First curling of the tour - Montreal West Curling Club. We were all piped on to the ice behind the National flags and officially welcomed to the 2015 Scottish Ladies Tour to Canada by Cathy Hughes newly appointed to the Board of Governors of Curling Canada. Our Tour Courier Fran Todd then declared the tour open. Let the curling begin... Opening Banquet
After the games we all adjourned to the bar to commiserate or celebrate! Gifts and pins were exchanged and then we headed for the changing rooms to emerge like butterflies from the chrysalis wearing for the first time our Tour Dress and Blazer. Très chic! We were then feasted and feted with a wonderful three course dinner presided over a top table of Jean Lamère, President Curling Quebec Marc Romer Club President Montreal West Joslyn Schultz, Lady President Montreal West Fran Todd and Cathy Hughes - tour couriers Tour Captain Margaret who led off the after dinner speeches with entertaining and thoughtful words.A vote of thanks in French was well received and appreciated by the francophone curlers present. We headed back to our new hotel to lay down our tired bodies and prepare our outfits for the next day. Not too many bedroom parties -or were there?
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Woke up and thought we were in heaven, surrounded by a cloud of linen in a huge sumptuous bedroom - think I might stay! Breakfast to die for on a terrace overlooking the St Lawrence River. Met up with Jacques our bus driver, now Jock an honorary tourist, sporting our tour tartan bow tie. Deborah our guide for the morning, and took us down to the Vieux Port where we wandered around traditional houses, through little lanes with lovely shops selling unique locally made goods. We finished the tour by going through the City gates to the outside of the walled part and up to the Plains of Abraham which sit above the cliffs over the St Lawrence,. This was the site where General Wolfe defeated the French and Quebec became part of the British Colonies. In summer here they hold many open air concerts, and in winter it is closed to vehicles and is used for cross country skiing and family winter sports. Quite chilly in Quebec, so we were glad of our cosy coats and wooly hats when all went for a wander round the shops and had lunch in various places. The husbands/partners will be glad to know that we are very restricted at what we could buy by the lack of room in our suitcases, as there were many lovely things to buy! Free afternoon to wander round the beautiful city and in the evening we dined in an Italian restaurant down in the vieux port area.
We had a final wander round to see the streets that have been dressed for Christmas and then returned by funicular up to our hotel.. So at 9am this morning, the adventure began big time! Very early start this morning as we all straggled down to breakfast. Then a quick finishing of our packing and down to “Morning Class”. We were entertained by Carolyn's recitation of “Fash for the Banquet” which was a great start to our day. When we got to the airport there was a great welcoming party waiting to greet us, including RCCC President Billy Howat and Ladies Branch President Marion Fraser, as can be seen by the pictures below. Cheered on by friends, family and the RCCC Not many tears in this group, just loads of fun and friendship And lots of laughter and Photographers and more photographers and Mums and Daughters SAFE JOURNEYING LADIES - YOU WILL DO US VERY PROUD
Five minutes after waving her husband and mum farewell, Fiona had a spectacular fall in the middle of the concourse. We had to give up some of our ice from morning G&Ts for her swollen knee! She was attended by two handsome first aiders – the length some people will go to!!!
In the interim Helen was buying supplies in duty free for our morning class and when she discovered she had lost her boarding pass poor Fiona had to use hers to purchase 4 bottles of Gin. Fortunately we found the pass as Helens name was being announced in security and both Helen and the gin made it on to the plane! Great flights to Schiphol and after the usual long hike through the airport, one of our tourists discovered she had left her Kindle on the plane, and after further long trek back and forth managed to retrieve it! Sounds like the judge won't have to think too hard about fines tonight, mind you our Judge might find herself on the receiving end! We had a most enjoyable flight to Montreal and were well fed and watered along the way. Every one wanted to know what we were up to as the entourage of pink jumpers sailed through the airports. Once through security we had a great reception by our courier Fran and some of her Canadian team complete with banner. Then there was a long 2 and a bit hour bus drive up to Quebec where we finally achieved our fabulous destination, Chateau Frontenac at last!! Well we arrived gradually at the Hilton Hotel at Edinburgh airport, the first group around 3.30pm, and the last at 8pm. There was much chat and laughter and hugs, a fair bit of nerves and butterflies at what lies ahead for us. We were joined for a while by Past President and US tourist, Jenny Bain who turned up hoping that one of us would not appear, but she had to leave eventually as we all turned up!!
Various last minute items were dished out and those of us whose suitcases were already close to the weight limit were starting to panic. After a very nice light buffet we were then introduced to "The Judge and the Three She Devils" (one of them particularly scary!) who made us all sign up to a horrendous agreement and give up all our human rights and goodness knows what else. They then proceeded the first allocation of fines, we were all in fear and trembling (and fits of laughter)! One of the first to be awarded was to one lady who shall remain nameless albeit one of the "high heidyans" who managed to leave her blazer and skirt at home, and her husband had to drive all the way home and all the way back to Edinburgh, a very long way!!! All proceeds of the fines will be divided between The Sandra Schmirler Neonatal Foundation in Canada and Alzheimers Scotland. Well November is here at last, and lots of last minute arrangements and picking up of items from all around the country are going on. Final alterations to skirts, blazers, dresses and curling trousers should just about be done.
One of the things that has cropped up as highest on some peoples agenda at the moment seems to be the rooming arrangements for the tour!! Now we have done something different to most previous tours in that we are taking turns in sharing a room with each of the other three folk in our teams rather than sharing with the same person throughout the tour, something we all agree is a very good idea. It has come to my attention though that even so, there are anxieties over issues such as ; "Will I snore?" "Will they snore!!" "I am a very restless sleeper, they might not be, will I disturb them?" "Will they disturb me!!" "What am I going to wear in bed? I get too hot!" "I need to find PJ's . These are too big! These patterned trousers make me look enormous!! These are too small, too frilly, too slinky, too warm - Help!! It has become a matter that has even reached the concern of husbands/partners who have been found sharing their worries at the under 17 slam at Hamilton!!!! (Names withheld) Just a few more days girls to get those PJ's, and I'm quite sure as they say "It will be alright on the night!!" Sunday
Today we were joined by many previous tourists to Canada, USA and Sweden and had another good workout, playing three, 5 end games throughout the day. We had good fun and good competition and enjoyed questioning our guests about their experiences on tour, and wondering what might lie ahead for us!! Captain Margaret had managed to persuade her sister in law Marion Craig, who had been vice captain on the last tour to Canada to organise the day. One of the important things that we want to do as a tour is to raise money for two charities, Alzheimer's Scotland and the Sandra Schmirler Foundation in Canada, so today we were raising money for the first of these, Alzheimers Scotland. Consequently we had a raffle and a silent auction, which Marion ran very efficiently and successfully. We somehow managed to squeeze in another fitting of our blazers and skirts, received our furry boots and tried on our very cosy coats for size. At the end of the day RCCC Ladies Branch President Marion Fraser presented the winners and runners up of each section with their prizes and gave us her best wishes for our tour. Finally we presented to Alzheimers Scotland a cheque for the grand total of £2578, very many thanks to all who supported this. Saturday
Our final team get together weekend before heading to Canada. We all met at Lanarkshire Ice Rink on Saturday morning, where we were introduced to all the hard work that Helen Drummond, Alison Taylor and their on and off ice teams had been up to. There were rows of colourful hangers with pink, blue, black and white clothing, then tables with rows of personalised suitcases, cabin bags and suit carriers. We then had fun trying everything on and doing some trouser swapping! We had our first game of curling, then all assembled on the ice with much laughter, resulting in many retakes and much creaking of knees, (thanks to Helen and Fiona R!) to have our photos taken courtesy of Hugh Stewart. After more photos in our dresses and receiving our lovely brooches and tour badges we checked into the Holiday Inn Express, before another game of curling and then a tasty dinner at the ice rink. Reeling and Dos si Dosing!!!
We arrived at Forfar ice rink in time for some good soup and sandwiches and a quick catch up and blether with everyone. We were then entertained by Margaret P and Marion performing a couple of very funny party pieces and some jokes from our Captain. We then welcomed in local May Kidd who had come along to help us with our singing by playing for us on her keyboard. She showed great patience as we went through our songbook and several goes of our tour song. Her accompaniment made a big difference to our performance, as apart from one or two of us, we were definitely not selected for the tour because of our singing ability!!! Thank you May. More tea and scones, yum! After tea we went onto the ice pad (no ice I hasten to add) to learn a Scottish country dance invented for us by Sheilagh Mac. I think most of us were a bit apprehensive, as I think we felt our dancing skills might be similar to the singing! However Sheilagh had chosen a great tune by the Red Hot Chilli Pipers and soon started to lick us into shape, and we actually had really good fun!! Practice required, as with the singing!
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Archives
November 2015
Tour RETURNS
SCOTLAND 902
CANADA 752 FINAL RESULT The Tourists very much appreciate the following sponsors for their very generous support of the Tour
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