Rosslyn Chapel Interior

The Rosslyn Chapel in Roslin, Midlothian (home of the Roslin Biocentre) has held captive my attention and imagination for much of my life. Its inexorable (and possibly implausible) link to the Templars and the Masons lends itself to wonderfully fortean conspiracy-driven theories. Thus my attention. After placing Ginger on her plane, Marita Beth & began the slow journey to London. On that passage, we made sure to stop at Rosslyn Chapel, a place I have longed to visit for many, many years. Worth the wait it was, and our timing was ideal. We arrived on a Sunday morning just as service was to begin. Rosslyn Chapel is an active chapel and holds weekly services. By attending the service, we managed to escape the £6 entrance charge. And, although Church services don't appeal to me in the slightest, sitting with a bunch of true-believers in a building that has stood since 1446 is pretty damn cool. Of course, I wasn't dressed for church, being in just a t-shirt and shorts, but I suppose that doesn't really matter these days anyway, so I didn't fret it. We just sat at the back, and I took clandestine photos of the service in process...probably against some law somewhere. But there you have it. Oh, and of course, Rosslyn Chapel will be featured in the upcoming Tom Hanks/Ron Howard vehicle, the Davinci Code. Arsenal secured a famous victory against Real Madrid the other night. 1-0 in the Bernabeu is an amazing victory. We are the first English team to ever defeat Real Madrid on their home turf and we did it having never encountered them in a regulation game before. Great fun, that. I just hope the lads learn from the experiece rather than letting the win go to their heads and thus turning the remainder of the season all pear-shaped. We're in a good patch right now, let's play that patch purple on Saturday against Blackburn. Chelsea lost 2-1 to Barcelona at Stamford Bridge. Serves the whingers right, and of course "Moan"rinho didn't take too long to blame the loss on the officiating. That's right, it couldn't be because they're shite, it had to be someone else's fault. Get over yourself 'special one'. Two of my very dear friends are apparently househunting in Racine, WI. They move there, I may just have to follow. Two of my other friends are being stupid with their relationship difficulties and I get to be in the middle. Oh hell, oh well, that's what friends are for, wot? East Wind Games is coming along. We will be out patching & painting, building & destroying all weekend. Just a few more weeks and the hard-won dream becomes reality. Oh, and yeah, there are scores of UFO's flying about our sun while the U.S. government tries to hide this fact from us. Right, well, it's Friday. Which means work then beer. Wastrel On! (Listening to: Falling In Love (is Hard on the Knees) by Aerosmith)

Carriden House in Bo'Ness

Carriden Brae in Bo'Ness. The very epitome of why my wife & I sometimes prefer to just pop in and scout out a Bed & Breakfast rather than book one days, weeks or even months in advance. This is the one that we booked while in that small, charming Hamlet watching a parade of children. Carriden House was a perfect place to spend the last night with our loving Ginger. The next morning we were to take her to Edinburgh for her flight back to the U.S. Carriden House was originally a 16th century 5-story tower house. It has since been expanded & modernized. Most of the interior was unavailable to us as the house is in the process of revitalization and the remaining original portion of the house is completely off-limits as it is the private residence of the owners. However, the parts that are available to the guests are delightful. I hope to someday return here and witness the completed restoration. At that time, I hope also to spend more time in Bo'ness proper as it is, by all accounts, a fascinating location. Bo'ness (complete name is Borrowstounness) sits on the River Forth and it is here that the Antonine Wall begins. James Watt also developed the steam engine in this, the Jewel in the Crown of Falkirk. I'm sure many more interesting tidbits of architectural and archaeological history would surface with just a wee bit of digging. Arsenal travel to Madrid for the first of a two-leg tie against Real Madrid for Champions League glory. We travel without much of our first team squad out due to injury. But, as bad as our injury situation is we have to be thankful that none of our players suffered the sort of horrific long-term injury that befell Alan Smith of Manchester United on the weekend. Self-inflicted as it was, it remains "the worst injury" Alex Ferguson has ever seen. The hope is that he will be back in nine-months time. That's my hope. No player deserves the kind of pain & misery he must be feeling right now. All the best, Alan & hopes for a speedy come-back to the top-flight. Wastrel On! (Listening to: Explosions Polka by Johann Strauss)