Jim Straughier - R I P

Just a brief note tonight to report on the death last week of my "second dad", Jim Straughier, from Darlington. Jim died last Tuesday and would have been 90 yrs old on Friday past.

Way, way, back in the period 1964/ 1965 and 1966 I used to spend most of my weekends off from the Police cadet camp at Sedgefield, with Jim and Lillian at their home in Darlington. There were times when their son Michael, who was also a police Cadet, thought that his parents was treating me too well - it was a bit of a joke, me with red hair, fitted in perfectly with the rest of the family - who were all red headed and Lil would often joke to her neighbour, mrs alcock, that i was the long lost son she had abandoned years before.

Jim worked for years as Manager in the massive NAAFI warehouse in Whessoe ( I think) Darlington, and when i was there for the weekend I would go with him on a Sunday morning and get a shot on the fork lift trucks.

On my return to Scotland in 1966 I remained in regular contact with Jim and Lil who visited my parents up here and we all remained friends. It was not unusual for me to arrive at their door at odds hours without warning, when heading up and down the A1 to and from the Prince's Trust Camps I helped with at Caister.

For poor Jim, whose health deteriorated seriously in the relative short past, it was probably a blessing in disguise that he passed a way peacefully in his sleep to be reunited with his beloved Lillian.

Our thoughts are with the family at this time, and it looks very unlikely that I will manage it south for the funeral on Tuesday.

Bottle it and sell it to the south

Total chaos in parts of the city as we had a quarter of the months rainfall in three hours - cars under water, houses flooded, and lots of damage.

But, it still did not deter the diners in Mulberrywalk, seated in the muggy conditions with their brollies up as the torrential squalls passed over.

On my way from Whitecraig I attempted to drive through Dalkeith - however the ongoing works in the High Street, make the tram workers look energetic - or so I thought - but the real start turn was a diversion due to a main junction being totally blocked, which led into Tesco's Car park (handy if one required provisions to survive till the road reopened - or direct into the local cemetery - never to reappear again - even the workers did not know where the Diversion was !!!!

Into Edinburgh and then found that Palmerston Place was being dug up again by our beloved tramworkers - or should have been but the guys were sitting in their van clocking up the overtime.

The great tram drama continues - with yet another expose of how much money has been paid to lawyers, PR and spin Doctors.

NOTE - just remembered that the beautiful tapestry depicting the Battle of Prestonpans is now on display in the nearby St Mary's Cathedral.

It seems that the weather is the main topic of conversation by most of the population, and we certainly have something to talk about now - probably even flooding in the Edinburgh Canal basin where there was a gala today with barges and houseboats: T in The Park, in Fife , probably got a good drenching; the Tall ships are in Greenock for the weekend ; the Scottish Open Golf at Royal St Georges, Inverness, stopped twice due to storms - and all around the country crops being badly damaged.

HOWEVER - it is an ill divided world, with a massive appeal underway for the millions in Somalia and Kenya suffering yet another drought - strange how their politicians manage to live in splendour whilst the people suffer - and in Somalia, the pirates who maraud the oceans - taking millions in ransom money - certainly do not invest it in the welfare of their fellow men.

Another of my current gripes is a hard hitting, grating, advert on the radio by the Payment Protection Partnership - a quasi legal set up operating the usual US style No win No fee practice hitting at the banks who allegedly miss sold insurance to clients - obscene.

Bernie's boots were made for walking -

a most interesting Bernie Large dropped in to The Dolphin Inn this morning for a pint of Strongbow and to duck one of the many thunderstorms we had today.

Young Bernie, who has a blog of his own(coastwalkerunplugged.blogspot.com), set off from Land's End 70 days ago on the day of the Royal Wedding, 29th April and has been zig zagging his way back and forth across the UK with the intention of reaching John O'Groats.

He walked up through Cornwall, then up the Roman Wall dividing England and Wales, meets up with relatives wherever they live - crossed the Pennines to the east coast, then back west again along Hadrian's Wall, then back to the east and visited the Border abbey's at Melrose and Jedburgh , through Lauder to Whitekirk and then headed for the Quay at Edinburgh stopping in to have his pint at Whitecraig. He aims to visit two hundred pubs en route.

From Edinburgh, he will walk the Union / Forth Clyde Canal , via the Falkirk Wheel, to Glasgow then north using parts of the West Highland Way - to Fort William, up Ben Nevis, then through the Great Glen to Inverness and thereafter by way of the beaches to John O'Groats - well done.

His good lady wife is driving their camper van, and while he averages about fifteen miles a day she gets to visit the shops or find the evening's parking, and then walks back to meet up with him.

AND - none of these new fangled Sat Navs/ Tom Tom's, gold old fashioned navigation with the trusty Ordnance Survey map and a compass.

Well done Bernie, and his blog is worth a read also.

Bonnie dining room and a forever widening circle of friends

Awoke at 4 am to the sound of pouring rain, so chappie was right yesterday when he told Claire and I that if we watered the plants at The Dolphin Inn the heavens would open !!!

Have added a few more pics from last week's wedding, dining room looking nice, and Billy the manager was in his glory, Manager's perks getting to wipe stains from ladies frocks.

No prizes for guessing the mystery speaker, send answers on any old grubby £5 notes. Nice touch to get the chefs in to say thank you for a job well done.

Headed to town last night missing the bowls, to attend the monthly meeting of the Lothian and Borders Police Branch of the I.P.A. (International Police Association). Edinburgh gets quite a few requests for hospitality from all over the World so the committee are always meeting new "Police faces" regularly, just as our counterparts do for our members when travelling abroad.

My next visitor is the Secretary of No 18 Section, USA, based in Richmond, Virginia, travelling around Europe and Scandinavia on a cruise ship and calling at South Queensferry for a days visit to Edinburgh and Environs.

Need to finish with another gripe - getting fed up with these adverts which claim that certain products will do "up to" certain performances. Obviously Broadband speeds of Internet connections; petrol consumption of cars; etc., but mine is with "Loo Bloo's" claiming to keep the toilet clean and fresh for up to four weeks - I reckon that we are lucky to get a week out of ours !!! and it annoys me.

Things hotting up - weather amongst other things

Last thing on Friday night we had a nice sunset from the rear of The Dolphin inn, then everyone headed home wards.

Saturday, had a phone call from friends, Craig and Maureen who we had first met in Barbados when they were married at the same time as Archie and Tracy - so we arranged to meet them in Edinburgh and did so at St. Mary's Cathedral, Palmerston Place.

Got there and found them in the sunshine waiting for a bridal party to appear for a ceremony in the Cathedral. Girls being Girls, we had to wait to see the bride arriving - lovely. But, in the meantime we met Max and Annette heading into the church, looking pretty as pictures.

We eventually made it to the Mercat Bar for a bite to eat and eventually along to Princes Street Gradens where we left the family playing on the climbing frame.

Sunday, headed to the Dolphin Inn to help out, good job as we became very busy, very quickly and with the weather so nice everybody wanted to eat outside - where some were soon being well sunburned - . My treat for the day was the arrival of Karen, Michelle and "Little Princess", our former staff from the Sportsman's Bar - lovely to see them and hopefully we will see them again soon.

Home in time to get the BBQ on (no doubt like millions of others), and managed to cook off a lovely trout which Sparky Mark.

Another nice day today so it was compliments of "steed of steel" and down to the Dolphin Inn this morning - nice wee lunch time rush - need a few more days like this!!!

Seasons in the Sun

My belated birthday present eventually arrived - a beautiful painting by Alexander Millar, whose general themes are based on "gadgies" who he saw in his younger days.

Wedding Vows for Colin and Nicola

and the sun shone - so we all had a busy and enjoyable day - which started off early with hairdressers, makeup, photographs, and the rest of the paraphanalia associated with weddings.

Colin and Nicola were married at Dalkeith Registry Office, the first couple to be married in the new wedding room at Fairfield House, which was lovely.

Very nice ceremony and followed by photographs in the garden after which the party headed form the Dolphin Inn, Whitecraig, for the first wedding reception there under the new management team.

The meal was first class, prepared by Claire, Jamie and Gary, served up by Billy and young Jamie - brilliant.

No complaints from anyone - well done all