I’m back-pedalling a wee bit to
mid-May when we received a rather
special invitation from the Consul General / Director of the Institut Francais
in Thessaloniki. The special occasion was that an old bud, Leonidas Partsanakis, was having conferred on him the Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes
academiques, awarded for his distinguished contribution to education. Now a
regional Adviser in French, Leon is a shining example of a dedicated teacher,
so it was very fitting that that be acknowledged, and special for us to
attend the ceremony.
Here he is with his
wife, Joyce - a fine Scots lass - in conversation with the Consul, Mr
Christophe le Rigoleur, beside a table spread with delicate morsels. Incidentally, have you noticed how often H
manages to get in on the picture?
And Joyce and Leon had another event to
celebrate: the recent marriage of their daughter, Nathalie in Glasgow.
Congratulations – na zisete, paidia! Here is Leonidas proudly showing his award
– a good Knight, indeed!
Returning to our holiday tale, we
had left Pam in sunny Exeter and hot-footed (by train!) to York for
sister-in-law’s birthday. But, as you can see, all was not well. H and niece,
Jenny, were concerned about the rain streaming steadily from the tarpaulin and
about the 50+ guests who were expected shortly for a …..garden party!
As my brother and I demonstrate, when it rains, get a hat
and make sure there’s lotsa booze on ice.
Fortunately, just before 7pm things let up, the rain stopped
giving us just enough time to dry off tables and chairs; H got charcoal burning
to heat the area and to grill sausages and prawns.
Here’s the birthday
girl cutting her cake, one specially designed to family stipulations:
depicting her at her easel - she really wields a mean paint brush! - surrounded by her beloved dogs and plants.
So the day started out as a bit of a dampener, but the
evening saw a great turn out of family, friends and neighbours, all in good
form. In fact spirits were so high we decided we were on for silly selfies –
oh, dear!
The next day had a slow start,
and in the evening some of us were magnanimous enough to help mop up the
left-overs. Sue and Dave, it was really nice to meet you! And here is niece, Jenny - once more (see
selfie above!) with husband, Mark. To join us for dinner, he had left off
filming flimsily-clad, if not completely non-clad, witches cavorting on the
moors in the moonlight. I kid you not, for he’s a camera-man, and his choosing
to be with us really is the epitome of magnanimity!
On our last evening in York, yep, here we are back at the
table and being silly. So, Jacqui, your birthday was brill and your new house
is really beautiful – thank you both for having us stay.
Oh, look- it’s Jen
again!!
Our next stop was – yes, that’s
right: Edinburgh! So we thought you would like these late-afternoon shots of
the Castle from the top of Princes
Street.
Isn’t that Gothic spire in the second shot amazing? The building used
to be known as the Victoria Hall, home of the General Assembly of the Church of
Scotland. Now housing the Edinburgh International Festival, it is known as The Hub – what a galumphing name for an
inspiring spire of delicate design!
I take H a walk up Lothian Rd, marvelling at the facelift
that Tollcross proudly sports. We walk along the Links and visit an old
watering hole of mine - the Golf Tavern. Sadly Mr Chuckity Leaf, my favourite
baked potato outlet, is no longer.
We walk to Warrender
Park Terrace, a beautiful old building that was my home for five years. At the
top floor on the left, you can just make out the port-hole window - that was my
bedroom! Rumour has it that Sean Connery used to be the local milkman, but not
in my time.
It was in that same block we saw signs of the rift that had
developed over the referendum vote –
whether Scotland should separate from the United Kingdom. Here we can see the ‘Yes’ sign expressing the dweller’s desire to split while, two windows down, the
neighbor flying the Union Jack clearly disagrees.
Several of you have asked about my stand on the
subject. All Scots love their country
and want what’s best for it; the problem is we don’t agree on what that would
be.
For some, there is a sense that Scotland should be freed from her
perceived state of oppression by England.
To look ahead, to my mind, we need to look back.
In 1707 the
terms of the Act of Union, joining England and Scotland to form Great Britain,
allowed Scots to travel to and trade with what had been up till then the
English colonies. This access to the wider world is, I believe, what gave
Scotland the strong base to develop as she did greatly. Adam Smith, the Scottish
moral philosopher and political economy pioneer, was an important figure in the
Scottish Enlightenment of the 18th century. Interestingly he cited a result of the union as,
“the middling and inferior ranks of people in Scotland gained a compleat
deliverance from the power of an aristocracy which had always before oppressed
them.”
David Hume, the
internationally-acclaimed Edinburgh philosopher, too, saw positive results of
that union: “Trade and manufactures, and agriculture, have increased: The arts and
sciences, and philosophy, have been cultivated.” At that time, Edinburgh was the centre of such
cultural and intellectual significance that it became known as the Athens of the North.
In economic terms now, Scots have little
reason to complain about their relative share of the national pie. The GDP (gross domestic product) is an assessment
of the market value of all the products and services produced or supplied by a
country in one year. When we compare the UK GDP of 1.6 trillion pounds with the
Scottish one of 148 billion pounds, then set the annual public spending per
head in the UK of 11,000 pounds against the Scottish equivalent of 12,300
pounds, we see that the Scots really cannot quibble about the size of their
slice.
We have
always retained our own banks, church, legal and education systems and, since 1998,
we have had a Parliament of Scotland which has the powers to legislate on
Scottish issues. We have always had a strong national and cultural identity,
but perhaps not a cohesive one.
I honestly do not understand how
things got so far as to reach referendum stage, but they did. The ‘Yes’
contingent ran an aggressive campaign but had
not drawn up plans for what a separate Scotland might look like; there
were no answers as to how she would survive financially. To vote ‘Yes’ was to
vote blind on several key issues.
We all know that two negatives
make a positive. When we were in Crieff, Margaret and Bill showed us how two
positives can make a negative, as in the ironic tones of, ‘Aye, that’ll be
right!’
When I learned of the
referendum outcome I raised the saltire
on our flagstaff in Macedonia.
(I’d been really irritated that it had been used as a political symbol
to denote a desire for devolution.)
I raised our
national flag with pride, as for me one negative constituted a positive:
my response to the ‘No’ result was a resounding, ‘Yesssssss’!!!
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