Hugh in Stranrear.

Glenfiddich - nice, medium tasting. Alloway Rotary meeting.

Ron Ainsworth Retirement Blend (Edinburgh Blenders) - smooth, charcoal, sweet. Made for my Alloway host’s retirement.

Edradour Cream Liqueur - like Bailey’s, but chocolate, almost Ovaltine-esque. Could really mess you up because it’s so easy to drink. Glennis in Kelvin Rotary.

Tomatin - didn’t write it down, but it was good. Ian in Lochgilphead.

Isle of Arran - one of my favorites; light, sweet and smooth. Ian in Lochgilphead.

Bowmore - had it during the pub crawl in Lochgilphead. Tasted good at the time.

Balvenie - ditto

Bunnahabhain - had at Karl’s house in Lochgilphead.

Bell’s (blended) - smooth, nice blend. Graham in Oban.

Oban - bitter, dusty. Tasted during the Oban Distillery tour.

Ben Nevis (12 year old - special to The Whisky Shop in Oban) - light, sweet, bit of a bite. Tasted in the Whisky Shop and purchased thereafter.

That about does it. I know I had a couple more but I can’t remember where or what they were, or forgot to ask. I also brought home several varieties that I will be trying as time goes by. It will be a while before I have the volume of liquor I had in Scotland, but I will try to raise a dram when the occasion permits.

Slainte Mhath (slan-juh-va) - “Good Health”

Jason

Scottish vs. American airport security comparison of the day: would it kill Americans to smile and be polite once in a while?

Jason

Saturday, 7 October
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Breakfast was a blur. Not enough sleep makes Jason a grump, and I felt bad that I was being grumpy toward my friends. Good start to the day.
Our presentation was in the morning, but after a couple other folks were onstage presenting things. Don’t ask me what they said, because I was going over the song in my head and trying to wake up. We finally were called up on stage and it was showtime.
After Thorns introduced us and thanked everyone, we each said a short bit about what we’d gained from the trip. Bill went first and delivered a great speech - one of his best. Adrienne was wonderful as ever, poised and articulate. Melissa was downright awesome - she reacted perfectly to audience jeers (when she said she was in the tax department) and laughs and just did a flawless job. Which meant I had to follow a flawless performance and I was so busy thinking about the song that I hadn’t thought about what I’d say. Fortunately I am a trained actor and public speaker, so I managed to babble convincingly for a minute or so. Don’t ask me what I said, though. (I think it’s on tape so I could look at some point.) After Thorns wrapped us up, it was time for “The Girls Are Lost in Glasgow” - the lyrics of which Adrienne posted here yesterday. The song was well received, and we kept getting congratulated throughout the weekend - I think as much because it was so different and entertaining as because we were, well, good.
After lunch, instead of being smart and taking a nap, I went on a quest to finish shopping. I was with Melissa, and while she used a payphone to call home and talk to her family, I found a rock wall and climbed for a bit. My first upper-body exercise in probably three weeks! It was fun, and then we went shopping. And then I finished shopping. After Melissa left to take a nap. I’m not saying there’s a cause-effect there, just implying it.
Later, after still not taking a nap, there was another reception and dinner. There was an attractive woman as part of the catering crew, and you can see where this is going. I eventually got up the courage to go talk to her, but it led nowhere.
So, we went to a pub in town with members of Scotland’s GSE team who’d been to Thailand earlier this year - people our own age. There was a duo playing fiddle and guitar and Adrienne asked them if I could play a couple songs. So I did. There was a cute Irish dancer there who danced a bit, plenty of drunk Scotland fans (Scotland beat France earlier in football (soccer)) and we all had a blast. And closed the place. And I sang some more, and we even got Bill up to sing “The Gambler”.

Sunday, 8 October
===========
Woke up way too early when housekeeping knocked around 9:15am. Ran into the girls in the hall and went with them to watch the Thailand team do their presentation, then had to check out and lug all my stuff over to the checkout area. Went shopping one last time (because why not?), then it was many farewells and back to Glasgow and the Glynhill Hotel for our last night.
We spent a pretty low-key night playing cards and re-packing for the flight. We’d all accumulated stuff and had to figure out how to get it all on the plane, and gather receipts for customs, and other fun stuff. Cards was much more entertaining than packing.

Jason

In the meantime, know that we all arrived safe and sound yesterday.

Jason

“The Girls are Lost in Glasgow”

We’ll tell you the tale of the intrepid five
Who crossed the Atlantic and in Scotland arrived
They landed in September
Guests of Rotary
Thorns, Melissa, Bill, Adrienne and me (1)

They met Robert and Glynnis and Stuart and Sean
Nigel and Alan, Bill and Ron
Robin and Henry, Andy and Tom
Ian and Ian and Ian and Ian and Ian and Ian and Ian … and John

–Chorus–
Oh the girls are lost in Glasgow (2)
And the boys are who knows where
Thorns has climbed Ben Lomond (3) and he just might still be there
–

The Council office is counting the tax
Melissa is helping so it won’t break your backs
She escaped to the loch in a kayak for one
She’ll come back next year with her family for fun

–Chorus–
Oh the girls are lost in Glasgow
And the boys are in the pub
Thorns has donned his “Jimmy Hat”(4) and looks quite like a thug

After a vocational trip in Glasgow
To get home by train I (5) did try
I asked at each counter
“Where the heck is Milngavie?”(6)

I’m sometimes an entertainer as you can see
If you want to see my movies, I’ve left a DVD

—-Chorus–
Oh the girls are lost in Glasgow
And the boys are on the green
Thorns has made a whisky list , he’s toasting “To the Queen”(7)
–

Our fearless leader has walked across your great nation
Some wonder if he’s paid by the George Buchanan Foundation (8)
Many drams he has tasted and a list he has made
He’ll never mix his whisky with lemonade

–Chorus–
Oh the girls are lost in Glasgow
And the boys are being crude
Thorns is having dinner and taking pictures of his food
–

Nineteen museums in thirty-one days
Adrienne’s visits left us in a historical haze
She’s all wrapped in layers, her fingers are frigid
Someone pass the poor girl a dram of Glenfiddich (9)

–Chorus–
Oh the girls are lost in Glasgow
The boys are in Paisley
Thorns is the only one of us in Rotary
–

The future of young people is Bill’s main concern
He’s traveled through Scotland to listen and learn
He put on a kilt for the Ceilidh (10) halls
If he doesn’t sit correctly, he’ll show us his … (11)

–Chorus–
OH!!! the girls are lost in Glasgow
The boys don’t have a clue
Thorns and the four of us would like to say
THANK YOU! (12)
–

(1) Jason
(2) Melissa and Adrienne really did get lost (briefly and not scarily) in Glasgow on their third trip into the city. Some American boy whose name begins with a J told them that Kelvingrove Museum was “that spire over there” and it was about a 5-minute walk. When they realized they were at the wrong spire and had to call their new host to pick them up, it turned out that they were 25 minutes away and Andy had to pick them up on a street corner. Good thing the Rotarians of Kelvin and Charing Cross had seen the girls’ pictures before they arrived.
(3) Ben Lomond is 3196 feet high. Thorns wrote a nice account of his walk up and medicinal dram down here on the blog. See “New Blogger, by popular demand” from September 19th, 2006.
(4) PLEASE do not even think about the hip hop definition of this term,. A “Jimmy Hat” in Scotland is a funny tartan tam with fake orange hair attached to it. Kind of like a clown hat…a gift to Thorns from our friends in Stranraer. Since we are fans of visual with our audio, Thorns put it on his head while we sang this chorus.
(5) Jason
(6) See blog: Silly me September 18th, 2006. Quick version: Milngavie is really pronounced MIL-GUY, but in the song, Jason mispronounces it on purpose. Funny.
(7) A toast made at every Rotary meeting that we attended. If the Queen had actually been with us, it would have been “To Her Majesty, the Queen”.
(8) For more details on Killearn, barmaids, kilts and George Buchanan, check out other areas of the blog. Thorns asked at every Rotary club if any one knew who George Buchanan was…turns out that the people in Killearn and five witty Americans were the only ones in the know, until now.
(9) This doesn’t exactly rhyme, but we are getting more silly and hilarious with each verse…just wait for the last one.
(10) Pronounced kay-lee.
(11) We wrote this last verse around 1:00 a.m, on the morning of our presentation at Aviemore. It is a classically funny folk song ploy and, of course, everyone knows that kilts are to be worn only one way. Apparently there is an art in learning how to sit, and not everyone knows that.
(12) …and we mean it sincerely. We had a GREAT trip! We also had a lot of fun singing this song and got a really nice round of applause. Of course, we did run over into the coffee break, so maybe they were just ready to get us off the stage, but we did have one Rotarian offer to be our agent…

To all their friends and families let me say that you are all very fortunate to have Melissa, Adrienne, Jason and Bill in your midst.  I know you’re anxious for them to return, and we have decided as a group that we will return.  But we are changed forever, just as we were told we would be.  And part of that change is our friendship and affection.
-Thorns

Last night was the formal evening on the conference.  I didn’t bring my tuxedo, but not to worry, Graham McQueen, president of the Oban RC, looked me up and down, decided that he and I are the same size, and before I know it I was decked out in kilt and all the works.  I now know the answer to that famous question!

Pictures were taken, and I assume will make it to the blog. 

-Thorns

==============

Today we were taken to Robert Campbell-Preston’s fishery for a tour of it and the nearby hydro-electric facility.

We started at the power plant, and got a personal behind-the-scenes look at how they generate electricity. It’s built into a mountain, with a loch at the bottom. At night, when electricity is cheap, they pump water up to a reservoir at the top of the mountain. During the day, when electricity is not cheap, they use gravity to generate power using the water. We were taken into the bowels of the mountain and got to see the turbines and meet the guys who run the place. Very informative and different.

Robert then took us on a tour of his fish-smoking facility. Quite an interesting process, and the smoke sure smelled good. They have neat little dioramas and puppet shows telling how smoking works, too. We had lunch of smoked salmon, herring and eel - I had chicken and some other non-fish meat (as did Melissa who doesn’t like fish either). I did try some of the eel, and while it had a smoky taste, it still tasted like fish.

We were then taken out to a stocked pond and got a chance to fly-fish. Melissa is a natural, having done it growing up. Bill also had a knack. Thorns and I were pretty hopeless – I spent most of the time dodging my own fly, and even managed to hook my sweater once. Adrienne didn’t even bother trying – she was more interested in the exhibits anyway. There is some great video footage of my flailing about, and the others looking rather graceful at it.

Then it was on to the Oban distillery for a tour. This was a very informative, interesting tour, and our guide was pretty cute. Not sure I cared too much for the whisky when we had a dram, though.

We had dinner at Piazza’s on the water. They had wheat-free pasta and pizza crusts! I had a pasta dish in a restaurant for the first time in over four years.

 

This is to be our last night with a host family. Tomorrow we head to Aviemore for the conference and a hotel, and Sunday we’ll be back at the Glynhill for our last night in Scotland. Time does fly.

 

Scottish eating note of the day: They take a lot more time eating here, and actually talk with each other during meals. The shortest evening meal I’ve had was about an hour, and that was rushed because we had to be somewhere. The average time is probably ninety minutes. Meals and tea are time to sit and relax and catch up. I hope I am able to bring some of that back with me into the hustle-bustle life in the US.

 

Jason

 

================

We met at the ferry at 7:30 to travel across to the Island of Mull (not to be confused with a “mull”, which is a peninsula-type-thing, as in Mull of Kintyre. I’m not sure if there’s a Mull of Mull, but there sure should be.). The ferry trip was about 45 minutes, then we had another 45 minute or so drive across Mull to another ferry that would take us to Iona.

During the drive we stopped and met some highland coos (cows), and saw some fantastic scenery. One of these days I’ll be able to post pictures again, I know there haven’t been new ones for a while. Melissa and Adrienne suggested I write a song called “The Barmaid of Killearn”, so I began percolating ideas for that on the trip, while trying to finish the sea-shanty.

At the ferry, Graham (my host and our guide for the day) decided we’d go to Staffa first, then head back to Iona. Staffa is a tiny island that is fantastical. It almost defies description – the lava rock it is made of is formed into ridges and there’s a huge cave and some great views from the top. We were there for less than an hour (it’s not that big), but it was well worth the 45-minute boat ride.

Or so I thought until the boat ride back. The sea woke up and we had some nice swells and rocked and rolled (sorry – pitched and yawed) quite a bit. The only way to keep from being sick was to stand up – which was quite fun because of balance issues. I was glad when we finally landed at Iona.

We saw several rainbows during both boat rides, and several more on Iona. Up until this point the weather had been dry but overcast. When we got to Iona, the sun came out and we had fabulous weather.

Iona is famous for it’s abbey and being “the birthplace of Christianity”. I guess because it was an early abbey and focal point for a lot of evangelizing. They have a point, but Jerusalem may have a slightly better argument. It was a neat place to visit – very old graves of kings, the abbey was old and still functions and quite a few folks live on the island. The abbey is the home of the Iona Community, an ecumenical group that makes music and prays a lot.

The trip back across Mull was even more spectacular than the drive in because the sun was not hiding. We saw some amazing scenery and took a few pictures and video shots.

Once home, I was treated to a great dinner in town and then everyone came to “my” place for some music and drinks.

Graham plays the accordion, and two other Rotarians (Ken and Phil) arrived with guitars. We played some together usually led by Phil, I did a few myself, and Graham did a couple himself. It was very fun.