do what u like (10. 010)

Released on this day in 1991, Take That’s lead single from their debut album Take That & Party proved to be a critical and commercial failure. The accompanying music video that featured the bandmates cavorting about in states of various undress smearing one another with gelatine and custard hardly seemed promising (although garnering some notoriety due to its banning by the BBC from daytime airing) the boy band which would go on to dominate UK charts from their breakout in 1993 through 2011 and beyond.

kirk-yard (10. 009)

Still in the region of the Highlands referred to as the Black Isle, we paid a visit to the ancient Kirkmichael overlooking the placid Udale estuary on the Firth of Cromarty.

The grave markers, many of the slate slabs featuring exquisite masonry and funereal art and span more than eight centuries of memorial and memory and many moments of upheaval and transition with plague, war and reformation. The site has views of the bird sanctuary and drilling platforms.

and i‘ll be in scotland afore you (10. 008)

Meandering along the Spey and visiting a distillery—though too early for a tour and a testing before heading to Elgin (Eilginn, possibly meaning Little Ireland and reminding early Celtic settlers of home) in Moray whose cathedral was left in elegant and vaunted ruins since its destruction by fire in the late thirteenth century. 

I tried not to drag H to too many monoand i‘ll be in scotland afore you liths this trip but willingly we went to see the Stone of Sueno outside of Forres, the largest Pictish slab carving in the nation. The plinth traditionally associated with Sven Forkbeard features a Celtic style cross on one side and possibly a coronation scene on the other. 

Next we took a look at the ancestral home of Clan Brodie and the grounds of Fort George, a Vauban-inspired bastion that suppressed Scotland’s rebellion by taking the strategically important headland at the straits between the Firth of Moray and the bay leading into Inverness and Loch Ness before journeying there ourselves—seeing the Clava cairns, an ensemble of Bronze Age burial mounds along the way. 

We marveled first at Loch Ness and set up camp near Drumnadrochit (Druim na Drochaid) and hiked along a high coastal trail to Urquhart Castle overlooking the loch, whose invasion attempt by Edward I of England in 1296 marked the beginning of the Scottish Wars of Independence, besieged and never rebuilt in order to deny Jacobite elements purchase to reorganise.

die wand ⚒⚒⚒ (10. 007)

To commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall eight months prior, Roger Waters of The Who joined The Scorpions, Cyndi Lauper, Sinéad O’Connor, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison and others and held a concert on this day in 1990 in Potsdamer Platz—attended by some three hundred thousand spectators in person and telecast live around the world.

aberdeenshire or deeside, donside (10. 006)

Decamping from outside of Edinburgh, we first headed to the quaint village of Queensferry to marvel at the antique and modern trio of bridges that span the Firth of Forth and link the south with points northwards.

Driving on, we came to the Grampian mountains and the landscape became increasingly remarkable as we went on.  

We stopped at Balmoral to visit the royal residence (we can definitely see why the Queen would live there part-time) before returning to the Highlands and winding and unforgettable trip through the Cairngorms with lots of stops to take in the incredible vistas. Leaving the Dee and the Don, we were now on the River Spey with its whisky distilleries and salmon spawning.

the moonwalk (10. 005)

To commemorate the lunar landing on this day in 1969, head barman at the Hotel Savoy’s American Bar Joe Gilmore created a champagne cocktail that ought to be revived, equal parts Grand Marnier and grapefruit juice with a dash of rosewater and topped with champagne. During Gilmore’s long tenure, spanning from when he came in as a trainee at the swanky London establishment in 1940 until his retirement in 1976, he invented many more cocktails for royalty, politicians and other celebrities—including the My Fair Lady to celebrate Julie Andrews’ opening night in the musical (equal parts gin, lemon juice, orange juice and sirop de fraise with a dash of egg white, shaken and strained) and the Link Up for the joint Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975 (Southern Comfort and vodka, tempered with lime juice). More to explore at the links above.

berwickshire (10. 004)

Arriving in the UK on the hottest day in recorded we tread as gently as possible so as to raise the ire for others, we came into the Tyne at Newcastle and headed for the borders, first stopping of at Bamburgh (no relation to the Bavarian city but rather the core fortress of this Northumbrian stronghold was named after the citadel captured by Anglo-Saxon warrior queen Ida of Bernicia called Bebba and thus Bebbanburg first established in the fifth century. 

Next fearing to be washed out by a high tide (see previously)we took a protracted tour of Lindisfarne, the Holy Isle, before visiting the ruins of Tantallon (a corruption of the descriptor din talgwn, high walled fortress) in North Berwick on the sea cliffs overlooking the Firth of Forth. 

The fourteenth century stronghold was constructed by William Douglass and withstood multiple incursions until finally abandoned as a ruin after Oliver Cromwell‘s attempted invasion of Scotland during the interregnum in 1651. Opposite it lays Bass Rock in the firth, originally hosting the hermitage of Saint Baldred but now a reservation for sea birds—particularly a colony of gannets.

Then after setting up camp on the outskirts of the city, we took the bus into Edinburgh (Dùn Èideann) to get a few impressions of the capital—which could of been a visit by itself. Our tour mostly confined to Castle Rock, Arthur‘s Seat, the mountain at the city centre (but we had a nice windshield tour with public transport nonetheless) hosting an ensemble of ancient buildings. There was also the Flower Clock of Edinburgh—presently commemorating the Queen’s jubilee.

xxii olympiad (10. 003)

Beginning on this day and running through 1980 Summer Games hosted by the Soviet capital was the first such event held in a communist country until 2008 Beijing Games, with quite low participation—the US leading a boycott by sixty-six countries over the Russo-Afghan War. A few countries took part but competed under the Olympic banner rather than as a national team, and Philadelphia hosted an alternate Liberty Bell Classic for those not participating in the other venue. The Soviet and Eastern Bloc athletes reciprocated by staying out of the 1984 games hosted in Los Angeles with the closing ceremony absent conspicuous elements of the handover.