140 Clan Chiefs all in one place and you're going to try and convince me this is not special? ...........................
Grumpy people are welcome to stay home and pull weeds
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Nope, I am not being grumpy and sorry if it seems that way.
From a Scots point of view clan chiefs are not exactly media celebs here and I suspect that most of them are heads of overseas based clan societies rather than hereditary clan chiefs, this is certainly the case with my own clan society.
No criticism of those who are coming, nor do I see you as suckers.
Its rather like me last year when I read on xmarks that the South Ontario Kilt Society were planning a visit to Canadian Warplane Heritage I just had to be there with them because my late father served in Canada during World War 2 with the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. For me this was the biggest adventure for several years yet for those at SOKS it was just another kilt meet, though they made it very special for me.
So too for you guys, to march up the Royal Mile and to meet up in Edinburgh, of course it is something special for you and I am glad you are coming to Scotland to do it, but for me it would be meaningless as I could get to Edinburgh within two hours and march up the Royal Mile wearing a kilt any day of the year if I wanted to.
The highland games in Holyrood Park which I plan to attend on the Sunday, yes I am looking forward to meeting you all but I see it as just another highland games, one with an added bonus of meeting some xmarkers I have not met before and I will most certainly want to make you feel very welcome as special guests in Scotland. Yes I do expect to see rather more clan tents than usual at a Scottish games, its not a thing we go in much for here, in fact it would be very unusual to see more than two or three clan tents at a Scottish games, we had just one (Turnbull) at our local games last month, so to that extent it will be a wee bit different.
It is just we see things from a different perspective here and the point I was making to Gunnar was that he should not be too disappointed about missing the Edinburgh gathering as there would be other opportunities to attend highland games and gatherings and to meet with the Scottish based xmarkers.