As a teenager, Doreen Bowie was a world-champion highland dancer,and she began teaching it at an early age too. I wasn't one of herdance school pupils but she did teach me dance in her PE lessons atStranraer Academy (she spent more than 30 years at the school).Such was her ability to imbue all pupils with a sense ofachievement that even ones like me, with no discernible sense ofrhythm or grace, would loup around happily in their awkward,self-choreographed routines. With this in mind, a few years ago I took my then three-year-olddaughter, Bronagh, to the Wallace School of Dance, to start hertip-tapping around in a pink, sparkly leotard. Under Doreen'stutelage, she has blossomed into a confident dancer who competes inhighland dancing competitions throughout the year. My seconddaughter, Mirren, recently started the classes too and both loveDoreen so I nominated her to carry the Olympic torch through her home streets of Stranraer. Unfortunately, thingsdidn't quite go according to plan. Doreen Bowie, highland dance teacher, who will be up early to carrythe Olympic torch in Stranraer. At first, Doreen was offered and accepted a relay slot not inStranraer, but almost two weeks later somewhere between Dumfriesand the southern perimeter of the Lake District. But it would havebeen virtually impossible to arrange time out of school andtransport for 100 plus children aged three and up to go and see herrun, so Doreen contacted the torch relay team via email. She wasinformed that pre-allocated slots could not be changed; they hopedsix months' notice would be enough time to allow her to arrangetravel for family and friends. To me this sounded a wee bit cheeky, especially since the emailalso stated she had been allocated an available slot nearest to thepostcode at which she had been nominated (incorrect) and within anhour of her home address (also wrong). Although Doreen wasdelighted to be carrying the torch, she felt she was doing it inhonour of her students so I decided to take up the fight ontheir behalf. A flurry of emails followed, each time with the sameparty line: no changes could be made, they hoped Doreen had enoughtime to make arrangements, etc. In despair, and unable to sleep on the night before the torchbearernames were made public, Doreen got out of bed, booted up her PC andemailed the relay team to say that, reluctantly, she waswithdrawing stressing how gutted she was that they had beenunable to accommodate the request to allow her to run in Stranraer,in front of the pupils who adore her. On the morning the names went public, I emailed our local paper,the Stranraer & Wigtownshire Free Press (I had previously beenbanned from doing this under torch relay rules), and by the time Ifinished teaching my first two classes I now too teach atStranraer Academy Doreen was running in her home town. It turnedout that one of the people allocated a slot in Stranraer was fromjust outside Dumfries, and was more than happy to swap dates andlocations. Alan Hall, the editor of the Free Press, had spotted the anomalyimmediately on the torchbearers' website, so the newspaper took allthe credit for finding Doreen a place, even though I also spottedthe possibility of a switch just as soon as I could access the fulllist of names but I won't "sook lemons" over this. I'm just gladthere's a happy ending, and Doreen gets to carry the flame in thestreets of "oor wee toon" albeit at 6.08am (the Pizzeria will beopening very early for Olympic breakfasts ). Hopefully, being able to see their beloved Mrs Bowie carry thetorch will instill Olympic values in the next generation ofchildren striving to achieve excellence in their chosen fields. Scotland as a whole may seem somewhat Olympic-sceptical, but oursouth-western corner is flying the union flag to celebrate thisfantastic event. I am an expert from customnailstickers.com, while we provides the quality product, such as French Nail Stickers , Japanese Cell Phone Stickers, Lace Nail Stickers,and more.
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