Burns Day

The whole day has been dedicated to a scottish theme today at my placement, and it has been wonderful. We all wore kilts,(kinda) mine was a tartan scarf wrapped round my waste for example! In the morning I read Burns Poem "Address to a Haggis out for all the clients in my best scottish accent.

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o the puddin'-race!
Aboon them a' ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy of a grace
As lang's my arm.

The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o need,
While thro your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.

His knife see rustic Labour dight,
An cut you up wi ready slight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Like onie ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin, rich!

Then, horn for horn, they stretch an strive:
Deil tak the hindmost, on they drive,
Till a' their weel-swall'd kytes belyve
Are bent like drums;
The auld Guidman, maist like to rive,
'Bethankit' hums.

Is there that owre his French ragout,
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad mak her spew
Wi perfect sconner,
Looks down wi sneering, scornfu view
On sic a dinner?

Poor devil! see him owre his trash,
As feckless as a wither'd rash,
His spindle shank a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit:
Thro bloody flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!

But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread,
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He'll make it whissle;
An legs an arms, an heads will sned,
Like taps o thrissle.

Ye Pow'rs, wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies:
But, if ye wish her gratefu prayer,
Gie her a Haggis!
Then at lunch time we had a proper scotmans come in and play his bagpipes whilst we ate our lunch of haggis neeps & tatties, the clients loved it, apart from one who had her hands over her ears the whole time, bless ( we took her in another room after five minutes).


As soon as luch was settled it was time for the wheelchair dancing that we have been practicing for the last couple of weeks. We started off with the Gay Gordon which went down really well, we managed to do it completeley without crashing wheelchairs once, (not that I am admitting to ever crashing). Then myself and two of the support workers did our version of the highland fling, which resulted in lots of laughter from staff and clients alike. We finished off with our freestyle dancing and managed to include all 20 clients at the same time. Every one of them had a great day as did I.


My Janathon efforts today include my daily 5 mile commute walking, 1 hour of dancing and 30 minutes X-box biggest loser.

My Wireless internet is still down, but my bodge it
clever hubby, has trailed wire across the house from pc-pc! Just hope I dont need a wee in the night or my janathon efforts might be scuppered by a nasty trip