Well, here we are again and it's nearly December again already - where does the time go? The council men are out putting up Christmas decorations in towns & villages throughout Orkney although the official lighting of the lights isn't until the weekend of the 4th December. That's when all the tree lighting ceremonies are held - Orkney's one of the few places where you'll see a Christmas tree with four point lashing - they usually manage to survive the wind pretty well.
November seems to be the month for conferences too - in the last couple of weeks I've been to the Sustainable Tourism conference (quite smugly as we're a carbon neutral company & we even have an eco policy & contribute to saving rainforests http://www.orkneyarchaeologytours.co.uk/#/our-eco-policy/4532705044)
This was followed by the Historic Scotland Neolithic Orkney conference - at which by far the most entertaining paper was by a certain Dave Lawrence on the human bones from Isbister Neolithic tomb.
Finally the Orkney Tourism Group industry conference - the main theme of which was 'Keeping Orkney Open' and extending the tourist season into October/ November. Slightly ironic that it was held on one of the worst days of the year with howling gales & lashing rain - I'm all for extending the season but within reason.
The weather has been a bit blowy recently with the usual boat troubles - some poor folk from Shetland on last weeks Sunday night boat from Lerwick direct to Aberdeen, sailed into a horrible gale - got stuck outside Aberdeen harbour as the boat couldn't get in - finally got diverted to Rosyth & arrived in the early hours of Tuesday morning - a day late! There's a local saying that covers boat trips like that: 'The only thing that kept me alive was the hope of dying!'
Cheered up by the publication of the collected last five years of 'The Giddy Limit' by local cartoonist Alex Leonard - published every week in the Orcadian. These are an absolutely hilarious take on local life with lots of in jokes that probably don't make any sense outside of Orkney - and also written in Orkney dialect which make them even more fun. They're all online too at http://www.giddy-limit.com/aboutthegiddylim.html
Have now survived two sessions at the West Mainland Strathspey & Reel Society - was a bit nervous (OK plain terrified & couldn't stop my hands shaking!) about joining. They were all very welcoming - I was expecting questions about my (lack of) playing ability, but it was just Hi - grab a seat, here's the music.
They are of course all way better than me & I'm also not used to playing in a group - when you're practising at home & you hear yourself going out of tune you can stop & play a few scales till you find the notes, but you can't in a group. And they play everything at breakneck speed & I'd not seen any of the music before - but on the plus side you get a coffee & cake break in the middle. I'm being forced to attempt music that I would normally not try as it looks too difficult - I believe it's called going outside your comfort zone.
I haven't quite worked out what's going on yet but Jean Leonard's in charge - she's a leading light of the Orkney traditional music teaching scene - & she tells us what to do, but we also have a leader who stands at the front - extremely talented young fiddler called Gina - & I think you're supposed to watch her for your cues. Frankly I'm in such a lather attempting to keep up I can't spare even half an eye for her yet.
We are practising for our big concert in March in the Stromness Academy but before that we apparently have to play for the Stromness Eventide club which we do every Christmas.
Following on from that the next big event on the horizon is the Orkney Folk Festival Fiddlers Rally - this is an open concert on the last afternoon of the Orkney Folk Festival http://www.orkneyfolkfestival.com/
All the local music groups get the music for it through beforehand & you all practice it, then a mass fiddle takes place - always sounded great fun & have secretly been hankering for the time when I'd be good enough to go along - so 29th May 2011 it is! I've blocked that day out in the diary & am refusing to take any tour bookings.
Now all I have to do is practice until my fingers bleed.
http://www.orkneyarchaeologytours.co.uk/
