Brilliant things about Scotland

[JennyPiccolo]

Just cos I love Scotland.

The banter
Irn bru
Men who look like they grew out of the ground
How everyone sees going out and having a good time as some kind of fundamental human right
Edinburgh fringe festival
The barrowlands ballroom
Whisky

Wallace's pies
Plain bread
The Courier
The Telegraph
Fisher and Donaldson cream cakes
Visocchi's Ice cream
Everything.

thats us scheme weans get everywhere

I was born in 1973, my best friend was Karen who lived on Townhill Road, Stephanie who lived at Appin Crescent(?) and Anna who lived on Park Avenue(?) by Commercial Park.

I remember the helter skelter but think the hamster wheels are after my time. You two must be younger than me. I went to Dunfermline High.

I went to see the Corries at Carnegie Hall, my first ever concert, when I was 6 or seven, I can remember getting a cornetto!

Still Game
The High Life
Gary Tank Commander

The Blue Nile
Love and Money
Proclaimers (Fifers)
Danny Wilson
Big Country (Fifers!)
Simple Minds
KT Tunstall (fifer!)

Skiing the bunny run at Glenshee on a bluebird day
Clattering down Spooky Woods on my bike at Glentress trail centre
Cycling through Rothiemurchus forest on a midge-free summer evening

The museum of Highland Life at Newtonmore

Brilliant words that just roll off the tongue - stramash, pish, bawbag, pus, peedie to name but a few

Annunziata

Apparently after the sound the milk bottles made when your young man was saying goodnight to you in the close?! I'm sure its "clink," it definitely began with "cl."

It's a click or saying "I clicked on Saturday night"

Things that make a shiver go down my spine...
Hearing bagpipes and drums in Glasgow
Driving through Glencoe
Looking at the Cuillins
Gravel voices oak thighed kilt wearing men (faints)

Love tablet (and can make it myself as too many shop bought ones have evaporated milk in the recipe which is just wrong)
Mega Double lollies
Macaroons
Fruit pudding
Clootie Dumplings (made for Christmas and Hogmanay and eaten far too quickly)
Haggis once a year, even though it's cheap and yummy I only ever eat it on Burns Night
Cremola foam
Lorne sausage (aka square sliced)
Any other beef sausage (the first time I saw a pork sausage was in England)

People speaking to you randomly in the street ( your chips smell magic, can I have one?), in shops (that looks lovely on you hen, esp. happens in the sales), on public transport ( ticket guy on the train saying he'd give us our tickets separately just in case we fell out when we went into town!)

The general enthusiasm for life, the cutting sarcasm, the punctuational swearing(ok so that might just be Glasgow), the pride in being Scottish, the willingness to get stuck in (to put a positive slant to Frankie Boyles comment that Glasgow was the place he could guarantee that a passer-by would punch a burning man to the ground).

Nessie (I so want that to be true)

Phrases like "aye um ur" or "no um urny" , "aye, right" , "gonnae no' dae that, gonnae no".

The Proclaimers, Paolo Nutini, Travis, Amy MacDonald, Texas, Deacon Blue, Wet Wet Wet, KY Tunstall, Dougie MacLean...
"I don't know if you can see
The changes that have come over me
And these past few days I've been afraid
That I might drift away
I've been telling old stories, singing songs
That make me think about where I come from
And that's the reason why I seem
So far away today

Let me tell you that I love you
That I think about you all the time
Caledonia you; re calling me
Now I'm going home
And if I shall become a stranger
No it would make me more than sad
Caledonia's been everything I've ever had

Well I have moved
And I've kept on moving
Proved the points
That I needed proving
I've lost the friends
That I needed losing
Found others on the way
I have kissed the fellas
And left them sighing
Stolen dreams yes there's no denying
I have travelled hard
Sometimes with conscience flying
Somewhere with the wind

Let me tell you that I love you
That I think about you all the time
Caledonia you; re calling me
Now I'm going home
And if I shall become a stranger
No it would make me more than sad
Caledonia's been everything I've ever had

Now I'm sitting here
Before the fire
The empty room
A forest choir
The flames have cooled
Don't get any higher
They've withered now
They're gone
And I'm steady thinking
My way is clear
And I know what
I will do tomorrow
The hands have shaken
The kisses flowed
And I will dissappear

Let me tell you that I love you
That I think about you all the time
Caledonia you; re calling me
Now I'm going home
And if I shall become a stranger
No it would make me more than sad
Caledonia's been everything I've ever had"

Ahem, I appear to have something in my eye , spot the ex-pat!

x post.

I lived on Garvock Hill. You are younger than me by a couple of years but we must have been at school round about the same time.

Click! Hahah I knew it was something like that, thanks very much MrsPresley

Dementedma - I don't think the bruce festival is on for another couple of weeks??

Omg I remember the hamster barrel in the park in Dunfermline! Had totally forgotten! Were they in the park at the bottom of the public park that got turned into the station car park?

One of my brothers might have been in your class, one turns 40 in December and the other will be 41 in November.

It is great talking about it, and Scotland in general. We moved away to Angus when I was 7, I wrote to my friend Karen for years, but lost touch when I was about 16, I have tried looking for her on fb but have never found her.

Bruce festival is in a fortnight, not this weekend.

Annunziata

My DS didnt come home last night (he text to let me know), I asked him this morning if he got a click he looked at me like

Anyway he said he was at a friends house

PiffPaffPoff, I know where they were, but I wouldn't be able to describe it, do you remember the helter skelter too?

Ha ha, earlier on I predicted another Fife thread takeover, but did't think it would progress to a Dunfermline takeover!!

gobsmacked at seeing Garvock Hill and Appin Crescent mentioned on here!!
too funny!
One of my friends lived on Appin Crescent too, my very best friend lived in Pilmuir Street.

Feel like we are hijacking this thread, we should have our own wee Dunfermline thread (though I must add I am an urban gypsy and have on average moved at least once every two years, so have lived in lots of places in Scotland).

So he said! Brilliant :P

Ahh, the young ones say "pulled," don't they?!

Wow that is so weird Tapselteerio. We moved up to Angus when I was 14 and I lost touch with a lot of friends too.

I joined Friends Reunited years ago and Commercial Primary has quite a few pages - maybe your friends are on there?

I am feeling very nostalgic.

It's hard to say just what I love about this place- from the sublime (scenery, hills, space) to the ridiculous (the banter, the language, the up-front-ness, the easy chat with strangers)

The fact that Scottish people seem to know who they are, and have no problem with it, really.