52 not out

Scotland - the land of devils in skirts. Spent the week working up there modifying some call centre gear. Drove at 4am on Monday to Birmingham airport to catch a flight to Edinburgh and met a colleague who came over from Texas for the same gig. He looked like papa smurf so I found him easily at the airport. Then the fun started. I had a map showing me the way to the first customers call centre which was actually near Glasgow so we picked up the hire car and set off. I have never seen so many roundabouts. They were every 100 yards or so and the yank and I got horribly confused. The funny thing was that we had to do the same journey every day and somehow found a different way every time. Another thing that caught my attention was that call centre people are usually in the business of communication but neither of us could understand a word they were saying. Ken, being older than me hid behind the excuse that he was hard of hearing when someone said something to him and then looked at me for translation. All I could do was nod and smile. One day in a cafe there at 6am I asked what was up for eats. She said something and I said that would be great - blank faces all around then until another woman in there who was laughing at this point told me that she said the place wasn't open yet.

Anyway, a busy week - one day worked 36 hours straight but got back in one piece on Friday around 5pm. No time for sight seeing unfortunately and even if there was time, it was thick fog for most of it.

Saturday, Nov 11 my 31st anniversary. Went to the pub and was greeted by the locals bearing gifts. A copy of a book called Grumpy Old Men and a doll called Phillipa Hole. We spent ages blowing it up and had no energy for anything else Had lots of laughs and ended up taping her to a friends front door at 2:30am whilst he was asleep. Phillipa has since disappeared but I think she'll be back sometime soon.

Great news this week is that brother Chris is coming over on Dec 28 so with Pete arriving on Christmas Day that completes the family set. First time ever we'll all be together for the festive season and first time for 8 or 10 years we've all been together at the same place since San Francisco.

As always, love to you all. Keep in touch

P