Pandamonium yesterday for the arrival of Sweetie and Sunshine in Edinburgh. This is not a reference to our Hon Sec . and Ted M. who had also arrived on Howff business.

Just back from Peebles after a very enjoyable few days. Dumfries and the Howff were well represented . David B handed  over the chain of office  to incoming President Jim Shields and received many compliments for his excellent leadership in a difficult year. Great to see Jane Brown being elected JVP.

Super saleman Gordon J boosted shop sales to what must have been record levels - you couldn't get in until you had purchased at least a tea towel.

John L, Les B, David S and Gordon J made great contributions to Friday night's entertainment. David M and Neil J were miffed they didn't have the X factor and failed the auditions!! Leona Evans was the star of the show and seems to get better and better.

Hon Sec David has added to his vast repertoire of jokes with a tale about 2 parrots!! Try to avoid asking him to tell you about  it if you can!! Incidentally I have to report he arrived legless at breakfast on Saturday - or at least his spectacles did - collateral damage from the evening's festivities!!

Cameron Goodall joined the Howff table for dinner on Saturday and kept us all well entertained . A really nice young man and we can look forward to his visit at Hallo'ween. We can certainly save on the cost of a PA system!

Last year's conference in Aberdeen was excellent and this was every bit as good. I would recommend as many of us as possible to consider  next years visit to Harrogate.

So far only David Smith and John Clark have confirmed definite interest- I would be pleased to hear from any other interested parties.

The final adjustments to the draft constitution agreed at last night's meeting have now been applied and passed to the Ayatollah - sorry Hon Sec - the old constitution ran to some 910 words and our new one around 1545 words!! Thanks to all the members who contributed and in particular to the subcommittee of John Lauder,John Caskie,Godfrey Bedford,Robert Wilson and David Smith and their great patience. Hopefully it will be approved at the EGM .

I'm now looking forward to the conference- the hotel are happily accomodating our two dogs and they will contribute to any singsongs!!

 

Our Honorary Secretary has already given us a full account of the trip but to put the record straight on the day he claimed he was been very abstemious and setting an example to club members and guests. However the circuitous route described as his recollection of the route taken by the Waverley tells a different story - Greenock, Rothesay, Helensburgh , Dumbarton Rock and then on to Tighnabruaich says it all!! A really enjoyable day out with excellent weather.I think we all stood out in Dumfries for a few days with the sun burnt faces.

Lots of comments coming forward on the revised draft of our Constitution - keep them coming - all comments welcome.

I would still like to try and organise a trip to Palmerston to support the Queens - if this appeals to any of you please get back to me.

I look forward to seeing you all at our next Ex Comm meeting on 29 August.

FNM

Well maybe not - the Round Table charity pub quiz, 4 Friday evening during February -We thought that we were on a roll 60 the first week then 66 followed by a 72.  Now it's the team with me in it possible the most original answer I came up with was a ballet dance with 2 people - Pas de deux - well it got the point for the team but I don't have an extensive knowledge of ballet but I do have the box set of  "Only fools and horses"   (pas de deux - Rodney) . anyway we managed a credible 70 points.

Thanks to all the club members who made up the teams over the past 4 weeks and helped us towards a to 10 finish for the series.

Among the heather - Simon Thorp intereged us with the ecological impact of the heather and grassland moors around the UK.  The importance of peat and the need to keep it moist as it retains massive amounts of CO2, the upland moors provide an estimated 70% of our drinking water, they provide entertainment - hillwalking, cycling shooting to ame but a few - wildlife and pasture. 

I had never really thought of the diversity and advanced management that goes into apparently barn ground

Thanks Simon. 

  

David Baird, Jim Haining, David Smith, Peter Kormylo, Maureen McKerrow & I travelled to auld reckie ( Edinburgh) to attend the Friends of Ukraine Burns Shevchenko Supper, where we enjoyed a mix of traditional Scots and Ukrainian entertainment and a mix of Borscht soup, haggis tatties and neeps.  This is the 4th such supper and I was very surprised to hear the similarities in the lives and trials of the two national poets.

I must add a special thanks to DS for chauffeuring as my chariot wouldn't go......

We're not just about the Howff, occassionally we get out and every year we host a burns supper for the Charnwood Lodge care home.  Traditional fair, Soup, Haggis Tatties and Neeps, great singing and music from Bill Welsh, Frank Curran, Ian McIntyre, and a couple of short speechs -The Immortal Memory and toast ta the Lassies. - Piper Major Callum Watson piped the haggis and played a lament.

I think in future more musicand songs, less speechs. 

The Befrienders Burns Supper in the Easterbrook Hall was a very splendid occasion and a very very worth while cause.  It was a pleasure to be at their burns supper, club member, John Caskie was singing and honorary member Jane Brown gave the Immortal Memory to Robert Burn as Jean Armour.
It was however disappointing that the address to the lassies didn't go down very well with many of those present, whilst I can understand controversial, and alternate views on Robert Burns and his attitude towards the Ladies, it didn't seem to be the right time or place for the content and speech delivered my Mr K Eggo.

     

This was the second time that I have had the privilege to attend the Annan Ladies Burns Club accompanied by Frank Manson our Junior Vice, and the Dover Rover Harry Hutchinson.  My expectations of a good evening were high and I was not disappointed, the Annan Ladies club have some superbly talented members many of whom I hoped to see at the SSCBA schools competition in a few weeks time.  There is always a warm and friendly welcome so I was delighted to be able to deliver fraternal greetings  from the Howff Club.

One of Jim Hainings jokes about public speaking rings a bell - something about a natural laxitive. But thanks to the pre planning by the Secretary, Mr Smith, things seem to have run like clockwork.  The most important thing everyone I've spoken to has enjoyed themselves. 

I must givea public thanks to all the artist who performed on the evening and assisted to make it such a fantastic Burns Supper, Pipe Major Callum Watson, Ian Kirkpatrick, James Coutts, Bill Welsh, Dan Cook, Frank Curran, Les Byres, John Caskie, Gordon Johnston, Harry Hutchinson, James Haining, and of course Peter Kormylo for his Immortal Memory.

What a fantastic evening

 

 

   

David Smith does a fantastic job everything seems to be going according to plan, the program is prepared and the menus are now printed.  Then we here from Murdo Morrison that an operation is pending so he can't fulfill the delivery of the Toast to the Lassie. 

But David rises to the occassion, "I'm Sure Harry Hutchinson will do the toast to the Lassies" next thing I know, it's arranged Harry was coming to the dinner and would be delighted to stand in at short notice.

 

Thank to both David, & Harry

 

 

Happy New Year Everyone.

I hope that everyone that reads this message has a very happy and health year in 2011.

Oh and welcome to the coming season of Ram A Dram.

Santa's Coming tonight, well actually it's Jane Brown - hey who wants to kiss a big hairy man that isn't your grandfather.  I was so glad that I managed to attend the clubs impromptu Christmas Dinner.  The Globe Inn Staff Excelled themselves with great service and fantastic food.  The wine flowed and the mirth and merryment oozed from every corner.  Once again the clubs talented singers made a good evening a great evening.

I've attached a photograph but I feel I should point out that this was taken before the evening started !!

John Clark, a quite, mild mannered, local artist and poet showed another side at the clubs November talk.  In an audio visual extravaganza  John took us on a tour down under with stunning scenery complemented by poem read from his book and the occasional distant sounds of the didgeridoo and ouigi board in the background.  His in his travels he had encountered crocodile vicious koala bears and many other indigenous species BUT he never mentioned the spiders..... 

St Andrews Night Dinner

It was great to be back in the Globe and despite one or two minor problems related to the seating plan, I think that a good night was had by all.  Sir Neil MacIntosh CBE delivered an excellent toast ta auld Scotia.  Chris Rollie was as always superb with his recitation of the Holy Fair, which I first hear Chris recite when my father was president of the Howff, another welcome face to the Howff Willie Horne entertained us with a newer poem "Wullie the Waster" , possible a newer modern Tam o' Shanter but none the less and experience delivered by a master.
John Caskie, Frank Curran and Les Byres were all in fine voice and were accompanied by Max Houliston.

Once again my thanks go out to all of the artists and guests on the evening, it is your talent and assistance which makes the evening in the Howff so enjoyable, lets face it if I were to sing I think everyone would leave early.  

p.s. Thanks to DS, the Globe Inn & Diageo ( for the wee dram o' Grouse)

It has become traditional that the president of the Howff is invited to attend the Dumbarton Burns Club St. Andrews Night Dinner in the Dumbuck Hotel I'm really glad that this arrangement was started by my predecessors, else I would have missed an excellent evening in the company of many friend I have had the privilege to meet at various outing and boolin' matches.  I really like the idea that they have adopted their own club song - Piper o' Dumbarton. Which I understand is sung, usually by John Young, who gave our toast to Jean Armour this year, towards he end of the evening.  So come on Howff Club members what is our song?? 

So President Patrick Trust, Moir Nelson and members of Dumbarton Burns Club Thank you all for your hospitality and a superb evening.

It was a great honour and a privelage to attend the Dumfries Burns Club St.Andrews Dinner at the Woodlands.  It is alway good to meet friend and enjoy their company but also to meet new friends.  Ian McIntyre (JVP) and myself were well looked after and enjoyed some excellent entertainment.   A few of the entertainers were Howff Club members but I guess it just shows that there is no annimosity between other Burns clubs.

A great night thanks to president Isa and the members for the Dumfries Burns Club forthe invitation and your hospitality, I hope that we can extend the same hospitality on the 30th at our dinner. 

Big thanks to May and Les Byres for the welcome, the soup, pies and mushy peas.  not to forget the buscuits & cheese, coffee & mints too.

There follwed a night of recitation, song, stories and jokes. 
A super evening in that, probably the one of closest you could get to the Life of Robert Burns, kitchen at Ellisland Farm.  Everyone I've spoken to, seems to think, they enjoyed themselves.   

It was a delight to be invited to the initial launch of the compiled translations of popular works of Robert Burns into Ukrainian.

Less than a year ago Peter Komylo had suggested to the committee of the Howff club that he intended to start fund raising to compile and publish the translation and the club donated the proceeds of one of its raffles to the fund.  Other individuals donated various sums to the cause and before long we hear that production was underway.  The purpose of this meeting was to recognise those who had donated as we were each given a copy of the book, signed by the authors Peter & Hana.

The book is unusual in that it has the original verse on the left page and the translation in Ukrainian on the right page.  Club member John Clark has drawn many of the illustrations and sketches within the book.

I would like to thank to Peter and Hana and also all those who have contributed towards its production.

Jane Brown from the Globe Inn had arranged this in the theatre Royal in Dumfries and what a superb afternoons entertainment this was.  Although disappointing that there were so few local people to support the event thankfully people had travelled from far and wide to see the performance.

 This was an extraordinary achievement given that the cast of the Jolly Beggers were all still at school, the oldest was 16 add to that, they are from school 61 in St Petersburg, Russia and I'm sure that you will appreciate the enormous effort which has gone into learning the verse in auld Scots.

The performance was complemented by some of our own youths like young burnsian of the year piper Calum Brown.

Well worth the tie to see the potential and talent of our planets youths.  

A full Car, na twa full car load of folk trundled up ta Glasgow, stoppin off for coffee on route.  the it was time to collect the facimilies of the pane of glass, inscribed by Rabbie himself, which were removed from the Globe Inn around 1834 and were sold at auction.  Matt Sempie has done an amazing job, we just need to agree how we are going to display them.

Anyway to oor tale twa full car loads of folk trundled up ta Glasgow stoppin off for coffee on route to the Mitchell Library and a visit to the Burns Room - it is I assure you well worth the visit the room itself is not what I had expected - you know the 16ft x 20ft with bookshelves round about - no quite the opposite, but take note if you do intend to go you will need to arrange in advance as a guide is needed as I suspect is a big ball of string to help you find your way back out.  The Burns room is a magnificant hall in which the collection ov over 4500 burns editions are housed unfortunately neither of the 2 Kilmarnock editions nor the actual manuscripts which the Mitchell own were on view but we were allowed to browse the books and newspapers many of which are from the 1780's & 1790's 

Les Byres was able to recite the curators favorate - the letter to William Nicol and Peter Kormylo recited in Ukranian before gifting a copy of his recent publication Burn in Ukrainian.

 

I know that we president are only here for a year but like others before me I always hope that everyone will have a great night, one of my objectives for the year is that people enjoy themselves wi' their friends, and whilst we weren't in the Globe Inn, I was quite sure that we would have a really good evening. 

We were again in for a treat as Andy Kain and Liam Stewart were performing for us again - last time they were at the Globe I was not able to appreciate their ability as I was through in the Snug but this time I really enjoyed their performance.  Added to that our own John Caskie, Les Byres, Frank Curran and our guest speaker Iain Scott, or Scottie fra Scocha and we had an excellent evenings entertainment but it just would have been better in the Globe.

My thanks to all the artists and guests for their contributions and also to Hon. Sec. DS for his organisational prowess   

Marion Aitken has quite a CV and presented a superb take on the Friars Carse as it was when Robert Burns visited and the relationships and connections between it surrounding families.  This was an interesting talk which left you wanting to know more and it encouraged members of the club who were knowledgeable on the subject matter to explore the subject further with Marion. another enjoyable talk although once again not too well attended.

21st October

We met Peter Kormylo at the Moreig Hotel  to discuss the launch of the book which he has co-authored and published gathering together the best translations of popular poem of Robert burn into ukrainian

Ми зустрілися з Петром Kormylo на Moreig готель для обговорення запуску книги, які він є співавтором і опубліковано збірку найкращих перекладів популярної поеми Роберта потрапили в українському

£21,000,000 at first glance it does look very attractive, modern yet traditional, inside it is nice and airy it does feel a pleasant place to be although the only thing open at the moment is the cafe and ye auld tourist shop although I almost bought a tie in the Burns tartan. It was interesting to be shown around the new facility and to be able to see the superb new climate controlled storage for the artifacts of our Bard.  Now what were we there for well in actual fact we, Hon. Sec. Smith and, I were there as part of a "FOCUS Group" I think that the only problem was that nobody had actually told this "Focus Group" what we were supposed to be focusing on. The building would be nice if...? Where does the words on... come from?  What is your intention to do with...?  - all of which were good questions, but nothing at all to do with the new website which is being developed and was the purpose of the gathering of these esteemed Burnsians in our little "Focus Group".  Ah well it was good to see the layout of the bew Birth Place Museum, and the project coming to fruition. Hopefully I get back before too long when I be able to look at the poets belongings and works. 

The winter evening aren’t traditionally well attended but tonight we had over 20 people listening to Mac Creedon speaking about the art and skills of traditional printing, as well as some stories of the red tops and broadsheets and their escapades with the unions before the demise of the ‘hot metal printing’

A great evenings entertainment for just a couple of quid –

 

*** Highly recommended ***  

I really think that we should all go back to school and learn to count, but as usual we were extremely well looked after and it was a pleasure to be with our friends fra Dumbarton.  Despite some heavy rain showers we managed to play enough ends to get some scores on the cards and the count showed “A DRAW” but I guess when we’re with friends we’re all winners.  Thanks again for the Meal and your hospitality guys a supper day, see you in Dumfries next year and mind you don’t lose the trophies…..

 

The usual eccentric exuberance, a few squabbles, and great fun.   

 

Congratulations to David Baird on his election as President of the Federation .

 

All in all a good weekend.

As most Burnsians are aware Mike Duguid was involved in an accident earlier in the year, but the SSCBA had arranged a civic reception osted by Dumfries and Galloway Council to mark his year in this prestigious job.   It was a pleasure to be asked to attend on behalf of the Howff Club to wish Mike all the best Patsy Gilroy welcomed everyone and congratulated Mike on his achievement in the absence of Provost Groom, it was also nice to see Ian Kirkpatrick playing the millennium fiddle.

Well Done Mike…

 

At the Howff were proud to welcome visitor to the Globe Inn and give them the benefit of some local knowledge to show them the Mausoleum in St. Michaels and the landmarks in the cemetery, as well as the Globe Inn Burns room, bedroom and Howff Club room and I was pleased to be introduced to the Newton Lads Burns Club on Saturday and the Larkhall Burns Club on Sunday afternoon.

 

Thanks to DM we arrived in plenty of time at auld reekie in plenty of time for our first event of the day only problem no parking so DM had to park 6 miles away and run back to the venue where Professor Purdie and Camron Goodall were presenting on the third enlightenment, which had a slant towards oor Robert, Cameron sang & Played in between Prof. Purdies speech and the dulcet chirps of the mobile phone. Then we were off a walking tour of some of the places where Robert Burns would have visited. After the short tour & Lunch at the Beehive we took a taxi to the next venue after all it’s a long way with short legs.    Anna Hillis and Cheryl Easton were performing at the same venue so we called in and had 2 shows for the price on none, they were both part of the free fringe, but very enjoyable anyway sometimes the best cost less….. not very often I’m afraid.

We had left the car near to the Beehive but it had been recommended that we should visit the White Hart and it was well worthy of a visit the entertainment was great atmosphere enjoyable and most of us weren’t driving.

 

Sorry DM someone else’s turn next time…..