Every cloud has a silver lining

Tuesday p.m. ( I think) as I am just a wee bit kackelled after yet another sleepless night, then an early rise and "a hard day at the Inn" as they say.

Yesterday there were four staff on , today - just myself and wee Katie ( not counting those hard workers behind the scenes in the kitchen - Katie seen here in the missing photo from yesterday with Paddy. However, never daunted we soldiered on and coped. She even managed to get her picture taken again today by the "Peroni" beer rep who is looking to promoting tapas like dishes along with the Peroni Beers.

We had this wonderful quartet in for breakfast again( Richard - Jane - KD & Colin) although KD is doing the Cambridge Diet - which does not entail as I suggested walking back and forwards to Cambridge, so she kept nipping out whilst the others were eating. Colin is the lead guitarist with the "Alter Eagles" a tribute band doing all the original Eagles music - see "www.altereagles.com" . They have thoroughly enjoyed their stay in Edinburgh despite the rain, and Colin will be back up north later in the year to play through the West with the band.

David was on in the kitchen today along with Jamie Lloyd, transpires that David took his intended out on "Bono's" former yacht ( and not a wee boat as I said) for his romantic moment when he proposed to her. Jamie has to stop being so impressionable as Mrs. B. (@ Pinnochio) has been telling him stories about me which are grossly exaggerated !! I think.

We have a mystery in the kitchen , someone has sent Edwardo a letter written in Spannish - which when translated is a bit of a wind up - in this instance Jamie @ Shrek cannot get the blame - I am not sure why as he normally get the blame for everything.

David Florence of the Forth Canoe Club did remarkbly well in the Olympics and was unfortunate to miss the Gold Medal in the C 1 canoe by 2 seconds - but it was a great silver for him and he has the potential to get a gold at the London games in four years time.

I have been asked to do some searching for old photos of our visits to L'Isle Sur La Sorgue, France, with the scouts and twinning groups, as it is the 30th Anniversary of the Twinning Link and a group of thirty four are coming over later this week to take part in the celebrations. It is just a coincidence that Mrs. B. and I are going over to L'Isle at the end of the month for a couple of days to stay with our long time friends Antoine and Francoise before meeting up with the SESLTA ( South East of Scotland Licensed Trade Association) who will be there to research !!! some of the local wines.

UK equestrian team have just gained an individual Bronze medal by Kristina Cook who did well on a young horse, the event was quite tight, and the result was unexpected as they want the horse for 2012, the team were also awarded a bronze.

Quiet night tonight, then off to see the nurse for blood tests in the morning.

Monday - still no baby

No word from Tracy and Archie yet - so looks like Tracy is waiting for the sales to start before she gives birth !!
Up early again - 5.30 a.m. as I could not sleep so pottered about till it was time to head into town , where I opened up and worked with Katie and Paddy till Dannielle appeared. Place was steady with plenty of visitors for breakfast . Claire, also being restless was in at the crack of dawn despite the fact she was not due in till after 9 a.m.
Couple of new faces who I knew popped in for lunch on the passing.

Andy KP who is mentioned regularly was in and I managed to catch him with Graham, he is looking forward to a day out with us on Saturday.

Congratulations to David, one of the Chef's who managed to get himself engaged at the weekend - did it all romantic by taking her off on a short boat trip and went down on the bended knee.

Eventually got home and later picked up Sparky Mark and we went to town to see Edwardo in his new flat - where he wants us to help him with a few !!! wee jobs.

From there we had a run down to The Sportsman's Bar, to see Kerrin , Paul and Jess who were in for the quiz. Good to see them again for a chat, the quiz tonight had lots about the Olympics in it with many old photos of past gold medallists. We managed another couple of medals today, Gold and Bronze in the swimming , but it was a pity Andy Murray blew out in the tennis singles - however at least he and his brother Jamie are into the next round of the doubles.

1st Gold for Great Britain (say Wales)

Sunday p.m. and todays good news is that Nicole Cooke from Wales managed to hit Gold on her road race at the Olympic Games, brilliant - pity I had not heard earlier when a group of welsh visityors were laving from the flat next to the pub to head home - it would have given them something to cheer about on their way south.

The road race was from Bejing out the city and up to the foothills at The Great Wall of China, a road we travelled in June 2007 when on holiday over there. Rightly it is very flat at the start but as Nicolle said, it got a bit steep at one point and they had two thirty minute climbs to do . Well done.

The British ladies archery team just missed out on a bronze - pity , but well done all the same.

We saw the stadium last year while it was under construction - with hundreds of workers swarming all around it and on top of it - and the work being done on the approach roads into the City was amazing - a beautiful city, just a shame that the smog spoils many wonderful sights.

Saturday , The Mercat Bar was chocca block all day , but today (Sunday) nice and steady , again with customers waiting at 7.17 a.m. to get fed, next we had a couple from Vancouver, and then the upside down people arrived - a good crowd with three different groups from Oz on site - one team from Melbourne - so at least with our past knowledge from Rob and Caitlin we could communicate with them !!! One lad was not sure about "Black pudding" but I said that if he could eat kangaroo or coala bears he would be fine. To ROB and Caitlin - apologies from Grahm who failed to return your call the other day - just got a bit hectic.

Had a couple of business people in who were from a publishing firm and were involved in the Book Festival which opened today in Charlotte Square ( sadly not the Ian Rankine or J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter stories).

The weather has been really weird, yesterday it rained all day - today we have bright warm sunshine one minute and the next it it throwing it down for a few minutes - just enough to get fair drookit.

Couple of photos from Friday , one of the Scott Monument taken from the bottom of the Playfair Steps, the other of the crest outside the Merchant's Hall in Hanover Street. The hall is beautiful inside and is currently being used as a venue for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe show.

Sparky Mark has arrived to see how we are fairing with all this work - turn out he claims to have an alibi for all the recent floods in the area, and is going to give me some more lessons on "chilling out". Unfortunatley no rest for the wicked as I am in again for the next couple of days.

Next Saturday , long day with the K.T.'s as we have a church service at Temple Church ( formerly Ballentraddoch) then down to Dalkeith for the regular meeting of King David of Ballentraddoch where two of our friends are the candidates.

Meant to say that I had a comment from "King Cupid" regarding a visor camera !!! not sure what he means.

Saturday real time and feeling the strain

Now back to real time - having had yet another early rise to getThe Mercat bar opened up - we had our first clients in at 7.15 a.m, but with the kitchen not even open they had a cuppa, some juice, and sat while Jamie got himself organised and fed them a while later - it seemed that with the rain everyone wanted food and shelter so they all piled in on us - just a bit unexpectedly, however we seemed to manage and as the morning progressed more punters came in but at the same time staff arrived to cope with the changing demands.

We now have a Loyalty Card for regulars which is working well, and one of our daily clients, Lawrence , who is still after many months trying to recover from a serious ankle injury- Lawrence does the Scotsman crossword every day - so for him " ten letters (4+6 - Spanish drink normally served in 275 mls).

We never had much peace at all with the place being busy right through and into lunches, but eventually I called a halt and headed out to George Street with Mrs. B. where we ended up at the afternoon free fringe comedy show in the Standing Order - I must say that the place was jam packed for each show and the acts were First Class. One of the comediens made a valid point when I was the only person from Edinburgh in the audience - the Edinburgh folks stay at home to avoid the fuss of the Festival, but are the first people the rest of the year round to promote the event.
Archie was in attendance despite the fact that his lovely wife Tracy was to have their 2nd baby yesterday 080808 - however she seem reluctant to part with it so we now hold our breath !!!!
Todays photos are not downloading so perhaps later.

Anyway I now need a good sleep before heading off again sharp a.m to fight the good fight.

Edinburgh International Ferstival - fringe shows.

Although it is now Ssaturday p.m. and I am well and truly knackered, It is time to bring you up to date.

Friday a.m. I was off early with RGB Jnr. (Graham) who dropped me off at The Mercat bar where I did an open for him and the team - so a busy morning and lunch period unfolded - highlight of the morning being a visit from Diane ( former Manager at The Standing Order) who is now in the RAF and a member of an air crew on a Chinook helicopter.

Mrs. B. arrived to collect me and we headed off along to the West End, stopping off en route at Frasers Store to see the girls ( Gillian and Tara on the perfume counters) then through Princes's Street Gardens, over the footbridge where they were still pumping water off the flooded railway lines. There was a new statue of a Labrador dog "Bum" presented to Edinburgh City from the City of San Diago, USA, "Bum" being to them as "Greyfriers Bobby" was to us in Edinburgh.

Through the Grassmarket which was busy, and where we sat "people watching" before heading up ontothe Royal Mile where many of the Festival atristes were performing and advertising theire shows. I managed tio get a free hug from a lovely young lady which certainly made the old pacemaker race for a few minutes!!! The young Korean girls were superb - it is just wonderful to see and it is a pity that so few locals come into town.

Then headed back down the "Playfair Steps" (which were chock a block) to the national Art gallery and then up to The Standing Order before heading back to the Mercat for dinner.

By the time we arrived home, we were totally knackered and needed a good sleep.

Been a Long Day

Now 9.50 p.m. and I was awakened at 2.38 a.m. !!! when I had a call from a charming young lady who was wondering if I wished to participate in some sexual fantacies - then called another twice so I obviously did not get back to a sound sleep beofre I eventually goy up at 3.50 a,.m.

The A720 Edinburgh City By pass was flooded at the Dreghorn Spur, so it was closed off following a number of accident s with cars aquaplaning on the water - Sparky has subsequently denied any involvement in this type of flooding - he is happy with domestics - but nothing major.

Edinburgh was a total nightmare all day with the flooding and the place just ground to a halt with folks taking a couple of hours to cover only short distances and many never even made it to work.

Across to Glasgow where I met up with Fraser and it took 45 minutes to sign off everything before heading south - despite the miserable weather I had a good run and the fastest thing to pass me was a taxi near to Moffat.

Jill and Co. were expecting me at Runcorn having been on line and reading the blogs so it was good to get a cheery welcome - I had a load of stuff with me so rather than park the usual 250 yards from the reception I stopped outside, so - low and behold "Jobsworth" eventually appeared and stuck one of his warning letters on the windscreen - in this case I know he did it en route for his breakfast cuppa.

Christine in the canteen - who had also read up and was forewarned of my visit was pleased that we had enjoyed Liverpool - turns out that she and Sue always hit Wetherspoon's early for breakfast - and doubtless a little snifter to see them off beofre they hit the town.

Up the road at the toot , to meet the worst driver I have ever seen on the M6 , driving a wee Peugot van , from Ribble Farm fare, Longridge - the guy was a total maniac - this wee van was bouncing at the speeds he was doing , and further on yet another taxi passed me at the speed of sound.

Made it toGlasgow, and then home where being ever so knackered I had a couple of hours sleep before tea - set up the TV to watch "10,000 yrs BC" before Ricky ( Pirate of the Road) Bothamly appeared for a chat and a tipple from the MCallam's bottle.

I have heard from "wee" Michelle that despite several minor mishaps during her driving test - she was awared with a "PASS" - well done - we look forward to seeing you out and about.

Right - ready for a snooze, hopefully no calls tonight although the phone is switched off, but up early and off to The Mercat a.m.

What's that you said ?

What a bloody awful day here, rain , rain and more rain, added to mist, has just made it really miserable.
Poor souls who have got seats for the Edinburgh Festival Military Tattoo will hope that it fairs up in the next hour or so, at least we do not have a hosepipe ban and our reaservoirs are full - so as they say , every cloud ,etc.

So much for last night's football match - Glasgow Rangers are a shower of diddies, as I said then it was boring - and from what I saw they should have lost about 5 - 1, for a bunch of very well paid primma donnas they are hopeless.

Had a long lie this morning - 7.30 a.m. , then up and away. Popped into SAC at The Bush to see Alan and Arlene for a few minutes before heading to the hospital. Made it to Lauriston Place , where it was absolutley chucking it down - and the poor soul parked next to me had done what i did yesterday - he left his car window open - and the drivers seat was sodden.
Into the Audiology Unit where a cheery and charming lady gave me a hearing test - she was superb and afterwards explained everything to me in simple terms - so I am losing my hearing but not enough to warrant an ear trumpet, and I do have Tinitus, which is exacerbated by stress !!! So I reckon I will need to take lessons from Mr. Cool - laid back Dr Disaster - the horizontal chilled out man - Sparky Mark. Somehow or other I have to cut back my cups of tea to five a day, none before bed, and find thirty minutes to be at peace and relax - but I do not have to go as far as go out and hug trees!!!
Heading off through a bit of gridlock, down to John Lewis PLC to look for "things" as she said !! and bought a table lamp - BUT I did have an excellent double fried egg roll (which , for those who know me is a wee treat).

Still raining so we headed home via Ikea at Straiton - which was heaving - just bursting at the seams with folks - far too busy for me , and miracle of miracles, we walked in and out without buying anything.
Homewards - via Sainsbury's to get my "piece" for tomorrow's run south.
So now at peace with the world, fed and watered (with H2O) and waiting for Photogenix Grant to appear.

I see that Edinburgh City Council were asked to produce figures on bullying and harrassment in the workplace - and their head of HR has declined to do so for a variety of reasons !!