Berwickshire News July 27th

Once again apologies for the late running of this week's precis of the Berwickshire News, caused by being in the wrong sort of country.


One thing I noted this week but not last (due to the lass in the Newsagents not charging 58 pence for it) is that the cover price of the News is now a pocket-withering 58 pence - an increase of threepence over the previous cover price of 55 pence. The biggest story on the front page is the infestation of houseflies apparently caused by the inconsiderate siting of 'hen pens' at Oxenrig Farm - causing a housefly "plague of almost biblical proportions". After the local and national media got involved the pens are to be moved but the operators of Oxenrig farm are apprehensive that they may have a welfare issue in doing so as the moving of the pens may distress their occupants. The new (already built and opened) Co-Op supermarket in Duns is attracting some attention because the parking arrangements agreed as part of the planning consent have yet to be realised on the ground - aparently due to a planning delay at SBC. Divers off Eyemouth have discovered a First World War submarine lying in 56m of water. Apparently local fishermen have known for years there was a wrecked something down there but didn't know what. The concensus of opinion is that it is a German H11 submarine, built in the US and released to the UK when the US joined WWI in 1917.

Berwick Borough Council are looking at ways of funding a £14 million redevelopment at Shielfield Park - Home of Berwick Rangers FC and Berwick Bandits Speedway teams. Included in the proposal are plans to relocate the council's vehicle depot, main offices, museum and archive to the site - although the idea of relocating the latter two has already attracted criticism from members of the council. The Bill promoting the Waverley Rail Link in Holyrood has received Royal Assent so it is now law, although a cautionary utterance from Cllr David Parker (Leader, SBC) "While Royal Assent does not mean that we will be able to immediately start laying track, we will be able to continue the tendering process, begin land assembly and advance works with construction beginning 2008"

At Duns Sheriff Court, a Lithuanian couple were up before Sheriff K on charges of neglecting their 5 year old daughter - there were mitigating circumstances and Sheriff Drummond deferred sentenceuntil August pending social enquiry reports. A Duns woman who was so angry with a local bus company that she resorted to leaving abusive messages on the answerphone of the owners was fined £200 for breaching the Communications Act. Apparently the accused's daughter was normally taken to school by the bus company in question but was frequently not ready at the appointed hour. A Duns man lied to police about his car having been stolen when in fact he'd crashed it himself - he compounded this when Police discovered the car and called upon him by committing a breach of the peace. Fined £200. A Duns man (different one) disqualified from driving after admitting to driving with no MOT, insurance and being involved in an accident and failing to produce his documents when requested to do so by a police officer. This being his third offence of driving without insurance he was disqualified for nine months, fined £200. For lacking the MOT £75, and for failing to respond to a HO/RT1 a further £50. Yet another Duns man involved in an insurance mix-up between friends - he (and the car's owner) thought the policy enabled other drivers to drive the vehicle - which turned out not to be the case on further investigation. Sheriff K was understanding that there was no intent to commit a crime, but slapped him with £125 and 6 points anyway.

82% of people in the Border TV region are aware of digital switchover according to DigitalUK - the independent body charged with overseeing the conversion of the UK, Isle of Man and Channel Isles to digital television against a national average of 66%. Local MP Michael Moore (Lib Dem, Roxburgh & Berwickshire) continues with his campaign that the switch should be a success in the Border TV area and not a catastrophe from which the rest of the country learns.

Picture of Duns Sheriff Court courtesy of the Scottish Courts website

An attempt on Sheriff Kevin's life ?

BBC News reports that a prisoner who caused a blackout at Selkirk Sheriff Court by trying to wire a metal door handle to the electric mains has been jailed for nine months.

Selkirk Sheriff Court is another of Sir Kevin's haunts - but you have to love the admission to the charge that he "also admitted shouting and swearing, threatening to kill himself and placing police officers in a state of alarm."

Sounds like a normal days work to me ;-)

Biodiesel in Berwickshire

The PaperBoy has just been and topped off his tank with 100% biodiesel at the local business mentioned on the front page of the July 20th edition of the Berwickshire News, so is currently running approximately 20% biodiesel mixture (known as B20 in the jargon).

Talking to the supplier, they did (at this stage) request the Berwickshire News to withhold their full details as they are still ramping up production and don't want to be swamped with uncle Tom Cobley and all just looking for cheap fuel - those that are active biodiesel seekers will be able to root them out in the treasure hunt style, just like the PaperBoy did. The clues are all there, the information is out there all you have to do is look.

The nearest (to Berwickshire at least) alternative filling stations selling any type of biodiesel that the PaperBoy can spot are either at Dumfermline (Fife) or Witton-le-Wear (Co. Durham) - both selling 5% (B5) blend.

To the PaperBoy at least, any financial savings, whilst welcome, are incidental to the better running of the engine and the reduced environmental impact - whether that applies to all and sundry is another question for the interested reader. Although with diesel fuel at £1.02 a litre there is clearly some desire for cheaper fuel.

Next time I go to fill up, I'll ask if I can write a little more about their enterprise - perhaps with some pictures of the operation.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle - light blue bin lorry and retire 10 yards

The BBC reports that there was a lucky escape for 2 recycling lorry operatives in central Northumberland after their recycling truck burst into flames during routine rounds.

Contraband non-recyclables are being blamed for the incident which will of course cost the good burghers of Castle Morpeth to replace.

Berwickshire News July 20th

Apologies for the late running of this week's precis of the Berwickshire News caused by being in the wrong country at the wrong time. The blog will suffer a similar delay for the same reason for the July 27th edition.

The heatwave has made it to the front page - especially in Coldingham on the Berwickshire coast where "Sunshine, sunseeker and parking tickets" were all in evidence. Local businesses are not happy that LBP closed a local road and consequently affected local businesses. Greenlaw Town Hall will feature in the BBC's Restoration Village programme as mentioned in this blog previously. The purse thefts story as already covered here courtesy of the BBC also gets a mention. A pong in Eyemouth emanating from the sewage works is covered - Scottish Water are trying different things but apparently it's all being blamed on a pea-processing factory - they've got a different type of waste to previously - the mind boggles! So the anti-pong measures previously taken are being twaeked.

Oh and a Fogo Business is trying to convince the wider public that it's possible to run a vehicle on diesel substitute derived from WVO or SVO (it's possible, even the Americans have been doing it for years and in Germany much diesel sold is up to 30% derived from non-fossil sources - Rudolf Diesel himself demonstrated his engine running on peanut oil at the Paris World Expo in 1900 - there is nothing new under the sun - HMRC can regularly be found 'dipping' diesel tanks looking for illicit use of WVO/SVO or 'red' diesel at busy spots like the Tyne Tunnel - so it's reasonable to assume that the public know it can be used). The PaperBoy is following up on this story because reducing reliance on fossil diesel has got to be a good thing and having used a biodiesel blend in the past and experienced apparently smoother running and better fuel economy, does not need to be convinced like the rest of Her Majesty's General Public.

A sandstorm has been unleashed by builders of a new Sue Ryder care complex in Duns - due to the dry conditions and much earthmoving by builders loads of sand and dust has been upsetting some residents. Less than 200 knives were surrendered throughout the Borders during the recent national knife amnesty - no unusual items were presented but LBP admitted that there isn't a big knife culture in their patch anyway unlike Glasgow and the west of Scotland.

Berwickshire is trying to balance the conflicting demands of both the fishing industry and tourists - it's an area famous for it's maritime heritage and Eyemouth is still a working fishing port, albeit a shadow of it's former self. New stamps from Royal Mail feature a bust of Sir Walter Scott - if you don't know who he is, he's the bloke that appears on a Bank of Scotland banknote where the Queen would on a bank of England banknote, and he wrote some stuff and used to live at Abbotsford near Melrose (which I'm sure is not and was never in Berwickshire).

Over at Sir Kevin's court, the guy who stole fuel and drove 50 miles or so down the A1 whilst over the drink-drive limit before being stopped with no tyre on his car, who appeared some time ago in this column was up for sentencing - disqualified from driving for 4 years, given 200 hours community service and £220 worth of fines. A Duns woman who caused an accident on the old Duns road from Coldstream to Swintonmill in which 3 people were injured (she overtook on a section where there are a number of blind summits and hidden dips - hit a car head on). St. Kev told the guilty party that "we don't deal with situations like this by looking at consequences. Sometimes minor misjudgements have severe repercussions whereas people making dangerous errors sometimes get away with it" before slapping her with a £200 fine and 5 penalty points. A Duns man drove his car with children in it whilst 3 times over the legal alcohol limit - during which time he mounted the pavement, drove over a sign, sustained a puncture. (The BN says he had 119ml alcohol per 100ml of breath - which is some going.... I suspect they mean 119μg which is a very different and physically possible quantity). Disqualified from driving for five years, fined £200 and 180 hours community service.

Typo of the week coming up.....

More from Sir Kev's court - a Greenlaw farmer appeared on charges of allowing sheep to suffer, failing to dispose of carcasses and allowing sheep in his care to suffer from Blowfly Myiasis. A Trading Standards report is quoted as saying that the general appearance of the farm did little to inspire confidence of good animal husbandry - "One Yew in particular" being singled out - Yew/Ewe/You - not really that important is it? St. Kevin de Duns opined that a fine was not the right course of action but to have Trading Standards drop in to check standards are being observed on a regular basis and went on to warn the farmer that he could ban him from keeping livestock - sentence deferred until September 13th to allow TS to revisit and report back.

Over 96.7% of 2005/6 Council Tax in the SBC area has been collected - a record for the authority and second best on the Scottish Mainland apparently.

Picture of Duns Sheriff Court courtesy of the Scottish Courts website

This Week's Berwickshire News - an apology

Due to my inability to plan my life sufficiently - I totally omitted to acquire a BN last Thursday and have been ensconced in 'that England' close to Wales, where people speak of strange items (bread buns are called "batches" or "barms" depending on whom you ask) and where shop assistants examine Scotia's finest banknotes with a diligence of which Sherlock Holmes would be proud - before declaring "we don't take Sterling" on a previous occasion and crucially where copies of the Berwickshire News are rarer than the excrement of an undulating equine quadruped.

Tomorrow I shall seek to acquire a BN to resume normal service

Water Shortage

Scottish Water have issued a plea to some customers in the Borders to use water wisely because the unusually hot weather combined with the school holidays has lead to a huge surge in demand.

Huttonian was just commenting today on how non-verdant his valley is and I've mentioned to the Paper Girl how unusually low the Tweed looks.

I've arrived

Well a basically uneventful voyage - although Lufthansa did manage to get to Frankfurt Airport too early for there to be someone to operate the jetway so a bus transfer to terminal ensued (I'm sure they do the bus thing to give the baggage handlers a headstart).

Having plenty of time I opted for the €3.35 tour to get to the hotel - which involves the local trains, underground and buses - thankfully only one of each ;-) - and time for a stroll along Zeil, once the most prestigious shopping street in Germany.

The €3.35 is just a bit different to the taxi fare that I know in the past was €50+ - central Frankfurt seems to be im Bau and although the Weltmeisterschaft is over, Grinsi Klinsi is still saluted on many a construction site with huge banners proclaiming the thanks of a grateful nation.

Today's item of amusement - within the in-flight magazine (all in German so clearly aimed at the German market) was a shopping section, and in that shopping section was an item that every stereotypical German Tourist should possess - a beach towel bearing the legend "Reserved".

Off to foreign parts once more

The Paper Boy is off to Frankfurt-am-Main (not -an-der-Oder) and district this afternoon with work. Flying again from Edinburgh Turnhouse (unspecified terminal) direct, with 'not-KLM' so hopes are optimistically elevated for there being more than 2 arthritic snails manning the check-in desks, no interminable taxi around the periphery of the Netherlands and of course one can't miss a connection if one doesn't have a connection to make.

Providing WW3 doesn't break out I shall keep my eye to the local Zeitungen - hopefully the furore over Sven und der Weltmeisterschaft has died out by now. Planned return is Wednesday evening so it should be normal service with the BN. Will tank up the car prior to parking at unspecified car park in case oil goes up yet futher.

Borders Crime Wave

As if to prove a point mentioned in the Paper Shop yesterday about crime levels - the BBC News website reports a warning from LBP:

Police have issued a warning for Borderers to be on their guard following two purse thefts in the area.

Berwickshire News July 13th

Front page news this week is the fact that the Scottish Borders is likely to be ineligible for future Regional Selective Assistance grants. All local elected officials are animated about it although apparently not animated enough to come back from their holidays to protest about the impending decision. As mentioned in the Paper Shop, Greenlaw Town Hall is to be featured in the BBC's Restoration Village programme, and a Coldstream Postwoman has been killed in an accident between her motorcycle and truck just days after celebrating her wedding anniversary - sadly this is the second fatal motorcycle/truck collision the Paper Boy has learned of in 2 weeks - one either side of the Border.

Inside, SBC are seeking views on their small schools policy - whereby every school with a pupil roll of less than 75 is subjected to a review into it's continued existence every 3 years - SBC wish to make that every two years instead. Copies of the consultation can be obtained from the SBC website - responses from interested parties by October 9th. A retired Reverend from Eyemouth has restored some 16mm film shot by his late father and another gentleman picturing Eyemouth between 1939 and 1965 - anyone wishing to see it should nip along to Eyemouth Parish Church Hall on July 20th at 7.30pm.

Over at Sir Kevin's court two alcohol-fuelled drivers felt the rough side of his tongue. One Coldstream builder who pleaded guilty last month facing a stretch inside after being convicted on a charge of drink-driving. Sir Kevin remarking "this is your fourth conviction for drink-driving and I'd be going against my responsibility to the public if I didn't deal with this by means of a custodial sentence." Sent down for two months and banned from driving for five years. A Chirnside man convicted of drink-driving after being stopped on another matter and being found to be over twice the legal limit. Banned from driving for 18 months, relieved of £300 - although he is deemed suitable for a Drivers' Rehabilitation Cource which would shorten his ban if he were to attend.

Sir Kevin's roadshow is reported on from Jedburgh Sheriff Court (actually Sir Kevin is officially based in Jedburgh - in Roxburghshire - so really Duns is the roadshow) where a 58 year-old Kelso man was up on a charge of attempted murder of a police officer and some firearms offences - these things don't happen too often in the Borders - not even in the lawless sprawling metropolises of Hawick (pop 14800) & Galashiels (pop 12300) - so it's big news. The case was continued but Sir Kev released the new wannabe Ned Kelly on bail. (Hawick and Galashiels are the largest towns in the Scottish Borders).

Greenlaw Community Council reports that there is an increase in dog fouling, despite the publicity the matter has already attracted, and they've decided to send a letter to the Berwickshire News to try and get the message across to the urban terrorists plaguing Greenlaw and district. Actually the problem is not limited to Greenlaw, but they do seem to have a bee in their community bonnet about it. The Paper Boy advocates calling the SEPA hotline for all instances of environmental pollution (in Scotland at least) - it's open 24 hours a day and is free to call (number is above right). You may make the call anonymously if you wish.

Members of the SBC Berwickshire Area Committee were given a report on recycling at their June meeting - although the target for 2006/7 is mentioned as 25%, and the January-March figure was 20.82% (an improvement over the 2005/6 figure of 15.9%) it doesn't include the full effect of the introduction of kerbside recycling in Berwickshire that only took place in late March - as previously mentioned by the PaperBoy, SBC is lagging significantly behind other authorities in it's implementation of kerbside recycling hopefully this will be addressed sooner rather than later!

Picture of Duns and Jedburgh Sheriff Courts courtesy of the Scottish Courts website

Greenlaw Town Hall

A report on the BBC News website informs that Greenlaw Town Hall - disused eyesore since the Paper Boy can remember (even in passing through before he lived in the locale) and surrounded by dog bombs as previously noted in the Paper Shop - is on the Scottish Shortlist for the Restoration programme on BBC2. So in theory at least it has a 1 in 21 chance of being chosen as the winning project.

Update: The whole list of 21 is in this story on the BBC News website

Berwickshire News July 6th

The management of the River Tweed is causing a cross-border row according to the leading article on the front page of this weeks Berwickshire News - in making the management of the Tweed the responsibility of the Scottish Executive, the Westminster Parliament has removed the power of scrutiny at Westminster (those that know of such things will realise that this is the exact reverse of the situation for the Border Esk in Dumfries & Galloway - where the Border Esk is the only river in Scotland where anglers are subject to the Environment Agency's rod licence). Coldstream Hospital is to become a dental facility - although the scheme is not a fait accompli just yet, the indications that it will become so are very strong. For the PaperBoy this is a welcome attempt by NHS Borders to regain some credibility within the community, and on a purely personal note helpful if it means that a 90-mile round trip to Morpeth can be avoided for dentistry. Also getting a mention on the front page is the news from British Energy that the life of Torness Power Station may not be able to be extended as it (like other AGR power stations are suffering from cracks in their fabric - although other sources contain some reassurance that the power stations will not fall apart in the next few hours, the Berwickshire News doesn't bother to repeat those assurances).

SBC are revealed to have spent just over £5.5 million on redundancy & retirement payments over the last 4 years - not as much as Glasgow City Council (£16m) but substantially more than Angus (£145k). Another story trumpeted as a "cross border attack" which turns out to be the story that the Anglo-Scottish Fishermen's Association are attacking the Common Fisheries Policy (in common with just about every other current and ex-fisherperson) - the PaperBoy wonders if it wouldn't be better to allow them all to fish to their hearts content (as happened off Newfoundland in Canada) but not to offer any compensation when the fishery collapses (as it did on the Grand Banks off NF).

A new book about the railways of the Borders is publicised - harking back to the days before the East Coast Main Line was completed, the book is called "Rails across the Border", published by Tempus with a price tag of £17.99.

Healthy snacks are on the menu at BHS - "great!" I hear you say, "but I don't shop there." Well in this case BHS is Berwickshire High School, where SBC's Healthy Vending Policy is set to be trialled - gone are chocolate and biscuits, in are healthy snacks instead, although what they actually are isn't mentioned.

An advertorial reminds us all that it's JCMR weekend - Mainland Britain's only closed-road rally. 300 cars will be racing around the lanes of Berwickshire this weekend and making lots of noise. The PaperBoy may even make it there this year - camera in hand.

Over at the Basilica of St Kevin, an unnamed lawperson is dispensing justice and the reports are somewhat curt - A suspect appearing on petition on a charge of robbery and attempted extortion in Galashiels involving the theft of £13. A man appeared in private charged with five offences of indecency involving young girls - no plea or declaration, released on bail with the case still under investigation. An Eyemouth man fined £200 for breach of probation. An Eyemouth man banned from driving for 6 months for driving without insurance, L-plates and unaccompanied - also relieved of £200. A fine levied on a Chirnside man for assault - £333. Sentence deferred on a Duns woman for assault - under review in 6 months depending on good behaviour.

On the letters page there is no mention of crottes de chien at all - however there are two letters regarding rail provision - one directly condemning the fact that the Waverley Line will cost all SBC council tax payers dear with the benefits being felt mainly in the central Borders as usual, the other noting that in Australia almost 1000 miles of track has been laid between Darwin and Alice Springs in the lifetime of the Scottish Parliament, for less money than the Parliament Building cost. Another correspondent makes the case for a Forth Tunnel to augment or replace the existing bridge (which may have to be closed by 2014) and manages to get some concise criticism of FETA in who the correspondent notes "couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery" and a moan that the only major fixed toll crossings left in Scotland are the Forth & Tay Bridges - all in about 4 paragraphs.

Picture of Duns Sheriff Court courtesy of the Scottish Courts website

I'm back

I arrived home last evening - even though the massed power of the Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij attempted to keep me from my native soil by selling me a ticket that didn't meet their own transfer-at-Schiphol guidelines and running the first leg of the trip late, I arrived home 4½ hours later than planned after being bumped to the next onward flight, which was then delayed due to a lack of crew.

Weather on departure from Arlanda airport in Stockholm was sunny & 28°C, upon arrival at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol it was sunny and the temperature was reported to be 30°C. Upon arrival at Edinburgh Turnhouse I thought it was November! A nippy (it's all relative) 14°C, foggy and damp. To a seasoned northern European like me it was heavenly to have to walk across the tarmac although most of my fellow passengers were moaning about the cold.

Lesson learned for the day - for transfer at Schiphol you need 50 minutes at least for a Schengen/Schengen or a non-Schengen/non-Schengen transfer and an additional 10 minutes on top for a Schengen/non-Schengen transfer (to cover the security check that you need to traverse).

With a connection of 50 minutes, KLM - in association with the airport operators - will do their utmost by either landing on time and taxiing for 20-30 minutes or by landing late to make sure that you miss your connection so that you have to spend hours moping around in the airport wishing you were home whilst awaiting the next flight to your destination.

I was 'lucky' in that I was only bumped from 1500 departure to 1900 departure - those travelling onward to Glasgow were bumped from 1505 to 2115. There may have been others for whom the 'bump' was 24 hours - those for whom there is only one flight per day.

Still for my trouble I got a €10 meal/drinks voucher - so that filled about 5 minutes. Thankfully I had no hold baggage to get lost in the bowels of Schiphol's Luggage Losing System (they call it Baggage Handling of course).

Search terms that have brought people here

My Hosting Provider gives me a comprehensive set of statistics (updated twice daily) on traffic to the site - one of the entertaining lists is that of search terms that have brought people here.... these are the oddest of the odd for June.

[sheriff kevin drummond image] our Borders lawman has a fan club!
south man dem crew homepage eh?
a4 picture of the saltire tricky to get the angles right I suppose, not to mention the blue colour
earlston civic week/ the trailing / was part of the search term
ouk eh?
i fear we have awakened a seeping giant they meant sleeping I'm sure

Phew! What a scorcher!

This evening we decided to escape the overpowering heat of the Merse and head down to the Costa del Tweed at Spittal. Just to show how different the temperatures were it was reported by the thermometer in the car that it was 29°C as we left the house and as we drove the 15 miles or so to the coast at Spittal it dropped to a much more bearable 17°C at the coast. Papergirl not happy at all, shivered and retreated to the shelter of the sea wall. Paperboy and son left to throw a large number of stones into the sea alone, unbothered by the 'cold'.

Returned home and it had dropped to 26°C. Lovely.

"FÖRLÅT MIG"

Forgive Me - No hope of getting away from the review of Sven's antics on and off the football field here. The Stockholm City reports in a double page spread the coverage that Sven's demise has been getting in the British Press.

Sven was the only winner on Saturday with the fiasco costing 350 million Swedish Kronor (£26 million) from start to finish, it continues on to dissect the 4-5-1 system that almost everyone acknowledges was a complete failure and to remark that Sven has managed to waste the best English players in the last 40 years. There's also a sentence on his extra-curricular activities with Ulrika Jonsson and Faria Alam - sadly my Swedish isn't up to reporting what it is - perhaps I need to view some more European Art Films.

A brief sojourn in a foreign land

The PaperBoy has been transported from the Scottish Borders to the wonders of Stockholm via the services of KLM. Left Berwickshire this morning before the sparrows had broken wind and drove through wind and rain to get to Edinburgh Airport. Parked up, got the courtesy bus to the terminal. Found the KLM check in queue at 0900 (this for a 1055 departure) - seemingly staffed by arthritic snails on a go slow - by 1015 I'd risen to be 2nd in the queue, still with security to clear, and plenty of Amsterdam-bound travellers behind me in the queue.

To security at double quick pace. More queues, any way through for those whose gate are already showing as "Closing"? Nope. Eventually after many questions and much groping into the departure gates proper. Edinburgh Airports cunning ruse to help the plane take off on time ? To depart from the furthest gate possible.

Left Edinburgh 20 minutes late - but the pilot flew "a little faster than normal" to slice 18 minutes off the flight time to land just about on time. Result (we all thought - especially me with a 55 minute connection). Wrong! The ground traffic route at Schiphol was so extended that we arrived on stand a mere 30 minutes late, in the intervening period we hadn't actually stopped - so we could well have landed at Rotterdam Zestienhoven and completed the journey by road....

Eventually off the flight and I asked the quickest way to my departure gate for Stockholm, hoping there'd be some sort of shortcut. What a fool I am, UK = non-Schengen country, Sweden = Schengen - therefore I have to go through a whole other pile of security and a 1km walk to it, but the bonus is that the departure gate is right near security, in under 25 minutes - good game, good game.

Into the Shenanigans gates and presented with the biggest immobile mass of humanity you've ever clapped eyes on (even less mobile than the England football team's defence). Time elapsed - 9 minutes.

Eventually the arthritic snails (perhaps they'd been flown in from Edinburgh especially to frustrate me?) allowed people (including me) through security and I checked the departure board. Gate change! Time elapsed - 19 minutes.

Now the £$%&%^$ flight is leaving from the gate opposite where I've just come from - 1km walk and now I have 6 minutes in which to do that repack my bag and put my shoes back on after some close quarter inspections at security. Temperature in airport reported to be 29C. Schiphol Airport actually recommends 9 minutes for the walk from security - so now I need to be Dr. Roger Bannister (which I am most definitely not) except carrying a bag.

Somehow I made it to the end of Pier D without actually having a heart attack or flattening someone in the process - a miracle. Guess what? Plane delayed due to boarding issues!

And they say air travel is glamorous! Glamorous my £$%€!