On Saturday, June 21st, 2008, we decided to take the boys to the 78th Oldmeldrum Sports & Highland Games! It was our very first Scottish Highland Games experience…FANTASTIC! We all had a fabulous time. Oldmeldrum is a small, quaint town about 17 miles North West of Aberdeen. Even though we went on Saturday, when the “Highland Games” portion takes place, it starts on Friday night with a live marquee band and ends on Sunday with a 5 a side football match on the main pitch. The BIG Highland Games,the one that people come from all over the world to attend, is the Braemar Highland Games that takes place in September. The Queen is the guest of honor at that one.
A bit of its history… “Oldmeldrum Sports”, as it was called, were first held in 1930, when a committee of 6 local working men were persuaded to part with a week's wages (a considerable sacrifice in those days) to put the event into motion and to raise money to provide a Cocoa Fund for the children of Oldmeldrum.
Here are some photos of our fun…
The Fire Brigade was there for the kids to see…they could dress up and turn on the sirens! What a blast for them!
Landen at the wheel…watch out world!
Trevor saving the day!
Cameron was breathing so “intentionally” that he was fogging up the mask! :)
…almost there…
..ahh..all gear up! He could barely move it was so heavy!
Landen posing with the cute bull.
With the two of them in there, there were lots of sirens turning on and off!
Highland Dancers
Bagpiper playing while the highland Dancers compete.
Bit o’ history - The term Highland Dancing refers to a style of athletic solo dancing which evolved into its current form during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the context of competitions at public events (namely, Highland games), where it is typically performed to the accompaniment of bagpipe music. Dancers wear specialized shoes called ghillies. Nowadays, Highland dancing, which can be seen at nearly every modern day Highland games event, is a highly competitive and technical dance form which requires many hours of practice and training over a period of several years to perfect. In terms of its technical requirements and the training required for its performance, Highland dancing has much in common with ballet. It takes a massive amount of stamina and arm/leg strength, no matter how old the dancer is.
Sweet Landen
Pipe Band…if I could explain to you how AWESOME it is to see and hear a pipe band, I would! I just love the sound of bagpipes…
Their full Scottish dress is so beautiful!
Skydiver with the Scottish Flag
There is a fun part when all the children get to “race”. Cameron is in red on the left, trying to “pass” his closest opponent! Nail-biting excitement I say…:)!
Trevor “slipped” at the start and was quite mad about it for a while…can you say…competitive?! :)
Caber Toss event
The Caber Toss is a traditional Scottish athletic event practiced at the Scottish Highland Games involving the tossing of a large wooden pole called a caber, similar to a telephone pole or power pole.
How it works, you ask? The object is not the distance of the throw, but rather to have the caber fall directly away from the thrower after landing. A perfect throw ends with the 'top' end nearest to the thrower and the 'bottom' end pointing exactly away. If the throw is not perfect, it is scored by viewing the caber as though it were the hour hand on a clock. A perfect toss is 12:00. A caber pointing to 11:00 would yield a better score than one pointing to 10:30 but would be the equivalent of 1:00. If the caber lands on its end and falls back towards the thrower, the score is lower than for any throw that falls away from the thrower but will be based upon the maximum vertical angle that the caber achieved (side-judging may involve a second judge.) An angle of 87° is better than 75°. Scoring depends on accuracy, and if the caber did not completely turn once, then it is based on the degree that it rose away from the ground. Got all that? Basically, if it goes end over end, there is a REALLY big cheer. It is probably the most “watched” of the events, as they purposely save it for the very end! Not many of the competitors are able to achieve this feat. But it is great fun to watch. The boys were just in awe!
Here we are!
And for a SMILE…last but not least…photo evidence that they “do” wear pants (underwear) under the kilts!! (At lease these Scotsmen…right? There are a lot in this country!)
Tomorrow is Landen’s 3rd Birthday! Can’t believe it…. signing off for now! God Bless!
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