Monday, July 03, 2006

Strip the Willow

So things are gearing up for the Danish Scottish wedding of the year tomorrow. I spent my day on Sunday trawling the shops for a dress to wear. In the course of my shopping I occasionally disclosed the true state of my bank balance by gasping in horror as I looked at price tags.

"£300 for a summer dress made out of cotton! What's it made of?! Woven hairs of unicon mane? Are those frilly bits painstakingly teased from the wings of cherubim?" I muttered under my breath, trying to ignore the dirty looks from the staff behind the counter. They obviously knew that if I needed to know the price I couldn't afford such gaieties.

Still I eventually found suitable wedding garb in the summer sale at John Lewis. A very pretty dress, and I even had enough moolah left over to treat my self to some rather sexy lingerie.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind expensive things, it's just, well, if I'm going to spend £300 on a dress I bloody well expect it to look like it cost me £300 at the very least. Not like some old piece of crumpled cotton and an old pair of curtains smooshed together in a cack handed manner and then laughably called couture. Am I asking too much?

Anyway, I've got the wedding tomorrow. Amusingly I am going to be expected to dance. Not only dance but Scottish dance. Oh yes ladies and gentlemen, the bride and groom came up with the ingenious idea of holding a Ceilidh. Despite the fact that 50% of those in attendance will be Danish and thus probably be asking themselves who is this Gordon? And exactly how gay is he?

I myself have not been to a Ceilidh since I was 16 at my high school prom. I can't remember the first thing about it. *

Meanwhile my date for the evening is more concerned with the fact that he's missing the quarter final of the world cup than anything, as well as his stout insistance that he will not dance at all. I wish I'd opted to just go alone.

This should be interesting.




NB. At no point has this blog contained a post on childcare or gynaecology. At no point will this blog contain a post on childcare or gynaecology.

Ms. Dejevsky why don't you try doing some research before you write in future?**





*About how to Scottish dance, I can remember the prom. It's the after party that my memory gets hazy on.

**See Patroclus' wonderful childcare and gynaecology free blog Quinquireme for an explanation.

9 comments:

Fraudulent Little Tart said...

A Ceilidh, how exciting! A friend of mine married a Scot about 2 years ago and they had one too. It was quite possibly the most amusing wedding reception I've been too and very entertaining.
Fingers crossed for the kilts . . . there's something quite sexy about a man in a skirt . . . this kind anyway! Have a great day dude. I hope you enjoy yourself. As for the other half and the dancing issue, I sympathise as I went throught the same, I'm sure he'll get carried away in the moment, I know my other half did.

Billy said...

At the weekend I heard from a friend of minethat he is going to get married (prompting mild disapproval from all of us, he hasn't known her that long yadda yadda). Luckily, being a boy, I don't have to muck around with all that dress nonsense. Although there is something to be said for dressing up for an occassion.

baggiebird said...

In my final yesr at uni instead of our usual ball we has a Ceilidh (I went to uni in Dundee) The problem with this was that a good 60% of the students attending were not scottish, so we came up with the injenious plan of learning some of the dances, we managed to persuade our 2 librarians to teach (they we're both in a scottish dancing group thinngy) Anyway I learnt to strip the willow, to be gay with gordon and the secrets of Hamilton House. I can't remeber how to dao any if the said dances now. In fact the only thing i remeber about that night is strip the willow isn't the best dance for a true scotsman to participate in. That night there were quite a few there

Terri Nixon said...

Never been to a Ceilidh but remember asking my Mum was a sea lid was when she wrote to me about one she went to. That was before I learned a bit of Scots Gaelic - enough to say good morning/evening and kiss my arse anyway, but also enough to recognise the correct pronunciation. *sigh*
Hope it was fun and your other half wasn't sulking too much.

Unknown said...

weddings weddings everywhere.... hmm... what's the world coming to?

Anonymous said...

Ceilidh - went to one once seem to remember it was good fun but I had bruises all over my arms from being swung about violently. I hope your pretty summer dress has industrial padding at the elbows.

Blogging - I for one spend too much time at work on nether regions to seek out gynaecology blogsites in my free time.

cello said...

I love Scottish dancing. I like men holding me, and doing it to music is a bonus.

Anonymous said...

My last celidh was at my old uni friend Fiona's wedding in Edinburgh. Great fun, and you get to dance with lots of men in skirts, which has novelty value if nothing else. Besides which I have a thing about bagpipes.

The following hours are lost in a haze of drink, but I remember I had a good time. They're coming up to their 20th wedding anniversary, so Lynsey just imagine what that's going to feel like...

Heather said...

Cello I agree, I love dancing although I have to say I've always really wanted to swing dance rather than scottish dance.

Unfortunately I've never found a man willing to go with me.

I'll just have to settle for my DVD of Swingers, especially the bit at the end with Jon Favreau and Heather Graham. I want to dance like that!