The Lewis Chessman

A few of the Lewis Chessmen on display in the Scottish Museum, Chambers Street , Edinburgh, found as part of a hoard on the Island of Lewis but believed to have come from Scandinavia - fascinating.

Quiz night at the Mercat

Quiz night at tThe Mercat Bar on Thursday night, downstairs was full, fun had by all except for when RGB told a long rambling joke. Winners were the BNI team ( the cult) who donated their prize money into the charity pot so it has started off at £200. Monty the dog did his best to help but just chilled out chewing ice.

Next big bash is Sunday from 1 p.m. when the Pipe Band is on site and the hog is in for a roasting, everybody welcome.

"49 Club" wine dinner in Glasgow, September 2010

After steady run up the M6 / M 74 made it in time to head to the Urban Bar and Brasserie for the monthly lunch dinner meeting of the prestigious "49 Club" .

Today's guest was Jaun Carlos Llopart, the Export Director of Bodegas Franco - Espanolas, S.A. who had flown in and gave an informative talk on the wines of his Cava which is in Rioja, Spain .

With the meal we had two white wines and one red, all Rioja Bordin, as was the massive bottle donated for the charity raffle.

Lovely lunch had by all who were enjoying themselves under the watchful eye of RGB, Vice president who was deputising for the absent President.

Last minute call ups.

Wed PM and sitting in The Paddington House hotel room in Warrington. Had a call at 4 p.m for an urgent job down here, but with jet lag etc, and needing to be back in Glasgow for lunchtime Thursday for the 49 Club, wine dinner, I need a sleep. ( Update - had a good sleep and an even better breakfast which was really good, excellent selection of fruit juices, cereals, fruits, and main breakfast - all for £5)

So, Tuesday had a day at home and then in the evening headed off with Sparky Mark down to Bonnyrigg for the first meeting of the season of Dalhousie Bonnyrigg, No 720. Good attendance considering that there were International football matches on the TV. RWM Craig Gordon has earned a great deal of respect during the past few years and the Lodge now sees an increase in the numbers of visitors.
Unfortunately, I had to leave early and made it home in time to watch what was not a pretty sight, Scotland on the verge of being thrashed by the minnows of Liechtenstein. One goal down and the Sky commentators were in their element, hardly a positive comment !! They would be better off shutting up and letting a parrot do some commentating. However, despite the dirty play by the minnows, the Ref's dubious decisions, his saving grace was the seven minutes of extra time in which Scotland saved the day and face !! Bring on Spain !!!

Con men, falsehoods and scoungers

Despite my previous advice about how to stop the cold callers ( marketing phone calls) my evening was disturbed by two callers tonight, both within fifteen minutes.

So the man from WEATHERSEAL told me that I could get some FREE Roofline work done on my house, I listened carefully while he explained that I could be put on a list and might be chosen for some free work on the house - and as we all know there is no such thing as a "Free Meal" - you get "Nowt for Nowt".

Next call was from our old friends at "The National Crime Research Council", carrying out their so called survey. So once again I have had another call when I should be off a list, and again from a former caller. This time I was asked personal questions about my home, security, etc, but having had previous experience the answers I gave were not what the "researcher" wanted to shear, so I had a nice thank you and he hung up. As a reminder, they want to know if you have any kind of home security system and if not will suggest that you take "free advice" from a professional, which will lead to a follow up call from S A S Security who will try and sell a system, or offer a free installation but you then pay for a maintenance contract - be warned.

On the subject of cons and scroungers, yet another feature in the newspaper today about a family, The Smiths from Bristol, who are getting £95,000 a year in benefits from the government - where will this end, we are being wel and truly taken to the cleaners by evry one and their Auntie, leaving decent hard working folks to pick up the tab.

Stars in their eyes

From here to eternity and maybe even further, that is the quest of this cheery squad who were indulging themselves at the Stewart Brewing birthday bash on Saturday. They are all astro physicists working from or were at the Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh, whose second love in life is real ale.
I had a really interesting chat with them about the work they were doing here in Edinburgh and at the associate observatories in Chile and Hawaii, searching out into the furthest reaches of the Universe.
The young lady on the right is now working for a green energy research group doing work on wave energy up in the Orkney Islands.

Needles and Pins - and not the Searchers!!

Monday p.m., still jet lagged by all accounts, although I did manage to stay in my bed till a reasonable hour this morning, unless I was deterred from doing so knowing that Mrs. B. was already up and restless also.

Managed a swim in the local pond this morning , place was quiet due to to the fact that the jacuzzi was closed for repair and with workmen on site there was no access to either the steam or sauna, so all the usual morning group in for a wash and warm were staying at home.

Headed into town and ended up having another session with the little Chinese chappie and his needles. Bit different today as I had other little ailments to discuss with him so I had lots of pins in different places than usual and then he wired some of them up to the mains and I had a bit of a shocking time !! - however, despite being a sceptic, it did work and I felt a lot better, it is just the tablets you get which kind of surprise me , take ten of these twice a day, and ten of these, and then in one packet there were about forty tiny little things which tasted neuchy - but I have to give it a bash as nothing else seems to be doing the business.

Looks like I am going to have a quieter week than anticipated, no run down South as was expected, but I am sure I will have enough to do before the Mercat Bar's birthday bash next this coming weekend, and my visitors from sunny Eagham coming up to stay and take part in the fun and games.

Popped into the Mercat Bar for a cuppa on the way home from town, nice to see the gang once again , Claire and Shrek @ Jamie in the kitchen , and Triona, Agnyeska and Dev in the bar.all spoken to during the past couple of weeks from foreign part due to the wonders of Skype.

Home and had a visitor who told me that one of the former P.T. I's from Glencorse Barrackswho we have known for twenty plus years, Terry Boyd, died suddenly while we were away on holiday - our thoughts go to his family.