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.