Don't Have a Nightmare
I know of several hotels where walking into the lobby can induce a feeling of tartan induced vertigo as everything is covered, including the reception desk, in Scottish plaid AKA tartan. It’s been around a long time, the first mention of tartan was in 1538, but now there are thought to be around 7,000 unique tartans in the world and even former US President Obama and Hello Kitty have their own tartan! I had a bad experience with the Teutul family when I location produced American Chopper, the Discovery motorcycle show in Scotland and the three boys all got themselves kilts at enormous expense, all without proper authorisation. The production company was furious. That’s my particular tartan nightmare.
For Americans it’s not bad dream and the Tartan Day Parade is the highlight of a week-long celebration of Scottish culture in the USA and it comes along every year in New York with a celebrity Grand Master chosen. Previous Grand Masters have included KT Tunstall, Billy Connolly and this year it will be the actor Brian Cox. It’s a mash up of all things noisy and Scottish and shouldn’t be missed, attractions are: bagpies, gaelic dancers, bands and the dreaded drummers.
And now a piece of tartan material which 40 years ago was discovered in a peat bog in the Highlands has been officially declared as the oldest piece of tartan in the world. It dates from the years between 1500- 1600, the days of Mary Queen of Scots we all learned about in school. Natural dyes of Green, yellow and red were used and they have stood the test of time. The tartan is now available for anyone to wear regardless of clan or descent.
But you needn’t have a nightmare on St Valentine’s Day, tartan or otherwise, as this year you can give a gift of very fine goods and this includes the Forever in my Heart Glass paperweight from those lovely people at Caithness Glass. It can be gift wrapped for free, tick the box at check-out and it comes with free delivery in time for the day. And you can save six pounds on the gift jst at the moment.
