One of the highlights of our Scotland trip was our visit to a highland games. In Summer, highland games are held throughout Scotland to celebrate Scottish and Celtic culture. We visited the games at the village of Grantown-on-Spey which is an hour's drive south-east of Inverness.

Andrew and I arrived early and were able to grab a seat on the side of the arena. The agenda for the day included Highland dancing, running races, bicycle races, long jump, high jump and some kids events such as haggis tossing and welly throwing. The main reason we were there though was for the highland athletics. We were keen to watch traditional events like the hammer throw and the caber toss.

The day started out with the junior (18-25) heavy events. Although junior implies boys, most of the competitors were tall, muscled men. I guess you need muscles to compete in the heavy events.

My favourite events were:

Weight for Height
Competitors throw a heavy weight as high as they can. The weight was a rectangular lump of metal attached to a chain. It was thrown one handed over a bar which was set at increasing heights above the thrower. Like a high jump bar, except you're throwing a 12kg weight over the bar instead of yourself.



Hammer Throw
The Scottish hammer throw is similar to the modern hammer throw but it has added difficulty. In the highland games, a round metal ball is attached to a shaft about 4 feet in length to form the hammer. Competitors must stand with their feet in a fixed position (no spinning), whirl the hammer around their head and release it over one shoulder.


Caber Toss
The caber was a large log, and was heavy enough that it took two men to carry it onto the field. The object of the caber toss is to have the log turn end over end and land on a line leading directly away from the thrower. A perfect throw ends with the top end nearest the thrower and the bottom pointing directly away. Think of a clock. The caber must be in the 12 o'clock position.

Of the 12 or so boys competing only 2 were able to complete the caber toss successfully. Some boys even had problems picking up the caber. They would hoist it up, attempt to balance it against their shoulder only for it to fall behind them (and the people behind them would scatter.) Sometimes it was even a little scary for the spectators. Part of the caber toss is the "approach" when the athlete runs to gain momentum. Some of these approaches veered off in the direction of the audience. I was ready to make a quick exit if necessary.



We watched all of the junior events and a couple of the masters' events. I developed a bit of a crush on the winner of the junior title. Craig Sinclair dominated the junior events and then went on to compete and perform admirably in the masters' events. I've never been a fan of the pink shirt wearing metro boy. Give me a real man who can toss a caber anyday!

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Often, when we tell people we play ultimate Frisbee we get the reaction "ultimate what?". Yes! It's a real sport, people! A real sport with proper rules, a huge player base and even a World Championships. The WFDF 2008 World Ultimate and Guts Championships officially started this weekend in Vancouver. Go Dingos! Go Firetails! Go Barramundis! Go Australia!

If you're interested in checking out what it's all about, you can do so for free at Blockstack.tv. Look! Ultimate even has its own TV show. The current episode is a bit long but good on them for giving us a peek at Worlds. (and getting to travel around the world to watch ultimate.)

Go Aussies!

After each game of proper ultimate, we usually play a mini silly game. After a very competitive game of ultimate, both teams can be a bit wound up. If we just walked away, it's possible that there could be bad feelings on either side.

We play a mini-game afterwards to relax, to have fun and to have a laugh together. It's a great way to make sure that everyone walks away from the game with a smile on their face. It's also a bit of inter-team bonding.

During Mixed Tour 3, we played some old favourites including Mix'n'Mingle and Guess Who. But our new favourite game is Handicapped Ultimate.

Like the name suggests, it's ultimate but everyone is handicapped in some way. Players have their hands tied together or become three-legged or blind-folded or on piggy back or have their shorts round their ankles. The aim of the game is still to catch the disc in the end zone. It's just a little bit harder than usual.

It was one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. I thought I'd share the hilarity with you guys with this mini tutorial video: How to play Handicapped Ultimate.

Enjoy!

Wimbledon has come and gone and this year I managed to watch it on two occasions. I think that's pretty good for someone who doesn't own a television.

In the first week, Andrew and I headed to Wimbledon in the afternoon to take advantage of the after five deal. This year we were numbers 12759 and 12760 in the queue. The queue was long, but well-organised and very fair. It's almost a pleasure to queue at Wimbledon.

First we watched a men's double match and a women's single match. Then we watched a very thrilling second round men's singles match that went to 5 sets. The match was between Frenchie Marc Gicquel and Serbian Ilia Bozoljac. It had all the trademarks of a great tennis match. There was exciting play of course but also ridiculous, over-the-top grunting when hitting the ball, yelling at the umpire and crankiness at the linesmen. It dished out my recommended dose of tennis for the year.

It kind of reminded me of a soccer match. If the receiver disagreed with the linesman and thought that the server had faulted on the serve, he would stand there and stare at the linesmen in disbelief and then back at the service line and then back at the linesmen and so on. It's like the receiver thought he had to commit to his decision not to play the serve. It reminded me of football players rolling around on the ground clutching at a supposed injury.

Marc Gicquel came back from 2 sets down to win the match. An impressive comeback but we saw great play from both sides. (Marc Gicquel came up against Roger Federer in the next round and lost in straight sets. Tough draw.)


My next encounter with the tennis was at Sets in the City. Hagen Daaz set up an area in the city with turf, cushions, lounge chairs and a big screen television. Of course, Hagen Daaz had a reason for the sponsorship; a new flavour of ice cream. As a promotion they were handing it out free to everyone watching the tennis. The new flavour, Meringue and Raspberry, was very tasty.

Natalie, Larissa and I lounged on cushions, drank Pimms, ate free ice cream, yelled advice at the screen ("hit the ball over the net" and "aim for inside the white lines") and watched Nadal squash the British hope Andy Murray. It was good.


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Without a tele we weren't able to watch the exciting Final. We did follow the webcast though (not quite the same).

The last Ultimate tournament we played was called Mixed Tour. Unfortunately, for the Fugazees the tournament was a little bit mixed. We played some great ultimate and some bad ultimate. The weather was definitely confused with sunshine one minute and a torrential down pour the next. The only thing that was definitely on track was our attitude towards the party.

Although we didn't win any games I think we still had a fun weekend. We love to play ultimate (even if we don't win). We had a tasty team dinner on the Saturday evening, followed by some tunes from Rupert in Lorrie's fluorescent green taj mahal. Nothing better than flashlight Frisbee while the sun sets. Later in the evening the Fugazees hit the dance floor and danced up a storm. If there was a prize for the party the Fugs would definitely have won.



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