Scotland Part 3

2 Thrones at Stirling Castle

This was interesting, these 2 thrones sit at the head of a huge room called the great room in Stirling castle. There is a 12” step up to go up to the level the thrones are on, elevating them above the people. The great room is huge, with 4 fire places and a 30 foot ceiling. A room capable of holding 100-200 people.

Of course the king and queen occupy these thrones for the entire time feasting is being held in the great room. If either the king or queen got up, the party would end. This food was brought to them, people came up to them to greet them. A feast could go on for 3 or so days.

Yet they could not leave their chairs. These chairs are equipped with a lift up seat. Under the seat is a bed chamber pot. If they had to use the facilities, they simply stood up, their servant in charge of “that area” lifted the seat and waited while their highness did their business. This servant was also in charge of the wiping and emptying the pot. Yes this was done in front of everyone in the room.

In my other two blogs on Scotland I covered the travel part of Scotland, the sights, the towns and what I did there.

This blog was written with a different perspective in mind, more of the really?? things I discovered.

Tourism is a large factor in the Scotland economy, it is huge for a couple of reasons. It provides a steady stream of income from April to the end of October for the whole country. Secondly it is close enough to Europe where you have the freedom to fly or travel at really cheap rates all around Europe. I simply had not expected it to be that popular but tourism is big business.

I was so thankful to know “Newfoundese” from Brian’s thick accent which made understanding quite a few Scottish natives so much easier. Not everyone there had such a thick accent but some folks I found spoke a similar version of his. Maybe not the same words but the same accent, I actually voice recorded the train announcer because she had sounded so similar.

Treasures: I went for lunch at a cafe in Inverness. It looked like a mom/pop type place. I was looking for a bowl of soup. There was nothing that screamed different but I sat down at one of the 8 tables, 3 others occupied.

Very nice folks offered me a menu and took my order. As I sat there I noticed people would come in and either go the the largest gathering at one of the tables (5 people) or they would walk up to the counter and be handed a container and off they would go. After a few people did this I realized no money changed hands.

I then read the sign on my table. I had come across Cafe 1668. They are a social enterprise with 3 core beliefs:

1. Anyone can find themselves in the need of a helping hand.

2. Food waste is avoidable.

3. Employment and skills are key in providing a positive futures.

   
   

Volunteers were maning the cafe that day with 1 paid staff member to help. I asked the fellow who served me how many free meals they give out a day. He explained they were open 3 days a week and another place, a church was open the other 3 days a week with a food service. But that they usually gave out 50-60 meals a day between 10-3:00. He has volunteered there for a couple years.

He said grocery stores give them their bread, vegetables, dairy that is short dated and they use what they get. They offer menu food to paying guests to support the Cafe with breakfast and lunch. They make a large batch of something from the food they get: chilli, casserole, shepherds pie or whatever as their one give away meal all day long. It changes daily.

They also provide job training for people that want to acquire some employable skills.

Every person was treated with such respect and they received respect back. Folks could come in and get warm, charge their phones, go to the bathroom or use a computer for internet access. They also had a community pantry where people could donate food items to give away. It was such a great opportunity to see love in action.

In Glasgow I came across a group called “street pastors: listen, care, help.” Every weekend groups of volunteers would go out and chat with folks on the street making sure they were not in need and sharing Gods love. They operate a “safe area” where homeless or any person could go to get relief, first aid or assistance. It is a joint group of churches working with Glasgow City Council and the police. I know we have groups in Gr. Prairie who do this as well and it is good to see people are cared for around the world.

One of the things that blew by my mind was a monument we passed in Glasgow near the Glasgow Green. Which was a large park area and had been for centuries. At one point the king had made a point of putting clothes hangers in the park so people had a safe place to dry their laundry.

This monument was by Jail square, which was Glasgow's prison. It used to have metal spear like spikes all around it where they would leave the heads of those who had been publicly executed to warn people of their possible fate.

Then the tour guide said that the last public execution - hanging was July 28 1865 when a doctor was hung for poisoning his wife and mother-in-law. Well apparently 80,000 to 100,000 people flocked to Glasgow to watch the event. Yes that is correct. People from miles around, dressed up to go to the city as families to go watch the hanging.

Those kind of crowds were not always easy to contain as there was no stadium or anything. They just poured into the city and were there. The city decided to take executions inside after that where they continued to do them until 1960.

But I have to tell you my brain was “stuck” on 80,000 people thought this was a great idea to go watch a hanging. I wanted to know what was wrong with folks. BUT then I remembered the Roman colosseums where they watched lions rip people apart or watch two opponents fight to the death in combat. There were actual theatres built for those.

I googled Canada and guess what? We also being an English colony followed British tradition and also did public executions in Ontario until 1869. The crowds, 6-8,000 got unruly so they banned public executions and simply took them inside. Capital punishment was abolished for murder in 1976 in favour of life imprisonment. The National Defence Act still allowed the death sentence for certain crimes but ended that in 1999 although no death executions had been performed since 1946. We were not so different.

Trends: oh boy…. The current craze in the UK is the weight loss shots nicknamed “skinny jab”. I am quite serious I know at least 2 people that I met while there and I did not know anyone there….

It was all over the news, people were now dying because many companies were offering “skinny jabs” but they were not medical grade and now people were dying just weeks after receiving the “jab”. I wanted to know how popular this was this skinny jab. Very! People are flocking in for a quick fix to their weight loss problem. The drugs have different names but they are drugs normally used for diabetes like Mounjaro, Wegovy and Ozempic. The news report I saw said that 82 people have died and that number was from January. While I was there another lady lost her life to this weight loss fad. It is sure something to be aware of because it was top news while I was there as the government was trying to get a handle on it.

TV commercials: I saw more commercials for cremation than anything else. Every pocket of ads had a commercial for it plus it was followed by an advertisement for how to donate money after you died to a pet rescue shelter.

There was also repeated ads for half price power Sundays from Scott Power and British Gas. They encouraged you to do your laundry and heavy power needs Sundays from 11-4:00. White windmills similar to the ones Dawson Creek dot for the landscape around Scotland.

A little blurry- taken from the train of the windmills

My trip to Scotland was amazing, I am so glad to have had the priviledge of going on my bucket list journey!