Birthday Boy, Burns Night, and "Be more Nobby"

Nobby's birthday haggis

Haggis, neeps and tatties

Readers can be forgiven for not realising it was my birthday on Thursday and I have now reached the grand age of two years old. After all, it seems my owner Gail had barely noticed.

You would have thought that, given the choice between spending the morning playing with her favourite pet and giving him birthday treats, or joining her friends for a cold damp bicycle ride to Monymusk and back, she would have chosen the former. But you would be wrong.

Recognising that I share my birthday with Scotland's greatest poet, you would have thought Gail would arrange for a special canine-focussed Burns Supper for yours truly, with bagpipes, haggis, an Address to the Bitches and a recitation of 'The Twa Dogs'. But that also was not to be. 

It is true I was given a hasty bowl of the traditional haggis, neeps and tatties before Gail abandoned me again to attend a live screening from the National Theatre of a play called 'Dear England'.

'Yes you read that right. She went to see a play titled 'Dear England' on Burns Night in Scotland!!!

I will admit, when Gail told me the play was about the England football team under their current manager Gareth Southgate and it featured a whole scene celebrating my namesake, 1960s footballer, Nobby Stiles, I felt a bit less aggrieved.  Especially when I learnt that this scene has the team all dancing to a chant of 'Be more Nobby'.*

'Be more Nobby!'

You don't get that in Shakespeare...

*Gail says: I rather doubt that the 'Be more Nobby' thing will be comprehensible to most readers of this blog and to be honest I'm not sure I'm up to attempting a full explanation. Let's just say it's about expressing one's feelings in an unselfconscious manner, not worrying too much about how you look. If you watch from 3:40 to 3:50 of this video (click here) you might get the idea! The play, incidentally, was hugely enjoyable - witty, original, warm-hearted, and at times surprisingly touching.