Gentleman,s dinner Sunday 18th September, Roslin.,

One for the diary,being organised by the Edinburgh and South East of Scotland Licensed Trade Association, at the Original Hotal, Roslin,  £22.50 a head unless you can work up a table of ten for £200.   Guest speaker, entertainer,  and dress code is Hawian shirt.   Hopefully there will be a bit of sponsorship from the licensed trade so a couple of drinkie are guaranteed.
Bear in mind that the Hotel,is on a bus route !!!  NO excuses for either getting there or home.

NIvea sun tan crime and Wellington boots, a fine Scottish summer

There I was yesterday, sweltering in our one day of. summer, so much so that I managed to find an out of date tub of sun tan crime, just in case !!  Anyway, so dashed hot I had to take cover eventually, and wait for it to cool down before watering the pot plants.  never mind, all short lived, this morning so dark that we had lights on at 9 am and even the PIR on the garage door was coming on.  Wee
 bit thunder and lightning, bit of flooding so wellies on (Nearly).  So, that was summer,  just getting fed up listening to the weather forecast for sunny South of England, think it is time that they were banned as they just make folks depressed. ME  especially.

Battered and bruised, Cruella strikes again, but for my own good.

Been a while since I had a Massage from the wonderful Cruella,  doing her best to fix my back and neck.  NOw that my ribs have recovered from my tumble down the stairs, I can cope with a decent massage
had a couple of nights away last week, not far, made it to the Barony Castle at Eddlest, and thoroughly enjoyed the wee break. NOw back home, pottering in the house and garden, however still wondering where summer has gone. CErtainly time the weather reporters stopped filling our head with the sunshine stories of down South.

It paid me to shop around and not be lazy this time.

Nearly had a fit when my car insurance renewal arrived, however unlike the past two years I did not allow it to roll on automatically.  Checked with a broker who could save me about 30%, and they said to contact the Insurance company which I did and the agent immediately agreed that price was far too high and reduced it by a similar 30% !!!   Why then was the original renewal so high?    Anyway I then contacted another company who ended up giving me identical cover for 50% less that my renewal.

Not quite as bad but I queried my Broadband and phone bill and was able to get it reduced by 10%.

Was shopping in Tesco's and recieved the usual receipt at the check out telling me how much I had saved compared to Asda , Sainsburys and Morrisons,  BUT not with Lidl or Aldi.   A kilo bag of Caster sugar was £1.48 in Tesco and £1 in Lidl,

Slightly different tale,   went to church on Sunday, Canongate Kirk in Edinburgh, where the congregation was joined by HRH the Queen and Prince Philip along with members of the Royal Household from Hollyrood Palace.  So nice to see them both relaxed and comfortable.  The minister gave an excellent sermon around the current anniversary of the WW1 battle of the Somme.
Mrs B, excelled herself by accidentally photobombing a piece of video of HRH as she was heading for her car,  popped up on Mailonline website.

Only downside of the day was when we went to the Sailbury Arms for Sunday lunch, must have been a bad day for the staff and chefs, so much so that I am not likely to be back, sorry.  

The Sky man called about the warranty, now the box is on the blink!!

Am I being cynical, suspicious or what? but when you get a call asking if I want to renew my warranty , said no thanks, and then the box starts to malfunction. In this day and age, and especially with a company who have so much control over these units through phone and internet links, why not have the ability to switch them off, which of course they already have if you do not keep up your monthly subscription.  Just a thought.

Terrible state of affairs in Turkey with the slaughter of innocents at the Istanbul airport yesterday, these fanatical suicide bombers have no respect for innocents, who they destroy along with the economy of the various countries they are choosing to attack.

On a happier note, managed a bit of a run out on the Steed of Steel yesterday, first in three weeks, so took the chance to frighten the motoring public with my latest high viz clothing (certainly will not be run over !!!).

Talk about being stupid!!

I am referring to the Scots drug mule, Melissa Reid recently released from prison in Peru after being caught with cocaine worth £1.5 million along with The Irish girl, Michella McCollum.   When arrested they were denying all knowledge, claimed to be innocent  and then eventually obviously plea bargained to get a lesser sentence.
Now that she has been sent home she has admitted that she knew what she was doing and did it as a challenge so she could boast to her friends in Ibiza about it.

Maybe I am wrong but now she has made this public, if I were in law enforcement I would keep this public admission handy and use it against anyone else caught in the future to rebuff any denials they may make.
She has just made life more difficult for others who might be as daft as she was.

Life's little ups and downs,

Never the less, still standing, however, occasional problems with balancing quantities of pills.
At least the sun has decided to shine again, so odd jobs around the house being done.

Saturday and Sunday we had Penicuik Archery Club out competing in the local playing field, certainly changed days since I was a lad.

So, yesterday while in town I dropped into Edinburgh Harley Davidson showroom for a wee wander and to give my mind a treat.   On the way in met three intrepid riders (all older than me) heading off on their grand machines.

Once again I was sort of Gobsmacked at the price of one of the bikes.  £40k if you took finance,  so to avoid any Queries I copied the attached.

 This might be bike in question.