Happily Ever After

Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running

Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.

Tuning Up For A Highland Fling

by Russell Turner - 20:21 on 05 September 2018

It’s a small world. Yesterday Keith’s house was the venue for a brisk rehearsal of some ceilidh tunes ahead of City Limits’ next wedding gig, on Saturday, when 30 minutes of Scottish dancing has been requested. With us was a guest fiddler (whose name I’ve already forgotten) who will stand in for accordionist Tom, our usual go-to guy for ceilidh and who can work solo.

The fiddler, it turns out, had travelled to Inverness from Balblair, a mere three miles from The Rural Retreat. She might be wondering what she’s got into – my music sight-reading days are far behind me, and few of the tunes were familiar, so I struggled a little. Keith was only marginally better.

Technology backed by something more old school will help get us through. Keith and I now have digital recordings of the fiddler fiddling and a series of chord boxes written out on old-fashioned paper so we can keep up with her. Chances are, the wedding guests won’t notice a thing.

I’ve not yet had a chance to begin practising. Much of today was spent distributing (at last) the latest Chatterbox – another cracking edition. And much of tomorrow will be spent making, and recovering from, the next long run. So it won’t be until Friday when I strip a willow, dash with a white sergeant and be gay with Gordon. What fun.

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