Friday busy - Morning 1 .

Awake half the night - Mrs. B. was a bit like a jumping bean , so we were up early and on the road by 8 a.m.

Dropped Mrs B. off as she had a meeting , then went to view the "Martian lunar landscape" at the Morrison Street Car Park. Some bright spark should open a shoe shine bar on the footpath exit - they would do a roaring trade. Then into the Mercat for a quick chat and then flashed the bus pass and my big red taxi whizzed me back along Princes Street.

I thought I was being really thoughtful in trying to meet up with Mrs. B. but as they say, the best laid plans , etc., she had been and gone, along with her Toy Boy , Wattie . So, never stuck I headed up to the Standing Order where the trio of Denny's were on site, The Auld yin , the big yin and the tottie wee yin ( Archie Snr. Archie the Pole dancer and young Sarah). This was the first i had spoken to the wee one since she came back from the Upside down land of OZ , however, she will be away back there again soon to start her next year at University in Stockton, which coincidentally was a town my late father stayed in on several of his trips. But my peace was shattered as Mrs. B. arrived and joined me for breakfast.

Soon back on the trail again , popped in to see "Smelly" Gillian at Frasers, and had a my squirt of "Allure Pour Homme", before venturing forth into the Tramworks zone. I really think they need to change the name from Tramworks - to the "Tram Project for the Idle - sponsored by Mugs".

Outside the door of Fraser's there were six men looking at a pole !!!!! - then there were twelve men in a huddle at the junction of Queensferry street and it was not Celtic F.C. !!!

Our illustrious digger drivers were behaving true to form, the one in he photo - just chillling out, the next one who I recognised from his regular wanderings along to Greggs the Bakers. So between Frasers and The Mercat there were possibly thirty men in yellow jackets, note , the word working was missing as there would maybe be six actually looking as though they might eventaully break sweat if they were not careful.

Passed the scene of yesterday's disaster when a mains water supply was burst, cutting off the supplies to local businesses - fortunately Scottish Water have liaison folks on the job and things were remedied fairly quickly.

Talking of yesterdays events , the pilot of the American Airlines plane did a fantastic job when he brought the damaged plane down in the Hudson River - bloody marvellous. I am one of these folks who sit and listen intently to the safety lecture and think that in the event of a problem how will the pilot find a bit of water !!! But to prove a point here was one great guy, and no spring chicken either. I remember the last big crash in the USA many moons ago when a plane came down in the Potomac River while coming into Washington DC. On that occasion, in the middle of winter the river was frozen over and many of the passengers drowned and suffered from hyperthermia, the hero's on that occasion were the helicopter pilots. My friend, J.K. Kilcullen was a Detective in Washing DC and he was involved in processing the fatalities.

Heading for Part 2.