Are they nuts.

Hullo there ma wee blog,

one of my favourite blogs had this on a couple of days ago. The guy is clearly Scots and a bit nuts.

Small use of bad language folks. Be warned.






But then someone posted this nutters escapade and I thought that the first guy is actually a bit of a woos........

Or is this one simply using the "peril sensitive sunglasses" used by Zaphod Beeblebrox in 'Hitchikers guide to the galaxy'




Makes my recent brush with low flying { See 'Are there two G's in Bugger Off!' } look a bit pale by comparison.

see you later.

Listening to Talking Heads, 'Psycho Killer'
p.s. Had to quickly go back and alter the 1st clip as there were some links at the end of the clip and I didn't realise that one of them was inappropriate until after I posted. Really sorry if anyone saw that. I'll be more careful in future.
Al.

Time Passes, tyg, tog, tyg, tog.........

Hullo there ma wee blog,

Well, its a bit of a shock really. My morning companion of many, 16 to be accurate, years is giving up his morning slot on Radio 2. That's right. After 16 years at the helm of the countries most popular radio show, Terry Wogan, is leaving his morning slot and will be replaced at the end of the year by Chris Evans on the morning show which has a daily audience of 8 million.

Tel, whit am ah gonny day man. Nae mair poems, japes and Janet and John stories.
Chris is aw very weel 'n' guid at whit he daes like, bit ahm gettin' a wee bit auld for aw this chinge n that.

At least yer no leavin tae thi en' o thi year.............

I started listening years ago, and as a dedicated listener of, at that time, young years I was chuffed to be considered a T.Y.G. {Terry's young git} Over years I matured into a curmudgeonly T.O.G. { Terry's Old Git}.

Oh well nothing stays the same for ever I suppose.

Good as you are, and as much as I enjoy your drive time slot Mr Evans, you've got a big job on your hands to fill the gap left by the not inconsiderable girth of Mr.W.

3 months and counting........



Listening to...... Radio 2 breakfast show.

Some Books, Beer and Great Big Bangs...........

Hullo there ma wee blog,

On Sunday, after a stressful week at work, the lovely G was left early doors for a much needed long lie in while I padded off downstairs to drink coffee, potter and do some overdue housekeeping on my laptop, part of which was playing with labels for the posts on this here blog. As usual for a novice I no doubt have complicated things too much. I'll look at it again later perhaps.

I also installed a visitor counter which shows the countries of folk reading the blog. While it probably wasn't the primary reason for wanting to start blogging initially its nice to know that what I scrape out of the brain cell is read somewhere once in a while, and of course if you are here and reading the output of my addled brain then feel free to leave me a note if you like. Even if its to advise me to give up or seek professional help that's awright.

I have wandered somewhat off piste a bit here as usual. I started this to update what my Sunday consisted of.

After a leisurely brunch we decided we would go out to visit some friends, the parents of one of our God daughters, to take the wee one some clothes we had just bought for her, but as it was an off the cuff thought of course we found when phoning ahead that they were out. So we ended up at "The Fort" one of Edinburgh's prime retail locations ably designed for parting unsuspecting souls from their hard earned baw-bees.

Moi being moi, I also decided that I would opt out of the trawl round the dens of iniquity with the exception of Borders books, where the lovely G could find me when she had finished traumatising our overdraft. I have learned { painfully } over the years not to get in the way of a { read MY } woman determined to have some retail therapy, so I headed for the sanctuary of the cafe, or is it a coffee shop, what is the difference, at the back of Borders.

{I would just like to say here and now, quite freely, uncoerced and not in pain, that the lovely G is not usually guilty of traumatising our bank balance in any way, shape or form. Never know who might be reading this stuff! Jings! }

I had forgotten how expensive a simple coffee can be in one of those places.

Crivens! Mine cost me nearly 30 quid.........

But I got, ahem, free with my coffee.........

'The Alchemist' by Paul Coelho
'The Voluptuous Delights of Peanut Butter and Jam' by Lauren Liebenberg
'The Complaints' by Ian Rankin

The lovely G returned and we had coffee together before heading into town to park up and make our way to meet Marion, a friend I hadn't seen for a couple of years. No reason for that I suppose other than she has been closer to the lovely G and they meet occasionally for drinks, coffee or the odd film or theatre night.

Sunday night though we had a meal before heading off for the fireworks which mark the end of the Edinburgh festival for another year. A massive show from the castle ramparts and linked to a concert which takes place in the open air theatre below in Princes Street Gardens. We had managed to bag some tickets for access to a private party in a bar in one of the streets looking up onto the castle. Access to many roads is restricted this year because of the Tram works so it was great to be able to get into a prime location for the show.

The bar, on the other hand was something else: very trendy, exclusive and the haunt of the beautiful and well heeled of the student classes. It may come as a surprise but I dont fit into any of those pigeon holes.


Inside we were give two marbles each which we could exchange for free cocktails. The girls went for a strawberry one and a martini based one with lots of ice and vegetation sticking out of it. It looked like it couldn't make its mind up if it was a drink or a salad to me. Still, whatever floats your boat as they say. Being more traditional, read PLEBEIAN, I stuck to beer, or the closest to that which was a continental lager for a fiver {choke}. Lots of very glam young ladies either in very short cocktail type dresses with lots of bosom on display or carefully understated designer chic. The guys were uniformly 6 foot anorexic looking baa- studs with Ferrari/Porsche/other sporty key fobs in their hands. But that could just be me being a bit insecure. Just a wee bit.

Mebbe.

I fitted right in of course with my chinos and tee shirt and received several admiring glances as I stood at the bar for what felt like twenty minutes trying to attract the attention of the beautiful, over friendly and attentive - with every one else - bar staff, who, whenever they finished serving someone seemed to be so exhausted they had to go and lean on the end of the bar furthest from me and have a wee drink themselves. And a chat with their friends. And eat some canapes. And......ach well you get the idea I'm sure.

I managed to attract ones attention by cheekily dying of dehydration at my end of the bar and she shimmied - dontcha love that word - across to take my order.

In truth she was stunning, very scandinavian; short haired, fine chinned, beautifully proportioned and revealingly dressed - not that I noticed of course. Unfortunately she seemed to have failed her 'O' level basic cocktail making skills course by quite a long way and it took her about 8 minutes to cobble together a strawberry thingy and a cabbage patch on ice. After a few more minutes waiting while she showed me her A+ skills in putting a huge head on a pint, {No jokes about me asking her for that pls!.} I left with the drinks and she left, exhausted, traumatised and almost tearfully, for the other end of the bar again.

When the first bang indicated the fireworks had started and everyone left for out side - OK,OK, I admit it. That's how I managed to attract the barmaids attention, alright - and I had the drinks, I too left for outside to watch the show. The two girls had been successful in claiming a prime spot - canny fight these young uns - especially when they have their good frocks on - and we settled down to enjoy the evening.

Well worth it.

Super!

Smashing!

Lovely!






See you later.

Listening to Men Without Hats, 'The Safety Dance'

Pretty as a Picture 2

Hullo there ma wee blog,



Here's a wee walk through my photo galleries on my PC.

A flavour of me.




Cove Harbour - a pleasant mile away from the house and one of our favourite haunts.
Heritage, fishing, sea.




Auschwitz 1 main gate. We should never forget.

History, remembrance, values, honour and respect.

Life will always win through.





Beringen, Switzerland, from the Beringen Randenturm.

Family and our 2nd home.
Love and kinship.



Klosterli, the lovely G's Aunt and Uncles house in Beringen.

Sanctuary.





The Rhinefall, 2km from beringen.

Largest waterfall in Europe.

Water, nature, power, longevity.




Towards Torness, Peace.

An evening view from one of my favourite viewpoints.

Light on water.

I don't think I could ever live too far from the sea.

Spirit, place, heritage and harmony.

Hymn books, Lincoln Cathedral.

Words, history, architecture, spirit.

Craigmillar Castle, Edinburgh.

Scotland, history and heritage.

Elcho castle, Perth.

strength, beauty, nobility.

Smailhome, Scottish Borders.

Outlook perspective, security and scale.

Scone Palace, Perth.

Water on plants.

Life, succour, evolution.

East Lothian.

Home, love, peace.

Ballachuilish, Scottish highlands.

Beauty, wilderness, loss and liberty.

Dunbar, East Lothian.

Wind, sun, rain, salt air and Belhaven Brewery.

Beziers, Languedoc, France.

Faith, history, awakening, culture.

Cathar memorial, Minerve, Aude, France.

Als Catars

Faith, persecution, belief, determination and values.

see you later..............

Scunnered/Dear Lothian and Borders Police

Dear Lothian and Borders Police,

Its been raining heavily - no, lashing down - today and I should have been sensible and stayed in and not, as I did, chose to go the 8 miles to Dunbar to post some letters and get some food for dinner tonight.

As usual I took the local back road to join with the A1 on the straight near Torness power station and on joining I noticed that there was no traffic. Well it was raining heavily. There was a lot of water on the road but nothing that coudn't be dealt with by my very ordinary car as long as I took care. I was surprised to come up against a road block though, closing off the whole of the road. This was even more surprising as I came up behind the roadblock. It certainly seemed to surprise the nice police officer who got out, grudgingly, from his lovely dry van to come over and ask me what I thought I was doing.

Once I had explained that I hadn't forced my way through the road block 3 miles back but had come all this way without once passing a sign to tell me the road was closed or, as your officer inferred, that only imbeciles would drive through that road under current conditions, I was allowed on my careful way. I noticed that cars who were reaching the roadblock from the other direction were very few and these were being diverted off the main A1 onto the country road leading to Innerwick. A couple of miles further on there was another block again stopping cars coming the other way and diverting them also to the Innerwick road.

At Sunny Dunny - not very sunny today of course - I couldn't get down the road I wanted as it was closed off and had to carry on to the big roundabout on the Spott Rd junction. Of course, as per one of my earlier posts - see my rather nice wee blog Crivens,Jings and Help Ma Blog - this was jammed solid by traffic coming in the other direction blocking off the Dunbar junction at the further road block which you kindly provided at that location too. Still after a short wait of 15 minutes or so I was able to squeeze past and get into Dunbar, not as far as the Post Office mind you, thanks to yet another road closed sign on an otherwise perfectly clear looking road. So my shopping done I joined the queue back to the roundabout and again after about 15 minutes managed to get close enough to attract the attention of another constable.

Again when I advised that I came from a village in the direction of the closed road and indicated that I had actually just came down the road a few minutes before, allowing for waiting time of course, I was greeted by some lack of belief and incredulity even. I assured the constable that no I wasn't a nutter and that actually the road beyond the Torness blockade was actually very passable with just a little care. I even offered that maybe it could be opened again in my opinion. Certainly it would be worth checking out at least.

After a moment the cones barring the road were moved and I was allowed past. I noticed however that they were replaced once more after I passed. I drove on, 40mph max, and noticed that the mid point road block was no longer there. Things are looking up I thought. Another couple of miles on I came up against the initial road block again albeit from the right direction this time. I stopped in front of the cones and again the nice constable left his dry and no doubt warm van and came over to me once more. I asked if I could get past the cones as my cutoff back to the village was about half a mile further on and that as he knew I had just come down that very road shortly before.

'Not a chance' was the reply 'that road is closed. You can take this side road up to Oldhamstocks and on from there.'

I explained that I knew that road very well and there would be at least two or more places where it would be much much more difficult to get past than if I was just allowed to carry on for the half mile to the junction.

'Not a chance'

And so, within 500 yards I was maneuvering though water at least twice the depth of the main road and then on to an uphill section where there was a virtual river running down towards me. And of course there were the two bridges where there is normally water pooling even on a mildly wet day to get past too. The first was actually better than I thought but the second was every bit as bad as I feared and the water came well up over the sills of the car. I almost stalled it there, but managed to stutter out the other side with a huge sigh of relief.

All in all that journey took me 20 minutes where the straightforward option would have taken 5. The route I was forced to take was much more difficult and potentially dangerous than the main road, especially as there was actually more traffic on it than normal due to the police policy of keeping the main road closed.

Thanks for that L+B's finest.

While I'm all for public safety an' all, twas just a tad of overkill. I'm not a risk taker where safety, especially my own, is concerned and the main road would have been the safer option by far.

I have also found out that the lovely G may be stranded in Edinburgh as trains and buses have stopped running in this part of the world.

Like when we have more than half an inch of snow, it seems like a few cms of rain can bring the modern world to a complete halt. {But not in places like central Europe, America and Canada where its all part of normal daily life.}

Or do we just over react in Britain.............

Either way I'm completely scunnered.

regards,

Al.

Listening to 'Singing in the rain'..... Naw, just joking.

And in a packed news programme tonight....

The Two Ronnies

The Labour Party was embroiled in controversy last night after another four of its politicians did absolutely nothing wrong. As the Sunday Times published details of four labour peers accepting money to try and influence legislation, the party said it was not often British politics was confronted with a such a spectacular absence of wrongdoing... A Labour spokesman said the latest example of Labour politicians not doing anything wrong would be confirmed after a thorough investigation by the Labour Leader of the House of Lords. It is the first time this year that Labour politicians have done nothing wrong and comes after a series of money related scandals in which there was absolutely no wrongdoing.

Gaunny no dae that? How? Just, Gaunny no...........

Hullo there ma wee blog,

I guess I'm at an age where I get annoyed more easily than I used to. Like when I'm trying to type and I hold down the shift and letter but still don't get the capital i was looking for........

But, you see, I can accept that this is because of me, call it dyslexic fingers or whatever. Frustrating as it is I can go back and I can fix it, and thank God for spellcheck. Ok at my age I forget as often as not and have to go back and edit after posting, and as the lovely G is all too ready to remind me, my spelling was never perhaps as fantastic as I thought it was.

But dear bloggy, I digress.

There are some things that annoy me that of course I cant change and as I get older the impact of these seems to be getting bigger too. And perhaps the MOST annoying is driving. Oh I know I'm getting older and roads are busier and cars are faster etc etc etc.But I'm not that old and until recently I was driving between 40 and 50 thousand miles a year.

When dad and my brother taught me to drive, they made sure that I learned to read the road and anticipate what other drivers were going to do. That also let me read what needed to happen and to adapt and accommodate that in my driving. I learned to be considerate too and that's what is so lacking these days.

Why do so many people think its ok to drive in the fast lane all the time. It gets other drivers frustrated and likely to resort to dangerous tactics like tail gating to get the front car to pull in or to use under taking to get passed via the slow lane. Its so dangerous, unnecessary and so frustrating.

I admit I have used the slow lane to pass an non mover - its illegal in the UK to do this - and what happens? As you pass, and I normally do this quite slowly in case they do decide to move over, they bloomin well speed up and you end up havin a race to get past. Whats it all about. Its not as if I haven,t been behind them waiting patiently for them to pull over for a couple of miles. Its not as if I haven't given them a quick - and non aggressive - flick of the headlights from behind and some more time to pull over. And, its not as though I expect them to move over if there isn't loads of room. Really! But will they do it - will they heck!

One of our friends - a girl - refuses to drive anywhere on dual carriageway other than in the fast lane as she is convinced the inside lane is only for lorries and buses etc, despite being told otherwise. She normally has her small child in the car and never drives above 50 mph, even on motorways, as she gets scared. Scared is not the word. SCARY is the word, and downright dangerous. How on earth did she ever pass a test. I asked once how she felt about queues of traffic behind her and horns and lights being used etc. She admitted it did happen but didn't see it as being her problem, rather the other road users. In 3 lane motorways like many car drivers she uses the middle lane, again regardless if there is a completely empty inside lane available. Gobsmackingly stupid or what. Yet, in every other way she is a really nice and perfectly sane person.........

I actually think that what she is scared about is being able to pull out of the slow lane back into the fast/middle lane to overtake when she would have to and because of that she is in denial of the rules of the road.

This lack of regard, consideration and respect for other people is also to the fore in town with cars being blocked in or prevented from exiting from a parking place, cars are parked almost literally bumper to bumper or roundabouts are completely blocked by cars which cant get through but refuse to leave space so the traffic travelling in the other direction can go when the lights change.

And for what? It makes no difference to journey times but just increases frustration for everyone and promulgates similar behaviour in others. Result? Gridlock.

{ Hi honey, I'm home three minutes earlier than I would have been. Yes, good day thanks. I pissed of dozens of other motorists! }

In town cyclists - ok not all of you by any means - and invariably not girls- guys PLEASE note - ignore red lights and routinely ride on through or resort to riding on the pavements and among the pedestrians to get around the lights.

Last week, walking in town, I was almost flattened by a bike as I crossed at lights. A clear green man and yet a cyclist sped through. A quick step back and I got a shout and a flash of an angry face from the cyclist as he rode past.

That's right he thought I was in the wrong!. Why is that people nowadays always think they are right, or maybe more correctly deny that they could be anything but right. just because they are who they are. { Sounds like X- Factor syndrome again }

see you later.

listening to Talk Talk........Its my life