Cool Glasgow- Day 10

Looks like the heat wave has ended as we awoke to a more normal climate in Glasgow.... 19ºc with a high of 23 forecast. We will take it!

We walked over to the huge mall next door, the Enoch Center…. Big mistake! Toy stores galore!  I grabbed a croissant while the shopping went on. 😃

So many parcels that Kelly had to return to the flat to drop them off.  We then headed off to Glasgow Green to watch North Stratton's practice but as we were early we stopped for a beverage at the Old Ship Pub right across from the park.  It was very nice as we sat outside and enjoyed the goings on. Lots of band members walking on by. Prices were very reasonable too!

 

We easily found the drum section as they set up for a YouTube video shoot by Rhythm Monster. It should be published in a day or so.  Video will eventually be here

The pipers all showed up early for their 2 pm start and the band proceeded to warm up. Kelly wandered down the path and found St .Lawrence O’Toole PB (SLOT) and watched that for a while. 

 

 Drummer Kyle, the band’s resident scotch expert, bought us a nice 200ml sampler of Kilchoman single malt. Incredibly kind of him. 

 

Nice!!!!

 

After band practice we wandered back towards the flat. A stop at the Old Ship Pub for a refreshment with Cody and some other band members. 

We prepped for our dinner tonight with Mary, her sister Isobel and husband John.  We are going to House of Gods for a drink then to The Citizen for dinner. 

Drinks and dinner were very good and we really enjoyed meeting Isobel and John. Lots of laughs as we all got caught up on grand kids, travels and activities. 

It's show time for the World Championships as it gets underway tomorrow morning.... we will be there!

 

Steps: 11,200

 

Weather was sunny with 23ºc temps... very nice indeed! 

 

More Music - Day 9

 An alarm went off!! Early start to the day as we have a piping event with Richard Parkes MBE this morning. He is the former Pipe Major of the grade 1 band Field Marshall Montgomery. He will explain how to create a good band intonation across a pipe corp. It will be interesting to hear the deep secrets of Field Marshall :-)

We hoofed it up Buchanan Street to the Piping Live Venue and quickly entered the festival. It was early so not much going on yet. One thing for sure....  it was certainly going to be a warm day with highs of 28ºc!    

Before entering the hall, we had a great conversation with Big Rab and thanked him for keeping the piping community together through COVID. We listened to endless podcasts during that period and always enjoyed the conversations. He is playing the pipes for the first time with Tullylagan PB in Grade 4B. Best of luck to him and his band.

It begins...

We sat down inside the Piping Center 's main hall and really enjoyed Richard Parkes  explanation of reed handling, set up and band routine both before a season and contests. Lots of nuggets in his methodology. Kelly took several notes and will return these to her band at home.  

A few nuggets in here....

Several members of the Warwick Pipe band sat near us…. This is where we spent time for the 2023 FAI F3A World Championships.  Had a good chat with them as they are just doing performances and taking in the Tattoo in Edinburgh.  Maybe compete here someday!!

Been there!!!

We also met some of the MacCrimmon clan in Callum’s wife, Laura Beth who works at the piping center. We hope to see Ian and Charlotte at some point over the weekend. (FYI Ian was the musical director for Edmonton's Big Rock PB when we both played with them in the early 90's when I was based there with AirBC.)

We purchased a couple hamburgers for lunch. Ouch!! 12£ each... and no fries! Do the math! We met an older fellow from Australia as we ate. He had immigrated 60 years ago from Scotland and he knew several people we knew. He also competed years ago at the worlds. Very interesting chap. 

We walked over to the Cowcaddens subway station and headed to Kelvinbridge Station. A short walk through the car park area and on to Kelvingrove Park to watch Field Marshall's practice. 

It’s 28ºc so it won’t be a long practice. 

 

Tune up time in the shade.

Post practice gathering... sounded good.

 

 Peel Police from Canada was there practicing along with several other bands. Interesting to see how FM warmed up… exactly like Richard had mentioned at this talk earlier!

 

Here is an "attack"..... which is simply the starting sequence of the set of music, be it a MSR or Medley.... PM starts the beat and then the drummers execute 2 -Three Beat rolls, the pipers strike their drones on the left foot and on the next left foot sound an  "E" on the chanter. The perfect attack features a solid drone sound and the "E" notes all sounding like one single piper. 

We started to watch the practice but park security showed up and had a chat with the pipe major…..   they didn’t move 😂

We watched for an hour or so and then planned to go over to Victoria Park to watch Inveraray and District practice. We needed to get an uber over to the park as it’s a bit further west than the subway runs. Time ran out so we will just meet up with them at the Worlds site on Friday. 

 

We stopped at the university of Glasgow and grabbed a geocache. The building is spectacular so we had a good look around. 

 

We went back to the subway station and grabbed the train to Enoch station and "home".  We relaxed for a bit then dressed and went back up the street to the Ask Italian restaurant for dinner. It is located right across the street from the concert hall.

 

Pre-concert crowd.

 The evening finished off with a huge concert hosted by Shotts & Dykehead Caledonia. They put on a great show with lots of piping & drumming, singing, and both Highland and Irish dancing. The centerpiece was a tribute to former Pipe Major Robert Mathieson who wrote many famous tunes.... and in a surprise move, he showed up to play with them!  Crowd loved it! 

 

Concert

The show ended and we went back to our flat. A bit of blogging and off to bed after a dram or two of Coal Ila Scotch. My new favorite :-) 

 

Steps: 11,650 

 

Sunny with 28ºc temps.... crazy for Scotland.. it's a heat wave! 

Glasgow - Day 8

Up and at it with some shopping and more piping events planned.

After coffee and a light breakfast, we headed off to North Stratton’s Band practice at Glasgow Green at 11:00 am. It’s a hot one today with highs reaching 25ºC so shorts are in order!! 

We walked down to the Clyde and strolled the walkway to Glasgow Green. An easy 13 minute walk. On the way we chatted with members of a drum major group called The Force that will perform today at the Piping live stage. Nice folks!

We also chatted with a police officer in the dog squad.  They were out doing some investigating and had a Britney Spaniel sniffing around the area. Very nice chap. 

Some lovely architecture along the way… 

Metropolitan Cathedral of St Andrew

 

We arrived at the park a bit early but after a few minutes both the SFU and North Stratton bands started showing up.  They all moved to different areas of the park and started to warm up. We just followed the yellow drums :-) With the warmer dryer weather, lots of bands will play over the grass today to get a feel for the competition day. Moisture control is key here. 

Practice is broken into two groups with the drum section playing together, going through their various sets. Meanwhile the pipe section starts to warm up their pipes with individual playing. The tuners (guys with iPhone apps with frequency scales) go around and tune the drones for each player. The exact frequency is targeted so in the end it sounds like one single sound.  They go around checking constantly.

 

Drum section warming up in the shade.

Pipe section warming up.

The band has three of these tuners going around checking while they play.

There are also several key pipers that will take players aside or play beside them to ensure the chanters are matched well through the note range. Small adjustments are made by moving tape around the note holes to obtain a uniform sound. Once the Pipe Major is happy with the overall sound he will run through numerous sets with the drum core. 

Full band.

And that is a practice session… taking about an hour and a half.   They will return at 15:30 for another one.  

We headed to Marks & Spencers and grabbed some food items for lunch today and breakfast tomorrow. Some wine and crisps rounded out the purchase.  

Back at our hotel room we unpacked the goods and had a light lunch. Kelly headed off to the shops and I went up to find a particular bottle of scotch. I stopped at the Good Spirits Company and left with a nice single malt Caol Ila for us. 

My next stop was the Piping Live Festival at the Piping Center. It was busy with a piping demonstration underway leading into heat 2 of "Piping Idol" where younger pipers battle it out for top spot. Excellent playing by all.

Kelly found her way up to the festival and joined me after doing some shopping. We watched the Drum Major group called The Force, details here and enjoyed the young kids tossing their maces around. Very well done. 

A cool drink and then we enjoyed the Beinn Lee Band hammering out a bunch of great tunes. They played for a full hour and it was very good.... really got the crowd into it. 

Headed back towards home and stopped for food along the way. Maki & Ramen caught Kelly’s eye so in we went. Fast service and it was very good. Funny thing... after we ate, we spotted lots of other great spots to eat... funny how that works.

 

Back at the flat, we finished up the blog and did some planning for tomorrow... it should be a busy day!  Talk session at Piping Live, lunch, Kelvingrove for an FM practice, dinner and then the Shotts concert in the evening.  

Steps: 10,033 

Weather was a hot 27ºC with light winds and no rain.

 

Piping Live - Day 7

 Another sleep in day as I think we are getting fully acclimatized to the time zone. 

We plan to walk up and get our Piping Live Festival Pass and all our events sorted out and venue checked. We will be spending a lot of time here as this is the place to be leading up to the Worlds on the weekend. This year they are doing a festival style setup with a pass getting you into the general stage, food and beverage areas and then further ticketing to special events within the facility.

Once Kelly was ready, we headed up Buchanan Street towards the Piping Center. Once there, we checked in & received our festival bracelet pass and scoped out the general area.  Kelly immediately found the merchandise booth and found some shirts that she wanted. 

We then went over to Cathedral Park to catch the morning North Stratton band practice. It was a 20 minute walk but mostly flat. The band was hard at it and we enjoyed the music. Following the practice, we talked with Kyle, one of the band drummers, and got the details on a certain scotch shop and a couple food recommendations for us.    

We then took Cody to lunch.... finally!! We went to Bar Home and talked all things band lol.  After lunch we went back to Collegelands to watch the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band's practice. Always great to hear this grade 1 band. 

SFU Drum Section

SFU Pipe Section

SFU Full band

Following their practice session, we walked back towards the Piping Live venue to the Good Spirits Company and checked out a suggested scotch. Easily found it but didn’t have room in my backpack.... so I’ll grab it another day. 

 

Building artwork

More art!

Off to the Piping Live venue where The Royal Air Force of Oman was playing a set. Very entertaining with bongo drums and a whistle joining in. We grabbed a beverage and then went up to the main auditorium for the March, Strathspey and Reel competition. We were early so lots of good seats available but it did fill up quickly. 

Alan Bevan and Jack Lee from SFU along with Bruce Gandy were the folks we knew in the competition. Some great piping ensued and I am glad I am not a judge!  

Bruce Gandy

Jack Lee

We watched all 20 players and then awaited the results…. 1) Bruce Gandy  2) Roddy MacLeod  3) Connor Sinclair

Overall winner was Alan Bevan (includes results from the earlier piobaireachd  contest). With this win, he gets to attend the famous Glenfiddich Piping Championship at Blair Castle in October. 

 

We wandered back towards the hotel and stopped at the Blue Lagoon Chippers for a late dinner. Back at the hotel, we relaxed and finished up this blog.

I have also been following the Canadian F3A Team (and a bunch of others) at the World Championships taking place in Muncie, IND USA. Always happy to see people getting to fly!! 

Weather was broken cloud with temps in the mid 20ºc range.... very nice for Scotland!   

Steps: 13,475 

Tomorrow's agenda: Still in flux... North Stratton will practice on Glasgow Green at 11 a.m. so we will probably take that in.  Buy scotch :-) 

Glasgow - er I mean Edinburgh - Day 6

A nice long sleep in this morning, Kelly made us a coffee from supplies we had picked up yesterday. It's much more economical to do this than buying a 3£ coffee each morning..... 3£ = $5.70 Cdn x 2 = $11.40 Cdn for two coffees... so the saving does add up. The prices are basically double after the conversion but it is what it is. 

One of the black out curtain rods in our room came down after Kelly was pulling it back this morning. The staff are coming shortly to repair it... minor inconvenience compared to figuring out how to operate the oven! We will get it all sorted.  

 It's an off day today with no major plans......  until there was!  Kelly booked a purse making class in Edinburgh so off we went to the Queen Street Station. It’s a short walk up Buchanan Street and after getting our tickets for the 12pm direct train, we met another Canadian couple whose son plays with Glasgow Skye PB. 

A short discussion on direct versus non direct trains ensued and we also learned that there was no Tattoo today nor a huge Oasis concert. Crowds should be minimal. 

The train arrived and we loaded up but there was so many people that we had to stand the whole way. It sucked but what can you do… be faster!  The 45 minute train ride went by quickly as I did some blogging on the way. 

Kelly signed up to create a personalized purse at the Islander Edinburgh Workshop at the Arches at 2pm. It is a very short walk from the station so after locating the store, we wandered the area and grabbed some lunch. 

 

Parliament Buildings with Melville Monument (left) & Nelson Monument (right).

 

We stopped to eat at the Rocksalt Cafe just above the workshop. Very tasty and quick service!  We wandered up High Street and Kelly pick up some postcards for home along with a few "other” items. 

 

Start of the Royal Mile

I scouted places to go while she was creating 😂 It is also very close to High Street (also known as the Royal Mile) and Edinburgh Castle. Killing an hour while she creates should not be a problem. 

There are lots of people here…. 

 

St Giles Cathedral

St Giles Cathedral

Tolboth Kirk

I worked my way up to the tattoo grounds and had a snoop around. At the top end of the Royal Mile it was very busy and congested. 

 

A pano of the tattoo grounds

A bit of a crowd.

I made my way down on a different route and took in the sites along the way.

Museum of Scotland

I definitely worked up a thirst and with Kelly about to finish her purse construction project, I stopped in for a beverage at the Upside Down Cocktail Bar a couple doors down. It was very refreshing. Turns out Lauren, our daughter, is a keen follower of this establishment and wanted to know what fancy cocktail I had ordered... it was just a Vodka Tonic.. she was so disappointed! 

 

Islander Storefront

Kelly's purse.

Once she was finished assembling the purse, we went back to the train station and caught the 15:30 back to Queen Street Station in Glasgow. 

 

 A quick stop at the hotel to drop off some purchases and then to Babbity Bowster pub for a pint with Cody and some of the band members. We ended up having dinner and chatting then headed home to relax. The rest all headed to the Park Bar for more refreshments. Cody headed home and so did we. 

Facetimed with our son Kris as he is with the Air Canada Pilots at the Abbotsford Intl Airshow this afternoon... lucky guy! 

Tomorrow we will attend N. Stratton's morning band practice, check in to the Piping Live events and take in the March, Strathspey & Reel Competition in the late afternoon. 

Steps  11,790