Blasdale Home Website

The mobile home has now gone. The new owner decided he could not move it, so he burnt it down. Two fire engines, and the police arrived. Very luckily the wind was blowing the right way, otherwise probably some of the other house’s could have been damaged. The flames leapt high into the air, clouds of black smoke and sparks were blown acroos the builds. Again luck was that these did not catch fire. Rosemary failed to take any pictures, something to do with not being able to operate the point and click camera.

Selina, Graham and I went to see Guns N Roses play at the Wembley Arena. The first band, Skid Row, started to play at 7.00. American Rock band, very anti George Bush and Tony Blair, kept referring to them as Tony Bush and George Blair. Next was Bullet for My Valentine, a British band who had been touring with GNR for the European Tour. AT 10.30 GNR started, and the place went wild, no one was left standing at all. The show ended at midnight. Axel Rose was taken ill during the show and did not perform the last set, with Paradise City. Instead front man Sebastian Bach from Skid Row performed. It was reported that the show almost did not happen. Axel had been advised not to.

Some good news though, we exchanged and completed on the sale of Mobile Home land. This has been a thorn in our side for a couple of years now. We (together with neighbours) were forced into buying the land and mobile at an exorbitant amount, the alternative was to be faced with a gypsy encampment and wholesale flouting of planning regulations. We managed to sell a small building plot, (replacing the existing mobile home), allowing us to recoup some of the money. We have come out of this a lot poorer, but at least without a mass of caravans etc next to us. So at least, with luck, all our house prices have not been depressed.

I have finished another whole week in Edinburgh. This time travel was a little easier than the previous week. Travel was almost on time. Return flight was a little late, so was unable to make the party at New Horizons the new gym which has been opened at Haddeneham by Nigel Stone. Nigel worked at Walker and Cedar for many years, and now has his own business.

24th July 2006

Flight to Edinburgh left and arrived on time. Good days work at the bank, followed by a Meal at the Petit Paris. Went for the full works, a Terrine to start with, followed by Toulouse Sausage, and finally a Creme Brulle.

25th July 2006

Ate at the Radisson hotel today. Normal fare at the Ichy Coo bar.

26th July 2006

Edinburgh is still managing some good weather, the place is full of people, there will be even more when the festival starts. Went vegetaria! n today, and ate at Black Bo’s

27th July 2006

Another uneventful day, and an evening in at the hotel. The nice Scottish bar maid was on duty today, so had someone to chat to for a while.

28th July 2006

Back home on the Easy jet plane.

It was again a very cool misty start to the day.  Where is all the heat from down South.  Dinner in the hotel, and at last the draught beers  (well larger) was on tap.

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It was a little warmer today, but cloudy.  Had lunch at Tiles with my work colleagues, a rather large chilli burger.  I left work at 4.00 to catch the 6.05 Easyjet to Luton.  We eventually left Edinburgh airport after 9.00.  There was a three-hour delay in the flight.  There had been some technical problem with an aircraft, needing a replacement plane and replacement crew.  Much warmer in Luton then Edinburgh, and there was thunder and a small storm during the night.

Simba joined our family as a 6-month old via vet brother-in-law Peter and came all the way from Cornwall. She was always one to climb, thieve food, scrabble furniture & carpets and generally misbehave. She was also an outrageous tart around any male visitor whether human or canine. Her great claim to fame was washing father-in-law’s border collie’s face for him (obviously she had thought it dirty), which totally ruined the dog’s street cred. In her pre-mother days, she managed to knock over a bottle of whisky and we found her absolutely blotto in her basket. I rather fancy she’d washed her paws clean after walking through the spillage, there were certainly sticky footprints everywhere.

Selina and I chose Simba’s mate at a local breeder. We thought him very handsome with a wonderful nature, but Simba thought otherwise and managed to rip his ear on her second conjugal visit to him. But, even so, we all saw Rizzi being born in March 1989. We were delighted when we saw Rizzi had pink pads because that meant she had her Sorrel Abyssinian father’s colouring.

Rizzi’s full name was Adkrish Apricot Rizzini, but she was always known as Rizzi. She was that gorgeous sorrel colour of her father but some ignorant humans thought she was an odd coloured, ginger moggy and therefore male! For some reason, Rizzi was never as friendly as her mum and rather inclined to hiss and spit. She became very much a one-person (Rosemary) cat after Simba’s death. Like most cats, she could disappear at the drop of a hat and once did so to such an amazing effect that Rosemary was summoned and had to drive home 50 odd miles from work to help look for her. She eventually materialized and you could have sworn she was saying she thought she’d better hide while all the shouting, calling and crying was going on. Like her mum, she could never understand the human idea of bringing flowers and plants indoors, other than as something to play with and chew, although cacti presented more of a challenge, but did not defeat her. And for an indoor cat, she had a shocking kill-record of birds, mice and sundry insects. She was an excellent companion when Steve was away during the week and upheld her end of the conversation usually better than he would have done.

Simba was put to sleep in March 2003 and Rizzi in July 2006. Rosemary was privileged to be with both cats at the very end.

This morning flew to Edinburgh from Luton for a five day stay, allows me an extra hour in bed.  Luton was in absolute chaos; the checking hall was totally full.  Start of the holiday season I thought, but apparently Easyjet had a problem with their booking system.  They delayed all their flights by over an hour to ensure passengers were able to make it to through to departures.  Even so someone did not make it.

Flying up I was able to see the coast line from North of the Wash, round Norfolk, Suffolk, and down the Essex coastline.  This was while flying over Northampton.  On arrival at Edinburgh, found my laptop was not in the overhead lockers, so I rushed out of the plane, barging past everyone, and managed to find the culprit who had taken my laptop.  He had accidentally picked the wrong case, though the ones left in the locker seemed very different to mine, and he had still not noticed when he put papers into to bag.  In future I sh! all take more notice of what people are taking out of the locker as they leave. 

Ate in the hotel today, sitting at the bar.

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Another sunny day, but not very hot. 

Had supper at Time-4-Thai.  I have eaten there before for lunch with the other bank people.  The waiters and waitresses are very attentive.  Had a mixed platter of starters followed by a green curry.

Had a call from Mary and Ed, met up with them at the Bank Hotel.  They were sitting outside drinking wine, with 3 others from the bank.  Couple of them were staying in the Raddison hotel.  Have not bumped into them.

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Woke to a very cool day.  Arthur’s seat totally covered in cloud, and the cool easterly wind blew al day.  The sun broke through later in the day, but it remained cool all day.

Project lunch was with my colleagues at Zest, Indian restaurant next to the office.

Stayed in today at the hotel, eating a small supper of very rare Tuna, and a! plate o f chips

Early morning drive up to Gateshead for a training course.

Made it in reasonable time. I stayed in the Tulip hotel; Internet Access was working this time.

Tuesday was a continuation of the Monday.

Wednesday was getting up to speed on the work I will have to do in Saudi in a month’s time. I will continue with the install work back in the Aylesbury office. Then the long drive back home.

Decided to visit the Plough and Anchor for lunch, one day until our wedding anniversary.  Rosemary and I had an excellent lunch from the a la carte menu.  Rosemary chose the Shredded Crispy Duck, and I the Steak Neapolitan.   After the meal we lay around like rotten sheep.  Managed to get out and mow the paths through the fields after the rain had stopped for a while.

3rd July 2006

Up early and back to Edinburgh.  What a change, Edinburgh was freezing cold, cloudy and miserable.  By all accounts the South is still as warm as before.  Hotel had allocated me a room on the wrong side of the hotel, so unable to pick up the free broad band from the Mai Thai.

Ate at the Mai Thai, very nice green curry.

4th July 2006

Another cloudy day, with low cloud obscuring Arthur’s seat.  This evening ate at Zest, where I had a very entertaining evening.  The waiter became very animated about Portugal and football.  The restaurant is Indian run and the waiter was from the Goa, which has very strong Portuguese connections.  He also was a Roman Catholic.  I wonder if he has met Richy.

5th July 2006

There was a loud clap of thunder part way through the day.  The sun actually came out at one stage in the evening.  Watched France win against Portugal at the ! Mai Thai.  Very scrappy game as the French held on to their 1 – 0 lead, at one stage all the Portuguese were in the French side, including the goal keeper in a last ditch attempt to save the match.  The Portuguese constantly diving and arguing for fouls spoilt the game.  They should have been yellow carded.  Oh and had some very nice Dim Sum rolls, followed by a curry at the Mai Thai.

6th July 2006

The day has started off sunny, and remained fairly hot through the day.  Visited the Mai Thai, yet again, and had a red curry and Jasmine rice.   It was very good, washed down with a few Krony.  Spent a few moments talking to the owner.  For me the Mai Thai is an excellent venue, free internet access, a posh restaurant (if needed), a bar where you can drink, eat and surf, TV to watch the games, and relatively cheap beer, though I need to get them to serve some real ale.

7th July 2006

Today was the final day at the bank for a week.

The weekend was very hot and dry. Saturday reached the dizzy heights of 30 degrees, Sunday was even hotter at 33. The met office is giving out warnings about the heat, dehydration and old people.

BBQ warmed up for lunch, we had some excellent, very good local English lamb chops bought from a recommended butcher in a local village Launton

Watched the football match as we were beaten by Portugal. The behaviour of Portugal was disgusting. The whinging of Ronaldo all the time was disgusting, and the falling over and playing hurt by Portugal went beyond a joke. The ref should have yellow carded a few of them. And as for the treatment of Rooney, it was unbelievable, a red card, no, yellow maybe yes. It looked so accidental.

Think the cat was terrified at my shouting and cheering.