FOAFing Scotland 2002
"Visiting the Children" Tour
Campbeltown
FEIS ILE 2002 - Islay
Northern Highlands and Orkney
Speyside
Edinburgh
Here we go again - heading back to Scotland to dram, tour, FOAF and enjoy Feis Ile on Islay! I'll post the gory detail of this trip as the details develop and of course, after the event assuming we survive. At least 9-10 US PLOWEDsters will be there as well as a strong contingent of Euro-PLOWEDsters.
Technical issue: Real time updating will not be possible this trip because I'm not planning on bringing my laptop and the drammage quotient will be very high... We have a handful of scribes on this trip tho (Tom, FX, Loco, Sister Haggis and yours truly that I know of for sure) so we should be able to pretty well reconstruct this trip afterwards...
The first thing we need for this trip (after airline tickets) is appropriately PLOWED tee-shirts (so we'll recognize each other during FEIS ILE?)... Sister Haggis and I volunteered to take the lead on pulling some prototype shirt designs together. Follow this link to the FOAFing Scotland 2002 "uniforms" under consideration...
What's this bit about "visiting the children"? Well, all the PLOWEDsters going to Scotland are part owners in 5 casks of Springbank we purchased when we visited Campbeltown in 2000. We own 2 bourbon casks, 1 first-fill sherry cask, 1 port cask, and 1 rum cask. The were distilled and filled at Springbank in May 2001 so they will be almost exactly one year old when we visit this year, and we are having a liter drawn from each of the cask types so we can sample the clearic (sorry folks, it's not scotch whisky yet since it hasn't spent the minimum 3 years in wood yet.) It's looking like the following will be on site to watch Loco in unholy contact with our "children" - FX, Nano and Harmony, and Sister Haggis and myself... Tom wants video since he won't arrive in Scotland until the weekend - this could easily be the first hard-core "malt porn video" ever made so I'm not sure we'll be able to post any clips here, but maybe if we cut out the "adult" parts it may pass the censors...
This is also our first visit back to Campbeltown with our "Cask Owners Privilege Card" that grants us discounts at the Ard Sheil and Eaglesomes so we plan to do Campbeltown in style for sure... We're driving to directly to Campbeltown upon our arrival so as they say in PLOWED circles - let the FOAFing begin in earnest! (as might be expected, we have a stop scheduled at Loch Fyne Whiskies and visit with Richard Joynson to kick off the FOAFing trip in proper style on our way to Campbeltown. I can't wait! We spent about 2.5 hours dramming, chatting and malt fantasizing with Richard when we last visited in 2000 and I expect this visit will be similar - except for the resulting jetlag from our arrival in Glasgow that same morning. My prediction is that Sister Haggis will be pressed immediately into "designated driver status" that afternoon!!! Slainte!
After Campbeltown we jump the ferry to Islay to immerse ourselves in FEIS ILE. Here is a map of Islay for planning (fantasizing) purposes.
As the various PLOWEDsters began departing for Scotland, SpeedyJohn posted this sonnet to the PLOWED discussion board to bid us a fine farewell:
To B-1 or not to B-1: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler on the mind to suffer
The injuries and casualties of outrageous dramming,
Or to take supplements against a sea of malts,
And by mega-doses end them? To FoaF: to dram;
NO!--MORE!; and by a dram to say we fend
The head-ache and the thousand unnatural malts
S'tan makes our flesh heir to, 'tis a cosumption
Devoutly to be wish'd. To Foaf; to dram;
To dram: perchance to taste nectar: ay, there's the rub;
For in that dram of life what malts may come
When we have shuffled over to Feis Ile,
Must give us pause....
Onward, brave Foafers!
I think that pretty well covers everything and injects the proper level of cultural flavor for our pildrammage. Thanks again SJ - wish you were traveling to the motherland with us but we'll hoist a few drams to you and the other missing PLOWEDsters at the Claggan Farmhouse during FEIS ILE!
Catch y'all on the other side of the bleeding edge...
Here's NANO's writeup of FEIS ILE on MaltMadness...
Islay and Campbeltown on August 25, 2000
We arrived in Scotland the next day but didn't get here until
August 29 - it was still sunny and incredible! Here are the FOAFing Scotland
2000 archives.... (I'd gladly give credit for this satellite photo but
I don't have a clue what website I snatched it from... sorry!)
Last Update on 8/21/2002