BURNS SUPPER

We are definitely doing the CLOD life. CLOD standing for Cruisers Living On Dirt. We are all settled in and busy with all kind of projects, whether for boat, our casita or for Binnie. It keeps our mind off not being on the boat, which we really miss. But this is a good setup and we feel really lucky to have fallen into this wonderful situation of being able to live in this cute little house. 

Backyard

Front yard

We enjoy our daily cocktail with Binnie on her patio with incredible view over the whole bay then have dinner in either house, where ever I choose to cook that evening. Cooking is my passion but I have never had so much fun at it as here. Both Sid and Binnie are wonderful to cook for and I sure love her kitchen it has all kinds of gadgets a kitchen just could have. We are a happy family.  

  

Mid January Binnie left for a cruise around the Horn and so we were alone on this huge property for 3 weeks and busy getting a few projects done for Binnie before she returned and feeding the 2 dogs, 1 cat and the sloth. Sid had started with boat projects but we still had to watch the weather and time it right to get out to the boat. The weather has settled in and is blowing mainly from the East and keeps the nasty waves from coming in here.

Panama has a lot of history and we didn’t expect getting thrown into out of all some Scottish history. Jim and Heather, we had met them also 11 years ago when we were in Pedro Miguel, at that time they were just taking over the management of the Club when we left and here they are now. 

Jim and Heather organize “Burns Night” or “Burns Supper” every January 25^th at Binnie’s and we are sure glad we could join this year. What an incredible fun event. 

An amazing amount of preparation went in to this deal. Jim, Heather and Cindy worked all week on this, we helped getting the tables set up and with other odds and ends; it sure was fun.  (click on photos to enlarge)

Jim getting printing poems and clan cards

 

Scottish dance steps by Heather

Manuela's table napkin art

Heather cooking

Burns Supper is a Scottish celebration and has been of the Scottish culture for about 200 years. It’s a night to celebrate the life and works of the national Robert Burns or also known as Rabbie Burns. When Burns immortalized haggis in a poem, his close friends a few years after his death in 1796 started this ritual as a tribute to his memory. Suppers can range from an informal gathering of friends to a huge, formal dinner full of pomp and circumstance which is celebrated worldwide by Scotsmen. 

Ours was very formal, every boat bum was dressed up with their best cloth and even the wrinkles were ironed out.

Usually a big-time Burns Night calls for a piper to welcome guests, but since we’re in Panama it’s a little hard to find a piper, instead Jim and Heather had some traditional Burns music running in the background as we enjoyed cocktail and appetizers made by the guests. The variety was incredible and everybody outdid themselves with elegant dishes from lox to pate and one lady even smoked her own fish and cheese, yummy. 

Appetizer table

When all guests had arrived we were asked to take our seats at the nicely decorated and set up tables. Again in Scotland a piper plays until the high table is ready to be seated, at which point a round of applause is due. At a more egalitarian gathering - with no high table - the chair can simply bang on the table to draw attention to the start of the evening's proceedings.

Jim then warmly welcomed us and introduced some of the assembled guests especially the newbie’s. Then the event is started with the Selkirk Grace which is a short but important prayer to usher in the meal. The Selkirk Grace is also known as Burns’ Grace at Kirkcudbrightough:

Some hae meat and canna eat,

And some wad eat that want it,

But we hae meat and we can eat,

And sae the Lord be thankit.

Guests then are asked to stand to receive the haggis. Again in Scotland a piper leads the chef, carrying the haggis to the top table, while the guests accompany them with a slow handclap until the Haggis reaches its destination the head table. The music stops and everyone is seated in anticipation to the address to a Haggis. Since none of us were Scots of course we didn’t know the rules and anticipated the haggis drooling. The haggis should be served in a silver platter; we were all fooled by a stainless steel dish Heather was carrying. 

 Then Jim seized the moment of glory by offering a fluent and entertaining rendition of Burns' famous poem “To a Haggis”, with great enthusiasm. Jim had his knife poised at the ready. On cue (An’ cut you up wi’), he cuts the casing along its length, making sure to spill out some of the tasty gore within (trenching its gushing entrails).

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!
Aboon them a' ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy o' a grace
As lang's my arm.

The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
Your pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o' need,
While thro' your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.

His knife see rustic Labour dight,
An' cut you up wi' ready sleight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright,
Like ony ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reekin, rich!

Then, horn for horn,
they stretch an' strive:
Deil tak the hindmost! on they drive,
Till a' their weel-swall'd kytes belyve,
Are bent lyke drums;
Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive,
"Bethankit!" 'hums.

Is there that owre his French ragout
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad mak her spew
Wi' perfect sconner,
Looks down wi' sneering, scornfu' view
On sic a dinner?

Poor devil! see him ower his trash,
As feckless as a wither'd rash,
His spindle shank, a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit;
Thro' bloody flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!

But mark the Rustic, haggis fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread.
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He'll mak it whissle;
An' legs an' arms, an' heads will sned,
Like taps o' thrissle.

Ye Pow'rs wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o' fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies;
But, if ye wish her gratefu' prayer,
Gie her a haggis!

Robert Burns 1786

The recital ended by Jim raising the haggis in triumph during the final line “Gie her a haggis”!, which the guests cheered with rapturous applause. 

Heather, the whisky-bearer, made the round and filled up all our shot glasses to the rim with whisky to ensure the toasts are well lubricated, then we toasted the Haggis and Jim served each individual guest. 

By the way Haggis is made of the heart, liver and lungs of a sheep or lamb, combined with oats, suet (raw beef or mutton fat, especially the hard fat around the loins and kidneys) and other herbs and spices, then cooked in a casing traditionally made of the animal's stomach. Kind of like a huge round sausage. To most the ingredients don’t sound appealing but it really has a very pleasant flavor. 

Each table had a selected wench that helped bring the wonderful platters of food to the table and everybody dove into the food:

A typical Bill o' Fare would be:

Cock-a-leekie soup

Hagis warm reeking, rich wi’ Chamit Tatties,

Bashed Neeps

Clootie Dumpling (a pudding prepared in a linen cloth or cloot) 

or Typsy Laird (a Scottish sherry trifle);

A Tassie o' Coffee

The Wenches

 

After dinner an invited guest, is asked to give a light-hearted speech.  Originally this was a thank you to the ladies for preparing the food and a time to toast the ‘lasses’ in Burns’ life. The humorous highlight of any Burns Night 

comes in this toast, which is designed to praise the role of women in the world today. The toast concludes: To the Lassies!

Jen and Dan

Then it’s the turn of the lasses to detail men's foibles. This toasts were done by both Dan and Jennifer, oh man was Jen's funny.

Then another guest read a Burns poem, followed by a French guest reading a French poem, of course none of us understood anything he said. Sid read an American Poem then dessert was served, ice cream and homemade mango sorbet.

The party took its peak by Jim and Heather teaching us the traditional Scottish line dancing, which was a bit confusing at the start but everybody learned fast and we had a blast. This was such an unforgettable evening we talked about it for days and still are, we can’t wait to join the next years Burns Supper.

Great job you two thanks!!!

Happy New Year

 I didn't think house life could be so busy, how did we ever fit sailing into our busy schedule LOL. Sid is busy between fixing this and that in either our little house, or helping Binnie and when weather permitting going out to the boat and fixing this and that out there. I am busy catching up on computer stuff, keeping up with the house which is a lot more to clean than Paradise, assisting Binnie and going shopping with her or with Cindy. Shopping here is definitely a whole day's activity. It takes a little over an hour to drive to Colon and 1 1/2 hours into Panama City. In either place the traffic is always a chaos and Sid and I were trying to figure out how much driving/standing in traffic to shopping we do and we figured about 1 hour of shopping to 4 hour driving or more. There is no such thing as a quick shopping trip. Shopping here is so good that it is worth all the driving. 

Before all the Christmas dash started Jennifer, friend of Binnie, organized a tour of the Expansion of the Panama Canal (Third Set of Locks Project) which should be in operation in 2014.

We had to drive across the bridge of the Americas  and meet everybody on the other side of the canal. From there a tour bus took us to a sight above the Miraflores Locks with an incredible view over the new excavation for the new locks. The view was spectacular over the new ditch they were digging. (Click on pictures to enlarge).

Miraflores Lock

Miraflores Lock

View of Miraflores Lock and Lake

Bridge of the Americas

 This project will double the capacity of the Canal and will allow the mega tankers to cross. To do so a new lane of traffic along the Canal is being created by constructing a new set of locks. On each side, Pacific and Atlantic, two lock complexes are being added, each with three chambers, which include three water-saving basins. Plus the excavation of new access channels to the new locks, the widening of existing navigation channels, deepening of the navigation channel and the elevation of Gatun Lake's. 

 

Outside Panama the expansion will create demand along the US Eastern Seaboard for ports able to handle post-Panamax ships. As of January 2012 ports of Miami to New York are considering renovations including dredging, blasting and bridge-raising, only Norfolk, Virginia is completely ready for the larger ships. 

They also are going to build a new bridge across the canal in Colon.

It was very impressive and I hope to be here when the new locks open. 

  

Before we went to the second event of the day we visited the local fish market and had lunch. The market is very impressive, clean and wow what an array of fish. I don't think I have ever seen bigger shrimp. 

Lunch was a disaster, the chef never showed up and we waited for over an hour until the food finally arrived and it was horrible. I think the United States is the only county that will not charge for horrible food, here you don't have a choice. 

A short drive later we arrived another construction sight the new Biodeversaty Museum of Panama City in Amador. A very funky looking project.

Jennifer is a volunteer and had her first speech to see if she is going to get the certificate to do tours. She passed with flying colors and we were amazed what this museum is going to offer, I hope I will be here for the opening in January 2013.

Binnie

Binnie, Jennifer and friend

view of Panama City

I did not know that the Isthmus was formed some three million years ago during the Pilocene epoch. The wide body of water between the continents was a strong flowing current that connected the water through the earth. This major geological event separated the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and interrupted the current. Two Plates of the Earth's Crust beneath the surface were slowly colliding, forcing the Pacific Plate to slide under the Caribbean Plate. The pressure and heat caused by this collision led to the formation of underwater volcanoes, Some grew large enough to form islands about 15 million years ago. Meanwhile, movement of the two tectonic plates was also pushing up the sea floor, eventually forcing some areas above sea level.Then over time massive amounts of sand, soil and mud from North and South America filled the gaps between the newly formed islands. Over millions of year sediments deposits added to the islands until all gaps very completely filled. By about 3 million the isthmus of Panama was formed between North and South America.
Scientists believe that this was the biggest event in the last 60 million years. Even though only a small sliver of land was created it had an enormous impact on Earth's climate and its environment. By shutting down the flow of water between the two oceans, the land bridge re-routed ocean currents in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Atlantic currents were forced northward, and eventually settled into a new current pattern. This is how the Gulf Stream was created. With warm Caribbean waters flowing toward the northeast Atlantic, the climate of NW Europe grew warmer. The Atlantic, no longer mingling with the Pacific, grew saltier. Each of these changes helped establish the global ocean circulation pattern in place today. The Isthmus of Panama directly and indirectly influenced ocean and atmospheric circulation patterns around the world.
It is believed that the creation of this land mass and the warm wet weather over northern Europe resulted in the formation of a large Arctic ice cap and contributed to the ice age.
The formation of the Isthmus of Panama also played a major role in biodiversity on the planet. The bridge made it easier for animals and plants to migrate between the two continents. In North America today, the opossum, porcupine and armadillo all track back to ancestors that came across the land bridge from South America. Likewise are bears, cats, dogs, llamas, raccoons and horses made the trek south.
In each show room you will see an epoch from then to know. Even two aquariums which shows the difference in fish and fauna between the Caribbean and Pacific side.
Although the museum is still under construction we were the first tour group that was allowed to enter. All was in raw state but it was really easy to picture the finished museum.

You read already about our Christmas so I will not repeat it.
For New Years, we had a wonderful time at Jim and Melania's who live in a quite part of the coast line around the corner from Portobelo. As always at her house we had wonderful food, drinks, fun but when Jim and I started singing Karaoke for some reason everybody disappeared upstairs to the pool room, wonder why??!!!! The party came to it's peak at 11 when the power went out region wide and stayed out until 3 am (we were told it happened the previous year as well). That did not stop us from playing pool but I'll tell you the candle light shadow following the balls into the pockets made it a bit more difficult to play. With the power outage the party started dwindling down and we left 10 minutes before midnight, there was no way to tell exactly the time for the new year anyway. Actually it was perfect to leave early, we arrived in Portobelo to watch the wonderful firework as we passed Portobelo in the dark when midnight struck. It was pitch dark other than the headlights on high beam and no other cars within miles on this very windy stretch and had a safe drive back to Puerto Lindo where a bottle of cold champagne was waiting for us. Our first day of 2012 was spent with a champagne brunch at Casita Paraiso and the afternoon playing Ping-Pong and Wii game, wow is that Wii stuff fun.

We are so done eating and drinking, I don't think we ever ate that much over any holiday so we were going on a diet and of course every time we started another party came up then another and then Birthdays and and, but we are on it now.

The rainy season officially is over and the Christmas Winds have started bringing high winds and high seas to especially this part of the Caribbean. The nice thing is no more rain and adios to mildew growth, for a while.