Bruce & Lois

Sunday, 18/08/13

Sunday morning in the Free Church of Scotland. Let’s just say it was quite different. We scarcely knew any of the tunes used for the Psalms; some were from the new Sing Psalms while others were from their older book which (in the copy we managed to borrow) had only sol-fa notation. Quite interesting. The service had much less of a liturgy than we have. I don’t mean it was less formal! But it was basically just the Psalms, prayer, scripture reading, and the sermon. Three Psalms were sung.

In the evening Bruce preached. Four Psalms were chosen for this service but otherwise the pattern of the service was the same as in the morning. There would be as much to get used to in their style of singing as there would be in the churches that use Genevans. (The Free Church of Scotland doesn’t use musical instruments but does have a ‘precentor’.)

We were quite surprised to learn that on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland, which is where we are, the Gaelic language is the mother tongue of most people who have been any length of time in residence here. So there is still a Gaelic service in as many churches as can get a pastor who speaks Gaelic. We attended the Gaelic service. In this service the music was quite unexpectedly interesting – a whole different style of singing. The precentor actually still sings lines ahead of the congregation; the pattern for this has a couple of interesting quirks, which of course have reasons behind them. But what is most interesting is that the congregation doesn’t all sing together! They ‘repeat’ the line the precentor has ‘lined out’ but add extensions, grace notes, and passing notes; some add a bit more than others. Apparently it all has a form that one would get used to. We couldn't discern the melody line in the Gaelic singing.

Sunday dinner – the biggest Sunday dinner we’ve experienced in many a moon! And delicious, including dessert. By the time dinner and talking and coffee were finished, there was just time for a nap before the 6:00 service.

Saturday, 17/08/13

Off to a good start slightly before 8:00. First we travelled via Linlithgow and walked around the palace grounds and the very famous St Michael's Kirk. Nothing was open at the early hour, but it was certainly worth taking the time to visit there to see the palace and read the descriptions. Following that we carried on to see the ruins of Urquhart Castle at Drumnadrochit before travelling the rest of the distance to Ullapool to catch the ferry to the Isle of Lewis; the ferry left at about 6:15.

We had been on our way for 25 minutes when the ferry had to turn around due to a faulty engine. It is now repaired and, two and a half hours after our initial start we were on our way again. That means we will arrive at Stornoway after midnight!

… Midnight arrived as did the ferry, we picked up the rental car, and we managed to find our way in about 20 minutes to the home of James and Donna Maciver, our hosts for about three days. It was not easy following some rather indefinite directions in the dark, but we made it with a few turn arounds and guesses.

Friday, 16/08/13

Back into the city. Both days we’ve taken the bus, costing £1.50 one way, but definitely worth it compared to trying to drive and then pay for parking; besides, we could enjoy the sites from the bus (upper level was really good).

Today we spent most of the time at the National Museum of Scotland. Rebekah had hoped to join us, but Evelyn (1½ years old) wasn’t coping the best with teething and had slept poorly. After we returned to Rebekah and Tim’s, we drove out to the see the famous railroad bridge over the Firth of the Forth; in addition to the bridge we found the little town of South Queensferry fascinating, specifically its buildings. In the evening we walked along the shore of the river for a little while. I think the most interesting thing about the whole city has been the buildings, no matter where we’ve gone.

Thursday, 15/08/13

Today we took the bus to central Edinburgh and walked the Royal Mile. It was very crowded due to the tourists who have come for the annual Royal Military Tattoo festival held during August. The road is lined with stalls, buskers, youth passing out brochures and seeking to generate interest in the various evening shows on offer. It seems as though the festival this year is a bit bigger since they are celebrating HM QE II’s 60^th year.

Tim Macdonald had taken the day off and went into Edinburgh with us. How much better it was to have someone to point out the most important buildings and explain other things we needed to know. We also enjoyed a visit of about an hour to the Edinburgh Museum.

Tuesday/Wednesday, 13-14/08/13

We left Christchurch on Tuesday, 13/08/13 at 1:25 p.m. We arrived in Edinburgh at 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, 14/08/13.

Customs at Heathrow was a non-event. We filled out a card which had no questions about any food or goods we were bringing into the country, no questions about dirty shoes or visits to farms. (So much for eating up our extra snacks before landing at Heathrow, totally unnecessary. We had cashews and prunes and a banana that we finished off, which we certainly hadn’t needed with the meal on the flight to Sydney. Well, we didn’t have any desire to buy food during the seven hours in Heathrow!) Anyway, we had turned our entry card in on arrival in London, but our luggage was checked to Edinburgh. In Edinburgh we got off the plane, picked up our suitcases, and walked out the door, a bit like arrival in Palmerston North. Plenty of opportunity for crime.

Here in Edinburgh we picked up our rental car and managed to follow the google directions to Rebekah and Tim Macdonald’s with only about three wrong turns where we had to backtrack. It’s a good thing we are driving on the left side of the road because there are enough other things to get used to, not the least of which is following the road signs – or finding the street signs in the first place!