St Galmier Weekend

[Marky]

Boys and Girls

I hope that everyone got home safe and well.

An absolutely fantastic weekend, sorry to be home (especially Danya).

Only one casualty on the whole weekend, nae luck to Clugger Dowie!

I will let him tell everyone himself at the next meeting.

Roll on next year.

Marky

[Marky]

Here is Drews account of the weekend.

Oof…

Presume I’m the first one back home after the St
Galmier weekend, so I’ll give those of you not lucky
enough to attend a wee summary of the action.

The fitba, played on the Friday evening, turned out to
be a wee bit one-sided – the St Galmier boys play
together week-in, week-out, whereas the TA contingent
put together a scratch side that, despite the odd
flash of style, ended up being over-ran. Disco
Donnelly kept it to single figures before having to
relinquish the gloves and bandage up his arm, the
result of getting his scaphoid in the way of a rasping
drive. Tight Bastirt took over in nets and belied his
reputation by being uncommonly generous to the St
Galmier forwards…

The post-match swallie was a full-scale barbecue chez
Didier, with more merguez sausages than you cook shake
a fork at as well, as a beer pump, that Mark Adams
manned like a trojan all night.

Saturday saw the start of the main festivities in the
town centre, with Monsieur ze Mayor of the town
officially opening Le Scottish Week-end and receiving
our delegation over a pastis or deux as well as
presenting the most responsible-looking of our number
– Artour – with two bottles of the local grape juice.

There was an exhibition of Scotland-themed artwork
which the local primary school kids had done, which
included a few too many Union flags for our liking, as
well as a couple of absolute pearls including a
painting of a bottle of “Jacques Daniels”… In fact,
whisky bottles were as common in the artwork as
Nessies, saltires and bagpipes – our reputation
obviously preceded us.

The evening was then spent downing Bru, malts and
beer, as you do in France, eating haggis, as you do in
France, and ceilidh dancing… WESTA’s Alastair was
excused the last part due to having left most of his
knee on the floor of the hostel the night before,
affording us the obligatory trip to hospital and
making this an official trip. He was actually, in
hindsight, luckier than the rest of us, who incurred
the wrath of the sharp-tongued ceilidh-caller for most
of the evening...

No trip to St Galmier would be complete without a
visit to the Casino, and many a hard-earned Euro made
its way into the local coffers via the roulette
tables. Those not playing the tables ended up as out
of pocket as the gamblers, since the beer was flowing,
as were the songs, Glen Campbell and Sacha Distel
being, for some unknown reason, the popular beat combo
of choice…

Sunday, more of the same on the food and ceilidh
front, but with the added advantage of a blazing hot
sun, which sent the hostel-based folk off to the hotel
which was housing the more affluent of our number,
since it boasted an outdoor pool (and a bar tab for
room 105 that suddenly began to increase
exponentially).

Fitba in the evening, with most of us watching the
Greek tragedy either in a Portuguese pub or in the
aptly named “Le pick-up” karaoke bar. Shoulders were
dropped on the dance floor, but unfortunately the
evening was marred by an unsavoury incident which saw
a Listbahnführer, who shall remain nameless, take it
upon himself to perform a wholly unsolicited
strip-tease. Behaviour like this could set the TA’s
reputation back decades… ;-)

I got back to Didier’s at 4am, and was then up at 8
for the 300-mile drive back to the office for
half-a-day’s work. Oof indeed. Heaven knows what I
missed out on today on the way back…

Big thanks to Didier once again for his splendid
hospitality. What with the Linlithgow and District
Pipe Band, who maintained their incredibly high
standards despite the blazing heat, there must have
been 60 or 70 of us over there. Give it another couple
of years and we’ll be solely responsible for the
region’s tourist economy!

As always, it was good to put some faces to well-kent
names, catch up with the St Galmier crew and listen to
Phil singing La Marseillaise morning, noon and night.

Slainte, and apologies for my verbosity

Drew fae left midfield

[Janis]

Fantastic weekend!!

Weather, company and entertainment all excellent - shame about the football (what's new on a Scotland trip??)

Book me up for next year.

A big thank you to Mark for introducing us all to this weekend.

Janis

[taxi for harper]

Yes fantastic trip from the moment Blackie produced a bottle of Merlot on the 6.30am Prestwick bound train. For ayone who doesn't know room 105 was taxi for harper's room but what's 200 eoros worth of beers amongst friends!!! Wish i could fast forward to this time next year.

[doricduncan]

Sounds like a good time was had by all. I will certainly consider going next year.