Electronic Eavesdropping - NOT , but it is raining

Wednesday evening and doing this from the Baronial home of Sir Christopher, Lady talk a Lot ; and their trusty friend Shrek - whilst waiting for the lads to get ready for a "boys night out" in town tonight.

Tuesday was bit of a nightmare, traffic wise, lovely beautiful morning here in the east with a fantastic sunrise, but bearing in mind the saying "red sky at night - shepherds delight, red sky in the morning - shepherds warning" - and how right it was - poured all the way from Carlisle to Runcorn and the all the back via Glasgow and then to home - so ten hours of that, driving through spray and light mist took its toll of the old peepers.
Years ago I was away somewhere with one of the old bobbies I used to work with , the wipers packed in on the car so we had a length of string through the windows, round the wipers and I had to work them manually from the passenger seat , and then also had to use a fairly liquid bottle full of water to spray the windscreen.

Still, despite the rain , spray, and poor visibility our friendly white van men , and many other fruitcakes still managed to keep their motors well above the National Speed Limit.

Managed to get my bacon buttie from the ladies at the canteen , Runcorn , which kept my energy up for the return home.

Made it home, but with work to do, no chance for a snooze, so i hardly noticed the torrential rain again - compliments of St Swithens, lightening, etc, which blew the chimney off a house in East Lothian and the fireplace from the wall.
There was also a fatal accident on Frogston Road, Edinburgh, where an 18 year old in his Mazda,
left the road, he was killed and the passenger critically injured. About the same place many moons ago, a car left the road due to black ice and ended up in a tree, six feet off the ground. The tree being lower than the road, the car had shot over the open space, and landed up in the air.

The funeral of the fireman who was killed in the fire at the Balmoral Bar,Drylaw took place today - massive turnout for the service which took place in the bad weather in St Giles Cathedral, High Street, Edinburgh.

I was listening to some of the news yesterday about the enquiry into the phone tapping and electronic surveillance by the News of the World folks or their informants.
Way back, in the days of black and white TV's, which I used to watch by peering through the neighbours windows - yes - and we still had gas street lights in Currie, I and some of my hooligan friends used to eavesdrop on people in the public telephone box - there was a phone box along the street which was sited against a great big high wall, so we would climb up onto the top of the wall - lie flat , and then roll over onto the top of the phone box to listen to the conversations below !! I am sure folks knew what we were doing , being a small village they knew us so we could have been chased anytime !! Just a little less subversive than our modern day eavesdroppers.

Also an interesting feature the radio and TV about these "Colleges" springing up all over the UK which depend on funding from foreign students who get a visa to come her, then take a couple of classes before disappearing into the infrastructure - where do they go, who supports them , and just what real steps can be taken to trace them ?

Thought I was having a day off - fat chance, so it was an early start again - but with four hours sleep I was right as rain. Tam Finlay called in to complain that the blog was not up to date , his dearly beloved wife is "blooming" in her expectant state - doing well, and doing Tam's head in ( why should he be exempt ? )

Anyway - quick run home to collect Mrs. B. - had a chat with Sister in law ( Sandra) in London to update her wit other bits of gossip, and now waiting to hit the town with the troops from the Mercat. We will no doubt exercise restraint and remain within the prescribed limits of units as laid down by the medical experts!!! - For the first hour - but I have to remember that we have the Spanish Wine tasting tomorrow night to look forward to also.