Yesterday I left the house before 5am to pipe at a dawn 9/11 service at a city police headquarters.

Then it was off to a wedding. The bride said that she chose 9/11 as her wedding day because no one would be able to forget her anniversary!
There were many kilties present. I chatted with one guy in kilts and I mentioned X Marks the Scot. He'd not heard of it.

Then lastly off to a twilight 9/11 service in a city park that featured an Army brass band (in camouflage uniform) performing patriotic tunes.

16 hours on the road, hundreds of miles on the car, loads of piping, doing my part to make these services complete, my favourite sort of day.

It's days like that that make me appreciate a good kilt of quality tartan that doesn't wrinkle in the car, comfortable ghillies, and a quality roomy sporran.

And I appreciate my new old pipes, probably made by Lawrie between 1881 and 1908, which I aquired around three weeks ago. They're lovely, have a huge sound, and are surprisingly light on the shoulder.

Here they are:








(That's a new McCallum chanter there.)