Friday, 3 January 2025

4 January: Bagpipes

In the song Twelve Days of Christmas, today is represented by 11 pipers piping. So here are ten facts about bagpipes.

  1. Bagpipes weren’t invented in Scotland. Nobody knows where they originated. According to The Oxford History of Music, a sculpture featuring bagpipes was found on a Hittite slab at Euyuk in Anatolia, dated to 1000 BC.

  2. They were played in Ancient Egypt and Rome. There’s evidence that the Emperor Nero played an instrument very similar to bagpipes. It’s possible he played bagpipes, rather than a fiddle, as Rome burned. It was through the Romans that bagpipes arrived in Scotland. The Scottish people added an extra pipe to create the instrument we know today.

  3. Early bagpipes were made from the entire skin of an animal, usually a Sheep, with the pipes placed where the legs and neck would be. These days, bagpipes are usually made with artificial fabric such as Goretex.

  4. In Gaelic, 'bagpipe' translates into P'iob mho'r, literally meaning 'big pipe'.

  5. In the 1400s they were used during battles, to signal to troops or possibly scare off the enemy. Bagpipes are the only musical instrument in history known to have been used as a weapon of war. That came to an end in 1915 when they were banned during battles in the first world war, after 3,000 pipers were killed going over the top of the trenches.

  6. They have been banned twice in Scotland, once in 1560 and then in 1746. Possessing a set of bagpipes in those days could get you in serious trouble. At the battle of Culloden, a Scottish Jacobite piper called James Reid was captured and hung by British authorities for being in possession of the instrument.

  7. Queen Elizabeth II was a big fan of bagpipes and would be woken each morning by her personal piper who would play outside her window. Prince Philip, however, hated the instrument.

  8. Bagpipes have been played in space. In 2015, astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren played Amazing Grace on bagpipes on board the International Space Station in tribute to late research scientist Victor Hurst.

  9. The 10th of March is International Bagpipe Day.

  10. There are more pipe bands in the US than there are in Scotland.



Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)


Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.


Paperback

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