Wattie Weir - Knight of the Road

Thought for a change I might write about a really nice bloke, a "Knight of the Road" who worked tirelessly during the recent winter storms to keep the roads in Edinburgh City passable.

I spotted his photo on the front cover of the recent Issue of the UNISON magazine and knowing Wattie fairly well was delighted to read his story.
Wattie Weir has worked as a driver with Edinburgh City Council for the past thirty years since leaving the army (Cpl Weir - a fearsome sight with a fixed bayonet !!). However for the past weeks he has been dealing with the worst snows he can remember and driving his snow plough, weighing twenty tons, working night and day. Being in hospital most of the time I missed the worst and did not realise that there had been a special exemption / relaxation of the drivers hours so that there could be enough qualified drivers out in their snow ploughs.
I did have a word with him re Health and Safety with him standing posing on his plough blade but he did assure me that the motor was switched off !!! and he was not at risk - other than from the pen of the journalist or the flash of the photographer.
Well done to Wattie and his driver colleagues, they deserved the standing ovations from the public.

Distance Selling Regulations - return of late purchases

Friday morning and I have been glued to my new whoopee cushion all morning watching Andy Murray and Ferrer playing in the Australian Open, goodness me he took his time and at one stage was playing well below par, or was Ferrer the one with the hunger and passion early on ? so looks like another session on Sunday morning - get Andy to the physio and up and running again, Mr Jocovitch has had an extra 24 hours rest.

Internet purchases are sometimes just not worth the trouble, RGB ordered a nice lounger chair for me from Debenhams while I was in hospital, it should have been here, three days later, in time for me coming home two weeks ago, we then got a message it would be here last week and then this week another message from the transport company , "Ventura", to say it would not be her till 7th Feb !!!!!! So guess what, they have lost a sale, probably because delivery was being organised to suit the delivery company.

This has been a similar situation to masses of folks who ordered items for x-mas and they never arrived. Anyway "Under the Distance Selling Regulations you can cancel an order at any time up to seven working days after the item arrives, no matter how long delivery takes. So if your order does not make it in time for a certain occasion, you can cancel it before it's sent or simply return it for a refund once it does turn up. If you do return it within the seven day window you must let the retailer know by e mail. If no delivery date is specified then the website has thirty days to deliver the product. If you have not received the goods within thirty days, then you can cancel the order and demand a refund which must be paid with thirty days."

If you phone to cancel an order and get an awkward operator who says that it is impossible or not allowed, ask to speak to a supervisor and be sure to get your point over, back up any calls with a confirmatory E mail, or ask the Website to send you an acknowledgment of the cancelled order, then keep an eye on your bank statement to make sure you get your money back.

Here endeth todays words of wisdom !!

Stewart Brewing; phone hacking; and the Web User.

Thursday night and in bed early having just overdone things a bit too much today - out for a wee walk but stayed out too long.

So - congratulations to Steve Stewart of Stewart's Brewing at Loanhead, for winning yet another award for his latest beer, "Hollyrood", at a competition a couple of days ago. This beer is doing great having come out as one of the top beers in the world a few months ago in an international festival.

I see that my favourite subject is coming under more scrutiny with a big audit of the Tram Works due to take place, a few questions being asked as to how the overspend was so great and who authorised all the work - I am sure that the Councillors on the so called Committee had no real idea what was happening or any control at all. I am sure that the new Chief Executive of Edinburgh City Council will sort this lot out once she gets her feet right under the table . The first of several public meetings was taking place in the Hilton Grovener Hotel tonight to explain to the public why they plan to ban all cars and all parking in West Maitland Street which will not help our cause once again. Wonder what they are paying to hire the Hilton ?

We now know that Richard Keys resigned as a result of the Andy Gray debacle - so that answered yesterdays unanswered question.

Watched the Australian Open tennis this morning, but of a thrashing for Federer by Jockovitch who played very well - and I believe that Andy Murray forecast the result, so , all being well, by this time tomorrow we should know if he will be playing in the final. Not quite a case of setting the alarm but I will be watching the Murray - Ferrara game in the morning, sore bot or not - come on Andy. It was interesting to hear an Australian comment on the fact that when Andy wins the commentators say he is British, but when he loses he suddenly resorts back to being a Scot !!

On the subject of Auz, their weather is totally crazy, massive floods traveling south through Queensland and into Victoria where the ground is saturated, rivers bursting banks and reservoirs full to the brim for the first time in years. The residents are all paying a flood tax of between One and Five A /Dollars a week, capitol spending on major projects has been suspended to allow for rebuilding, etc. YET in the north of the country they are experiencing the hottest summer on record with one town sitting at a constant 45C for the past five days and another place up to nearly 48 C - unbelievable.
Then we have the opposite in the USA - I checked out Philadelphia, home of the two teams for next weeks superbowl, The Green Bay Packers and the Steelers, and discovered that in Westchester they had had an unexpected winter storm with a foot of snow in a couple of hours, all schools were closed, chaos on the roads and someone killed by a snow plough - just so unpredictable.

I listened to the Defence Secretary this evening defending the decision to scrap the Nimrods and he was saying that the programme is twelve years over deadline and a billions over budget so they are just cutting their losses !!! Who supervises these projects ? there appears to be a total lack of control over any kind of government spending, it is no wonder this country is in the state it is in.
Just add the total misuse and lack of control of the state Benefits system, etc., add umpteen millions in overseas aid, and we might be looking to trying to get bottled water back from the Irish soon.

I was watching the news about the ongoing and new enquiries into the phone hacking, something about to grow more arms and legs, and listened to the acting Chief of the Metropolitan Police - however, what caught my eye was that he was wearing a whistle chain on his uniform - something which we were stopped from doing about twenty five years ago as they were considered redundant and no longer issued (although I did wear mine up till retirement as I wore a proper uniform and not a para military boiler suit).
Originally the whistles were worn by all officers and in the days of yore, when officers patrolled their beats on foot if they needed assistance they blew the whistle and their colleagues on the adjoining beats would come to their assistance. This was the case in most major Cities, however, for a county bobby working on your own you needed a loud whistle as your nearest help might be anything up to ten miles away. I remember chasing someone in Loanhead years ago during the night and I got my whistle out and blew and blew on it between shouting at the bloke and he eventually surrendered thinking that he was running into a trap. There was also the occasion when I found a beautiful porcelain toilet handle on a lovely brass chain ( from one of the pull the chain toilets). I polished up the chain and stuck it in my pocket where my whistle would have been and went out on patrol. I met the late Ernie Rossie and his wife who had a wee cafe in Clerk Street, Loanhead, and while having a coffee with him showed him my new chain which was impressive but when I showed him the handle and explained that this was the latest piece of self defence kit to be issued to Police Officers he was mega impressed, believing everything I had told him !!!

My latest edition of the "Web User" magazine arrived today, complete with my photo in it , taken when I was in hospital, it is amazing what you will do when doped up to the eyeballs - legally and prescribed of course.

Murray ; SuBo: Sheridan and others

Back again, but having to make a bit of an effort as I keep having to go back to bed for a snooze, just getting tired and now I am trying to get out for a wee walk and fresh air it is taking its toll - but never mind , a wee bit at a time.

Had my haggis , neeps , and tatties last night which was very nice, not sure yet, but depending on how I am feeling I "might" venture out on Saturday night to The Mercat Bar, where RGB is having a Burns Supper, but not on the same scale as previous years. Still teetotal as I am giving my medications the chance to work.

I heard a whisper that the Council and TIE had met with a Mediator (from the USA - who is paying for that) and there has been some kind of agreement !! So looks like we might , maybe, just be about to return the streets of Edinburgh to the chaotic state they were before, maybe not as bad as the photos, but not far short of it.

With the latest terrorist bombing and subsequent carnage in Moscow Airport I was reminded of the attacks in Mumbai, where the Taj Hotel was taken over by gunmen and badly damaged in the shoot out.

Every day we have news of the public enquiry into the London bombings so situations like these should always keep us on an alert. There have been comments about the ability of the Russian security forces to protect the City in view of the fact they are to host the Winter Olympics and World Cup - but we should not forget that we have the Olympics coming up in London and the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow - so we should be always on an alert.

Bit in the papers about the numbers of hard line criminals who are being released early from prison, especially in Scotland where the SNP are accused of taking the soft option. The one consolation I suppose is that there is certainly space of Tommy Sheridan who started his three year sentence for perjury today - bit of a let off for him, if he had been given four years that is what he would have had to do, but now he will be lucky to do eighteen months and half of that in an open prison if he behaves. I would hate to be a Prison Officers looking after him as I suspect he is going to have a go at every discrepancy which occurs, he is very likely to have every one of the Prison Rules and regulations off by heart. I am sorry to say this, but I cringe when Gail Sheridan opens her mouth as she spouts forth pure vitriol / hatred, not nice.

It looks as though yet another of the English Lords is for the chop, Lord Taylor, ruined his career for £11k - I was going to say that I do not understand our Politicians, but in reality they are only in the job to get as much power, glory and money out of it as they can - same as our MSP's , but still lagging miles behind the greedy "piggies" in Brussels.

In this day and age of P C (political correctness) yet another casualty of U Tube and his big mouth, Andy Gray, the so called football pundit ( £2million a year) ,has got the chop for his sexist comments, heard on air, but still no word as to what is to happen to Richard Keys, his sidekick - however only time will tell whether there were other factors which accelerated his departure , i.e. his row with Rupert Murdoch. Even so - his comments were wrong, I am sure that the lady fourth official is very good, and considering that there are some female players and ladies teams out there who could probably give some of our male teams a good run for their money - go for it girls.

Our friend and former "fragrant lady", Gillian, is to be congratulated on the birth of her new daughter, Ruth, both are doing very well.

According to the latest financial figures released we are now, just, sipping back into a recession, and the snow is being blamed for the bad December figures. It did not stop Mervyn King of the Bank of England attending a massive fancy dinner with his City chums where he was able to quaff a glass or two before giving us the bad news !! So once again we are going to be in the situation where the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer - we could end up with a two tier society like India - tighten your belts and head for the supermarket's own branded products.

I keep missing the tennis so I am hoping that I have it right and that Andy Murray (going like the proverbial steam train) will be playing again at 8 am. on Friday morning. Different opposition for him as Rafael Nadal was injured in the 1st set of his game, but give him his due he played the match out - so he misses out on his chance for the four Grand Slams - better luck next year.

Susan Boyle, up against Tommy Sheriden (who??) for the Scot of the Year award got 95% of the public vote, well done and deserved, and when you see that she has sold two million albums in two years, our other so called pop stars should take note.

Government and public waste of money, tonight we have the Scottish Parliaments drinks forum spending £300K on plastic tumblers to issue to the drinking public so that they know just how much they are consuming - so at 50p a tumbler, heading for the bins - a total waste. BUT the worst has to be the scrapping and destruction of the newly built Nimrod planes which are lying at BAE systems in England - total wanton neglect and vandalism. When we were in the USA last year we passed the massive parking areas in the desert where planes were flown in and parked up till there was a chance in the economic climate - what is wrong with us doing that with these planes, pop them in a hanger, spray them , bubble wrap them , whatever, or just sell them to the USA.

It is like the recent attempt by a businessman to buy a decommissioned nuclear submarine and have it taken to Rosyth and turned into a tourist attraction - BUT NO, there were those who said that even with the reactor removed there could/ might me a risk to the public - what a load of bo****ks. I thought it was a good idea, would bring in some crowds to Rosyth, and also be something else for the passengers of the regular cruise ships to see.

Robbie Burns - 252 years today. A Rose Bud.

As this is Burn's day and I have my haggis , neeps and tatties ready for dinner, I thought a verse from the bard might be appropriate.

These verses were composed in honour of Miss Jean Cruikshanks, daughter of William Cruikshanks who was a master at the High Shool of Edinburgh ;-

A Rose Bud by my Early Walk.

A Rose-Bud by my early walk,
Adown a corn-enclosed bawk,
Sae gently bent its thorny stalk,
All on a dewy morning.
Ere twice the shades o'dawn are fled,
In a' its crimson glory spread
And drooping rich the dewy head,
It scents the early morning.

Within the bush, her covert nest
A little linnet fondly prest,
The dew sat chilly on her breast
Sae early in the morning.
She soon shall see her tender brood, The pride, the pleasure o' the wood,
Amang the fresh green leaves bedew'd,
Awake the early morning.

So thou, dear bird, young Jeany fair!
On trembiling string, or vocal air,
Shall sweetly pay the tender care
That tends thy early morning.
So thou, sweet rose-bud, young and gay,
Shalt beauteous blaze upon the day,
And bless the parent's evening ray
That watch'd thy early morning.

Telephone hacking, bigotry and death by injection

Sunday night, a nice quiet day at home but I did manage a walk out for some fresh air - a wee bit at a time as they say. Three visitors, and I did manage to sit and watch the finals of the World Indoor Bowling, nice to see the two lads from East Lothian take the pairs competition and then compete against each other for the singles title.

Ski Sunday, very exciting, these guys are maniacs charging hell for leather down these steep mountain slopes - one chap was doing 111 km p h at one point - but when they crash it is big time - and often serious. They then apparently take hours to come down off the adrenalin rush.

From the papers there was an interesting article on bigotry in Britain, we are now having it forced down our throats night and day to be PC to the foreigners and immigrants now living "within" our society. I have previously said that we, the British are more and more becoming second class citizens in our own country with cases of positive discrimination against us !! In the paper there was a case of a lady applying to take her child to a new nursery to be told that it was funded for only foreigners and immigrants - the other, more disturbing case refers to a church situated in a Muslin dominated area of Birmingham, where the vicar has been publically referred to as "white bastard" and has had the words "dirty white dog" daubed on the church doors.
Small businesses cannot get loans from our own banks who are now making profits, but within the Immigrant community they run their own banking / money lending operations, deal in cash all the time, and no doubt, from their unpaid taxes are subsidising families overseas - at our expense.

Masses of deniels and postulating from the media who are denying all knowledge about the phone hacking allegations - I find it hard to believe that none of these blokes ever owned even the simplest of telephone scanners which have been available for the past twenty odd years!!!

With Burns Night nearly upon us it is good to see that there might be a glimmer of hope and that the USA authorities may consider lifting the ban on the importation of haggis, mind you there is no need for the beloved haggiiii to be shipped out packed in sheeps stomachs, there are other methods of packaging available - they do not know what they are missing - do they !!!

Bit of an shocker - Quote " Executions in the US could be delayed as supplies of the lethel injection drug, sodium thiopental are set to dry up because the sole producers are moving production to Italy"

So with these few thoughts.

Third Forth Bridge; football and Mark Wright

Trying to be topical with my photos, and in line with the news, but it is awkward being confined to the house.
The Bill was given Royal Consent yesterday for the go ahead to start work on the Third Forth Bridge - due to be built and finished if all things are equal by 2016 - cost somewhere over £1 billion. Only time will tell if they can keep it in budget or whether it will be the usual monumental overspend.


Next in line of fire are the wonderful (NOT) staff, members of the UNITE Union working for B A who have just merged again - bloody marvellous, they want to start striking again, just in time for Easter, the Royal wedding and anything else they can disrupt, making us yet another laughing stock.

Our Bankers, who we claim to be robbing us blind by charging their interest rates as is and only paying 3 to 4% on savings. Down the line, there is a new advert on the TV for a money lending company (loan sharks) who make the bankers look like innocents. This lot will loan you £5 and you pay them back £135 in two weeks, their interest rate works out at a criminal 1435% - just how do these folks get away with it.

Andy Murray marches on relentlessly in Melbourne, a nice three sets win and off into the next round - go Andy Go, far too late at night to sit up and watch it.

Hate to say this but I fell asleep half way through the Rangers and Hearts game so I missed the winning goal from Hearts. RGB, Go Jo, Claire and Scott were at the match and a bit disappointed with all the fighting between the fans before and during the game - just a pity these bampots spoil the game for other fans.

On the TV news yesterday there was a story about Ed Milliband doing his pre-election tour of Midlothian, just a pity that he was standing in front of the sign for the Mark Wright Project at Dalkeith, so the viewers did not get a good look at the frontage - fortunately the newspapers ran a feature on his visit today and with luck they will get some well deserved publicity to help raise much needed funds.

Had a wee visit from Tam and Eildh, and also Grant (Photogenix) today, before venturing out into the fresh air for my first walk in a month - nice to get out again.

Visitors ,and MEP's

P.M. and feeling a lot brighter, having had a bit of a siesta - anyway, yesterday I had visitors in the afternoon, Graig Gordon, RWM of Lodge 720 Dalhousie Bonnyrigg dropped by with some flowers for Mrs B and a card for me. The card was covered in signatures from well wishers who had been at Craig's reinstallation last week. Members from the following lodges all signed it - 1062; 1201; 1038;720; 226;1373; 428; 429; 856; 10; 112; 580; 1029; 5722 EC; 8634 EC and 500 RA. - very good.

At the same time Berti Baaa , secretary of RA 500 and his wife Jane arrived from Dewarton to see me. Bert was in contact with me every day while I was in hospital, however we had had regular contact for months since he underwent surgery. The interesting thing to crop up was when we discovered that Jane had taught many years ago at Howgate Primary School, with a head teacher called Atholle Cameron. I am not sure if I was working in Penicuik at the time or in Community Services, Dalkeith, but I remember visiting the wee school regularly to do projects with the class. At x-mas she used to call us up to play Santa Claus for the kids and then we would have lunch with them - the good old days.

Irish Christine has just been on the phone, fair away with the photos of Curley Carly's wedding now that she has eventually found the blog site - so to the folks at Wheatfield Walk, happy days.

Thought I was finished with the trams for the day, however, nice article in the Evening news about the overpaid members of TIE who are resigning from their posts, bloody shamed out of them. But not to be outdone we have Mr McKay former buses boss, earning £90k for three part time jobs, who is looking to take on a TIE job at £55k for two and a half days a week !!! I am sure there must be something I could do at those rates for a few hours a week and do it as well as they have been doing - twiddling thumbs, looking out windows, business lunches, etc.
Oh, and they have remembered to apply for planning permission for the new fancy canopy to be erected at the tram terminal at the airport - - nothing about the tram project makes sense any more.

So we have a Nigerian working for Asda, commits a £20,000 fraud so he can send money back to his family, found guilty, 200 hours community service - should have had a one way ticket put in his hand. This is not the land of milk and honey as far as British citizens are concerned, might be if you hold a foreign passport, do not speak English, and have the support of the money grabbing self righteous sanctimonious bureaucrats in Brussels supported by the equally greedy MEP's and aided by our own M.P's who do not have the gumption to stand up and be counted.

Wanton vandalim and arguments.

Apologies, but I had a couple of quiet days, a wee bit tired and just not up to my usual self, however, after a good nights sleep, signs of a recovery and not quite as sore as I was I am up for something today.

Managed to sit and watch Andy Murray yesterday morning doing his best out in Melbourne, good one Andy, all he has to now is hammer his next four opponents.

So the Scottish Tansport Minister put it nicely into perspective yesterday - there was a big debate about the continuing need to upgrade the A9 from Perth to Inverness to dual carriageway all the way to curtail the continuing carnage. His comment was "we need at least £500m, about the same amount of money as the City of Edinburgh Council has wasted on the trams project " ouch !

Some bad vandalism in Edinburgh over the past days with the sports pavilion at Sighthill being destroyed by fire, mindless, and a good, well used public resourse possibly lost for ever- more interestingly was the attack on the yard where several cleansing trucks being used by private contractors to assist in the big rubbish clean up in the City were wrecked. Two men were disturbed by security and made off. In view of the ongoing long running dispute between the Edinburgh City Council and members of their cleansing department, I would put a couple of quid on the culprits being disgruntled employees - just the same as we had during the miners strike when the strike breakers were targeted as scabs, etc.
Not sure what the dispute is about now, perhaps - how many can we get in the cab so they can take it in turns to sleep during the shift !!!
The Mercat Bar, in line with all commercial businesses in the City pay a great deal of money to have their rubbish lifted every day, and when it is not lifted the Environmental Wardens are not far behind to check the bags and issue warning tickets - just think, a nice double whammy, pay the Council to lift the rubbish , their teams do not lift it, then you get fined by the Council !! they are in a win win situation.
Having said that, the contradiction being that Mrs B met our bucket men yesterday morning and they were really good, emptied everthing in sight to get the backlog cleared - well done Midlothian Council.

Waiting for the nurse so a break is in orders.

Bright sunny - but cold morning - good to be home

Bit of a long night last night, wound was nipping like buggery (medical term for sore), however, it looked a bit cleaner this morning. So with not a lot of sleep, an early rise it looks like a couple pf cat naps might be in order.
Had an early visit from Graeme McKay, chief rat catcher (GM Pest Control) to see how I was doing, his lovely daughter Karen has just returned to her home in Italy having been over here working for a couple of weeks. I obviously missed her, but she did drop into the Mercat to see RGB - good one.

Andy Murray had a bit of an easy match this morning in Melbourne, two sets up and leading when his opponent retired injured - do not think his next rounds will be so easy, but he can do it.

I see my beloved tram project is still going nowhere fast, no doubt the tram lying in the yard in West Lothian has been stripped out for scrap or the tinkers are living it. It could be that some form of mediation is about to recommence with a view to getting things back up and running !! So far the only people benefiting are the grossly overpaid team running the show and the lawyers - you never see a poor lawyer. I wonder when they will start and replace the damaged track in Princes Street ( sorry - the only piece of track laid and it is disintegrating already - probably getting damaged by all the cyclists riding over it).

I saw an article about one of these dammed Eastern Europeans coming over to London and first thing they did was take over a house due for renovation as squatters - house was worth several £m and they had turned it into a Sh***ole" in a matter weeks. It is time we stopped being the soft touch for all these bloody leeches who are happily draining the lifeblood out of our country.

Similarly, last night we had a bit on Panorama about that eejit down south who has fathered eight children to eight different women, he does not see them and has no idea of all their names - I would suggest that castration, or a couple of strong elastic bands would be a starter for ten.

Just listening to the news, I hear that two of Lothian and Borders finest (traffic officers) came a bit of a cropper yesterday on the A703 near Leadburn when they left the road and ended up in a field while en route to a bad accident between Penicuik and Leadburn ( 2nd hand Volvo up for grabs - driver up for reassment)

Settling in at home - for a slow recovery

Long day at the office, so to speak, especially when you have nothing to do - or are not able to do.

I am going to have to learn to take it easy, chill, out, etc, so perhaps I should take some lessons from Sparky Mark - seriously it is a long day, but I will have to learn.

Sunday we had a visit from the beloved Pole dancer, big Archie, along with Tracy and the children - the first time we have met new baby Marley, who was as good as gold - lovely to see them.

Current problem is my wound which has become infected so the nurse pops in on a morning to change the smelly dressings, took some swabs and Dr got me started on a new course of antibiotics.

Couple of visitors today , Bob, one of my former neighbours and Claire from the Bar - good to see them.

Curly Carly and Alan's wedding,Cadrona, 9th Jan 2011

At long last I have managed to get round to doing a bit about Carly and Alan's wedding which took place at the McDonalds Hotel, Cadrona, Peebles, last weekend, however, being kept in the hospital I was unable and certainly too ill to have made it.

Carly and Alan had flown back to Scotland from their new home in Sydney to be married here, and as you will have seen earlier they had their respective stag and hen nights.

The wedding was apparently first class at the hotel, and despite the snow everyone made it there in one piece. The photographs are only a few of the hundreds which were taken by the many guests, and I am sure I have missed out a couple.

All those I have spoken to who were there said they had a fabulous day and night - The bride, groom and respective parents look great and did very well. There were guests from all over the UK, Ireland and also a group of friends who flew over from Australia.

I was lucky enough to see Carly on three occasions when she and her mum and dad, Joe and Christine came to see me in hospital, very much appreciated.

A beautiful couple, a lovely wedding and a great time had by all - all the best to the happy couple who are now taking the slow route back to Australia as part of their holiday / honeymoon.

Carly's little highlight occurred on the Friday before the wedding when she and her bridesmaids took the bus to sort some paperwork out in Peebles. They popped into one of the local pubs at lunch time and the bar staff treated them to a bottle of bubbly. However, to get home they took the No 62 First Bus ( Galashiels to Edinburgh) where the bridesmaids were chaffing the driver to get Carly a free bus trip - however, this was not forthcoming. BUT
just north of Peebles the driver stopped the bus, turned off the lights and got off the bus, he then got back on and approached Carly and started to sing "She's Getting Married in the Morning, etc" accompanied by the other passengers. Once he had resumed the journey he would periodically start tooting the horn and he and the whole bus kept singing to her - one of these spontaneous moments which you cannot ever anticipate, but which had a great impression on Carly - thanks driver , you really did make some one's day.

I even managed to get a piece of cake when it was brought to me at the hospital, lovely

The Western General - not your average health farm.

Tired and needing time to recover. Little did I know on the 21st December when I walked into Ward 22 at the Western General that I was not going to get the taste of fresh air for another twenty five days, especially having been told that I would be there from between six to ten days !!

Operated on, on the 22nd and then moved to High Dependency ward, where under the happy influence of an epidural feeding morphine , etc, life was a hoot - felt nothing, chatted away, what fun and of course Santa was en route in a couple of days. HOWEVER, a change was afoot as my system closed down and we were waiting for things to kick back into life - and in the meantime I was losing the plot, living in a daze and sleeping - not eating, as I went for sixteen days without any solids. I now have to wonder the mentality of these fruitcakes who take drugs as a so called recreational past time - God they really have to be off their heads.

Hogmanay came and went and the nearest I got to behaving like the New year revellers was having a couple of sessions of projectile vomiting, over the staff and made a right mess of my bed space. Certainly a different experience when it is fecal vomit - a real treat - and never to be repeated.

I was in Ward 24 for most of my stay and I can give nothing but praise to the Staff who cared for me. My surgeon, Mr Anderson seemed to be on the go all the time, a very down to earth chap who I enjoyed chatting to during his visits - he was sort of blase when he said that all he had done was cut me open, pull out the colon, make a couple of cuts - join things back together and then sewed me up !!! A bit of an understatement.

During my stay I watched the staff with interest and observed some very good teamwork, from the most senior Doctors to the ward cleaners - all doing their best for the benefit of the patients - and everyone an expert in their own way. The ward was run by a Charge Nurse along the lines of the old fashioned Matron but not as strict as they used to be in the days when you had to sit in a chair all day of you were fit to get up.

The Golden Globe awards are up for grabs, but in reality, it is folks like these dedicated nursing staff who spend their days and nights caring, cleaning etc. who truly deserve an award not these phony actors, actresses who whole life is an ego busting trip.

So, my X-mas adventure came to an end yesterday when I headed home to a warm welcome from the long suffering Mrs.B. (who has done very well by me over the past weeks) and my own comfy wee bed last night.

As already stated, I have nothing but praise for the nursing staff and all staff involved and all being well we will see them in the Mercat Bar in due course where they will be made more than welcome, thank you all.

Muriel Taylor and Jock McNair, R I P

Well, having written about the late Grahame Allan last night, today I have had word of another two friends who died while I was away from home.

Firstly Muriel Taylor from Penicuik, wife of Alf, who met Mrs B. this morning thus letting us know what had happened to Muriel a couple of weeks ago. Muriel and Alf are friends of many years who were very involved in the Penicuik Town twinning link with L'Isle Sur LA Sorgue, France. They travelled almost annually to l'Isle where they had a strong network of friends - Muriel died peacefully at home, unexpectedly and will be missed by all.

I then heard from Carolanne that her father Jock McNair, a Burn's man from Mauchline, Ayrshire, who I wrote about a couple of years ago, had died on Wednesday a few days after taking a massive stroke from which he never recovered. He also will be missed by all.

Grahame Borthwick Allan, 25/10/46 -12/1/11 -R I P

It is with extreme sadness that I have to write about the sudden death of Grahame Allan, who died suddenly this week while I was still in the hospital.
Grahame was a very good friend to many, a father to Claire and Graham , grandfather, and loving partner to Brenda. We saw him on an almost daily basis as he has helped RGB with his business, drawing on a vast experience in the licensed trade during his lifetime, He was probably best known in Edinburgh during the period when he owned Champagne Charlie's in Castle Street. He then had Just Charlie's in Thistle Street, and latterly The Snooty Fox at Howgate, by Penicuik.
He will be a great miss to all.
The funeral will take place on Wednesday coming at Mortonhall Cematorium , Howdenhall in tha Main Chapel, at 3 p.m.
As an aside , Graham's favourite tipple was a pint of Tennants lager, and he would often ask me for a cup of "T", then get annoyed with me when I did give one, complete with milk and suger !!!!

UPDATE.

Graham's funeral service took place in a jam packed main chapel at Mortonhall, and was followed by a "wake" at Newbattle Golf Club. The family were amazed at the numbers who attended the service and who also were kind enough to take the time to go to the Golf Club and share in their memories.

REST IN PEACE.

Soon be up and running.

Normal service is about to be resumed !!! 25 days in absentia, just a bit longer than I expected - so my faithful followers will soon have a few updates - once I get a rest and organised.