Edinburgh

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Friday was Children in Need Day.  So the bank had a dress down day.  Not well advertised.  Very few people had heard of the dress down day.  I went to the loo and changed into my jeans and Fat Face top.

Worked till 4.00pm and took a Taxi to the airport with Jon.  There was an unusual queue to get checked in with Flybe.  There though was the usual half hour delay in their flight leaving.  As we were about to leave, the pilot mentioned we might not be able to land at Birmingham.  Something to do with fog, and there I thought the pilots on these planes were just accessories.

The flight down was uneventful, and very clear.  Just seems Birmingham was foggy.  We came into land, and then hit the fog, which was worse than expected, so the landing was aborted, round again and then a second attempt at landing.  This time the fog had cleared to some magical limit and we touched down.  Actually we really only saw the land when we were over the runway lights.

Getting out of Birmingham was a nightmare.  Could not get onto the M42, so I took the decision to drive to Coventry and the A46 to the M40.  Back eventually at 9.00.  Must update the time sheet to include the extra hours of travelling.

Edinburgh

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Thursday was another pleasant rain free day.  Bit cooler then yesterday.

Spent all day working hard, and then back to the hotel to change into jeans.  Had a walk around the castle area before meeting up with Jon for a drink in one of many bars.  Had my most expensive beer ever.  Should stay with the standard beers and not experiment with those Belgian wheat beers.

Ate a curry at Balli’s on Hanover street.  Pretty good chicken green chilli.

Edinburgh

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Up early at 6.00 am to catch the flight from Birmingham to Edinburgh.  Flybe should have left at 8.30, but eventually left at 8.50.  Cloudy all the way up until Scotland, where the clouds broke.  Rough landing because of the strong winds.

Day was a lovley warm day, with sunshine.  Got to the Bank and spent most of the day getting my new code into their development environment for testing.

In the evening went out for a beer, and then a meal with Mary Devine and Jon Marshal at an Italian called The Patio.  The waitress, a mature women, was one of those who could recite the whole menu in glowing terms.  She had to have eye contact while doing this and chose me.

I had smoked Tuna, and lamb, but was able to finish off Marys Monk Fish, which was delicious.

Afterwards a brisk walk back to the hotel on the otherside of town.

Eclipse

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Another week has gone by.  Not a lot to report, the weather has been mainly dry with some quite sunny days.  Friday was such a day with temperatures of 20 Celsius, the weekend was a little cooler and Sunday eventually ending in rain.

Spent rather a long time on Friday and Saturday evening in the Plough and Anchor saying goodbye to a friend who was off to New Zealand for three months.  Odd we were still there hours after she had left for home.  On Saturday evening at around midnight, I say the start of the shadow appearing on the moon for the full eclipse, so rushed indoors to tell Rosemary, and get the camera.  By the time I was out again, clouds were covering the sky, so I never saw the eclipse.

Sloe Gin

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On Sunday we picked the Sloes, diificult because they were all on high level branches.  There were masses of Sloes.

Filled two litre bottles with Gin, sugar and Sloes according to last years recipe.

Guernsey

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We are back from a week in Guernsey, staying at Le Grande Mare.  On this visit we decided to forgo the car, and use the public bus service.  This had several advantages, cost a lot less, allowed us to drink in restaurants, and meant we did not have to do circular walks, or retrace our footsteps.

The weather started out reasonably fine, midweek there was one day when there was rain all day, and another day when we were caught out and had to don our waterproofs.  We did quite a lot of walking, walking the Southern cliffs, and the Northern coast.

We also visited quite a few restaurants, taking advantage of the October TennerFest promotion on the island.  Many restaurants vie to produce a two or three course menu for lunch or dinner for 10 pounds.  You can then vote for your favourite restaurant and the winner gets some award.  We still think Da Nellos was great Italian food, and the No 44 Indian Restaurant next door did some really unusual good Indian food.  We ate three times at Le Grande Mare, and that was excellent too, much improved over when we first visited several years ago.  The Hollows a Greek restaurant at La Gouffre was a bit of a disappointment this year.

There seems to be the usual closed streets where the drains, or pipes are being replaced.  The new airport terminal, which was started last year, is nearing completion and looks quite smart.  The Royal Bank of Scotland has a fabulous new building under construction on the harbour front at St Peter Port, along with many new open and closed market flats.

Most museums were open until the 31st of October, so we did the round of those we had not recently visited.

To Warwick to collect our photo competition winnings

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HotSpring, from whom we bought our hot tub, ran a photo competition earlier this year.  They wanted to create a portfolio of pictures of their hot tubs in British settings for their showrooms, instead of the usual US based photos.

We won a runner up price of £100 credit note to spend in a showroom. 

Today we went to chose and drove to their Warwick showroom, which was nearer for us than Reading (where we bought the tub), but seemed quite a bit smaller.  The portfolio was there and our picture was the front cover!  Not sure why the winning photo was not the front cover.

So pop in to your local hotspring show room, and you will see our hot tub.   If you buy one, please tell them we recommend you

Royal Bank of Scotland again

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Another week at the Royal Bank of Scotland.  It will be the last for a few weeks.  Then I will have a portable computer and will start my diary of a consultant.

So to get started I can say the week was a beautiful sunny week. I arrived at the bank at 10.45 on Monday after an uneventful flight from Birmingham on FlyBe.

Evening was a meal in the hotel (Apex European), and then reading an Ian Rankin novel.

Tuesday, out for a meal, a Thai.

Wednesday an Indian at Zest, and lots more lager while watching Newcastle at the Standing Order

Thursday Japanese at Izzi, and then finished the Ian Rankin book.

Friday back on the plane at 14.45, (30 minutes late)

Work on the house

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Saturday was a wet day.  Not heavy rain but light drizzle.  With that and Rosemary’s cousin arriving, no work was done around the house.

Today was cold, breezy sunny day, so I waterproofed the front of the house with Silicone in preparation for the wet and windy winter.  Looking at the state of the wall, I think I must do a bit of repointing this winter.