There was no suitable building to house the new parliament and one would have to be built especially for it. After much thought , and argument, the temporary home would be Church of Scotland's Assembly Buildings, on The Mound. This did not suit all the MSPs because being the Kirks, property there would be no bar!

Preparations were begun for the opening and again there was wrangling, should it be opened by the Queen? What should she be called? (she is not the second Queen Elizabeth in Scotland) Should she wear a coat suit or a formal gown?

At last the big day arrives, the Queen will be in attendance, and the procession will go from Holyrood House up The Royal Mile and down into the mound for the opening in the Assembly Halls.

It was the first day of the school holidays and although Gemma and Tony ( 'ma weans') wanted to stay in bed, how could I, as a responsible parent let this historic day pass like any other? No, I dragged them out of bed at 6.30 am and we caught the 'sardine express' to Edinburgh an hour later, our sandwiches packed and our comfortable shoes on. The weather was dry and it looked like it would be a glorious day for 'oor big day oot'.

"Mum can we get an ice cream?" pleaded Tony, at half past eight in the morning! Still the lady in the shop was able to tell us that the celebrities were arriving and the best place to stand would be The Mound. So that's where we went, right beside the podium which would hold the Queen when she came out from the Assembly Halls and where we could see such notables as Ricky Fulton (of Francie and Josie fame) going in. "Mum, who is Ricky Fulton?" Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all!

Away in the distance we could hear the skirl of the bag pipes getting louder. Then the the 1st Battalion of The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Pipes and Drums came into view, followed by one of the Queens open Rolls Royces with the Scottish crown being held firmly on the velvet cushion by His Grace The Duke of Hamilton, Lord Lyon of Scotland. The day had begun! I was only just beginning to accept the fact that I was now living in a country that had its own parliament, and my heart swelled with pride.

The band went back up The Mound only to come right back down, about half an hour later, with soldiers from 1st Battalion of The Black Watch who would line the streets. I remarked to my daughter that the soldier opposite, had one sock falling down. He must have heard us because he started to fight the laughter. His Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Ronnie Bradford, later caused hilarity among the crowd by hunkering down and pulling the sock up for him, what the Lieutenant Colonel did not notice was that his own socks were in the same uneven position.

The excitement was growing, soon the Royal Party would arrive. BANG!!!!!!!!!! We knew that the Royal Party had left Holyrood because the twenty one gun salute, from the castle, had started. From our position we had no way of knowing that four Irish republicans had rushed the Queen's carriage on the Royal Mile. Nor did we see the Household Cavalry charge them: we had to wait till we got home to see that on the television. The Household Cavalry, mounted on huge black horses, with their breast plates shinning rode past, the royal carriage came next, pulled by white horses. I could not believe how close I actually was to the Queen. She looked younger and more tanned in real life than on the television. Her coat was the colour of the purple heather and cut in such away that her green dress peeped from beneath it, a purple and green tartan plaid was draped over her right shoulder. I learned later that the theme of this outfit was the thistle, and was decided by the crowd and by press alike, that she had done us proud.

The cannons continued to fire their 21 gun salute and the horses were skittish, so skittish infact that one member of the escort was thrown off his horse further up the procession route. His horse was being led by a footman. This guardsman later came running down The Mound with evidence of horse*s skittishness all over his, otherwise highly polished, uniform.

The royal party entered the Assembly Halls but because there was no P.A. system outside the halls the crowd could not hear what was being inside, at the opening ceremony. We blethered and got to know the people standing around, the crowd was in good form, laughing and joking. One of the funniest parts of the day was watching the street cleaners, rushing to clean the horses mess before the soldiers of the Black Watch had to march through it ... they did not succeed, but were cheered loudly by the crowd for their efforts. The ceremony lasted an hour then "Elizabeth Queen of Scots", left the building, followed by the MSPs, the royal party mounted the stairs to the podium, and the MSPs waited in the street. Immediately we heard the roar of aeroplanes. This was it! This was to be the highlight of Tony's day, and I was well warned to have the camera ready. Concorde and The Red Arrows tore past, they were to fly at one thousand feet straight along the M8 corridor to Glasgow. But they flew so fast that from the time it took my brain, to tell my finger, to press the button, to take a photograph, the planes were no longer in view of the camera lens. I got a vapour trail! But Tony's face was beaming.

Everyone's eyes came back to street level as The Pipes and Drums of the West Lothian Electricity Board led down an army of 1,600 school children, all wearing matching sweat shirts given to them for the event. They were marched passed in groups from every parliamentary constituency. As they passed the assembled MSPs, each MSP in turn went out to greet their own constituency.

To the disappointment of the crowd the Queen left in a car this time and the MSPs followed her up the mound on foot. This signalled the end of the formal part of the day. Gemma was tickled pink when Alex Salmond (leader of the Scottish National Party) made his way over and shook her hand. She could not believe he had singled her out and her face was beaming.

We had stood there for over four hours and nature was calling all three of us. We left our places and fought our way through the crowd. Suddenly the crowd started to hiss and boo, neither Gemma nor I were tall enough to see over the crowd, so I had to ask someone up a tree who was being booed. They were booing William Haig Leader of the Tory Party, that tickled me, and my face must have been beaming.

It had been a terrific day and I would not have missed it for the world, the weans, who had been so reluctant to go in the first place, had a great day, so much so they even said "Thank you" ( with chocolate!)

My old guest buik

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