St Andrews Day Parade & Kate Smith Dance……..28/11/09……………

Due to adverse weather conditions mainly thick fog between Glasgow and Edinburgh we missed the start of this years St Andrews Day Parade which assembled and left from Edinburgh Castle to march down the Royal Mile ending at The Scottish Parliament Building across from Holyrood house.
We arrived at the Parliament building with 10 minutes to spare before the parade came to a conclusion lead by the Stockbridge Pipe band and approximately 300 marchers.
We had Geordie Boyle comparing the proceedings when he thanked the Pipe band before introducing Ted Christopher who sang one of his own songs “Scottish Dawn” which brought rousing cheers from the gathered crowd of around 350 folk, George then introduce David R Ross who gave a great speech about St Andrew and also about the Saltire the oldest flag in the world.
It was then time for Ted to give another song and with the weather conditions now at freezing point Ted did great to play the guitar at all, both David and Ted are to be congratulated on overcoming the freezing cold.  
Well done guys you did Scotland proud once again.
We then had a wee surprise when the event was brought to a close with a firework display from Arthur’s seat brilliant.
The highlight was the Saltire on the hillside lit up by touch light “brilliant it looked amazing guys”.
A thanks to George Boyle and all the guys and girls from the St. Andrews Day Rally committee who made this event possible well done one and all you’re a credit to Scotland.

Once the parade ended we headed for Winchburgh via Linlithgow for a nice spot of dinner in the Star and Garter hotel.
After a cracking meal we headed off through the thick fog to Kate Smith’s St Andrews Day Dance where we were entertained by Andy Chung, Gordon Aitken and the better than Elvis Ted Christopher who agreed to help out after one of the original bands had pulled out due to being double booked, so what a trooper Ted is, he did a set in Edinburgh came to Winchburgh did and hour and a half and then headed back to Edinburgh for 11.00pm to do another set there, the guy is a true super star, Ted you’re a gentleman of the highest order well done and thanks from all in Winchburgh.
There was a great raffle with about two dozen prizes and a special raffle for a rare bottle of whiskey and a signed Scotland top.
Also provided was a very large helping of stovies magic.
On behalf of our party….Lynn, Elaine, Christine, David and myself (Jim) thank you Kate and Mike for a great night and we are all looking forward to your next dance.
Happy St. Andrews day…………..from all at Strathleven Artizans.............................
Yours
Jim Tannock.