Edinburgh, June 2005

Tuesday 28 June 2005. Edinburgh was a regular calling place when I was working in the Higher and Further Education sectors. My job was to help and support managers of colleges and universities to successfully identify needs for business change and bring it about successfully and positively.

I taught strategy, process review techniques, risk management, project management and change management. The project management was about introducing new ways of doing things based on an understanding of reviews of an organisation's business processes. The change management was about supporting staff through the change, ensuring they understood the needs, supported it as much as possible, and were trained in good time to be ready to change from one way of working to a new way.

Other topics I covered were managing programmes of multiple projects, business and community engagement and records management. With Edinburgh being a major hub for Scotland as well as having three universities and several colleges, it meant that I was a regular visitor.

I had my favourite restaurants to visit depending on which part of the city I found myself in. Often I would arrive in the early evening the day before a training session and the photo here shows that it was taken at 6:30pm from the clock tower, which is part of St Cuthbert's Parish Church. The church on the left is St John's Scottish Episcopal Church. St Cuthberts possibly dates right back to the lifetime of the saint, though the building has been destroyed and rebuilt several times over the centuries.

The current church dates from 1892-1894 and replaced a Georgian church of 1775 which itself replaced one of two centuries before. This one saw Jacobite supporters troops stationed there in 1745 at which time David Williamson was minister. His manners were so impeccable that he was known as Dainty Dave. In the early 1800s at the height of Edwardian grave robbing, a watchtower was built in the churchyard which still stands.

In 1773 when the Georgian church's predecessor was being demolished, workmen discovered an urn containing an embalmed heart. It was thought to be that of a Crusader that died and his heart was returned to his family.

Seen in this and the previous photograph is Edinburgh Castle atop of Castle Rock. This latter is the remains of a volcanic plug of a very hard type of basalt. Standing proud above the city, its strategic and defensive position is obvious, but basalt does not hold water very well and a 28 metre (92 ft) well had to be constructed to supply the castle which even so would often run dry during a long siege or drought.

At the foot of Castle Rock are the Princes Street Gardens. The same movement of ice during the Ice Age that was diverted by the hardness of Castle Rock, created a hollow on the north side of what is now the Royal Mile slope up to the castle. A marsh was formed there and King James III of Scotland ordered the hollow to be flooded to create a better defence to the castle in 1460. Named Nor Loch, in the ensuing centuries it became a favourite spot for suicides, a cess pit as sewage drained or was thrown down the hillside and a place where criminals were executed by drowning. This latter practice was outlawed in 1685.

Nor Loch was drained in the 19th century and Princes Street Gardens were created from 1820. During the creation of Edinburgh Waverley Railway Station and the railway tracks leading through the gardens towards it, several bones were found of drowned victims.

Princes Street itself is found on the north side of Princes Street Gardens and dates from the latter half of the 1700s, laid out along a line formerly occupied by a country lane, Lang Dykes, dating back to medieval times. Originally planned to be named after Edinburgh's patron saint, St Giles, the name was objected to by King George III, as it reminded him of the slums of St Giles in London. It was instead called Prince's Street in honour of the King's son, later King George IV but by 1840 it had lost its apostrophe which had tended to move about variously as "Prince's" to "Princes'" and back again, causing confusion.

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The Edinburgh Parthenon

Wednesday 26 April 2006. I'm in Edinburgh to do some training at Edinburgh University. There were many such visits to Edinburgh, sometimes to train university staff and sometimes to train staff from local colleges, these latter events being arranged by the local JISC Regional Support Centre.

On this occasion I climbed the hill from the eastern end of Princes Street up to the Parthenon. Not quite with the same weight of time behind it as the one in Athens, or even with the same purpose in mind, it never-the-less is an imposing sight from below. There was, perhaps, a brief thought along the lines of "where's the rest of it?", but hey... The tower on the right is Nelson's Monument. It supports a naval semaphore. A string of these were built within sight of each other originating at the Admiralty in London and in emergencies a message could be sent to the far end of the country by waving the arms of the semaphore. Given how many days it would have taken to travel by ship or overland in those days of wooden fighting ships, the semaphore could be used to gain intelligence of enemy shipping movements. Or a dispatch rider could send, "Expect me on Thursday - have the kettle on..."

In the case of this particular tower, it would be clearly visible by telescope from any Naval shipping moored in the Firth of Forth below me to the north. Together the Paqrthenon and Nelson's Monument make up the National Monument of Scotland, a memorial to the Napoleonic Wars.

A telescopic view from the same spot brings the Firth of Forth a bit closer. The Royal Yacht Britannia is moored there and open to visitors since its retirement as a conveyance for the Queen.

Edinburgh is somewhat hilly. In fact it is bewilderingly laid out with fairly steep roads suddenly crossing deep ravines. One such is Low Calton, over which this archway was built to take the Great London Road across the fifty foot (15m) deep ravine. It was opened during the visit of Prince Leopold of Saxe Coburg, later King Leopold I, the first king of the Belgians and the uncle of Prince Albert, the consort to Queen Victoria.

One of the buildings of the Edinburgh University.

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Wild Hairy Scots With Big Bent Swords

I spent a day up in Edinburgh this week, doing one of the occasional training session I still do for Jisc infoNet. I travelled up the night before and whilst walking up the Royal Mile I had a sudden flashback to a former life as a longbowman at the Battle of Bannockburn with a huge hairy Scot coming at me, waving a sword!

Then I realised it wasn't June 1314, but the last day of April 2014! I blinked. Again... No, there was definitely a huge hairy Scot waving a sword! Only one thing to do in fact.

Say hello, have a chat, take a selfie! Nice guy! Always gets a seat on the bus...

Busy Busy Busy!

Hi folks, remember me? I seem to have spent this week on the road. On the road, on the rails and in the air to be precise. I spent the first half of the week up in Musselburgh which is just outside Edinburgh.

Then on Wednesday night I had a dash to the airport to go to Belfast where I had a really good day with a great collection of participants as I delivered a Project Management workshop.

I flew back to Manchester on Friday morning. There seemed to be a gamekeeper's trip as a number of young men in 1950s tweeds, caps, trilbys and even a deerstalker invaded the cafeteria.

Then a short delay caused by a stewardess breaking the aircraft's fold-away steps as she dragged them up into the aircraft... We had to wait for engineers to come and get them into the plane so we could take off and then we all had to use the steps at the front of the plane to get off again.

I got to the station in time to wave goodbye to the disappearing Blackpool train, but got home safe and sound.

There was a very important person to see on Friday night. Our lovely little Grace!

Off the Rails, On the Road

Dear diary...

The week started with a train ride up to Bonnie Scotland. Edinburgh in fact. The train was packed with people lugging heavy suitcases - ye gods, how did those poor people manage in the 1950s and 60s with those tiny flat leather suitcases? At least in the 1930s and 40s they had trunks. Not the swimming kind you understand... those knitted woolly things with a gusset that hung down to your knees once wet would have been useless for carrying clothes about on holiday.

These days though people drag hard plastic cases of the size you might see on the back of a lorry having just brought it from the port. Anyway there were lots of those on the train. And the journey was enlivened by a loud American telling a woman, who insisted her dog had to have a seat, how to react when coming face to face with bears, moose and wolves. All of which roam the streets of Edinburgh I expect...

I was staying in the Travelodge on St Mary Street which has the advantage over lots of Travelodges that it has a place to eat in. Not that I used it at night but it did mean I got a breakfast on the two days I was working in Edinburgh!

At night I mooched along the Royal Mile and ate both nights in a Garfunkels. The prospect of an Eastern European trying to explain to a German couple what mushy peas are was quite amusing. He obviously had no idea apart from the main ingredient... Just for the record, you do not prepare them like mashed potatoes... Although just down the road a bit they prepare Mars Bars like fish and chips I suppose...

Anyway I arrived home by another train which was much less crowded on Wednesday night in time to hear about the cat having been taken ill on top of my desk (note to colleagues - that's why I had to ask for replacement memory sticks to be sent...) We may have to replace the telephone too... Luckily the puddle didn't reach as far as the computer!

Then today I've been in Manchester at the JISC Regional Support Centre Northwest's annual conference held this year at Manchester University. Nice car too - the hire company dropped off a brand spanking new Hyundai i30 with only 19 miles on the clock. I haven't smelt that new car smell since I was a lad and Dad bought a new Mark 1 Escort in the 60s.

Once in Manchester I found the car park dead easy, despite only asking Chrissie where we were late last night once she was already tipsy! "I'll be there from half seven! she said. "I won't..." I responded wittily.

Found the campus map dead easy. Alas someone had been round all the campus maps, knicking the red dot and the "You are here" sign. Coupled with the reluctance of local authorities to pay for street name signs - or the reluctance of owners of new buildings to allow them to be sullied with street name signs - that made finding where I was going rather more difficult than it should have been. It was the Barnes Wallis Building, but whichever way I looked I couldn't see a building with water pouring from a breech in the wall...

There were only a few exhibitors besides myself and the stand that probably got most notice was this one with the massive screen with a new material that could be stuck to either plastic or glass and allowed you to project either from the front or rear.

They were showing a video loop taken in some huge aquarium in Okinawa which included several whale sharks swimming about. I couldn't help thinking how brilliant it would be though to have your mates round for a bar-b-que and sit lolling in the garden whilst your entire bedroom window showed Lord of the Rings...

And now I'm in Telford again - it's becoming a second home as I try to stay in every single room in this Premier Inn near the station. The travel should start to dry up for a few weeks now as summer approaches and college and university staff start to think about holidays. Tomorrow I shall be teaching some eager folks all about Managing Multiple Projects in a Complex Environment.

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I Must Be Somewhere Around Here...

Several weeks of travelling about and being busy at weekends have left me with little time for updating the blog lately. However, here's a bit of an update. "Bit" in that it skims the surface and just gives a flavour... This last week started with a train trip to Edinburgh.

I'm not a big fan of trains. It seems that every time I take a trip by train it reminds me why I don't like them...

On the day I was coming back (Tuesday), the power lines just north of Carlisle decided to come down. As they do... It meant that no trains passed that point until lunchtime that day. Now that's not bad as it was teatime by the time I was ready to roll out, but all trains were running late. Quite late... And by the time we got to Preston, the usual three-an-hour trains to Blackpool had turned into none-this-hour but four-in-the-next...

I got home late and of course Fran was on a late shift so I had to set to and make some tea, after cleaning up the cats' litter trays. As my meal was almost ready for coming out I heard the merry sound of one of the cats upchucking a hairball... He sat looking at me as though to say "Hey Dad! Welcome home!"

Then on Thursday I had the joys of a hospital trip in the morning for some tests that involved taking a fasting blood sample then administering obnoxious gloop and then taking another blood sample after a couple of hours of doing nothing, eating nothing, drinking nothing to see what my body had done with the gloop. I had a rather queasy feeling that I knew exactly what it had done with it but never mind...

Then after a very late breaking of fast, it was almost time to set off for Shrewsbury.

The Lion Hotel had a notice in their windows - their own cat had gone missing...

I was running a workshop in Telford but the travel agents had decided there were no hotels with vacancies closer than Shrewsbury so I had a half hour drive on Friday morning in the fog to get to Telford.

After that, all I had to deal with was a trip up the M6 on Friday night which is never a good thing. I might have been tempted to head back towards Shrewsbury to go up the A49 to Chester but someone said the M54 was blocked due to an accident that way... I reckon it still might have been quicker!

Anyway a good night last night as we went to Garstang to watch Garstang Musical Whatever (used to be Garstang Light Opera Group and I could remember that name...) doing a show of musical numbers from all their productions over the past 25 years as they celebrated their 25th anniversary. Brilliant night!

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Waiting for the Accident

An exciting interlude on my way to Edinburgh today.

Approaching the city from the south via the town of Biggar, I found myself following an extremely aged large saloon, possibly a Jag XK120 or XK140 which was bouncing about, half covered by plastic sheeting on the back of a trailer being towed by a large 4x4.

It was bouncing about because the twerp in the 4x4 couldn't grasp that the trailer was wider than his car and he was driving right up to the edge of the road, sometimes kerbstones, sometimes grass verge and sometimes fairly large rocks.

The trailer, being wider than the car was obliged to travel on the rough grass verges, bounce over the rocks and mostly scrape the side of its wheel along the kerbs. I kept well back, waiting for the trailer's tyre to explode and shred...

However, there isn't always justice and he eventually turned off, narrowly missing being hit by an oncoming wagon. Perhaps he later got out of the 4x4 and did a double take at the trailer and vintage car, saying, "Where the hell did that come from?!?" He certainly didn't seem to know it was there!

I was driving so I've no photo to add to this - you'll just have to imagine me driving along in the choking dust that he kept throwing up from verge and gutter...

Snow On Them Thar Hills!

At the end of last week I found myself travelling up to Edinburgh, to run a Project Management workshop to one of the local education institutions.

There had been snow up in Edinburgh. Flipping heck, there had been snow in Blackpool! In April!

In Blackpool of course, it was 5 minutes in the air and then after an hour all traces of it had disappeared, but up in Scotland there were all sorts of problems. I was on the train, however rather than driving up so I set off wondering whether I would see any snow or whether, as has happened so many times, it would be all "further up" and I'd be disappointed.

I wasn't disappointed. Up to Carlisle I'd not seen any white stuff at all and then settled my nose into a book. By the time I looked up again it was to behold a totally winter landscape of unbroken white fields and full raging streams and rivers.

Even looking down from the train window the rails beside our train were invisible - there were just lines cut like a white gorge into the snow! It looked wonderful - it always does from comparitive warmth and comfort...!

By the time I got to Edinburgh, the city itself was snow-free, though as this view shows, taken early the following morning, the hills around Edinburgh bore evidence that there had been quite a bit of the white stuff!

After just one day, as I travelled back down to Blackpool, the once white fields were now patched with random white splotches amongst the green. My nose went back to my book...

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It's All White...

By heck! It's been a busy few weeks and the blog has been a little neglected I'm afraid. But as we count down to Christmas - and count up the inches of snow - the travelling has come to an end for this year with a three day trip to Edinburgh at the beginning of last week. where I ran a couple of sessions at the Winter Fayre of the JISC Regional Support Centre for Scotland North and East and then ran a Project Management workshop with Clive on the 16th.

This week the big news has been the weather - rare for Blackpool to get any snow. Even more rare for it to stick. But that means gritters are rare too so if it freezes after snow then it stays around for days.

Looks nice but when Fran starts work at the unearthly hour of 5:30am it could have been a slippy slidy journey first thing. However there was plenty of fresh snow and unlike modern drivers I was taught to use my gears to slow down at junctions so any driver my age, as long as they change down early enough will be alright. Modern learner drivers are told stay in top gear and put brakes on and so they slide all over the place in snow and ice...

So Christmas is nigh and then the New Year of 2010, the end of which will mark the first completed decade of the 21st Century. Only another 9 of those and then that's another century gone! Time flies when you're enjoying yourself!

I think the main resolution for next year must be to use my camera more!

Edinburgh With A View

I've moved from Newcastle to Edinburgh and am now in the middle of two workshops that we are running for the JISC Regional Support Centre (RSC, but not the Royal Shakespeare Company) for Scotland North and East.

I'm staying in the Holiday Inn on Queensferry Road and from my 5th floor room have an excellent view towards the castle and city centre.

Having spent the first half of the week in Newcastle, it seems a long week. I travel a lot for work and quite enjoy it, but leaving the house on Monday mornings and not getting home until Friday night is not my favourite working week!

Clive has been with me today as we were running a Project Management workshop. Tomorrow I'm on my own, delivering an Information and Email Management workshop at the same venue in Edinburgh's Telford College.

We got here last night just a touch too late to take advantage of a brilliant 2-meals-for-£5 offer at a Sainsburys store just opposite the hotel. I made sure I was there in time tonight, but being on my own the offer was a bit wasted really... I did consider that it would only cost an extra 60p for a double meal but even I'm not that much of a gannet! Good meal though!

Back at home, Fran's busy psyching herself up to cater for 80-ish people at a gig the band have arranged in the Blackpool region. Saturday might be as much of a rush as the rest of the week has been!

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Fast Track To Edinburgh

Here's a first!

Updating the blog from a moving train! I'm on my way to Edinburgh and so far there seems to have been hordes of rugby fans travelling today. (Sorry!!! Footie fans - I don't follow it as you can tell!) Thankfully they all seemed to be in a good mood, though I'm not sure that the young lady felt all that tranquil getting off the Blackpool train at Preston for what sounded like a very raucous male voice choir singing or chanting "Bouncy, bouncy!". Herd mentality - everyone of them would have been appallingly affronted had the young lady been their girlfriend or wife or sister...

Anyway, all quiet on the Western Front. Or West Coast line anyway.

We played a gig at Witton Park, Blackburn on Sunday, setting up in our usual spot in the courtyard which was set out with straw bales for the audience to sit. Quite a number turned up. It was a nice day (until later - see below) and we ran out of straw bales but thankfully not out of songs!

There was a lot going on besides us. There was some chap dressed up in a duck outfit collecting entries for a duck race. I couldn't resist the temptation and called to him over the mic - "Collect a bit for charity, there's a duck..."!

From lunchtime we kept hearing thunder rumbling in the far distance, though it remained warm and sunny through the afternoon. Then as we were considering calling it a day and just as we were halfway through the last chorus huge raindrops started to fall. We finished, yelled "Thank you, goodbye!" and yanked plugs from sockets and dragged the equipment into the shelter of the ex-stable that we use as a base.

Almost immediately the Heavens opened and thunder, lightning and hailstones the size of marrowfats were bouncing all over the place.

A great day with none of the usual requests for "just one more", as the audience dived for cover too!

Up until then though it had been so sunny I couldn't read the LCD display on the keyboard which led to this rather unfortunate necessity...

For now we are still rattling on. Carlisle has just faded behind us, a mass of greenery against blue skies and sunny enough for a man to be sunbathing in just a pair of shorts on a grassy bank against a wall.

There's a relaxed air on the train. In fact I've been having to put up with the barely restrained antics of not one, but two sets of lovers in the seats before me and diagonally opposite. I noticed them first (the diagonally opposite ones) as his hand slid casually down the (admittedly splendidly inviting) rather loosely fitting back of her jeans.

Then there was a somewhat frenzied slurping noise coming from the seats directly in front and the sight, between the seats of two sets of lips locked in mortal combat. Lucky sods.

Only once have I undertaken a long train journey with a member of the opposite sex who was mutually attracted to me by way of being something of an item. There's something about the motion of a train apparently that makes couples who share an attraction experience deeper feelings.

On that journey long ago, my friend and I sat across a table, holding hands whilst both reading. Without stopping the reading every now and then she would raise my hand to press it against her cheek whilst I would occasionally pull hers towards me to gently kiss the fingers, knuckles, armpit...

This teasing continued until she came to sit cuddled next to me and it was a dreamy wonderful journey that really train companies should anticipate and provide a drop down set of curtains, sound-proofing and a plushly cushioned horizontal surface.

As we cross the border into Scotland (it could be just in front, just behind or a long way away right now) the view is of rolling low hills and bright green grassy fields with rows of trees or hedgerows hinting at streams and rivers that remain out of sight.

A herd of cows - heard of cows? Of course I've heard of cows! - is sitting in their field chewing the cud and probably passing polite conversation amongst themselves. "Mildred dear, you're drooling" or "What's wrong with Daisy? Off stomachs?"

Does it mean rain if cows sit down? Or just that they're fed up of standing?

The first set of lovers got off at Carlisle, walking out under the arched exit, locked in each other's arms to an extent that looked as if it made walking difficult.

The second set in front of me have disengaged and from the faintly heard conversation I've deduced she is an Afrikaaner and he is not. She trotted off towards the end of the carriage and I half expected him to follow after a discreet interval - though sex in a train toilet can't be all that satisfying I would have thought. Anyway to my surprise and possibly to his, she returned with a little food bag. "That's not what I was hoping for!" he could have protested, but he managed instead to look as though that's what he had had in mind all the time - so now I'm back to the slurping noises...

By now the streams and rivers are coming close enough to see - The Clyde I imagine is the tranquil stretch flowing lazily by. Not now - quite fast this train! There's a half dome of moon up in the deep blue sky. Somewhere... Perhaps we've changed direction? Ah yes, there! I knew it wasn't my imagination even with all this romance on my mind.

The cows have now turned from black and white to brown or brown and white from which I deduct, Watson, that we are indeed in Scotland, even had I not seen a river that could be the Clyde. I'm ignoring the fact that due to the lack of handy signs and information hoardings it might well be the Severn, but if that's the case then the train has most definitely changed direction.

Ah, the last set of cows had a red plastic bucket to drink from. "Ermentrude! Come and look at this! What sort of bloody pond do they call this then???"

Now we have entered a land of endless Christmas trees and a large lake or loch or tarn stunningly blue under this reflected sky and complete with a couple of boats with fishermen/poachers. We swept by too quickly to see if they were using rods or dynamite...

Well, I'll pack the laptop away in happy anticipation of arriving at Edinburgh, where hopefully Clive will be joining me to run a workshop tomorrow. We must be getting somewhere close. Just passed through a small station called Kinkerton or Kinworton or even possibly King's Scrotum - something beginning with "Kin" anyway. Train stations just weren't named with trains in mind that might speed through at over 100 miles per hour without stopping!

The cows have now turned into horses - which in conclusion I have deduced is no mean feat...!

What? A Week???

Ah yes... perhaps a little remiss of me, but it has been a busy week.

Since my last missive I've been to Glasgow, Lancaster, Newcastle and Edinburgh for work and there's not been a lot of time to devote to the blog! I've not taken the camera with me either on the trips I've been on.

Last weekend Fran and I drove up to Anchorsholme for a walk along the cliffs and a view of the Riverdance which is still there. As you can see from the photo it is now well and truly on its side and as fast as they empty the fuel out, it has to be filling up with seawater as the tide half submerges it twice a day. My guess is that if the March spring tides don't let the salvage people float her then she will end up being dismantled where she lies - or Cleveleys will have a new permanent tourist attraction.

The roads in and out of Cleveleys - which is the main Fleetwood peninsular road - has been horrendous at weekends with sightseers coming in to have a look.

In an non-customary fit of junk-throwing I unearthed a folder containing a load of old photography magazines from the early 1980s last weekend which have provided a few hours of fun reading through them again.

I used to buy Practical Photography every month, Amateur Photographer every week and Photography most months in the 70s and 80s. Practical Photography I see used to cost 80p in 1982... It brought a load of memories back, of sending off loads of photos and the joy of seeing one in print every now and then. Ex-PP editor Robert Scott also used a couple of photos in the Club Canon magazine and I came across a couple of photos of the gorgeous Collette Caton, a model who got noticed through Practical Photography's annual Photo Girl contest one year. I met her on the PP stand at a fair in Haydock and have a hideously underexposed slide somewhere that totally fails to do her justice!

Ah well, so now at least you know what I've been up to and now I've got to get ready for another trip. Shrewsbury, here I come!