The way we were . Part 2

In amongst the black and white photos again and some old newspaper cuttings. 1967 when Archie McGuire and I received heroism awards from Provost Frank Feeney of Loanhead after rescuing James Hislop from his upper flat in Dalum Court which was on fire - bit of a hectic night - the benefits of working alone with no radios in those days. Also in the photo was Mrs Merrillees, wife of the Chief Constable, Sir William Merrillees.

Onwards a few years and we have a real line up of the original Lothian and Peebles Community Involvement Department, not too clear as this was from the paper again, we all had fine heads of hair in those days !!! and our caps were struggling to stay on. Have to say that we were a brilliant Department and good at our job.

The phote at the pit head, Bilston Glen Colliery, in August 1974 when I organised a vist for a number of colleagues. Along with the group we had an old friend of mine, Cyril Baxter MBE, who worked for the Britsh Council out in Bahrain, he had brought one of his students over to visit Scotland , Ramzi Mendeel - where he was certainly given a visit of a lifetime - the two ladies, Valerie Archibald and Hilde Peacock were police women at Dalkeith.

On this occasion all on the visit were properly dressed for the trip and took the whole thing very seriously . On an earlier trip to Monktonhall Colliery there were some who went down wearing street clothes and footwear (this was long before Health and Safety went OTT) - what a mess these folks ended up in, ruined clothes and , believe it or not , high heel shoes. WHAT NEXT ????

The way we were - maybe Part 1.

Digging through the photos last night while watching the dreadful X-Factor Show, bit of a let down after Strictly Come Dancing - now we know why the ratings are tumbling. Back to the photos, these go back to 1965 !!! while in Durham. Fine (fit) young officer, and then probably about 1975 and working at Penicuik.

The crew posing were mainly Penicuik Officers and this was a day out for the lads to the Bells Whisky bottling plant at Broxburn. In the photo, The late Jim Robertson of Bells, Craig Dobbie; Alan Naylor; David Thompson; Bill Aitkin; Des Young; Eddie Anderson; Willie Wintour; Brian Paton; Sgt. George Summors (deceased); Kerry Kinnaird; Willie Anderson; Brian Paton and apologies but I cannot remember who the lady was or the lad with the beard.

Had a quietish couple of days, working in The Dolphin Inn on Friday and Saturday, and on Friday night attended a meeting of Honour Concorde and Fidelity RA at Loanhead - where, although numbers were much reduced due to the North Berwick Installation being on at the same night, we had a good meeting, even I had to do a wee bit on the floor - but a quick meeting which allowed for some socialising afterwards.

A run out to Linton Village (West - that is)

On paper, a day off, but only from my duties at the Dolphin Inn. Off first thing on the "steed of steel", dropped in to one of the farms to see how the staff and beasties were doing, then into town to see the folks at the college. On the way stopping on Braid Hills Road to take the photo of Arthur's Seat; the Crags and the Royal Observatory.

Was not sure where to go next, but as it was a nice day I just headed south west on the A702 and ended up in West Linton, not far from home but generally by passed by hundreds every day. At one time there were two Linton Villages, one in East Lothian near Haddington, and the other (37 miles away) here in Peeblesshire - which caused a great deal of confusion until the Post office came up with a simple solution - add West and East to the respective village !!!

West Linton in the 1600's was a busy place, sitting on the cross roads of two major drove roads, the east west route from Ayr to Musselburgh following the route of an old Roman Road, and the north / south road crossing the Pentland Hills allowing cattle traders to head south to the English markets.
I had passed the clock tower and turned round for a closer look at the statue, to discover that it was a replica, placed there a few years ago. the original was carved in 1666 by the Laird , a stonemason, of his wife. He ( Gifford) also carved the nearby Gifford panel which is now sited in the wall of a house at the side of the road. Within a radius of about fifty metres there were a number of interesting objects to look at, the schoolhouse; the church house; and some wall plaques which I still have to find out about.

Thinking back to my days in the Polis, the local resident policeman, and last of the local bobbies, from the late 70's till he retired was George McGill, who firstly served at Bonnyrigg. One of George's stories was of a couple who had lovely window boxes on the front street which he passed most days - it was one of those days as he passed when the "penny dropped and the light came on" - on checking he discovered that they had a lovely crop of Cannabis growing there!!!!

Installation at 500 ; sad Hibees and soapy waters

No photo for tonight, no reason why not as I had the camera with me last night for the Installation at Laird O'Cockpen 500, - however it was a great night, good turn out considering that Douglas Neil was going back into the Chair for the third year. Very good degree, excellent ritual by the Installing Masters, Alex Moonie, Glen Merrick, Bert Waite, and Jim McQueen, MBE, RN (Rtd). The following meal, again first class with "beef olives" for dinner - 500 does it in style. Congratulations to Sparky Mark for his promotion and to Tam Finlay for his 1st speech at a formal dinner.

Work progresses at the Mercat Bar, and one by one the final little tasks are completed - hopefully the clients will appreciate the finished article and enjoy the new ambiance on offer.
In the meantime, The Dolphin Inn is welcoming back old faces, and we acknowledge the anniversary of the untimely death of Steven Curran, whose life was so shockingly terminated by Lee McNamara.

To the present, not like me but I thought I should watch the Hibs - Celtic clash in the Scottish Cup, even called up brother in law , "Willie" , of Eagham and had him tune into BBC Scotland - things looked promising with Hibs charging into the lead and remaining there till half time - BUT = second half, all woe to the Hibees (and William )as Celtic rattled in four goals in twenty minutes - reason enough to switch over to the man of nature, David Attenborough for the new series of Frozen Planet . A marvellous programme, just an incredible documentary of natures awe inspiring events.

Bad enough the financial problems in the USA, now the Eurozone is looking "awfy shaky" - and from the amounts involved it cannot all be blamed on the "thieving , robbing, greedy bankers", more like incompetent politicians - and of course the "power crazed bureaucrats of Brussels are not helping with their expensive squandering - but I digress once more. :-

A wee thought, we complain because we have to pay 130.5p plus per litre for petrol, an essential to keep the country moving, BUT at Tesco's (again) I happened to " spy with my little eye", on the side of the washing up liquids, that they were doing the usual comparisons xxxx per 100ml , and xxxx per litre, so being nosy I discovered that you could pay (in store) anything from £1.70p to £3.50p per litre - for something which just gets washed down the drain !!! Being an old Scout - we used to clean our pots and pans in a cold stream with divets (clods of earth and gravel) from the banks of the stream, just as effective. So far I cannot recollect seeing anything in the media about a crises in the supplies of washing up liquid, or shower gel, or shampoo, etc. - do we need all these washing cosmetics - what is wrong with a "guid dunk in the burn" ?

Just have to wait and see what is in store for tomorrow .

Birthday memories of the late Grahame Allan Snr.

Inabsentia, many happy returns Mr Allan - had you still been with us you would have been the same age as me now !! Bit coincidental - but this morning put on the radio and first tune was an oldie by Crispin St Peters. "You Were On My Mind", which was perfectly true - woke up during the night and had a wee blether with you and your lad.

I think that RGB and Claire are meeting up today so no doubt you will be one of the main topics of conversation. Pity you had not been here these past few weeks you could have shared the load with us, doubtless falling out with RGB and all in the process, but I am sure you would appreciate the end result.

Got to hit the trail, and as usual the majority of our chats were short and sweet - Regards - all the best - Pork Chop.

Many hands make more than the light work

Monday night and trying to stop the aches of the weekend. Thought I was having a quiet day on Saturday as we set off for the town - Mrs. B. took to the shops and me for a wander - firstly past the new tented village parked on the recently laid pristine lawn at the base of the monument in St.Andrew's Square. This was one demonstration in a series taking place around the UK to highlight the raping of the country by the bankers and economists. From there it was onto princess Street - being raped by the tram workers - how many times have we seen the "modern workman" having to redo their shoddy / shabby work - and being paid for by the ratepayer of the City.

In Princes Street Gardens, by the Ross Bandstand there was an assembly taking place before a rally and march through the City by "The Hardest Hit" the disabled, wheelchair bound, etc, making known their plight.

Nice morning so I stopped for a wee seat in the sun at the quiet side of St. John's Episcopal Church and found the gravestone of Anne Rutherford, mother of Sir Walter Scott.
Wee thought to myself, never been in here in all these years , so I had a walk into St John's Church, how beautiful,our City is so lovely and has all these unexpected hidden treasures - hidden in the sense that they are so obvious we never look at them.

But, to continue, on to the Mercat Bar, where chaos reigned as the tradesmen tried to get the refurbishment completed for a.m. Sunday morning's planned opening !!! We thought that another four hands might help so it was home and a quick change then back to get stuck in with sleeves rolled up - understatement - everyone was really "knocking their pan in" / no slackers here, painters, electrician, joiners, tilers and cleaners - and the work went on, and on, and the cleaning went on, and on, and on, and at 5 a.m. Sunday the cleaner arrived to find eight dirty tired folks still working away .

BUT - it did open at 8 a.m. to a champagne breakfast with fans there to see the Rugby World Cup final.

In the meantime- it was bed time for the night shift !! Tired and sore with the unexpected exercise / work. But the old body was suffering seriously when I awoke a few hours later, oh my goodness, paid the price for an enthusiastic pair of hands. So now, thirty six hours on, still suffering a bit, but it was worth as - although the refurbishment is by no means finished, the Mercat Bar is looking good, a big transformation over the course of a week, well worth a visit.

Tesco's Daily Diddle - Part 2

During this evenings visit to Tesco, Penicuik, these were two of my finds - just not make sense to me. - but it certainly pays to pay attention.

October 49 Club lunch, Roxburgh Hotel, Edinburgh.

This months 49 Club lunch was held at the Roxburgh Hotel, Edinburgh, an excellent venue - with the wines being sponsored and chosen by Bookers Wholesale .

There were eighty two people present which is the biggest attendance for a long time.

Bookers supplied five wines, and one of the members, Ian McNeil, a wine taster ( and driving instructor) gave a short description of each wine between courses.

A day off in sunny Edinburgh.

Change in the weather this morning, lovely bright day, but cold and with frost forecast for tonight - summer is not even a memory any longer - but looking on the bright side - we did not have a hose pipe ban!!!

So, off to town today, few jobs to do and I ended up in Palmerston Place, where our beloved tram workers were hard at work digging up the same road that had been open for over a year, and as usual we had one digging, one watching, one supervising and the JCB driver as an interested onlooker !!

BUT - the first of our new £2million trams has arrived, now safely locked away in the custom built depot at Gogar.

Wee walk in the sunshine and ended up passing the home of our author, Robert Louis Stevenson - nice bit of the town, and I can just imagine him sitting there in the nearby gardens - bit of a change from the Island of Hawaii where he died.

For todays OOOO factor we have a tottie wee dog.

Tomorrow - lunch with the 49 Club, so I had better take a camera again.

Tesco's daily diddle

Big article on AOL today and in the press about the so called bargain offers by Teso ( who are not alone by any means).

Here are two of their neat little offers on display in Penicuik yesterday - I do not need to explain I hope.

Might even make this a wee feature in future.

Long day on the road

Looks like more days lost - how time flies. BUT I did sit down last night to write up the continuing adventures, however an unexpected phone all from RGB, leading to a dramatic !! rush to town to do a bit of emergency tiling in the Merat Bar to enable the kitchen fitters to get on with their refurbishment today. So of course, no early bed, but still had the early rise to head for Glasgow and then Risley . The M74 and the M6 was a bit of a nightmare, heavy rain, gusting winds, hailstones (yes), and in the wee Smart car - an adventure, bouncing all over the road - no time to doze off today.

Thought I was doing well until I ran into a massive tailback of slow moving traffic between J26 and J21A - queues of lorries, made me think that several years ago the then Government pledged to get freight off the roads and onto rail - big no no there when you see the thousands of lorries on the roads.

However, I did make it to Risley in time to sit in the car park while a heavy "Squall" passed over, hailstones and all - new mug of tea, bacon roll and then north again.

Belated birthday greetings to Jock (Sunday name John) Sked who had a super lunch with family and friends at The Dolphin Inn on Sunday - hopefully he will enjoy his DVD of "Whisky Galore", between episodes of Mrs Brown's Boys.

Still, get time to regroup now, couple of quieter days with things to do in town.

Tripped out for thirty six hours

Saturday already, and not only did Wales lose valiantly to France - when they should have won on the missed penalties let alone the fact that their Captain should not have been sent off - yellow and sin bin maybe , but not a red. However, that's the luck of the draw - maybe !!

For me, the last 36 hours were lost, missed a meeting on Thursday which I really should have been at as it was work related. My trip to Risley on Friday was postphoned till Tuesday due to a fatal accident - so next week is already messed up - Thursday night was a Lodge in Council Installation - missed , and Friday night , more importantly - missed Simon Fairly's installation into the chair at Esk 42 RA - apologies from both myself and Sparky, who was had a short notice call for help to deal with a "goosed" central heating boiler.
BUT I did ( as I was not on the road to Manchester) get called in to substitute for Derek Paton an electrician friend at the weekly meeting of BNI TGI at the Marriot , Maybury - big change from my last trip where half the group and about one hundred guests all ended up with tummy bugs - we had plenty of hand disinfectants, on hand yesterday. Reminded me a bit about a hotel i once stayed at in the Dominican Republic , checked it on Trip Advisor and found that there had been an outbreak of sickness, etc there - however on our arrival, place was spotless, and there were ladies stationed all over the complex, especially outside the toilets and as you went into the dining and bar areas armed with skooshie bottles for your hands - we had no problems that holiday.

But I digress -BNI - we were talking about "memory hooks", i.e RGB uses " remember folks it is not the Meercat, it's the Mercat" ' Derek Paton - says , "you wont get a shock when you get my bill"; and one of the ladies, Gail Scott of Pru Healthcare, says , "better to have it and not need it , than need it and not have it" !!!

So, in the meantime the Mercat closes tonight for a few days to allow for a refurbishment, lick of paint, new floors, new furniture, sort out the "loos" and do a bit of staff training - and with fingers crossed we will hopefully be ready to open on Friday next with a bit of a party.

Tasty wee "Hazy View" South African Pinotage helping with this epistle today !!

I have been building up for a real rant over the past few days, fistly - "celebrities" or so called or in their own minds, having watched editions of "Celebrity Coach Trip" and "Celebrity come dine with me" this week , the big question was Who ? Who? are these people, I knew Bobby George the English darts player who did remarkably well considering he did not even start playing darts till he was thirty one - down to earth , Chantelle - friend of Alex the fighter - who admitted that she had a brain but it did not function as well as others did !!!!!!!!!!!!. on the bus , two silly gits from Big brother - ????? - who my budgie could outclass , and the only one I knew initially was Michale Barrimore of "why did you drown on my pool" fame. Which is a bit unfair as I did like him in his Quiz shows before the unfortunate incident at his home.

Politicians - WHAT THE HELL WAS LIAM FOX playing at- I followed this story, had planned on doing a few words, and in the meantime he has upped and resigned - what a disgrace. Hopefully there will be a properly conducted enquiry into the events and the actions of his his so called friend and their backers- remember - there is no such thing as a free meal.
Why do we have legislation on tyres? why the rules on car exhausts? Ask the motor trade who lobby our MP's.

Which reminds me - green energy - big carry on at the moment as they plan to shut down Cockenzie Power Station and upgrade the boilers, etc. At the moment we would need 1200 new windmills on the site or offshore to replace the power station - BUT - we need wind, not too much - because too much and the turbines will break - so in conclusion , green energy is not all it is cracked up up to be.

An old Harley Davidson makes its appearance

Nice day today and I had my steed of steel booked in for a MOT test at Tranent - which was good for me as I keep forgetting when they are due. But on arrival there was this lovely old Harley Davidson parked up in the yard - recently imported from the USA - not sure what model it was, about a 1355 cc engine and I thing made about 1976 !!!

And I did get a new MOT, no problem

Tom Archibald - well kent , now at rest

Funny how names and people keep cropping up, sometimes after years - well this happened to me yesterday when I read an obituary in the Edinburgh Evening news for Tommy Archibald.

I first met Tommy in 1964/ 1964 while I was resident at Sedgefield in Co. Durham - one evening all these "green Civil Defence" vehicles arrived at our training school - a police / CD Mobile column, heading from Scotland to London and changing hands en route as it passed through the various Police Regions - taking part in a regular national exercise.

I met up with the motor cycle outriders from Edinburgh, Tam , and his pals who were surprised to find a young Scot from Currie in residence in this forbidden land. They left a couple of days later for destinations unknown.

It must have been about three / fours years later when I met Tommy again , this time at Loanhead Police Station where i was then stationed. He appeared with a colleague from the Edinburgh City Police on their shiny Police motorcycles. It was unusual to see out City Brothers out in the County as we did not always see eye to eye, however I discovered that tom was from Loanhead where all his family lived, hence the visit, a quick sneak over the boundary for a cuppa.

Over the following years I met him from time time and became friendly with other family members, Jimmy - who worked as a "bouncer" at the Casino - Nivensknowe, and we would head for the Woodville at 2 a.m. for a late supper / early breakfast.

I have a sneaky suspicion that it was Tommy who got me my motor cycle boots, black leather "gold Tops" which I still wear, some thirty years on.

Tom was offered a job with the Scottish Crime Squad as a surveillance rider , but turned it down as it meant using a sports bike rather than his police tourer.

When he retired from the Police he became a driving instructor, and as he then lived only a couple of hundred yards away from me on the main road I would see him several times a day , patiently putting his students through their paces. - a very good instructor, well thought of and successful.

He eventually decided to finally retire and moved away, when I lost touch till last night's notice.

Tommy Archibald - R I P and my condolences go to the family

Harley Davidson's and the Widows Sons

Appearances can be and are often deceptive - as many discovered yesterday at the charity football match. A large number of motorcyclists appeared, mainly riding Harley Davidson motor bikes, and all in their leathers, patches and all. The "Widow's Sons" - is the title they use when out as a group, all very active Freemason's and all involved in various fundraising activities around the United Kingdom.

They were kept busy running up and round the block with passengers who all popped a couple of bob in the charity box.

My surprise of the day was discovering that the owner of one the bikes I was photographing was a former colleague from my days in the search teams - and a total transformation from the close cropped clean shaven "young" lad I used to know!!! now happy, retired and the proud owner of mega smart "hog".

I look forward to seeing them down at the Dolphin Inn in the future.