What will this day have to offer ?

Tuesday a.m., shiny and clean like a new pin having been for an early morning dip and a doze of steam - however still aching a bit from pulled muscles after my near miss yesterday.
Monday - up as usual with the larks - but did not get away till 6.45 a.m. - heading up the back street on the motorbike and turned the tight left corner at the top when "gadgy" , one of the neighbours is coming in fairly fast in a Ford pick up truck - blocking the whole road. So with nowhere to go I had to slam on the brakes, and skidded into the fence which stopped me from falling over and the bike on top - but "Gadgy man" did not even bother his puff. no harm done other than a couple of pulled muscles as aforementioned. BUT being no spring chicken I feel the aches for a bit longer these days, even last weeks knock is still giving a bit of bother.

Into town, helped young Raphael with all the rubbish bags, Monday being a bad day - and got the place sorted in time before a group , just off the plane from Dublin arrived for breakfast. We seem to get quite a few who come in off that flight and cannot get access to their hotels till after lunch time. The blokes were very broad spoken so it was hard to understand them - as they seemed to just growl.
The morning was steady so i was kept out of mischief , assisted eventually by Sir Christopher and then young RGB himself. Claire attempted to assault me with George the Sea bass who is being trialed for the new menu which is just about ready to be launched.
We have even managed to get the advertising posters up and out for the next wine tasting session , Thursday 25th June and South African wines this time.

Tramworks were a lot quieter than usual so we did get the doors open which makes a big difference, and had two or three couples sat on the balcony taking in a few rays.

Home fairly quickly and managed a swim while the pool was quiet - then it was back to work in the house, paperwork, despite the fact that the sun was shining.

Sparky Mark made it back safely after his trip to Cork, locked up in a caravan with four girls for a week - what a thought, I just hope he refrained from passing wind as he did when with us at Haggerston . Seemed to have had a great time, did lots of walking in the hills over there, scenery was lovely, and even brought Mrs B a leprechaun which he found crossing the road.

I believe the upside down folks are doing OK , and passing thoughts, just had a Text from Michelle C with a new phone number - cheers.

Need to bash on now - lots to do.

Sunday - nothing much to report.

Early start again today, but at least it was dry, if not warm.
Fun started at 8.30 a.m. when first customers arrived and it never stopped till 12 md., and amongst the customers were a llot of returning folks, obviously happy with the food and service - or is it my charm !! Some had even been in for their dinner and were complimenting the steaks last night.

The group from San Francisco returned and were enjoying their stay, today off to Linlithgow Palace (once the home of Mary Queen of Scots)and were probably being a bit ambitious by considering making it to Rosslyn Chapel as well - perhaps tomorrow.

Stacey and her gang arrived back for breakfast again, they had a super night out on the town last night and were ready for their train south.
At one stage RGB had about thirty four ladies in the downstairs dining room, that kept him out of mischief !!

Things did quieten down eventually so I headed home along with Mrs. B. via my favourite shop, Matalan, but was not in the mood to buy enough to warrant using my "Birthday" voucher.

Bit more time in the garden, and planted a few more bedding plants which had arrived for me - perfect.

I see Jenson Button had yet another F1 Grand Prix win today, six out of seven , excellent.

Looks as though the Air France crash is going to be a long drawn out affair, only five bodies recovered so far.

Our neighbour now has six chiicks in the nest and they are getting bigger every day - bit of a handfull for the two parents to feed.

Early again in the morning - but at least I have some time off to look forward to.

A bit of a ramble for Saturday

Need to do some catching up as Lawrence was devastated this morning - no news for since Thursday - just because I was busy last night.

Friday I was back in The Mercat, a bit late having nearly slept in , which is not like me and kept busy most of the day, once again with an assortment of visitors to the City from all parts of the Globe, San Francisco; where the bridge collapsed during the earthquake - France - from a small town near to basle - and in my absense Lawrence did a bit of translation and "parley vous'd" very well with the gentleman - who reminded me a bit of Hercule Poirot with his twiddly moustache. Foursome in from Acrington, Lancashire, who came back again today for more porridge and black pudding.

Lunchtime was also busy , and in between we were having the Bar videod by a professional photoghrapher so that the web site can be updated.

Eventually headed home, and with the sun out - spent a few HOURS tieing up the sweet peas which are shooting out the ground and their pots.

Quiet night with a couple of glasses of "The Glenrothes" Speyside, single malt whisky, very nice with just a small dash of water to open the bouquet.

Up early again this morning, miserable outside, dry and overcast with signs that we had had heavy rain overnight. Took the motor bike and as I headed up Lowrie's Den, which was like a long dark tunnel, with the dark green of the leaves, the canopy overhead cutting out the light and the very dark clouds above, it was really foreboding. So as I headed into town there was a massive dark black cloud moving westwards, and it reminded me of the sky in the movie , "Independence Day", really strange so I took the photo over George Watson's cricket ground, but at the same time, from another angle I had a nice shot of Craighouse, a magnificent building which was until recently a mental hospital, but is now part of the University Campus. We were at a wedding there a few years ago and the interior is beautiful, lovely staircases, ornate panelling and ceilings. Now used very successfully as a venue for weddings.

Into the bar, No Tramworking today at our doorstep which made a change.

Very busy for breakfast once more, but a new pair of hands on the job, Lorna, who used to work for us about three years ago has come back. Stag groups, and hen parties, all sorts to keep us going , and then around 11 a.m. I had Stacey and her Team in from Barnsley / Liverpool and parts for their breakfast - all enjoying themselves and hoping to make her weekend memorable. So we had Becky; Tamsin; Devinia; Stacey; Jodie; Clair; Christy; Sue; Lois; Jess; Jill and Julie - and hopefully they will be back in the morning to give me their gossip. She is getting married in a hotel in Thirsk , but one her friends is also getting married soon , in "The Hard Day's Night Hotel" , in Liverpool, and afterwards getting her photos taken in the streets around the cavern Club , a real Beatles fanatic.

From Ireland , we have just heard that CarolAnne and Dennis have been made redundant from their job at the greyhound kennels as their Boss has gone bust - not so good, but they seem confident that things will work out OK .

Headed homewards via the Bush where I had a wee chat to my Subaru specialist mannie - he is a real dab hand with them , and manged to get one of the sports cars up and running - depite being messed about by suppliers down south, so that car is heading south to race at Snetterton next weekend.

Home, and could not believe my ears, despite the fact that the Craigiebield Hotel has a massive function suite they are having bands outside in a marquee - what a bloody racket, the Police will have been inundated with complaints as you can hear it for miles - but it is apparently going to be stopped at 8 p.m. - IT HAD BETTER! When we did a similar thing a couple of years ago we were stopped within half an hour , and even the Summer Ball at the barracks was stopped for the same thing and the locals were even further away than we are.

So to drown out the noise I am listening to a composite CD of relaxing Classical music !! which nicely ties in with the story about the supermarket in Cove, Aberdeen, who were being pestered by gangs of youths - so they fitted a music system and blasted out classical music to chase them away. BUT - the kids actually liked the music and stared to ask for special requests and when it was turned off asked for it to be put back on -and they were serious.

Still no news about the missing Air France Plane - the plot thickens, do we have another Bermuda Triangle ? I realise the ocean is a ginormous place, but surely with all the so called modern spy technology, etc, they should be able to do something quicker than this.

I see Gordon Brown , our beloved PM is not taking too kindly to his back being stabbed - nice example of what goes round, comes round - however, despite losing all his red seats in England to the blue wig brigade, he has gained some in Scotland - much to the embarrassment of Mr Salmond.

Enough for the meantime.

Chick Chicky Chicky Chicky birds

Wonderful night , NOT, coughed and coughed so I was up at 5.30 a.m. and sat and read for a while. Calmed down to had a bash at the early morning swimming session at 8 a.m. - pool was busy enough but i still manged a few lengths to get me up and running.

Home where i had a list of jobs to do, which kept me on the go till 1 p.m., then we popped out to see Pamela , wife of Ricky ' Pilot of the Road" to see how she was doing then it was back to the ranch to carry on with the good work.

Mike across the road has had success with his nesting box, so far , from the six eggs there were, four chicks have hatched and the parents are busy feeding them up . I get concerned when Ma ( a blue tit I think) goes back onto the eggs as she seems to be sitting on the new chicks - fascinating -, watching the action on the black and white CCTV - the photo is not very clear but that has something to do with trying to get the picture off the screen.

Euro Elections today, so it is pot luck who gets the prize to rip us off on their weekly jaunts to Brussels - worst thing we ever did, they will not be happy till they are running the Country - there are a variety of parties up for election - some just plain fruitcakes.

We had an e mail full of photos from Rob and Caitlin, on their Facebook, very good - looks like Robbo the Upside down boy has got a bigger shadow than he used to have !!

Back to the Pub in the morning - so that will keep me busy over the weekend - Rugby on Sunday with the British Lions back in action, and another F 1 Grand Prix on Sunday.

Restfull massage and a trip to the hills

Another nice morning , all psyched up and down to see Cruella @ Sabrina, who was excellent today. Manged to get it right, when she found a knot she went in deeper, so after an hour I was better than I had been for ages.

Home, changed the footwear and then up to Castlelaw Fort ( Old earth fort dating back to 500BC), beautiful morning and some superb views of the Pentland Hills, including tghe site of the Battle of Rullion Green (1666) the new water works and reservoir being built at Mauricewood, and also the Castlelaw army firearms range which is one of the biggest in Europe.

Spotted a new lamb in the rocks, possibly hiding from the shepherds team of dogs, a Border Collie and some bearded collies. The bearded collies not only round up the sheep but can bring them down and then lie on them till the shepherd gets there.

I met up with Maureen from SAC and the shepherd, he has ten dogs which he uses with the flock of 1000 sheep most days. Today they were inoculating and weighing the lambs, but with the heat our dogs were a bit knackered and it looks as though they lost track of where everyone was going. Sounds a bit like Dennis and Carol Ann's dogs who are still chasing that rabbit around an oval in Ireland.

Home and back into the garden, before going for a swim which I thought would be better for me than the bowling. Five young soldiers from Glencorse Barracks in the pool, two who were really trying hard to get a date with the young female life guards !!

Of today's news, looks like Gordon Brown, our saviour and benefactor, is in deep mire, his Labour Party is in tatters, only time before Mr Smarmy Darling gets his come uppers also.

Andy Murray failed , and fairly badly, in his quarter final game at Paris on clay court - soon be heading for Wimbleton where hopefully he will do a lot better.

Of the Air France plane, downed in the Atlantic, our thoughts are with the familes and friends of the crew and passengers. It went through my mind from day one that there was a similarity to the Panam flight which was downed over Lockerebie by a bomb - in that case the bombers had planned on blowing up the plane over the North Atlantic but with delays it blew up over land - and all these years on is still subject of controvesy. Lets hope that this is not the start of another campaign by these crazy terrorists

Fairly active for a so called day off

So much for pre planning my day, awake half the night and then as I was fasting for the nurse I lay a bit longer - lovely morning, nice and bright and warm again. Round to the surgery to get some blood taken for testing.
Plans out the window as I then had to "pop along" to Tesco's and do a shopping.
Back to the house, did some paper work before collecting Sparky Mark and taking him off to the airport where he was off to Cork to do some walking and fishing !! a likely story.

Morning wasted so I headed for the Bush, and did some work there, also meeting up with a former Hunter's Lass, Maureen Shanks, whose father used to be one of my bosses years ago.

RGB had been to Glasgow on his motor bike so I ended up going into The Mercat, doing a little tidying up and then rode his bike back home, before taking the last of the sunlight we have been having. Along to the bowling green, took part in the weekly rain making ceremony and watched as the big black clouds rolled in - dashed chilly by the time I got home.

Nice day to recover in, up up and away.

Yet another bright sunny day, which got hotter as the day progressed. Our tram workers were on site at 7 a.m., and eventually started at 7.30 a.m. - talk of a dawn chorus, this was unbelievable and it just went on and on and on , so much so that we could not open the doors at the bar. Yesterday I heard that the men will not work at weekends as they only get standard hourly rates !!! and not the usual double time.

Talking of the devil, as I was last night, I had a visit from the lovely Tracy, along with Camryn, Austin and Mother in Law, Mary - nice to see them and also to manage a few minutes chat. Young Jonathon also saw fit to appear, however he was anything but fit and was heading home for a sleep.

Nice and steady during the day with several folks who had taken part in the Edinburgh marathon yesterday. After lunch this happy group from Horley, Surrey, arrived ( Kev; Gilly: Pete: and Gina) and were installed in the VIP lounge where they had a superb lunch, wines, etc to celebrate Gilly's run in the Marathon. She did well for her first one and managed it is six hours, despite the heat. There were apparently over twelve thousand there plus four thousand who did the relay race. They ran out of water but everyone who could produced water from everywhere, opened up their toilets, etc. Two of them were off home whilst the others were heading up north for a few days.

Hot and bad tempered run home, I think the heat was getting to everyone, so when I got home it was time to have a bit of R & R in the sun, and to speak to the potted plants.

Nice shot of our friendly hot air balloon as it passed near to the house - we see it regularly as it is based in Bush, Milton Bridge, and does the same flight regularly depending on the wind, etc.with the occasional lift off from the park opposite the house.

Really bad news about the missing Air France flight with 228 people on board, does not sound so promising. Four hours out from Brazil and over the sea, could well be a very difficult recovery.

Day at home tomorrow, or nearby - visit to the Nurse for blood tests, out to the airport with sparky who is heading for Cork, then no doubt a trip to KB or the Bush.