Mairi's Wedding

http://www.youtube.com/allanshr

If you look really close you can catch a glimpse of my sister Nanci and I dancing together in the foreground. We were marking her birthday and she is, as they say, a hoot. The tape is kinda dark so we are hard to find. I am fairly certain I had a happy grin on my face all night. How could I not! We did a fairly good job faking the steps as we went along and no one seemed to mind our mistakes. (To the guy in the green shirt: I am sorry for bumping into you. The dance kept changing directions!) I'm taller than my sister, so she got to do all the twirling which suited me fine since after two drinks I couldn't/shouldn't be a doin no extra twirling anyhoo. The song is Mairi's Wedding, an obvious crowd favorite, and I know the words so I was one happy girl. Except singing while dancing was a bit tricky what with learning the steps on the fly and all. The happy couple at the end (you know, the ones dancing with abandon) were on their honeymoon celebrating. There was also this really old couple (they had to be in their 80s) on the dance floor (unfortunately you can't see them on the tape). They were so perfectly matched and lovely to watch. Warmed my heart that cold winter's night.

The Vatersay Boys are from the far southern isles of Barra and Vatersay and describe themselves as "five piece band playing traditional music with passion." One article I found said "...they have been creating a stir of madness and mayhem throughout the Western Isles and much further afield." Well, the "madness and mayhem" (what??) sounds a bit overstated :)), but I guess to a more sedate ceilidh dance crowd the Boys might be rough and rowdy. But I am no one to comment on ceilidhs (R. Stornoway pretty much blows his cork opinionating on the modern idea of ceilidhs). I just think The Vatersay Boys are fun.

Well, ok. I'll 'fess. There was a night we danced until the last song was sung. It was our darling niece's wedding not the ceilidh dance with Mairi's Wedding. It was not at The Ferry in Glasgow, but under the Rotunda dome in San Francisco. The band was not The Vatersay Boys, but a high end SF band which are probably famous. However, some of what I wrote was true. Nanci's husband wasn't there and I don't have a man, so yes she and I did dance together. (We also danced with the groom's buddy who had a certain appreciation of older women.) And we did laugh a whole lot and we did have a great time. And it could have been at The Ferry and it could have been the music of The Vatersay Boys, but it wasn't.