Ceolas II: Thursday July 5th - Monday July 9th

I mentioned the Gaelic lessons (pronounced Gallik btw).

Well, on the Monday morning after Step & morning break, there we were ~ about 25 newbies. We were given a hand-out about the day's lesson immediately, &, as every teacher knows, this was a bad idea as we all started to (try &) read it.
Each of the hand-outs began with Madainn Mhath. Ciamar a tha sibh? This means Good Morning. How are you? & is about the only Gaelic I took away with me which stuck. The 1st is pronounced Mathen Vah (with a soft th as in therapy*) . The 2nd is also bizarre to those brought up on Romanic languages: It's pronounced Keema ha shee. Initially I did homework, & tried to get my head round the pronunciation, but she was a pretty crap teacher, & went Way too fast. So much so, we were down to under 20 on the Tuesday, unlucky 13 on Wednesday, & 9 on Thursday. I kept my 4 hand-outs until just now. I'd got so fed up by Friday, I chose not to turn up & hitched to Lochboisdale instead ~ see below.
* I needed therapy after a Gallic class :-/ 

Generally speaking the weather had been fairly manky, & the bikini in my ruckie unused.
So, when we had an afternoon off so peeps in the end of week show the following afternoon (Fri) could practice, I hitched to Eriskay.
Angus was my 1st kind driver. He had been ferrying us to & from the hall in the mornings, & Gaelic was his first language! He took me across the causeway & dropped me off near the hall we'd danced in the previous evening.
I went to the pub for some lunch ~ seafood chowder & garlic bread. Yum. 
And while I was there the sun came out :-D

The pub is one of the buildings in the pic, & there is a little beach of unbelievably white sand. Glorious :-)

The lump mid-distance is Barra & in real life I could see the ferry coming over.

A man after my own heart ~having a paddle :-)

The sea was unbelievably clear, too.

I had an awesome walk along the western shore to the beach where I saw the ferry arrive from & leave for Barra.
One day I will do the entire route in the car, & ferry between all the islands. Or as many as I can fit in, anyway.
By the time I'd walked to here, the ferry had gone, but the wonderful crescent beach was too inviting, so the shoes came off.

I told you the water was clear. This is my foot in about 2 feet of it!

Then I got all arty-farty with some shells & my shadow.

This is the beach from the other end, taken from the road down to the ferry.

A sheep asleep.
Or
An asleep sheep.
Take your pick  ;-)

This one's looking over the top towards the sea, east of the causeway. I'd gone up on the hill looking for wild Eriskay ponies.
I had been under the misconception for years (>40) that there were 9 native breeds of pony in the UK. Wrong ~ there are 10, & I didn't find out about the 10th until I went to South Uist. There were a few in the field opposite Daliburgh school & someone explained about them, hence my trip to Eriskay to see them in the wild.
btw - there's no Kay on the end of Eriskay: It's pronounced Ska.

Not having found any ponies on the hill, I walked back into the village & found a couple of captive mares & their foals.

Heading off back across the causeway I came across another tame sheep,but there was no sign of any otters doing what they do on the telly progs :-(
Maybe, when I do my 'tour', I'll have more luck?

This is a pic of the causeway from the S Uist side. The tide's in now.
Shortly after this I stuck my thumb out & a taxi stopped. Eek!
When I explained I was going toDaliburgh but didn't have enough to pay for a cab, he said he was going to Pollachara up the road & dropped me off at the bottom of the B888.
From there I got a lift with a lady going to Daliburgh Post Office (next to the school), so I got home in no time. 
Thanks, kind S Uist peeps :-)





Outside the school there were some sheep. 



They were probably not there for a maths lesson ~ that would be camels (see Pratchett's Pyramids ;-p )

They were milling about on the road. Nobody seemed bothered: including the sheep!

Before I went home for tea, I nipped into the school to pick up my bag with my shoes in & Akiko was still practising!









After tea I went to the pub to hang out with peeps jamming there, & on the way home at gone 1.30am*, there was still light in the sky. 
Amazing :-)

That was when my yearning to "go north" began!
* Yes, the pub did "close" at 11, but stayed open anyway ;-)


As Friday was our last day in class, I took the camera & got a few pics. 
The young lad in the purple top & with a violin is a Henderson. 
There's a lot of them about!

Frank was dancing the routine he'd done for us & some were videoing his feet. They weren't allowed to video the whole of him due to copyright!

The next 2 are from the R&Q class. 
I'd not done a quadrille before the Ceolas, & apparently, there are hundreds of them.
Sounds a bit like SCD!

The next few are from the Friday afternoon concert. The hall was packed with spectators ~ clearly a bit of light relief from the sheep & the wind!

There's a couple of Hendersons - the blokes with the violins.

The guy in green is Angus & they're small pipes.
S Uist was the 1st time I'd come across them. Prob easier to play than the big ones, but when I priced them early the next year, they were £2k, so still too much dosh :-/

Our group did a turn as well. I even pretended to play the violin. Happily, there are no pictures here, but I guess there may be some somewhere in the Ceolas 12 archives?


The Hostel cat's name was Lucky. 
Mmmm? I'm inclined to wonder how many lives he has left?

Next up is the 'end of Ceolas' concert in the big hall on the A865, just up the road from the Borrodale Hotel AKA ~ the pub.
Not sure this far down the line, but the Ginge may be Angus?

It's defo Frank doing some Step dancing, tho.

















I think this one's the Hendersons band? I should get a DVD from Amazon!

He looks miles away, but his fingers are all there!

You can't see his feet, but Frank's at the front 

Duelling banjos small pipes!

Duelling Step-dancing?

They both look miles away

A thingy & a Henderson

Jammin' at the pub

More jammin'
So many talented people in 1 small pub!

Angus the driver.
Thanks for the lift on Thursday x

Playing, talking & drinking after 'Time'!

Playing for a Step-dancer

The pub was jam-packed with Jammers

A Dulcimer

This was a nice tune. Shame you can't hear it

Dulcimer man playing a request

Frank's final dance

The 'crossed feet' move. A bit like the Hornpipe one

And now for the big pipes. And indoors, too!

Waiting for the ferry at Lochboisdale

Once back in Oban I took some photos of the photos on the walls in the kitchen.
Not sure what the South American link was. The hostel manager bloke was out, but maybe I'll ask next time?

Kilchurn castle from the train (in the rain) up at the NE end of Loch Awe.
I used to have a lot of lovely Kilchurn pics, but they went with Rob & his SD card :-/


So, that was Ceolas 2012
I hope you enjoyed the tale & go to S Uist & Eriskay yourself, one day.
OAO