During this year at our Lions club we have had a St Patrick's themed dinner and a St George's themed dinner and since my husband and I are both Scottish the club decided to have a St Andrew's themed dinner as well. St Andrews Day is on 30th November, so the November dinner meeting was scheduled for haggis :)
We've had a bit of stress, uncertainty and upheaval lately with my husband being informed of impending redundancy and he has been working very hard at securing a new job. Initially the Scottish night sounded like it would be so much fun and I had some ideas and plans for the night but alas the best laid schemes o' mice and men gang aft agley. Thinking about the public speaking portion just made me feel even more stressed and anxious, but I think it all worked out pretty well.
In the end I didn't have much time to prepare and ended up just doing everything off the cuff and I think that worked out better. I gave the loyal toast, from a text I found online:
Long may her Majesty be spared
to grace her high position
to rule us all, both great and small
with wisdom and discretion
to grace her high position
to rule us all, both great and small
with wisdom and discretion
and then I recited the Selkirk Grace:
Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some would eat that want it;
But we hae meat, and we can eat,
Sae let the Lord be thankit.
And some would eat that want it;
But we hae meat, and we can eat,
Sae let the Lord be thankit.
After that I told a story about the wild haggis that roam the Scottish hills (!!) before sending the haggis party to go catch a haggis!
Off they trotted to the kitchen and then the piper got his bagpipes going and the haggis was paraded around the room before being placed on a table with a tartan table cloth. Then my poor hubby, who like me was a bag of nerves, and having never recited any Robert Burns poetry before, proceeded to give the Address to a Haggis. The piper, hubby, knife carrier and drinks carrier all then downed their shots of Glenfiddich.
After that everyone settled down to enjoy their meal and enter into conversations with each other. Some people were trying haggis for the first time, others were enjoying a rare treat, and a few (us vegetarians included) were staying away from it! We did get some tasty clapshot as well as other non-Scottish specific food.
Once the meal was finished our District Governor gave her speech and then the piper played a few tunes and we even had some impromptu highland-esque dancing! Then we all sang for Auld Lang Sine and us club members got to tidying up and our guest headed home after having what I hope was as much of an enjoyable, fun and entertaining evening as I had.
