The Edinburgh Festival

One thing I have never tried is the Edinburgh Festival, but that all changed last night. I was through in Dunfermline dropping off a coach and making my way back to Glasgow, using the train. Now anyone who travels this route may know that to get to Glasgow from Dunfermline, you must first travel to Embra. This might seem like a big chore to some people , but to me its just a big adventure.

So whilst enjoying a pint in a cozy wee pub I procured a programme full of information about the festival. One show caught my eye as I had read a review about this show in a newspaper so, after some detective work I soon found out where and when it was on. It was called Dixie's Tupperware Party, it was on at the Assembly Rooms in George St., and very good it was too. It was a very tall man dressed as a woman doing a Tupperware party, very funny and a well attended venue.

My work

One subject I haven't covered in this blog is my work. I just had to let my fans know about this exciting project we got involved in. This is a one year old bus belonging to a large bus operator in the Edinburgh and Lothian area, with a chassis supplied by a well known Swedish manufacturer and the body build by an increasingly successful Irish bus body builder.( Names omitted to protect the innocent)

The problem was the chassis had developed a crack running upward from a bolt hole in the nearside rear chassis module at the front where the chassis joins the bodybuilders sub chassis.

The solution was not so easy. Firstly the chassis manufacturer didn't have the facilities, nor I think the knowledge, to carry out this repair, that's why it came to us. At no time during this project did they offer any kind of procedure as to how it should be done, so it was left to us to devise a method of inspecting and repairing the crack to the manufacturers spec.

It was decided that the chassis should be propped in six places using the back chassis module as the level and levelling and propping the rest of the vehicle at a further 6 points. Four props were also welded in place on the floor and bolted on to the body to ensure that it stayed firmly in place. The next job was to remove all wiring, airpipe, power steering pipe and airtanks, before finally removing the massive joining piece between the rear module and the body sub chassis, effectively halving the vehicle in mid air to allow clear access to see, and then repair the crack.

The moral of this story is, I am a wee bit more capable than some people in the industry would give me credit for.

Butterfy Ball by Roger Glover and Guests

I can remember this wee video from 1973 well, my dad got me up out of my bed on a Sunday evening to watch it. It had won some sort of award for being the best animated film that year. I spent years looking round record shops and the likes trying to get a copy of the song and eventually put an ad in the yellow paper. I bought a copy on tape from a girl in Greenock, who played it over the phone to make sure it was the right song. I remember she was wary of my motive for wanting to buy the tape and kept asking if I was going to use the song in an advert on the telly. Of course I denied all knowlege,but the song did appear on the telly not too long after on some kids drink advert.

Glamis Castle Classical Music Evening

Once again it was time for the Glamis Castle music event and very good it was too, the Sheep ( my pizza and chillie con carne stealing friends ) were all at the Tartan Heart festival near Inverness, so off I set off to Sunny midge free Angus. Forfar bridies are great at this time of year.

The Edinburgh Blues and Jazz Festival

Well fans,thats me done the jazz thing. The Saturday afternoon was great up in the Grassmarket but am sorry did not enjoy the evening show in the Hub one bit. Jazz is not my thing.