The visit by our Curling friends from Sweden to Perth with mcleanscotland of Perth Scotland

Aye, they loved the kilts! Our gang of mad Swedes are, left to right; Goran, Tom, the mayor Lennart, Claes, Jac, Cecilia, Ulf (the mad) and Alan Hannah - our Scottish coach. See photos of this tour here.

They all came over from Sweden for a curling weekend starting on a Thursday and departing on the Sunday. what can we say ... they laughed from the moment they arrived until the time they departed, what a bunch, come back soon guys!

SO TO THE DIARY; aye it's myself writing again (Paul). I met up with the wild bunch at Prestwick airport on Thursday morning 27 September. Will I ever be the same again? a close call that one, but did I have a good time? YES. So, onto Braehead arena we travelled from the airport, what happened? Unknown to me, Lennart is the town Mayor, so what does he do? opens the Braehead Arena with a tape cutting exercise! A good couple of hours here with tuition from a Scottish coach - some food, some drink (more on that later). On to Perth and check in time. "See you later guys" I say, going home for a cry. Dinner tonight was at Christies pub where Tracy runs the pub. Brian had come in specially to cook haggis, neeps and tatties for us all, it went down brilliantly! Some drinks (again) before going to the ice rink at Dewars. See photos of this tour here. A good night curling with Alan and a couple of young Scots lads for help and fun (they had bags of fun, but needed some Scots curling skills). So what happens at the bar before curling? Lennart once again went into action; this time giving my pal Cameron behind the bar, another tie. He took off the one he was wearing and planted another on him! "Curling - is that what we came for? no, whisky and beer is what we came for!" A great time had by all and we ended up with drinks again!

28 September - Friday. The day started at the Famous Grouse whisky distillery in Crieff. In retrospect that was a bad move! 5 whiskies before food, och well. Today they had Logan with them as guide and watchman, as Paul was working, many thanks Logan. They came back to Perth to the hotel, we had arranged a surprise for them - a meeting with our Provost (Mayor). Off we went to meet up in the council chambers, a great time had by all - maybe our Provost was a little shell shocked though! Back to the hotel for the kilts, then the rink. Curling in kilts, having drinks, fun, drinks and chat. Straight from Dewars to the Foundry pub for food. We all sat down at our reserved table, ordered drinks; 7 pints of Belhaven Best, 7 whiskies and a pint for myself and Alan! Ordered our food and another round of drinks, same again! Great fun, food and drinks followed. We were served by Gordine and Liz at the pub, sorry girls, but they are Swedish! Back to the hotel bar, more drinks - and I thought it was a curling tour! I left them around 11.20 and wandered off to meet up with Alan at Christies. They were up until 2am some of them (ULF!!!). Great day had by all, they are a mad bunch believe me! great fun though. Oh did I say, they all did a "mooney" after the Foundry! cant show that photo, or the other one Lennart!

29 September - Saturday. 10 am start today, a hangover here and there. Queens view this morning in highland Perthshire, lovely morning, a wee bit braw. Some still in the kilts, did you ever go to bed? Into the shop there after taking in the view, "there is a God!" came the cry, looking around I saw ULF had found the wee whisky bottles! Which he bought and drank! Down the way to Pitlochry and Edradour distillery for a tour and taste. Aye another whisky! I hid away while they drank at the distillery bar, we ended the visit and went to the Moulin pub for food, great lumps of food came out and, you guessed it ... a round of drinks! By the time we got home to Perth it was almost time to get out again, where did we go? Christies! to watch the rugby between Scotland and Italy, after a wee scare, we won! More drinks followed. After a lively evening here and mixing with the locals, some of the group went dancing! some went back to the hotel, myself and Alan stayed at the pub and cried into our drinks. Och away from them at last, they are all mad! will they all be back in hospital in Sweden soon? Alan, myself and the other Scots curlers agreed, Ulf was best at curling, drinking and fun! All were a great laugh, Cecilia was the only lady there and she was wonderful, she must be to put up with the guys all the time.

30 September - Sunday. The coach came at 8am for the transfer to the airport, sadly I was still in my bed, still crying! Come back soon that was a fantastic wee tour! Paul. See photos of this tour here.

Dear Paul,
thank you for showing us around. We had a wonderful time! I´m sure we will be back! Could we please visit a castle then and maybe have time left over for shopping? I missed that. The guys were only interested in beer and wiskey. And I hope to meet Liz when we come back. I sure could need another woman by my side! Take care! Hugs, Cecilia "Cian"

Thank you for a fantastic and well organised tour. We all had a fantastic time. Couldn’t you see that we all where gay-lesbian?? The men had skirts and Carmen shaved every morning! And as you heard we all sang a lot……(joking) Sending you a photo of us all having a good time in your company and say thanks to Donald as well we lost him at the airport in the bar… Claes

The song; eh, what? aye the song, these mad, mad people even have their own curling song!