Lonach Gathering 2006

Well, I'm back after a weekend of being away attending 165th Lonach Highland Gathering and Games in Scotland (for anyone who is thinking what I mean)
I've talked about the Lonach Gathering before on this blog and about how some well known celebs attended most years. Billy Connelly is the patron of the Gathering and attends every year. Famous names that have been there in the past have been Sean Connery, Steve Martin and Robin Williams. This year...there were none and I'll explain later.

We headed off for Bellabeg, Strathdon on friday morning. We decided that we would set up our tents early and when the rest of our group joined us at my mum's house, we would head off for the weekend. My mum, Nod and myself had fun trying to set up the tents (being sarcastic). After 4pm, everyone else joined us and we set off. I don't like camping much and I've not been feeling all that great, so I expected to end up hating my weekend away. I was so wrong.
We sat up on friday night, got drunk, pissed about, complained about insects and the people who had set up camp beside us. The next morning, we were up early to watch the March of the Clansmen and pipe band and just before noon, we headed towards the main field. We browsed the stalls, that are there every year, before standing to watch some events. That's when we first spotted Billy Connelly. After getting all excited at spotting him, we headed back to our tent for some lunch. We were lucky to end up with beautiful sunshine for the whole afternoon. I ended up with sunburn on my face, neck and arms!
We headed back to the main field to see the last March of the Clansmen and because Nod was the only one taking pics, I pulled him away to somewhere that would be easy to get pics of Billy but he stood at the wrong side and ended up just getting pics of his hair! If he stood beside me, he would have got a perfect view!!
After the games up finished, we headed back for the night to our tents, and spent the night making fires, complaining again about the people beside us, getting drunk and trying to cover from the downpour that tried to ruin our fun.

All in all.....a bloody great weekend. I'm disappointed that no celebs were there this year. There's a couple of reasons for this. 1) It's been said that Billy Connelly had a bad ear infection, which was thought needed surgery. He didnt need surgery afterall but people stayed away because he still felt bad. 2) Billy had wanted this years Lonach to remain a family affair so he could spend time with his new baby grand-daughter, Barbra. There were pics of him with Barbra in the papers. Dispite the show of effection for his family, some people ended up annoyed that he seemed selfish by not inviting anyone. One thing to say to those people...SHUT THE FUCK UP! I don't have any of the pics to show you but in a few days, that might all change. I'll post them all when I get copies. For anyone reading this, and who is in easy travel distance of Bellabeg, Strathdon, then you should all head to the Lanch Gathering on the last saturday of August!

Lonach Gathering 2005