Visitors, the Old Course, and Zeusing

Once again, I've managed to neglect the blog for over a month and find myself playing catch-up.  After a few weeks of inactivity, it sort of snowballs to the point where I get too lazy to catch up at all.  That said, here's my best attempt at a summary of highlights of the past month or so in Scotland.

Visitors:
On a bit of a whim, my brother and friends decided to organize a last minute Euro-trip.  They arrived in Scotland on a Wednesday and were here through the weekend.  Quite fortunately for them, they left Scotland without seeing even a hint of rain or cold.  Needless to say, this is quite rare (as I write, it's ~12 degrees and threatening rain).  We had an excellent few days, consisting of the exploration of Stirling's nightlife, and trips out to St. Andrews and into Edinburgh.

The trip to St. Andrews was a definite highlight of my time here in Scotland.  We hired a car (not 'rented') and drove out to the east coast of the country.  It was a beautiful drive in itself, with the destination well worth the trip.  Although I'm not exactly a golf nut, I do certainly appreciate the history involved in visiting the home of golf.  We walked the entire Old Course, reliving some of the legendary moments that the course has played host to.

A framer with my bro on at the Old Course

At the famous Swilcan Bridge

Hiking:

I've done a fair bit of exploring some of the local terrain outside of Stirling.  Stirling is known as the 'gateway to the Highlands' and as such as prime access to some pretty spectacular hills.  The highest I've gone to date is to the peak of Ben Lomond (3,196 ft).

Atop Ben Lomond, with Loch Lomond in the background

Atop Dumyat, about 5 minutes from my flat

Zeus Workshop:

Work-wise, I've been spending quite a bit of time recently at Commonwealth House, the home of the Glasgow 2014 Organizing Committee.  Last week, G2014 hosted several of the European Commonwealth Games Associations for a training workshop on the online Games management system, Zeus.  It was great to get to know some of the CGAs from this part of the world, as Scotland was joined by representatives from Wales, Northern Ireland, England and Isle of Man.  It's interesting to note that despite very unique challenges faced by each country, the Games preparation process is essentially the same world-wide.  

Shockingly enough, I'm already halfway through my placement in Scotland, and have just two months to go before moving on to Singapore!  To cap off my time in the UK, I've booked my travel down to London for the final weekend of the Games in August.  I'm looking forward to cheering on fellow 'nisher Eric Gillis in the men's marathon.  Let me know if you will be in London during this time, would love to meet up with as many people as possible!

The Accent

Scotland is renowned for its accent.  It's an accent that is widely mimicked (I'm sure that you've attempted it at some point in your life) and quite famous the world over.  From afar, I've always greatly enjoyed the sound of the Scottish accent.  Billy Connolly and Danny Bhoy are two of my favourite comedians but I've often questioned how much of that is due to their material versus how much can be credited to the accent that they present it in.

I must say that I came to Scotland somewhat nervous as to the level of difficulty I'd have understanding people.  As I wrote about previously, I just spent the past year bringing my ears up to speed with the Bahamian accent.  One thing that I've found interesting is that, unlike many other accents, the exaggerated/mimicked version of the Scottish accent is not too far off reality (Scots forgive me if I'm way off base here).  I give the example of the completely ridiculous Canadian accent often attempted when people hear I'm Canadian ('How's it goin, eh.  Goin ooot and aboot for some Molsons?').  Same goes for the Bahamas, where people from home would often ask me 'How's it goin maan' in some contorted version of the Jamaican accent that does no justice to the reality.  However, I've found the Scottish accent to be pretty similar to my notion of it before I arrived.  For example, 'wee' which sounds ridiculous when said in my Canadian accent, is used in just about every other sentence by most Scots.

So, all that said, my trepidation about being able to pick up the accent has been largely unfounded.  I've had little to no trouble understanding people, and have quite enjoyed some of the local lingo.  That is, until today.  Today I experienced a version of the accent that triggered this blog post.  I've told a number of people since I arrived that it's been a pretty smooth transition and I can follow along easily.  The inevitable response has been 'Just wait.'  Well today I found out what they were talking about.  I went out for a round of golf, and ended up paired with a couple other guys who were without a foursome.  Although Scottish, they might as well have been speaking Mandarin.  I played 9 holes of golf with them, and the best that I could tell you is that one of them goes by 'Gump.'  I quite literally spent 9 holes nodding and smiling.

So, I guess I have some work to do to 'speed up' my ears once again!

Rugby 7's, New Scotland and Glasgow 2014

I've told myself in the past that in order for you the reader to find this blog interesting, I need to keep blog posts confined to a single story, rather than a sort of diary-style summary of my life.  However, given that I'm still in the early days of my time in Scotland, I think that the summary style is inevitable.  My apologies, but here goes...

It's been a full couple of weeks since I last checked in.  I've since moved into my flat, which is working out beautifully.  It's quite close to the University campus where my office is located and within walking/cycling distance of everything else I need access to.  Last Monday was a bank holiday here in Scotland, so I had a long weekend.  I started out on the Saturday by biking out to the neighbouring community of Menstrie, which is home to Menstrie Castle.  The Castle was the former home of Nova Scotia founder, Sir William Alexander.  So, Menstrie is essentially where the idea of Nova Scotia was born.  The Castle itself has recently been restored, but I still found it odd that part of the historical landmark is occupied as flats!  The other part is open to the public and commemorates the ties to Nova Scotia.  The Castle wasn't open when I was there, but I plan to return soon.  In recognition of the bond with Nova Scotia, our flag flies next to the Scottish flag in the centre of town!

The Nova Scotia flag in Menstrie along with some guy wearing a Team Canada hat, Team Bahamas Jacket and Team Scotland track pants...

Menstrie Castle, home of Sir William Alexander

When I realized that the castle wasn't open, I continued on cycling to another nearby town called Alloa.  The Alloa Tower is the historic home of the Erskine family.  Given my Erskine lineage, I was quite interested in the history.  Since visiting, I've discovered that my family is likely from the same line as Henry Erskine, who has ties to the Erskine's which have served as commander of the Stirling Castle for generations.  I won't bore you with the history, but suffice it say that I've found the family ties to my new home in Stirling to be quite fascinating!

View from atop Alloa Tower

The day after exploring the Erskine family and Nova Scotia ties to my new home, I hopped on a train into Glasgow for the Emirates Rugby 7's.  This was an international event, in which 16 countries took part.  I thoroughly enjoyed the day.  For starters, rugby 7s is a phenomenal spectator sport, which I'm thrilled has been added to the Olympic program.  Games are fast-paced, physical and roll out one after the other.  With so many games taking place on the same day, fans pick and choose which ones they'd like to see and go grab a refreshment (or several in some people's cases) during the not-so-interesting match-ups.  In addition to the rugby, the Scottish crowd in itself was a site to seen.  Fans were dressed up in a variety of ridiculous costumes and the atmosphere was fantastic.  As the day went on, those fans who perhaps slightly over-indulged were escorted out of the stadium by police while the rest of the stands serenaded them with 'na, na, na, na, hey hey hey goodbye'.  From about 11am until 7 in the evening I sat and enjoyed the rugby, which was ultimately won by the All Blacks from New Zealand.

New Zealand vs. Australia

Samoa vs. Fiji

At the end of this week, I was back in Glasgow again, this time with the General Team Management staff of Team Scotland for a site visit with Glasgow 2014.  We spent two days in Glasgow, both getting acquainted with each other as Team Scotland staff, as well as engaging with the Organizing Committee for 2014.  We had a most informative couple of days, touring all of the venues and meeting many of the key staff from Glasgow 2014.  It promises to be a pretty amazing Games, which I hope I can be a part of one way or another!

Village construction well underway - some of the venues in the background

Celtic Park - Opening Ceremonies Venue

Cathkin Braes - Amazing views from the mountain bike venue

Hampden - Athletics and Closing Ceremony

Ibrox - home of Rangers and the 2014 Rugby 7's

The Hydro - under construction - home to Netball finals and Gymnastics 

Team Scotland at the beautiful G2014 headquarters

First Impressions of Stirling

So I've landed in Stirling, Scotland after an arduous journey.  Despite just about everything in my travels going wrong, I'm still smiling just under a week into my placement in Scotland.

My journey from Ottawa-Toronto-Reykjavik-Glasgow-Stirling was interrupted by a delayed flight out of Ottawa.  I sprinted through the Toronto Airport in an attempt to catch my flight to Iceland, to no avail.  Initial discussions with Icelandair suggested I would not be able to leave Toronto until two days later.  Luckily, I was able to get on a flight to London that evening, onto Glasgow shortly thereafter.  When I landed in Glasgow however, my baggage had decided to carry on to Iceland (thanks Air Canada).  I also managed to leave my iPod behind in my efforts to frantically email my coworker scheduled to pick me up at the airport to notify her of the change.  My luggage finally joined me 48hrs later, just as I was about to run out of clean unmentionables

In the short time that I've been here, Scotland has lived up to its reputation.  First of all, up until today it had been dumping rain and cold - slight climate change from the Bahamas.  As for the positive aspects, the country is absolutely beautiful.  Green rolling hills and stunning, unique, old architecture, experienced while walking along cobblestone streets.  Stirling is a bustling little city, flanked by the national William Wallace monument on one end, and Stirling Castle on the other.  My exploration of a few Scottish pubs last night was exactly as one would picture them -- although when the live music included covers of Bryan Adams and Blink 182, I scratched my head a little bit.  In addition to all of this, the people have been extremely friendly - definite similarities to 'New Scotland'!

A quick overview of my first week:

Tuesday:
Picked up at the airport in Glasgow by one of my new coworkers and we drove to Stirling.  I'd been awake for 30+ hours at this point, but was still coherent enough to enjoy the scenery of the drive (despite the rain).  Briefly met the rest of the staff before heading to my temporary accommodation at the Stirling University campus hotel.  Slept hard.


Wednesday:
Early start on account of the jet lag and having gone to bed at about 7:00 the night before.  This was my first day in the office so I got to meet the rest of the staff.  While the Bahamas only had one paid staff member, CGS has 4 in addition to me -- a pleasant scenario, I must say.  As Games time approaches, CGS also employs a large volunteer staff with specific job descriptions.  All four full-time staff have given me a fantastic orientation into the office and campus, as well as the broader sporting landscape in Scotland.  We went out for lunch as a staff before viewing a couple of different potential flats for me to live in.

Thursday:
Felt much better than Wednesday, though still experiencing some jet lag.  Got into some specifics about my responsibilities in the coming months.  CGS was one of the earliest adopters of Zeus (online Games management system) so they are in a much different stage of development than any of the countries involved in the last edition of the Capacity Support Program.  In the evening, I walked up to have a look at the Wallace Monument, which provides scenic views of Stirling and the surrounding countryside.

Mel Gibson... er... William Wallace Monument

View of Stirling from atop the hill

Friday:
Began to seriously formulate work plans for the duration of my placement.  Met up with a friend from Ottawa in the evening (I'm confident at this stage in my life that I have a connection just about anywhere in the world), and along with her roommate she showed me a few of the local pubs in Stirling - perfect way to cap off the first work week!  Finally felt myself after all the travel.

Saturday:
Spent the morning flat hunting.  Given the odd timing (4 month placement), this has proved challenging.  Very few landlords are willing to offer such a short term let.  In the end, I've found a place that is quite close to work, and not too far from the city centre.  I'm hoping to get in on Monday, as I'm presently lodged at a hostel.  It's funny how the last time I was in Europe I had no qualms about bunking in a room with 10+ other backpackers... but find myself quite frustrated with it now! My flat is a two bedroom place so summer visitors are welcome!  In the afternoon, I walked across town and climbed up to Stirling Castle.  Without going into details, it has a fascinating history that I urge you to look up.  Of particular interest to me is the fact that the castle has been overseen by the Erskine family off and on since the 1500s (Erskine is my mother's maiden name).  Perhaps I'll skip this whole sport administration thing and find myself a post as a Scottish Lord....

Pedestrian Bridge to Stirling Centre

Stirling Castle

My best effort at a panorama pic - taken from the Castle

Stirling Castle

All-in-all, I couldn't be more content at the moment.  The early days in the office have me anxiously awaiting getting started on the projects at hand, all the while exploring as much of the country as possible while I'm here!

Welcome to 'Colin in a Kilt'

Welcome to the first ever post on 'Colin in a Kilt'!  For the past 12 months, this blog has been 'Colin in the Caribbean' as I wrote about my experiences working with the Bahamas Olympic Committee.  The name change comes as I'm about to depart for Stirling, Scotland to work with Commonwealth Games Scotland from now through the end of August.

The past month or so has been a very hectic (but amazing) one for me.  In mid-March, my parents came to stay with me for a week in the Bahamas.  Having the opportunity to show them around my home for the past year was lots of fun.  It's nice for them to have met my coworkers and gotten a feel for the island.  They can now relate to the experiences I had while living in Nassau.  It was great to have a chance to host my parents for once - 27 years of looking after me, one week was the least I could do!

Me and my folks sporting our Team Bahamas gear in Antigonish

Upon my parents departure, it was back to the Bahamas Olympic Committee for two final weeks of work.  It was a pretty frantic couple of weeks, as the London 2012 Olympics Accreditation deadline was March 23rd.  As tends to be the case, there was a lot of last-minute scrambling involved.  Having went through two Games cycles with the BOC prior to London (Commonwealth Youth Games and Pan American Games), I was more mentally prepared for the last-minute nature of the process.  One thing I can safely say is that working in the Caribbean taught me a great deal of patience!  I finished up with the BOC at the end of March.  I'm already missing my coworkers.  They saw me off with a nice going-away party at the office, and presented me with a beautiful painting of a beach scene in Eleuthera.

I had one more week in the Bahamas after finishing work.  It consisted of a series of goodbyes and departure preparations.  I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that fact that I left the Bahamas as a Stanley Conch Champion (Nassau's street hockey league championship)!

2012 Nassau Street Hockey League Champion Nassau Hurricanes

From the Bahamas, I spent a week in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic for the wedding of two amazing friends.  Needless to say, this was a perfect cap to my year in the Caribbean.  I then had a quick four days with my parents in Antigonish, before heading to Ottawa for the debrief with many of my fellow Capacity Support Officers.  It was great to see them once again, and I look forward to staying in touch with them all!

I'm now sitting in the Ottawa Airport, ready to depart for Scotland (by way of Toronto and Iceland - I've put in quite a few airmiles over the past month!)  I'm extremely excited to experience not only a totally different work environment, but also to soak in the Scottish culture.  Having grown up in Nova Scotia (New Scotland), and being of Scottish descent, I look forward to getting a feel for where my ancestors came from.  

I'll check in soon with my first post from Scotland!

It. Is. Over!

I sit here having completed my placement with the Bahamas Olympic Committee. I just returned from a day that included boating, fishing and an exclusive beach, capped off by dinner at a waterfront restaurant where we sat in the sun with a bucket of ice-cold Heineken watching a massive ray swim by. At times like this, the obvious question is: why am I leaving this country? Inspired by my fellow CSO Denise Yuen's blogpost, I thought I'd write up a quick list of a) things I'll miss, b) things I won't miss and c) things I'm looking forward to. Here goes:

Things I'll miss:
- the Bahamas sporting community - including the people I worked with, the athletes, and those that I played soccer and street hockey with.
- sun, sand and sea
- friends I've made throughout the year
- mango/coconut trees in my backyard
- laid back attitude

Things I won't miss:
- laid back attitude (works for me sometimes - but goes both ways…)
- spending the first hour or so of work drying off from a sweaty walk to work, followed by freezing in the air conditioned office for the rest of the day.
- constant reminders about how dangerous Nassau can be ("You walked there?! Are you crazy?")
- "Island Time"

Things I'm looking forward to:
- Next week's wedding in Punta Cana (what better way to cap off my year in the Caribbean!)
- Getting home and seeing Antigonish, family and friends
- Debrief session with my fellow CSOs in Ottawa
- Scotland! Can't wait to work with a Commonwealth Games Association in a completely different environment.

National Stadium Opening Ceremony and an Unwanted Visitor

This past Saturday marked the official grand opening of the Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium opening here in the Bahamas.  Back in June, I attended the official turnover ceremony from the Chinese government to the Bahamas (see blog post).  Seven months later, the Stadium appears almost ready to start hosting events.  On Saturday, the government opened the Stadium with a ceremony free to the public.  Within the BOC, we really didn't have much insight as to what the event would consist of.  There was a lot of last-minute confusion and uncertainty surrounding the whole affair.  However, in the end, they put on a fantastic show.

The 15,000 seat stadium was packed full of people.  It was unique, as gatherings of this magnitude were never previously possible in this country.  The buzz of anticipation was evident right from entry into the stadium.  The event began with speeches from a variety of dignitaries, including the Minister of Sport and the Prime Minister himself.  The highlight, from my perspective, was the reenactment of the Golden Girls' 4 X 100m gold medal from Sydney 2000.  The final race was reenacted, complete with the uniforms of each of the competitors (US, Germany, etc), and fireworks.

Prime Minister unveils the plaque

On the ground just before the ceremony kicked off

Another highlight for me was the Junkanoo performance at the conclusion of the event.  As I was back in Nova Scotia for Christmas, I missed out on the Junkanoo festival.  Junkanoo is the native form of music and dance - the December festival is the cultural highlight of the year here in the Bahamas.  The Junkanoo performed on Saturday was an impressive spectacle, and one that I'm glad I got the opportunity to see after missing out at Christmas.

Junkanoo Performers

The Stadium opening was not the only excitement for me this past weekend.  On Saturday morning, I was doing my laundry (Thrilling blog entry, right?).  The laundry setup that I have here in Nassau is a washing machine located in the shed in my backyard.  I had done a couple of loads, and was in-and-out of the shed all morning.  As I was making my breakfast, I saw out the window that a couple of my neighbours were in the shed.  As they were leaving the backyard, they stopped to chat.  They told me, "Colin, I don't want to scare you, but there's a Bahamian snake in the shed."  Now I've seen my fair share of snakes here, and they've all been quite small - comparable to the Garter Snakes I'd see back home.  So while my neighbour described to me where the snake was, I paid little attention, believing it not to be a big deal.  In addition, it's said that there are no poisonous snakes on New Providence, so I thought little of it.  Back in the shed as I was finishing up with my laundry, I thought I'd try to find the snake out of curiosity.  What I found was this:

Juuuuust a little larger than anticipated...

Needless to say, I was pretty startled with what I found (and my laundry got finished a lot quicker than it would have otherwise).

Now for the peace of mind for my mother who is coming to visit in a couple of weeks time, the snake was removed yesterday in an entertaining fashion, and Chez Colin is prepped and ready for your arrival.