Not that it takes much encouragement, but, as it's Sunday night and I don't have to report to work for at least another 10 hours, I'm pleased to enjoy an extra whisky in honour of the 250th birthday of Robert Burns:
About 4.2 million Canadians claim heritage ties to Scotland, so it's no surprise that there are a dozen statues erected to Burns across the country. After all, Canada's first two prime ministers were Scots.
I'm one of those. My dad's dad hailed from Edinburgh; my mom's dad sailed from Greenock, near Glasgow, a month before the Titanic left Southampton and arrived in Halifax a few days after Titanic was supposed to have arrived in New York.
And yet, though I feel a powerful attraction and fondness for the land of my ancestors, I've never been there! (Je suis né à Montréal!) Perhaps that will change in 2009. In the meantime, I'm told – perhaps best in “Scotland's Story” by The Proclaimers (left) — Scotland is not just for white guys who like fried food.
Technorati Tags: robert burns, scotland
With the re-opening of the House of Commons tomorrow, I hope parliamentarians, as well as the members of the press gallery, keep these words of Robert Burns in mind:
http://www.robertburns.org/works/97.shtml
“O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion:
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us,
An' ev'n devotion!”
Enjoy your whisky.
Not a drop of Scottish blood in me, but I love the skirl of the pipes.
P.S. I posted my comment before reading through your post.
If you do get to Scotland, be sure to go to Ayrshire.
I remember visiting there many years ago, meeting an older gentleman in a cemetery (no lugubrious thoughts – just part of points of interest my friends and I decided to visit).
Anyway, the gentleman offered to squire three Canadian girls around the following day, bringing us to various point of interest, including the Brig o' Doon (I had seen the movie musical).
When he arrived to take us around, he was dressed in full regalia, in his kilt. It was a memorable experience.