What a weekend! Spent Saturday plonked in middle of field in Lochearnhead surrounded by some seriously stunning Scottish scenery(try saying that drunk!). Hills on three sides and a loch on the other. What a crackin’ highland games. The Balquidder and Lochearnhead event is up there with the best of the year. It was a highland games in the traditional sense. The Clans native to the local area were there dressed up to the nines in blazing tartans adding some technicolour the occasion. The organisers were great, the locals were fab as were the million and one Spanish tourists who had decended on the Lochside. What made it really special was that there were no carnival shows! There was no recording of an over excited Dutchman shouting “Scream if you wanna go faster” on the waltzers..followed by ……yes….screams from kids who wanted to go faster!! Bliss…

I know the kids must love it….but there is only so much Soft Cell Tainted Love one can listen to without wanting to chew off one’s own arm.

After about two minutes (or so it felt ) sleep we headed back up to the Kingdom for the gathering at St Andrews on Sunday.

We were bathed in sunshine for the duration and were able to watch lots of the events from the tent which was dandy.   Controversy hit the games when a local resident tried to “throw” the visitors race by pretending to be from Hong Kong….needless to say the MC was not buying any of it!….

We had a nice guy with a kids stall beside us which had one of those machines where you hit the base with a hammer and if you hit it hard enough, the bell rings….Kids were playing with it all day wining oversized blow up balls of spongy danger and stuffed animals.. About 4 o’clock an old lady (and I mean old) passed by the stall being helped to walk on both sides by her daughters.. She was crooked and looked about 150.

The old yin made her way to the hammer machine and asked how much.. Despite looking about as strong as a mini gem lettuce, the old gal paid her £2 managed to hit the bell…We couldn’t believe it, she could barely stand, but is clearly taking more than aspirin every morning with her weetabix!  Amazing!

Thanks to every body who bought at the weekend and supported Urban Pirate…we had a blast! x

Well, this is the first blog for a while so let’s do a news round-up of some of the good bits!

Ceres(Fife)…was in a word, brilliant.. We arrived at stupid o’clock in the morning to be given such a warm welcome it made getting up at 6am worth while.

Ceres if you have never been there is tiny! The event field was about the same size as a school footy pitch, but what Ceres lacks in size it makes up for in personality. It was sunny, the customers were lovely and people were just loving the designs. We went home happy, sunburned and looking forward to next year’s games.

In between then and now we have been touring quite a bit….Glengarry(lets not talk about that..no really), Cupar, Luss, Stirling, Loch Lomond. We met some fabulous people from home and away and had a great time at all of the games.

We met the Ghurkhas in Alva which was totally special and one of whom left the stall chuffed to bits with his map print tee-shirt which I think he was wearing home – no bag required!

But I’m digressing; let’s get to the here and now. And what a keeker of a time we’ve had this past week. Some ranting follows but please indulge me.

Having discovered a little too literally in Cupar that the tent wasn’t waterproof, we treated ourselves to a new gazebo.

The website said that this thing was all singing all dancing. It was waterproof, hurricane proof, bullet proof and did everything short of putting your lipstick on for you.

Alas it wasn’t true. We got a gazebo yes, it did have a frame and a cover and yes, some sides too.. But that’s where the similarity of it being a gazebo ended. Call me cynical, but when I think of a roof being waterproof, I think of something that doesn’t have holes in it. I think of something that doesn’t look like it has been in a fight with a half man half Alsatian in an east end pub. We were disappointed ( correction I was fuming…David was disappointed).

Crux of the story is….Gazebo people(you know who you are)  saga on going…but we will fight the good fight! Jacq x