At last Friday.  Home today.  Worked until four in the afternoon, explaining how econnector works to one of the staff.  She is to write some administrative functions.

Plane left on time and back home for supper by 8.15.  Was quite a hard week, and now the weather has broken, not so enjoyable.  We will see what Christmas and the New Year brings us up in the wilds of the North.

Lots of Cedar people in to day.  After work, quick drink at the Doric with Mary, Tessa and Phil.  Then met up with Yura at the hotel.

Tessa, Phil, Yura and I ate at Izzis, the Japanese/Chinese restaurant.  Here I had my usual fill of raw Tuna, Salmon, Squid and other fish.

Final pint of beer at Tiles.  Much against my suggestion.  The beer is all larger and top pressure bitters.

Well here we are again in Edinburgh for the week. Up at before six to drive to Birmingham for the flight.  Typical now the weekend is over, lovely starlit morning with a frost.  Flybe decided to leave on time and thus was in the office by 10.15.

Worked until 7.15, made some good progress and will hand over the code on Tuesday.

I am staying in the Apex International in Grassmarket.  This is a reasonable modern hotel in the old town, with lots of pubs around. Good view of the castle, and near all the tourist bits. No one else from the company is staying in Edinburgh, so I decided to eat in the hotel.

The meal was OK, but not great.  Service initially was slow, but I think I arrived at the time when things had started to speed up.  There appeared to be others who had been there a while who all received their food at the same times.  Good thing I had not gone to eat earlier.  The waitresses were cute though. 

And now for the food.  The honeyed carrot and coriander soup could have done with more coriander to give it some flavour.

The Fillet Steak stacked on thinly sliced Oriental Wok cooked vegetables with Ho Chi sauce could have had less salt in the vegetables, and why oh why do the British overcook their rare steaks.  I am always looking for the rare steak where the inside is not cooked.  This steak was only just pink inside. The fillet steak recipe was a good idea, but poorly executed. Won’t be eating there again.

Friday was Children in Need Day.  So the bank had a dress down day.  Not well advertised.  Very few people had heard of the dress down day.  I went to the loo and changed into my jeans and Fat Face top.

Worked till 4.00pm and took a Taxi to the airport with Jon.  There was an unusual queue to get checked in with Flybe.  There though was the usual half hour delay in their flight leaving.  As we were about to leave, the pilot mentioned we might not be able to land at Birmingham.  Something to do with fog, and there I thought the pilots on these planes were just accessories.

The flight down was uneventful, and very clear.  Just seems Birmingham was foggy.  We came into land, and then hit the fog, which was worse than expected, so the landing was aborted, round again and then a second attempt at landing.  This time the fog had cleared to some magical limit and we touched down.  Actually we really only saw the land when we were over the runway lights.

Getting out of Birmingham was a nightmare.  Could not get onto the M42, so I took the decision to drive to Coventry and the A46 to the M40.  Back eventually at 9.00.  Must update the time sheet to include the extra hours of travelling.

Up early at 6.00 am to catch the flight from Birmingham to Edinburgh.  Flybe should have left at 8.30, but eventually left at 8.50.  Cloudy all the way up until Scotland, where the clouds broke.  Rough landing because of the strong winds.

Day was a lovley warm day, with sunshine.  Got to the Bank and spent most of the day getting my new code into their development environment for testing.

In the evening went out for a beer, and then a meal with Mary Devine and Jon Marshal at an Italian called The Patio.  The waitress, a mature women, was one of those who could recite the whole menu in glowing terms.  She had to have eye contact while doing this and chose me.

I had smoked Tuna, and lamb, but was able to finish off Marys Monk Fish, which was delicious.

Afterwards a brisk walk back to the hotel on the otherside of town.