Saturday and venting my spleen once more.

I was rummaging on the computer and came across these photos which I took about 4 a.m. from Newhaven, looking across the River Forth towards Ocean Terminal and Inchkeith Island on the morning of last year's Moonwalk.

So, what's new, getting stronger, have been out and about for walks, etc and even had a run out for lunch on Thursday when we stopped off at The Dolphin Inn, Whitecraig. It is a nice wee pub, lovely conservatory, and we had a good lunch. It is just unfortunate that there is a bit of adverse publicity at the moment as there is an ongoing trial taking place in Edinburgh following an incident when the previous manager, Steven Curran was killed in the car park by one of the patrons who stole his car and drove over him. The accused, Lee McNamara is arguing that it was manslaughter rather than murder.

I see that the pub is part of the Musselburgh and District Pubwatch Scheme whereby anyone barred for misbehaviour in one of the pubs is automatically barred from them all. They even list all their names on Facebook.

Back to the papers, I note that Luke Mitchell, convicted killer of Jody Jones several years ago in Newtongrange has lodged yet another appeal appeal against his conviction, this time to the European Court of Human Rights - what a drain on public resources as he is obviously getting Legal aid and the only winners are his lawyers. He apparently has a bet on with fellow prisoners and in the event of him losing his appeal he will have to shave his head and lose his "pony tail". No idea how his mother is getting on with her case, being sued following the sale of a caravan with a faulty heater which I think led to a death.

The Champagne was out on ice yesterday to celebrate the opening of the Edinburgh tram line !!! however, I now have to decide whether to put it away for another few years (or forever) as we are in for a long, long wait for this project. Not sure who I was seaking to during the week, but they were suggesting that if the project gets the go ahead there will be even worse chaos and disruption than we have had so far.

I may need another excuse to open the champagne up - getting a haircut today, First in eleven weeks !!! that might do.

Britain has so far failed to stop the stream of immigrants who are coming in at an alarming rate

clutching their bit of paper with the important phrase in English " Where is the nearest Social Security Office" ?

While down the street in Penicuik yesterday I saw one of the Romanian Beggars sitting outside the Salvation Army Hall, she is normally sitting in the Haymarket area, so must have been dropped off by her friends.

While in hospital there were several foreign visitors receiving treatment on the NHS, and this week Lothian and Strathclyde Health Boards published figures showing how much money had been lost due to these foreigners leaving the hospital and country without paying - it ran into hundreds of thousands of pounds . Can you see us getting away with that in the likes of the USA where they will not even let you through the door of a hospital without first seeing an Insurance Policy or a Credit Card !!

Worse still are the numbers of thefts taking place from hospitals and medical centres, ranging from drugs, pictures, furniture and even very expensive specialist equipment - the values now running into the £millions annually.

One of the most disgusting thefts I heard of this week was in Christchurch, scene of the horrendous earthquake and with a continuing rising death toll ( now at 145 )- one family had been on a vigil at a site where a relative was trapped and whilst away from their house it was ransacked by looters. There have been further aftershocks since the first quake, authorities are obviously very concerned about the effects of even more and this morning there was the first indication that Christchurch will not be a venue for this year's Rugby World Cup.

Took myself to bed early on Thursday night accompanied by the radio to listen to the Rangers v Lisbon football match, an exciting game to listen to, lots of drama with the pendulum swinging to and fro near the end, first it was going to go to extra time when the score was 1 - 1, then despair when Lisbon scored in the 87th minute, and then great relief with Rangers getting the winning goal in the 93rd minute - well done Rangers. Not sure how they will cope with the extra fixtures which will be a strain on them, could effect their league challange, but it is a good result for Scottish football. Nice to see Ally McCoist appointed as manager in waiting for Rangers, I will need to search for the photo he had taken with me at Ibrox (or was it me with him).

All we need now is the Scotland Rugby team to get their act together tomorrow and get a victory against Ireland - I still have to find out who woke me up at 11.35 pm last night sending a text wanting to know what I thought the score might be !!!!

Candiss Choir, Trondheim, Norway - on tour

I think I mentioned these young ladies a few blogs ago, when they visited the Mercat Bar along with their male counterparts, however the boys left to take part in a concert in Edinburgh and left the girls to enjoy themselves, hosted by RGB and Mrs. B.

They sent us the attached photos along with a big thank you and have said they are already planning their next tour for 2013.

Their choir is the Candiss choir from Trondheim, Norway, and we do look forward to seeing them on their return.

Early morning ramble - from the armchair

Long restless night, heavy rain outside and feeling totally frustrated that I cannot get up, out and on with a normal life yet.

Sitting listening to Bob Malcolm on Forth 2, smooth as ever, at least he has not changed and still manages all these early rises and that daily run into the City from Carlops (home of Alan Ramsay). His prize for the quiz today was a DVD on "Executive Stress" , which obviously would be of no use at all to me, I would probably end up eating it !!

Thought I would have heard from mailto:Grant@Photgenix, but he is a busy boy these days with his new job which has seen him going up in the world, literally, he text me the other day from the top of the chimney at Cockenzie Power Station - downside has been that so far he has lost two phones which have fallen out his pocket and dropped down chimneys he has been inspecting - I am sure his insurance company find it a bit mysterious.

After the last two defeats at rugby, the Scottish team have enlisted the aid of Scott Hastings to advertise this Sunday's match at Murrayfield against Ireland. He is suggesting that if the supporters turn up in their droves the team will respond and try even harder. I was under the impression last night that we had five players with injuries to contend with so far - and if I was fitter I might even have got my old boots out. Sorry chaps, nearest I will be to Murrayfield will be in an armchair looking at the "box" provided Mrs B does not want to see the Eastenders omnibus.

Bad news coming out of New Zealand with the death toll in the earthquake rising as the hours go by and people remain missing or trapped - not sure if Christchurch is one of the venues for the forthcoming rugby world cup.

Disaster strikes in New Zealand

Must be on the mend, managed two trips down the street today, but was puffing a bit by the time I got back.

This has been a terrible disaster on the outskirts of Christchurch in South Island, New Zealand with yesterday's earthquake. It started just before noon with the big quake which everyone is suggesting is an aftershock of big 7.1. bump last year, however I see that so far there have been another six or so aftershocks around the 6. mark over a period of ten hours. This will have made things very dangerous as each aftershock will have caused more damage to the already weakened buildings.

I had actually been on the "Most Recent Earthquakes" website earlier last night as I regularly check out this site out to see if California is still attached to the USA !! and see where else in the world cocktail waiters are being saved a bit work.

I note that the Fatal Accident Inquiry into the death of the lady who fell down the disused mine shaft (Alison Hume) is taking place. It was ridiculous that the emergency services were standing by doing nothing restricted by current Health and Safety Regulations. What did interest me was that evidence was given by Alan Jeffreys of the Scottish Cave Rescue Organisation who would have been down that mineshaft at the double had they been called out to assist. I have known Alan for about thirty years and he is a very remarkable chap, ex policeman, playwright, thespian, collector of weapons and uniforms and fanatical speleologist who has, with his team exposed and mapped most of the Scottish caves which are mainly situated up in Sutherland.

Latest revelations in the long running tram saga, the Edinburgh City Council have not even managed to purchase all the land needed to complete the route, should they ever get to that stage !! and even worse, they caused chaos in Princes Street on Saturday afternoon when squads were brought in to repair damaged track (by bicycles !!!) which has yet to be run on - what a joke.

Everyone was warned that that there was likely to be trouble after Sunday's Old firm match ( Rangers v Celtic) at Parkhead which Celtic won 3 - 0 after a woeful performance by a lacklustre Rangers team. Strathclyde Police ran out of cell space in the city, with over three hundred arrests they were using cells sixty miles away - and to date there are no figures available about the expected increase in domestic violence after the game.

Missing the regular meeting of Laird O Cockpen RA 500 tonight due to my current health situation, but hopefully I will be back to rights for next months meeting.

49 Club AGM - February 2011

Just a bit late in the day and not up to my usual standard having missed the dinner !!! However young Sir Christopher took a few for me at the AGM luncheon of the 49 Wine and Spirit Club which took place last week in the Green Room, Glasgow.
During the AGM the Presidency changed hands and RGB took on the role for the coming year, so I had better not miss any more dinners !!

This young "birthday girl" had a wee surprise when Mr Harris presented her with a cake during the lunch.

Fine dining - questionable, but I did not starve

Just thought I would share my hospital memories with you, meals were generally not too bad considering the numbers of folks being catered for, however, yesterday my baked potato and cheese , with supposed carrot and coriander soup was NOT what I expected !!!! - But I suppose that after so long I was becoming institutionalised and thought it was not too bad, however I did (latterly) when mobile sneak off in the morning for a bacon roll in the canteen and had a hoard of biccies to dunk in my tea.

My bed, which was moved from ward to ward with me in it was quite comfy and adjustable but not as good as my own wee scratcher at home - so tonight will be a real treat.

Sadly my views from the ward were not the most awe inspiring, although on a clear day from Ward 23 I could see the Hillend ski slope at Lothianburn, and knew that home was not that far beyond it. BUT I cannot complain about the standard of nursing treatment I received throughout my three stays at the Western General, so a big thank you to the staff, all of them from the Consultants, nurses, cleaners, etc.

I would also like to thank my friens who managed to get in to see me (bringing red X parcels) and also those who managed to helpme improve my texting skills by sending a steady stream of messages to reply to.

3rd time lucky

Well , I am now sitting comfortably in my own chair once again , having eventually been considered fit enough to be discharged from Hospital for the third time. So in total I have had 42 nights in a hospital bed since 21st December '10 when we were under the impression that I would be away for 6 to 10 days ( wrong). So hopefully things will pick up and life returns to normal - AND BLOGGING WILL RECOMMENCE LATER.

Superbowl - cracking results

Monday and it is snowing once again in Penicuik, but hopefully the forecasters have it correct and it will melt away again this afternoon.

Missed out on Sunday as I am still sore and need to spend time sleeping or resting etc. BUT having said that I was up and down to bed all day, and eventually went to settle at 10.30 p.m., then awoke at 1.15 a.m. this morning so I got up and sat and watched the Superbowl Final between the Green Bay Packers and the Steelers. It turned out to be an exciting game, and have a had a lesson from RGB on the rules during the semi's I was able to follow the play a lot better. The BBC commentators were very good and filled in during the adverts with lots of information - an excellent win for the Green Bay packers who were able to hold on till the end.

Watched the cup semi final between Rangers and Celtic , end to end stuff, very good and I suppose a 2 - 2 draw was a fair result, however I am not sure when folks are going to get bored with these "old firm" matches as we now have another three or four in the next few weeks.
I see that Ally McOist is voicing a bit concern over the appointment f the new owners of Rangers who might not be so keen to make him the next manager.

Down south, Kenny Dalgleish seems to be doing well with Liverpool, a bit of egg on the chin for Chelsea being beaten 1 -0, and Torres being taken off mid way through the second half !! £50m. more money than sense - it is totally obscene - but still not as bad as the deal Wayne Rooney managed to get for himself.
I spotted an item in the paper a few weeks ago where one of the NFL players had returned his fee of $7.5m to his team as he had hardly been playing and when he did he was not performing !! What a difference in the mentality.

It is a bit like the bonuses being paid to senior Police Officers here in the UK, some have been accepting them whilst other have been pocketing the loot and retiring behind closed doors to shuffle papers and dream up more idiotic schemes.

Time now for another wee rest.

Missing week - back in bed.

Saturday night and I am home again having made a quick "exit stage right" last Monday morning back into the Western General Hospital for further treatment and ended up being kept in till today - so hopefully I will have no further problems, only time will tell.

Probably had a relapse this afternoon having watched the Scotland and France international in Paris, enough said !!

Back to blogging tomorrow.