Naked men!!!

Ha ha, we thought that title would get your attention. Inspired by Flumgummery's Blip of a few days ago we thought we'd go for a little trek along the Waters of Leith (7 miles) and look for 'Antony Gormleys' sculptures of six naked men. You can read more about them here.

Unfortunately we only found three naked men and this is the best photo that Ann managed to take of me with one of them. The other two that we saw; (one at Stockbridge and one at Bonnington) were pretty much hidden from view by lots of vegetation on the river bank so Ann had to go onto the bridges to photograph them. (See extras).

We didn't see the other three because one of them is at the 'Modern Art Gallery' and apparently is just a head sticking out of a bit of concrete on the pavement and Ann couldn't be bothered to deviate off our 'Waters of Leith' route to go and take a look. We didn't see the one near Leith because the walkway was closed for some reason and so took us along the cycle path and through Victoria Park. And we didn't see the final one which is somewhere in the docks near Ocean Terminal because we weren't sure where it was and to be honest, the road outside Ocean Terminal is pretty much non existent. We were going to catch the bus home from there but the buses no longer go there due to the whole road being in the process of being dug up for the Edinburgh tram extension. #whatamess

And now for another RANT!!!!!!!!..............................

When we were nearing the end of our walk Ann got a 'whatsapp' message from her 'meet & greet HQs' nobody ever talks to anyone asking if she knew how to operate the TV & oven in a property where she'd met people on Thursday. Ann is a 'meet & greeter'. That's her job. She meets & greets. She checks in the visitors & shows them how things work. That's what she does. She gives the visitors a phone number that they can call 24/7 if they have any problems. Mmmmmm............. haven't a clue where the location of this phone number is. It's a 'central' number for all of the properties that the company that Ann works for deal with. It could be in London, Dubai, New York or Singapore. Ann doesn't know. But it's a young, progressive company that has employed an old codger like Ann.   And as long as she has completed her check list on her 'app', that's her job done. Apart from talking to the actual visitors she has no face to face conversation with her bosses or is even able to speak to them on the phone. Everything is done via whatsapp. It's so impersonal. These youngsters who are setting up companies all over the place seem to think that everything can be done via data bases and every problem can be sorted by watching a few Youtube videos????? Errrrrrr............... no it can't?!!!


Anyway the TV and the oven were working on Thursday and although Ann normally refuses to get involved with maintenance type problems, today when she was asked if she could assist the visitors she said we'd pop in on our way home as the TV and oven are very easy to operate. And obviously she gets paid for doing this. So pop in she did.


It was a second floor flat so I got tied up outside the flat on the stair railings. I made silly little crying noises to start with, but then Ann came out and said, 'Trixie be quiet. Just pretend you're outside a shop. I won't be long.' So then I just lay down in good dog mode until Ann came back out.


Oven problem was solved immediately. There wasn't a problem. It was just visitors being a bit thick??!!


TV problem was a problem – It was definitely working on Thursday because Ann was watching it while she was waiting for the visitors. But it wasn't working today and as Ann isn't a TV engineer she 'whatsapped' her HQ and said she couldn't sort it and so was leaving.


The visitors were so, so, nice. But it just emphasises the point that people who are on holiday do not want to deal with some unknown person in some unknown location that does not actually know the property. So now............................ will these visitors get their TV sorted out before they leave? We very much doubt it, though obviously Ann had to portray herself as a professional 'meet & greeter' so said to them, 'I've whatsapped the office and told them the problem so hopefully the maintenance team will contact you soon re a solution.' #bettheydon't


…......................And that's why Ann deals with her own property that she lets out in Cornwall by herself. She has the bestest housekeeper in the world who keeps the place incredibly splick & span, she has loads of communication with her visitors and ….................... in todays world of 'instant bookings' etc, etc...................... she's not had a bad review yet. If any of you lovely Blippers fancy a little holiday in St Ives in November, you can check it out here.


Toodles. xxx