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Bits o' Haggis
This page is for "secret observations" of obscure PLOWED ritual and practice by Sister Haggis, a malt whisky fanatic who has had enough common sense to stay away from this debauchery until this year. She's kept us alive in Scotland before and I'm sure she'll be on similar duty for A10.
Musings from Sister Haggis (aka Sis) Well, this is really the desert. Yes, I’ve had a number of drams, I’ll get to that shortly, but I feel like I’m drying up, as I write. I’ve put lotion on my hands because they are like pineapple – wicked rough. My lips are chapped. They only get chapped when I am dehydrated. Well, let me tell you, I drank so much water on the plane, I thought I would float here. Then I’ve drunk probably over 100 ounces of water in the course of the past 8 hours, and I’m just continuing to dry up like a fall leaf! My knuckles are chapped! (I’ve managed to tame this dryness with lip balm and super lotion on my hands, AND copious quantities of water!) Well, enough of that piss and moan! DrE and I finally left Westbrook for Slur Dave’s house last night (YIKES – hasn’t it been days?) at about 7. That meant that we’d get down there between 8:30 and 9. We had to drive two cars because I’m coming home on Sunday and DrE, on Monday. We got to Dave’s just before 9. I managed to stay up until 10:30 before I turned into the proverbial pumpkin! But could I get to sleep? No – I’d had quite a day. I tossed and turned and finally got to sleep. DrE came up to bed at 3, only to get up at 4 to be at the Manchester Airport by 5:45. (He had been sleeping downstairs on one of the couches – but not for all that long!) But he woke me up at 3 and I didn’t really get back to sleep. WE got the Manchester in good time and only had to wait for our flight for about 30 minutes. We each had 2 bags to check, a hard shell and our regular luggage. Each hard shell held 8 bottles, carefully packed and padded with our clothes. We blessed it, it was under 50 pounds, and hoped that the inspectors wouldn’t decide that we really were carrying over the limit and call us off the plane. The 6 hours flight went well, I managed to get my entrelac Christmas stocking started and about 4-5” of it done. We landed in Las Vegas at 10AM, Pacific Time. WE picked up the rental car and Peter, who came in an hour after us, then proceeded to the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino to Mr. Lucky’s for the unadvertised special (for the locals) of steak, grilled shrimp, salad, potato, and a drink. All for only about $8! Food can be very cheap here in LV! Then to the house! This house is more than just a house… there’s a pool, a hot tub, 2 tennis courts, a master bedroom with a closet that a small family could live in – as a matter of fact, we could probably park the Chrysler in that closet and still have room to move around. There is a huge open living room/dining room/kitchen in the center of the main house (yes, I said main house!). There is the master bedroom that DrE and I have because I’m here. I’m the only woman staying onsite. There is one other woman that may show up sometime during the weekend. Then there are two other bedrooms in this “house”. There is also a theater that has a screen that’s rather large, 12-15 feet wide? Then, there are the other four buildings… Two contain a set of double beds and a bath, the third building is a suite of a single bedroom with another set of twin double beds, a small living room and kitchen and bath. The fourth (fifth if you count the main house) is a long building with two rooms, sort of like a motel. Again, two double beds. So, 4 of the guys were already here and they’d already started to dram. We settled in and started in ourselves. Since 2, when we got to the house, I’ve had 20 “drams”. Well, let me clarify that, I’ve tasted 20 different whiskies, about 8-12 of those were poured drinks of my own; the other 8-10 were sipped out of other’s glasses. But before I get to the whiskies I’ve had today, let me tell you that one of the guys, Mark K, had a set of 2 Glen Cairn glasses made up for each of us, with the Plowed logo and Ardbeggeddon X on them. They were in a nice box presentation nestled in blue satin. Mark gave them out to the guys at the table and I was admiring DrE’s set, wishing I’d get some, thinking they really were only for the guys who had come year after year, until Mark handed me my very own box. I was so pleased and excited to be included!!! He even had printed sticker/labels with our initials and the number 1 and 2 on them so that we could identify our glasses for the remainder of the weekend. I had 20 drams (aka tastes) of whisky on Friday afternoon and evening. I crashed at about 10 – 11 our time. Having gotten up at 4 AM, I was approaching 21 hours being up. For those of you who know me, I need my sleep! DrE came to bed about 2 hours later, feeling little pain! We got up at about 6:30 and went out to see the extent of the carnage from the tnight before. All the guys, but about 3 had shown up on Friday. It was great fun to see them all and meet the ones I’d heard stories about for the last 9 years! I set about cleaning up, if only for something to do as DrE had hijacked the computer to write up his drams of the night before, and the day began. We managed to get out for the general shopping for the house (TP, paper towels, some general food, and bars of soap – the house has little extra in it). We got some food for us so that we could keep as close to our WW’s diet as possible, being tempted by the other yummy junk food that abounded. When we returned, we set about putting all the Ardbeg’s on one table, so that we could dram only Ardbeg’s all day long. There amounted to 63 different Ardbeg’s on this table. DrE and I hunkered down and started in. It was really fun to sit next to DrE and at the table with about 10-12 other guys committed to an all Ardbeg day. I had decided that I would “do the table”, that is, at least taste everything on the Ardbeg table. I could do that. Dram them, no, I’d be in the hospital had I don’t that. I managed to dram about the first 20, and by that time, I decided that tasting out of DrE’s glasses would be just fine. I was writing down all my “drams” as we went and highlighting those that I really liked. I found that I was highlighting about 1/3 of the drams, some were double highlighted, they were so exquisite! By 4PM, we’d had over half. I knew that I needed forward movement, if I was going to finish. By 9, we were up to about 50 and DrE was hammered! He had that special grin and glint in his eyes he gets in that “condition”. The youngest guy here, aged 41, had decided to dram his age twice and that DrE was going to make it happen for him. Focusing DrE was getting more and more difficult. He was on a roll, chatting and laughing with the guys. I was focused as I knew that my time was getting shorter and shorter before I turned in that proverbial pumpkin! DrE got to his age, of 54 drams, I got the next 4 drams poured and tasted them, to make my 57 drams for my age, then set about leaving DrE in my dust, I had 6 left. I got our extra glasses and poured 3 of them and then got enough of DrE’s focus away from the youngest, who was wicked hammered!, to get him to finish 3 more glasses, so that I could pour the last three on the table, to get to that 63 drams. I tasted them and left the rest in the glasses for DrE. I’d done it!!!! Much to the Ringleaders surprise! DrE said that they were so surprised, they had never had another female join them who drammed all day long, with as much enthusiasm, that even if DrE and I broke up, he felt they would ask me back to another Ardbeggeddon! I am woman – AND I am Plowed!!! I didn’t quite crawl to bed, but I didn’t last long in that lovely horizontal position before I was in the land of “winken, blinken and nod.” However, every time I got up to go to the head, I wondered how big my head was going to be in the morning! DrE has a breathalyzer and I blew 0.19 when I went to bed. (Richard, who was wicked hammered blew a 0.4!!!!! and he was only on his 70th dram, or so.) But I am very happy to report that I am unscathed this morning. I drank just short of a gallon of water and had 2,500 mg of B-1 throughout the day. Today, DrE and I got up at about 6, again. I cleaned, put the clean dishes away from the dishwasher I started before I went to bed, cleaned up the tables, and washed our glasses. We’re going out today to see the Hoover Dam and hopefully walk the strip. Then back to this lovely table full of THE most impressive array of some of THE finest whiskies in the world to pick and choose our way through as many as we can. I go home tomorrow morning, much to my chagrin. Next year, I’ll stay the course and be here all 5 days. There’s way, way, too many whiskies to taste and so little time left… What a lovely, truly special promise the day holds. I wonder why it took me so long to decide to come to Ardbeggeddon. The guys have indicated that they wished I’d come before this. I had decided, after DrE’s and my first trip to Scotland, that Ardbeggeddon was for him, for his friends, and I would leave this to his experience. But, after 8+ years of experience and tutelage in whisky under Slur Dave and Doctor E, I was ready and I’m truly glad I came. Off to the dam and the strip, more from LV later today.
I'll try to tell you about some of the more extraordinary drams I've had later
today. Love you all, Sis
Last update on 01/17/2009 |
