Burns' Night 2015

Robert Burns (1759-96)

A fine turn-out for our pre-Burns' Night session with 19 humans and three dogs including Gertie, who could possibly be described as a "Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie" if she wasn't listening. There were plenty of Scottish, psuedo-Scottish and debatably Scottish songs in evidence. I won't comment too much on their relationship to Burns unless it's reasonably obvious or was stated.

Richard was once again MC for the evening - it's becoming quite a habit. We were pleased to see Maggie S for the first time in a few weeks, but she and Mike still had to leave at half time.

A couple of other notable anniversaries were mentioned. Derek pointed out Ewan McColl's 100th birthday on Sunday 25 January, and Keith G mentioned the 50th anniversary of Winston Churchill's death on Saturday 24 January.

Keith G proposed as appropriate to Churchill, Leonard Cohen's First We Take Manhattan (then we take Berlin).

Saint Andrew and Scotland

Everyone seemed to be in a bad way this week. Maggie was absent with the lurgy of which Mike had a milder dose. Paul was hobbling around and Carl couldn't play his beloved guitar since his left arm wasn't working properly. Nevertheless Colin managed to MC efficiently while Mike managed the whining dog, Indy.

Richard noticed that the following Sunday would be Saint Andrew's Day and started off an impromptu theme of Scotland. Mike noted that Indy seemed to whine more at the Scottish songs than the others. Whether this is significant I'll leave to you to decide.