Edinburgh Tattoo 2010

Edinburgh Meals

2010-08-17T18:21:00.000-07:00

Meals in Edinburgh

There are 3 square meals a day in Edinburgh; however they are all very close together. Breakfast is between 8.00 and 9.30. Lunch 12.30 – 13.30 and dinner is from 17.00 – 18h00. And on Saturday the dinner is 16.30. Spot the problem..

So at the moment I do not attend all meals as i) I am just not hungry by the next meal ii) I need rest. J The meals are fairly healthy. They have good cereals, including muesli, coco pops, frosties and all bran. Yoghurt is always there as well as croissants. The main meal usually consists of Egg, bacon, haggis, black pudding, square sausage, sausage, beans and soda bread. The pumpkin seeds, and pine nuts are always out.

The milk here is particularly good so been cutting out coffee in the morning (mostly) and substituting it for milk. Have only had 2 cups of coffee in the last 2 weeks at the dining hall. Each meal has a Starter/ Salad Main and desert/yoghurt. Food is good, but on occasion I will have a cheese burger or scots pie in the Dungeon after the first part of the show.

Having a packed dinner is often a good thing as you are able to have it while tuning up at the top part of the castle.

Edinburgh Castle

2010-08-16T18:02:00.000-07:00

Edinburgh Castle.

You just can’t believe the absolute awesome presence of Edinburgh Castle up on Castle Rock. The stands have been erected around the Castle Esplanade which has been a stage for the Edinburgh Military Tattoo since 1950. Check out http://www.edinbu rghcastle.gov.uk/ for more on the castle.

The walk up the Royal Mile with the bass drum was a bit of an uphill battle, in uniform on slippery cobbles. Nevertheless, I made it to the top where we would step off through the castle gates, over the drawbridge and on to the esplanade. Do the set, make the formation, march off and repeat. Changing small things in between the performances to make it look good for the crowd. After a couple run throughs, it’s back on the bus and back to the res.

Upon arrival back at Darroch Court, a couple beers, a shower and into bed. Some of the lads headed into town to paint it green. So to say as the Irish do. I will save myself for tomorrow night. A rest for the back is needed anyways.

Redford Barracks

2010-08-07T06:38:00.000-07:00

Redford Barracks

Monday morning. Up early. Breakfast. Into uniform for training.. Onto the Bus . Off to Redford Barracks. A lovely drive to Redford in the bus with the Swiss Highlanders. On arrival we drove around the premises to find out where we meant to meet, eventually we got off the bus at the Infantry Barracks. Once there we then took a really brisk walk to the cavalry barracks mail room to collect the drums that were organised from the 19^th Regiment Royal Artillery.

The bass drum is as heavy as %^*&*. It weighs at least 3 times more than my usual bass drum and looks like there is a blanket just shoved in side. Anyway, it a bass drum none the less.

After another really brisk walk back to the Infantry parade ground, carraing what has to be the world’s heaviest bass drum in a case that done not close properly.. this is the start of the fun.. Yay me !

After being welcomed by Cpt. Small Director of Army Bagpipe music, it was straight to work. Going through the tunes, and then the march on.

It was not long before we had all that off then we had to start practicing bunching up to get over the narrow draw bridge of the Caslte as well as our formation which is a saltire. For those of you I lost in the last sentence, it is a big cross, like that of which is on the Scottish Flag.

So practice practice practice.. lunch and then practice some more... after the practicing... we went back to Darroch Court for a quick dinner and off to the Castle for another practice session.

Darroch Court

2010-08-07T06:31:00.000-07:00

Darroch Court

Darroch Court is one of the University of Edinburgh’s residences. The “flats” are located roughly 500m from the Mile and are very close to the city centre. This is a huge benefit over the last time as there will be no need for use of busses into town. Everything mostly is within walking distances.

Each “flat” has 5 rooms on each floor, 2 people in each room. 3 Bathrooms and 2 shower facilities. There is also a nice kitchenette and small eating area. Our kitchen was designated “Common Room” where will meet to practice and meetings after the show. I have also set up a small pub that sells beers to keep us going during these meetings... The “Pound Pub” as it has been aptly names is a pound for a beer.

There are laundry facilities as well as a linen exchange which happens twice a week. We will have all meals at the university mess hall which is a brisk walk down the road. Lots of exercise... generally able to walk off any meal.

First meal is supper and the hunger was starting to kick in after my earlier sandwich at Heathrow and now long digested. Off down the road to the mess hall. On my return I will unpack the clothes and kit.

2010-08-03T17:24:00.000-07:00

Edinburgh
We have arrived ! The plane landed in what was expected in weather that was cold, wet and a bit windy. A traditional Scottish summers day  We gathered all our luggage, all but 1 piece did not arrive. Stuart Third, Pipe corporal, had the misfortune of having one of his bags not arrive. Fortunately, it was his casual clothing and not his kit.

We were met by our bus driver and liaison group, for the life of me now I cannot remember their names. One of them is however a young South African lad spending some of him time here in Scotland. After all the bags were loaded on trolleys, we headed through the Scottish elements to the bus.. nothing like a bit of rain to cheer you up after 2 days of travelling ... well ok maybe not. On the bus, the Pipe Major CC and Drum Major were whipped away to a briefing which turned out to be not so brief. The rest of the group on the other hand all arrived at Darroch Court, which will be our home for the next few weeks.

2010-08-03T16:47:00.000-07:00

The Heathrow Experience
This is something that is different for everybody, and probably no 2 experiences will be the same. The terminals are always bustling with people and spending almost a day there you do see and meet different people from different countries and cultures. Today’s experience has been somewhat special. I have done a bit of window shopping, including almost buying that iPad I so long to add to my number of tech gadgets, tools, call them what you may.
I already arrived here with ThinkPad, iPhone and BlackBerry, not to mention all the charging accessories as well as a small spare Nokia 2220. (el-cheapo but battery life id good). I am also carrying an Olympus Digital voice recorder to make voice notes of stuff I might forget... yes GEEK is the word you are looking for.
Still no sign of the rest of the Irish contingent, although 13 have headed to town on the tube, the rest are sitting in a pub.. somewhere . I have spoken to the current resident of London, Andy, he is headed to the terminal shortly.. he is just packing up all the odds and sods he will need to join us on the forward part of the journey. Chris Mac was going to arrive after us in London, but get to Edinburgh before us .. Still no sign of him either.
Whilst sitting in a pub, I met a couple asking questions about the Tattoo and that they should go.. sometime. The Guinness is fresh this early in the morning, but as I tweeted, “If you don’t go to sleep, is it late.. or early?” They also seemed to have language problems on their BlackBerry.. input language was Brazilian Portuguese.. so I sorted that out too.. back to UK English.
I then headed to PRET for a quick sandwich and the teller server was from Mozambique.. honestly .. I am wearing my Proudly South African Scarf so of course the first question was.. “ you from South Africa” Yes was the reply and he mentioned that he was from Maputu... well, the sandwich was fantastic.
I headed back toward the pub to meet Andy who has just arrived. We had a pint or three before we met up with the rest of the group at the departure gate. We all boarded the plane and took off to our final destination, Edinburgh.

Landing at LHR

2010-08-03T15:48:00.000-07:00

Landing at LHR

So you know that you have arrived at one of the busiest airspaces in the world when you can count no less than 5 other planes in the same airspace as you. After staying in the holding pattern for at least 25 minutes, you realize that it is busy on the ground this early in the morning. Eventually we landed at London, Heathrow, and then headed for our parking bay at Terminal 1.

On entering the arrivals hall, it is quite a hike to the immigration hall. Now there are a ton of people all arriving at the same time, you know it’s going to be like standing in a queue at Woolies with only 1 teller open. Never the less I joined the mass of people only to discover that after doing 1 lap in the maze I was in the wrong line.. Seasoned traveller like me ... never.. But it was true. I had to politely ask the immigration official to open the maze to let me out so I could join the correct queue... after that it was straight forward. Join the “All other passport” line then through biometric security. Serious face photo. K Proceed to the departure hall.. again security... belt phones, laptops jacket all out and off. Luckily no shoes this time. Oh and yes liquids... can’t take them.. It’s this law that prohibited me from getting a nice bottle of Scotch at the duty free.

So after I had put my toothpaste into the ziplock bag, removed my belt, phone laptop etc... I went through. Collected all in a big bunch and headed to the terminal.. got dressed again, packed all goods away and found a nice spot to catch my breath. Listening to classic American Idiot- Greenday.

Right, now off to the pub. All this typing has got my thirst really going. Till later. Cheers!

2010-07-28T09:09:00.000-07:00

Regional Champs 2010: Yes indeed The South African Irish have really done well this year in terms of the competition band. It was a narrow win, but we will take it. On 17 July 2010 we took honours in the 2010 regional champs finals at St. Benedicts. The results were in and we won over all for the day, as well as 2010 regional champs for the 2010 in both Pipe and Drum Corps. We also as usual took the best Drill, Dress and Discipline this shows our commitment to looking good.

So the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo draws near. Only 3 days till departure and all is still up in the air with regards Passports and Visas. I'm sure it will all be sorted before Saturday. I would like to thank all those people, you know who you are, for making the effort on the kit, the caps, the bags and other items such as passports etc etc etc.

Our forward party has managed to get almost local pricing for goods that side.. Thanks to Andy Dippenaar for this useful information. As we all gather on Saturday at OR Tambo airport, most are filled with excitement as well as anxiety.Faugh a Ballagh!

Pub in a Bucket Raffle

2010-07-14T11:17:00.000-07:00

Its only 17 days until the wheels of the plane that will carry us off to the UK will leave the ground in Johannesburg and fly us, safely over Africa to our destination. We do however have the last bit of fund raising to get done so we are yet again doing another famous " Pub in a Bucket" raffle.

The bucket is worth as staggering bit more than usual, as it is filled with a serious amount alcohol to get any persons spirits up. The raffle will be drawn on Saturday 17 July 2010 at the St. Benedicts Gathering. (East Rand). So support a good cause, you never know, you might just never have to by alcohol again.

The Countdown has begun

2010-07-06T08:17:00.000-07:00

The countdown is now on. We are officially going to the 2010 Edinburgh Military Tattoo. Infact it is another "special" Tattoo as celebating it's 60th year, it is the Royal Tattoo, or Jubilee year.

The Pipes and Drums of the South African Irish Regiment will no doubt be in for a great adventure, departing from South Africa on July 31 2010. Destination Edinburgh. The tickets are booked, the uniform is being issued (in some cases, re-issued), the passports are being printed and the practices have started.

The journey, to probably the most famous Military Tattoo, has already begun, with all the members learining the music of the massed pipes and drums who will enter the esplinade of the famous Edinburgh Castle through the narrow, yet very traditional drawbridge. It is quite a tight fit, marching roughly 12 Pipebands over all in unison. More on this event will follow.

I will update this Blog on a daily basis, giving an account of the month that will befilled with challanges as well as a experience of a lifetime.

Faugh a Ballagh - The Irish are on the move... again.