Planes and boats, etc, in sunnier climes

I know that I do go on about the trams and pedal cycles in and around Edinburgh, and quite rightly so,  however on my recent trip to Gibraltar I was lucky enough to be there when the QE 2 was visiting.  One of our friends was on board with his wife and said they had a fantastic time, upgraded to a suite, etc.  Still did not stop them getting off to pop into the local M & S Store.

 Just coincidental that while waiting for the QE 2 to sail, two of the military planes took off from the airport and headed out to sea,  not sure what they were geared up for,  could have been searching for drug runners, submarines, etc,  but impressive planes which went out every day we were there.

With so much smuggling going on across the border, of drugs and tobacco, the Police were very active with high profile patrols,    this patrol boat was in the West Bay beside the airport, where,  with only a few yards to the border  cigarette smuggles were very active. £2.60p for a packet of twenty,  half the price they are in Spain and £6 less than the UK,    good old British Tax laws.   Still no match for the high speed RIBS which cross the Straits from Morocco at up to seventy miles an hour and can only be caught by helicopters.

 As Monarch Airlines recently went bust, there are very few airlines other than Easy Jet and British Airlines flying into this small but modern airport,  unusual in that all traffic from Gibraltar to Spain is stopped when planes come in to land as vehicles have to cross the runway.  One thing I did like was that the Duty free in the airport was cheaper for drink and tobacco than the local shops and they supply tamper proof bags which allow you to transit / change planes on the way home without the risk of having anything over 100ml confiscated.   Even the cafe in the airport was cheap, unlike the usual rip off establishments in the majority of airports around the world.

Time for a rant, again Black Friday

What a bloody scam,  Black Friday, tons and tons of cheap junk imported and then flogged off at so called bargain prices,  there is not a single retailer who loses money on these events, just another super marketing strategy.

In Edinburgh, the highly commended German Market,  what a load of marketing crap, folks queuing to buy goods at inflated prices, rip off day, and the guy who franchises the whole set up just sits back and runs his hands as the coins roll in . Not bad if you can get away with it.

Nightly runs into the City are now a nightmare with dozens of cyclists and many more pedestrians running riot on the roadways, and of course the tram ways,  centre of the current public enquiry, which is revealing massive negligence by all sides, least of all the City Council.  In the meantime, who gives a sh*t about the many businesses who went to the wall due to the tram debacle.

Winter appears to arrived on our doorstep, or in Penicuik at least, a wee bit snow yesterday, heavy frost last night and now that I have four new scrapers and five bottles of deicer, car managed to hit the road this morning.   Just need to see what happens am  Sunday

Home, up and running at long last

Now been home from my adventures in the sun for a week plus.   In the meantime I eventually managed to get rid of my TalkTalk account which was unbelievably poor,  every time the phone rang I lost my broadband connection.    So despite impending repercussions from Talk Talk,  I have gone to a company called 2Circles who appear to have fixed all my problems.

Masonic season in full swing now, between blues, reds and OES  four nights this week, then it gets busier!!!

 This was one from the Installation of Bill Annand to the Lodge of Instruction in Gibraltar.,

As previously written about,  this was me receiving a plaque from the  IPA team out there where every Officer was an enrolled member.

Added this one from the recent trip to India where the two Ann,s , William and |Sandra covered a massive mileage,  saw the Taj Mahal,  Golden Temple,  Red Fort , etc, organised through Newmarket travel.

First you go up, then down, then up, etc., no options

well, it is now our last few hours here in Gibralter before jetting off to cooler climes.  Been an interesting week, plenty to see provided you can cope with the hills!!!  It is fine here if you can stay outside the defensive walls and walk around the marinas and areas of reclaimed land,  however once inside the walls everywhere is either up of down, steps, ramps , some steep and some very steep, end result for me is two rather knackered knees so it will be back to the pool for me to ease them off.
yesterday I had “a fair daunder” as they say, round the marinas, police and navy docks, though the ship repair yards and eventually ended up at the Police Headquarters where I managed to meet and say cheerio to Craig , my IPA colleague.
From there it was another zig zag course though side streets, the Botanical Gardens and then I stopped in at the lovely Rock Hotel for a nice cafe latte.   Downside of the hike up the hill, was the struggle downhill into the town centre, bit of an “ouch” journey, not quite following in the footsteps of mountain guides.
Lunch was a trio of tapas in a wee Spanish bar, then home to rest.
Evening was our third Masonic engagement, witnessing the installation of the new Mark Master to the St Thomas RA chapter No 168.  This wa a relatively short ceremony and all present then headed down into the Main Square where a superb farewell dinnner had been organised in an Italian Restaurant.

Floating hotel, The Sunborn, wee bit of a contrast.

once again, managed to wake up to sunshine and enjoy the same all day, which comes a bit of a surprise to the locals who usually have rain at this of the yea4. Watching the weather news, kind of chilly at home, and rain with high winds over othe parts of Spain.

One advantage of bein* out on your own is that you can stop, start, and 2ander as you please, so today I did that and thoroughly enjoyed myself. right down Main Street, through the square and out into Ocean Village where I wanted to see the. Sunborn which is a five star floating hotel, a purpose built ship brought in on a piggy back vessel and docked here. it is beautiful, superbly furnished, , casino, nice restaurant and facilities and overlooks the marina and aerport runway.  Has a chat with the staff who allowed me to wander about and take photos. Managed to watch an Easy Jet come in and land at the same time wa watching aPolice boat on the lookout for cigarette smugglers.

Back up into the town and ambled through a warren of narrow side streets, stoping for coffee at The Star pub, and then eventually sought sanctuary in the lovely Kings Chapel, which is part of the Governor’ s Mansion. Nice and peaceful, and while ther met a local lady who gave me a bit of the history of the place and some hints on places to visit.  Told her where I was staying and her advice was that in future I should spend an extra £20 a night and get a bit more luxury, wherever I went.

Ev3ning was spend at a meeting of the Calpe Lodge, No 325 of the Irish Constitution where they had a candidate. very interesting and quite different to our own workings.

Armistice Day in Gibraltar

Woke up with the birds and had an early breakfast,  but considering that I fell asleep at 4.30 pm last night and never made it out during the evening, so a lost night.

Our group headed out and bagged a good site near to the war memorial so we could watch all the activity around the wreath laying, etc.   Very good turn out from all the services plus local cadets and then the veterans.  We must have stood for over two hours, and whilst we were in the shade many were in the sun, so a number of the youngsters fainted with the heat, keeping the St John’s Ambulance staff busy.  The Governor General and a number of ranking dignitaries were present and after the service and wreath laying spent a lot of time passing through the ranks talking to those on parade. An excellent ceremony.

One of our friends from Dalkeith, Esk 42. Peter Allan, called to say he had arrived on the Queen Elizabeth cruise liner,  but as they only had limited time it was a quick look around the Peninsula then back for a 2pm sailing.   I did try to get into the docks to get some photos but was turned away asInhad no pass so had to fins a suitable vantage point to seethe QE sail off.  photos on Face Book,  Probably not planned but two of the military planes took off as the ship sailed.
popped into Morrison’s supermarket, as one does, stood in a queue for ages only to be told there was a thirty minute waiting time for food, so between that and no one serving in the bar, yes in the shop, was not impressed.

However,  more impressive was the Bastion Centre, which was formerly part of the military operation, but is now a big leisure complex with a bowling alley, ice rink, cinemas and restaurant.

Bumped into my IPA colleague, Craig Philbin , who was on duty for the parade and had to apologise for missing his performance at the jazz festival last night.

So now I need to see what happens later today.

Not a sheep or a goat in sight,

A sunny day here in Gibralter yesterday, ideal for a run round the Peninsula with Craig, one of the local constabulary and very active member of the IPA.   Picked up at the hotel and had a very interesting four hours visiting all sort of nooks and crannies around the Rock.   Certainly not good for the old ticker, some of these roads are so narrow and steep, an absolute nightmare.   [Nearly forgot again,  despite the rocks and hills, not a sheep or goat in sight, just hoards of monkeys who were ambushing the tourist, nicking their ice creams, etc.]Not the place for high speed Police pursuits.   We did Craig’s. “Grand Tour” right round the coast line , through the tunnels, visited St Michael,s cave , but it was a bit of a nightmare as there were queues of taxis ferrying the tourist who had come of the Thompson Inspiration cruise liner from the harbour.   plenty stories from Craig about the activities of the drug runners who are brining in large quantities of drugs from Africa across the Straits and into Spain.   Wee bit of practical experience, when having just told me all about the cigarette and tobacco smuggling between Gibralter and 🇪🇸, we actually came across a pair of “spotters” on the lookout and then a local packing cartons of cigarettes under the seat seat of his car ready to drive over into Spain where they double in price.   In this instance the guy was very lucky, lucky, indeed and left with a warning and a trail of adrenaline!!

Met up with Some of Craig’s IPA colleagues in the local Police / IPA Club for lunch and received a lovely IPA plaque to bring home as a momentous.    No idea how to get the photos onto this blog. Hopefully I will get to meet them later in the week.

Taxis arrived at the hotel to take our group up to the Masonic Hall, a lovely place and home for several different orders.   We were there to see our fellow me,her. Bill Annand being installed into the chair of St Bernard Lodge of Research, No 1817 S.C. where after the installation we had a meal and drinking!   I hasten to add that me being a party pooper did leave before the rest and was in bed at a reasonable time and sober.

Another trip organised for today,    Photos being popped up on my Face Book page until I fathom out how to import photos on this I pad.

Gibraltar kiss is a bit different from its Glasgow counterpart.

morning has dawned here in Gibralter , and thinking it was going to be sunny and warm here , found it ever so chilly last night and no hot water bottle with me.

Had two good flights with BA from Edinburgh to London and then to Gibraltar, both left on time or a few minutes early and both were ahead of schedule on arrival.  Just a pity that BA have gone down the Ryanair road and you have to buy your drinks and snacks unless in upgrade section,  but not the end of the world.

Was last off the plane in Gibralter and lovely lady at immigration stamped my passport and received a RA 500 pen for her efforts.

Not going to comment too much about the Bristol Hotel yet !!  Give myself time to acclimatise to the surrounding,  but it is certainly not in the same class as those that Mrs B, And co are staying in in India.

Met up with my local Police,  IPA contact, Craig, last night for a quick chat and am now about to head off with him on a grand tour of the area. !  Could be interestin*.  So watch this space.

Nearly forgot,  a “Gibralter Kiss” is what they call the dents on the cars here, all the motors seem to have a multitude of bumps and scrapes which are inevitable due to the tiny wee narrow streets here.

Just a wee one before bedtime! Where have we heard that before.

All packed and place tidy, not that it will last for long with RGB about!!!
Mercat Grill ticking along nicely and there will be birthday doo this Saturday , a thank you for regular customers over the past seven years we have been there. Just a pity I will miss it.

Chose not to buy any newspapers this last week, really depressing most of them, even the football results depending on you you support.

Bloody carry on and a half in Muirhouse, Edinburgh with the local headbangers rioting and attackin* the police with paving slabs and fireworks resulting in injury to so the officers.  Time to bring back zero tolerance policing and do away with this nanny state that Nicola and her namby pamby cohorts are forcing upon us. hate to say it,  but with the current legislators and the state of Police Scotland we can only expect things to get worse in the future.

From other media reports there have been numerous other incidents with fireworks during the last week or so, resulting in some very serious injuries, blindness, etc.  At least we are coping wit( fireworks and not firearms as is the case in th USA.  Totally unbelievable to numbers of categorised “mass shootings”taking place, and with Donald Duck in charge, who clearly supports the right to bear arms, there is no chance of a change in their gun laws.   Surprised Mr Duck did not pop in to see that other bampot in Korea while on his soirée to the Far East  compliments of the USA taxpayers.

Steed of Steel is away indoc getting new front forks fitted which will make for a much better ride once I get back and on the road again.  

Just need to get up in time for the plane in the morning !!

Surprise , surprise, Halloween over

Bit of a shock to me to see how long it has been since I last wrote on this blog.    I was seriously peed off by an friend who cast some off hand comments about blogs and Face Book, which put me off writing, especially when I was not out and about as much as normal.

Anyway,  now quite the opposite with plenty activity going on,  just reinstalled into the chair of RA 500. Laird of Cockpen,  which is ten years since my original installation.   Visiting RA chapters, OES , and also 720 Dalhousie, Bonnyrigg when I can.   Even the Squaremen who have started their new season.  So plenty to choose from.

OES Persevere,  closes tonight for the last time and going into reponement.

Ann, Annie, Sandra and William are in India on a tour and are off to the Taj Mahal today,  said it has been lovely, good company, excellent hotels, etc,  but still have a train journey north to the Golden Temple at Amritsar.     Sounds great.

I am off to Gibralter with some brother s and companions to three meeting there over next few days  so not as hectic a time as India would. Have been for me, but following medical advice gave that trip a miss.      Might do a follow up later.