Countdown continues and memories

This time in two weeks we will be doing my impression of "Up , Up and Away" in the big silver bird, flown by one of Eva Air's finest, heading east into tomorrow. Sparky will be in the same situation , having left the ground an hour ahead of us and making for Tanzania and Mount Killimanjaro - and his adventure - afterwards he can forget all this rubbish about his "body being a temple", and get back to being human again.

So - no the suitcase is not packed, but I did hit the big shops today - no not Harvey Nicols, Jenners, Frasers, John Lewis, etc - But to my favourite V.F.M. shop, Matalan - there I was, arms full of the two for £5 bargains, and spent my crumpled £20 note!!!!! in minutes - just great fun - even had the lady in the gents fitting room running around looking for things the correct size for me. Beauty with this stuff is that you can wear it a couple of times and then bin it - no need to carry it home.
I used to do that when I took the Scouts abroad, they all took casual clothes which they were prepared to abandon in France - binned them on the last day and were then able to bring bottles of wine back for me !! in their rucksacks.

But I digress - so it was via Costco , McArthur Glen , Livingston, and then back to drop items off at The Mercat, but with my friend Jim , from Dash Security enroute I stayed awhile and helped him out.

Maureen , of Maureen and Craig and the wedding in Barbados is doing a charity run for Cancer research ( see comment on two blogs back) and is looking for sponsors./

Thinking of sponsors and reminiscing, going back about thirty four years, I went through a period where I developed a real taste for "Tartan Special" - which increased weekly and at the same time my weight and waist size did the same!! My mother appeared one day with a sponsorship form for the British Heart Foundation and a sponsored slim!! so after some persuasion I started the diet and then spent three months on a diet, etc , training , losing weight.

I eventually lost about two and a half stone, raised £440 which was a lot of money in those days considering that I earned about £22 a week - but got lots of publicity for the the Police with photos in the Glasgow Herald, Daily Record, etc. At the end of the event I had raised the second highest amount of money in Scotland.

In another sponsored event , this time for the Erskine Home for Disabled Servicemen, at Erskine, Dumbarton , I joined in an event being run by the Sgts. Mess, Scottish Infantry Depot, at Glencorse Barracks, where I had to run one hundred miles, round a set course at the Barracks, over a period of time -so some days I would do two or three miles, others more, until I had reached the total. Somewhere in the house I have a photo of our Graham as a wee tot , complete with broken wrist handing over my cheque to the C.O., Mr Fairweather, who later became the H.M.Inspector of Prisons, Scotland. Co-incidentally his brother Brian Fairweather
a former Police Officer became the Security Manager at The Royal Palace of Hollyrood and I would regularly meet him when on search team details there.

On a roll now - fund raising for the Scouts, a team of us towed a barrel of Ushers Golden Ale, many years ago from the former Usher Vaux Brewery at Craigmillar out to Penicuik Miners Welfare Club. This was in conjunction with a couple of other events and we raised lots of money on that one. The day we towed the barrel out , it was blistering hot, we had a van full of beer, which is not good for you when its hot and exerting, but we were young and daft. We had lots of publicity wit coverage in the local papers and radio Forth - so many of the motorists who were held up with us staggering out on the A701 from Edinburgh knew who we were and were very supportive.

If I do not stop now I might run out of Gordon's !!!!