The Man from Mosel River

I will write more about Celts and Celtic traditions today. Friends of ours got flooded out and could not attend this year’s Robert Burns (1759 – 1796) Supper and the related celebrations of the Java St. Andrews Society (www.javastandrewsociety.com). They kindly passed the ticket on to us and we were welcomed as replacements by the Scots. Thanks again Liz and Walter for your generosity.

We sat at the “Holy Willie’s Prayer” table together with four Americans. Most men at the supper were in kilts and every time I see this, I want to buy a traditional Bavarian outfit (with leather trousers and so on) which would at least come a bit closer to this formidable dress for the Scottish men. We used to be members of the society many years ago but when our Scots friends at the time had left Jakarta we did not renew our membership. We had also attended quite a few Burns Suppers so that we knew what we were in for. A very memorable one was the first ever held on Chinese soil in Beijing in 1992.

Robert Burns is the beloved poet and lyricist of the Scots (the national poet). He is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic movement and his poems and writings became a source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism. Burns loved women and drink. Statues of Robert Burns can also be found in Australia (Sydney, Canberra and Adelaide). The celebration of his birthday (25th January) follows a fixed ritual.

The program in Jakarta looked as follows:

● The Selkirk Grace (by Sandy Duncan)

● Address to the Haggis (by Chieftain Scott Thompson)

● The Loyal Toast (by Tony McEwan)

● Songs of Burns (by Barbara and Alastair Speirs)

● The Immortal Memory (Robert Burns Live by Chris Tait)

● The Land we Live in and Absent Friends (by Ross Scholes)

● The Land we Hail From (by Brian Scott)

● To the Lassies (by Tony Milne)

● Holy Willie’s Prayer (by Jim Tait)

● The Reply from the Lassies (by Alex Faulds)

● Poems of Burns (Robert Burns Live by Christ Tait)

As customary at this occasion, the haggis (filled sheep’s stomach) is served. It is brought into the hall accompanied by pipe music and usually a guard of honour sometimes holding bottles of whiskey crossed in front of their chests like swords. The pipers were the Edinburgh Chevaliers flown in for the occasion and they entertained us very well. The speeches were well presented too. In addition a Robert Burns look alike (Chris Tait) gave quite a performance. For non-Scots it is at times difficult to follow but its great fun. I always enjoy listening to these old almost forgotten Celtic languages.

The dinner consisted of green pea soup followed by the customary haggis with neeps and tatties. As the main course, we had angus steak pie with new Ayrshire Potatoes, baby carrots and Iona parsley. The desert, McEwan’s Apple Tart and ice cream, we spiced with the whisky which was generously deposited on each table. This year it consisted of bottles of Johnny Walker (12 years old).

The Scots do not grow vines as we all know. We drank a 2004 Timber Ridge Shiraz, a wine from Western Australia. It showed a very lively, fruity character of black fruit, raspberry mainly. My palate detected cherries but I might have gotten it all wrong. The wine was clean and well balanced and surprised us. I had never heard of the vineyard. The next day I searched it on the internet. Unfortunately, the website of the Timber Ridge Vineyard is not yet operational. There is a vineyard of the same name in the USA but I could not find out more about the Western Australian venture, except tasting notes for the 2004 vintage.

The Whisky “Taster”