FROM Monday to Thursday, Scotland operates with a certain quiet dignity.
On the weekend, the country is flipped on its head – like a quaint little snowglobe shaken up in an earthquake, Scotland enters abruptly into party mode. It is always proclaimed that the Scots party best and, even as an Englishman, I can second this.
I have always wondered why this is. Having moved to Scotland myself at the great age of eight years old, I admit to having limited Friday night experiences down south. But from what little occasions England’s weekends have given me, it's not as fun. Surely, looking at the statistics, this doesn’t make sense. The country’s bigger and the booze is cheaper – what is going wrong down south?
To be frank, it’s the people of Scotland who I find a real treat, having lived in Fife, Aberdeen and now Glasgow, I have experienced a wide catalogue of Scotland’s public and like a superb can of non-descript Scottish lager, I have savoured every person I have met to the last drop.
A key aspect I enjoy about this country is its sheer size (or lack thereof). With a smaller country comes an increasing community feel – it is something I have always cherished, and the longer one stays here, the larger said feeling grows. If you have heard of the ever-popular "six degrees of Kevin Bacon" – a game where players challenge each other to choose an actor and then connect them to Kevin Bacon using only six links - the same rule applies to the Scottish public. But in Scotland it is more like two; meaning there is only two or less degrees of separation between everyone in the country.
Say you are in a bar in Glasgow on a Friday night, you can rest assured that there is an intrinsic link between you and everyone else in the place. Perhaps you are mystery cousins with someone, maybe you and the barman’s dogs are related or maybe you both just know a guy who knows a guy. Whatever it is, there will always be something to bond with a fellow Scot over.
Through this developed what is potentially my favourite aspect of this country – the beauty of Scottish colloquialism. In no other country could so many crude insults be intended as a compliment of the highest sentiment. It is a truly remarkable sensation to both eyes and ears.
Scotland, what a country.
(Oh, and the Highlands are very pretty as well.)
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