25th January 2012

This is a special day. It's Robert Burns' birthday. All over the world people celebrate this wonderful poet with a special supper. The menu always has haggis, and there is a toast to this simple but delicious dish. Its wonderful when someone reads "An Address to the Haggis" in a rip roaring Scottish accent. There are lots of other things to eat too and last but not least, there is the Immortal Memory, where someone will talk about Robert Burns.
This is my first year without a Burns supper to go to. Last year I went up to Scotland and stayed at a lovely hotel and enjoyed a Burns Supper and dance with lots of like-minded souls. It was wonderful. When John was here we used to have our own Burns Supper We had regular guests who came every year and we also invited two new people. These people only came once but it made each Burns Night different and special. I know that everyone enjoyed it.In our little house there was no room for "the dance" but there was lots of good, Scottish music and the food was wonderful, all prepared by John.
It was John's idea to have a Burns supper many, many years ago. He maintained that things went flat after Christmas. He loved Scottish dancing and used to be good at it too. His dad was in The Black Watch Scottish regiment, hence his love of all things Scottish. I had a closer connection to Scotland coming from a long line of MacLennan and MacDonald and McKechnie.
Burns deserves this remembrance, he was a brilliant poet, who can forget his wonderful poem A Man's a Man for All that which has such relevance today. He was a handsome devil too and a man for the lassies too. I visited his family home in Alloa what a tiny cottage it was and yet it is full of atmosphere. If you are ever visiting Scotland this is a place you should visit.
So for the sake of Auld Lang Syne have a toast to Rabbie Burns.He deserves his place in literature.