Bad conscience

- maybe!!

We made it south in one piece last night, after a run to Edinburgh Airport by Sparky Mark, with a really good flight on a BMIBABY - in a brand new and nearly empty plane. Arrived at T1 Heathrow which is now nice and quiet after British Airways have moved out and into Terminal 5. From what I hear the new terminal is now working properly and is marvellous.
The man from Gemini Taxis was waiting in the near deserted car park (big change) and 15 minutes later we were with William and Sandra whose house currently resembles a building site as work in their extension progresses..

Was up early this morning and thought that everyone had slept in - but then I discovered that I had been up since 5 a.m. and not 6 a.m. as I thought !!! Silly me.

William ran me over to a tube station at Hatton Cross and from there I managed to make it to Harrow with a couple of changes on the way - just made it before the morning rush hour so it was a quite pleasant journey. Outside the station at Harrow I managed to get a lovely fresh warm crusty roll with bacon and cuppa to have before I arrived - and still got in before most of the staff.

So far the job is going well, my "new friend", Martina, had all the papers I had e mailed earlier all sorted out and filed ready for me to use - lunch time now so it will again be a case of wait and see.

Sun is shining and I am looking forward to a very large glass of red wine tonight when I get back to Eagham, near to Runnymead - which will have to do as a consolation for missing the Licensed Trade gentleman's dinner at the Old Original Hotel, Roslin, tonight - Graham and the boys will have to make do without me.

Bit of a bitty day

Its been a nice sunny day , perfect for the washing out on the lines.
Managed to clean out the header tank but got really filthy in the process - so I just carried out with washing the cars to got some of the muck off and more on .

Anyway, generally pottereing doing all sorts of wee jobs for either myself or for tomorrows job in Harrowon the Hill - going to be fun in the morning trying to get across London at peak time, and I do not think they will let me use my bus pass either!!!
I see Tom Finlay and Catherine peeking online from the Dominican Republic where hopefully they are having a good time. Looks like the Upside down man @ Robbie has got the message and will be viewing his soaps next week, Adrea also keeps checking in, but there are a couple of other foreign entries , Turkey and South America who have me wondering.

New meetings arranged now to progress the problem we are having with Edinburgh Council, but as we approach the 36th month we will not hold our breath or expect too much - what else can we expect when the Managers involved are all closing ranks !!

Off on my travels

What a carry on - more water

Well, things were going fine till we went to bed. Followed a short ime later by Graham - however a few minutes later up went the shout, "there is water coming through the light fittings", and right enough there was a steady drip onto his bed.
So there we were, up in the attick, which is all pannelled and furnished, moving units about, piles of documents and files, taking out the pannelling untill we got behind and into the tanks. Turned that that the header tank to the central heating system was corroded and water was beginning to weep from the bottom and then run along the joists till it found an escape.
Graham ended up pot black, crawling about and baling out the tank once the water was turned off which stopped the drip.
Place is now upside down and will have to stay this way till we get a new header tank fitted.

Apart from that it is a nice day. so far.

Tuesday - too tired to be exciting - BUT

Before I start on today , I took this photo on Saturday in Haddington of the plaque on the wall of the site of the former Royal Palace of William the Lion dating back to pre 1198 and the birth of his son Alexander of Scotland.Just shows how much history we have on this small isle and all within a short distance.

Sort of a seriously restless night again and up at 6.15 a.m. before heading in to open up The Mercat for the troops. Arrived in the car park at Morrison Street to see a Police team heading back to their van after doing some serious door knocking with sledge hammers, etc. So someone did not need an early morning alarm call.

Headed to the Office for 9 a.m. and spent the day doing my reports and follow up paperwork after yesterday - so a certain young lady (Martina) in Harrow on the Hill will be going nuts with loads of work churning out her printer, which hopefully she will manage to put into some semblance of order by Thursday a.m. Long day but achieved a great deal so it was, bus pass in hand, onto a flying First bus back to The Mercat at tea time to collect my keys for the car and head home. Neeve and Shereen were just ever so delicate after a long night out last night.

Turns out that Johnny the Gigalo may have broken a bone in his wrist playing rugby in Italy at the weekend. I see that they are trying to recruit naked butlers in Edinburgh , he may well be interested if no young ladies take up his offer as a gigalo.

Have just spoken to my brother in law, William the Brickie in Eagham who is looking forward to our visit as of tomorrow night. Sandra has run off and left him for the night so he is having some kind of association with a plumber !! Hopefully they will not flood the house.

I was tying to get Kristen at the Sportman's, but she has disappeared for the night, which reminds me that one of the lads from Musselburgh was with his family and having a bit of a problem at Luton airport trying to get home, he did eventually get on the plane.

Tuesday - Monday was a really long day

Up at 5.30 a.m. , into Edinburgh Airport, had breakfast in the lounge and got an Easy Jet at 8.50 a.m. to Luton. Mylift failed to appear so I thentook the train into St Pancreas / Kings x-ross and then changed to the Metropolitan Line on the underground and went back north again out to Harrow on the Hill arriving at 12 m.d.
Met the Director and staff at theHalifax College, did what I had to do and left at at 4 p.m. , by underground train back into London, passing the new Wembley Stadium which looks superb. Changed at Baker Street which is the oldest underground Station in London.

Met a charming young lady on the station platform heading to Luton and she turned out to be an actress, Li-Leng Au, whose family were originally from Singaphore , moved to London and she is working in Australia but back home on holiday.We ended up pinching 1st Class seats rather than standing and blethered all the way from London to Luton Airport. She is appearing in an episode of "All Saints" on Australian TV on the 12th - so Robbie and Caitlin will need to watch it and report back. She was heading off to Berlin to meet friends for a few days.

Flight home was delayed for 45 minutes as a knock on effect of the mornings fog, but I must say that the "Aviance Lounge" at Luton was not very good - compared to most of the lounges I have used. However, having left the lounge earlyI met Lord Elgin, former 1st Principal of the Royal Arch, heading home from a family funeral in London, along with his wife and friends - a real gentleman and as he had been on the go since 4 a.m. he was doing remarkably well for a young 84 year old.

Ended up getting into Edinburgh at 10 p.m. then had to go to the Standing Order to retrieve the good / bad lady wife who was out on the town with some of the girls from The Mercat who had gone out with Sir Graham and Sir Christopher. I eventually got home at 11.15 p.m. just ever so puggled !!

Will report more later.

Hopefully this was saturday

This was to be a different day, although we had lots to do elsewhere we had decided that we were going to go to Nunraw Abbey at Garvald, home of a group of Cisterien Monks , where they were going to have a special service for the Knights Templars. The abbot was a member of the Order of St Lazerous and his fellow chaplain was a member of the Order of St John the Hospitalars who were the three crusading orders.

Ann and I picked up Sparky Mark, then Ricky and Pamela, and eventually Sandra and Gordon before heading east to Gifford where we stopped for a drink at the Goblin Ha in their beer garden, ( next to the old Town House there) then onto Garvald to the guest house at the abbey where the service was to be held. The place is majestic and I do not have time to put enough photos in to do it justice, but it is lovely. The place is open to the public and it is possible to go for up to a week at a time and use it as a retreat for meditating etc, or just chilling out.

Some 30 Templars were present with their friends and families for the service which the abbot led assisted by an army chaplain who was a member of the Order of St John.

The Chapel dates back to 1603 and pictures in the ceiling are of the states of Europe at that time and they were recently uncovered. A similar ceiling exists in Aberdeen Cathedral both portraying the state of Europe at that time.

A picture of a mosaic on the wall depicts St Bernard de Clairveaux who was the founder father of the orders,well worth researching.

We eventually left after wandering around the grounds, headed into Haddington, and then up to our Mercat Bar in Edinburgh for steak dinners

Sunday 1st out of sequence

Doing Sunday before I write up on Saturdays adventures.

In early this morning to The Mercar Bar at 7.10 a.m. to open up and had a group of 8 in for breakfast at 8.15 a.m. shortly followed by a slightly subdued goup of 12 young ladies on a hen weekend. I was working with Jamie ( in a grumpy mood, Du Hy - Happy as ever - but forever off to move his bowels, Shereen and Lorriane with Sir Graham and Sir Christopher as laid back back up.

Later on we had 12 chaps from the Clontarf GAA, Gaelich football team from Dublin - who started to disrobe causing Shereen to panic a wee bit, however unlike the infamous Cod, they kept their pants on and were really good humoured. They were over in Edinburgh to play a game of Gaelich football against a team from one of the Irish teams in Edinburgh. They have their own web site on ClontarfGaa.Com .

We were busy most of the day till I left and went out via the Edinburgh Bowling Club, which was founded in 1848 and is either the oldest or 2nd oldest bowling club in Edinburgh, however, the grounds are owned by the Royal Company of Archers ( building on the end of the green) but as they are in financial hardship they are selling off the club and green which will redevloped by the University of Edinburgh as Student acommodation. The event today was Ian Millar's family part of his retirement doo so I took him his photo from Friday's session.

Had a nice wee call today from Beth Lindley, my friend from old Princess Trust days who has now moved to Barnsley, Yorkshire with her family. Like myself she is now closer to the family than ever.
Sparky Mark arrived this evening and we fixed a dripping kitchen tap - bit of an event as this has only taken 18 months to fix

Sandra and William on the phone, looking forward to our visit on Wedneday for the weekend, but in the meantime I am of early doors for a days work in Harrow.

I still have a days report for Saturday - which was a day out with the Knights Templars to Nunraw Abbey - so we will see howI get on later.