Scottish Pipe Band World Championships

It seems rather ironic that on a rather wet cold and miserable rainy day in Kaikoura, we were sitting in a weird Irish bar listening to some pretty awful "Scottish style" music of the sort that only people who have never been to Scotland, and who are called McSomething, and who are nostalgic for the "home country", would listen to, and we were deciding about fun things to do when we went back home. Dan started talking nostalgically about the Highland Games in Dunoon which he used to go to many years ago. We decided as soon as we got back in the UK that we'd book up for this year's games. When we did some further research, we realised that the pipe band championships part of the games had been split off into a separate competition. Dan was really enthusiastic about the pipe bands and so that's the bit we decided to book up for....the Scottish Pipe Band World Championships in Glasgow.
The 'irony' part of the above discussion is the fact that although it was August, and that the day before had been a beautiful, warm, bright, sunny day; the day of the championships, Saturday, dawned grey and gloomy, and it went downhill from there! It rained, and it poured. Then it rained some more, and then it poured again. Then, there was some rain, and a bit of drizzle, and some more...errrr....rain! We sat and watched the top 14 bands battle it out in 2 rounds for the title of World Champion. It was spectacular! The soggy clothes (wet through as far as the underwear) were worth it. The hypothermia was worth it. The pipers were superb and nothing could dampen their spirits! Next time though, I'm going to be wearing a wetsuit!
Link to all the pics on Picassa Web Albums - SPBChampionships