Having a happy Hogmanay

I didn’t want the first day of the New Year to pass without writing something, so this is going to be a hastily written wee post; we’re just back from the traditional family get-together - and delicious steak pie - at Mum’s and I’ll be heading back out shortly with my ‘Mum’s Taxi’ hat on to collect Gordon from a ceilidh.

I don’t think I could’ve asked for a more enjoyable way to end one year and welcome in the next. The choir had been asked to open proceedings for the Hogmanay celebrations on the esplanade of Stirling Castle. Aw man, I loved every minute of it! The choir were first on – at 9pm - so I wasn’t expecting much of a crowd; how wrong was I?! It was mobbed! The view from the stage was just brilliant. Well, it was brilliant for me, maybe not so much for my choir pals that were standing behind me! Sorry I’m so tall girls! (I should explain that the ‘low harmony’ and ‘the men’ are the two smallest groups in the choir, so Annie places those two groups in the front so that the microphones can pick up our voices over the much bigger melody and mid-harmony groups. So, for my friends that keep ribbing me about it; I don’t push my way to the front – honest!) Annie, yet again, did us all proud and - after a very short sound-check, having to work with a water-logged piano (the rain thankfully went off by the time the show started), having to play a piano which one of the 'technical' guys had put on to the setting labelled 'weird' for our first song, having to rely on the 'technical' folk to sort out a few other wee sound issues during the set, and having to deal with all the other things that she has to think about when taking a big group of folk onto a stage to sing - she guided us through a great set that the crowd clearly loved. It was yet another choir experience I’ll never forget; from the moment we walked out, soaked up the view of all those people standing under our beautiful castle, took our places and sang our songs, till the moment we walked off the stage – I loved every second of it.

Gordon was up on the stage with me while Alex, Gemma and Ross were standing near the front of the crowd - watching and singing along with us. I’m writing this in a hurry and don’t have time to think of the collection of words that could properly express how happy I felt for that twenty minutes or so.

After sharing some very special hugs with some of my choir family, I went off to join my own wee family (minus Gordon, who’d headed off to join his pals) in the crowd. It’s a few years since we’ve all been together for the bells at Hogmanay. Ever since they’ve been old enough to go off and do their own thing, we’ve made it really clear to the kids that they’ve never to feel that we expect them to stay with us for occasions such as this. We’d much rather they were doing what they wanted to do, rather than what they felt obliged to do. So, it was lovely that Gemma and Ross chose to bring in 2012 on the Castle esplanade with their auld maw and paw and we had such a rare time! My home town did itself proud with a line-up of 100% Scottish acts; our choir, an up-and-coming band called The Three Blind Wolves, Eddi Reader and The Red Hot Chilli Pipers. We loved them all and were thoroughly entertained. Alex had made up a wee drink in one of these ‘camel’ things (basically a wee pouch you put on your back with a long tube for sooking from. It’s meant for water top-ups when he’s out running, but was just perfect for our wee New Year dram or six...) so we sang, danced and were very merry by the time the countdown to the bells started! We cooried up, counted down with the crowds, wished each other and everyone around us a Happy New Year then cooried up again for a pretty spectacular firework display. Big well done Stirling council! You’ve redeemed yourself from the mistake of having Wagner play the Castle last year!

Right after the bells, I’d managed to get through to Gordon and Mum on my mobile to wish them a Happy New Year. And I’d held my hands on my heart and whispered, as I’ve done every New Year since 1993, “Wish you were here. Promise I’ll do my best to do you proud again this year. Love you so much Dad.”

After a brilliant finishing set from the Chilli Pipers, we headed off for home; very wet and very bedraggled (the heavens opened just after midnight!), but very happy!

I’ve just received a text calling for Mum’s Taxi, so I’ll finish quickly by wishing you all the very best you could hope for in 2012. I'll leave you with this little snapshot showing just how much I enjoyed my last few minutes of 2011. I'm the mad wifey that's jumping around and 'wooing' about 20 seconds into the video.....