Braemar Games Video

The nasty weather outside has given us some time to sit inside and play around with the video recorder I received for my birthday.  We downloaded some footage from the Canadian vacation and the Braemar Games and have had some fun learning all about the editing process.  We've put together something for Braemar and if it keeps raining we'll probably get to the other stuff this weekend.

So what does Casey do while we're busy playing Hollywood ...

Braemar Highland Gathering

Our pipe band escort into the stadium

They all wear special tug-of-war shoes that they must go get at the tug-of-war supply shop.

This is the announcer who walks around commenting on all the events.  I'm pretty sure he knows all contestants in all the events by name.

A successful attempt at the weight over the bar.  The weight was 42lbs for the junior class.  This guy came in second at 16 feet, 6 inches.

The pipes of the Atholl Highlanders, the last private army in Europe.

The man in the hat is Lukas Wenta.  He's usually here with his brother Sebastian, but was on his own this year.  He was quite good at all the heavy events.

Another of the heavy events - the hammer throw.  This guy, Scott Ryder, was a monster.

The start of the hill run.  Look at the enthusiasm in their eyes!

You can follow the contestants, barely, as they run up the hill.

Not everyone can pull off a yellow tartan.

Her Majesty the Queen, with Philip on the left.

Now that we're all caught up on news from the Canadian trip, time to get back into boring, everyday Scottish life.  We did the usual post-vacation things - catching up on laundry, watering some deprived plants and tending to our garden.  The garden was a mixed bag this year.  We got a really good crop of parsnips - turned into a delicious curry-apple-parsnip soup by Fiona - and we managed to get a few cucumbers from a pot in the greenhouse, but the carrots were another abject failure and the beans, though tall and lush, were also a disappointment.

You could have expected we would carry the recuperation phase on into the first weekend back, but early Saturday morning we got dressed in our finest and headed out to Braemar to attend the Royal Highland Gathering.

The weather was once again quite good.  We had a little bit rain here and there, but that seemed to just make it a little more authentic.  By the end of the day, we had had enough sun to give me a decent sunburn.

The trip out to Braemar was quick and easy.  We hadn't been out that way in quite some time, so there was a lot of rubber-necking as the scenery whizzed past.  We parked again in the large, thistle-laden field and walked in through town to the fairgrounds.  A few hundred metres away from the entrance we ended up behind a pipe and drum band, who were in full swing and marching towards the entrance.  As we approached the gates a lot of the people behind us had to peel away to get tickets, and for a moment it seemed as if we got our own pipe and drum entrance.

We met our friends Erin and Holly in the grandstands and after moving around to try and get some decent pcitures of the tug-of-war, we settled down into our seats to watch the myriad of different events all going on at once.

I love the Braemar Gathering for this almost amateur type atmosphere - there are so many things going on at once that it seems like they are only one minor miscalculation away from a major catastrophe - like an intersection of the caber toss and 100m dash.  But it all works out and you're left with a homey feel that allows you to connect with some of the athletes.

We followed the tug-of-war as best we could.  It's always amusing to see the coaches of the individual military units that compete "encouraging" or "coaching" their charges.  When they come back for the finals, they're all in full dress uniform, screaming tactics.  And if you say, how the heck can a tug-of-war be tactical, well I can guarantee you that we saw an excellent use of tug-of-war tactics in some of the matches.  I think we even saw the equivalent of the rope-a-dope strategy Ali used to beat Foreman.

We also had the heavy events right in front of us.  They are always fun to watch.  It started with the junior class, which is contestants under 25.  They were impressive and we even got to see some records - including an unofficial record in a new event we invented, how deep can you make the weight in the weight-over-the-bar event sink into the soft, wet ground.  Later in the day the big boys took over.  Sorry, Mom, Sebastien Wenta wasn't there this year, although his brother Lukas did quite well, running neck and neck with a Briton and a guy from California.  There were more record performances, but when it comes to picking up 50 pound weights and flinging them for height or distance, I'm easily impressed.

There were a multitude of other events going on as well - Highland dancing, 100 & 200 yard sprints, relay races, triple jump, high jump and a competition between drum majors.  In between the pipe and drum bands would march out onto the field and play, adding to the atmosphere.

The Hill Run was also done.  It's always fun to see the enthusiasm with which people do the first lap in the stadium and compare it to the bone-weary exhaustion you see when they eventually make it back.  It is neat to be able to track the progess of tiny little dots as the crawl up the mountain path behind the stadium.

Twice during the day you get treated to a massed pipe and drum performance.  All the bands group together and do a lap of the stadium, playing their hearts out.  I'm a huge fan of bagpipes, I always imagine what that sound did to enemy soldiers behind the next hill or in the next trench.  It's quite intimidating.  Especially when you combine it with the big booms of the bass drums and the rattle of the snare drums.  We've taken some video.  Once i get it all edited down, we'll post that as well.

For some people, the highlight of the day is the arrival of the Queen and her party.  This year she was wearing a cyan ensemble and had brought with her the Duke of Edinburgh and our Prime Minister, David Cameron, and his wife Samantha.  Close attention is usually paid to Sam Cam's attire, so I think a few people were disappointed with a brown suit.

We left at about 4pm, feeling the effects of too much sun and a full day on a hard wooden bench.  Once again, we loved the Braemar experience and would recommend it to anyone at least once in their life.  Put on your kilt and your home-made cable knit sweater, wrap up some bacon rolls for lunch and go immerse yourself in a full day of Scottish pride in their culture in an atmosphere where every good effort is applauded.

After the Party

After an amazing party like my parent's 40th anniversary, I guess the danger is always the post-party hangover.  I'm not (strictly) speaking about the alcohol induced one either, but more a feeling of winding-down that comes naturally after such a major event.  Seeing as we still had a couple of days left on our trip, it was something we were hoping to avoid.  I think we succeeded.

The Sunday and Monday post-party were filled with family, food, work, play, shopping, preparation and more of the seemingly endless Alberta sunshine.  Multiple trips were made back to the hall at the Dutch-Canadian Club to tie up loose ends. People played dominos in the backyard - at least until the mosquitos chased them inside.  We spent a morning and afternoon shopping with Mark, Linda and Adele.  The Princess Bride was watched.  Adele's review - "good, but not as good as Stardust".  We brought back our rental car and emptied out our hotel room.  My parents and the Brooymans family prepared the tent trailer for a camping trip to the Vancouver Island.  Hanneke gifted us a copy of her book on water conservation (congratulations again!).  We ate outside every night.  Mom and Dad opened their anniversary gift - a weekend at the Jasper Park Lodge.  Cards and sequence were played nightly, when we could find room between the liquor bottles on the table.  We all tackled the over-sized pasta portions at Boston Pizza.

The whole three days were like the rest of the trip, relaxed, fun and productive.  The trip had turned out to be exactly what I needed.  Re-connecting with my immediate family and seeing how well everyone was doing.  Getting a great reminder of how wonderful my extended family are.  Getting more sunshine than we would see in an entire Scottish summer.  Stocking up on pickles.

After such a horribly stressful previous 4 or 5 months at work, where, I admit, I likely came closer than I would have liked to my breaking point, I got back on the plane at Edmonton airport feeling refreshed and rejuvenated.  We now have a whole new series of highlights to get nostalgic about as the pictures pop up on the digital frame we keep in the living room.

Thanks to everyone who helped make it such a wonderful trip.

Party and Prep

Back in Edmonton, we had a little time before the main event, scheduled for that Saturday.  Knackered from the late drive on Sunday evening, we slept in on Monday and did not much of anything most of the day.  A little laundry, lounging in the dry sunshine, and watching 'Stardust' with Adele.

Sufficiently relaxed, we put significantly more on the schedule for Tuesday.  We went to the waterpark in West Edmonton Mall with Mark, Linda and Adele.  Being a waterpark veteran, I felt it was my duty to take my little niece and show her the ropes.  The problem was that it had been more than a decade (perhaps two) since I had been down any of these slides.  We chose the Blue Bullet to start and as I seem to remember it being rather benign.  As I rocketed down the slide at twice the speed of sound I wasn't sure if I was more frightened for my own well-being or that of my poor little niece, who must have been scared out of her wits.  Luckily she came out of the tube giving us a double thumbs up and the rest of the morning and early afternoon passed with a series of slides intermittently broken up by trips to the wave pool.  Favourites were the rather tame corkscrew slide and the rather more daring Tropical Typhoon.  Nobody dared go on the near vertical drop followed by loop-de-loop.  I kid you not, this slide looked ridiculous.  You didn't get in and slide down, to start you had to get inside a tube and when the timing was right they would simply pull the floor out from under you.

We followed up the waterpark with some pretty hardcore shopping, picking up clothes, Canadiana (a Roots sweater) and comic books (a passion I share with Mark and Adele).  Just before the dinner bell rang we parted ways and Fiona and I ran off to meet my good buddy Rob and his girlfriend Lindsey for dinner and a movie.  As always it turned out to be a complete success - dinner was good, conversation picked up like it hadn't been years since we had seen each other and the movie - 'Crazy, Stupid Love' - was excellent.

Wednesday was low-key again.  Fiona and Adele helped my mom by thinking up and making all of the table decorations for the party.  I went with my Dad and bought the alcohol.  Two great big check-marks for the party.  Fiona spent the afternoon taking in some more sun, and Linda, Mark, Adele and I went to the local cinema to catch 'Super 8'.  Other than the overly large Spielbergian helping of Daddy issues, it was another good one.  The whole family got together in the evening for dinner at our favourite Vietnamese restaurant - Thanh-thanh.  The wonton soup, szechaun chicken and singapore noodles were the highlights of an all our around magnificent meal.  We finished the night by going back to Hanneke and Jul's to finalize our plans for the party and practice the song that we had put together.

Thursday was a work day.  We all pitched in to get the house tidy for all the aunts and uncles that were arriving later that day - or should have arrived.  The Brooymans's arrived first, with my Ome Wim and Tante Els and Ome Harrie and Tante Adje.  The Jacobs's were supposed to arrive that evening, but were delayed in Chicago and wouldn't make it until the next day.  Even more unfortunately, their bags didn't arrive until Saturday.  With the house full, we checked into a nearby hotel.

The day of the party was a blur of activity.  Fiona and I went early to help load the alcohol in the fridge and decorate the hall.  It all went quite smoothly.  We jetted back to the hotel to shower and change and then came back to the hall to meet the caterer before everyone else showed up.  It ended up being a good thing we came early as, in the only glitch of the evening, the bus bringing my parents and all the extended family didn't show, making the guests of honour late for their own party.

After that, everything went amazingly well and the party was a blast on so many levels.  The atmosphere was great, and we got to see so many people that we hadn't seen in a very long time.  The food was great - kudos to Jim on his lemongrass pork chops - the beer was cold, and thanks to the awesome DJ combo of Fiona and my Dad, the tunes kept the dance floor full until the end of the night.

In typical Dutch tradition for a 40th anniversary party, family did a bunch of songs celebrating my parents.  Our 'Yellow Submarine' knock-off went over well, and Adele's poem was heart warming.  The Jacobs family's contribution can be found on YouTube, and Fiona stepped in to help Ome Wim with the Brooymans family speech.

One of the nicest things wasn't the reunion with family and friends or any of the other party acoutrements, but the actual reason for the party itself - a celebration of 40 years of marriage between two people who still make such an amazing couple.  They have set a wonderful example for Fiona and myself, and I must confess that I found myself thinking what our party would be like, come 2042.  Thanks, Mom and Dad, for showing us how its done right.