It’s Saturday 28th and we are headed for Bannockburn. This is day 1 of 2 of the re-enactment and there is a capacity crowd of 10,000.
It’s a nice(ish) day, some showers predicted but some sun as well. Nothing will dampen our spirits for this historic 700th anniversary.
Going through Stirling we run out of road signs. The military celebration, Armed Forces Day is being held in Scotland for a 2nd time. What a remarkable coincidence. Armed Forces Day and the celebration of Bannockburn together on the same day, about 2 miles apart.
Was this the REAL RE-ENACTMENT?
My mind rewound a few weeks to the Russian military manoeuvers on the border with Ukraine.
Cynical? who? moi? non!
Finding ourselves surrounded with streets full of military and ex-military, who all looked rather splendid and proud, we decided we must ask for directions. We stopped the car and just ahead of us was a couple with a rather fine looking and huge dog.
Now I’m no fearty when it comes to dogs so I opened the window and asked directions to Bannockburn. A very pleasant young couple willingly obliged with very clear directions. Before we got on our way, I asked what kind of dog they had. ‘It’s a Scottish deerhound’ came the cheerful reply. We exchanged a few thoughts and just as we were about to head off the guy noticed my 1 inch YES badge. Giving us a very big ‘thumbs up’ for the campaign, as I left I shouted over – ‘bigHVan.com’ that’s my blog – have a read, … and we were on our way.
The day was great in terms of the re-enactment. Very informative and the stalls and shows were exceptional. Everyone had a great time. The only dampers were the weather, it bucketed down but failed to dampen our spirits, the refreshments queues with more followers than The Bruce himself and the access arrangements courtesy of G4S, which stands for ‘must try harder’. All in all, a great and informative day.
When I got back I checked my mail. I could scarcely believe it – I had an email from Tina and Benjamin Power, the couple with the Scottish deerhound who gave us directions to Bannockburn. They were concerned that their directions worked for us. I assured them they were spot on. They gave us some great words of encouragement for the referendum and told me they have just started a new blog called grep-blog.blogspot.com on governance, economics and philosophy. They asked me if I would mind doing them a guest blog.
Wild horses could not stop me. I have had a read; although I am out of town at the moment and pressed for time. I have some knowledge on the subject and I will ask my son and daughter to comment as they have specific knowledge and specialism in some of these areas. At first read this is very interesting subject and you should check it out – very informative. I look forward to reading more and hope we can exchange thoughts and ideas.
I always like to keep the best bits for last. Scotland’s referendum is not just a referendum. It is so much more. This is about a country preparing for it’s rebirth. OK the geography is amongst the best in the world – that’s a given. But the most remarkable Scotland is it’s people. Not just the people born here and living here, not excluding those who left and may return again, but the people who come here to live for a time or just visit. Scotland also counts amongst it’s friends all those people throughout the world and especially the huge numbers in England, Wales and Ireland who genuinely wish us the best for our new future.
And there is one thing that binds us all together? A small token, it could be just about anything. On Saturday it was a tiny tuppence halfpenny YES badge. Without that Tina and Benjamin Power might have simply been two people who gave us directions. Because of that badge they are fellow travellers on Scotland’s journey of a lifetime that begins with YES. But unlike any other journey, this one goes on, and goes and we get there, and we go on. Some journeys never end because we are following our dreams and passing them on to our successors and so on …
This really is THE ‘POWER‘ OF THE BADGE’