Birthday wishes

Three birthdays in quick succession - PP, RMc and SW. Happy birthday each of you. My own passed quietly with a nice gift from J and a parcel from home. The winter hat, gloves, and scarf are just what I need, and no, I haven't opened the parcels in Christmas wrapping yet. This weekend it was clear and sunny but below zero for most of the time. I've been wearing my long-johns to work and really needed them.

It was the same last weekend when we went out to Haddington see a colleague of J's. Fine day, but freeze the balls off a brass monkey. The ye olde village was nice for a brisk walk after a cuppa, and then we did a drive out Hailes castle. We chased a deer along the road but it got away, so no venison for dinner. The poor thing was in a very narrow lane so there was no escape to either side and it had to run in front of us for a while before it found a way out. There wasn't much left of Hailes, so we continued on to another pile of rocks called Tantallon. This was very impressive, built on a headland with cliffs on three sides. It was unusually high so I was a little unsettled on the windy battlements. What was left was very impressive, so the original must have been quite something. It was brought down by Cromwell's men after a heavy bombardment, and the owner, Douglas, didn't quite appreciate the redecoration, so moved elsewhere.

Monday was the last night of badminton, although I have the dinner in two weeks. It has been fun, so we've signed up again. I played a few singles games and they get you moving a little more than the doubles. I managed to avoid either smacking myself in the face or hitting J with the shuttlecock, so that's got to be a good thing.

On Wednesday we popped into town to see them turn the lights on. J had a prescription to pick up so we dropped that in and walked out to find we'd missed the moment. Never mind - as N at work says we can just keep our eyes closed then quickly open them and pretend. There were all sorts of stalls, mainly from Germany for some reason (perhaps they do Christmas better over there?), and fair-ground rides including a Ferris wheel and merry-go-round. The lights were OK I guess, but you wouldn't pay money to see them. We went to Wannaburger afterwards which I can't recommend: partly cold and completely overpriced burgers, although the thickshake was nice.

News from JP is that AtB would like to have our manuscript by June-July which puts the pressure on me to get the outstanding photographs done. Italy here we come. I've sent out the first feelers for my next article, but it depends on the National Army Museum allowing me copies of photos to match. I bought a volume of the British official history of the Italian Campaign on Saturday, so there is a start.

The biggest news (so saved for last) is that my wife is leaving me. She flies off on Wednesday for NZ and won't be back again....

...for 4 weeks will be rather weird for both of us. She'll come back to find the kitchen full of dishes and ready-meal wrappers, the floors covered in clothes, and me with a 4 week beard. She'll be fairly busy catching up with people, while I slave away on more bloody pipes. I'll miss her.

The Accidental Blogger

How slack am I? A couple of weeks since the last blog I think.

Well, nothing's new at work for either of us. J is counting down the working days 'til she heads home, while my job stretches on to the horizon like a desert...

Two interesting election results, though I far prefer the US one. Both have been handed a hospital pass with the onset of recession if not worse, but Obama gives the impression of a breath of fresh air, while Key seems stale or even malodorous. We'll see how they both turn out.

We had a few car problems that have now been resolved. First our tax disk (rego) expired and a comedy of errors ensued. We hadn't changed our address from Bristol so that complicated things, then we didn't have proof the car was insured. We finally got it all together but not until after the expiry date. Then J was informed that the rear lights weren't working, so she had to get that sorted. Three blown bulbs and the fact we occasionally have to bang the dashboard to get the dials to work make us think that there's something else going on. It's time for a checkover I think.

On a related topic, we got our refund cheque for our parking ticket. Yay.

Last weekend we caught up with some Kiwis up from London for the test match. R is the son of a hockey teammate and a colleague from school, and his girlfriend was an ex-student from my computing class. It might have been a bit wierd for her, but they were good company. We enjoyed the match although I thought the Scots deserved more reward for their efforts. It was strange to hear so many Kiwi voices and to see so much black and white. Sorry the pics are blurry - it's my Parkinson's I think.

I am now a published author, my first solo article being published in AtB, Number 142 (available only in specialist bookstores generally). I'm quite excited but now have to push on and do more.

It's a braw, brict nict och the noo

Or some such nonsense. It is Autumn for real with daylight saving this last weekend and a very cold snap to accompany it. It put us off visiting the Falkirk Wheel so that'll give me something to write about in a week or two.

Work goes on as usual, although we have finished the first of the four phases of our project and are into the second which if anything, is even more boring. Again they don't seem fully prepared for us...

J is suffering the attendance of The Auditors at her work, and it would seem likely they won't be impressed. The company's accounting seems to be totally disastrous, so I wouldn't be investing in them in any hurry. But who's got money to invest these days anyway? Have a look here for an indication of the Scottish job market. Scary. And England isn't any better!

We went to badminton again tonight. I was total crap. Sometimes you just can't see the shuttlecock to hit it, and that was tonight all over. Still, it's a good runaround.

This morning I walked up the alleyway to catch my bus and found myself walking through the middle of a fire cordon! A run-down cinema/snooker hall near us had recently been bought and was being refurbished. Sometime on Sunday night it caught fire and when I came through at 7:15 there was water, fire hoses, smell, firemen and women, policemen and women, etc, everywhere. J and I had slept through the whole thing. The buses were diverted so I was late, then my Ridacard (renewable electronic bus pass) had run out of credit so I had to scrabble for change and finally they had no newspapers on board to keep me diverted. Mind you, last Monday was even worse as I managed to break my Ridacard in half and leave both my ID and entry key tag thing at home...

We went to Tropic Thunder a couple of weeks ago, which was actually OK. Good for a few laughs anyway. We might go to another tomorrow night - Ricky Gervais is in a new one that has had a good write-up, or the Coen brothers have a new one out as well.

Nothing much else has happened. I think my next article will be on a Commando raid in December 1943, so I'll have to start digging into the archives again for that. I was looking at getting down to London while J is away (Italy's weather wasn't looking good for photography so I've decided against going there) but in the end the accommodation ends up being a bit of a killer so I'll take a staycation instead and visit some of the Scottish archives if possible.

Another week

We had a nice night out on Thursday - plenty of good humour and good company. It was to celebrate one of the project team leaving - or 'escaping' as we prefer to call it. Our decision to leave was probably a timely one as I had just done the upside down pint trick which the victim had responded to by picking the glass up.

We went out again the next night but nobody else turned up. We got a call later when the first people arrived 2 hours after the supposed start time. The organiser didn't arrive until 2 1/2 hours after he had stated! This is the same guy who owes me L5 for a bet he lost and won't pay up. Lucky for him he graduated this week so I can't give him too much stick.

Today LH arrived to spend a few days with us in Edinburgh. We went for a stroll to show her the neighbourhood, and tomorrow will go see Edinburgh Castle and a little of the old town. It's nice to see her and catch up with some goss from home as well.

Little else has changed so this is a short one. Look at the pics instead. 8-)

Oh, W and I have started another game, and this one is looking bad for me so far. There's a pattern emerging here don't you think?

Not a good morning

We had a good sleep-in this morning and got up to find two anonymous notes in our letterbox complaining about our selfish slamming of doors. This followed one we had recieved last week, also anonymous. Given that we hadn't opened the door since getting home the previous day we were a bit miffed. You can imagine that we weren't happy with gutless anonymous notes, so we have posted our (named and signed) reply on the downstairs door. Our neighbour opposite made the effort to say hello and tell us they hadn't noticed any particularly noisy door shutting, so we can rule them out. 8-) Actually we are virtually certain it is the two downstairs - one an elderly lady, the other unseen - who seem to have got bees in their bonnet. I was tempted just to tell them to F-off, but instead asked them to come and talk to us. We'll see if that happens, but if they want a war they'll get one!

I managed to slice my finger quite deeply this morning so that's bandaged up and causing problems typing.

Oh, yes. To add to the great morning, we got a letter from our ISP saying that we'd gone over our 'fair use' allowance and would have our connection throttled back to dial-up speed next month in punishment. I've appealed, but if you are expecting any large attachments from me next month, you shouldn't hold your breath. We had been watching on-line video (having no TV) and this seems to have swallowed our allowance and then some. Unfortunately the warning letter arrived today but advised us that we had to cut our usage in the month up to Sept 30th to avoid the punishment - rather difficult if we are already over!

Earlier in the week we had the dreadful news that one of my colleagues at OGHS, and a flatmate for a time (KYg), has been diagnosed with lung cancer. Our thoughts are with her.

The economic news continues to be bad and I can't help thinking that this is how people must have felt as the Wall Street crash loomed in 1929. The timing could not possibly have been worse with American elections crippling any reasonable response for fear of picking the wrong 'side'. Who'd've thought we'd hear George Bush and the multi-millionaire CEO of one of the biggest finance companies in the world being accused of being socialist! I had thought that lessons had been learnt from the Great Depression and that controls in place would prevent anything similar happening again. So too had politicians and financial gurus I guess, so everyone has had a nasty shock. Could this be the end of capitalism as we have known it, to match the apparent defeat of world socialism over the past 20 years? Or will the world markets continue to be driven by those only interested in profit once the dust has settled (like Chinese milk product manufacturers and their ethically confused NZ shareholders)? JP Morgan Chase seem set to continue for one, having picked up some bargain basement competitors. I hope those teaching 'Origins of WW2' are milking the parallels in their classes.

Regardless, my job continues in its inevitably boring fashion. We have completed the Scottish pipes in Phase I of this project and started the Southern (English) pipes yesterday. The landmark was celebrated with cake and drinks and a "thank you" from the boss. NOT. The first escapee appears to have been settled though, with Noni heading off to a programming job next week, subject to reference checks. Hooray! One up for the escape committee. A shame though as she was one of the faster working amoung us. I accomplished little yesterday, as for many pipes I couldn't even find the street, let alone the pipe! I feel a field trip to Lambeth (also home of the IWM) would be nice, but I think I'll struggle to convince the powers that be...

On that boring note I shall sign off...

A weekend away

We got away for the weekend as you will have read in J's blog. We toodled up through Perth to Forfar via a couple of castles and so on. There is no shortage of the former in the area, that's for sure. We didn't actually stop in Perth and will do that some other day as there is a great castle there - Stirling - which also houses the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders Museum and Archive, and the Black Watch museum is also in the vicinity.

Instead we saw a few little castles on the Saturday and a big one - Glamis - on the Sunday. The latter was where the Queen Mum was born and often lived. It was a good example of a lived-in castle, but it's all just a reminder of the huge gap between the classes over here. Sometimes the overwhelming feeling wasn't to be impressed, but rather faintly disgusted.

On the way back we saw some Pictish carved stones. These were the predecessors of the Scots, at least in the east of (present) Scotland. They were Christians so the carvings were combinations of Christian and pagan symbolism, some of them pretty gruesome. We finished the trip by driving over the impressive Tay bridge at Dundee and visiting 'Scotland's Secret Bunker' which isn't so much a secret any more. The latter was built during the Cold War as an early warning radar site originally, then converted later into a command bunker where a regional government could survive nuclear attack. It was surprisingly large and quite impressive for that, though the equipment now looks antiquated.

The economy continues to create headlines. LloydsTSB has bought out Halifax-Bank of Scotland, which was a bit of a shock here as HBOS was the largest bank in the country. Predictions are that thousands will lose their jobs as branches and offices are closed/combined, and of course ripple on effects can't help our own situation.

The jobs continue in their mind-numbingly boring fashion. Today one of my colleagues made the error of asking the bureaucrats whether they would like more paperwork, and surprise, surprise, they said "yes". Now a job that was taking perhaps 2 minutes a pipe will take 5. What the hell was she thinking? Sigh.

On Monday we started badminton at a local school. It was a good run around, and we weren't too bad for almost beginners. I did find that sometimes the shuttlecock went straight through my racket, but I'm sure it won't do that as often when I get my eye in.

All Blacks rule, OK?

We've settled into our routines now that we are both working, which is probably a bad thing. J still makes sure we get out and about though, and today's walk was to the cemetery to plant some heather in front of her relies' grave and thence to the botanical gardens. We followed a sign for a Wild Foods event in the exhibition hall where we found one table and an enthusiastic botanist. Rather underwhelming I thought, and hardly worth their advertising! We were expecting something like the West Coast WFF, on a smaller scale, but not that small.

The wargame was closer than it should have been - I don't think W was paying attention at the end 'cos he should have kicked my butt. Still, we were both rusty from so long not playing, so next time we'll both make fewer mistakes. J didn't like the late nights required with the time difference, so we'll have to give it a break for a week or two before we start anything else.

J and I got to see our first rugby since the World Cup, and this time the world was as it should be, with the ABs at the top. Still, it was a close run thing which kept us engrossed until the end. We are trying to get to the Test at Murrayfield but haven't found any seats left together. We'll keep trying though.

The Large Hadron Collider cranked up the other day, and there were doomsayers aplenty. People were genuinely convinced that it was the end of the world as we know it. Much of the scaremongering was by a 'scientist' whose calculations proved that a black hole would be created into which the whole earth would be sucked within a week. I suppose I might have to eat my words next Friday, (but of course would not be in a position to do so...), but I find it a little hard to credit as he is a chemist with no background in physics at all. BTW, Dad went to see the LHC when he was over last year.

The economy is in a bigger black hole though - it sucks to be frank - and the latest news is the crash of another travel group who left 65000 stranded. A company that J didn't go to work for in Bristol also went bust last week, leaving hundreds of Hens and Stags without a party. Perhaps she could have saved it? We'll never know.

It's definitely autumn here and the days are getting rapidly and noticeably shorter. I guess by mid-winter we'll be having lunch in the sunshine and the rest of the 'day' in darkness. At least J will escape it for a while, but I'll be experiencing a real Scottish winter for its duration.

Fireworks

I know more about laying pipes than I ever thought I would, though that's still not much at all. Actually the bigger lesson is how a database can fill with crap unless you have some tight controls on what goes into it. I've instituted some 'efficiencies' already, but the biggest hold-up is still the slow connection to the server. Today I hit my target of 23 investigations. Well, not really as we aren't making the changes we've recommended until our supervisors have checked our work, and that doesn't seem to have started yet.

The wargame is not going well. The Japs had a good Pearl Harbour raid but then I (as the Yanks & Allies) made a serious error and am trying to claw my way back from it. We're raiding the Japanese homeland (as Doolittle did historically) so we'll see how that goes. Meanwhile the Japs have cut off Samoa and blocked the trade route from the US to Australia. It'll take some effort to get that reopened...

J is settling in to work (see her blog from link to right -->) but it is a steep learning curve. I'm hoping she will bring home drugs to test on me.

We went to the end of Edinburgh Festival fireworks on Sunday, and they were quite spectacular. Click here to go and see some more pics.

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go...

Well, I was a little hasty in saying J had a job last week - it fell through after her second interview, but only because the job evaporated from under her! The good news is that she went for another interview on Friday and got a job that starts on Tuesday. Pay is reasonable but not as good as her last jobs.

I started on Wednesday in a crappy job checking that gas pipes have been correctly digitised. The company was poorly prepared for us, with PCs not set up, programs not working and printing not enabled for one of the necessary reports. It's one of those places where if you ask why something is done the way it is the response is always "because that's the way we do it". Not very open to change or improvement.

The programs we use run through Citrix WinFrames which means that they connect to a remote server, in this case somewhere in the south of England. It was so slow on Friday that I timed a screen refresh at 1 minute, and we have to do dozens of refreshes every time we work on a pipe. (Every time we pan a map it has to refresh, or if we turn layers off or on, or if we zoom in or out.) That morning I managed 2 pipes. In the afternoon it was better and I finished the first phase of the 10 in my batch. I asked them what the targets would be and they said 23 per day. Fat bloody chance with their infrastructure! I would think the money they are paying us to stare at a screen would have been better spent on infrastructure improvements first.

I am now being paid the same as the job I had in England the last time I was here. So much for 12 years of experience. Our team has a .NET programmer, and a graduate in AI amongst it, which gives an idea of how difficult it is to find work at the moment.

I had an interview for a better job last Tuesday but didn't get it. I've never got a job by interview yet, so I guess that says something about my interview skills.

W and I have managed to find a way to wargame by email, something I have missed for the last few years. I have just made a serious error in judgement (serious enough to cost the game I believe), but that's what it's all about. R will probably be giving W a hard time for it. 8-)

We haven't been doing too much recently as we're waiting for the bank balance to start moving the other way. J makes sure I get away from the computer for walkies, and tonight we are going to watch the fireworks at the end of the Festival. Of course it is raining.

J is signing us up for Badminton and Italian lessons. I'll have to start looking for a hockey team soon too.

My article has been mocked up and will get 9 pages in the mag which is more than I expected. If the IWM can get their act together in time it may get published in November's edition. Fingers crossed.

Yay NZ

It looks as if the Olympic team is doing pretty well even if we haven't seen any of it except as headlines in websites. I saw the Herald's table showing per-capita standings and NZ was second on that behind Slovenia. Not bad at all, and still some hope in various events running over the next few days. Of course the Brits have been doing very well too, so yay to our Brit friends.

We also hear the ABs did a better job than their opening matches and we're in to win the Tri-Nations. Maybe we'll find a pub that plays the games...

J went for an interview today, and I got a job starting Wednesday. Crap pay again and probably boring, but hey, a job's a job. Someone has to pay for my expensive clothes and coke habit.

I've been going the resources at the Scottish National Library so haven't wasted the free time too much. J has found more of her family, all of whom lived in Leith. Freaky coincidence! Most of their homes are no longer there, but we'll check another two tomorrow on our walk. It's quite interesting seeing the maps change anyway. One of the ones she found this time was demolished to make way for a raileway terminal which is now, in turn, the location of a public indoor swimming pool and a supermarket. (Whose business has been jeopardised by works preparing for a new tram system.)

Remember the query on the parking meter? It was pointed out to us that we were on a greenway, but I was interested in the Council's slow response. It turns out that they hadn't correctly signposted the greenway hours, so they are refunding our fine. 8-) Small victories...

More rain here, so same as at home really. So much for hot August nights.

Disappointment...

J's job fell through which is a real bummer. We're now living like pensioners without the pension which isn't quite the plan.

J's been investigating her family history and it turns out we are living in the middle of it! Of the four addresses she has traced so far three are in Leith and we are in the centre of the triangle those make, with none of them more than 1 km away. Sadly each of them has been 'redeveloped' so no trace of the contemporary buildings remain. (More of this on her blog.)

We spent a day in the Scottish National Library, and I shall return tomorrow as it has some good books on the battles around Cassino.

The Fringing has slowed down as the free tickets have dried up and we are rather cost conscious. We've still seen a few more of varying quality and will see more yet. Meantime we go for walks and soak up the precious few hours of sunshine that are delivered. Yesterday we walked along the Leith to the city centre. It would have been drier to use the Water of Leith Walk I suppose. The latter uses the path of an old industrial railway for much of its length and it is quite interesting to see the extent of those lines. Perhaps ironic that current debate in the city is over a passenger tram being installed, with some saying a light rail system would have done the job better...

Not much else to report I'm afraid.

Within the Fringe

Not much to report here. No work for me, but we think J has a job starting on Friday. It was supposed to start tomorrow but they weren't quite ready for her. It's not nearly as well paid, but it appears that we have arrived at a bad time economically, and we didn't bank on the different education environment which means that I can't get supply (relief) teaching even if I wanted to (which I don't), and they don't have bursars in each school (except Public - ie. private - ones). One agent asked me if we'd considered London which has got to be a bad sign.

We've slowed down on the Fringe stuff but still see one or two a day. On Sunday there was a sort of 'massed bands' fringe events. All the street performers were in the middle of a soggy paddock, while the drama, music, and comedy were in tents around same. It rained. That'll be the overwhelming memory of the festival I think. Rain. We watched a student sketch show today that had its funny moments. It was quite clear they had a slight chip on their shoulders given the many references to "Roddy" and "150 quid". It turns out that their sound-man had scarpered to Mexico with all the proceedings of the previous week...

It could be worse - we could be in South Ossetia. The poor media coverage and propaganda that is coming out of Georgia/Russia is unbelieveable. I still have no idea what is really going on. On the surface it appears that Sakashvili has launched an extremely ill-advised attempt to bring unruly South Ossetians into line. Since SO is an autonomous region of Georgia, they have the right to do so in international law. Given that Russia has 'peace-keeping' troops there though, it would seem a rather hazardous thing to do. Here are some of the questions: How serious was the initial Georgian assault? How many civilians died? Have the Russians been supporting the seperatists in SO and Abkhazia? Have the Russians actually invaded Georgia outside SO? Will the Georgians put up any sort of fight? Is the appropriate analogy Sudetenland, Chechnya or Kosovo? Should the West intervene? Could the West intervene?

Home and Away

Doesn’t time fly? We have moved into our apartment and it is starting to feel more homely. It overlooks the Water of Leith and just like Dunedin, but unlike Bristol, we have no boats going by. I kind of miss them as they gave a little life to the waterside. Here the bridge nearer the harbour is too low to allow any but small boats and submarines up to us. A bit of an oversight that.

We’ve had no hot water until yesterday for some reason, and the washing machine doesn’t work so my undies situation is getting desperate. J threw me some of hers this morning, but I’ll turn all mine inside out before resorting to that. Hopefully the electrician is coming tomorrow, but we all know how reliable they can be.

We mentioned the parking ticket to the letting agents and they pointed out that we were parked in a greenway that kicks in at 4.00pm. (Over here the greenway, aka clearway, is the rush hour no parking zone.) Strangely the council haven’t yet twigged to that and are apparently still investigating. I won’t disabuse them just in case they feel they have to reimburse us the L30 fine.

I’ve been transferring from one laptop to another now that J has her new toy. My old one is dying by degrees, so I get her old one which is marginally faster and infinitely more quiet, while she’s been playing on a new Dell Inspiron 1520. Nothing fancy, but quite a bargain. The problem is that I still don’t have enough space for all these pics! Some serious backing-up is required.

We’ve been busy with the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and have yet to be disappointed. Well, there were a couple of 10 minute spots in some showcases we watched that definitely put us off the real shows, but the ones we’ve been to have all been good to great. We went to a drama based on cockpit flight recorder transcripts last night. Aeroplanes aren’t very good at flying are they? That’s the only drama we’ve seen, all the other shows being comedies. We’ve not paid full price for anything yet, and in fact have got over half of them for free! All that entertainment for virtually nothing. (A good thing too, since we have no jobs.)

Speaking of which… The Credit Crunch and general nearing of recession is not doing well for the temp market and the agencies have been a little downbeat about the amount of work available. I’ve sent electronic applications in for several jobs but with 130 applying for basic office roles there’s clearly a bit of competition. Perhaps I shouldn’t put down my ‘Desired Role’ as “Grumpy Old Man”? J is struggling too though her skills are more quantifiable and she’s at least had her CV sent in for some jobs. She’s explained on her blog that Bursars don’t work the same way up here.

I found the Scottish Library today – a smaller version of the British National Library – and checked out its holdings. There may be a day or too profitably spent in there I feel. They also have a map library so I’ll see if they have any relevant Italian stuff. There’s an aerial photo archive reopening in a few months, and there are a couple of Regimental museums that will need investigation. If only I could make money from this kind of thing…

Three young girls were at the bus stop today. Hard looking things about 14 or 15 with the uniform of girls that age – stovepipes, those ballet shoes, or for one some stilettos, too much slap (makeup), over heavy black eyeliner – I’m sure you know the type. They were carrying on in that slightly loud, in your face way of a bratty teen, and were all eating junk food. Then one of the girls walks over to a bin and PUTS HER RUBBISH IN IT. Restores your faith in humanity. 8-)

Wait and see

Well, we went into Edinburgh again on Monday and saw a few more flats. While viewing one the agent got a parking ticket so he was probably a little peeved - that'll be half a day's salary for him I'd expect. To top that off we backed off the flat we thought we'd take through him and instead put a deposit down on one with another agency. See J's blog for details. While we did that we got our own ticket, but I am questioning this with the council as the meter appears to have made any error. In case you wonder about the significance, our ticket was issued at 16:08 - only one minute over what should have been our half-hour.

Anyway, we now have to wait for reference checks, etc. As neither of us is in full-time employment they may want to take the whole 6 months in advance which will put a hell of a dent in our savings. Still, better that than no place to live at all. Unfortunately the job situation is less encouraging for me, though J has had her CV sent off for a couple of posts already.

We went to Hancock at the movies. Average. I'm more keen to see Wall-e so we may go today, though I think J has other ideas. It isn't sunny out, but it is at least mild so I guess we should make the most of it. It's the nearest we'll get to summer it would seem.

My article is being polished off, but as the photos ordered for it are unlikely to make the November edition cut-off, it is most likely to be published in February. Hooray.

So you wanna be a writer?

Before anything else I shall share some good news - After the Battle has agreed to publish my article on 'fake' photos of Cassino, my first independent published work. Now don't all go rushing down to the newsstand for your copy because there is quite a lead time to publication and I don't know when it will actually be in print, but rest assured I will let you all know.

We've been busy flat-hunting and have a stack lined up to visit tomorrow. We missed out on a really nice one the other day, but hopefully there'll be more of the same quality.

We've also been registering with job agencies and sending off applications but J has only heard back about one position and I have had nothing at all. The problem is that I have no experience for the office/bank work I am looking for, and I don't want to do what I'm experienced in...

There was a hint of sunshine today, so J washed the car in her 'daisy dukes' and heels. Not. Somehow the old bomb passed its MoT (WoF) so we have a a breathing space to fix its major problems, but I reckon it was the dirt holding things together so we'll see what collapses first.

We visited another castle on Sunday - Bothwell, between here and Edinburgh. It was a nice example with a bit of history to it as you can see here. We had a picnic lunch and gave the dogs a bit of a run. All in all a pleasant day out. And yes, it was sunny for a change.