St Andrew's Day 2009 - Patron Saint of Scotland

St Andrews Day blip is of a statue of Freddie Mercury, currently on show in Edinburgh's Omni Centre. It caught my eye as I hurtled round the roundabout at the top of Leith Walk this morning as, yes it's true, Freddie's statue had been draped with a kilt for the occasion of Scotland's Saint's Day. Is this really the sort of publicity stunt I should be promoting with my photo?

Was listening to Radio Scotland debate at the time when I drove past about the Homecoming 2009 events which come to an end today.

Homecoming 2009 : hmm. Remember asking one of the reps from VisitScotland inspection team what we'd be doing for 2010 - his answer 'Open Golf!'.

I love to welcome people to Scotland. It's what I do.. As an ambassador for our small country I don't think it's all about tartan tat and shortbread. It's about welcoming people here for many reasons. People come to Scotland to trace their roots, and they'll hopefully keep coming long after the Homecoming is over. But people have roots all over the world, and travelling to find them is only one of the myriad of reasons why people travel. People come to Edinburgh because they've heard it's a great place to live, and they want to see our architecture, our contrasts, follow trails of literary heroes and heroines, research, gain knowledge, relax, explore, learn, recharge, be inspired, show their kids a real castle, visit the Zoo, ooooh so many reasons.

I know they do, because when they get here I greet them and talk to them about it.

But I was in a bit of a quandary today about St Andrew's Day - what to do, how to celebrate. We don't have a 'format' for our celebrations - it's not like Thanksgiving where we get together with our families and eat turkey and pumpkin pie.

I asked the question on Twitter today and got the reply 'whisky galore'. Others suggested Jimmy Shand CDs, shortbread and a very large dram. Others replied in similar vein. We need to think about how we should honour our Patron Saint, and it's not just about draping everything in tartan and thinking that's it done!