Feet up, watching TV and a glass of Tintara Grenache to hand - Go Jo has just arrived having jumped on a No 15 bus at Tollcross, now this is a true adventure, which makes a trip on the Starship Enterprise child's play. At one stage Go Jo had no idea where she was as the bus heads right out into the country via Lothianburn, Hillend, The Bush Estate, Bilston, Roslin, Auchendinny and then Penicuik. If truth were known the original turnpike road up till 1824 from Edinburgh through Auchendinny and south was a more direct route and not much longer, even by horse and carriage!!! Fortunately, when the Laird of Auchendinny applied to the King in 1606 for funds to rebuild the bridge at Auchendinny to reopen the turnpike, he granted the money , otherwise the bus would have taken a longer detour.
Ended up in the Mercat this afternoon for lunch with Mrs B., excellent dish prepared by Claire and Jamie, few prawns, another half trout, followed by a cheese board. But we have a bone to pick with Jamie and Claire, they sent us home with a portion of "Celtic Promise" and despite being relatively mild, it is so pungent (smelly) the house might now be attracting the attention of every mouse within about 500 yards.
On the way in I stopped to photograph the plaque for the Heart of Midlothian, Lodge 832, on the original building, but from the official web site I see that they now meet at Roseburn.
We had a visit in the pub by Rose, now I did mention her some months ago, she is over 80 yrs, a tiny lady, Irish, and who has had a lifetime experience of hard work, starting with the tattie picking in Ayrshire when she first came over from Ireland, then off to the fish sheds at Lerwick; Fraserburgh; Peterhead; and Leith, and eventually finished off doing seeding and bedding plants at Dobbies Nurseries. She walks the streets every day and always stops for a breather in the bus stop outside the Mercat, so after dozens of invites for a cuppa she has come in at long last.
Heard of a lorry crash today when a tanker overturned and was flooding the road, reminded me of the call we had years ago to the Speargate Lodge, where a tanker crashed and the road was blocked. The tanker was heated and carrying liquid cooking oil - but with the casing ruptured the oil poured out and spread over the road, solidifying as it made contact with the cold surfaces. End result was that we had the road covered with solid "lard" about a foot deep and everyone was coated in it. We eventually had to call in the Hans Kerber, the roads foreman, who arranged for for a tractor shovel and lorries, but they had to tip tons of grit into the sludge before it could be lifted. the fire brigade then had to come and attempt to hose the residue of the oil from the road as the place was like a skating rink.
The other tanker crash we had was when one BP petrol tanker skidded on sheet ice, like we have at the moment, overturned and ended up against the wall of a house in Carlops Road about 5.30 a.m. one morning. The residents had no idea what had happened and we were were panicking as we were expecting the second tanker which was following about 20 minutes behind.
The good news today was that Steven (Micky) and Sabrina McManus became parents again yesterday when Sabrina had another wee boy, Arron, weight 7lb 12 oz - well done !! Now that the bump has gone I might soon be in for another session with Cruella, In the meantime, the "Luscious" Melissa, has got me earmarked for a session ( Mother's day special !! - no) on Tuesday morning, which might be my only day off before we head off to the sun next Sunday.
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