Burns Ball

Well, here we are at the Burns Ball last night. It was fun -- a little long on the program side and even longer for the meal. We had the same problem at the Marine Ball -- I don't know the reason, whether the kitchen is too small, planning is not sufficient, not enough prior food prep, but the Sheraton is pretty slow to bring out the courses. So we do a lot of visiting among different tables while we're waiting and probably end up having more wine or scotch than ordinarily prudent. That was a nice plus -- each table had a bottle of scotch. It may be planned this way on purpose -- it was a great chance to catch up with a lot of people we don't see on a regular basis.

We had a glass of champagne and "mingled" for an hour or so when we first arrived, and then went in and sat at our appointed table. Our table was named "To a Kiss." "To a Louse" was not represented by an eponymous table. Then our ambassador gave a little talk about Robert Burns and why he was so popular; then the English ambassador read a Burns' poem, one was read in Albanian, followed by toasts to the laddies and lassies, reasonably long and humorous. A lady from our embassy sang a Scottish song somewhere in there. Then we ate and some people danced. In fact probably most people danced. There was a piper from Scotland, who led the procession of the haggis around the room, which we later ate with mashed potatoes.

It was my first haggis tasting, and it was pretty tasty.