Day 3
Again it feel like its only been minutes as my alarm goes off. There's no way it morning already. This king sized bed in my fit for a king room was my best night of sleep yet. But I was still wishing I had a few more hours of rest. So I get up, shower and get ready. As I know that breakfast is being served early before we are off to the airport. I head down to the breakfast room. Super foggy but not terribly hungover. Something some coffee, juice and eggs, black pudding will solve. Well actually the black pudding almost became a very bad idea.
Today we are to make our way from Inverness, Scotland to Liverpool, England. But before we head off in our shuttle we have something else in store for us. The shuttle swings around to pick us up and it takes us through this small town and onto the beach of the Glenmorangie House. We could have walked as it was only a 15 minute walk but we are a bit behind schedule and the Scottish weather is starting to come in. The winds are picking up and the clouds are getting dark. Rain is on the horizon.
Here we are at The Cadboll Stone which we are met by the artist Barry Grove. This is from his website written below.
At the end of the eighth century AD, on a windy Peninsula in the far North East of Scotland, one of the most significant pieces of early European sculpture, the Hilton of Cadboll Stone, was being carefully carved by the Picts. Centuries later, battered by time and half destroyed, the original stone was relocated to the National Museum in Scotland for safe keeping. The highly skilled carvings on the Cadboll Stone would come to inspire the Glenmorangie whisky emblem, motivating us to commission Barry Grove, a local sculptor, to recreate a stone by hand with a hammer and chisel. Work began on this enormous slab of sandstone in 2000, but it would take Barry over four years of painstaking labour before the sculpture, a testament to the skill of both the ancient Pictish and modern day Scottish people, could be re-installed on its original location.
Barry Grove was there in front of us and telling us the history of the stone and how he went about recreating it. it just seemed fitting that at this point the rain came down and the winds picked up. It was actually another surreal moment and one that I will always remember.
So now we are off to the airport. We get on the plane and it was time for a nap. I wake up and we are now in Manchester and in our shuttle headed to the Pullman Hotel. As we arrive it seemed as though this is where the trip picks it up a notch. We have spent the last day in the family like environment and history of Scotland and Glenmorangie. But now this is where the modern world meets the old world of Glenmorangie.
I was right as when I got to my room there is Glenmorangie stuff everywhere. I written letter welcoming me from Glenmorangie and bottles of Scotch around. I was wondering if I was in the right room but the letter had my name on it. So I must of been. Our host mentions that we should put some nice clothes on as we head off for the night. I was wondering what is in store, this is whenI can finally bring out my custom made to measure suit from Indochino....
Oh ya I don't think I mentioned that as the winner of this trip I also won a suit form Indochino. This is by far the best suit I one and I own a few. Every detail I get to put my own twist on. The liner is unreal, the fit too. The colour and fabric, the custom fit shirt with tie. I mean I must be one of the luckiest people in the world as everything was coming up Roses for me at this point in my life.
So I put on my Indochino Jacket with a different shirt and pants as I wanted to save the full suit for the next days of events. This all took place in the matter again of 45 minutes that I had to get ready for the night. SO off again I went, we were to meet on this specific level and in this room I went. All decked out in Glenmorangie stuff and clouds and art. This room was great, this looks like it will be a good night. At this point there are now easily 50 people in this room. This are Glenmorangie people from all over the world. Reps and managers, brewers and clients. Is it bad if I grab a beer in the fridge I think. There has been so much Scotch and if the previous night was any indication I knewtonight there would be more.
It was fine that I grabbed that beer cause it went down like water and in just moments another Scotch was in my hand. I felt like a girl in Vegas as everything was taken care of. I haven't spent a dime yet on this trip. The food, drinks, travels has all been taken care off. This truly is the trip of a lifetime. So after a few drinks and snacks our host says we are off to the next location. Here I was thinking this was it. We walk through Liverpool and the area we were staying down a boardwalk and arrive at The Tate Art Gallery.
We walk in and again are met with ore Glenmorangie Scotch. This time this room is 3 times the size and so is the crowd. Some great drinks were had and we eventually were guided to another room. We had a table for our group, my name written and again so much cutlery. Servers walking around with white and red wine. A 3 course meal and a Scotch tasting of the 10 year Glenmorangie and the new Signet from Glenmorangie. The night had some great speeches from brewers and also the 1969 Open Champion Tony Jacklin.
After this dinner we are guided back to the room we were at originally and again the drinks and scotch just kept on flowing. After a few more our group decided to head back to the hotel.
Tomorrow is the day that we get to go to The Open.
