Living where we do, we have experienced major disruption at the hands of the new Tram Network. Not being able to park your car in your street may sound trivial. Build that up over a period of 9 months though. Then add the fact that the having the car outside the house is critical for us with a small child and add the further fact that the guys undertaking the work for the trams arrive on site at 6am every morning and have a shouted conversation the length of the street then you can probably see how the annoyance builds up.

Imagine my rage then when I stumbled round the corner from Lidl last night to see a fully constructed, replica tram at the top of my street full of ‘dignitaries’ quaffing champagne and patting themselves on the back for a sterling job well done. That’s champagne. Not tram pain. Tram pain is for those of us who have to live with the consequences of their decisions.

- Cheers lads. Mine’s a pint of Best.
- Oh, sorry Mr Palmer. I’m afraid you are not invited. Your name’s not down so you’re not getting in.

I’m starting to feel this is becoming the tram blog so I’ll hastily change the subject.

Chimpanzees on Segways.

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We listened to Jesus Jones, EMF and Faith No More. Where did they all go?

I am the same age now as my parents were when I was a teenager. They seemed really old back then, yet I still feel really young even though I’m 40 in a couple of years. Whilst we are on the subject of 1991, I’m already 11 years older than Kurt Cobain ever made it to, yet he still seems strangely older than me. Getting older is certainly more than a bit of an odd experience.

Nothing really much has happened since the last time I posted. It’s all a bit work – home – work – home at the minute. I’m just grateful there is a work element to that. A lot of people don’t have that luxury at the moment. On the family front, Sam has come on somewhat and can now find and point out the hidden ‘Pontypines’ in his ‘In the Night Garden’ book. A useful life skill no doubt.

Monday this week saw the two year anniversary of my Grandad’s death. It’s another sobering thought that 2 years have passed so quickly. Visiting the cemetery on Sunday, I realised that more than half of the grief of the last two years has actually just been anger at the way he was treated in his latter days and the lack of care.

For the past two years I’ve been unable to separate the man from the manner of his death and I’ve continued to be angry as a result. I have to be reasonable about it. He was 88 years old. A good age by any standard. Hardly cut down in his prime. It’s time to remember the man and forget the traumas of the hospital and social services. He had a good life and the bad bit at the end was only a miniscule part of it.

Speaking of graves, Edinburgh City Council seem to be digging their own. Princes Street closed, buses rerouted everywhere, traffic grinding to a halt yet no work going on. The German contractors have said “Nein” and it’s all ground to a halt. Oh dear. I’ve got a feeling they need to sort it out soon or there will be hell to pay.

I watch and wait.

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We’ve been in Ireland visiting family. It was good to get away and see everybody. Unfortunately, the ludicrous weather hit Ireland as hard as it hit parts of England and our plans had to be changed to avoid becoming victims of travel chaos. As a result of the snow, my wife and son stayed behind in Ireland and will now return Saturday, whilst I decided to travel home yesterday on my own and get back to work, saving three days valuable holiday in the process.

Everything went OK yesterday. I got the 8.20 train from Kilkenny to Dublin and by the time I reached the Irish capital, there wasn’t any snow to be seen, not even at the sides of the road. Everything was looking good. I got to the airport at 10.45 ish which was about 5 hours too early but hey, I can fill my time.

I got on the flight and all was looking good. Not a bit of snow in sight. Five minutes later however and the snow was honking down, blizzard style. Visibility was down to a few yards at best I’d say. Nightmare. It was looking like we’d be denied and to be honest, I didn’t fancy the almighty scramble to try and book a seat on the following days flight. There were people on my flight who had been cancelled from the previous day and by all accounts, Ryanair had just punted them back into the terminal with no clear instruction as to what to do and no assistance.

The pilot came on the intercom and said that as soon as the wings were defrosted, we would be taking off. Ryanair are notoriously savage when it comes to cancelling flights and I could see them giving it another 20 minutes and then goodnight Vienna. Or Dublin.

Two hours we sat there. Two fucking hours. On a runway. Two hours before a bloke came along in a cherry picker and scooshed the wings down with anti-freeze. I wouldn’t have minded but the snow had stopped and the ice was melting by itself at this stage. Eventually we got home about two and a quarter hours late.

I shouldn’t complain. Some people had flights cancelled, delayed massively or diverted. I just wonder why, in a part of the world where winter is hardly a surprise, we should still struggle with such a simple thing as snow. The UK and Ireland collapsed under the weight of it whilst countries such as Russia and Canada don’t raise an eyebrow if it’s under a couple of feet deep.

We need to give them a shout and find out exactly what their secret is. I’ll bet my right bollock that it isn’t anything overly complicated.

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Read the story on the BBC News web site

I remember a few years ago when fire gripped the old town and the fire brigade fought all night and into the next day to stop the fire reaching the Royal Mile, where it would have spread uncontrollably through the old medieval buildings. It seems that greed and bungs to certain people may finally manage what the fire failed to do and put paid to Edinburgh’s world heritage status.

One thing confuses the hell out of me though. How can any proposed replacement for St James Centre be any worse than the current building. It’s a concrete and metal eyesore, resplendent with it’s “Bridge to nowhere”.

Get it knocked.

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