https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXlSYeNTTBk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm5cqvnZ2eE
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SPECTACULAR
I watched it from a live feed and here are my comments:
2014 12 31
1630 (US Central time)
Holy buckets! I have to get myself to Stonehaven or
they’ll be doing the fire walk thing without me!
SOOO excited! People, people, people … so many people.
I was afraid I’d missed it, not thinking of the time
difference, right? But those people aren’t leaving the area, and there are more
and more of them coming … so maybe I haven’t missed it after all …
The Stonehaven Fireballs have a camera posted with a live
feed. I’m watching with more intensity than I could have possibly thought
likely for an event that’s taking place clear on the other side of the world.
1710 – it’s 2310 over there …
More and more people are crowding the sides of the street
and people in what looks like black pants and white vests are the only ones who
are really in the open area, keeping it clear I reckon …
Oh I hope to high heaven this connection doesn’t fail!
SUCH a crowd!
1720
Ach buffering … ! It stops the video feed …
Who are the ones in the white sleeves I wonder …
I could go watch last year’s, or the year before … but I
want to see NOW, to almost kind of be there … sigh.
1725 is 2325 and it’s buffering again … even so, I can’t
WAIT! I can feel the excitement from clear over here!
1728
Ah, there’s an ordered group in black … wish there was
audio or a commentator or something … oh but this is FUN!
There’s a truck, coming this way … oh it’s stopped … nope
moving on now …
How excited I get over this … who would think?!?!?
1736
OH! Were those pipers? It’s so hard to tell and I’m so
ignorant (not by choice, mind you, just circumstances beyond my control).
1740
Here’s where I’m watching from:
‘The web cam is mounted
in the clock tower and gives a view up the High Street towards the Cannon. Web
camera kindly provided by SoilEssentials, Brechin, and the broadband connection by Craig-ma-Cair B&B, Stonehaven.’
1743
A little group with a lady
…
Buffering … the only good
thing about buffering is that I get a chance to feed my fire here. The kitchen
wood stove is keeping me toasty on this cold Dakota Long Dark night!
1745
There’s a group, are they
drummers? WISH I could hear!
And yes I know I can wait
and watch it later, but that wouldn’t be the same at all, would it? Dang the
connections while blessing them in the same breath … I get so impatient …
I wish I had a Stonehaven
friend, someone who could take me places and to events and stuff – like Tess
takes me shopping with her in Minneapolis … electronically, since I can’t be
there really, either. Sigh.
1755 buffering again
Do I wait it out or
refresh the page and hope for the best?
Refresh the page.
Blue – I’m seeing blue at
the top of the screen …
I AM going to have to watch this later, but I’m
not giving up, buffering or not.
This time I’ll wait it
out, see what happens.
Maybe.
I am impatient, you
remember …
1800 here
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO STONEHAVEN!
Cameras flashing all over
the place!
It’s a white glare in the
street.
AAAUUUGH! ‘We are unable
to connect … blah blah blah.’
A flash of movement and
light then ‘We are having problems with playback …’ … sigh …
By the time I get
connected it will be over and I’ll have to sit here and weep.
OH there they ARE!
What a thing to watch,
even from across the world and fighting buffering and etc.
At least this time it
stopped with a darned impressive picture on the screen, moving lights halted in
place, filling the street.
1812
Ah it’s magical, beautiful
… sentimental me, my eyes are blurring the view.
It’s all moving lights and
once in a while you see the people who are swinging the fires.
How I wish I could be
there for real … even though this is
very special for me, how oh how I wish I could be there for real.
What must it feel like to
be a part of something this magical and powerfully moving … I am so very glad
that there’s someplace in this world of ours that holds fast to such things.
Kudos to Stonehaven’s Fireballs.
Totally impressed and
moved to tears and almost beyond words.
1822
Holy buckets look at the
crowds filling the street!
And I thought I was
impressed before.
Well yeah, I AM impressed
– but the sight of THIS takes it to the next step.
Wow.
This time I really am
going to wait out the buffering. Gives me time to dry my eyes and such.
What an awesome thing for Stonehaven
to not only protect and preserve but to share with me (others too of course,
but I don’t know about them – I know about me) from clear the other side of the
world.
Call me a sentimental
fool, but Holy Mother of Christ I love this. And don’t fret yourself that I
might be using profanity – I’m not and the Mother is not offended, trust me on
that one.
1830
Okay, eyes dry and all
that. Let’s see what happens with a reload this time.
Oh my. A very full street
with everyone going the same direction, very few going against the flow. Where
have all these people come from I wonder. Stonehaven can’t have THAT many
people, can it? Ha. What a question. I would be there my own self if I weren’t
poorer than the proverbial churchmouse.
Now I can search on line
and see if anybody’s got stuff posted yet. I want to see it all in one piece …
I have to say I’m darned
pleased that Dunnottar snagged me, truly happy about that I am.
1900
*big sigh*
Of content because I got
to ‘see’ the Stonehaven Fireballs presenting that astounding display, and all
the people who were lined up (and behaving themselves, which in many places
wouldn’t happen, you know)?
Or do I sigh because I’m
not quite all the way content with seeing it from across the world? Grateful
for the chance, bet your bottom dollar on THAT, but still …
Well maybe one day I’ll
find a way; in the meantime I’m quite very happy to pop in now and again to see
how things are going. Thanks to the Mearns Leader, and hibernator that I am, I
think I keep better track of Stonehaven than I do of my own little Small Town
USA.
And why do I snoop on some
place that’s clear across the world from me?
Because it pleases me to
do so.
Even more pleasing is that
I’m finding a community of which the SONG Characters (fictional though they
are) would be all-fired proud. If they were real, and if they were NOW, the
whole lot of them would be preening, I tell you. Preening. And I wish I could
somehow let Stonehaven know how precious it has become to me.
I know that sounds
downright weird. I don’t know a soul there and not a soul knows me nor probably
would want to.
Even so.
Me and the Cowardly Lion
from The Wizard of Oz … ‘If I only had the nerve …’
Sadly, I haven’t got the
nerve.
But Danann and Sidhelagh now, that’s another Story. Those
two have nerve and to spare.
No I haven’t lost all my marbles (got one on a chain
around my neck to prove it). I know Danann and Sidhelagh don’t exist; they’re
fictional Characters for heaven’s sake, made up out of my own head as a matter
of fact.
But, as my sister said, ‘They can still have their
Voices, can’t they? Even if they’re dead.’ Even if they never existed in the
first place? Maybe.
Hell, the two of them have been spouting off about this,
that, and the other thing all along, dead or not, real or not.
And I have this internal debate, right?
The Celt in me says, ‘Go for it!’
Me: They’d
think me crazy.
Celt: Well,
and aren’t you?
Me: Shhhh!
Celt: *laughing*
Me: I have
no c-c-c-courage.
Celt: Ah, but
I do. Don’t you read your own books?
Me: No.
Celt: No?
Me: No. I
write them down is all.
Celt: *laughing
uproariously*
Me: Quit
laughing at me.
Celt: Cluck.
Me: What!?
Celt: Well I
don’t dare QUACK … you don’t read your own books and wouldn’t get it.
Me: Quack
you, Celt.
Celt: *snicker*
Cluck.
Me: I just
want to tell them thank you, that’s all.
Celt: Well
for pity’s sake, just do it then.
Me: Cluck.
Celt: Quack.
Me: Exactly
what they’ll think of me.
Celt: Who
cares?
Me: I do. They
might think I’ve taken liberties with their community.
Celt: Newsflash.
None of them were alive in AD 487.
Me: Newsflash.
Neither were you.
Celt: You
sure about that?
Me: *frown*
Celt: Quit
dithering and just do it. You’re not insulting them, you’re telling them thank
you. What’s to get upset about in that? If they don’t like it, what’s for you
to worry about? They’re clear on the other side of the world.
Me: *sad
eyes turning away* I know.
Celt: Aw,
c’mon. What’s the newspaper there that you read sometimes?
Me: Mearns
Leader
Celt: There
you go then. Blame it on Danann and Sidhelagh; they don’t care – they’ve been
dead for fifteen hundred years.
Me: They’re
fictional. They can’t be dead because they never existed in the first place.
Celt: Sure
about that, are you?
Me: I’m
beginning to wonder.
Celt: You
know the Celtic people always win in the end. One way or another.
Me: Okay,
you win. If they hate me forever it’s all on you.
Celt: What
the heck. They’ll probably be polite and say ‘You’re Welcome’.
Me: That
would be ‘You’re so very welcome’.
Celt: Thought
you didn’t read your own books.
Me: I don’t.
I just pay attention while I’m writing them down. And did I not just tell you
that you win? I’m going to tell Stonehaven thank you now.
Celt: Good.
Me: Do you
ALWAYS get the last word?
Celt: Yes.
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