Not Porty People and Places

No prizes for guessing where I was today ...

I took the train from Joppa to Gleneagles, changing at Waverley and Stirling. It was very foggy from Murrayfield on. (What a great result there on Saturday for Scotland!)

At Waverley there was a catering lorry stuck under the pedestrian bridge that has a notice on it saying Check your Height! The red faced driver was desperately deflating his tyres to free his lorry. It must have worked as he was not there when I came home at 1730.

I was attending an inspirational educational conference at Gleneagles and it was one of the best, of its kind, I have ever attended. I met some amazing delegates, of all ages, and some of the post conference debate continued on the train home, where I was joined, at my table seat, by three representatives from the University of Edinburgh staff. Their company certainly shortened the journey!

Gleneagles played host to the G8 Conference in 2005 hosted by PM Tony Blair. More recently, when G8 became G7, with the expulsion of The Russian Federation, Gleneagles hosted The Ryder Cup. There is a shop in the hotel dedicated to that event.

Next door is The Rolex watch shop - that tells you a lot about the hotel's residential clientele. Ironically, the large Rolex clock, outside the shop, was still stuck on BST! When I asked the shop keeper about it, she was very embarrassed to have to admit that due to the complexity of the Rolex mechanism it could only be re-set by a fully qualified Rolex engineer. One was on their way, but was running late - 16 days to be precise! I offered to wind the clock back for her - but not surprisingly, my offer was politely declined!