It's been a while since our last blog, and so much has been happening . Firstly our trip to
London was excellent and we nearly accomplished everything we set out to do. But let me tell you about our trip to Scotland. Every new year Scotland celebrates Christmas and New Year in one. It’s called Hogmanay and they love this huge celebration. Anything for a party, and they certainly know how to do it. Anyway, while at the Hogmanay dinner, one of the locals asked if we were going to the street party at a village nearby called Pitlochry. "A party?"........ “Oh
yes,” he said, it’s a really good traditional one and everyone goes. So if there’s anything going on, we want to be right in the thick of it. And the following morning, the 1^st of January we set off for the village and found it quite easily. Let me try setting the scene, for you...... Scotland in
January. Now a fact not many people know is that Glasgow and Edinburgh are on the same latitude as Moscow! Yes, you know the very cold place in Russia your parents told you all about? Well, we were even a little further north than that .
Brrrrrrrrrr! .....And yes.... it was cold; snow, wind and everything else you can imagine! But this did not deter us intrepid explorers. There must have been several thousand partygoers and revellers in the street by the time we arrived. True to form, it was all just about to kick off. The village itself was fantastic. Traditional old grey granite cottages lining the street with their
lovingly kept brightly painted front doors leading directly onto the narrow pavement. Nearly all the shops open and doing a brisk trade. The centrepiece of the festivities was a traditional Scottish band on a stage built on top of a trailer. The loudspeaker blaring would you believe their traditional Scottish Reels; (Country dances). None of us had ever done this sort of thing before, but there’s always a first time for everything. The leader of the band is called a 'caller’ and he lets everyone know how to do the dance. For example he would call out the following, “ three steps forward.... three back......... two to the left .... two to the right,” and so on. Well,
before you could say “Jack Robinson”, or in Scotland “Robert MacTavish”, I’d grabbed Dyana by the hand and suddenly there we were, on the village road,...... standing in line..... with hundreds of other revellers all bundled up in their (as we sassanach’s {English} say); their anoraks, or Duffel coats just waiting to dance. Standing there with baited breath for the caller to start so we could learn the dance. Then he began in his endearing soft Scottish accent and the small band which comprised of a set of drums, an accordion and a keyboard with the caller also singing in between his instructions. And we did our bit as best as we could keeping up with everyone else. (I don’t think it really mattered if you went wrong, it was all part of the fun). So we kept
learning this particular ‘REEL’ (the proper word for this type of dance), for the next few minutes amid lots and lots of raucous and dare I say hot mulled wine laughter. Now...., if you’re in the dancing world, you may remember the name of a very famous Russian ballerina whose sir name was Pavlova.... and now, as we whirled and twirled our way up and down the street, I suddenly had this totally weird thought. It all stemmed from a film I’d seen many years ago with the late Peter Sellers when he was in his bumbling Inspector Cluseau role. In one of the scenes from ‘the Pink Panther’ or it may have been, ‘A Shot In the Dark,’ in which he says he has
become and I quote, “The Pavlova of the parallel bars;” just before he tries really hard to prove to all around him that he is quite the gymnast, and as usual ends up in a heap on the floor after falling down a flight of steps.... Well, I have to tell you that we were much better than him, because I considered us to be the Pavlova’s of Pitlochrie! Strutting our stuff with all the others
in perfect harmony; as the band played on. Please click on both pictures which turn into short videos to set the scene and then watching the Mac-Pavlova’s performing in the street. Oh, and by the way, please don’t laugh at me in my floppy grey hat.

Also, for those of you who are Monty Python Fans, (and it seems most of the world is, we
stumbled across Doune Castle where they shot most of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. So true to form, we all took on the roles of the characters from the film and made total idiots of ourselves re-enacting out various scenes. When you buy your entrance ticket, they actually ask if you want to borrow a set of coconuts for any re-enactment scenes you may wish to try out. OH YES! How could we miss just such an opportunity. It only comes once in a lifetime when as adults we can let our hair down and be children again. What a great laugh as we pretended to be the knights with their servants trailing behind, and I’m sure you will remember the scene in the film when the servant ‘Patsy was ‘clacking’ the coconut shells together making the noise of horses hooves on cobbles with the knight prancing as if he were actually riding the horse. Oh go on then.... click on the picture to watch us making total fools of ourselves and enjoy......Let’s just hope we don’t get sued by the Python team!!!