Dear LPG,

I have lived in the borough of Lewisham for quite a few years now, but it is said that people always remember where they grew up, and every year on this day I remember my routes more than at any other time during the year.

I was sent the tea towel in the picture and though, for some, it will conjure up thoughts of regret it also reminds me of how proud I feel to be part of the nation at the top of the British Isles.  Some may see it as a bit over-nationalistic, but if we can’t be proud of the inventions that have stemmed from Scotland on our national day, when can we?

So, on this St. Andrews day, I would like to ask the rest of our borough to take a little time to join their neighbours, who also identify among Lewisham’s population of Scottish ex-patriates, in a celebration of the country that means so much to us.

WJ, Downham.

LPG, has found links to some other aspects of Scotland although there may be dialect challenges for those unfamiliar with the Scottish accent, in some of the videos.

(►►►)   (►►►)     (►►►)    (►►►)

Wha’s Like Us – Damn Few And They’re A’ Deid

By Tom Anderson Cairns

The average Englishman, in the home he calls his castle, slips into his national
costume, a shabby raincoat, patented by chemist Charles Macintosh from Glasgow, Scotland.

En route to his office he strides along the English lane, surfaced by John Macadam of Ayr, Scotland.

He drives an English car fitted with tyres invented by John Boyd Dunlop of Dreghorn, Scotland.

At the train station he boards a train, the forerunner of which was a steam engine, invented by James Watt of Greenock, Scotland.

He then pours himself a cup of coffee from a thermos flask, the latter invented by James Dewar, a Scotsman from Kincardine-on-Forth.

At the office he receives the mail bearing adhesive stamps invented by James Chalmers of Dundee, Scotland.

During the day he uses the telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell, born in Edinburgh, Scotland.

At home in the evening his daughter pedals her bicycle invented by Kirkpatrick Macmillan, blacksmith of Dumfries, Scotland.

He watches the news on his television, an invention of John Logie Baird of Helensburgh, Scotland,

And an item about the U.S. Navy, founded by John Paul Jones of Kirkbean, Scotland.

He has by now been reminded too much of Scotland and in desperation he picks up the Bible only to find that the first man mentioned in the good book is a Scot, King James VI, who authorised its translation.

Nowhere can an Englishman turn to escape the ingenuity of the Scots.

He could take to drink, but the Scots make the best in the world.

He could take a rifle and end it all but the breech-loading rifle was invented by Captain Patrick Ferguson of Pitfours, Scotland.

If he escapes death, he might then find himself on an operating table injected with penicillin, which was discovered by Alexander Fleming of Darvel, Scotland.

Or under anaesthetic, which was discovered by Sir James Young Simpson of Bathgate, Scotland.

Out of the anaesthetic, he would find no comfort in learning he was as safe as the Bank of England founded by William Paterson of Dumfries, Scotland.

Perhaps his only remaining hope would be to get a transfusion of guid Scottish blood which would entitle him to ask “Wha’s Like Us”.