To our NHS Doctors and nurses, well done.

Our NHS takes a great deal of stick these days, however, irrespective of the politics surrounding the administration and or mismanagement of hospitals and Health Boards, an immense amount of praise has to be given to the staff who actually have to work with the sick and injured.   I obviously have to speak based on a great deal of personal experience in their care over the past ten years.  Today I visited a friend currently in Intensive Care in the Western General, Edinburgh, and was again reminded of the professionalism of the nursing and medical staff. Patients who were critically ill, totally dependant on staff for their welfare and every need.  AND family and patients showing gratitude for the care given.
A total contrast to the A&E departments at most hospitals, although I can only speak for Edinburgh, where staff are regularly assaulted and abused by drunken louts; drug abusers; and generally a great number of folks just abusing the system. Ridiculous to have to tell these folks how to behave and act in a civilised fashion.  In our so called affluent and civilised society these folks just let us all down.

As a thank you to staff, I regularly purchase a supply of pens for distribution, which are really appreciated, particularly the ones with wee light on the end, great for the night shift to read charts, etc.  Better for the Staff than the ever popular boxes of .

THE MORE PEOPLE ABUSE THE SYSTEM THE MORE LIKELY WE WILL LOSE IT.

Contrasting climates, Penicuik and Oz.

I enjoy this view of the Knightslaw Tower standing just inside the Penicuik Estate through the gates at old Tymphony Lodge entrance ( now the public car park) and at the bottom of Lowries Den.   This tower (built as doo cot) was hidden by trees and only exposed a couple of years ago,  not long before this photo was taken (no snow so far this year).   Penicuik Estate and Penicuik House, well worth a visit, although the cafe at the Old House is closed at the moment to allow work to upgrade and extend the facility, so walker remember and take a flask if you like your cuppa.

Big contrast geographically here today compared to the fire devastated areas of southern Australia, still burning today after several weeks of wildfires caused by extreme high temperatures, high winds etc.   Australia, like areas of California, Spain, and France have regions which are used to annual outbreaks of wild fires with varying degrees of damage to wildlife and property, but not to this extent for a long time.    I see comments on FP about how £600 million was raised within days to help towards the repair of the fire damaged Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris !!!    So far, I wonder, how much has been pledged to help the Australian victims.     Nice to see that Queen Elizabeth has sent a message of support to Australia, and I am sure that had she been able sho would have been one of first to go and visit with moral support to the victims and the overstretched fire and emergency services personnel.

At least the sun shines in Dubai

Despite the fact it is not too cold here, the wind is blowing the rain sideways and it is just plain "dreich".  On the other hand our friends in Dubai are enjoying very pleasant weather, which makes for a good holiday destination.    But,  for me lovely city, with incredible cultural differences,  from the Gold Souk, and old City, to the ultra modern modern central city and the towering Burj Khalifa, which at 2717 feet (828 M) is the tallest building in the World .  Our taxi driver seemed to think that there will be an even taller building in the near future ( The Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia opens this year and will be 236 feet taller than the Burj Khalifa)  costing $1.5 billion.    The Burj tower was featured in one of the Mission Impossible movies with Tom Cruise hanging on outside the building.     For a fee you can visit the Tower and take the express lift up to about floor 148 -   Not for me I am afraid:  buildings this tall do not amuse me,  a mountain that height no worries, but the thought of this toppling kind of worries me.

I stayed at the Hyatt Regency, near the harbour and Gold Souk, and was quite happy to dine in the Revolving Restaurant on floor twenty five, perfect, with excellent views and a superb dining experience.
While the rest of the World is being forced to look at alternative power options for cars, the locals are using petrol which costs less than bottled water, so there were plenty of large and top of the range models to be seen

I suspect I would have needed a bit more credit on my "plastic" to afford any of the above !!!   Just need to stick with "the Steed of Steel" meantime.

The demise of the Royal Family, I hope not

What can I say,   I respect our Royal Family, have met the Queen, Price Philip and Prince Charles,  total respect.   It is so disappointing to see Andrew screwing the system, and hitting the headlines in the press and bringing the Royals into disrepute - just what the Royal bashers wanted. 
This evening I watched the Royal Variety Performance an saw Kate and Wills genuinely enjoying the performance.   This mornings papers had photos of Harry and Megan in Canada having not joined in the traditional Royal X-mas family gathering with the Queen.    Not sure why Harry has allowed this to happen, but his marriage to a money grabber may well be playing right into the hands of our aforesaid Royal bashers. Strange to see nothing ever printed about her divorce from first marriage or her hunt for a celebrity husband.    Now the young Royals are supposedly involved in a ratings race on the Internet !!  No thanks.
Despite everything,   the late Princess Diana, was an absolute gem who probably would not have liked what was happening.

2020 , perhaps a light at the end of the tunnel.

Wishing everyone who enters this page a Happy New Year and belated X-mas Greetings.   It might appear obvious that there has been a massive change in my blogging activities over the past months / year, mainly due to a period of ongoing illnesses.  However, at this time and date I am keeping fingers crossed that things are on the mend.    Maybe just as well, as the two motorbikes are needing a bit of a well deserved run (another couple of weeks maybe)
We missed out on our usual X-mas day shift at the Mercat Bar and Grill, however, working on the principle that "no man is indispensible" the Staff on duty all did well without us and the clients enjoyed a marvellous X-mas lunch.
Now into the new decade, and one of the new developments I have spotted today is the new high speed train in China, 217 miles an hour over a distance of 105 miles.  Built in advance of the Olympics, remote controlled, etc    What a difference to Scotrail who have just announced even more losses and whose reputation is in tatters.
I suppose hat much as we would like to, we cannot ignore politics !!!   Corbyn, supporter of IRA and other organisations, leftist, etc, must have been living in cloud cuckoo land if he thought that Labour would succeed in the last election.    Boris the buffoon, to his credit did well and with fingers crossed will prove all his doubters wrong, get the UK out of Europe in one piece and back on a level footing again.   
I suppose, in the same breathe I have to say, in my opinion, that Miss "cranky" Sturgeon, with her obsessive behavior has still not shown any interest in the welfare of the Scots,   our NHS, Education, transport and infrastructure are all in a total shambles - so Indyref 2 will achieve nowt,  better to wait off a couple of years to see how the Brexit thing works out.
Nice to see the greedy Eurocrats peeing their pants at the potential loss of revenue from the UK - better still if they all got sacked and lost their grossly inflated pensions.     HOW MUCH DO OUR PENSIONS GET EACH WEEK COMPARED TO PIGS IN THE EU TROUGH.

My starter for 10.