(diaryland) May 13, 2004 - 9:47 a.m.

So, I had a run-in with some bagpipers.

It was night, and I was in a little room at skool, practicing on a little piano. I was little too, by the way, but there was a big window looking onto an empty courtyard.

Suddenly, the courtyard wasn't strictly empty anymore. It was filled with the eerie sound of scores of bagpipers. The actual bagpipers soon followed the sound of the bagpipers into the courtyard.

I didn't explain that very well. What I mean is, I heard them coming from a long way away. They were very noisy.

I gave up my practicing and decided to look out the big window because they were bloody distracting. I wondered, what the hell are these guys doing in this deserted courtyard in the middle of the night? Arg!

I thought, arg! because I realised the bagpipers were marching straight towards me. They were marching disconcertingly fast, too. I ducked out of sight of the window for a moment. This big window was on the ground floor. If they wanted to, within seconds, they could have burst through the window and bagpiped me to death, right there and then. I was frightened.

Anyway, I think disappearing out of view worked because when I felt brave enough to look back out the window, they had retreated. I think they must have been attracted to my red hair or something. Maybe they thought I was one of them.

I'm not scottish, though. My red hair is the result of a tragic genetic mutation.