27th January. Burns Night Bash.

We have been invited as a great priviledge into the bosom of a well known extended family to eat a Haggis. For those not familiar with Robert Burns, the National Bard's birthday is celebrated with a distinctly Scottish flavour. It is indeed impossible to conceive of a Burns Supper without a haggis (or alcohol). The constituents of this delicacy are usual glossed over but suffice to say that originally it was a meal more associated with the common man than say the landed gentry. Haggis is not advised to form any part of a calorie-controlled diet, a fact that Isabelle was willing to quietly forget in order to enjoy the full Burns experience.

The Haggis is 'addressed' with the requisite poem from Rabbie's collected works followed by, in this case an informal selection of written works and unnacompanied songs, together with some Highland dancing performed by the fresher faced family members.

As the evening drew on it seemed possible that I might get away without having to take to the makeshift stage, but no...

The only written work within easy recall was something penned as a younger person whilst plumbing hitherto unexplored depths of the human character during the short but stormy years of marriage to 'Juniors' mother. A period when a particularly violent clash of personalities was evidenced...