What more could I do?

Music of the Day
Emerson Lake & Palmer – Trilogy
Family – Fearless
Transatlantic – Bridge Across Forever
Cloudland Blue Quartet - 25 Years in 63 Minutes
Michael Rother – Chronicles
Be Bop Deluxe - Axe Victim
Family - Bandstand

I was up early and, from the back bedroom window, in next door’s garden, I could see an adult bird fluttering about collecting food and taking it to a baby which seemed just to be sitting in a flowerbed...

Meg the Black Cat was watching with me...

I went downstairs and listened to ELP’s classic album from 1971, “Trilogy” whilst leafing through Q’s collector’s edition on Prog Rock...

Eventually, Anne got up too and by around 9:30 we drove into town and parked up on the south side. Then we walked to Holyrood near the Parliament and the Scotsman building and popped into Beanscene for breakfast, breaking with our Patisserie Florentin tradition...



A very tasty apple and cinnamon bagel did the trick for me while Anne had a tasty Blueberry Muffin. The coffees were hot and lovely. The sun was shining and it was a lovely summer’s day after yesterday’s disappointing mistiness....



We were in this part of town to visit the end of year exhibition by Stevenson College photographers, including our good friend and Creek and sometime CBQ synthist, Stuart Cobley....

The quality of work was superb and you can still go along and see it until the end of this week. It’s on the fifth floor of the Tun Building, opposite the Scotsman Building....



I was especially taken by a picture of a group of bald cats....


(this is cropped and blown up from the previous pic)

We walked back to the car and drove to Homebase, stopping off briefly at the Music Library to hand back my uncopied Cara Dillon CDs (just not good enough) from 3 weeks ago....

Over the next couple of weeks there is some decorating to be done and things of a decorating nature had to be bought...

And a new carpet – aah, the only way to spend a Saturday – Homebase and Carpet shops..

We took some samples back home (after I’d visited Ladbrokes to put a tenner on England – if they win, I need something to sweeten the disappointment - and Guitar Guitar for some new strings for my blue guitar), and I started moving all the CDs out of the back room while Anne continued stripping the wallpaper...



We broke for lunch and then sat down to watch England v Paraguay...

A goal after four minutes. An own goal no less. Two minutes later, Paraguay’s goalie had to be substituted – so, 1-0 up and a sub goalie facing them – surely we were in for a rout by England?

But no, absolutely nothing of any consequence from England for the rest of the game. They were very poor and, if they are to have any hope of beating Brazil, Argentina, Italy, France or even Germany, they’ll need to buck up their ideas...

Second half was mostly Paraguay and so, as ever, the jammy buggers got away with the three points. Good to see the pundits slagging them after the game though. You’d have thought they’d lost by the way they were talking. Three points in the bag though and no doubt they’ll qualify for the last sixteen...

Back to work and I’m interrupted by shout from Anne. Meg the Black Cat has brought a wee bird into the house. By the time Anne has gotten Meg away from the scene, the bird has disappeared...

We search the house but can’t find it...

So I go back to work and Meg is set free again....

A little later, another call from Anne - Meg is looking at something under one of the settees...

We put her out of the room, lift the settee, and there is the wee bird I’d seen this morning sitting in next door’s garden being fed by its parent..

It seems to be ok and so I lift it gently and, in the hope its parents will find it, I take it back and put it where I’d seen it this morning...

Back to the carpet shop to make the order, collect my winnings from Ladbrokes (which pay for the guitar strings) and home again...

We are keeping Meg away from the back garden to give the wee bird a chance...

I go back upstairs while Anne watches the first half of Sweden v Trinidad & Tobago, the other game in England’s group....

I am surfing the net trying to find out about Blue Tits and what to do about abandoned babies when Anne comes to say she can see the bird lying at our neighbours back gate...

I go out and it’s dead. Looks like another cat from the neighbourhood must have gotten it. I feel so guilty now for taking it back to the garden but Anne says there was nothing else I could have done. Turns out this wee bird had been found last night by our neighbour on his back step. Anne hadn’t told me this earlier. So, after two days of hell, the wee thing has now been mauled to death....

Blue Tits can live for 21 years apparently...

On the upside, last night I saved a Blue Tit (probably one of the parents of the dead baby). Our next door neighbour came through in a panic to say she thought there was a bird in her house....

I went through and right enough, there it was flying around and perching on her curtain poles...

I finally managed to let it escape through the skylight....

After the drama of the bird, we watched the rest of Sweden v Trinidad & Tobago. Unbelievably, despite T&T having to use their sub goalie (first choice was injured in the warm up) and them having a man sent off in the 46th minute, the game ended 0-0. Shaka Hislop of West Ham, the sub goalie, made around eight saves to keep the Swedes out...

Which benefits the jammy England team...

Dr Who was next, with the conclusion of last week’s story about Satan in a pit on a planet near a black hole – probably the best story so far this series, just shading the Cybermen...

Then, last game of the day, Argentina v Ivory Coast. Played at a breakneck pace throughout, Ivory Coast are obviously a good team but Argentina were better in front of goal and ran out 2-1 winners...

Of the teams I’ve seen so far I’d rank Argentina as the best...and England as the luckiest!!!

Finished off the day with “CSI New York” and “Law and Order Criminal Intent”, the latter being the best show on the telly at the moment....

It's goodbye to the old room...



...by tomorrow all this will be gone...

Lowlight of the Day : A small bird...