Burns night

The poet Robert Burns was born this day in 1759 and, apparently, people have been celebrating Burns Night since 1801 when a group of his friends first got together in memory.

Last year a group of our friends were expecting to gather for a traditional Burns Night supper but people dropped out - mainly with the reason they did not like haggis - leaving just PY and myself. So, we went to Boisdale, a restaurant in the city, and duly listened to the speeches, stood as the haggis was piped in, listened to somebody (I forget who) properly address the haggis and sampled a whisky or two.

This year we noticed the same restaurant was doing a virtual celebration. They delivered the food for you to prepare at home, along with proper cooking instructions and a timing sheet. Then came the video link so that you could have dinner accompanied by the piper and the proper address. There was a hope that it was the largest ever Burns Night supper as over 1000 were expected to be watching and eating simultaneously. We discovered that only Queen Victoria and Christopher Columbus have more (non religious) statues than Burns. We stood when the piper piped.

The food was delicious.