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Welcome to our February Newsletter. We have bits on some of our destinations as well as some pieces chipped right out of our heads. Hope there’s something of interest for you.
Gung Haggis Fat Choy
Not only is it Valentine’s Day on February 14 (and big hugs to all), but it is also Chinese New Year. This year it is the Year of the Tiger so Gung Hay Fat Choy (Happy New Year). It's also Vancouver & Whistler's Olympic Month. Good Luck to all the marvellous athletes who devote so much to their sports.
And in keeping - sort of - with the Chinese New Year, there is a very special celebration that takes place in Vancouver that is NOT the Olympics. It is the annual “Gung Haggis Fat Choy” celebration- a fascinating fusion of Chinese and Scottish culture for the New Year and for Burns Day (January 25).
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson 'does in' the Haggis watched by Todd Wong
How about some Deep Fried Haggis Won Tons or Haggis Pork Dumpling all with appropriate Chinese dishes? The event has become a big celebration that includes a week of activities including Dragon Cart racing, piping, dancing and maybe just a bit of whisky consuming.
This bizarre event started in 1998 as the brainchild of Todd Wong - now known as Toddish McWong. Todd was a psychology student at the University and as he became aware of the Scottish tie in with the school, he came up with the idea.
Over the years it has grown to become a major event at the end of January and early February featuring the city’s mayor and other dignitaries. Lots of fun and an excellent example of how the wide range of ethnic groups get along out on the wack west coast.
Speaking of Haggis...
While many like to gag and groan whenever Haggis is mentioned, it's pretty good business in Scotland. Not a giant operation but still a good size.
Macsween's Haggis is the big name in the Haggis world and employs about 50 people and produces 850 tonnes of the stuff, or to put it another way, about three million servings. The company operates in Loanhead (the Edinburgh area) and has been producing the special Scots dish for more than 50 years. In 2009, despite the recession they upped their production by some 20 percent. Obviously more than a weird few like the stuff. (We're having Haggis Nachos tonight, the day this is written).
Honest, this is in the National Museum of Scotland with a card stating the one is the wild haggis, the other is the domestic haggis
The company not only produces the traditional Haggis containing lamb, beef, oatmeal and onions plus a secret blend of spices and seasoning, but also produces a vegetarian Haggis as well as a newly introduced microwaveable Haggis.
Now, if you want to be really traditional you would need to find some sheep pluck - the liver, lungs and heart. Then find a sheep’s fourth stomach, called a rumen (happy hunting). This will be the casing for the meat. All you have to do is boil, chop and mix the pluck with onions and toasted oatmeal, add salt, pepper and spices then stuff it in the stomach and sew it up but making sure to leave a bit of space for expansion whle boiling it all again. If you don’t leave room you may have a rather disgusting explosion as the contents expand.
And before you all start the previously mentioned gag and groan, just check out the making of your favorite sausage or processed meats! According to Macsween, haggis is a source of fibre, iron and carbohydrates, with a nutritional profile similar to a lamb chop, and contains no artificial colours, flavourings or preservatives.
For a serious approach to Haggis (we had ours on Burns Day), go to the Macsween site at www.macsween.co.uk for some background, history - and neat recipes.
Hearing Someone say ‘Oops’ in an art gallery...
A terrible thing. Especially for the one saying ‘oops’. And it happened just a short time ago in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York when a woman attending an art education class stumbled, fell on to the large Picasso painting and tore a good chunk of it.
The painting, entitled The Actor, was painted by Pablo Picasso in the winter of 1904-05.
One doesn’t even want to think about being the perpetrator of that kind of thing. The poor woman will probably never enter an art gallery again.
However, it did remind us that those of us heading off to Spain and Morocco in March will be able to see some of Picasso’s work along with other Spanish artists such as Salvador Dali (he was a strange one), Velasquez, Goya and El Greco to name but a few.
 
Picasso's The Actor with a Moroccan artistic wall in Casablanca
The Spanish are proud of their cultural achievements and many works are easily seen not only at the world famous Prado in Madrid, but at many other galleries and museums.
Couple the culture with some fascinating architecture that blends so much with the Arabic artistic influence from their seven century rule in Spain. Then too there is the fascinating Fez, Marrakech and Casablanca following our Spanish sojourn.
If you’re interested, there is still space available. The Spanish-Morocco journey runs from March 18 to April 1. Just give us a shout at 1 800 773 7093.
Slainte & Iechyd da (translated and cheers, or good healty, in Gaelic and Welsh. The Welsh one is pronounced Yahkeeda - sort of).
When a language disappears so to does the history and the heart of a nation. It is through our voices that we speak to our children. In songs, in stories in teaching - everything is through language.
And it’s so obvious, isn’t it?
If another race completely took over our country and ran everything in their own tongue, how long would it be before the old ways disappeared? Just as long as it would take for the old people to die off and for the children to involve themselves with the ways and the speech of the incomers as it is happening in the last outposts of the Celtic World.
 Ancient worlds, people and stories all disappeared
We think we ‘know’ Scotland and Ireland and Wales because we’ve been and we’ve read books and we’ve listened to the songs and the stories. In English. The language of the conqueror.
But the old, disappearing Celtic world is far different from “I belong to Glasgow” and “Danny Boy”.
The deep, ancient roots are disappearing. In Ireland only about 30,000 people out of a population of six million, North and South use the Irish language. In Scotland the figure is 58,000 out of five million while Wales is the one who is fighting back. There are 600,000 Welsh speakers in their nation of three million.
Pushed back over centuries by war and invasion the tiny outposts of the Celts are all in the West of their countries, in the hills amidst the poorest of lands. This is where they went to be left alone to hide in centuries past.
We have lost so much with the demise of the Celtic languages. There is a richness in the stories, in the music and in the song of the Celtic people. There is also a fascinating relationship in the everyday activities and the religion of the ancient Celts with the natural world that holds a message for all of us as we watch the destruction of our planet. Sadly it is a world that has been shrunk almost to the world of the academics.
  Hints of the Celtic past
Before it’s too late, we want to see and discover more of those Celtic worlds when we visit Scotland in August and then explore the Celtic Corners of Ireland, Scotland and Wales in September.
In Wales we’ll see the ‘fight back’; the way the Welsh have reintroduced the teaching and speaking of their language, their thriving cultural strength and the strong Welsh book publishing industry. Just maybe there is hope for the future.
It’s a fascinating world. Join us. It’s going to be fun.
Scotland - August 15-28; Celtic Corners August 31-September 11
That's it for now. Give us a shout at 1 800 773 7093 if you have any questions. Enjoy February.
Cheers,
Andy & Bev
Happy New Year and Welcome to our January Newsletter. Enjoy everything the new year has to offer - and what you bring to it. How about discovering a new author; or take a course, learn something new or take a tour - with us of course - and discover how fascinating the world is.
Keeping the Savings alive...
We have decided to keep the ‘deal’ going through January. Book any tour (or tours) and we’ll cover the early night costs of the airport hotel (which can range from $250-$350) as well as deducting $100 per person from the cost of each tour.
Remember, a maximum of 20 guests, always two and three nights each location, no hidden extras (which you find on every other tour), owner escorted by Bev and Andy, four star accommodation, plenty of free time, no rushing - and lots of fun!
Spain & Morocco - or ‘how to beat the winter blahs’. (March 19-April1)
Return to Italy - Venice, Tuscany, Florence, Rome. April 8-19.
Scotland Once More - Including the Diamond Jubilee of the Military Tattoo. (Aug 15-28)
Celtic Corners - Ireland, Scotland, Wales. (Aug 31-Sept 11)
   
Give us a call at 1 800 773 7093.
And you can start it all by bringing in the New Year with a wee dram or two along with a lot of others around the world.
Who Else Drinks Whisky?
Surprise - France is the number one importer of Scotch Whisky in the World. Those wine loving French are miles ahead of the U.S. in second place.
Scotch whisky - More French people drink it than Americans - and certainly Canadians
Where’s Canada? Who knows. The top ten - not in order are: France, The United States, Spain, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Germany, Greece, Venezuela and South Africa. China and India are closing in fast on the top ten rankings.
The export of Scotch from Scotland makes up 20 percent of their manufactured exports which is a pretty significant number for a small nation of barely five million people.
The industry, along with spin offs, involves a work force of 40,000.
And on the Same Subject...
There are a couple of cases of more than a hundred year old whisky waiting to be dug up from the Antarctic thanks to the intrepid Ernest Shackelton.
Shackelton and his crew buried a couple of cases of The Mckinlay Scotch at one of their base camps in the antarctic during their famous expedition of 1907-09.
Shackelton's ship The Endurance trapped in the Antarctic. At least no problem with ice for the whisky!
Nobody has a clue why it was buried but on a relatively recent archeological dig, the cases were discovered and will soon be brought out of the ground. While no one is planning on trying the whisky, the company that used to produce this single malt would like to check it out and see if they can replicate it for the market.
Incidentally, Ernest Shackelton lived in the fine old Victorian residence now part of Channings Hotel in Edinburgh which we have used for more than 15 years.
Along with that Dram...Auld Lang Syne
Don’t imagine that Robert Burns ever imagined that his Auld Lang Syne would be the most popular and well known piece of music in the civilized world some 213 years after his death.
Well - it wasn’t really his. An old man had recited a version of this old song to him and he adapted it and found the suitable music. A similarly themed song dates all the way back to the 15th century in Scotland but it was Burns who pulled the theme together and turned it into what it is today.
There are five verses to the song, written in the Scots dialect - which means most people can’t understand much of the poem.
As a musical piece it was made famous by Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians from the late 40s but before that it was regularly sung not only by gatherings of Scotls but of many others.
It is played at the graduation ceremoniy for young officers at Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario as well as the Royal Naval College in England.
Other military colleges who use the tune for their passing out parades including both India and Pakistan and in fact, it was played whille President Perez Musharraf of Pakistan reviewed his troops at his resignation ceremony.
Many will remember the Black Watch slow marching off the parade square to Auld Lang Syne in the pouring rain at the hand over of Hong Kong in 1997.
And perhaps the most cacaphonous rendition was sung recently, on November 30, 2009 when students and faculty of the University of Glasgow sang it in 41 languages simultaneously.
It really is a musical poem that speaks to all.
Dumb People - Dumb Questions
A question actually asked at a Tourist Information Centre in Britain: “Why did they build so many ruined castles and abbeys in England?”
Or how about the tourist who wanted to know what time the Loch Ness Monster was fed.
Nessie and Callanish stones - both bring out some interesting questions
Or the vacationer in Florida wanting to know which beach was closest to the ocean.
These are all legitimate questions posed to variouds tourist centres. Honest. It’s scary what’s out there nor on a leash including the person who asked a Philiaelphia tour guide: “In what city did the Boston Tea Party take place?”
Someone - who should not be let out alone - wrote a Japanese tourist office to ask how long it took to travel from Tokyo to South Korea - by train.
Or the one who asked us many years ago, while staring at the 5,000 year old Callanish Standing Stones on the Isle of Lewis: “Were the people who built these Christian?”
Difficult to answer that isn’t it?
Another Airline out to pasture...
The collapse of Globespan Airways, a Scottish based company, while a shock and disappointment to many, can also be seen as a stabilization in the industry.
Offering silly prices of $49 one way to the U.K. may have attracted attention, but there was no way those prices could attract a profit, even if you filled the flight and had overflow strapped to the wings.
This type of discounting was unrealistic and also created turmoil in the rest of the industry with arlines having to try and compete.
Operations such as Ryan Air and Easy Jet get away with it because they are basically European (and area) destinations. No long haul stuff and charges for virtually everything except air. Ryanair even charges flyers to check in either at the desk and this past year made a profit of £500,000 on their excess charges alone. (Not our idea of fun and relaxation even for the sake of saving a wee bit.)
There are still good prices out there. Canadian Affair works with Air Transat and Thomas Cook and offers reasonable fares to destinations that would require connecting flights as does Air Canada, Brtitish Air, Lufthansa, KLM, etc.
But no $49.00 fares anymore.
That's it for now. Don't forget you can keep up with our weekly blog every Wednesday at www.traveltipsandtales.com. And give us a shout when you're ready to book.
All the best,
Andy & Bev
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