Today, January 25th, is Robert Burns' birthday. He was a Scottish poet and is considered to be the "national poet" of Scotland. Every year his birthday is celebrated with a Burns' Supper. A local brewery hosted a Burns' Supper tonight, so we went. Neither my husband nor I are Scottish (he actually has a tiny bit of Scot in him) but we love cultural experiences, so we went. The evening started with a scotch whiskey tasting. I sat in for that portion but didn't drink any, I don't like it. My husband, however, loves scotch so he partook. It was very interesting to learn all about it though.
Dinner was a traditional meal of Haggis, Neeps & Tatties and Cock-a-Leekie Soup.
Haggis is the insides of some animal, I think sheep, and I think it is the heart, liver, lungs and intestines. It is mixed with oats and onions. It actually doesn't taste too bad. It tastes like dark meat, very gamey. I don't think I could eat a lot of it, but the few bites I had weren't that bad.
Neeps are mashed up rutabagas and tatties are mashed potatoes. The dish is called "neeps and tatties" even though the two are not mixed together.
Cock-a-Leekie Soup is a chicken broth soup with chunks of chicken and leeks in it, then flavored with salt, pepper, butter and prunes. It was very yummy.
Dessert was an apple cinamon bread pudding. I don't normally like soggy cake-like desserts, but this bread pudding was not as soggy as other ones I have had, I liked it.
We also had a bagpipe performance by The Elliott Bay Pipe Band. That was fun, and very loud. I can understand why bagpipes would be annoying to some people. But I think when played well, in unison and with drums it is enjoyable.
I forgot to bring my camera :( The owner of the brewery was walking around taking photos the whole time, so hopefully we will get to see them at some point.
Do you have any stereotypical Type-A personalities in your life? How does that affect you?
I used to be Type A. My Type-A characteristics came in very handy when managing 10 tellers in a very busy bank. I work really fast, while still doing the job well. I can multitask like crazy. I certainly was very impatient with my tellers though. I wasn't always the nicest boss. Working at the bank helped me to become a Type AB personality. I am so not a Type B personality, but I have definitely learned to be more patient and less anal.
Sometimes my tellers hated me, but when I learned how to be a better boss as far as rewarding good behavior and things like that, they loved me! :) When I left the bank to move to Washington, we all went out to dinner and they had made me this photo album thing with pictures of them and me, it was very touching. I have it in my memory box. :)
My father-in-law is a major Type A personality, that really affected our relationship when I was dating my husband. I would butt heads with him a lot. He still is Type A, but we have a much better relationship now. :)
I think my mom is also Type A, but she is really good at balancing the bad characteristics with the good. That is probably where I got it from ;)
